Interesting parallels between The Five Stages of Grief and the path our industry has taken when approaching the topic of product safety and compliance.
Brent Stone
The message is clear: Fortune 1000 companies are fully aware of the need to protect their brands, and as such, they expect their distributor partners to deliver safe and compliant products.
Is product safety and compliance a trend? Or is it here to stay? The answer depends on whom you ask.
When selecting a supplier for an order, there are many factors that should go into your decision. If you stop at who gives the biggest rebate or has the shiniest new products, you are taking on more risk than you might imagine.
The risk of blind trust and suppliers spreading themselves too thin.
How to build product safety into orders of $500 and under.
While programs like WRAP and FLA have merit, they just address one area of compliance—and they may not transfer through to your organization.
I was recently asked this question by an industry-leading distributor. He regularly has to field compliance inquiries from his customers and is frustrated by the wide range of responses he gets from suppliers.
The best solutions to complex problems have always been found through a collaborative effort. And this is true in our industry; it truly takes a village to successfully deliver product safety and compliance.
Our industry seems to be struggling with the question of whether or not to commit time, effort and money to developing compliance programs. It's an oversimplification, but you can group our industry into five basic categories on this topic.
Requesting product safety testing results from the factory about the specific item it is making for you is a natural first step. Seems easy enough, right?
Like success and life, product safety and compliance programs are about the journey rather than the destination.
To say 2011 was an interesting year for business would be an understatement.
I often get asked which product categories are at the highest risk for causing harm to people and damage to an end-user's brand. My regular answer applies a reasonable amount of common sense.
Promotional products have been making headlines lately. Unfortunately, it's not in a way we want.
