Partner, Martin Gronemann, talks to The Times about the importance of making your kids financially literate in an increasingly cash-free world.

Learning models from video games offer three key lessons for building more effective digital tools for improving financial literacy.

Christian Madsbjerg discusses the ideas behind his book, “Sensemaking: The Power of Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm”.

You can change the world in three ways: You can revolt, you can vote for a party and hope the government will fix it, or you can work with the commercial world to work with them to make it better. All three are great means to change the world. We work mostly with corporations, not only to make them profitable but to make them more humane.

Michele Chang-McGrath talked to the FT's retail editor, Mark Vandevelde, about the recent woes of retailers.

LE CERCLE/POINT DE VUE - La France a un avantage culturel unique grâce à la présence importante des sciences sociales dans la société. Nos entreprises devraient y voir une opportunité.

The more we rely on AI and machine learning, the more work we need social scientists and humanities experts to do.

Partners at ReD Associates talk about how anthropology can heal the anxiety of our broken relationship with money

When our shared understanding of worth undergoes a fundamental structural shift, only the humanities can help us gain perspective around our changing norms, networks and social institutions.

Banks frequently lament their inability to deepen connections with their consumer, but in order to do that they will have to transform their relationship with the world as a whole.

Christian Madsbjerg gives examples of data's use and abuse in a recent conversation with Alastair Dryburgh.

ReD concludes a failure to account for these human (and economic) motivations encourages gaps of understanding regarding the best processes to use to combat the human phenomena.

When access to goods becomes so effortless, what drives customers to invest time and effort in ‘going shopping’?

Platforms for personalization and self-expression are eclipsing ready-made lifestyle brands, write Christian Madsbjerg and Sandra Cariglio.

Would you use a driverless car if your chauffeur was your status symbol? Tech’s unspoken hurdles

Madsbjerg argues that unless companies take pains to understand the human beings represented in their data sets, they risk losing touch with the markets they’re serving.

The editor of Real Deals Magazine, spoke to Mikkel Rasmussen about ReD Associates, the dangers of over-reliance on big data, and why social science just might be one of private equity’s greatest tools.

Christian Madsbjerg speaks to Manuela Saragos about why human intelligence is still a vital component in analysing all our data.

Demetri Kofinas speaks with Christian Madsbjerg about the history of western philosophy, artificial intelligence, and how the humanities can help businesses solve their hardest problems.

"We need people who can develop medicine, and we need the people who can figure out how to get people to take their medicine. We need both” - Madsbjerg on NPR's The Takeaway.

Data is important, but with Madsbjerg’s approach to sensemaking, we have a better chance of putting it in the proper context and using it to enrich our lives and our understanding. 

When you rely on algorithms for everything from your commute to work to your lunch order, Sensemaking suggests, you aren’t just altering the way you do things. You are changing the very filter through which you view reality. 

In his article "The Right Bedside Novel Could Do Wonders For Your Career," George Anders discusses Christian Madsbjerg's new book "Sensemaking."

Christian Madsbjerg discusses Sensemaking and Big Data in this segment of The Economist Radio. 

There's a cultural bias in business, tech and otherwise, against any information that can't be quantified—that is "soft," subjective, fuzzy. [...] But it is where good ideas come from—and while the data it relies on may not be reducible to numbers, there is actually nothing "fuzzy" about it.

The best CEOs can read a novel and a spreadsheet, Madsbjerg writes, while his overarching message is that we should not forget that companies are made up of people and their customers are people, too.

Don’t tell the true believers in silicon valley, but there’s an art as well as science to business. 

What Silicon Valley is missing is an understanding of people—what is meaningful to them, the way they live their day to day lives, what would make a difference for them on an ordinary Tuesday in Phoenix or Shanghai. There is a dearth of deep, nuanced cultural knowledge in tech. Luckily, there is an app for that: reading.

BBC Business spoke to Christian Madsbjerg, about affective computing as more consumer electronics propose to use such technology.

To understand Trump’s popularity, you need to understand the principles guiding life in rural America.

As thousands of neuroscience findings are called into question, the new study out of Sweden offers an opportunity to reprioritize. What kind of information provides the most apt description of how you first fell in love?

Succesful companies design for the everyday life of the consumer, and not just the clinical trial

Ford aims to set itself apart in the marketplace by shifting their product development process to focus on a deep understanding of people and their vehicle experiences.

The New York Times explores how the energy world is changing and the reasoning behind the new company ReD helped Edison International launch. 

ReD’s Claire Straty speaks with BBC Radio’s “From Savage to Self” series to defend the value of anthropology in the business world.

Mikkel Rasmussen from ReD Associates took the stage at TEDx Tottenham to ask: Do you like cooking?

In a world with a high degree of uncertainty, the insights from the humanities are the key to future.

ReD Associates Partner Eliot Salandy Brown explores the gaps between the assumptions big businesses make about consumers and the reality of what we (real people) actually think, do, and need. 

As recent news of Macy’s tumbling stock prices suggests, today’s middle-class shoppers are looking for more than a bargain.

