I’ve been a member of a CEO Forum called C12 for 20 years. I cannot stress how beneficial it has been to both Wilson Lumber and to me personally. Recently, I was at a breakfast where some potential new members were there and we were sharing about why they may want to join. It got me to thinking about when I joined and why.
First, I needed to know that it was a place where I would get wise business counsel and be challenged. And second, I was looking for like-minded leaders, those that were running Christian organizations.
This post isn’t necessarily about running a Christian business, but it’s important when determining who you are going to partner with that you know if they are like-minded. We talk often about the importance of having clearly defined Core Values, and then truly using them in hiring and firing decisions.
But the same is true for organizations you do business with. Our goal is to help you build faster. One way we go about that is that we watch our On Time In Full numbers very closely (If you’re curious what our OTIF number is for you, ask and we’ll tell you). Therefore, if we have a supplier who is not aligned with that, who causes us to miss deliveries for any reason, then we will choose someone else.
Here are the two questions for you. 1) What is important for your business? And 2) What supplier is going to help you achieve that? Of course, we hope it is us; we believe it is us, but you must decide.
While I’m at it, one further challenge. When you figure out what it is that is most important for a supplier, how about reaching out to us and letting us know? For that matter, tell our competitors and let us all have a crack at presenting our case to you.
Sound like a pain in the neck? Well, how important is that thing? And how important would it be if you could tell your customers that you carefully vet your suppliers, just like I just told you how we vet ours?
Your business matters, make sure you are aligning yourself with others who are going to make it successful.