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May 25, 2005

"He Said, She Said" - Rashômon in Marketing and in the Office

If you haven't already seen the amazing Akira Kurosawa film Rashômon (starring Toshirô Mifune), hurry up and see it.

The film is set in medieval Japan and proceeds as follows (thanks to James Berardinelli:

The story told by Rashomon is both surprisingly simple and deceptively complex. The central tale, which tells of the rape of a woman (Machiko Kyo) and the murder of a man (Masayuki Mori), possibly by a bandit (Toshiro Mifune), is presented entirely in flashbacks from the perspectives of four narrators. The framing portions of the movie transpire at Kyoto's crumbling Rashomon gate, where several people seek shelter from a pelting rain storm and discuss the recent crime, which has shocked the region. One of the men, a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura), was a witness to the events, and, with the help of a priest (Minoru Chiaki), he puzzles over what really happened, and what such a horrible occurrence says about human nature. In each of the four versions of the story, the characters are the same, as are many of the details. But much is different, as well. In the first account, that of the bandit, the criminal accepts culpability for the murder but refutes the charge of rape, saying that it was an act of mutual consent. The woman's story affirms that the bandit attacked her, but indicates that she may have been the murderess. The dead man's tale (told through a medium) claims rape and suicide. The only "impartial" witness, the woodcutter, weaves a story that intertwines elements of the other three, leaving the viewer wondering if he truly saw anything at all.

Aside from being a marvelous film in its own right (cinemantography, acting, script etc.), it is enduring because its themes - of subjectivity, of perception vs. reality, of the bias of personal interest, of how hard it is to know the truth, of the difficulties of being on the same page - are so deeply felt by all of us in so many aspects of our lives.

Other blogs have commented on the relevance of this movie as a metaphor for these issues in fields ranging from global economics to truth in journalism to baseball umpires, even a whole blog dedicated to the idea. So I reflected that the same applies to what I have seen in marketing and in everyday office politics.

We constantly harp on the importance of positioning, of getting your basic logic and arguement down and down consistently before you go off and spend money on all kinds of sales and marketing tactics. Way too often folks don't do this. Way too often the team is not in synch - not just on what the marketing tactics ought to be - but not in synch on the basics. Even in companies so small that the whole team is rubbing elbows all day it is easy to see opinions on the fundamentals of their business reality as those of the bandit, the lady, the dead man and the woodcutter of Rashomon.

In one very typcial company I talked to the exec team all agreed that the website was no good and needed to be changed. But when you asked them a few simple questions:

• what does your company do?
• who does it do this for?
• why is it better?

the answer you got from the CEO was very different from the head of sales, which was different from the CTO, which was different from the head of marketing. Before they went off to try to tell their story to people outside the company they really needed to get and agree to those answers. Otherwise they would leave their customers very confused.

And honestly think how true this dynamic is when it comes to office politics - rating employee performance, dealing with disagreements. There always seems to be a variance of opinion, even amongst the smartest, most well-intended people.

The answer. Not to give up and despair. Two things seem to help me. In the marketing case - talk to customers - up close and personally. They usually do a better job telling you what they want and what they think of you than anyone inside will. In terms of office politics - try to find real data - and always stick to your values (assuming you know what they are).

Posted by johnza at May 25, 2005 12:25 PM

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