An EPIC Talk with:
NIKHITA GHUGARI (Xeno Co-Lab, India)ROBERTO HOLGUIN (Fjord/Accenture, Mexico)
TRULS ERIK JOHNSEN (EGGS Design, Norway)
YUEBAI LIU (ri studio, UK)
MOOWA MASANI (REACH Insights, South Africa)
DINA MEHTA (Convo, India)
SWAR RAISINGHANI (Xeno Co-Lab, India)
Thursday, August 20, 2020
8:00–9:30am San Francisco / 10am Mexico City / 4pm London / 5pm Cape Town / 8:30pm Mumbai
*Join 15 minutes early for informal intros & chatter with EPIC members & staff!
This online event is free for EPIC Members
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Overview
Culture and commerce are transnational and dynamic, but in many ways, corporations and organizations of all kinds still rely on a static map of the world. Traditional borders and metrics are used to create market segmentations, product and service offerings, organizational hierarchies, strategic plans, and daily work practices.
This panel will tackle world regions conceptually and tactically, exploring the ways regional orientations help and hinder ethnographic work to create value for people, communities, and organizations. What does it mean to study “tier 2 cities” or “the Latin American market”? Regions are as diverse internally as they are rendered coherent around some set of ideas. How do we represent complexities—geography, economy, cultural identity, social history, legal and political jurisdiction—in ways that are “actionable” to organizations? How we create regionality in our work matters as it impacts conceptualization of markets and, in collaboration with corporate partners, creates possibilities (or not) for markets to emerge.
Presenters
Nikhita Ghugari is the co-founder of Xeno Co-lab, a service design consultancy based in Pune, India and focuses on identifying innovation possibilities through human-centred approach at Xeno. She has wide experience in design research, innovation strategy and future trend forecasting across various industries. Prior to co-founding Xeno, she was a lead strategist at an innovation consulting company, Turian Labs.
Roberto Holguin is Managing Director at Fjord, and for 17 years was Director and Global Head of Practices at INSITUM.
Truls Johnsen Lead Business Designer at EGGS Design. He is a train anthropologist and brand analyst with 20 years experience in technology use and adoption, strategy development, and marketing. Truls has managed projects and conducted research in many countries, from Montenegro to Norway to Malawi.
Yuebai Liu is an ethnographer and strategist at ri studio, providing sociocultural and ethnographic research services around the world. She leads ethnographic research studies for multinational companies and startups, with a focus on emerging markets. She works with eclectic teams of designers, engineers, artists to understand the human contradictions and develop solutions that matter.
Moowa Masani is an independent consultant providing strategic insights to a range of client organisations, from private sector multi-nationals and start-ups to social justice advocacy organisations, using a combination of qualitative and ethnographic approaches. He has worked in two-dozen markets across Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone countries, as well as Ethiopia. reach-insights.com
Dina Dastur Mehta co-founded Convo in 2012. With a background in sociology and anthropology she specializes in qualitative research, ethnography and UX research. She is at the forefront of mobile, social and web technology research in India and works with a global portfolio of companies for whom she also organizes learning journeys, and leadership immersions.
Swar Raisinghani is the co-founder of Xeno Co-lab, a service design & social innovation consultancy based in Pune, India. She has a breadth of experience ranging from conducting research globally, to helping companies identify customer-centric services to building customer-centric capability within companies. Prior to co-founding Xeno, she worked with Veryday (now McKinsey design) in New York and Stockholm.