The FSCB is pleased to invite bestselling author and Editor-at-Large at the Financial Times, Gillian Tett, to speak to our members, talking and taking questions about her latest book Anthro-Vision, which reveals how anthropology can make sense of people’s behaviour, in business and beyond.

In conversation with Gillian will be Dr Daniel Beunza, whose work features in the book, and who has been working with us to run Change Ambassadors, a programme to equip employees with the skills to practice ethnography (a research method used in anthropology) in order to uncover and tackle cultural barriers to gender equality, diversity and inclusion at their firms.

Gillian will draw out examples from Anthro-Vision, which features stories from Tajik villages and Amazon warehouses, Japanese classrooms and Wall Street trading floors, to illustrate the power of anthropology in action and its applicability across different environments. Daniel will talk about his own complementary work and how in particular, anthropology and the associated technique of ethnography can help firms in financial services to better understand and manage their people. There will also be an opportunity for questions and comments from the audience.

Read an adapted excerpt from Anthro-Vision by Gillian Tett.

Read a piece by Daniel Beunza on the FSCB’s Change Ambassadors Programme.

Gillian Tett is the chairman of the US editorial board and Editor-at-Large (US) at the Financial Times. Perhaps best known for predicting the 2007–8 financial crisis, Tett’s bestselling book Fool’s Gold was one of the definitive books on the crash. Tett holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied marriage rituals in Tajikistan. Her work for the FT has taken her around the world – from Brussels to Tokyo to Moscow to New York– and won her numerous awards, including Columnist, Journalist and Business Journalist of the Year prizes at the British Press Awards.

Daniel Beunza is Associate Professor of Management at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at the Business School (formerly Cass). Beunza’s research explores the ways in which social relations and technology shape financial value. Beunza obtained his PhD from New York University, and has previously taught at Columbia University, the London School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School. His most recent book, Taking the Floor: Models, Morals and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room considers the moral consequences of the use of economic models on Wall Street. He has been working with the FSCB since 2016 to bring the use of ethnography to member firms.