At the heart of "affective computing" are three misguided ideas about human emotions - some philosophical due diligence on the matter.

Fortune asked 18 business leaders, including ReD’s US Director Christian Madsbjerg, to write about their favorite titles. Their request was simple: “name the one book you read this year that altered your perspective on life or business.”

For marketers, truly valuable customer data comes in two forms: thick data and big data. Combining the two approaches can solve many of the problems that each category of data faces on its own. 

Data without context is a false idol. It creates the kind of political programs that are technocratic—measuring everything—while seriously undermining a democracy.

The more we understand the rich context of our consumers’ lives, the closer we can get to their most meaningful moments. As global brands, it’s time to get back in the room.

Apps for the 1% will be more likely to succeed if they are oriented towards lifestyle rather than finance.

Jun Lee and Mikkel Brok-Kristensen, Partners at ReD Associates, argue that developers should stop trying to develop wearables for life, but instead focus on how they can teach the wearer how to live without them.

Partner at ReD Associates, Mikkel Brok-Kristensen, explains how Coloplast successfully changed their innovation process towards a nonlinear and non-hypothesis driven approach.

In the last decade, Lego has risen to become the world’s ‘most powerful brand.’ Mikkel B. Rasmussen, Senior Partner at ReD Associates, discusses how and why in Strategy+Business. 

Christian Madsbjerg explains how Ford is in the midst of trying to design cars ‘inside-out’ (based on what engineers wanted) instead of ‘outside-in’ (based on what consumers want to experience).

Christian Madsbjerg, co-founder of ReD Associates, explains why Apple's new gold watch might backfire if the company only rely on a "rich people are dumb" strategy.

In this extract from our book 'The Moment Of Clarity' it is described how Adidas managed to reinforce its relationship with consumers while delivering 10-fold profit.

According to Christian Madsbjerg, co-found of ReD Associates, Heidegger’s philosophical writings have never been more important, but now they risk being overshadowed by his sympathy for Nazism.

Based on an ethnographic research project on children’s play, ReD Associates partner Jun Lee argue that today's kids may need a "play rehab" as a consequence of over-parenting.

Ethnographic studies have revealed that customers feel that their banks lack interest in their wellbeing, because they are being treated as numbers in a database rather than as actual people.

As women's role in emerging markets is evolving a striking trend is becoming clear - professional women around the world are using alcohol to assert their independence.

In this podcast Charlotte Vangsgaard, partner at ReD Associates, explain how to study markets through systematic observation instead of linear and rational reasoning: “We try to work without a hypothesis.”

Christian Madsbjerg, Co-founder of ReD Associates, discusses how the Google Glass Explorer program, which enable people to record every moment of their lives, might influence our perception of privacy.

Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel Krenchel of ReD Associates argue that big data is worthless without thick data, which can capture the why and how behind the numbers big data provides.

Speaking to Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business, ReD Associates co-founder Christian Madsbjerg, discusses how the human sciences have become the holy grail for many companies, including Samsung.

At its core, all business is about making bets on human behavior. Despite the fad big data might not be the most useful tool to do so because it miss the important context of customers’ everyday lives.

Fortune speaks with ReD’s Christian Madsbjerg about flawed business thinking, the arrogance of Silicon Valley, and why he prefers to hire anthropology majors at his consulting firm.

As business problems are becoming increasingly complex, companies have begun to turn to big data. But big data analytics do not paint a completely meaningful picture of why people act the way they do.

Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel Rasmussen discuss their book The Moment of Clarity and how putting the human element back into business can help solve some of today’s biggest business problems.

Instead of focusing on products, the anthropologists and sociologists at ReD Associates are working to understand “worlds” — the contexts in which people live and create meaning in their everyday lives.

In an article for Inc., Adam Vaccaro uses an example from The Moment of Clarity to highlight how Lego managed to adapt to a changing world while simultaneously staying true to their core brand.

In this podcast for Data Informed, Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen, co-founders of the ReD Associates consultancy, discuss how big data is an insufficient tool for understanding customers.

In this article, ReD Associates’ Charlotte Vangsgaard, Mikkel Brok-Kristensen and Mads Holme discuss the need to take a patient-centric approach to guide early drug development and clinical trials.

The Danish consultancy ReD Associates is able to uncover the underlying motivations behind customer behavior — even if the customers themselves are not able to articulate them.

In response to a Venture Beat article about the growing importance of big data, Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel Krenchel from ReD Associates write about the danger of making computers more like humans.

Speaking at a TEDx Lower East Side NYC event, Christian Madsbjerg from ReD Associates discusses two competing methods for understanding people that are battling it out in the business world.

Music discovery has become a new trend offered by services like Spotify and Pandora, but often the context of discovering music is more influential and meaningful than the substance of the music itself.

 What’s special about anthropologists is that they “work without hypotheses," says partner at ReD Associates, Mikkel B. Rasmussen.

