We often hear that marketers need to work with customers, consultants and other vendors to come up with situations where everyone benefits or wins.  I recently heard a story that came from the east, yes even further east than New Jersey, that might get you thinking.

There was a rich older man who passed away and left all of his worldly possessions to his three sons.  His “wealth” consisted of 17 camels.  He gave half of his wealth to his oldest son, a third to his middle son and a ninth to his youngest.  After the father was buried, the sons sat down and started to divide up the inheritance.  The process got very confusing in that half of 17 was like 8 and a half (you see where this is going).  The rest of the process was also messy and it turned out that, in order to make its work, there needed to be a lot of dead camels. Continue reading →