Control

I had an interesting moment talking about a new concept with an investor.  I had informed him that I was having a meeting with the mall management to go through the final version of the concept, and propose the PSF for the outlet.  He said that he should be at the meeting.  At first I said no because I believe that introducing new elements (being a new person) would affect the negotiation, possibly derailing the process.  And since he was only a potential investor, I wasn't sure if it was good to bring him into the process into the first place.

My potential investor (is his characteristic blunt way) pointed out that it was his strength in negotiation, and that (though he didn't use as many words), believed that he could negotiate a better deal than I would.   I thought about this for a while before agreeing to let him come to the meeting.

If I mapped the thinking process, I would guess that besides the derailing risk, I did have an ego hit when he pointed out my previous negotiation results.  As a "entrepreneur", I would think that I am capable of doing all the job elements.  To be confronted with that fact, is a hard pill to swallow.  And then the more I thought about it, the less downside there was.  Ultimately if there is no deal, there is no business.  And he is very keen to get the deal done, and (hopefully) has the skills to get the deal for the right price.  We have to use the resources we have around us to get the results we are looking for.  Also since he has staked his ability to get that PSF rate, then he should have more incentive.

Of course there is still a downside and that is that he alienates the relationships that we have built with the mall.  Given that we don't have any current business with them, then it is not too big an issue.  Let's see how this meeting goes.

As an overall theme though, it's about the amount of control each of the people have in a new company.  Having not worked with him before, I suppose this period is about finding out what the other person wants.  And in this case, I have to be clear what I (and GAP) is looking for.  I should not think of people as being adversarial straight away.  But I should not give the control up without knowing the reason why.  And the reality of the situation is that whoever has 51% of the votes will control the company.