Notes on the State of Business Anthropology

Let me begin with an observation about ethnography in business settings.1 One of the interesting changes I have noticed is that there is now a new generation of managers who have been exposed to ethnography and its value in business. These are managers who no longer have to be persuaded that ethnography can do valuable, even strategic, work for them: both internally, as they deal with issues of work practice and company culture; and externally, as they look out at customer relationships and supply lines in an increasingly digitized world.