Edition 526 – Disrespect
A really good small business, that works in a very unique professional space, is approached by a statutory authority to pitch for a project the authority needs undertaken. This authority is a household name. You hear them mentioned at least once a month. Big fish. Big budget. Lots of people.
The statutory authority puts pressure on the small business to prepare a proposal, attend interstate meetings and engage in follow-up conversations. The small business jumps to it and the initial indications from the potential client are that they love the idea, and they’re ready to press “GO” at any moment.
Then, radio silence. No acknowledgement of success or otherwise. No update as to whether the time frame has changed. No response to emails and phone calls, seeking a status update. Just complete and utter disrespect from a large organisation, whose people are on significant six figure packages and frankly, appear to lack common decency.
Another small business is hounded before Christmas by a couple of builders they’ve worked with, to get some tenders underway ASAP. The builder’s client is ready to press “GO” on the project, and the proposal is needed yesterday. A huge amount of work is put into the tender, and there’s lots of email and phone traffic back and forth to confirm the scope. Meetings take place on site, just to make sure nothing is missed, before the tender is finalised.
By the time March rolls around, there’s still no start date. Not even a likely start date. There’s no response to phone calls, emails, text messages or any other form of request to meet up and get an update. The builders involved? Big ticket, multi million dollar turnover operators. You see their bunting on building sites across Sydney all the time. But apparently, once again, they lack the courtesy of keeping the people they’ll desperately need to get the project completed, up to date.
The people that work inside these government organisations, or large corporates, seemingly operate in a silo. Their people have never worked inside a small business. They seem to think small business is at their beck and call, and that when they call “jump”, small business will drop everything and come running.
Except, small businesses are walking away from working with large corporates and government, because of the hassle.
The contractual hassle.
The argument over payment.
The unreturned phone calls and emails.
The wanting to hold you to account, if something goes pear-shaped onsite and it’s your fault, but ignore you completely if it’s the other way around.
To me, there’s something really and truly wrong about the values inside these large organisations or government departments.
The basic values of respect and decency.
The value of wanting to work with someone, to help achieve a result, and do it in a way where both parties win out of the relationship.
The value of keeping the lines of communication open, so we can each be prepared for when we need to mobilise and get things underway.
Without small business, there’s a lot that wouldn’t happen in Australia. Indeed, across the globe. So, it’s about time large corporates and government pulled their socks up, and started respecting small business for the economic contribution, and the problem-solving abilities, they possess.
This Week’s Tip
“A number of small businesses that we’re working with at the moment, are deciding to downscale,
to avoid the headaches of dealing with indecisive large corporates and government.
Funnily enough, it’s making a number of them more profitable than when they were larger businesses.”