The Sunday Mail
ENTERING the final phase of a deal —be it in mining, entertainment, striking a partnership — is like heading into a dark tunnel.
Its both narrowing and harrowing; its mysterious and everyone’s opinions are echoing.
It’s the light shining ahead that keeps you lucid and strong — and moving forward.
In my experience, time wasting, being greedy, lack of trust, lack of knowledge and uncertainty kills potentially good deals.
There are very high chances that a deal will not likely go through if you are planning on having several meetings before it happens. It is always good to do a thorough due diligence, but such an exercise should be done swiftly and expeditiously before you move to the next stage.
If the people involved are dragging their feet or buying time, be very wary. It might be a red flag, and its very wise to walk away.
Are you in or are you out?
It is often said that if you are in a relationship and you date for a long time, there are high chances that you will not end up getting married to that person.
If you are convinced and satisfied that you surely can have a good partnership, the simple answer to the golden question that must inevitably follow is YES!
Why are we so afraid to enter into a bad partnership? Business is all about taking risks. Marriage will never be rosy all the time and challenges are expected.
The same applies to a business set up. There will always be obstacles along the way, but the partners should always work hard to make it work.
With this said, my advice is: When there is a potentially good deal on the table, do not waste much time talking, simply act on the deal and seal it.
But it seems as if in Zimbabwe we have built a culture of making endless consultations before a deal happens. Too many opinions can also kill a deal. We need bold decision makers who can say yes or no in the shortest possible time. Always have a positive mindset that the deal will work out. Do not enter into a deal when you don’t know what you want out of it. So, brainstorming and an in-depth assessment should be the precursor to any kind of negotiation.
Here it is: Do you want it or not? If the answer is yes, then proceed.
Most deals also fall through because of greed.
Many people often prioritise self-aggrindisement and do not look at the bigger picture. Such behaviour kills not only businesses but nations. If you expect a kickback before anything happens on the deal, then already the deal is almost dead.
Consultancies can claim facilitation fees on structuring a deal; this is different from a kickback.
A kickback is when the final person with the authority to sign for the deal to happen expects to receive cash upfront in order for him or her to sign for the deal to proceed.
Corruption is now a cancer that is slowly eating away at the core value of society. The abnormal is slowing being normalised.
For some, it is now the norm that for something to happen, one should always pay something first.
We are killing our own country and future generations.
This kind of behaviour also scares away potential investors. It is an additional cost of doing business.
At times we get so caught up with matters that do not add any value to our businesses and the nation at large.
We need infrastructure development and to create wealth and employment.
If opportunities that have the potential to develop our companies and businesses arise, I advise that we simply make things happen instead of just talking and wasting time.
People’s true colours come up in the deal-making process. If you don’t like what you see in terms of behaviour, you should opt out.
Lack of knowledge can also be a major impediment to thrashing out deals sometimes. For certain deals to happen, a detailed knowledge of technical skills are required.
I have often noted with great disappointment that some of these so-called engineers and technicians know nothing about what they will be doing.
It will be more of a trial and error approach.
We have lost potential millions as a country because of such individuals. Probably because the one in charge is not well acquainted with deep technical issues, wrong information will be fed to the CEO or MD then terrible decisions are made. We surely need to be knowledgeable for deals to happen swiftly.
Always set deadlines, build trust and move with great speed for deals to happen.
You will surely not die if the deal doesn’t go through, but surely do it whole-heartedly and act in good faith. Be as realistic as possible and do not say something that you know you do not have the capacity to deliver.
Do not misinterpret legitimate restrictions that your deal partners may be dealing with as their behaviour or personality traits.
There are legalities and formalities that can be insurmountable in deals, do not take them personally.
We want deals to happen so that we create more wealth and employment.
Do not kill the deal.
Taurai Changwa is an Articled Accounted and ACCA finalist. He is the managing director of SAFIC Consultancy. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted at [email protected] or visit our facebook page SAFIC Consultancy or whatsapp on 0772374784.
