EOW Reflections: Kindness has a place in business
Two people from one family firm have restored my faith in business and in humanity this week. I’m ending the week on an optimistic high. Let me explain, without naming any names, but you know who you are.
A small business owner contacted our office to say she’d supplied her customer on a sale or return basis. She’d been paid for the goods supplied. Then, due to a change in the customer’s business model, her goods were no longer suitable for sale. As per the original agreement the customer would send them back to her when she paid back the money they’d paid her. However, to get her stock back she have to pay the family retailer several tens of thousands of pounds. That money had already been spent on her business and she didn’t have the money. She was stuck. She’d taken legal advice and was advised that the customer owned her stock, and she couldn’t get it back until she paid for it. But unless she gets that stock back and can sell it to other customers, she can’t pay the money she owes.
In cases like this I always see that circle that moves in the middle of the computer screen (dubbed by many the circle of death for good reason) and you wait and wait in an ongoing impasse until, sadly you crash out and lose everything.
What to do? This isn’t a late payment. It’s not poor payment practices. It is nothing to do with business-to-business payments, it’s not in our remit and in truth it’s none of our business.
I admit it. I get emotionally involved in these situations and the counsellor in me wants to find a way through. I had a conversation with my much more sensible Casework Manager, and we decided to make an approach and see if the circle could be broken. We called the retail firm. At first, they were a bit reticent to talk to us, quite rightly wondering why on earth we were interfering. However, they agreed to a meeting. We met with two senior people yesterday online and in about 10 minutes everything had been explained and understood. I am happy to say we have been promised that steps will be taken to break the cycle and resolve the issue so that the small supplier can continue to trade rather than lose the business.
Kindness and common sense prevailed. What also became clear was that the retail team understood how small businesses operate and the importance of the whole small business sector to the UK. As the senior director at the meeting said: ‘small businesses are the fabric that holds the UK’s economy together and we have to do the right thing to support them’. If only everyone bigger business understood and took that approach.
The lesson for me is that sometimes people simply don’t know what’s really going on or the impact existing processes have on others. The supplier and the customer had talked but not really understood each other’s position. The supplier had been too quick to agree a way forward that didn’t go anywhere near resolving her original dilemma and the customer had no idea that she had a problem with that. Sometimes it takes a third party, not directly involved and independent of both businesses to play a role in reaching a better solution for everyone. Ultimately though it takes someone to be empowered to say ‘I’ll sort this’. And what came through clearly was the kindness and understanding of a team in a bigger business who could have simply used their greater power but chose not to. Thank you. You’ve made my week.
