Starter Kit. Idea 458 of 500. Cluster 24
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers abroad have asked for help checking suppliers before ordering.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which product standards a buyer is most likely to ask a supplier to meet.
Check before you spend
Confirm the buyer's checklist in writing before each visit, the supplier's consent to be audited, and that your report says only what you saw.
Find out these three numbers
- What has a bad supplier cost a buyer abroad?
- What would a buyer pay for one supplier visit and report?
- How long does one fair supplier check take?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lankan apparel. Chapter Four
"become the most reliable partner, and then spent 30 years becoming it"
Buyers pay for reliability they can see. An honest audit lets a good supplier prove it.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.