Pirates Stole Our Metric System
Contract Disputes Can Hinder Relationships! Can You Prevent Issues From Happening? Having a great relationship with your suppliers is crucial. Unfortunately, these connections can start to fall apart when one or more parties fail to comply with contract obligations. Dealing with contract disputes can delay some processes, lead to late payments, and more. How can you avoid these contract disputes? MAKE YOUR DEMANDS AND NEGOTIATIONS FAIR. Creating clear and fair principles and expectations in your contract is critical, but sometimes, contracts can include unrealistic demands. To mitigate this issue, negotiate a contract that benefits both parties. You want your agreement to protect your business if your supplier cannot meet their obligations. Your contract should include clauses pertaining to pricing, volume, payment, duration, quality, recalls, and the process of resolving disputes. Keep a copy of your contract in a safe place in case you need to review it later if an issue does arise. UNDERSTAND YOUR SUPPLIERS’ OBJECTIVES. While it’s essential to enter a negotiation with an idea of what you want to achieve and deliver, you also want to understand your supplier’s interests — they may differ from yours. Before signing the dotted line, ensure you know your supplier’s desired outcomes and how you can reach an agreement that creates a win-win deal for both parties. KEEP NOTE OF ALL FORMS OF COMMUNICATION. If a dispute occurs, it’s imperative that you have records of correspondence between you and your suppliers. Keep note of all emails, calls, and texts along with the days and times these correspondences occurred and what the discussion entailed. By doing this, you will have a record you can use that helps support the intention behind both parties.
WHY AMERICA NEVER CHANGED TO KILOS AND GRAMS
Pirates, that’s right, pirates stopped America from changing to the metric system. While they can’t take all the blame, they steal a good chunk of it. There was a specific time in history when America did consider taking up the metric system. But pirates intercepted the standards, and America has refused to change its measuring system ever since. Way back when America was still a new country, there was no regulated measuring system throughout the states. Each territory was using some bizarre system that stayed only within state lines. For example, people were using Roman measurements, Dutch systems, and British systems dating back to King Henry VII. In 1789, Thomas Jefferson decided that some order needed to be in place. A lover of all things French, Jefferson admired the metric system’s logic and principle. He asked the French to help the U.S. transition to the metric system, and they were kind enough to send scientist Joseph Dombey. Dombey boarded a ship and set sail for America with two items pivotal to our measuring system change. The first gadget was a copper cylinder 3 inches in height and width, weighing precisely 1 kilogram. The second was another copper object, a rod estimated to be a meter in length. These simple trinkets would have eased us into the metric system. Except, we never received them. In fact, Dombey never set foot in America. Unfortunately, storm winds blew his ship off course and into the pirate-filled Caribbean. The pirates hijacked his boat and held him captive, hoping to use him for ransom. In a tragic turn of events, Dombey died in that pirate
prison before any ransom money could be sent. The pirates then
MONITOR PROGRESS AND WORK COLLABORATIVELY WITH SUPPLIERS.
Some instances occur when businesses fail to monitor their supplier’s obligations and notify them if the contract was breached. If this pattern continues, you may have difficulty accomplishing tasks or goals, which hinders your relationship with your supplier. Appoint someone familiar with the contract and regularly check to ensure all parties follow it. You can then work with your supplier to resolve any issues or renegotiate the terms within the agreement. If you need assistance creating a contract, require advice on how to resolve a contract dispute, or are seeking professional help, allow Reardon Anderson to assist you! We will be happy to review your situation and help you develop strategies that will benefit your business and supplier.
auctioned off everything Dombey had on his boat, metric measuring tools included.
So, you can thank the pirates for all the
painstaking work we have to go through when using metric- based recipes. Why Americans never swapped systems after 1789 is still a mystery!
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