DealIntegrity

The integrity and transparency you show in a negotiation, deal-room, M&A activity, tender process or as a participant in at JV, consortia or similar, makes a lasting impression and speaks volumes. It drives collaboration, successful integration and transition, builds trust amongst leaders, managers and colleagues alike, unlocks innovation and value and protects your investment or return. It promotes a solution mindset and an ethos of fair dealing, transparency, trust, respect and win-win.

Whether you are the principal or the advisor, a buyer, seller, investor, partner, tenderer or contracting authority, taking a stand for integrity builds your reputation the right way.  Our services and support are hands on, practical and based on years of commercial negotiation, bid support and transactions across a wide range of sectors.

choose to be known for deal integrity.  reputations are at stake.

Support in action

Growth Support

We work with Boards, project teams and leadership on deals to support growth ambition.  We get involved from assessment of target, through diligence and management presentations, letters of interest, commercial and ethical risks identification, deal negotiation, synergy matrixing, integration (including ABC and business integrity training) and transitional arrangements.  The difference is that our service is led and informed by integrity to the project or deal itself being a success for all involved not just our paying client.  Keeping an eye on what happens after the deal is done or the tender is secured is all important and easy to lose sight of in the midst of transaction pressure.  We want our clients to be remembered the right way as growth partner of choice.

Exit Management

Selling a business or divesting a company from a group can be an enormous decision. We work with investors, trading groups, owner managers, founders and family businesses as they navigate how to realise their years of hard work, or to extract an underperforming or non-core business unit successfully, or look to form joint ventures or consortia.  All of these have bear-traps and we have project experience and insight in all aspects of the deal and transaction process. We act as a bridge or conduit between the deal stakeholders and their advisory teams as needed. We bring discretion, encourage intentionality and deal readiness whilst not detracting from the day to day.  We help clients focus on what is really important in legacy terms.  For most clients, the wrong deal, the wrong fit, however much the return, leaves a bitter taste.

Relationship Management

We help teams be just that.  In the context of multi-party projects, collaborations and consortia and post-deal integration and transitional arrangements, being an effective team does not come easily.  Relationships take work, shared vision and mission, understanding and communication.  The pace of business can mean this cornerstone work is not prioritised. Without true team effort, deals and projects fail to realise their potential or lock in the value of the investment.

Our work spans partner matching (‘should we date, let alone live together, how and where’ questions are posed).  We facilitate discussions for partners and investors to share and listen to each others back-story and future expectations. We get that expressed as Shared Values, Partnering Principles or a Charter of Success Behaviours.  We help with MOU, Letters of Intent, Teaming and Alliance and Consortia Agreements.

Our Chief Integrity Officer services extend to collaborative conscience, secretariat, facilitator and chairing support for Programme Boards and Consortium Executive Boards.  Neutrality helps.  We come alongside clients as they look to obtain ISO 444001 accreditation for their collaborative working business relationship management system and framework.  We can take the client through accreditaition, documentation build and preparation for external audits.  Dawn is a collaboration expert.

We only support this work if clients get this is all about trust behaviours and cultural change and are willing to enable such change.

Transaction Champions Training

Using 25+ years of deal and commercial negotiation experience, we provide guidance and insight for board, owners, management and leadership teams tasked with acquisitions for growth, tender negotiations, divestment responsibility and stakeholder management.  Often internal sponsors lack exposure to deals and transactions and they have their regular day job to do, so being responsible for a transaction can be stressful and involve a learning curve.

We provide deal mentoring services.  Transactions have a natural flow and common issues and challenges crop up.    We help identify barriers to deal success within the client organisation beforehand and prepare the teams for their corporate finance activities and the need for ethical walls. Our approach is tailored for each client – 1:2:1 support, team training, review and gate support.

Our success is evidenced by our clients and their management team sponsors needing us less for the next transaction! Our redundancy is the objective.

Project and Hybrid Team Support

The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted teams, transactions and negotiations previously reliant on face to face interaction, into the remote or virtual environment, ever more dependent on technology.  In addition, Government procurement is prioritising consortium and alliance models, creating the need for co-ordination and development of multi-partner teams for major programmes of work.  Dawn has experience in leading legal, governance, negotiation, contracts and collaborative work functions. The need to get more focused, more personal and more engaged with colleagues, professional teams or deal buddies is obvious.  When so much communication is non-verbal, paying attention in the meeting and clarity (hints won’t work) is paramount.  Tone can be lacking, emails can have disastrous results, damaging trust and relations, at a time of high pressure and isolation.  We support our clients to aid their understanding of pinch points and pitfalls, ideally ahead of time or, if not possible, we can act as a relationship bridge or conduit, to get amongst the team, to help.  It’s all a question of balance, clear objectives (the why) and empathy.

secure your legacy…

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We are always happy to have a general discussion.  What motivates us is authentic, transparent communication, grounded on the principle of wanting the best for the organisation and individuals we work with and support.

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