Adopt the Habit of Due Diligence

Application

Negotiating a deal is glamorous and fun. Whereas, due diligence requires a lot of painstaking time and energy. Yet, we hear executives of large corporations explaining their successes as being the result of due diligence, or their failures being caused by a lack of it.

Due diligence includes:

• looking at things you are tempted to ignore,
• following a checklist similar to Uncle Max's New Venture Proposal checklist,
• collecting and verifying data with more than one source,
• networking by surreptitiously asking around (you may get some secret evaluations and history,)
• doing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis,
• listing advantages and disadvantages of alternative options,
• considering numerous scenarios and alternative options,
• performing what-if analyses on a spreadsheet with basic data on left converted to various options on right,
• having an exhaustive list of investigative questions.

Too busy?

Have a trusted staff person, a family member, a friend or smart 'wizard' with sound logical processes (a) do some analysis or research, (b) ask you a set of prepared questions, (c) follow Uncle Max skills and (d) tabulate data and write a report or plan of action for you.

How do you reduce your time and energy and increase the probability of doing due diligence more readily?

• gather various templates from previous negotiations
• maintain separate files of your favorite investigative questions
• maintain separate files of layouts for SWOT analyses, advantages and disadvantages, generic alternative options, etc.
• maintain separate files of mind-mapping charts if you're into that kind of thing.

Stories

Stories from members will add great value to these maxims.

Please post your story by emailing it to max@unclemaxsays.com.

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Outcomes

• Reduced reluctance to perform due diligence before all negotiations.
• More organized for negotiating.
• More enjoyment from negotiating with strength.

Related Topics

• Many Options Yield Better Decision Making
• New Venture Proposal - Checklists
• Preparation Will Win the Day
• Who Is Your Devil's Advocate?
• Where There's Smoke -There's Fire
• Apply Some Wizardry

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