I have the opportunity to work with hundreds of executives every year.  I hear it all, from the upbeat to the melancholy. Quite regularly I hear a group whine: why don’t we do have controls for this, or why don’t we have a strategy for that.

The reality is that organizations on their face are dysfunctional.  To have perfect systems, processes, communication and human capital requires a tradeoff between investment in the long term, and profit in the short term. It is easy for organizations to fall into a trap where organizational priorities can become confusing or clouded.

I often compare the prototypical U.S. corporation to capitalism itself: it is not a perfect system, but it is the best one we have. Corporations are built around functional departments, such as accounting, sales, engineering and operations.  It is typical for such departments to have naturally occurring silos and it is easy for a silo mentality to create aggravation and despair.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. Once one recognizes that silos are a function of structure and not of people, one can chose to fight through the bureaucracy, and divergent objectives and lead people to find solutions.  It really comes down to challenging your own paradigm about the natural order of things.

If you work in accounting and you don’t think the sales team gets it in regards to receivables or collecting valid information from customers, it is incumbent upon you to understand their business requirements, and to educate them on the importance of your procedures. Whining is easy, but solving problems requires managerial courage, often in the form of making difficult decisions.

This structural dysfunction often manifests within non-profits which have the same organizational problems, but lack the resources to address them. Volunteers cannot provide the same level of focus as full time employees.

Whether you are working within a for-profit or non-profit organization, the answers lie within you. If you are the leader and your people are not getting along, it is your responsibility to find harmony. If you have a member of your staff who cannot play nice with others, it is time to wish him the best of luck in his next position, wherever that might be.

Amongst my favorite Seinfeld episodes was that of “The Soup Nazi”.  As you may remember the story line, The Soup Nazi banished Elaine from his soup kitchen with his announcement “No Soup for You!” While the Seinfeld clan’s attraction to the Soup Nazi may have been soup of extraordinary flavor, the episode offers marketers a more compelling recipe.

In her brilliant book “Different”, Youngme Moon points out that in a mature market, added features that are not highly relevant to the customer offer little incremental value.  She offers the concept of differentiating strategies through “reverse and hostile brands.”

While the Soup Nazi’s fare was surprising good, the service was shockingly bad. I am not suggesting that our clients start insulting customers anytime soon, but there is lesson to be learned from the Soup Nazi.  Disrupters understand the need to find separation, even if it means not offering services and benefits offered by the competition. Southwest Air offers no amenities, but does offer free baggage.  Where United and Delta says yes, Southwest says no and vice versa.

Menchies and similar self serve yogurt shops have exploded on the scene.  Eat all the yogurt you want and we are not going to serve you.  By the way, you are going to spend about a third more than you would otherwise. The model is distressing to our waist line but stimulating to our business sensibilities.  Tart yogurt flavors are particularly hot as they offer the opposite of what we have been conditioned to expect; as sweet is ying, tart is yang.

For a good laugh with clients, I have occasionally handed out calendars from despair.com.  A spoof of the overused motivational posters, they have similar imagery that says things like “Consulting: Why find a solution when you can prolong the problem?” The calendars are popular because they are funny, but also because they are a shock to our senses.  When ordering such a calendar you get an email to the effect of don’t bother calling us. 

To be different may require the marketer to be entirely counter to the marketplace.  The iPad is revolutionary but lacks USB ports and other goodies.  Apple is unapologetic, as consumers intuitively understand the tradeoff.

We are drawn to things we can’t have, and thus one potential strategy in value creation is “the take away”.  To suggest that your product or service is only available to a select group of customers increases its value. When clients ask us to do Executive Coaching we say no (it is not in our core competency) which makes our Strategic Planning services worth more.  Customers know that to get something really good, they may have to give up something in return.

While I am not encouraging anyone reading this to go negative, I am suggesting we need to think more provocatively about creating products and brands that are not only innovative and different but counter to our thinking.  That may include cutting out benefits that we naturally assume are necessary, but may just be redundant. I wonder if George would go for the vanilla tart or caramel latte?