April 13th, 2008
What you don't know can really hurt your business
This fascimile chart shows how RockBlocks would enable a buyer to conmpare and evaluate various aspects of a product.
And here’s how RockBlocks intends to help the manufacturer and the retailer. Avoid the pain. A software company that was recently spun off, Boston-based RockBlocks is offering a software solution to the complex problems of tracking merchandise, from raw material to sale.
RockBlocks’ CEO, David Diamond, spent time with me on the phone. He talked wisely about all the information that businesses need to maintain quality control on products they buy in a global market. Diamond’s company is offering a one-stop solution to the myriad problems that can plague a retailer today.
Was child labor used in making this t-shirt? Was the wood in this cabinet from a rainforest logged illegally? Is this painted product done without lead, or cadmium or other toxic chemical? Is this product properly licensed? Not in violation of copyright or other legal requirements? Is this import really “organic?”
Diamond is confident that consumers and most businesses want to buy honest, safe, wholesome products from legal and responsible makers using legal and healthy raw material. But currently there’s no widespread system to track the various questions I listed above, and dozens more that can affect the reputation of a company or sale of a given product. There’s clear appeal here for global corporations attracting a large customer base. RockBocks already has several of the biggest U.S. and English retailers using their software.
RockBlocks is working to aggregate online all the relevant data from international organizations that are each tracking various aspects of international trade, from forest, farm and mine, to factory labor to shipping and carbon footprint The offered service will be entirely web-based.
Sources can be compared on a number of fronts from greenness to labor fairness to source of raw material. How is the product shipped? How is it packaged? Styrofoam or recycled cardboard? Does the packaging include a pound of marketing material for a three-ounce gizmo? For each major aspect of a product RockBlocks will produce a ranking and allow buyers and suppliers to compare similar and competing products.
Diamond feels nearly all retailers will want to be proud of what they amrket, but currently there’s no direct way to keep track of all aspects of any product coming from another country. RockBlocks is aiming to give buyers a chance to see into the entire supply chain, then compare similar and competing products before the actual order is placed.
When the world’s biggest retailer trumpets its organic cotton products, and urges buyers to go for the “earth-friendly” then you must suspect that RockBlocks is building the right software at the right time. How many people really want a new table made by slave labor from illegally logged Burmese wood? Or more toys painted with lead-laced paint? Fancy a little DDT residue in your “organic” tea?
A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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