Not stationary
When you kick off a new business you end up with responsibilities for office services that you would rather do without. In the early days, due to my inability to say no to the rep I landed stationery. Those who I worked for at Shire Health International will know the hilarity of this – I have come full circle – I am sure next week will see me run out and put coins in metres for account directors!
In the less busy days of early last year I grabbed every order of paper, pens, and flipcharts as an indication that we were growing like mad. In the more recent days we all order from our desktops preventing me from any clear sign of growth. Alas I am only left with the P&L and feel from the office on our progress!
My paper guys of choice were Viking – always on time, always in stock, cheap as any and returns were near effortless. A valued if commoditised supplier, products that did what they did and communication that focused on stock lines and deals.
Then out of the blue came an email from Nigel, Viking’s Online Community Manager with an invite to climb aboard a platform on which all of their customers interact, discuss and share ideas on how they and the stationery industry as a whole can get better.
Like most I haven’t aired everything I have felt on stationery. Starting up has been a busy time and stationery although important is pretty low down the list (except when we run out of recycled laser paper during a pitch). Items on this website – span recommendations for ‘Start-up’ kits for new businesses, conference packages, more automatic ordering systems and alternative approaches to pricing.
Kicking these ideas into the business is a team of back office ‘Idealists’ whose job is to investigate the most popular ideas and report back on them on the site and I hope push them into the business.
For a supplier of commodities I thought this was at least a progressive move, a potential pragmatic source of innovation and at most a potential brilliant business driver. See what you think here.
