So – a scenario from business life.

A true-life story.

My friend worked at a medical firm. That’s where we met.

And a few months back, we were sitting over a spot of lunch in the countryside, chewing the fat, gossiping the gossip and generally catching up. Delightful.

During the course of said repast, she tells me about how she was hounded out of her previous job.

Basically, the senior management were sort of at war with each other.

Disillusionment and rancour between board members were escalating.

Those seniors under the spotlight were squirming and, in their agonised throes, were changing their mind about as often as their underwear in order to desperately wriggle out of the toxic, underperforming atmosphere they themselves had created at the firm.

My friend found herself in the firing line for their tefloning, indecision and general awfulness. Not a maliciously direct target – but caught in the crossfire – seriously upsetting collateral damage.

After some months the whole situation imploded, the bad apples were got rid of and peace reigned.

But not in time for my friend who had quit the firm prior to this point because it was simply too much to put up with. Because she had quit, there was no severance payment, no recompense for the ghastly experience.

It took her a while to regain her equilibrium and get her next job (a great job, thank goodness).

And while she was steadying herself, two of her erstwhile suppliers (not us, but others) kept in touch. They just dropped her a line or picked up the phone to ask if she was OK. And they kept doing so until she said she was back at full octane.

They had no vested commercial interest in doing so. None.

It didn’t involve hours of chat – but it was regular and consistent.

They didn’t have to do it, but they did.

It was genuine.

Of course, when my friend next wants or needs the services they provide, guess who will be at the top of the list?! Of course. But that might never happen.

All of which contrasts with the purely transactional contact between supplier and buyer.

That starts off assiduous and attentive and then, as soon as it does not translate into further business, disappears like snow off the proverbial dyke.

So that’s contrast. Genuine versus transactional.

And it’s so important to differentiate between the two.

I happen to think it differentiates between the better business partner and the grasping, unreliable one.

It’s a good indicator of someone’s outlook on life.

Are they here to screw you or to support you?

Are they happy to stay in touch – even light touch – with no guarantee of return on their effort – and where the outcome might simply be to have spread a little happiness in this grim old world.

It’s something to give a little bit of yourself or your time in no expectation of return (you might ‘hope’ for reciprocation, but that’s different from ‘expectation’).

Let’s not lose our humanity, even when being business people.

That was the burden of my friend’s tale.

I hope you find these bulletins entertaining. I’m happy to discuss all relevant engagements – from customer community creation, to directorial mentoring, to strategy development, to thought-leadership content development, to full campaign structuring and management, and more.

Do get in touch!