The Global Code

July 13, 2015
Marketing consultant Rapaille delivers a meandering study of the lives of an elite group of international travelers. Having explored (in The Culture Code) how one’s view of the world is affected by one’s local culture, here he looks at the prosperous, peripatetic group he calls the “Global Tribe,” who share the eponymous global code. At the top of its hierarchy is “the Court,” followed closely by their hangers-on, the Courtesans, and trailed by the well-traveled but less well-heeled Satellite Tribe, many of them “military brats.” This motley crew exercises great influence on standards for travel, beauty, and luxury around the world, a phenomenon Rapaille has observed in the course of guiding marketers to their targets. This “captain’s log from the exploration of the global mind” proves unfortunately choppy and superficial, particularly when covering any global trend or event more meaningful than luxury goods and accommodations (genocide and terrorism, for example, get one paragraph each). While Rapaille’s cantankerous tone can be entertaining, this is better read as a collection of fables for jet-setters than as a guide to truly understanding today’s tastemakers.

August 1, 2015

Rapaille (founder, Archetype Discoveries Worldwide; The Culture Code) presents a view of the future that mixes high society and more pedestrian archetypes, with nuances of Lisa Birnbach (The Official Preppy Handbook), Richard Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class), and Faith Popcorn (The Popcorn Report). A psychologist by training, Rapaille offers a cultural anthropological schema of the world based on his corporate research. For the author, the complex is most often underpinned by the very simple. Reptilian needs (food, sex, etc.) are drivers, and once these needs are met, emotional pleasure supplants the physical. To present his broad-based views, Rapaille creates neologisms that capture the essence of his thought. To be sure, the title covers a lot of ground: the elite, politics, bureaucracy, beauty, travel, leadership, and survival are but the tip of the iceberg. VERDICT Intriguing. However, readers of a more academic bent will prefer works by Thomas L. Friedman (The World Is Flat) and Clayton M. Christensen (The Innovators Dilemma). Pass on this one.--Steven Silkunas, Fernandina Beach, FL

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