One Word to Ban, Banish, Bury

In business, there's this one word (and its associated "sentiment") - that just gets under my skin.  But more than just bothering me, this word is bad for business.

It's singlehandedly making a mess and a mockery of our ability to conduct business in a more meaningful, collaborative, impactful way.

Given the socio-economics of today - any word and it's associated thinking that causes strife, conflict and a major league hiccup in our giddy-up to help us grow, prosper and thrive - is a word that has no place in our lexicon, mindset or society at large.

Nope.

Sure,  there's lots of mean/nasty/ugly everyday words that have no place on this earth, let alone rhyme or reason to use them unless you yourself are mean/nasty/ugly: you know 'em (both the words and the people) when you see 'em.

Yep.

But in business - this mean/nasty/ugly word, and the people that use it - are much more discreet.  They hide in plain site; mostly undetected, while stalking silently in the light of day, preying on both the users and the receivers of this word.  And while the word screams ignorance, injustice and inappropriate interpretations - the word and the user of the word more often than not, don't understand just how nefarious this term is.

Then again - those that do, and deliberately promote and enforce this word and all that it's dark side stand for - are the bigger part of the problem.

Just saying.  

Well - its time for this madness to stop.  Its time to ban, banish and bury this word, along with all of its subset spellings - once and for all.  It's time to move on from having this word misappropriately control, command and domineer.  It's time to bring this insanity to an unceremonious demise.  It's  time.  

And that word is ... drum roll please ... vendor (yuck! I hate even having to write it; so excuse me while I go wash my hands).  In business, especially in a business-to-business (B2B) scenario - the word vendor represents an us-versus-you, cost-only-matters, beat-em-up, commodity-based, non-value-add, can't-be-trusted, we-think-you're-lower-than-whale-poop, way of thinking.  

Vendor is bad for business, on a whole host of levels.  

And it's not just bad for those companies that get treated like "vendors" - its worse for those that choose to engage in a "vendor" thinking.  While they may believe the reason for treating vendors like lowly vendors is based on economics (after all, one can only hope its not based on just wanting to act like a jerk) - if they really did the math, especially when you drill down to an actual cost-benefits or activity-based costing standpoint - they will see the errors in their ways, and flaws in their thinking.  At the end of the day, low-bid-wins/vendors-lose math doesn't work out.  

So if vendor is so bad, what words should we use?  

Well, if you do it right, the word partner.  Moreover, the goals and sentiment behind partnership.  But if that win/win, do-it-together, mutual-respect-and-appreciation-based partnership vibe is too much to ask (but I'll never understand why) - than go with supplier, provider or any other non-vendor label.  Because unlike a rose, a vendor by any other name, does smell sweeter.      

The Word Vendor (and vendorship thinking) is Bad.

The Word Partner (and partnership thinking) is Good.