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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - NOVEMBER 2013
can marry these two aspect together
and create products we can bring back
into the North American marketplace,
we might be able to deliver something
desirable.’
So I started GCP one step at a
time. As we got going, companies
liked our approach so we began get-
ting asked what else, beyond sheet
rubber, could we do? In the end our
customers had a great deal to do with
the direction GCP took as we respond-
ed to their needs and our growing ca-
pabilities.
How have markets changed for
GCP over the years?
Nathan Pike (NP):
At the begin-
ning low prices drove interest, but
interest didn’t translate into sales. For
some of our products, we were 30 per
cent below the market. The pitch was
‘
we know what you’re buying, we can
save you 30 per cent, and the quality
will be okay.’
At the time it seemed like a solid
argument. However, I had more hang
ups in one summer of cold calling than
I’ve had since. We quickly realized the
full risk caused by the ‘cost of poor
quality,’ which included not only the
hard cost of the product, but the softer
costs such as management time to
deal with quality issues – the potential
damage to our customers’ reputations
was greater than the 30% savings we
were offering.
It was clear we had to change to
stay relevant to our customers. Origi-
nally, the market wanted low cost
sourcing for pennies on the dollar.
However, when buyers realized price
was directly related to quality the mar-
ket demand began to change: people
wanted world-class quality. So our
mandate shifted
as well and we
developed a pro-
gram called the
Risk-Free Sourc-
ing SolutionTM
(
RFSS).
The RFSS
was designed
to mitigate risk
throughout the supply chain, build-
ing confidence by consistently offering
large volume shipments (averaging
40,000
pounds) that are risk-free for
our customer, risk free for GCP, and
risk-free for our vendors locally and
globally.
GM:
The competitive landscape
at the time the company started was
tough. Consis-
tently dealing
with poor qual-
ity perception
of Chinese-
made goods
was a challenge.
Through media
reports, hor-
ror stories from
other indus-
trial companies, and our own growing
pains, a lack of trust was evident with-
in the industry.
For us, the turning point came
in 2007 when there were major Chi-
“
We listen to our customers. We
also look at the strengths of our
suppliers and customers and ask
ourselves: how can we fill in the
gaps in order to better the whole
business?”
GCP
