In my anecdotal experience, big companies are far less likely to behave fraudulently than small, local companies.
In my anecdotal experience, big companies are far more likely to have figured out how to walk barely on the legal side of the line. It may not be fraud per se, but it doesn't feel different on the receiving end.
Here is an example that I saw while working as a consultant at Bristol Myers Squibb. They had perfected the art of paying a lot of their bills at the last possible moment. And were happy to accept penalties to delay it more. With the explicit hope that suppliers would go broke and out of business before successfully collecting, and then they wouldn't have to pay at all.
I was horrified, and the accountant who told me about it was describing how terrible it was to be taking calls from people whose life's work was going under, and be unable to pay them what they were owed because corporate policy was clear.
And none of it was actually fraud. They were very careful to stay just within what the contract allowed.
This is a big reason why Walmart can get lower prices than other companies.
My family used to be in food processing. Walmart was one of the only grocers to pay their bills on time. We made next to nothing on the Walmart orders but we could count on the cash arriving when they said it would.
Everyone else, they would pay late or need to be endlessly reminded.
If the company you owe money to goes bankrupt that doesn’t absolve you from paying your bills.
If you’re a big supplier for BMS I assume your a critical part of their business, so why would BMS want you to go under?
If you’re a small supplier you wouldn’t even get on the radar of BMS leadership. Paying a small supplier a few million is a blip on BMS balance sheets.
Yes, big corps manage cash flow very tightly, will force unfavorable payment terms on suppliers, but using that as a strategy to bankrupt them? I doubt it. If anything big companies like BMS are risk adverse as hell.
In my anecdotal experience, big companies are far more likely to have figured out how to walk barely on the legal side of the line. It may not be fraud per se, but it doesn't feel different on the receiving end.
Here is an example that I saw while working as a consultant at Bristol Myers Squibb. They had perfected the art of paying a lot of their bills at the last possible moment. And were happy to accept penalties to delay it more. With the explicit hope that suppliers would go broke and out of business before successfully collecting, and then they wouldn't have to pay at all.
I was horrified, and the accountant who told me about it was describing how terrible it was to be taking calls from people whose life's work was going under, and be unable to pay them what they were owed because corporate policy was clear.
And none of it was actually fraud. They were very careful to stay just within what the contract allowed.