The tension between creators and distributors
Artists, engineers, and journalists are similar in that they create things. Bringing something new into the world is how they add value.
Salespeople and marketers, on the other hand, add value differently - their work is to distribute the creators' products, services and ideas.
In Zero to One, Peter Thiel emphasized the importance of distribution, and also mentions the tension between engineering and sales. In my own line of work, I've also felt this conflict. There is a clear misalignment of interests between creators and distributors - one side wants to be left alone to build and optimize, while the other is motivated by performance targets that often encourages misleading claims and overpromises.
Different industries have different approaches to this problem:
- For unique talents such as athletes and entertainers, their scarcity swings the balance of power in their favor; in these fields, the celebrity chooses which agent to work with.
- For professional services such as auditing or law, where creativity is not of the utmost importance, those who began their career in work delivery and are able to transition to sales are promoted to be directors and partners.
- For corporations whose products are primarily differentiated through brand recognition, such as P&G and Coca Cola, their marketing departments sit indisputably at the top of the organizational hierarchy.
However, there are some industries - such as mine - that have not solved this problem. Large 留学 companies are unable to retain talent on both the delivery side and the sales side. Smaller agencies are usually run by experienced salespeople who left the large agencies, and they have the same problem with attracting talented people to work for them. Agencies started by someone on the delivery side are rare, and usually have problems with scaling up because the key person has limited capacity.
It seems strange to me that the tension between delivery and sales has not yet been solved in some industries. Meanwhile, from what I've seen, the biggest successes are those individuals or organizations that have solved this problem by truly bridging the two sides.
For example, Steve Jobs - a consummate salesman with a reputation for being a very demanding boss - managed to form strong bonds with multiple world-class creators, from Steve Wozniak to John Lasseter to Jony Ive. In some cases, an individual doesn't need the bridge and is instead both creator and distributor. Elon Musk, for example, is not only an engineering expert but also a sales grandmaster. The celebrities who reap the greatest monetary rewards are those who build and (to at least some degree) control the distribution of their own brand: Air Jordan, Yeezy, Fenty Beauty (Rihanna), Kylie Cosmetics, and so on.
I think most of us are naturally predisposed to one side or the other, just as we are predisposed to being introverted or extraverted. To find long-term success, however, we should seek to understand and work with the other side rather than reject it.