When you work in professional services, governance is not just important, it is critical - a way of life. And when you provide negotiation services, governance is not just a way of life, it is absolutely vital to the continuation of your business.

Our negotiation consultants are often asked, “Have you worked with our counterparties?” We have been providing negotiation solutions for more than 25 years to Fortune 500 companies globally, so the chances are that the answer is, “Yes”.

But this is not a chance calculation. It is a conscious decision borne out of a philosophical approach.

Why?

Let’s answer this with a question. Have you ever negotiated with an untrained negotiator? If you have, you will know how frustrating and value-destructive it can be.

To create value, you need to know which questions to ask and which variables to deploy. If you wish to create trust, you need to know how to share information appropriately and choose the information to share to move the negotiation forward. In order to avoid damaging contractual pitfalls, you need to discuss everything that might go wrong in the life of the contract upfront. If you want a negotiation to run smoothly, you need to plan, prepare and engage stakeholders in key decisions. The untrained negotiator may navigate some of these obstacles instinctively, but rarely completely. And that is why we will provide negotiation capability development to anyone who needs it.

The Gap Partnership has also offered advisory services for many of those 25+ years. We have spent decades building a relationship of trust between our consultants and the clients with whom they work. It is in the space of advisory services - negotiation consulting - that our approach differs. This is where conflict of interest becomes a real, tangible threat. And as a result, it’s where we manage governance with the strictest controls. We treat potential conflict of interest extremely seriously. This allows us to make the following assurance. You will NEVER find The Gap Partnership on both sides of the same negotiation.

To do this, we have a carefully designed and rigorously maintained knowledge database of all current and historical advisory engagements. We keep records of the counterparties in every engagement, and also of the consultants who lead the service delivery. Before we agree to take on a new engagement, we subject each request to multiple rounds of checking and approval.

Conflict of interest can take many forms. It can be literal, or it can be perceived. We approach both with the same care. It is not as simple as, “Are we engaged with the counterparty on this negotiation?” In every case we check whether and when we have engaged in any way with the counterparty’s organization. Which division, where globally we may have worked with them, and in what capacity. If there could be a perception of conflict or the potential of future conflict, we will not engage.

We also consider competitive conflict, in which we may be exposed to commercially sensitive information about an individual client. If there is any risk that this knowledge could compromise our consultant’s service, we will not engage.

This should provide you with some reassurance. It also provides our leadership and shareholders with similar levels of comfort because, commercially, it is not in our interests to find ourselves conflicted or perceived by our clients to be conflicted.

We look forward to working with you in any capacity that you require, whether it is negotiation support, capability building or changing the commercial culture of your organization, or, as is optimal, a blend of all three.

Whatever the nature of our engagement, rest assured, we value your trust beyond everything and we have the governance in place to prove it.

About the author

Chris Atkins heads up the global consultancy practice at The Gap Partnership. He specializes in the development of strategic, commercial solutions across multiple sectors, including cost price increases, mergers and acquisitions, RFPs, trade union negotiations and strategic sourcing. Chris is driven by a passion for overcoming challenges and delivering impactful outcomes for his clients.