Are our Competitors Short Sighted or Am I a Bad Business Person?

May 15, 2009 · by Tammy Adler

I’m confused by our competitors.

A couple of weeks ago one of our major customers announced mandatory one week unpaid furloughs, between now and the end of the year, for all their employees.

Without hesitation, my first and immediate thought and action was to contact one of our Senior Business contacts at the customer and volunteer to help them in their effort by furloughing our team for a week as well. My reasoning goes like this, “if we are true partners we should all ban together in an effort to minimize the long-term impact the economic downturn may have on all of us”. Sounds logical and reasonable to me.

Here’s where the rub comes in; NONE of our competitors followed our lead. I believe part of the problem we’re facing nationally stems from these same principals, people selfishly grabbing everything they can while not looking at the big picture and what makes greater long-term sense for both they and their business partners.

Am I wrong and a bad business person for making the decision I did? If I am wrong and I may be, at least I can live with myself. Frankly, in this circumstance, I think our competitors are being very short-sighted.

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