From The Editor's Desk
As the month of February is romantically associated with St Valentine's Day, it's appropriate that we celebrate the tradition of Valentine's Day in this edition of the newsletter. Valentine's Day is derived from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalis (February 15), originally a festival for shepherds. It was celebrated in honour of Faunus and its primary purpose was to secure fertility for the fields, the flocks and the shepherds themselves. The festival gradually became associated with the feast day (February 14) for two Roman martyrs, both named St Valentine, who lived in the third century, about whom nothing specific is known. St Valentine has traditionally been regarded as the patron saint of lovers.
This year is also Leap year, which is the traditional time that women can propose marriage. Although society no longer looks down on this practice, this hasn't always been the case! It is believed this tradition started in 5th century Ireland when St Bridget complained to St Patrick about women often having to wait for a long time for a man to propose. According to legend, St Patrick said the yearning females would be permitted to propose on this one day in February during the leap year.
According to English law, February 29 was ignored and had no legal status, and since the Leap Year day existed merely to fix a problem in the calendar, it could also be used to fix an old and unjust custom that only let men propose marriage. The first documentation of this practice dates back to 1288, when Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in that year. They also made it law that any man who declined a proposal in a Leap year should pay a fine. The fine could range from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.
Many South African women are still too conservative in comparison to women abroad when it comes to proposing to men. If you are not the conservative type then make this year your chance to propose to your man! Power to the Girls!
Staying with the theme of love, we have included a touching story which points out that it's very important to tell our loved ones how we feel before it's too late. We also bring you Part 2 of our article by Simon Carpenter, Director: Strategic Initiatives at SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd, entitled "The Value Proposition for Building Negotiation Competence and Capacity". By the way, if you would like to contribute an article for this newsletter, please do contact me on editor@thedealmaker.com. We also introduce you to Holger Morhart in our Meet The Team section this month. In addition to all this exciting reading, we bring you useful tips on how to minimise the inconvenience of load shedding.
Enjoy!! - Portia Ngcobo
Did You Know?
Most women - even very successful women - are apprehensive and uncomfortable about negotiating, yet good negotiating is essential to every woman's professional and personal fulfilment.
Women suffer when they don't negotiate:
- By not negotiating that first salary, an individual stands to lose more than $500,000 by age 60 and men are more than four times more likely than women to negotiate a first salary.
- In 2001 in the U.S.A. only 10.9 percent of the board of directors' seats at Fortune 1000 companies were held by women.
- Women own about 40 percent of all businesses in the U.S.A. but receive only 2.3 percent of the available equity capital needed for growth.
- Women's earnings relative to men's have stagnated at 73.2 percent.
Extracted from Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever.
What are you doing to develop your negotiating expertise? We encourage all ladies to attend our Women Only course, The Dealdiva™. This course has been created for women to gain critical life skills and empower one another in business. Here is your opportunity to work with other women in business and take your skills to new heights.
The Dealdiva™ is two days in length and addresses the negotiation challenges and obstacles women face on a daily basis in business. The programme is suitable for women with any level of business or negotiation experience who are looking to significantly enhance their skills.
Contact enquiries@thedealmaker.com or call us for more information on +27 011 440 0193.
This Edition's Love Story
A little something special for Valentine's Day...
10th Grade. As I sat there in English class, I stared at the girl next to me. She was my so called "best friend". I stared at her long, silky hair, and wished she was mine. But she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it. After class, she would walk up to me and asked me for the notes she had missed the day before and I handed them to her. She said "thanks" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I wanted to tell her, I want her to know that I didn't want to be just friends, I loved her but I was just too shy, and I don't know why.
11th Grade. The phone rang. On the other end, it was her. She was in tears, mumbling on and on about how her love had broke her heart. She asked me to come over because she didn't want to be alone, so I did. As I sat next to her on the sofa, I stared at her soft eyes, wishing she was mine. After two hours, one Drew Barrymore movie, and three bags of chips, she decided to go to sleep. She looked at me, said "thanks" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I wanted to tell her, I wanted her to know that I didn't want to be just friends, I loved her but I was just too shy, and I don't know why.
Senior year. The day before prom she walked to my locker. "My date is sick" she said'. Well I didn't have a date, and in 7th grade, we made a promise that if neither of us had dates, we would go together just as "best friends". So we did. Prom night, after everything was over, I was standing at her front door step! I stared at her as she smiled at me and stared at me with her crystal eyes. I wanted her to be mine, but she didn't think of me like that, and I knew it. Then she said "I had the best time, thanks!" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I wanted to tell her, I wanted her to know that I didn't want to be just friends that I loved her but I was just too shy, and I don't know why.
