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Hatfields and McCoys; Shippers and Carriers - You Know How This Ends

By Art van Bodegraven | 05/31/2012 | 8:06 AM

The History Channel is currently airing a fact-based mini-series about the definitive family feud in American history. We are frequently reminded that "fact-based" and "factual" are not quite the same thing. The stars are Kevin Costner, who couldn't act his way out of a jaywalking ticket, and is happy to have the paying gig, and Bill Paxton, who is a very fine actor, and is happy to be completely disguised by a beard and slouch hat.

Sadly, the epic unveils some stereotypical attributes of the population along the Kentucky/West Virginia border, principally a proclivity to marry cousins and a recurring chromosomal deficiency that could limit impulse control and the capacity to imagine the consequences of actions.

The more popular of leisure time activities among the natives, Hatfields and McCoys being among the most notable, appear to be spitting the effluent of chaw terbacky and shooting at one another. In neither is accuracy attained with any regularity.

The mayhem and lawsuits, interrupted by the occasional intermarriage (or worse, failure to intermarry), continued for decades following the War Between The States. Peace was not an option as long as Devil Anse and Ol' Ran'l lived, or were fresh in memory. The ferocity of the struggle made the Montagues and Capulets of Verona (no, not Verona, Kentucky) look like amateurs auditioning for the school play.

Who won? No one. A case might be made that the Hatfields lost less than the McCoys, who ended up with a noticably higher body count, but that hardly constiututes victory.

But, in later generations, wounds were healed, intermarriage may have picked up a little steam, and reconciliation was acheived. Annual reunions were arranged, and the two families collaborated on the establishment of parks and trails to commemorate the bloody events of the monumental, if small-scale, war. Representatives of each even appeared together on TV's Family Feud. (The Hatfields won, but not by much.)

So, the next time you get together with old adversaries to negotiate volumes, performance measures, rates and discounts, with thoughts of getting even for what happened three years ago, or of recovering lost profits from the past, or putting your boot on the neck of a weakened supply chain partner, you have choices.

You can throw back another glass of a whiskey of questionable provenance, wipe the spittle off your beard, draw your pistol, and press your point in dramatic ways.

Or, you can bring a covered dish to the reunion picnic, clasp hands, and come to a reasoned agreement, confident in a symbiotic relationship that has a past, to be sure, but also has a long and bright future.

It would not seem to be a difficult choice, but we still have too many players in our supply chain universe who are playing the dangerous game of Hatfields vs. McCoys instead of adopting the more sustainable strategy of Hatfields and McCoys.

 

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About Art van Bodegraven

Art van Bodegraven

Art van Bodegraven (1939 - 2017) was Managing Principal of the van Bodegraven Associates consultancy and Founding Principal of Discovery Executive Services, which develops and delivers supply chain educational programs. He was formerly Chair of the Supply Chain Group AG, Partner at The Progress Group LLC, Development Executive at CSCMP, Practice Leader with S4 Consulting, and a Managing Director in Coopers & Lybrand's consulting practice. Concentrating in supply chain management and logistics for over 20 years in his 50+ year business career, he has led ground-breaking strategic, operational, and educational projects for leading US and global clients. Art was principal co-author of DC Velocity's Basic Training monthly column for a decade, and was the principal co-author, with Ken Ackerman, of Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management, the definitive primer in the field. His popular blog, The Art of Art, has been a staple of DC Velocity's web site since its inception.



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