Don't throw away the MBA degree yet. The study of man is no longer a degree for museum directors. Citicorp created a vice presidency for anthropologist Steve Barnett, who discovered early warning signs to identify people who don't pay credit card bills. Not satisfied with consumer surveys, Hallmark is sending anthropologists into the homes of immigrants, attending holidays and birthday parties to design cards they'll want. No survey can tell engineers what women really want in a razor, so marketing consultant Hauser Design sends anthropologists into bathrooms to watch them shave their legs.
Textbooks now have chapters on business applications.
The University of South Florida has created a crouse of study for anthropologists headed for commerce. Motorola's corporate lawyer Robert Faulkner got his anthropology degree before going to law school. When you go into bushiness, the only problems you have are people problems,' was the advice given to teenager Michael Koss by his father in the early 1970's. Koss now 44, heeded the advice, earned an anthropology degree from Beloit College in 1976, and is today CEO of the Koss headphone manufacturer. Katherine Burr, CEO of the Hanseatic Group, has masters in both anthropology and business from the University fo New Mexico.