I Believe – Corporate Greed – Personal Essay
I believe corporate greed will cause long-term failure. One of the largest professional situations that did not end successfully due to wanting exorbitant commission profits, ultimately resulted in losing a significant customer.
While working as a branch manager at our company, I was the lead in selling a hot beverage program to a convenience retailing chain representing 45% of net revenue for that division. Within two years of signing the four-year contract, we abruptly lost the business ultimately resulting in almost closing the branch and the loss of ten jobs.
Upon realizing my mistake, it was too late and the customer had a well laid out exit strategy for switching to a competitor. All things considered, poor pricing structure, lack of marketing, and complacency were all key drivers for our shortfalls. We tried to side step the loss by quickly growing revenue and reallocating resources, but it was too far gone. We put in place a quick-to-market growth strategy to try and save the division by replacing the lost revenue to no avail. In either case, the future was imminent; I would have to downsize jobs and other expenses to sustain the division. Not only did our branch lose the largest customer but also ten key employees. Ironically, our department would now become the most underperforming in the company in regard to profitability.
At the present time, this single event has immensely impacted my management style. I clearly recall lying awake at night contemplating what went wrong and what I could have done differently. The decisions I made to achieve greater profitability (150% gross margin) for the division and my personal commission bonus were not in the best interest of our customers. In the end, I was blinded by personal financial gain and greed. Today, I am still driven by profit, however, I am much more diligent in understanding all aspects of great customer partnerships. In like manner, the value I personally