Is The Game Over……….?

By Sid Chadwick, Chadwick Consulting, Inc.

“A professional is a man who can do his best at a time when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.”…………Alistair Cooke

INTRODUCTION:

We’d used this top performing supplier…..for over a decade. I and others experienced them as….. exceptional…. inspiring……in their culture………..thinking…..innovations……and execution.

Whispers on the street: A consolidator had found them, and bought them, especially --- when the consolidator learned what their rare, off-the-chart performance numbers…. were…..historically.

Within two weeks of the sale, I didn’t get a return phone call, as promised. Key customer contact personnel were….“home with sick children”. Top managers were “on vacation”…and “out of the office” --- in February…..No one could tell me what my job invoices were for rebilling…or why the prices looked higher than usual…..And my request for fast turn production, which we had come to expect….didn’t happen…...

Competition should cheer…..when a tough competitor…. is bought-out.

Something just happens, inside an organization…..when ownership….and significant money…..….. change hands…..

Practically speaking….the glue….the starch….the standards…..just aren’t there….like they were.

SUMMARY:

Total Cash up-front….is sometimes…a gift…. to the seller.

What most of us want….is not just a top performing track record……we want an outstanding performance….going forward…..

So where’s the incentive, when the big payoff…is up front…..?.

We see this loss of focus…..and performance….. too often……in professional sports…..in company performance……and in relationships…..of many designs……

Seldom should the premium price be paid 100% up front….representing not only what has happened….but also what we want to happen.

Paying the premium…..as we go…as it is earned…...seems to work best….for all parties involved…….  

I expect to continue to use this supplier, from whom I've come to expect outstanding service, and execution, unless recent experiences --- continue. I'm hoping they don't. 

“The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”……….Roger Bannister