Grafton offers Business Tested Ideas for Improvement
During the course of running a business, managers, and entrepreneurs are frequently challenged to enter into win-win contracts to both buy and sell their products and services. Over the course of my business life I have found that “a good deal with the wrong person is not a good deal at allâ€. I have also found that a purchase order with a person or company that does not have the means to pay for the goods is not an order that should be accepted.
The difficulty that the Evansville Redevelopment Commission has encountered in securing a hotel developer that meets the same criteria that my businesses required in our contracts is rooted in the failure to do the up-front work that it takes to establish the basis for a business relationship. The word “vetting” has become the buzzword of the summer in Evansville simply because it has not been done.
Sufficient time is required to make a significant acquisition of capital equipment. This particular RFP was selectively published with a 2 week timeframe to respond. That is not sufficient to arouse the interest of enough potential developers. The other mistake was made by defining the incentive package that the City of Evansville was offering instead of letting the developers craft responses that will work financially for them. As a result there were no positive surprises and the two expected proposals showed up as expected. In a way the short time frame and the limited exposure vetted every potential developer in the entire country right out of the process. Now we only have two choices for a very significant project.
To complicate things we now have elected officials literally begging appointed officials to let them assist with the vetting process. Simple vetting like checking of credit, asking for and confirming trade references are common actions taken in running a business. We do this at my business and the ERC should have at least done the easy part.
There should be elected officials involved in the decision and the process. As a member of the Evansville City Council, I pledge to promote processes that are isolated from politics and to demand transparency when public money is committed. The people of Evansville have earned and deserve the courtesy of good public policy and transparent governance.
Mr. Grafton, I believe your opponent (Mr. Friend) has already beat you to the punch in a big way on the essential requirement for kicking the bricks & shaking the tree before signing contracts. That having been said, liked your last paragraph. I would replace the word ‘courtesy’ with the word ‘duty’.
I would replace the word “earned” with PAID FOR!
Good Luck Mr. Grafton,
your opponent has apparently taken off the the leash the King held for the last four years, as he trys to distance himself from an unpopular Mayor , but his record seems contary to his campaign mode. For me it’s too late, I expected him to show some independance from the King starting four years ago.
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