Adopt the Habit of Due Diligence

Published: Oct 29, 2004

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.

Don't forget to sign up for our free newsletter.

Outcomes

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

Adopt the Habit of Due Diligence

Application

Too busy?

Stories

Outcomes

Related Topics

Related Negotiating Books