Consulting

Our consulting supports two main areas

Partnerships

We support key stages from selection to execution of high value partnerships.

Even late stages of a negotiation provide an opportunity to create new value.

Process

The starting point is typically a deep analysis of the elements that make up your unique power and interest.

From those building blocks a negotiation strategy is created to enrich propositions and accelerate closure.

“Paul leveraged technology advances to create a new kind of deal structure. It scaled globally, becoming among our most complex and high value partnerships.”

Dr. Vijay Vusirikala, Director Architecture and Engineering
Google

Method

Our approach combines with your specific organisational content, and context, to exploit the full potential of your negotiation power.

The process is facilitated in a workshop setting. Clients co-develop, own and execute the strategy ensuring full commitment to its success.

Impact

  • Unanticipated, significant additional value

  • Material benefits flowing months earlier

  • Non-adversarial atmosphere building trust

  • Roadmap and pipeline for further partners

“New possibilities for the deal, unrealistic, even outrageous, were achieved by creating more value for both sides. The deal set the company alive."

Chris Moore, Managing Director
SLC

Case Studies: Partnerships

  • Challenge: A global technology company’s power counted for little when trying to build a ground-breaking partnership with a much smaller firm. Five years passed without progress. At stake was the ability to scale their service in days instead of months and vast savings.

    Approach: They wrongly thought they had the power. Value had to be created. A new deal structure was created, exploiting advances in technology, to triple its value to the partner.

    Result: The partnership closed. The model scaled the tech company’s service by 25 times. Its global rollout saved them $400mn, and became an open standard saving the industry $1bn.

  • Challenge: A start-up received partnership interest from their sector’s global leader. A quick, high value deal would forge their future, but a slow and low-value one could end it. Initial terms confirmed their worst fears.

    Approach: They changed the global leader’s mindset from tactical deal to partnership by understanding their real interests, and creating a vision to match it. A high-value proposition followed with pressure moved to the global leader to close.

    Result: Power had shifted, and they negotiated as partners. A 3-page draft became a 40-page deal but still closed in 8 weeks. It brought credibility and several million to self-fund growth.

Turnarounds

If your negotiation is stalling, failing or not showing its true potential.

We bring new levers to revive it, restore momentum and move it to closure.

Process

It begins with powerful new conversation energizing the team. From there we examine together the history of the negotiation.

We quickly get to the heart of the problem. Then analyse where power and interest can be located and created to reverse its decline.

“We were devastated. We assumed we had no power. The turnaround was miraculous, the best experience of my career”

Joanna Merton,
Senior Partnerships Manager,
Cancer Research UK

Method

The need is often urgent. So we quickly move from workshop to small groups.

The team will still co-develop, own and execute strategy every step of the way.

Impact

  • Retake control of the negotiation process

  • Breathe new life and momentum to close

  • Beyond resetting to deeper relationship

  • Create environment for higher value deal

“Transformed our toughest challenge into an elegant framework deepening collaboration and trust. The resulting deal was ground-breaking for the company and industry”

Mike Galvin, Vice President
Tata

Case Studies: Turnarounds

  • Challenge: A large charity’s partnership with a global conglomerate, approaching signature after 12 months, was cancelled for no reason. 18% of the charity’s divisional income would be lost; they were devastated.

    Approach: The charity team first needed to drain their emotion. Then an analysis of the deal to identify and create power to revive it. Several areas of power were found, and a strategy quickly built to leverage them, delivered largely through two carefully drafted messages.

    Result: Within two weeks the FTSE company completely reversed their decision. The deal was revived. The charity recaptured several million pounds and reset the partnership.

  • Challenge: A Silicon Valley giant sought a new shared-ownership infrastructure model saving them $55mn. Their largest supplier was the obvious choice, but it kept stalling due to the supplier fearing its complexity and the giant entering their market.

    Approach: Complex issues were broken down into separate negotiation problems and solved jointly. These ‘mini-wins’ built momentum, but not trust, halting the deal. Turning the problem into an opportunity for transparency, control and revenue saved it.

    Result: The relationship had moved from a supplier to partner. The new infrastructure model brought the giant $55mn in savings and a far more robust platform.