From The Editor's Desk
After all the excitement of February we find ourselves in a comparatively quite March. There are, however, some interesting events that will still be taking place this month.
21 March: Good Friday (Christian)
Holy Friday. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is commemorated on this day. Traditionally fish is eaten rather than meat. Hot cross buns have become associated with Good Friday.
21 March: Human Rights Day (South Africa)
This day commemorates the Black people who were killed at Sharpeville in 1960 and those in general who lost their lives in the struggle against apartheid.
22 March: World Day for Water
World Day for Water focuses the world's attention on the importance of sustaining a safe supply of drinking water, increasing public awareness about the importance of conservation, preservation, and the role of the private sector in this.
23 March: Easter Sunday (Christian)
Easter Sunday celebrates Christ's resurrection. The ancient custom of exchanging eggs on Easter Sunday is to symbolically celebrate new life.
24 March: World Tuberculosis Day
The objective of World Tuberculosis Day is to bring global and local attention to the disease and to mobilise action to get TB treatment to every person who needs it.
For the March Edition of the newsletter, the Managing Director of Spectrum Solutions gives some insight on the company and its value proposition in our "Did You Know" segment. We also introduce you to two new members of The Dealmaker™ team in our "Meet The Team" section. This month's story teaches us the importance of practicing kindness, consideration and compassion. We are also delighted to share an article by a Canadian reader, Allan Meyer, who is an architectural designer and president of a design-build firm. Allan's article is entitled "Negotiating with Trust as the Intrinsic Motivator". If you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please contact me on editor@thedealmaker.com.
Enjoy!! - Portia Ngcobo
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Did You Know?In this edition of Did You Know the Managing Director of Spectrum Solutions, Kim Meredith, gives us a few facts on the company and its value proposition. The interview was conducted by Ruan de Lange of Heatwave Media. |
1. Who are you and what is your position in the company?
Kim Meredith, Managing Director of Spectrum Solutions.
2. Describe your company in a nutshell:
a. What is it that your company does?
Spectrum Solutions distributes and implements The Dealmaker™ suite of programmes in Africa, Europe and Latin America
b. How long has it been established?
Spectrum was founded in 1989 so the company has been operating for nearly 20 years
c. How big is it (in terms of people or revenue or market share etc.)?
The company currently has nine The Dealmaker™ Coaches. We are the largest of The Dealmaker™ global distributors, and as this is a Blue Ocean product, I guess you could say that we "own" our market
d. Where are you located geographically?
Our head office is in Johannesburg, South Africa and we have a satellite office in Santiago, Chile
3. What do you deliver to customers, in other words, what is the benefit customers gain from doing business with your organisation?
In a nutshell, we increase our customers' profitability and give them the means, through The Dealmaker™'s business processes, to sustain this improvement. Customers put their staff and management through The Dealmaker™ programmes (and their executives through The Dealguru™ course). We then we help them to implement the relevant business processes. The programmes are coaching-based so each and every person that attends a programme gets personal attention. The positive impact on their confidence and assertiveness is astounding.
4. What differentiates your company from your competitors?
As I said before, The Dealmaker™ programmes are a Blue Ocean product so it is difficult to compare them, but we
- use a specific methodology to underpin our interventions
- we are unique in that we address the subject of dealmaking as a whole, not just one or two components like training companies do
- the programmes are designed to complement the investment companies have already made in sales and negotiation training
- the programmes are more comparable with executive coaching interventions than skills training
- we make extensive use of personal coaching and case simulations to achieve a significant behavioural shift in the level of expertise of each participant
- the course are delivered by business executives as opposed to trainers
5. If you were a customer of your own company, why would you buy from your organisation?
Because if there was a way I could improve my company's results - get guaranteed results - and could sustain that improvement, why would I not buy the products!?
Extracted from interview by Ruan de Lange, 2007
This Edition's Story
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A long time ago, in China, a girl named Li-Li got married and went to live with her husband and mother-in-law.
In a very short time, Li-Li found that she couldn't get along with her mother-in-law at all. |
Their personalities were very different and Li-Li was angered by many of her mother-in-law's habits. In addition, she criticized Li-Li constantly.
Days passed days and weeks passed weeks. Li-Li and her mother-in-law never stopped arguing and fighting. What made the situation even worse was that, according to ancient Chinese tradition, Li-Li had to bow to her mother-in-law and obey her every wish. All the anger and unhappiness in the house was causing Li-Li's poor husband great distress.
