Idea 458 of 500. Cluster 24: Proof and trust, as a business
Supplier-audit services that a foreign buyer can commission before the first order
The mechanism, from the book
The one thing. A country where people do not expect the rules to hold cannot build anything else, and proof can be manufactured by private people, one published record at a time.
Every idea in cluster 24 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Write to three buyers abroad who import what the island makes, such as spices, garments or tea, and ask what they check before a first order and what a bad supplier has cost them. Offer to visit one supplier on their behalf, photograph the site, check the licences and the capacity, and send a dated report. The proof is a buyer who commissions and pays for that first audit.
- Who pays first
- A foreign buyer weighing a new Sri Lankan supplier, who pays for an audit because it costs less than one failed shipment.
- What leaves today
- Foreign buyers pay less, or buy elsewhere, when they cannot check a supplier; an audit is the proof that lets an honest supplier win the order.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. SixThe Fridge by the Road
The fridge by the road: proof that the rules hold - Ch. FifteenThe Odds
13 of 101 countries made it, and what Singapore's prosecution cost
More from cluster 24
- 451A verified-review platform for Sri Lankan businesses where the reviewer is real and the review cannot be bought
- 452Escrow services for transactions between strangers, so that the money moves when the goods do
- 453Published price lists at the tourist sites and in the taxis, with a complaints line that answers
- 454A landlord and tenant rating service, since neither can currently check the other
- 455Contractor registries with completed jobs photographed and clients named
- 456Independent building inspection, so that a buyer abroad knows what was actually built
Idea 458 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.