Graduation Day. A day passed, then a week, then a month. Before I could blink, it was graduation day. I watched as her perfect body floated like an angel up on stage to get her diploma. I wanted her to be mine, but she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it. Before everyone went home, she came to me in her smock and hat, and cried as I hugged her. Then she lifted her head from my shoulder and said, "You're my best friend, thanks" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I wanted to tell her, I wanted her to know that I didn't want to be just friends, I loved her but I was just too shy, and I don't know why.
A few years later. I sat in the pews of the church. That girl is getting married now. I watch her say "I do" and drive off to her new life, married to another man. I wanted her to be mine, but she didn't see me like that, and I knew it. But before she drove away, she came to me and said "you came!". She said "thanks" and kissed me on the cheek. I wanted to tell her, I wanted her to know that I didn't want to be just friends, I loved her but I was just too shy, and I don't know why.
Funeral. Years passed, I looked down at the coffin of a girl who used to be my "best friend". At the service, they read a diary entry she had wrote in her high school years. This is what it read:
"I stare at him wishing he was mine, but he doesn't notice me like that, and I know it. I wanted to tell him, I wanted him to know that I didn't want to be just friends, I loved him but I was just too shy, and I don't know why. I wish he would tell me he loved me!"
I wish I did too... I thought to myself, and I cried.
It's never too late to tell those you love how you feel. Make this month the one you just do that.
A Fairy Tale for the Women of the New Millennium
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Ladies, as we've just introduced you to The Dealdiva™, we thought this story would tickle your fancy. Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a beautiful, independent, self assured Princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. |
The frog hopped into the Princess's lap and said: "Elegant lady, I was once a handsome Prince, until an evil Witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper young Prince that I am and then, my Sweet, we can marry, set up house in yon castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so."
That night, on a repast of lightly sautéed frog's legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to herself and thought: I don't think so!
Meet The Dealmaker™ Team: Holger Morhart
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Holger, who holds an MBA and a number of Marketing degrees, has gathered extensive experience in the advertising, logistics and chemical industries. Holger has worked across the globe - from Europe to the USA and now South Africa. |
Starting out as an advertising Photographer and a Shareholder in an advertising agency, Holger progressed to become a Marketing Consultant for large corporations, focusing on business development and strategic marketing. Holger's experience ranges from positions such as Marketing and Business Development Manager for a global logistics company to Business Analyst for a private equity firm.
Holger is currently engaged as a Consultant in the capacity of General Representative Southern Africa for Degussa, a global chemical company.
On behalf of Degussa Holger has founded a key business unit in southern Africa, taking the operation from start-up to market leader within just three years.
Holger is also actively involved in a number of other business ventures. At the same time he consults to companies on business start-ups and strategic planning.
Throughout his career Holger has negotiated at all levels with medium to large corporate and governmental entities. After having been invited to participate in The Dealmaker™ programme, Holger was approached in 2006 to become a member of the select The Dealmaker™ global Coaching team. Holger has successfully translated the programme from English into German.
Guest Article
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"The Value Proposition For Building Negotiation Competence And Capacity"Part 2
By Simon Carpenter, Director: Strategic Initiatives, SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd and The Dealmaker™ Graduate |
3. Negotiating is fundamental to your success in the value network in which you participate.
Around the world, and in every industry, the trend is increasingly towards competition between business networks. Strategic partnerships provide ways to create and capture value.
Toyota's ability to manage a network of parts and component suppliers, automotive design houses, manufacturing plants, transporters and shippers and dealer networks is what gives it the edge over say a Nissan or Ford. In software, SAP's ability to bring together a network of industry titans such as IBM, Intel, Cisco and Accenture to craft a customer solution is what gives it the edge over say an Oracle or an Infor. An insurance company's ability to work with its distribution channels is fundamental to its success. And so it goes in many different industries.
The basis for the networked value chain is each player finding their niche, (the place where they can add value better than anyone else based on some form of specialization or scale) and then seamlessly bringing all players together in a synchronized and aligned fashion.
This is not easy to do. In many ways it goes against the grain of competitiveness and autonomy so prized in Western cultures and economies. At the heart of the problem lies each company's desire to capture as much value as possible for itself. If you cannot overcome this problem and make the economics work for everyone you will be beaten by those who can.
