It's About Getting the Eggs into the Basket

I watched an Easter Special on tv this past Sunday called, 'Easter Egg Morning.' It was about contention between the hens who laid the Easter eggs and the rabbit who painted and delivered them. Year after year, the Easter bunny had gotten all the credit for the work the hens had been doing and it was starting to get to his head. This year, when he came around to collect the Eggs for Easter, the hens would not give them up. They insisted that they could paint the eggs and deliver them just as easily as the Easter bunny. The Easter bunny indignantly retorted that he didn't need their eggs and he could find eggs elsewhere.

Well, each party went about doing the other's job to no avail. The hens were attempting to paint the Easter eggs and making a mess of it. The lead hen was drawing out a map, but just couldn't figure out how she could deliver all the eggs in one day. In the end, they had to admit that they needed the Easter bunny after all. Meanwhile, the Easter bunny was having trouble as well. He was nearly eaten by both a snake and a crocodile, trying to take their eggs. Eventually, he found a giant ostrich egg, but it was too heavy for his truck. He too had to admit that he needed the eggs that only the hens could provide.

Of course, the Easter bunny returned and apologetically asked for the hens' help. The hens also apologized and offered their eggs freely. A happy ending. A nice Easter cartoon for kids, but there are HUGE business implications! This same thing happens all of the time in the business world. Engineering and/or manufacturing will do all the hard work of bringing the product to market, while all that is ever seen by the customer is the brand produced by marketing. No one knows about grunt work that went into making the product. They only pay attention to the slick packaging and taglines. They only see the Easter bunny. They don't see the hens.

As it happened in this cartoon, it sometimes happens in the business world. Marketeres and sales people get big heads. They forget that they have no hens without the eggs. At the same time, the hens will sometimes begin to think that they don't need marketing. Big mistake on both parts. They both are forgetting the mission: to get the eggs into the basket. It's not about engineering. It's not about marketing. It's about the customer. It's a simple lesson designed for little children, but perhaps grown, professional business people need to learn it more than anyone. You're never too old for a little teamwork.