Stop Paddling & Start Rocking The Boat

In 1987 Lou Pritchett the Vice president of sale at Procter and Gamble, had a radical idea. He phoned Sam Walton and invited the visionary chairman of Wal-Mart on a two day canoe trip. There on the South Fork River in Arkansas, Lou made Sam an offer no profit minded person could refuse: the chance to forge a partnership between the two colossal firms. This now legendary trip marks the culmination of a lifetime devoted to building customer relationships. Sam wrote to Lou, "Thank you for what you have personally done to bring our two companies together and develop a relationship that I think will be outstanding and beneficial to both of us for a long time to come. You are a real friend." Winning companies have the ability to create and sustain genuine love affairs with suppliers customers, and employees. The Object of customer supplier partnering is to form and maintain a mutually productive relationship in which the needs of both parties are met Leading companies make room for dreamers and poets because an idea is a thousand times more powerful than a fact. Only when trust and cooperation replace doubt and confrontation can costs be reduced throughout the total system. Top performing companies choose first to understand, then to meet, and then to exceed customer expectations.