My friend started a new job as a Vice President of Marketing for a non-profit organization. They had used the same printer (for business cards and the like) forever and loved him, so they didn’t change vendors when [Friend] started. At some point, they stopped getting competing quotes.
About six months in, [Friend] got more business cards for herself and noticed that they didn’t all lay even in the box. She took out the cards and saw a business card from a different printer at the bottom of the box. She called me to see what I thought was going on.
Me: “It sounds like they’re sneaking a message out, that your ‘printer’ isn’t actually doing the work.”
I did a search for her.
Me: “[Printer]’s press actually went out of business years ago, apparently. He’s working as a representative for other printers using his old business name.”
Who thinks to ask if a printer still has presses?
She called the name on the card from the bottom of the box, and she reached the guy who ran the prepress. He told her to not say anything to his bosses, but he couldn’t take it any longer. He knew she worked for a nonprofit and [Printer] was marking everything up. Though he was getting a discount as a rep, this guy thought [Printer] was marking things much higher. I think it was around 30%.
Anyway, [Friend] now had this information and wasn’t sure how to approach it since [Printer] was loved around the office. He sent flowers on birthdays, was invited to the holiday parties, etc. So, without saying anything, she got competitive quotes for another project. [Printer] was about 20% higher. She got quotes on some smaller run postcards, posters, and brochures that they were doing. All of [Printer]’s quotes were about 20% higher.
At an executive meeting, [Friend] asked a question.
Friend: “If I can save on purchases, do I need approval to change vendors?”
CEO: “Go for it.”
S*** hit the fan big time when [CEO] found out it was [Printer]. It got surprisingly ugly. [Friend] managed to get everyone back together to talk about it, and the only one upset was [CEO]. He let it go, but he was seething.
CEO: “This decision is disrespectful to a long-term vendor like [Printer]. I would never have approved it If I’d thought for a second that he was who you were talking about.”
[Friend] has no proof, but she thinks [CEO] was getting a kickback from [Printer]. Looking back, she realizes [CEO] was the one who told her to use the guy, no questions asked. He was the one who’d invited him to company events.
In the end, a prepress manager saved them 20% a year just on printing. [Friend] started sending everything out for competitive quotes and saved at every turn.
She only lasted a few years there. She turned around the department and saved them a ton of money, but [CEO] never forgave her. One day, she showed up to work and met a new employee in marketing that she knew nothing about. [CEO] introduces her as [Friend]’s eventual replacement. It was so awkward, and [Friend] was pissed.
[Friend] sent [CEO] an email asking what was going on and whether she’d done something wrong. He replied — I kid you not — that he felt she’d gotten too old for the job.
She took the email to her lawyer. [CEO] tried to play it off as if he had been joking, but it didn’t work. Her lawyer negotiated a two-year severance package.
The joke’s on them; she had already taken a job with another company. If he had waited until that Friday, she would have given her notice.