Do taboos matter?

While scientists in their professional “identity” tend to view all actions as similar or materialistic, subject to compromises, most cultures, religions, and societies remain, or at least recognize, certain facts or phenomena that are “priceless” or “ sacred ”: for example, life and justice, freedom, honor, love, friendship, children, democratic achievements, religious faith, etc. Basically all cultures consider it extremely immoral to attribute monetary value to all kinds of sacred things. They are not subject to “commodification”. Admittedly, these rules are often violated when the boundaries between secular and sacred are blurred, as evidenced by examples of changing views on life insurance, or environmental pollution, or the legalization of prostitution. Nonetheless, taboos often do stick, removing a number of activities from the traditional economic sphere or constraining them to illegal industries. This also indicates the widespread belief that the mere existence of certain markets will be “contrary to human dignity” and harmful even to people who do not make transactions on them. Despite the importance of taboos in modern societies and their impact on consumption, there is little research in the field of management science about the concept of taboos or sacred things and their influence on economic development. Probably because they allow or “invite” public to associations, and this leads to the dangerous postulate “to compare means to destroy”. Nevertheless, what exactly is destroyed by imposing a monetary value on certain taboos or sacred, and how this damage occurs, the actual cost can be determined, depending on the context, by checking what is offered on the market or simply by deliberate “ cold-blooded “calculations of costs and benefits of various actions.

Admittedly, the complex of taboos of human civilization has sharply decreased in comparison with what was in centuries-old history and what was half a century ago. This means: the orderliness of community life has decreased. The division of all actions into a possible-impossible has decreased. It can be said this: the degree of the structuring of behavior has decreased. What does this mean by itself? This means an increase in the entropy of today’s civilization. A trend of the “lower energy state”. Sunset, decline, decay, destruction. Removing the limiter from the throttle of the engine leads to its rapid wear, power loss, and disabling. If you drill holes in the walls of car engine cylinders so that the gas evaporates, and valves do not move, the compression ratio will drop and the car will not go, or maybe the engine will not work at all. Taboos are limiters in the "engine of humanity", which, in the total result and the overall historical result, direct human energy into a creative channel. Today’s removal of taboos is partly the reason, and partly the effect, and partly the evidence, and partly the aspect - the relationship here is complex, everyone can be interfaced and interpenetrated, interdependent, the aspect of the decline of civilization. The general vector of culture was the same everywhere: throughout its history, mankind has met innovation and progress with much less enthusiasm than might be expected from sentient beings. We can now giggle at the Tokugawa Ieyasu shogun, who banned in Japan the use of the wheel as a vicious thing and it does not lead to good in the 16th century AD, but if you look at the list of industries that are banned to use and even to research (like stems cells for example) in fully developed countries, it becomes clear that not far we left that shogun on our wheel *. (Tokugawa Ieyasu was also a cautious and prudent politician, calculating the consequences. He calculated that without wheels, it would be more difficult for any rebels to transport illegal weapons to each other’s friend, and the economy — all these merchants, traders, and peasants — would smash themselves somehow. What is economics when it comes to maintaining power?) There is a contrary opinion of taboos' influence on society:   If people did not break the taboo, humanity would have died out long ago. It is the constant going beyond the borders of the known world that allows the human community to constantly evolve, become more and more protected from the eternal soulless aggression, in which the law of non-decreasing entropy, or, more simply, the desire for a more stable state and, accordingly, for the destruction of complex structures. To do first-class work, you need to believe that you are doing something special to leave a significant mark in the universe to be part of something important. This does not mean that you should find a cure for cancer. The point is that you must feel the value of your efforts. You want your customers to say, “This thing improves my life.” You want people to notice if you stop doing what you started. Do recall the classic case of the  largest global milk processing company Amul from India, whose owner ignored thousand years holy taboo of Bull milk consumption and commenced manufacturing powder from Bull milk, or a story of Yusuf Hamied from Cipla, a generic pharmaceutical giant, who ignored sacred pharma patents and build one of the largest drug manufacturing company in the world, saving mill

