How Do You Respond to a Bully?

Last year American icon Anheuser-Busch was assimilated into Belgium-based beer borg, InBev.

According to recent stories in Ad Age and elsewhere, it appears the Clydesdales are preparing to run roughshod over their media and advertising services vendors.

I know of at least a few associates in media who are likely to take a pass on becoming de facto lenders to corporate bullies, and will simply sell their available inventory to other advertisers.

Did you read Aesop when you were a kid? Remember this story...?

The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveler coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveler to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger You begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveler. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveler wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveler, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.
“KINDNESS EFFECTS MORE THAN SEVERITY.”

Or better still, the words of Jesus that many of us learned to call The Golden Rule, paraphrased thus: Do Unto Others as You Would Have Others Do Unto You.

Now, there's another so-called "golden rule" that a sales trainer of my acquaintance once coined to frame relationships in a free market economy. In his Okie vernacular, he said, "Them that's got the gold makes the rules."

That's true, too. But it cuts both ways.

So, let's say you're a media company or advertising services provider.

You want to be a bank, also? Fine, that's your choice.

Are you going to treat your other accounts with the same courtesy?

Or are you going to discriminate on the basis of a double standard, i.e., those who can intimidate and bully you into submission will get more favorable terms?

Personally, I don't like bullies. Never have.

I don't have to drink their beer. I don't have to buy their cars.

And I certainly don't need their business badly enough that I'm willing to agree to wait four to six months (or more) to be paid for services I render in good faith, in a timely and conscientious manner.

But that's just me. What's your take?