Somebody once asked me if there was any wind in the Mediterranean. They had obviously never been on a yacht there. Sailing in Croatia recently on the last day of our charter the weather at 11 in the morning was sunny and calm if a little humid. But rain and thunderstorms were forecast for noon. We arrived back in our home port of Trogir in the central Adriatic, queued to refuel at around 12.30 and returned to our yacht’s marina at 13.00 – just making it into our berth before a thunderstorm heralded high winds and very heavy rain. We had seen the forecast and abandoned anchoring off an island on the way back. I also had a proper sailing wet weather jacket – so we were prepared. We could have done more and had all of the crew been equipped with wet weather gear, but we had anticipated the situation, sought to avoid it and were prepared should it happen.
This is equally true in large outsourcing or service contracts whether you are the customer or the supplier. You plan for success but must understand, articulate and prepare to manage or mitigate risk on the basis that the unexpected may happen. The customer may get taken over and need to cancel the contract. The supplier could discover during the delivery phase that the customer’s requirements are ambiguously expressed and what the supplier has costed is not the same as what the customer expected.
I have worked in private practice and in industry with some very professional salesman and bid leads in suppliers who understand and manage contract risk properly. A few however take the “OK In understand, but it will never happen, so let’s not worry about it approach.” Well they don’t care do they because they will have their commission and be long gone before the contact delivery goes wrong and proverbial hell breaks loose as customer and supplier strive to remedy the crisis. “It” has truly “happened”.
In pastimes such as sailing or skiing or cycling you have to be prepared – for bad weather, for heavy snow for a puncture – and then when the inevitable happens it may be a challenge but not a crisis. In outsourcing contracts if you cannot gain full protection from the contract wording so there is a risk exposure, develop a plan to mitigate and manage the risk.
I am not advocating unnecessary worry just anticipating and avoiding problems. As Benjamin Franklin said: By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
This Harvard Business School Article “Even Small Negotiations require Preparation and Creativity”First, preparation. Preparation is the key to any successful negotiation, but few people spend enough time on it. I’ve had sales leaders tell me that they prepare in accordance with how long it takes to get to their customer’s office. That’s fine if your meeting is in Tokyo and you live in Manhattan. But it’s a recipe for disaster if you’re meeting the customer in Brooklyn.
How much more so is preparation, anticipation and risk prevention essential in a major contract negotiation or indeed in any field of professional life. As Thomas Fuller the Seventeenth Century English churchman and historian said He who cures a disease may be the skillfullest, but he that prevents it is the safest physician.
This is equally true in large outsourcing or service contracts whether you are the customer or the supplier. You plan for success but must understand, articulate and prepare to manage or mitigate risk on the basis that the unexpected may happen. The customer may get taken over and need to cancel the contract. The supplier could discover during the delivery phase that the customer’s requirements are ambiguously expressed and what the supplier has costed is not the same as what the customer expected.
I have worked in private practice and in industry with some very professional salesman and bid leads in suppliers who understand and manage contract risk properly. A few however take the “OK In understand, but it will never happen, so let’s not worry about it approach.” Well they don’t care do they because they will have their commission and be long gone before the contact delivery goes wrong and proverbial hell breaks loose as customer and supplier strive to remedy the crisis. “It” has truly “happened”.
In pastimes such as sailing or skiing or cycling you have to be prepared – for bad weather, for heavy snow for a puncture – and then when the inevitable happens it may be a challenge but not a crisis. In outsourcing contracts if you cannot gain full protection from the contract wording so there is a risk exposure, develop a plan to mitigate and manage the risk.
I am not advocating unnecessary worry just anticipating and avoiding problems. As Benjamin Franklin said: By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
This Harvard Business School Article “Even Small Negotiations require Preparation and Creativity”First, preparation. Preparation is the key to any successful negotiation, but few people spend enough time on it. I’ve had sales leaders tell me that they prepare in accordance with how long it takes to get to their customer’s office. That’s fine if your meeting is in Tokyo and you live in Manhattan. But it’s a recipe for disaster if you’re meeting the customer in Brooklyn.
How much more so is preparation, anticipation and risk prevention essential in a major contract negotiation or indeed in any field of professional life. As Thomas Fuller the Seventeenth Century English churchman and historian said He who cures a disease may be the skillfullest, but he that prevents it is the safest physician.
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