Analysis uses psychoanalytical approaches and techniques to address the complex interdependency that exists between global culture and the operations of multi-national corporations by exploring the dynamics and motivations of this relationship. Analysis in this way reveals hidden issues which, when identified and examined, can shed light on this interdependency, enrich our understanding of the realities that are shaped by these powerful contemporary forces and also allow us to question concepts, practices and frameworks that we tend to take for granted.

Centre - Periphery is used as a structural metaphor to refer to the relationship between an advanced or metropolitan ‘centre’ and a less developed ‘periphery’, as applied to the relationship between capitalist and developing societies.  From a western perspective countries that are considered to sit at the 'periphery' of global economic power are those such as Afghanistan, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, compared to those who historically have positioned themselves at the 'centre', such as the US, UK and France. Zamyn is acutely aware of the inadequacies of this type of categorisation and believes that it cannot enable the wealth of resources and richness of culture that many of the countries traditionally dismissed as 'peripheral', 'developing' or 'poor' to be expressed or recognized or respected.  In pursuit of its vision Zamyn will seek to identify, through its analysis and communication, alternative terminology that expresses the global realities of the 21st century.

Collaboration is a practice driven by complex realities rather than romantic notions of a common ground or commonality. It is an ambivalent process constituted by a set of paradoxical relationships between co-producers who affect each other.  Collaboration means to overcome scarcity and inequality, as well as to struggle for a freedom to produce. It carries an immense social potential, as actualization and experience of the unlimited creativity of the multiplicity of all productive practices.

Communication is a mechanism that, in its perfect form, enables an equally balanced, transparent transaction, one which is supposed to perpetuate itself effortlessly and invisibly, based on a harmony of supply and demand. The success of communication relies upon a rational measurement of one’s own interests and the ability to harmonise these with the interests of the communicating parties – creating a moral coherence. As corporate markets have expanded across global territory, business’ ability to communicate meaningfully, and thus with moral coherence, has become weakened, and lost. The loss of this coherence results in the absence of a ‘moral compass’ for global businesses, which leaves them unable to orientate their communications, or to find coordinates for their own cultural positioning. This has created new challenges, and opportunities, for corporations to think about how they communicate with their customers and stakeholders, beyond techniques of branding and advertising that have been traditionally used. Fundamentally, Zamyn does not identify corporations as 'brands' but as agents with multiple meanings at a variety of cultural and social levels, it engages with global corporations in finding new and innovative ways of communicating their corporate identities as well as their cultural and social responsibilities.

Culture encompasses the anthropological notion of a system of values, symbols and everyday practices as well as the narrower definition of culture as art. Culture can enhance trust, drive change and is often more dynamic in its impact than political or economic institutions alone.  For this reason Zamyn believes that Culture should be seen as a common ground for economic and political decision-making.

Zamyn is a Farsi word meaning ‘ground’ and ‘earth’.