In an article in The Economist, the decade-long relationship between Adidas and ReD Associates, an innovation consultancy based in the human sciences, is showcased.  

Mikkel B. Rasmussen, co-founder of ReD Associates, argues that instead of Google's 20% rule a clear focus and problem to solve is better for moving from thinking about innovation to leading innovation.

Big data are useful for answering straightforward questions, but truly great marketing campaigns are able to tap into a larger cultural zeitgeist, which is missed by algorithms.

Responding to the Washington Post article “Do we need more humanities majors?,” ReD Associates co-founders Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen argue that the answer is a definitive yes. 

Despite media portrayals of Chinese women as passive and meek, ReD Associates’ research in China shows that women, now more than ever, have empowered mindsets and practices that govern their lives.  ReD Associates partner Charlotte Vangsgaard discusses in Quartz how the Chinese media does not reflect the cultural and economic realities of Chinese women.

There are two types of data found in the social sciences: big data and thick data. Big data in and of itself gets people wrong because it focuses solely on correlation, not causation.

ReD Associates partner Christian Madsbjerg argue that it is a big program that only $146 million (USD) was invested in the humanities in 2013, while $3 billion was invested in the hard sciences.

Graeme Wood from The Atlantic describes ReD Associates as a company at the forefront of a movement that utilize the social sciences to help corporate clients better understand their consumers.

Christian Madsbjerg is a co-founder of ReD Associates. He explains that it is only about 2% of the time that our actions are based on conscious and rational decisions. His company focus on the 98%.

ReD Associates partner Jun Lee discusses how African citizens use mobiles as a solution for more advanced problems such as money transfers and what that means for innovation in services.

In a Q&A between Lou Killefer from Innovation Excellence and Jun Lee from ReD Associates, the two discuss innovation as a practice.

In an article in El País, Noelia Sastre highlights ReD Associates’ success as partly due to their ability to tease out the difference between what people say they do and what they really do.

According to a recent study from ReD Associates, young adult women were more likely to look for information from Facebook than from other sources like Google.

Anders Byriel,president of the Danish Design Council, promotes ReD Associates’ unique take on design thinking as a good example of how Denmark should seek to create jobs for the future.

What’s the purpose of Facebook? Austin Carr from Fast Company reports on a study ReD Associates conducted, where the company surveyed five hundred members from the Facebook community.

Although many producers in the food industry are following one of the most important megatrends, convenience, they are missing out on another: personalization.

How can design help solve social problems? Alice Rawsthorn writes about Copenhagen’s initiative to reduce sick leave in the New York Times with the help of the innovation consultancy ReD Associates.

Danes’ sick leave amounts to the equivalent of 150,000 full-time jobs, which is hurting companies’ bottom line. A project by ReD Associates found that it is possible to reduce sick leave by 60 percent.

Jun Lee, partner at ReD Associates, argues that if Denmark seeks to attract more foreigners with unique skill sets they will need to lower the income taxes.

Michele Chang is an ethnographer and senior manager at ReD Associates. She left academia for the consultancy company because she wanted her research to have an impact.

Christian Madsbjerg comments on the Danish Tax Authorities change of logo and explains why the timing is good, but the message is wrong.

ReD Associates is an innovation agency that focuses on observing humans and identifying their needs. They have been so successful that their services are now being requested by huge global companies.

As a child, Madsbjerg enjoyed listening to Marxist analyses of society over the dinner table. Today, to the great surprise of his mother, he is a successful co-founder of an international consultancy company.

Christian Madsbjerg, a co-founder and partner at ReD Associates, argues that Danish designers generally lack both the will and the interest in creating an international business.

According to Mikkel B. Rasmussen, co-founder and partner at ReD Associates, the Danish educational system needs to change radically if Denmark is to continue being one of the world’s richest countries.

To understand how Denmark and Danes are perceived in the Middle East following the cartoon drawings of Muhammed, the Danish Foreign Ministry contracted ReD Associates for insights.

To understand the Nordic consumers’ use of mobile technology and their relationship with design, Samsung has teamed up with ReD Associates, a consultancy using anthropological methods.

Design has been heralded as Denmark’s solution for competing in the global markets of the future. Unfortunately, the vision lacks backing and current initiatives are unambitious.

A few years from now, successful companies will no longer consider innovation to be something mystical and intangible; instead, it will be incorporated as a vital strategic parameter.

“Most Danish companies base their decisions on intuition and experience when deciding what the users need. That approach can end up becoming terrifyingly expensive.” - Christian Madsbjerg.

A new type of luxury is emerging across industries. This new phenomenon is known as “masstige,” a combination of “mass” and “prestige.”

Bruce Mau Design, a firm based in Toronto, Canada, is pioneering a new way of doing design. Instead of the traditional focus on products, their focus is on studying the world. 

In the world of marketing, creativity is surrounded by a high level of mystique. However, California-based consultancy IDEO has developed a more rigorous approach to working with creativity.

By relying on target-group analyses the political parties end up trying to "sell" the same political message, which makes it difficult for voters to differentiate between the parties.