Source of article 2's Company - Magnus Insights.

A series of recent experiences pertaining to a case on which we were ramping up made me consider the timeline of jury consulting. In the world of business, and especially manufacturing, there is a concept of just in time production. With just in time production, the raw materials for a “thing” arrive at the production facility only when they are needed. Things, often generically called “widgets,” are then assembled with the ingredients which have arrived on time. In the last several years, throughout the economic changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much discussion about supply chain disruptions. This means the parts, computer chips, for example, did not arrive in time for the widget to be assembled. This has created havoc in many industries, including industries where many of us do not ever consider what ingredients go into a product. For example, most of us have no concept of the number of computer chips required to build a car. Yet, we know when car lots are empty because of these supply chain disruptions. I’ve thought Magnus was not impacted by just in time and supply chain issues. But, as recent events reminded me, we are. We do have critical inputs. We have to have participants for our mock juries. Our recruiter finds people to participate, and it is a challenging job. But, “mock jurors” are an input. Research facility availability is another; we spend considerable time finding a venue specific facility and spec’ing out the plans and contracts. But, the key input component is, for us, money. Without money, we cannot book a facility and we cannot recruit the participants. The recent event that triggered this post was a delay in being paid our initial retainer. This is, for us, often a challenge. But, this time it was more challenging than ever as we approached a drop dead date to begin the jury recruit. Recruiting takes time and cannot start until we have money to pay for it. As our clients debated about who was to pay us, the clock was running, and running out. I don’t want to seem like a mercenary, but money makes things tick in our world. “Show me the money” is what is required to get things going. In this instance, we were not seeing the money. It is that thought that made me realize we provide services on a just in time basis – based on the input of money. This one came down to the finish line – and many tasks were rushed as a result. The good news is, we got there!