If the past 6 months are any indication, you are 8 times more likely to get stopped by TfL, London’s transport network, for not paying a fare than not wearing a face covering.
A hardcore 35%+ of self-obsessed and unwitting travellers on London’s public transport and TfL employees, have made a choice to ignore the automated messages telling them that they are obliged to protect themselves.
Today, the UK Government makes it a legal requirement to wear face coverings.
When pressed about holding travellers on the network to account, the spineless TfL leadership say they won’t address it, other than call the police! These bosses are ultimately accountable to London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan. He deflects attention on health issues other than to claim UK Government underfunding is crippling the London network and economy.
Don’t you think if he and his TfL leadership took ownership of the systemic health risk, his commercial case would be strengthened? Perhaps common sense is more difficult than we think.
If you are selling a business, and entering into an “earn out” period, you have two fall-back positions, (1) “legal” (Sales and Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) and (2) commercial considerations covering future eventualities and resolving conflict.
Nearly post-deal every conflict, results from the buyer or the seller putting their self-interests ahead of the other party (breach of trust). On 4 out of 5 occasions it is a behavioural issue. That is why chemistry and not rushing the pre-deal relationship building process is critical. If the buyer, is pre-occupied beyond a reasonable time period pre-deal with constantly shifting risk to the seller and chiseling the seller’s reward, you really aren’t “partners in success” much as they might tell you that you are. You are increasingly a “servant” of the buyer. That is the uncomfortable truth.
80% of post-deal “earn-out” disputes are highly predictable before the deal is signed.
Legal – the protections afforded in your SPA should be reflective of the control and influence you (seller) have on performance during the earn-out period. If you are out of the business, you will to push for maximal protection that the buyer will not unduly harm the agreed value of the business (inept client relationship management, irrational behaviour to key employees, excessive integration processes and expense etc.)
Commercial – less obvious to many pre-deal, is the “lifetime leverage” (financial, non-financial, business and personal) you can build pre- and post-deal with the buyer. No buyer of a business wants to cut off their nose too spite one’s face. What is the value you can obviously create for his or her business during the remainder of the earn-out period and beyond? Is it increasing or decreasing? Or to put it another way, how is the buyer better off or personally better supported when your relationship ends?
I tire of sellers, who come running to me about “unscrupulous buyers”, and then admit that they have done little or nothing to build their leverage with the buyer. I remind you, earn out’s are a means to an end, to establish the ultimate value of your business. You keep running hard in your lane through the finishing tape, you don’t slow down or simply “stop” and await an uncertain outcome.
