In the wake of so much news that is frown-making, I thought I'd share a story that warmed the cockles of my heart when I heard it, and made me think "it ain't all bad".

I was chatting to the boss of Printing Company A, an SME print business that had been printing for AN Large Corporate organisation for a number of years. This was a sizeable chunk of work to him, but a relatively small amount of work in the scheme of the corporate's overall print spend, the remainder of which was handled by the much larger Company B.

The inevitable day came when the client decided it made much more sense to let Company B handle the lot. My man at Company A resigned himself to the loss of a major blue-chip account.

Then came a pleasant surprise. Company B called him in for a chat, being appreciative of what a good job the company had done for their mutual client. They were also acutely aware that they had created a potentially problematic hole in his schedules, and came up with a proposal whereby he would continue to print for them, not only for the mutual client but for other clients of the bigger group too.

Result: my man lost a contract but ended up with more work, about which he is extremely happy. Company B added an excellent supplier to their own roster. I might add that both companies are family-owned, and profitable.

The moral of the story being, it is possible to be moral, ethical and successful in business.