Work

Everyone gets a bit frustrated with their clients on occasion. I've mentioned one of ours, a particularly large MNC, that entered into a disastrous joint venture some years ago. We have been trying to get out of it for some time now and little by little, they are making progress. They have given their joint venture partner, a BVI company owned by a Hong Kongnese gentlemen, the shirts off their backs, despite the fact that our client is much larger and much more sophisticated as a general rule. I say general rule, because our client is not more sophisticated in China unfortunately.

We are negotiating to swap our remaining interests, ours in one company for an equal amount in another company. Our client agreed to take all the crap while its partner gets everything of value. Why? Apparently the CEO has a "good relationship" with the owner of the other company and wants to maintain good relations. Anyone observing this on the outside would immediate reach the correct conclusion that my client's CEO was taken to the cleaners and it is about time he gives up the notion that he has a good friend.

The snakes on the other side of the deal have proposed one final major screw and a few minor ones as a going away present. I'm seething after seeing the proposal, and yet, it isn't my deal. It affects my life in absolutely no way at all. And given the size of the client, it's pennies at the end of the day.

The maddening thing is that I'm quite certain the client will cave into the snakes' demands. I want nothing more than to get on the phone and calmly tell the other side to go to hell.

I once had a colleague tell me the best way to engage in negotiation is to not care about the outcome. If the other side believes you are willing to kill the deal over a point because you'd rather be home brushing your teeth, it is less likely to push the envelop. Having witnessed him practice this technique, I will say that it's quite effective. He was negotiating against a much larger company that held most of the cards. The negotiator for the other company was the high energy hot-tempered type and a very effective negotiator in most circumstances. He couldn't compete with the calm collected negotiator who didn't care about the outcome of the deal when push came to shove.

Obviously you have to care enough to work through all the issues you can work through, but there are always those leftovers that are black and white. That one guy is going to win and the other is going to lose.

So back to anger management. Given that this is not my call and I don't have to live with the results of the decision, my anger is absurd. I have no dog in this fight. But I'd sure like to make that call anyway.