I love reading Grant. McCracken’s blog, This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics [www.cultureby.co,]. Grant nearly always has an opinion, and a strong one at that, but more importantly he never hesitates to call out and discuss the elephant in the room. He recently posted number three of a series entitled, “Culture Matters.” In this episode Grant takes to task some of the most influential and powerful methodologies in marketing, branding and innovation published recently. He picks them apart mercilessly. I respect that. And I think all literary works should have such scrutiny applied.
But I think that Grant’s expectations are naiveté. All of the books or authors mentioned are presenting a perspective or a method of measuring. None are the absolute, take it to the grave, perfect process, or solutions. A very smart group of people I worked with in grad school helped me to break my bias and habit of developing process.
Now I think in terms of assembling tools and methods - and finding where the can best be of benefit. Each has strengths, each has weaknesses, and none are appropriate all of the time. There is no truth, just a lot places to view from.
