By Russell Ethridge
My company submitted a proposal for rigging services as part of an engineering firm’s bid to layout and install machinery at a customer’s manufacturing plant. The job will be profitable, and we work frequently with this engineering firm. Since submitting our proposal, I received a call from the manufacturing customer wanting to know if we would work directly with them and split the savings they would realize by cutting out the engineering firm’s markup. If we say yes, we’ll do better on the deal, but at minimum, the engineering firm will lose their margin on our work and may be cut out of the deal entirely. If we say no, neither of us may get the work. No one’s signed anything yet.
You are justifiably concerned about violating the time honored loyalty rule that “you dance with the one that brung ya.” If you agree upfront not to bid directly or not to bid as part of some other engineering firm’s proposal, the ethical dilemma is answered by the agreement because your agreement identifies the scope of your loyalty and was made in the absence of any actual opportunity. Here, however, you must make the decision under the pressure of real temptation.
