Brain Science Set to be the Number One Business Tool - But Many Leaders and Corporations Fail to See Relevance

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Andy Habermacher and Dr Srini Pillay of NeuroBusiness Group

In many areas of economics, it [brain science] will dominate, because it works.

(PRWEB) August 31, 2010

There has been a "Neuro" explosion with terms been coined almost by the week it seems: neuromarketing, neuroeconomics, neurocommunication and many, many more. Indeed many industries are very keen to take on the latest research into the brain. Industries such as marketing and sales where understanding the ways consumer's brains work and make decisions is essential to success and an exciting prospect indeed. However outside of marketing departments there seems to be little interest in brain science.

This in itself raises the question of whether insights into how the brain works can really help leaders of all types of corporations.
The host of books currently on the market speaks against this and neuroscience can apparently help us sell more, make more profit and engage our employees more. However according to Psychiatrist Jeffery Schwartz from UCLA: "This vast output of neuroscience research over the last many years is largely a waste of money. Why? Because it doesn't really have any real world human application."

Andy Habermacher CEO of ctp who represents NeuroBusiness Group in Switzerland on the other hand notes that neuroscience has a horde of insights that have immediate and direct relevance to anybody in any business. "Ultimately we are all dealing with human beings and human being's behaviour is driven by how the brain processes information."

Dr Pillay of CEO of NeuroBusiness Group who is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School echoes this sentiment and notes, "I have used neuroscience in many contexts with tremendous applicability. Aside from being a very useful reframing metaphor, neuroscience can also debunk myths in psychology or business theory."

There therefore appears to even among specialists be some sort of divergence as to whether neuroscience can really help businesses do more business.

Andy Habermacher of ctp , who is also a behavioural executive coach, explains further, "The question of applicability is a serious one. Indeed much of scientific research into brains is very discrete and is focused at a medical level. Research into various behavioural aspects also superficially seem to be targetted at "nice to know" yet this in itself does not discount its applicability. Rather it is what we do with the information we have.

Understanding how the brain works is at the base of human behaviour and we have seen huge advances in application and techniques to do this. More than that neuroscience has given some hard science to previous soft topics which may have been considered a bit fluffy in business. Now we can say it is not nice to have but rather that a certain application may be a necessity to having healthy functioning executives, making healthy decisions in business."

The rise of social and emotional intelligence has given a whole new area of insight and this has resonated with a lot of people because many feel it addresses issues of what is fundamentally wrong with business. Yet even here we are seeing only lip service to the concepts.

"The real problem", Andy Habermacher notes, "is that neuroscience is not a specific tool that can be explained in 3 easy points with 3 easy steps. This means that many leaders show interest but because neuroscience approaches issues at a deeper level it may not have the attraction of a quick fix solution."
This in itself is shame - after all, if neuroscience is providing deeper insights into how the brain is functioning, it would make sense for this to be applied in greater depth to provide a deeper and more solid understanding of human beings and furthermore of healthier, more productive and more profitable working environments. Alas the best solutions in life aren't alway the simplest and in business many corporations are looking for quick fixes.

This is the real challenge neuroscience faces: can it provide the depth that is inherent to its power in easy to consume packages that leaders will be able to quickly grasp and implement?
The future will tell - Andy Habermacher and Dr Pillay believe that they will be at the forefornt of this drive. They offer training, coaching and consulting for an impressive selection of blue chip companies and in addition public training on various brain science topics in business. We wish them luck.

And for sure, companies that wait tool long before taking the plunge may see themselves at a major disadvantage - brain science has an exciting future in business, how much so the future will tell.

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