Have you expressed the sentiment “It’s all about you” to a supplier recently? If not, perhaps you should have.
I recently said those words, with a touch of humor and a heavy dose of sincerity, to Chad Barr, founder of Cleveland’s Chad Barr Group. About a year ago Chad and I agreed to work together to create and leverage my digital empire. His team has helped me create videos, podcasts, process visuals, and present a website that facilitates a visitor’s search of my site to find whatever information they may want. Chad is exceptionally good at pulling coherent thinking from the jumble of ideas circulating in my brain when I’ve been unable to do it myself.
In a recent conversation, we were discussing how to move forward on a few key issues. My response to Chad was “Of course. After all, it’s all about you.” We shared a laugh and moved on.
Sometimes it is all about your supply chain partner. Sometimes it is all about you. If it’s always about one or the other, the relationship will not work over time. When a supplier tells you they will be late with an order, unless it truly is the end of the world, don’t act like it is. Work together to develop a solution, or if the delay doesn’t harm you, thank the supplier for the advance notice.
Just because you have separate P&Ls doesn’t mean your mutual best interests can’t be easily found.