I had coffee the other day with a colleague and our conversation reminded me of an article I had read some time ago.  The conversation focused on the inherent differences between Sales and Operations (i.e. everything that isn’t Sales).  I’ve had a similar variant of this conversation quite a few times before.  It goes something like this:

"People just don’t understand what Sales has to go through to land a client.  We need flexibility.  Remember, we are the ones bringing in the money."

"I understand that.  But remember, without tight processes from Operations, customer satisfaction will lag severly.  Remember, we’re the ones that do the real work."

And here’s a more nuanced version:

"Doesn’t the client know what they want?"

"No, they don’t…you’re going to have to figure it out for them…and hope you get it right."

And it just keeps going on from there.  Of course, our conversation was civil.  But I have seen this argument get bloody in many corporate arenas.

The article that this all reminded me of was from the Booz Allen Hamilton journal, Strategy + Business.  In it, the author describes this issue as the clash between two cultures – craft and hype.  The conclusion?  You need both in balance to run your business effectively.  Of course, I would argue that there is more to keep in balance than that.  But it sure is a start.

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