Delegates follow proceedings during a recent suppliers summit in Nairobi. Hundreds of SMEs contracted by large companies are often made to suffer the costly inconvenience of inefficiencies by their bigger partners. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NMG
Big firms are daily pushing SMEs to the edge of insolvency due to failure to deliver on their bargain.
Last week I had an unpleasant experience when a loved one had to have their international flight rescheduled because of weather issues.
The ticket was then rescheduled but the issuing airline could not determine if the new flight details were in their system.
While the situation was eventually resolved, the reality is that the airline, like many, aggressively markets seamless connections and access to multiple destinations through their airline network.
The reality, however, is that the system doesn’t work like that, especially in an emergency. The product experience did not match promises made in marketing slogans.
Clearly this phenomenon is not unique to airlines. Most customers, when dealing with businesses often find that there is a fundamental disconnect between what the business says it will do, and what it actually delivers.
Clearly in the drive to get new customers and increase profits, promises are made that the corporate system simply does not meet.
And this is not only frustrating; it’s dishonest and wastes the customer’s time and money. These issues are of particular concern in a country like Kenya when many with significant financial constraints, spend money on a product and then find it impossible to use the unique selling points they were sold when making the purchase.
Not only does that fail to translate to an efficient use of the funds spent by the customer, it puts the burden on the customer to spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to figure out what is actually feasible.
This situation is exacerbated in business to business connections, particularly when a small and medium enterprise (SME) firm is dealing with a large company.
To the SME, the large company is often an anchor player in the delivery of their business model.
But often, to the large company, the SME is a fairly minor player as an individual business, to its bottom line.
This power imbalance often means that the SME is sold a package the large company has, sometimes specifically targeting SMEs, promising that the bigger firm is the best partner for the SME.
However, when an emergency or crisis occurs, the reality is that the disconnect between the marketing that was sold to the SME by the large company becomes a costly inconvenience to the SME.
The SME often has to spend an inordinate amount of time and money, trying to figure out how to tap into the features of the product that were marketed to them by the large company and discover what is feasible.
And if the large company can afford to lose the business of the SME, they may not address the needs and requirements of the SME in a timely and efficient manner. Thus again, the SME is the one left bearing the burden of the large company not delivering on marketed promises.
In short, it is time companies become honest about what they can actually deliver. Either they need to fundamentally rethink their advertising and stop misleading customers on what they can actually do, or they need to restructure their businesses to deliver on marketing promises.
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