Over my 30 years of shooting photographs for corporate and editorial clients, I’ve encountered numerous policies established by companies to regulate how their buyers interact with their suppliers. The policies cover the usual areas including payment, usage, rights and delivery. I even had a recent client who had a company policy against — against, mind you! — giving recommendations or referrals for their suppliers. Talk about a policy that works against building trusting relationships. And this from a company that emphasizes its commitment to building relationships!
For a long time, I simmered with anger over the various boilerplate policies companies threw at me, even accepting for a time that they weren’t personal. It was, after all, just business. Often I’ve heard the establishment of said policies being blamed on “butt-puckered lawyers,” “the suits,” or “the bean counters.” The admonition to not take it personally was delivered in a tone intended to convince everyone to just accept such policies as “industry standards” that could be neither questioned nor changed.
But, over time, I grew to understand that all policies are personal and therefore have the possibility of being changed. Policies are personal because they are established or initiated by a person. Even if a large governmental body or a board of directors agrees to a certain policy, one person was instrumental in advancing the idea for a particularly personal reason. That reason is usually based on a fear of loss or the scarcity of some important resource, usually money.
I’ve found that through a personal relationship or a sympathetic client, an established policy can often be modified or have an exception made. For example, a 60-day payment policy can be shortened by having someone willing to walk an invoice through accounting.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about policies and the people who present them is that they are, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, parts of a bigger picture or story of the people who make up a company.
People who treat other people, including their suppliers, like replaceable commodities are very likely being treated like a replaceable commodity by their own company. Like a bully who’s being bullied at home, people usually treat others the way they feel like they are being treated.
Corporate policies are, at their roots, stories of the people who created and enforce them. The only way to modify a policy is to change the story that surrounds it.
Charles