Case Study: Getting a vendor relationship back on track

Derailment

A division at "Big Company" was at its wits end and they needed help fast. It seemed to them that "Trusted Vendor", who had provided outsourced services for years, had performed so poorly in 2005 that Trusted Vendor might lose its contract to provide services in 2006. What was so alarming to Large Company was that 2004 ended on a high note with Large Company and Trusted Vendor congratulating them selves on a spectacular year.

What had happened to make 2005 go so wrong? Repeated conference calls and emails between Large Company and Trusted Vendor throughout the Autumn of 2005, left Large Company feeling snowed by vague promises to "fix" the problems and those calls left Trusted Vendor feeling like it was taking the blame for internal problems at Large Company. Executives at both companies could no longer see eye to eye and conversations were turning hostile.

An executive at Large Company hired J. Nyden & Co. to facilitate a meeting between the executives at large Company and Trusted Vendor. With an expertise in negotiating difficult deals, mediating disputes, and a law degree, the executive felt confident that Jeanette Nyden could facilitate discussions with Trusted Vendor, minimize the risk of a face to face meeting getting "out of control" and avoid getting "legal" involved. Large Company had several goals for the meeting, with the most important being getting the relationship back on track.

The real problem

Trusted Vendor feared telling Large Company that Large Company was partially to blame for the service failures and Large Company literally had no idea that their own software program and personnel changes contributed to the service failures. It was obvious to Jeanette Nyden that with this dynamic in place, previous conversations just went around in circles.

Wheels Back On Track

By setting the right tone at one 4 hour meeting, Jeanette Nyden was instrumental in lessening the emotional component at the meeting, allowing everyone to talk openly, honestly and objectively about what had gone wrong. Having quickly changed the old, unworkable dynamic, everyone set to work to identify the performance failures and devise protocols for eliminating them from happening in 2006. At the end of the meeting, executives from both companies felt relieved that the relationship was back on track, meaning no one had to tap dance around difficult issues, or fear speaking their mind to one another.

What Clients Can Expect

Clients can expect three things from J. Nyden & Co.: A clear methodology for uncovering the issues that threaten to sink vendor relationships, a highly confidential setting to discretely discuss concerns and full disclosure of the real issues threatening the vendor relationship.

© Jeanette Nyden 2006