Right now,
you likely know of one supplier
suffering from the bad economy.
Often, another customer will take that opportunity
to scoop the weakened supplier up.
What to do?
You can’t afford to buy them out yourself
but
if you let them be bought out by another,
you’ve lost a valued partner
(one with insight into YOUR company)
and your competition has increased in strength.
Not a good scene.
One solution is
to help the supplier out as best you can.
Strengthen them so they can resist the takeover.
As Hiroshi Moriya outlines in
The 36 Secret Strategies Of The Martial Arts
“Should a small, weaker country
be sandwiched between your own country
and that of your enemy
and the enemy shows signs of military hostility
toward that small country,
then your own country must set out militarily
and come to its aid,
and later you can bring it
under your control.
If you make verbal promises
but do not follow through with aid,
you will be unable to gain their trust.”