Corporate social responsibility

Although it is not my intention, this may be Cider Press material.

There is ...was ... a concept in business management that goes something like this :   Let’s say you are over a large business.  You have been looking for a supplier of widgets that are essential to the manufacturing of your product.   You find the finest widgets you have ever seen. They are produced by a tiny Mom & Pop operation in their basement.   You make arrangements to make Mom & Pop your supplier.  Your product improves due to the quality of theses widgets, and your sales increase.

Old school business ethics say I should work as a mentor to Mom & Pop to guide them through the potential expansion they may be facing and help them maintain a profitable business so that I have a secure source of these high quality widgets that I need to make my product.

Maybe 20 years ago, I was teaching a class in business management, and several students dug in saying this approach was nuts.  They felt the large company should use their leverage to drive the price of the widgets down ... even if it meant driving Mom & Pop out of business.   This would be done by first negotiating the lowest possible price, dropping months behind in my payments, and then settling by paying Mom & Pop 1/2 of the rock bottom that I owe them .....  or tying them up in a legal battle that they cannot afford.  In either case Mom & Pop is driven out of business.


They felt it was no big thing if I had to purchase poorer quality widgets from somewhere else.

as more and more manufacturers are boosting stateside production and bringing manufacturing back to the USA with new facilities being built I guess we will see what come of it and if they are truly creating social responsibility into the businesses

I guess this says a lot about how big business has operated over the last 20 years.

I (half) remember playing a game in a business management course at about the same time, where as a group you could either co-operate and win a little, one person could play nasty and win big, or you all played nasty and lost.....

It's all about goals, winning conditions, and time-frame.

If my goal is to have as much money as possible at the end of the year, I'm going to be making vastly different choices than if my goal is to set things up so my grandchildren can live comfortably.

Driving Mom&Pop out of business before the end of the year means I get to keep those supplies and the money I'd have had to pay for them. And if I can only get the low quality gears next year, well, that's not MY problem. I moved on to a better paying exec job by pointing out how much money I made last year AND I got a sweet bonus. It's an example of short term goals with no thought of the long term.

Building up Mom&Pop would pay off a lot better if my goalpost is five years from today and if I'm planning to build up a long term reputation for quality. If I plan to keep a lot of my business in this town, helping out other local businesses means more allies when it's time to deal with the town Council.

One of the things I like about Permies is there's lots of people here who take the longer view.

Exactly as people write above, it is about winning goals and also the time frame is the most important now

I have owned and managed several small businesses. I always knew who my competition was, what they did well and what they did not. If I was called and I was too busy or hated that kind of work, I'd tell the caller the number of someone who could help them. To me, that's not only good manners and makes life nicer, but good business. If you are helpful to someone on the phone, they will remember you next time they or someone they know need help. Having a good reputation as a friendly business, as well as good at what you do, is worth more in the long run.

I also have been known to help my competition, at one point another small company had a car wreck, over half of their crew was hurt. We filled in on their contracts until they were able to do it themselves again. That sort of thing is how the world needs to be, in my eyes. There's enough work for all of us, it's not using a cutthroat scarcity model, and we all thrived. And because I was known to be nice like that, when that company needed help, I was called, knowing I'd do what I could. And when we were slammed, I could call and borrow employees, the owners knew I wasn't going to try to hire them away, just pay them for the work they did. Cooperation makes us all more money, and a LOT more pleasant life.

A fun story: we were working someplace, one of my crew was called over by a guy from the place we were working. They were chatting, I needed my guy, I walked over, he told me "this guy's trying to poach me!" I said "Are you interested in what he's offering?" "Yeah kinda."  "ok, you are on ten minute break, I'll grab someone else" and walked away. He came back and told me "Man, that guys an ass, no way I'd work for him! You should have heard what he said about you!" I treated my crew fairly, and that kept them very loyal. You can't buy loyalty like that, you have to earn it.

Hi Pearl,

While I have never been a Mr. Big, a couple of times in my life I have been over multimillion a year businesses. More than once I have informed suppliers they were charging me too little.   One, in particular, turned out especially frustrating I spoke to both Mom and Pop.  Both ignored me.   The tiny business closed its doors.