The final episode in our effort to avoid closure is about one of our other customers (the GM Corvette facility) which was situated within 2 miles from our plant. Even though we were in close proximity, we really didn’t produce much for them and when I arrived there I wondered why. I decided that it was time to make an unscheduled visit to see if I could get to the bottom of this. As I drove that short distance to the Corvette facility, I kept imagining to myself why they didn’t use us as a major supplier. I knew we had experienced quality problems in the past, so I thought maybe that was the major reason.
When I pulled into the
Corvette plant’s parking lot there was a line of these sleek vehicles parked in
a line in most of the executive’s parking slots. I got out of my car and started walking past
each one, but their allure made me stop and admire each one. I had always wanted a Corvette but could
never afford to buy one. I had never
even driven one before. As I continued
stopping and looking at each one, I heard a voice behind me say, “You like
these?” I responded immediately without
looking back, “You bet I do!” He then
floored me and asked, “Would you like to drive one?” I immediately turned and looked him in the
eye and smiled. He said, “I’m serious,
would you like to drive one?” Knowing he
was serious, I said, “Sure, but who are you?”
He said, “I’m the plant manager here in Bowling Green.” I told him that I was actually coming to meet
him and chat a bit about my plant’s lack of business with Corvette. He said, “Let’s chat while we drive,” and
with that he opened the driver’s side door for me and then walked around to the
passenger side and crawled in.
The Corvette facility
had a mile-long test track built around it so off we went. The ride was fast and smooth and the handling was
excellent. I was driving about 65 mph
when he said, “Do you always drive this slow?”
With that I punched it and soon we were at 110 mph and it felt so good
and natural. He eventually asked me what
I wanted to talk with him about? So
there we were traveling at 100+ miles per hour talking shop. I had trouble concentrating going at these
speeds, but he seemed perfectly comfortable as though he had all of his
business meetings like this. I got right
to the point and asked him what my plant had to do in order to do more business
with his plant. He went on to explain
parts of the sorted history between the two facilities. It seems as though even though we were the
closest of all supplier plants, we were unable to ship anything on time. And when we did, our quality wasn’t always
stellar.
As I was driving and
listening to him, I was thinking about what kind of an offer I would have to
make to him that he simply couldn’t refuse?
“It would have to include a guaranteed on-time delivery provision,” I
thought. “It would also have to include
a provision for a high enough quality level that would differentiate us from
his other suppliers,” I continued. I
didn’t know it at the time, back then, but what I was considering was something
we call a mafia offer these
days. He told me that he would love to
do business with us again if we could show him that our facility was capable of
being a reliable supplier. With that, I
invited him to come visit our plant to which he agreed.
No comments:
Post a Comment