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Michigan Business Done Right - Gifts?By JGillman, Section News
About a week ago I finished the Christmas cards and rushed down to the post office where I waited in line just to buy the stamps for them. Aside from that, I had a number of vendors, dealers, and customers who each got a special gift (box of Doug Murdicks Fudge) this year. A small way of saying thanks for believing in our product and services we attempt to provide. And even though the gifts we send are of a nominal value, I know they are appreciated, as usually the office workers at a couple of recipient locations will call and thank us personally. Now that I think about it, that may say more about the Fudge maker's skills than our Christmas spirit.
In the end however, we appreciate the continued feedback from those we deal with all year long, and simply want to show them our appreciation for their continued patronage, and let them know we won't forget them.
 Businesses have been doing this kind of thing for ages. Rewarding loyalty is in fact a key concept of retaining market share in the most competitive environments. Movie rental shops will have punch cards, and some grocery stores will have a club card that gives a discount, and soda or cigarette manufacturers will have you saving bottle caps or peeling UPCs. In fact, most of you who read this likely have a credit card that has a "cash back" feature, or some time of reward for using it frequently. A degree in rocket science is hardly needed to understand why. Rewards for loyalty work great in business. And rewards for loyalty sometimes work even better in government.
But then.. sometimes not so well.
As you know the Mackinac Center has been tracking the MEDC influence on business in Michigan, and in a sense keeping score on the efforts made by those who pick winners from that central government "front" organization. Targeted tax breaks for some companies to come to Michigan, full blown credits for some who move from one location in Michigan to another, the list too large to populate here.
One they have tracked is American Greetings, the card maker. It is the product of over $400,000 in subsidies for training, Millions in breaks, and held great promise (in fact MADE great promises) to produce over 200 long term jobs. Today's Mackinac Sphere has a link to the American Greetings story, and The Mackinac Center's Mike LaFaive reporting that the company must not have received enough of taxpayer dollars:
Lafaive contends there is little if any positive impact to the MEDC programs that reward business for settling in Michigan based on real data collected and analyzed. I would go beyond even this reporting aspect and suggest that there lays an element of corruption that drives these deals in the first place, given the recent revelation with the SEIU receiving nearly $2 million in taxpayer MEGA money to locate more union personnel in Michigan. I wonder how well that "gift" will be appreciated during the next (holiday) election cycle? Funny how some actions are OK when done by the right group or organization.
 I have a few government based contracts, and I am a supplier to a few of those companies which are heavily into providing the federal government services, etc.. Each year I receive from those companies a request to refrain from sending gifts to the employees who utilize my services. This ensures there is no quid pro quo in the procurement process. I suppose the lobbyists for those firms presume the same level of expected conduct when dealing with our legislators? Maybe.. Appreciation is a human desire to be sure. Reward for efforts made on behalf of or directly for a person often demonstrates that appreciation. Sometimes however, it may not be appropriate, and when the reward is derived from a third party source involuntarily, it is not a gift, but merely theft.
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