Finally, Li-Li could not stand her mother-in-law's bad temper and dictatorship any longer, and she decided to do something about it. Li-Li went to see her father's good friend, Mr. Huang, who sold herbs. She told him the situation and asked if he would give her some poison so that she could solve the problem once and for all.
Mr. Huang thought for a while, and finally said, "Li-Li, I will help you solve your problem, but you must listen to me and obey what I tell you." Li-Li said, "Yes, Mr. Huang, I will do whatever you tell me to do."
Mr. Huang went into the back room, and returned in a few minutes with a package of herbs. He told Li-Li, "You can't use a quick-acting poison to get rid of your mother-in-law because that would cause people to become suspicious. Therefore, I have given you a number of herbs that will slowly build up poison in her body. Every other day prepare some delicious meal and put a little of these herbs in her serving. Now, in order to make sure that nobody suspects you when she dies, you must be very careful to act very friendly towards her. Don't argue with her, obey her every wish, and treat her like a queen."
Li-Li was so happy. She thanked Mr. Huang and hurried home to start her plot of murdering her mother-in-law. Weeks went by and months went by, and every other day, Li-Li served the specially treated food to her mother-in-law. She remembered what Mr. Huang had said about avoiding suspicion, so she controlled her temper, obeyed her mother-in-law, and treated her like her own mother.
After six months had passed, the whole household had changed. Li-Li had practiced controlling her temper so much that she found that she almost never got mad or upset. She hadn't had an argument with her mother-in-law in six months because she now seemed much kinder and easier to get along with. The mother-in-law's attitude toward Li-Li changed, and she began to love Li-Li like her own daughter. She kept telling friends and relatives that Li-Li was the best daughter-in-law one could ever find. Li-Li and her mother-in-law were now treating each other like real mother and daughter. Li-Li's husband was very happy to see what was happening.
One day Li-Li came to see Mr. Huang and asked for his help again. She said, "Dear Mr. Huang, please help me to keep the poison from killing my mother-in-law! She's changed into such a nice woman, and I love her like my own mother. I do not want her to die because of the poison I gave her." Mr. Huang smiled and nodded his head. "Li-Li, there's nothing to worry about. I never gave you any poison. The herbs I gave you were vitamins to improve her health. The only poison was in your mind and your attitude towards her, but that has been all washed away by the love which you gave to her."
Extracted from www.ngkhai.net
A Fairy Tale for the Not-So-Modern Man
Last month we included something for the ladies, so we thought this month we should have a bit of fun for our male readers. Men, this one is for you. Enjoy!!
Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl "Will you marry me?". The girl said "NO!". And the guy lived happily ever after and went fishing, hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and farted whenever he wanted.
THE END
Meet The Dealmaker™ Team: Bronwyn Powell
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Bronwyn Powell has over 20 years experience as a sales expert, and has held positions from Sales Executive to National Sales Manager to Global Training Consultant and more recently, Sales Director. Bronwyn has been responsible for the establishment of many first-rate business units in the medical industry including implementing the related processes, skills development and team management structures. |
Through her reputation for consistently implementing successful sales and management systems, Bronwyn has been retained by some of the largest and most respected private and listed local corporations.
When Spectrum Solutions discovered that Bronwyn was looking to change assignments, the company did not hesitate in offering her the position of Sales Director.
Meet The Dealmaker™ Team: Julie Purkis
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After gaining experience in the salaries and Human Resources fields, Julie joined Spectrum Solutions in March 1998 where she spent seven years as Payroll Portfolio Manager. Julie was responsible for the entire payroll function for businesses including Value Fleet Rental, Unihold Technologies, Pharmaceutical Product Development, The Oval Office, SMG/DNA, Business Intelligence Planning Services, Incentive Holdings and John Wiley & Sons Ltd (UK). |
After leaving Spectrum Solutions to set up her own business, Julie continued honing her financial and business skills, accepting contract assignments for large companies like Ernst & Young and Microsoft.
With her impeccable track record and previous history with Spectrum Solutions, Julie was the company's first choice for the position of Business Director, where she has taken on responsibility for controlling the logistics, finance, legal and all other aspects of the company's administration. In addition, Julie is creating a Distribution Centre to facilitate the company's international growth.
Guest Article
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"Negotiating with Trust as the Intrinsic Motivator"Allan Meyer, one of our Newsletter subscribers in Canada, kindly submitted the following fascinating articles on the role of trust in negotiation. |
One of the most important recurrences of thought must surely be the ability to negotiate liberty for oneself. Liberty extrapolates into trust, and liberty is defined as the fulfilment of one's individual freedom in line with established personal values and self worth. Giving of freedom, or trusting, is the relinquishing of all controls. Giving freedom perfectly is trusting implicitly.
