How to build bad-weather friends for your business!

Treat your supplier as you would treat your customer.

Sometimes, it’s amazing to see how small little uncalculated gestures towards people who you work with can actually become your business’s lifeline somewhere in the future!

One of the best lessons that I learnt very early on during my snap photos days was to always, always treat your suppliers with respect. I had learnt that if you treated your suppliers with respect, they will go out of their way to help you, when times are bad for you. In business only they can be your best bad weather friends! Let me narrate an anecdote to drive my point.

I don’t understand why most purchase department managers think that their suppliers have to wait long hours, be treated shabbily and should always be put to a fight with another supplier to get the better of them. Having been at the receiving end of such treatment when I was running around for my loan, one thing I was dead certain of was to never treat another human being like that ever again!

I was once travelling by car to Mumbai, in my second-hand  Maruti 800 that I had bought from someone who had worked with me for a several years.  It was a family trip for a relative’s marriage. Back then the old Bombay-Poona highway was a nightmare to drive upon and would take anything from 5 to 8 hours to commute between two cities that were barely  159 km from each other.

We had our customary halt at Khandala for the famous Sangam Batata wadas and as we were coming out, I saw a gentleman standing near the parking. Upon closer look I recognized him as I had met him a couple of times. He used to work with Agfa Germany India Ltd in their sales department. He looked pretty stressed out so I went up to him and asked him what was wrong? He pointed towards his bus which had a breakdown.

Although he didn’t tell me why he was stressed, I felt sorry for him and decided to ferry him to Bombay and informed my wife and children that he was joining us. Now, it was one of those trips where the family was going together after many days, and hence the children and my wife took this as an intrusion, but had no courage to argue with me. Judging the intrusion by their crestfallen faces, Jayant offered that he would manage on his own. In any case there wasn’t enough space to accommodate passenger number 5. But as usual I would have none of it and convinced him to join us.

The trip to Mumbai thereon was obviously a long stone cold silent one.  Just as Jayant was getting down from the car, he said “Thanks Parag. I will be ever grateful to you for this help.” He mentioned that this meant a lot to him since his son was unwell and that it was crucial that he reach home as soon as possible. We dropped him near his house and proceeded for our wedding. And for a long time I had forgotten about this episode until many years later.

Jayant would often visit Pune and we did go on to do business together for many years. He said he loved “Puneri” food and I would often take him out for a customary meal of “Puneri” food on Laxmi Road. He always appreciated the fact that I treated him with respect. I would never ask him questions about how my competitors were doing, what price they got their raw material, who was doing what expansion. Most suppliers are privy to very sensitive competitor information. But I realised that I would be putting him in an ethical dilemma if I did ask him. But whatever, information he would give during the course of a casual conversation, I would listen to intently but not respond to it. Besides, as a matter of principle I never ever criticised competition.

About 3 years later after the incident, the Indian economy went into a major financial crisis. Photographic paper for which India dependent on imports was not available anymore and you could only get to import the photographic paper if you deposited 250% of the value of the goods and that to 3 months in advance! There was no way anyone of us in the business at the time could raise that kind of capital overnight. Moreover that would be 750% more than the usual requirement.

Those days were equivalent to the Wall street collapse. As the months progressed most of my competitors had to shut shop. I too was on my wit’s end and that’s when I one day called up Jayant and said, “I am running out of stock. Can you help?” “Parag, there isn’t anything anyone can do for you. The whole Economy is in shambles and not much hope left.” He ended the conversation by saying he will try to do something for me.

Seven days later, I got a call from Jayant saying that their principals from Germany are here, and he has arranged a meeting for me with the Director of Bayer Germany. He suggested that I could request them to trust me and ask for credit for the purchase of photographic paper. And so I left for Mumbai the same day.

Before my meeting with Director, Jayant had done the groundwork and had pitched me as one of the most loyal and honest customers of Agfa Germany. He knew that the German’s appreciate honesty and loyalty as against volumes. I was a small player at that time and did not contribute much to their total sales. Agfa was a large conglomerate, but Jayant made sure that I got 15 minutes with the Director. I used all my persuasive powers and persuaded him to give me credit for the imports. He said, he would give me 180 day credit. The man liked me! So here was this little guy in Pune who was the only one who had access to imported paper. I was expecting, that business would double owing to the fact that many labs would close down. I placed my order for the 1^st month and had my stock and my lab was up and running!

Jayant the supplier, who was not treated well by other competitors, went out of his way to make sure that my business survived. Why?Probably because I helped him when he needed it and I have always respected him even as a supplier.

The lesson for me was to know that all human beings are equal, and they all deserve our help and respect. Don’t ever do it with an expectation of anything in return. And treat all your suppliers with warmth and respect. My wife would go to market yard every week to buy her vegetables from the largest vendor. I would fret over the fact that she was trying to save a few bucks! I soon realized that she looked at it as a great social event!

She would go to this particular vendor who is the largest wholesale supplier of vegetables in the market.  That man ignored her for months. But she persisted. She slowly got him on her side. She seized the opportunity when he said he wasn’t  getting an appointment with a leading heart specialist in Pune. She drove him to the heart specialist in her car. Got all is investigations done. Helped him with his surgery and made sure the family was at comfort. The old man today sends us his best vegetables every morning, at a real low cost, and picks and chooses the vegetables my family will have .

The next time I am going to talk on trust your employees.

Back them , when they need it most!

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