Cling to Your Suki in the Marketplace
Seidman
It’s becoming more and more clear that trusting relationships drive successful businesses — whether you’re a CEO for a large company … or a suki. What is a “suki,” you might be asking? The Inquirer, a newspaper in the Philippines, defined it in a recent story as a favored local market vendor who sees to his or her customers’ needs through thick and thin. And sukis know that customers trust them so deeply that they rely on their advice in good times and bad.
When panic-buying gripped the outdoor markets in Baguio City, in the northwest of the country, as a fierce storm was approaching, customers raced to their sukis to figure out what they needed to buy to endure the coming wind, rains and flooding. It’s a good thing, too: The storm quickly made roads to and from the city impassable, and those stranded emptied the shelves of local stores. But the customers who listened to their trusted vendors came out just fine, says the story:
Savvy housewives were told exactly what was going on by their sukis, “so they bought what they needed and survived the calamity,” said Victor Calimlim, a market vendor himself.
Sukis are not just reassuring to the people they do business with; their honesty and concern for their customers’ well-being propels and strengthens their relationships with them.
And it’s not just the trust between vendor and customer that is at work here, as research cited in the story from University of the Philippines Baguio indicates. The long chain of suppliers and business owners in the country also rely on goodwill to operate each and every day. It’s literally a chain of trusting relationships that starts with the many suppliers and ends with the customer at the vendor’s store. Said one of the professors doing the research: “Trust in the Filipino business environment revolves around the other’s trustworthiness or perceived trustworthiness.”
That means that when businesses are handed down from family member to family member that the new owners “inherit” the same suppliers due to the trust previously demonstrated by fathers, mother, aunts and uncles. Also, trust binds together suppliers and business owners in everything from the delivery of products to payment — both parties are said to be maintaining “a state of favorable expectation toward the actions and intentions of others,” says the story.
While the suki is a social phenomenon unique to Filipinos, there is a larger story here for the rest of us: Good business, globally, is the outcome and upshot of connections based on values and principles.
Trust is the lubricant that keeps businesses large and small humming along on a daily basis. When we truly connect with others, we rely on each other, and the trust that follows allows us to function and thrive in an uncertain world.
Our perceived expectations of others typically affect our thoughts about current and future experiences. So if you believe that people are generally good and trustworthy, people sense that about you and make quick judgments about your trustworthiness — and they then return that trust more easily. That’s why people who feel trusted are less likely to betray that trust. Business leaders who trust each other feel confident that the other party will do his or her part. Trust leads to more trust, and it sets off an upward spiral of cooperative, value-creating behaviors. And the most-trusted companies are also the most profitable.
Essentially, it’s doing what comes naturally — it’s self-perpetuating behavior. And that works whether you’re a global CEO or a suki in Baguio City.
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June 18th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Dear Mr. Seidman -
Thank you very much for including this article about “suki” and the importance of trust, not just in the world of business but in human life itself. I am from the Philippines and quickly felt what it means to have someone you can truly trust when economic times go rough. Economy in the Philippines is not complex and yet solid relationships are built between vendors and buyers, trust is built like bridges between store owners and yes, “sukis”. People are more important than money. Money is nothing without the people who truly care,
I really love your article. Blessings and Peace to you.