Don's trade show experience is a colossal controversy

Our International construction equipment company was preparing for the big trade show in Chicago. We manufactured earth-moving equipment. Our vehicles were just gigantic. To show everything off, we had to ship our cranes and tractors in three railroad cars to the railroad yard in Chicago. From there, the equipment would be moved over to the show floor where visitors could look in amazement at our products. Some of the tires were so large that your head wouldn't reach the bottom of the wheel.

There was one small problem, but it had existed for many years. We were not a union organization.

The railroad cars disappeared.

Our sales team was in complete panic. What were we going to do with a huge booth of... carpet? Someone contacted our ad agency and giant mock-ups of the cranes and tractors were thrown together out of cardboard. They arrived just before the show opened.

The cardboard replicas were actually noticed better than the real thing. But we were still missing millions of dollars of equipment. Somehow the strong unions in Chicago had decided to sabotage our non-union appearance. They did a great job of it. In fact, our equipment was finally 'found' in the railroad yards - six months after the show ended. We learned to send a human escort to accompany our machines.

POSTMORTEM: Isn't life funny at times? Dealing with 'enemies' is an essential piece of the success puzzle. Don't hide from potential danger. Flush it out and confront it. I recently bought a car and had seven days to return it. I did - on the evening of the seventh day. The sales manager was upset, until I asked him why nobody had called me during that time to see how things were going. The salesman had chosen to hide and hope that the sale would finish closing. So call the head of the local union and ask that he see that nothing embarrassing happens to his reputation or your equipment. Be proactive as reactive people are always scrambling to fix things - often too late to save the sale.-Editor