The secret to good partnering lies in your ability to negotiate. Good negotiators know how to formulate the negotiation problem and structure the negotiation process so that sustainable agreements can be reached quickly and effectively. Negotiating experts understand and consider the likely consequences for all parties and are thus better able to reach viable and sustainable solutions.
Your ability to negotiate with network partners may be all that lies between your success and failure in the networked, global economy.
4. The Influence on Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Growth has always been high on the agenda for both the ambitious entrepreneur and the CEO of the largest listed company. The old axiom "if you are not busy growing you are busy dying" will continue to hold true for time to come. For most companies (whether you are in a Business-to-Business or a Business-to-Consumer market) current customers are the best source of revenue growth. According to many surveys, the cost of acquiring new customers runs to 8 to 10 times more than the cost of keeping existing ones. So it makes absolute sense to hold on to the customers we have, BUT not at any cost.
Despite this need for growth many companies continually shoot themselves in the foot and build themselves a steeper and steeper hill to climb through their failure to negotiate the best possible terms for themselves - in effect they are sabotaging their own futures.
Perhaps driven by the pressure to meet quarterly revenue targets they give away value simply to close a deal now (normally, but not exclusively, in the form of discounts). What they fail to realize is that in so doing they have established a precedent that will come back to haunt them in every future transaction with that customer. Today's discount becomes tomorrow's norm and sooner or later even this is not enough and we give away even more and so it becomes harder and harder to stand still let alone achieve profitable growth. Note the emphasis on "profitable growth" - giving away value may help you make this month's budget number but profitless growth leads to a downward spiral of more and more burden for less shareholder return. Even worse - as your reputation for easy acquiescence seeps out into the market (and it will because people talk and move around within an industry) any new business you write becomes subject to the same pressures.
Do you want grow your revenues? And do so profitably? Thought so. Well, the secret to building a profitable future for your organization lies in the ability to build each deal that you do with an eye on both the immediate value and the long-term consequences.
Beefing up your ability to negotiate is the key to future success and maximizing the value of every customer over the lifetime of that customer. Stop weakening your growth prospects by establishing precedents that will come back to haunt you. Your customers have long memories and poor negotiations today will stay with you as long as the customer.
Good negotiating not only helps you extract maximum value now but it establishes you as a professional and trustworthy partner for the future and sets the boundaries for all future transactions with your customers.
Here's to your fruitful future based on excellence in negotiating.
Simon Carpenter
Johannesburg
November 2007
Simon Carpenter is the Director: Strategic Initiatives at SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd, the African subsidiary of SAP AG (the global software giant). This role includes working closely with Sales and Marketing to provide thought leadership on emerging business and technology issues. Simon has 25 years of experience in the IT sector and has observed first-hand the lasting impact that both good and poor negotiations can have on a company's top and bottom line.
Read Part 1 of this article on The Dealmaker™ website!
The Dealmaker™ Programmes - Dates for 2008
If you missed our courses in 2007, be sure to attend one this year. Should you have any queries or want to book please give us a call on +27 11 440 0193, or, send an email to enquiries@thedealmaker.com. The course dates for the balance of 2008 are as follows:
The Dealbuilder™ |
Venue |
11 & 12 March 2008 |
Johannesburg |
25 & 26 June 2008 |
Johannesburg |
16 & 17 September 2008 |
Johannesburg |
The Dealdiva™ - Women Only |
Venue |
02 & 03 April 2008 |
Johannesburg |
20 & 21 August 2008 |
Johannesburg |
11 & 12 November 2008 |
Johannesburg |
The Dealmaker™ |
Venue |
15 - 17 April 2008 |
Johannesburg |
10 - 12 June 2008 |
London |
22 - 24 July 2008 |
Johannesburg |
07 - 09 October 2008 |
Johannesburg |
The Dealmaker™ Follow-up |
Venue |
08 & 09 April 2008 |
Johannesburg |
21 & 22 October 2008 |
Johannesburg |
The Dealguru™ - Executives Only |
Venue |
22 & 23 April 2008 |
Johannesburg |
14 & 15 October 2008 |
Johannesburg |
The courses are conducted in small groups, thus there is a limited number of places on each programme. If you are booking for a team of eight or more people, group pricing is available on request. To participate in a programme or to request further information, please email enquiries@thedealmaker.com.
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