As a marketing professional, I have learned over time that business is, unfortunately, not as simple and straight-forward as I may have perceived it to be when I was seven. Market dynamics, fierce competition and material pricing have a way of taking a fairly simple concept—selling product A to customer B—and adding just a few layers of complexity.

New York Yankees. Los Angeles Lakers. Dallas Cowboys.

When you hear those names, what comes to mind? Top-notch professional programs? Over-paid superstars with über-inflated egos? Collections of prima donnas that have altered senses of what $1 million can buy?

Regardless of your affinity for professional sports, there is a likely chance that you have some preconceived opinion of these brands.

In the 1994 movie, Babylon 5, one of the main characters, Ambassador Londo Mollari, makes the statement, "Only an idiot would fight a war on two fronts." (Blogger's note: I have never actually seen the movie.) This same notion - fighting a battle on multiple fronts - has also be attributed to the fall of the Germans in WW2, to the failure of the U.S. government of eliminating insurgents in rural Afghanistan, and - for the purposes of this post - to the ruination of many a reputation in the business community. If I may...