BUSINESS BASICS NUMBER 12

Duda Owner IONOS • March 9, 2016

Source your raw material carefully. That is a business basic that will save you a lot of time and money down the road. What is true with computers remains true with the more mundane matters: Garbage in, garbage out. Your final product or service output will never exceed the quality of your raw material. Your raw material will either enable it or hinder it, it will help it or hurt it.

I have seen business owners skimp on the quality of their raw material. This tactic allows for less expense initially, but with greater cost eventually. What appears to be a money-saving wise decision turns out to be preparation for a nightmare. Many businesses have failed their customers and their stakeholders by glossing over the quality of their raw material.

Just as this is true with the physical raw material, it is equally true with the human capital raw material. Some companies continuously hire from the bottom of the barrel and then they wonder why their company quality doesn’t rank higher.

Source your raw material carefully, both physical and people. You won’t regret it, and better yet, your customers won’t either.


By James Meadows July 13, 2026
What every front desk professional should know about credit card surcharging
By James Meadows September 7, 2025
Is a college degree still worth the investment? It depends of the path you craft.
By James Meadows August 12, 2025
You need to give serious thought to taming the tiger before you are in its cage.
By James Meadows June 8, 2025
My transparent reflection about my five-year post-layoff experience, how I navigated it, learned through it, and identified some wisdom that might inspire others.
By James Meadows June 29, 2024
The earliest days of this series present fundamentally significant leadership content.
By James Meadows August 22, 2023
What we should expect from fidelity to science.
Honesty, honest,  honestly
By James Meadows August 9, 2023
We explore the overuse or inappropriate use of the words "honest," "honesty," and "honestly." Much of the overuse or inappropriate use of these words is in contexts that intrinsically message the audience that the speaker is not trustworthy. I call the overuse or inappropriate use of these words in this context HONESTY VALIDATORS because the speaker believes they validate the truth being spoken. We need a solution to this problem. My solution is to replace these honesty validators with CLARITY VALIDATORS. Instead of trying to be honest, try to be clear. Replacing "honest," "honesty," and "honestly," with "clear," "clarity," and "clearly," produces significantly more benefit to the speaker and to the audience.
By James Meadows August 7, 2023
It's the real thing alright!
By James Meadows May 30, 2023
Reflecting on 30 years as a PC user.
By James Meadows July 26, 2020
What the Boeing 737 Max crashes teach us about training, corporate culture, and communication.