Working Wednesday: How Many Companies Are In Your Distribution Chain?

Sometimes it is an advantage to be a small company. One of those advantages is face-to-face business dealings. You work directly with others. You shake hands, a bill of sale, a form of payment, and a receipt is handled between the two of you. Problems can be resolved without third parties. Trust had been established some time ago and a list of solutions is thorough with an end result satisfactory to both. Likewise, new ideas are just an e-mail or phone call away.

But what if you are part of a bigger chain? You have pieces and parts coming in the front door and finished products shipping out the back to another company as part of a much larger picture. You figured out a service that is unique but dependent upon others doing their jobs. What then?

Cardinal Health was fined for not reporting something suspicious about drug shipments to certain pharmacies. The pharmacies were becoming "pill mills".See: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/08/24/cardinal-facing-more-dea-scrutiny.html

Now I am definitely not an expert on drug manufacturing. That is way too complicated for me on many levels. But it appears Cardinal Health did not contact DEA as they should. They are a large corporation and should have had enough employees to have the expertise to know better. But again, I did not follow the lawsuit. I am only interested in this from a small business perspective.

Here is my point: Know your distribution chain. Know the whole chain not just your part. Be aware of ethics, laws, liabilities, and anything else that could put your business on the wrong side of the law. Get advice if you have to. Cardinal Health was not the pill mill, but they still got in trouble.

In this case, it sounds as if Cardinal Health was selling directly to the pharmacies, a one-on-one transaction. Normally, you would think this would give you some safe guards. But the drugs were quite potent, which got C.H. into trouble, and there were extra regulations with those drugs. So don't be fooled either. Even your "bff"s need to be checked out every once in awhile.

Alone in the Car: London Olympics Opening Ceremony

I love the Olympics! A time when the earth's geography takes a pause and respects all countries and their representatives equally. Whether they are male, female, tall, short, fast, methodical, strong, or whispy, they and their sport have a place in the sun for a few short days.

The athletes enter the stadium with smiles on their faces regardless what the official uniform looks like. (photo from http://addins.whig.com) They did not choose it but they are all glad to be here, waving to the crowd, perhaps responding to specific cheers. They want to do their best. They are all patriotic. Some know perhaps that they have an even higher responsibility to those who will be watching their performance back home.

Then who in the world do those who are hired by their media company, in this case NBC, feel they need to comment on strife, negative politics, how many are starving, etc. etc. ?? I have watched others do the same: ABC was terrible too. I sit down to watch a beautiful coming together of our countries and the "journalists" blow it every time. IF YOU CAN'T SAY SOMETHING NICE, BE QUIET!

I really don't want to hear you at all, except to explain who is carrying the flag, who is making their first appearance, and/or who holds the current record. That is logical and pertinent. I also like to know a simple "social studies" lesson about the unknown countries say how many people they have, their most popular sport, etc. Some countries wear their native dress and I find that interesting and want to know how to pronounce it or how it is made. BUT DON'T TELL ME ABOUT THEIR DICTATOR.

P.S. To NBC: I know you wanted to wait until the very last moment to show what you considered the most important competition of the day, even though we already knew the results. May I remind you:
1. showing other countries' competitions is not interesting as a filler. 2. I can record it and watch later. 3. There are so many sports, so many Americans competing, why not show them winning?

P.P.S. Costas has got to go. What does he have over you guys anyway, huh?