November15, 2021
Getting Vendors' Attention

 
I have had a funny thing happen twice this year.

Prospects ask me to take on assignments for them. Then, they sent me their standard purchasing packages for me to qualify as a vendor with them. I took a look at the packages and said, "No, thanks." I hated to do that, but their requests were far too onerous considering the work they wanted done. I almost never turn down work.

Then a funny thing happened. In both cases, independently and a few weeks after their original request, they came back to me and ask if I would like to work for them under my normal terms, not theirs. In both cases, I said yes.

I tell that story to say this. You may, in today's conditions, find you are not in the driver's seat as the purchaser. There is plenty of work out there and suppliers/vendors may pick and choose amongst customers.

If a vendor's shop only has so much capacity and they have a choice of working with a customer they know well and get along with, or a prospect they don't know well and which has a bad reputation, what do you think they will do?

What would you do?

If your company has a reputation among vendors of being a jerk, you just might find yourself in surprising place.

What is your opinion? Drop me a line at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com. I would like to hear from you.


 
Young Engineering Manager of the Year, call for nominations

We are looking for an individual who has done an extraordinary project, one that almost defies belief. Its extraordinary features can be schedule, technology, cost or all three. There is an age limit on the manager eligible for this award: they must be under 35 years old when they completed the project.
 
We have often gotten nominees that go something like this, "I nominate Joe because he has done a great job of running our engineering department for the last fifteen years." Quite frankly, we are not interested in such nominees.
 
However, if you know someone who has led a very exceptional project in the recent past (the last two or three years) and meets our age requirement, we want to know about it. We want to honor them and hold them up as an example for Engineering Managers in every pulp and paper mill around the world.
 
Just send your nomination, with as much details as you can provide, to jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com. We will seriously consider it.
Current Patent Activity is available here.


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Please write when we tickle your brain cells! Email jthompson@taii.com