You also need to feel the urgency of what you are doing. You do not have eternity. This is the work of your life. Do you want to create just another “all-in-one” product or really shake up the existing order of things? All you do is your legacy. Do not remain still and do not expect someone else to make the changes that you are waiting for. To make the world a better place, it does not need a huge team. If you’re going to do something, focus on what matters. These guys did not come from big business. They came from nowhere and destroyed the old-fashioned taboos that had existed for centuries, or were artificially imposed recently. You can do the same in your area. And by the way, it is easy to see that companies and social systems that value creative freedom and open relations between people more, without irrational prohibitions (taboos), are way ahead of their competitors, in which it is customary to taboo everything. Removing the last taboo means destroying the tradition, according to which people were considered either as yet another factor of production (human resource) or as nameless consumers. People don’t like being depersonalized; they want to be noticed and recognized by their personality. It is necessary to enlarge their organizational structures so that they merge with the tribes of consumers, opening up access to their secret treasures, destroying artificial taboos. It’s time to compete based on feelings and fantasies, emotions and imagination. Most people, both customers, and employees are guided - or in principle can be guided - by considerations that move beyond economic ones. “People have a strong need for art and poetry, which the industry does not yet understand.” – proclaim Alberto Alessi the godfather of Italian design. Money is hidden inside any emotion. We do not think this is a strange or ridiculous statement. The soul is something heartfelt, personal, intimate. This is something that emotionally touches each of us. Not everyone wants to be emotionally moved - especially when buying a toilet cleaner or an industrial woodcutter. And although the best (and worst) things in life are associated with strong emotions, you should loudly say at a corporate meeting such words as “love”, “desire”, “joy”, “rage” as its participants rush out. Some four-letter words can really drive people nuts. Coefficients of intellectual and emotional development (IQ and EQ) must coexist, it is a daily reality. In an abundance economy, achievement comes through attracting not the thoughtful consumer or employee, but the emotional. And although there is now a need to predict their emotions, most managers allow themselves to not even think about it. For modern consumers, the “economic effect of intimacy” means that the company is focusing on joint experience, trying to look beyond atoms and bits. As someone wittily remarked, Kindersurprise is actually just chocolate, but the buyer is buying (and the seller is selling) something else. So why do so many companies stubbornly sell chocolate eggs to customers while they want Kindersurprise? Moral: what you sell and what you buy are two different things. That is why it is sometimes useful to put yourself in the shoes of the client and ask yourself: what are they actually buying? In 99 cases out of a hundred, they do not buy at all what you sell them. ions of sick people.

“The economic effect of braking taboos” applies to each piece of our universe. We need to understand what makes them crazy, upset, or un/happy. We must learn to masterfully play on the strings of emotions - both our own and our customers. How will we inspire people and encourage them to be creative when we have no idea what makes their hearts beat faster? The answer is obvious to get rid of the sacred tails. However, dealing with sensitive topics isn’t easy, particularly when a brand has to do it out of necessity rather than a choice because it operates in a “sensitive” category. There are many industries where institutional and social biases provide ignorant but powerful barriers. One person’s ‘taboo’ can be another person’s ‘totally fine’ - that’s inevitable in a world of wide generation gaps and many distinct cultures. This poses a problem for modern businesses; despite our differences, we often use the same services (the same web browsers, social media networks, or banks). Moreover, it’s individuals leading online goliaths who decide what cases are and are not acceptable, and who can and cannot use their platforms. The result is that those companies breaking boundaries and riding social shifts are often left out in the cold. Any brand related to sexuality is at risk of bans, including those companies solving authentic problems in areas like sanitary services, underwear, sexual health or sexual wellbeing. Similarly, those who hope to (legally) capitalize on the rise of new-age health aids like medical marijuana and vaping are often deterred from business tools. Yet “taboo” businesses are expanding. Femtech, which is tech that’s referred to women’s sexual health, is forecast to reach a market size of up to $50bn by 2025; the vaping industry is already worth $22.6bn; while $57bn is expected to be spent on legal cannabis worldwide by 2027.

Here are some practical steps on how ignorant of sacred tails behave:

?            They have highlighted a problem that individuals have been hesitant to address…and have not only provided a feasible solution but have permitted those people a voice. This is magnificent for brands to consider: When searching for gaps in your market, look especially hard at those areas where people are suffering silently. Give their problem a voice, and they will repay you with their loyalty.

?            They have spotted a void in the market and filled it. They noticed that no one is completely satisfied with the results of current offerings and has created something that’s not only more effective but has developed a marketing bundle that cannot be rejected by the public.

