Josh Kasteler

When it comes to compliance and product safety policies, many customers like to reinvent the wheel. If you are facing this kind of situation with one or more customers, creating solid policies and a dynamic supply chain is the best way to manage.

Picture it—it’s a Friday afternoon and your mind is already focused on the weekend. Suddenly you get an email from one of your biggest customers with the subject heading, “compliance questionnaire.” The attachment is an innocent-looking, three-page document that asks a number of questions about product safety, social compliance and regulations. No big deal, right? Actually, it is a big deal.

The promotions industry is a strange and complex place. Even though we serve the largest companies in the world, our industry’s foundation is built on small-business entrepreneurship. There is a lot of which to be proud. Our industry was one of the first to forge trading lines with Asia back in the 1980s, and we continually bring new innovations to advertising. Plus, the range of products we offer is vast with useful and memorable items from dish towels to electronics. When it comes to compliance, however, our industry has not been a trailblazer, and I think it’s safe to say that it took us some time to get on the bandwagon.