Honesty Case

Complete honesty is desired in all aspects of life. The definition of a great negotiation is where both parties leave the table feeling that they have each given a little. The beauty of a great negotiation is when both parties know beyond a shadow of a doubt that their collective whole will be unbelievably better than the sum of their individual parts. When this happens both parties are exposed to a certain degree, but have a level of assurance that their market-critical intelligence is safe with their new strategic partner (ally). A common goal/target has been identified & the olive branch has been extended.

I work for a distributorship. So when complete honesty is compromised it generally sends shockwaves through all levels of our company. This alarm is so wide spread because in almost all cases our strategic advantage & value proposition will be given to a lesser competitor of ours & away drifts a multi-million dollar opportunity. These opportunities are multi-location, multi-project 5 or 10 year contracts so when they are gone, they are gone...for some time.

My industry is extremely controlled & complex. Due to the complexity of "how we do what we do" employees seem to gravitate to customers, geographic areas, or departments & stay there for several decades becoming an unchallenged subject matter expert along the way. When these subject matter experts change employers or their position in the supply chain, all parties are forced to level set & "re-chart the waters" if need be.

My ethical situation arose just over a year ago. One of our largest customers (& one of the largest customers in the United States) sent out a massive RFP (request for proposal). In years past we would have assembled our cross functional bid team & compiled a proposal (multi-faceted) that exceeded requirements & desired outcome. This one however, was different. The blanket agreement was not set to expire for another 18 months. Most customers send out the requested RFP with a six to nine month expiration window. After two days of recon we had identified our accelerator. A gentleman was recently hired from our largest competitor to run this customer's Supply Chain.

There were two possible plans. 1. Roll over & assume all of your business will be shifted to your competitor or 2. Put together a plan that cannot be touched due to our size, scope, & ability to leverage our suppliers. Of course, we chose plan 2. We are the nation's #1 distributor of our portfolio. The process took several weeks & countless hours. We were receiving industry leading pricing for our suppliers in our portfolio & putting together an integrated supply model that would save this customer millions of dollars in first cost annually.

After submitting our proposal we were encouraged by the feedback & subsequent rounds of requested information/clarification.