So we live in a nurturing world, right?

Every one of us, if asked, would say that we aim to look after our employees or our teams. We want to bring on their skills and capabilities… tease out their talent. We want them to feel fulfilled, to be inspired to work hard.

Sure, there are some basic disciplines – for instance, you have to do the job you’ve been hired for, not the one you wish it was. But overall, it’s an atmosphere of nurture.

So why isn’t that also extended to suppliers?

I hear all this trash and humbug about ‘partnership’ relationships with suppliers. Yet this is only the case in the minority of instances. No – don’t deny it you large corporates – the ‘partnership’ idea is largely fake.

The authority I have to say this is that we have a clutch of true partnerships with our clients. Some we have been working with for years. Others have only just come on board. But they are all characterised by trust, honesty, collaboration and tough (but positive) talking.

So I know what a real partnership relationship between client and supplier looks like.

And I know that they are few and far between (and to be cherished when they occur).

Why are they so rare?

Well, partly it’s a power thing… partly a cover-up.

Highly competent corporate managers are relaxed and confident in their abilities. And they foster teams which are collaborative, mutually respectful, supportive of one another.

Incompetent ones are sensitive, unsure, and afraid of being found out. They use suppliers as whipping posts, tefloning their own incompetencies into a constant churn of suppliers where it’s always ‘their fault’.

Of course, this is not sustainable over time. Eventually, the incompetent manager will be revealed… after the third or fourth supplier turnover. But the canny (though incompetent) manager will by then have moved onto the next employer-victim, to start all over again.

Why should senior management and board directors care?

After all, it’s just a few badly treated suppliers, right? No chance of a tribunal or a lawsuit, right?

Wrong.

These incompetent managers are destroying business value with every day that passes. They’re also throwing out suppliers who could be really supporting your business results and growth.

They are quite a serious opportunity cost.

It’s worth your attention.