New David Peters blog on relationships in the hide trade
26/10/2016
His theme is the importance of personal relationships in the hide trade. He comments: “The hide and leather industry is a subjective business where experience, knowledge and understanding of cultural differences plays a critical role in product introduction, quality comprehension and transaction negotiations. Relationships between principals has been the cornerstone of this classic and historic industry and is an essential element that cannot be easily transferred or understood in a short period of time.”
The difficulty here, David Peters suggests, is that we have entered a period in which many of the people who have been main figures in these relationships for two decades have now begun to hand over to a new generation. Furthermore, this generational shift has coincided with a decrease in big-volume leather orders.
“When the market is firm and business is good all relationships work well,” our columnist says, “but in an atmosphere of uncertainty and a period when a fundamental shift in leather’s usage is occurring, perception and performance subtly change and the reaction is often counter-productive.”
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