Surface Ripples

A First Attempt in Learning!

One of the more useful (but frustrating!) learning experiences I’ve had was dealing with someone who just set up their own business producing “environmentally friendly” business cards.

His product was simple: take a company’s business card, transfer it to a credit card-size piece of plastic and embed a chip that held all the details of the business card.  Along with this, a QR code was printed on the card which took you to a site giving you the same business card information.  Even better, with certain brands of smart phone, just touching the card to the smart phone automatically transferred all business card information onto the smartphone and the user could then save it as a new contact.  Brilliant idea.  Environmentally friendly.  Practical.

The downside was that, whilst the concept was sound, execution was flawed.  After three months of working with this business trying to produce a professional card, we finally gave up.  It’s not something that comes naturally or easily to businesspeople.  The problem was that we could see no end in sight; there was always something wrong in the dummy copies produced.  What’s more, we were asked to pay for the cards before they were delivered so we would pay and then receive a card that wasn’t fit for purpose.

Sometime ago, I wrote about knowing when to hold, fold, or walk away.  In this instance we decided to walk away. We sent what we considered was a polite message thanking the business for their efforts and making a goodwill payment for the work they had done.  The amount of work we had put in designing, proofreading several erroneous print runs and explaining what a business card was used for was far higher than the value of the card. 

The other business’ reaction?  Not prepared to accept any accountability for their errors. Instead, we got a catalogue of excuses, including the well-worn “No one else has had a problem with this.”  Maybe no one had had a problem with this before, but there’s always a first time for everything.

This is a project we’d still like to pursue with the right partner.  One day even the business that we walked away from may have perfected its operating model, in which case great.  We’d far rather support a growing local small business than deal with a large, faceless corporate entity.   The trouble is, they need to have a sound business operating model.

This was also a great learning opportunity for us.  We learned the importance of explaining our particular branding, the message behind it and to be able to design artwork suitable for transferring onto a medium other than paper.  Yes, we lost a bit of money, but we learnt far more from our mistakes and assumptions and the consequences that arose. We’ll know better how to proceed the next time. 

In the meantime, we’ll still have to use “paper” business cards.

Just because something ends in failure or we have to walk away, it can still be a lesson.  The trick is to learn from that experience, and not repeat the same mistake.  In this case, neither of us were ready for the other.

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  

Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Teamwork

posted by William Martin @ 10:41