A Very Formal Visit: People & Companies

When a good customer requests a meeting at his place, I go.

That happened recently, when our shop’s account manager accompanied me on a 20-minute trek to a customer’s new corporate headquarters for a meeting to review our contract and extend it a few years. The customer happens to be a large corporation, and our shop has a contract to exclusively manufacture certain products.

While there, I made some interesting observations about the company and its culture, making it clear why I prefer the confines of a family business over a corporate gig. The comparison between work environments was striking.

Upon arrival at a new office park in a tranquil suburb, everything was impeccably clean and meticulously maintained. With three beautiful glass towers situated by a lake, the high quality of the place was evident.

We walked into the main entrance to discover an understandably elaborate check-in process. Check-in consisted of filling out a form, providing identification and getting bar-coded magnetic cards with our photos on them. No magnetic card, no entry.

The lobby was full of expensive furniture and large monitors. It was very business-focused; there were no casual conversations.

Next, our host, one of our main contacts, escorted us to the elevator and took us to the fifth floor. Along the way, he explained that at this palatial corporate headquarters, the protocol was very formal, so avoid speaking to others and stick with him. OK, sounds good to me. Us shop guys can behave professionally.