Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat

About the Book

In 1987, Lou Pritchett, the vice president of sales at Procter & Gamble, had a radical idea. He phoned Sam Walton and invited the visionary chairman of Wal-Mart on a two-day canoe trip. There on the South Fork River in Arkansas, Lou made Sam and offer no profit-minded person could refuse: the chance to forge a partnership between the two colossal firms.

This now legendary trip marks the culmination of a lifetime devoted to building customer relationships. Sam wrote Lou, "Thank you for what you have personally done to bring our two companies together and develop a relationship that I think will be outstanding and beneficial to both of us for a long time to come. You are a real friend."

About the Author

Lou Pritchett?s Beliefs

Winning companies can create and sustain genuine love affairs with suppliers, customers, and employees.
The object of customer/supplier partnering is to form and maintain a mutually productive relationship in which the needs of both parties are met.
Leading companies make room for dreamers and poets because an idea is a thousand times more powerful than a fact.
Only when trust and cooperation replace doubt and confrontation can costs be reduced throughout the total system.
Top-performing companies choose first to understand, then to meet, and then to exceed customer expectations.