?            They have achieved something totally exceptional, not simply by offering a proprietary product but by speaking about it in a way that no one does. This is the most powerful way to get recognition for a brand - indeed more significant than ‘inventing’ something - is creating an unusual approach of using it or talking about it.

?            They have emphasized several situations that most humans can relate to.

?            Brands transform the way we operate as a civilization. As an example, a number of centuries ago, most people bathed once or twice per year. That was acceptable until new products and technologies made it easier to stay clean…and soon (or in a few centuries) it was the norm. This is the type of branding that has the power to change the way we accustomed to view at contemporary things. And it may just change what we’re willing to tolerate.

?            They have used humor to smash through fences. Often, especially when something isn’t easy to talk about, we struggle to find words that will communicate what we’re feeling. Humor not only makes brands memorable; it delivers messages in a way that is more comfortable for everyone involved.

?            They created the situations when a brand has made people think it over, to revaluate. It has produced incredible value. They have expertly targeted an activity that people engage in on a regular basis - an activity with predictable results and caused them to think about their current situations.

The first two decades of the millennium brought even more uncertainty to the business environment and this means that organizations require to be as quick as possible in their response to change. However, a remarkable number of institutions are encountering that their struggles to become more agile are being thwarted by unseen difficulties. The solution to this challenge often rests in addressing organizational ‘sacred tails and taboos’ – ideas so ‘sacrosanct’ that they cannot be opposed, and questions are too frightening to be asked. By thinking in terms of taboos, companies can identify broad-seated obstacles to remove, increase agility and competence. All sorts of beliefs can become taboos within an organization: for example, a belief about the business axioms (such as ‘every customer is valuable’) or about corporate “rule” (‘the board is always right’). The tendency to form taboos arises from basic human orthodoxy and conservatism biases. The fact that these traits are part of human nature explains why the resultant taboos are so hard to remove. Companies facing harsh market pressure tend to harden their protection of taboo because it provides comfort and security. Taboos play catastrophic roles in organizations. Given the speed of change and the level of pressure in today’s economy, there is no longer room for sacred tails and taboos. Their existence can lead to complacency – arguably the number one reason companies fail. They can also cause an organization to miss trends, overlook technologies, misunderstand customers, curb markets, or miss out on skills by ignoring differentiating experiences. What can you do when you realize that taboos are getting in the way of decisive change? There are a few key steps to examine:

• Find Indicators. Confront the organization with evidence that its knowledge system is incorrect. This may be realized through analysis, customer interviews, learning from defeats, or forecasting different scenarios in a longer time perspective.                                                                 
• Define Rules. Change the practice so that previous sacred tails and taboos are not easily recovered by substitutes. Aim to facilitate continuous evaluation and assessment within the organization, establishing a varied workforce with adversary opinions.                                                                  
• Motivate Management. Clearly, this cultural diversity requires to show up from the head. If all else fails (perhaps because top management is too dedicated to its tails), conceptual transformation – and likely new leadership – is a prerequisite. Taboos also generate social segregation. When pushed to navigate forbidden territories, humans usually detect that they have insufficient information and are hesitant to analyze or probe. From an organization angle, this may convert into untapped opportunities. How might your business acknowledge taboos affecting your industry, and turn these constraints into opportunities?

The answer is through Design Thinking:

• Diagnosis of taboo

Listen carefully to your opponents, at the early stage of the discussion you can find phenomena and connections that bear social antipathy in your specific area of business. Explore topics that are discussed face-to-face only?

• Respect awkwardness

Create information that encourages society to actively and openly discuss issues, thereby building confidence in the brand or company and sharing information transparently. Try using all available methods to create a picture of the diversity of the world in which your brand or company exists, a variety of options, use forums, diverse media resources that will allow you to use the entire emotional range.

• Reengineer social antipathy.

Indicate new ways, approaches, how to resolve creatively the gap between social agreements, taboos and the ability of people to engage in forbidden topics. Provide them with a new language to indicate their needs.

• Alternative look

Not everyone wants to go beyond the boundaries of taboos and be freed from them. Provide public, your customers with alternatives that will allow them to pass the distance between the rejection of taboos and the adoption of a new reality in the most painless form.