Los Angeles (LA) California "Building and Safety" has a large division of governance over the buildings and properties of the city of LA. Staff of this division consists mostly of engineers, administrative support and fire safety officials. At the helm are the Commissioners, elected officials that can make or break a deal.
In my position as representative and negotiator for the philanthropic owners of the Historic Queen of Angels Hospital, I had to deal with the Commissioners as they were the only governing body that could determine a ruling on an extended occupancy of the building that had previously been condemned. The first time I stood before the Commissioners in a public forum, before any relationship of trust was established; I was questioned, challenged, chastised and humiliated for seemingly an eternity thanks to my predecessor's lack of compliance. I had no negotiating power and, in no uncertain terms, was told to get the building in compliance or suffer severe consequences.
Trust is an interesting concept for negotiations. Can one earn trust? Trust would then surely be defined as conforming to the expectations of others. Trust is intangible and is not a controlled commodity. Trust must be exuded as part of one's natural state of being. One must have personal integrity for trust to ensue. I say personal integrity because just plain being a good boy or girl and conforming to all standards of life will not attract the negotiating trust I am talking about. The negotiating trust to which I refer is the value of uncompromising self worth that is intrinsic in all of us. However, this innateness doesn't show up until we are hard pressed to be honest - honest with ourselves.
When you trust an individual you are intrinsically motivating them to be responsible. The LA fire department Plan Checker gave me the highest of compliments. I was one of only two individuals in all of Los Angeles, with whom he had engaged his professional services as a fire prevention expert, where he was fully trusting. The High Rise inspector became a friend. Would I ever go back on my word to these individuals who trusted me implicitly? NEVER!
The converse is also true; if you mistrust the individual, you are judging them for something that they may or may not be guilty of. If one is already deemed guilty there is not much reason to remain innocent, judgment has already occurred and the penalty of mistrust is thus inconsequential. Not only is mistrust detrimental to the receiver, it is an arrow of destruction to the giver because in it lies the principle of getting what you believe will probably happen. In negotiations, if you mistrust your opponent they will most likely comply with your mistrust as there is no reason to do otherwise - and that's what you expected. They are already deemed the "bad guy" and it is inevitable that you will find something wrong - that is what mistrust does, it finds something wrong. Thus you lose in the negotiation, even if you win a concession. If mistrust governs one's life, the saying "that which I have feared the most has come upon me" may be an experience you continually orchestrate. By mistrusting others you create a negative environment that is leading to your own destruction. When you trust an individual they are motivated to please because of the trust given to them. This builds their personal character which is the builder of their self worth, the basis of their fulfilled life. When they are accused negatively of an occurrence even before they take an action they might as well take the action. Only those of strong character will choose to do what is right. And this is built by trust.
Years after having built a trusting relationship with the staff of Building and Safety LA; the officials allowed me privileges and sanctions to the point where the Secretary of the Commissioners would consult with me personally to determine whether the project was in compliance. The final hearing before the Commissioners resulted in a "rubber stamp" of approval of my application without question or discussion. I thus had plenty negotiating privileges and power at that time. After two years of building negotiating trust, trust ensued. Officials granted millions of dollars of concessions in retrofitting the historic Queen of Angels hospital to a philanthropic institution. Trust others in negotiating until they prove themselves wrong. If they create their own mistrust then you can opt out of the negotiation with your integrity in tact.
© A. Allan Meyer, March 2008
Allan, an architectural designer, has been president of his own design-build firm and has acted as a consultant to other firms for over 20 years. Allan has just started a new venture and holds the position of Chairman and CEO for the development of luxury adult communities proposed for the USA, Canada and other international locations to service the "baby boom" market. See www.mansionliving.com for more information.
The Dealmaker™ Programmes - Dates for 2008
We are nearly one quarter of the way into 2008 and if you have not yet attended one of our courses, the time to book is now. Should you have any queries or want to reserve a place, 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 |
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 |
Ladies don't forget to book for the inaugural The Dealdiva™ programme on 02 & 03 April - it promises to be great fun!
The Dealdiva™ is two days in length and has been developed for Women Only. The programme addresses the negotiation challenges and obstacles women face on a daily basis. The course is suitable for women with any level of business or negotiation experience who are looking to significantly enhance their skills.
Have a fulfilling month in March!!! - Portia Ngcobo. |
