Managing Relationships: Win-Win, Lose-Lose, or in between? What are Your Negotiating Results?
               "I knew Captain America...only he was a Private."   

 What readers have said about the article:
"Thanks so much for sharing. What a wonderful story of your uncle’s bravery, courage, and incredible negotiating skills while being held captive!" - J.K.
"What a powerful story ---- thanks for sharing it;  I plan to share it with my congregation in the future. Appreciate it!" - L.B.
"Very nice... I enjoyed it... thank you." - E.K.
"What a great story and a nice job by you to weave it back into negotiations.  I have some to do this afternoon and this will encourage me to move forward with courage and optimism." - J.G.
"Really great story Steve. Your uncle saved a lot of lives on both sides." - M.L.
"This is great, Steve!  Your uncle’s story is amazing and I like the way you tied it into leadership concepts.  Thank you for sharing!!" - L.A.
"Awesome! Thanks for sharing." - R.T.


Other articles in the 'Relationship' series:

Managing Relationships with Investment Managers: Are You Monitoring the Most-Favored-Nation Clause?
The fund used its considerable leverage---assets-under- management, name cachet, potential for additional business---to get MFN fee treatment. Your legal support team carefully worded the language. Everyone agreed on it and put in the contract, and...that was the end of it. It’s been forgotten ever since.
 
What readers have said about it:
"Nicely done, Steve. Thanks for sharing this well-written piece." - D.S.
"Thanks for the document.  I’m curious though…how do you really determine if a manager is following with MFN (or perform an audit of the MFN) as I presume that the manager is bound by confidentiality issues (i.e., they can’t disclose other client’s fee rates)?" - T.M.
"Thanks for sending this Steve. Good ideas here. I have passed on to members of my team and will be discussing with them." - D.Z.


Managing Relationship Risk: Are Risk Managers Neglecting the Iceberg Below?
Many organizations with a fiduciary responsibility have at their disposal the best risk management personnel, advisers and tools of any organizations. However, they have not yet focused on how to manage some key relationship risks that form the iceberg below. 

 What readers have said about it:
"This is excellent! I am impressed." - R.T.
"I like the paper.  I think a lot of this type of ill will goes away with good interpersonal skills exercised by both the executive staff and the board members and other interested parties.  Without those skills, there is no hope of anything changing." - G.B.
"Thanks Steve. I recognize in your paper some of the things that you were telling me on our walk to/from the restaurant (notably Mr. Fifty Percent)!" - D.Z.
"Nicely written piece. It contains words of wisdom that all those working with fiduciary boards should definitely take into account." - D.S.

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Case Study: The Three Lines of Defense Model for Risk Management and Control – Adaptation to an In-house Asset Manager

Recently I advised the Audit Committee of a corporate board on the structure of the internal auditing function at its subsidiary benefit plan manager. StudyCo. manages over $15 billion in pension and health plan assets and also administers the associated benefits. A recent IIA position paper on best practices for risk management and control was used as a guide on best practices. All parties were comfortable that the IIA model represents best practices. Although the Audit Committee has had concerns about its current state for some time, they had accepted it with some mitigating controls in place. The Audit Committee decided to revisit the structure because StudyCo seeks to increase its sphere of investment management operations.
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Commercial Real Estate Advisers: 101 Best Practices
A compilation of best practices for benchmarking separate account real estate management.

Written in 1999, well before Donald Trump became President. these 101 best practices were gathered from independent control reviews of prominent real estate advisers.  The fieldwork to develop this information included identifying objectives of control, discussions with personnel at each adviser, obtaining and documenting our understanding of the control system in place at each adviser and testing key aspects of the systems for compliance.

Here's an excerpt from page three:

The Art after the Deal

Much media emphasis has been placed on the art of deal making. There is little doubt that this is due to the excitement of the negotiations surrounding huge sums of money, the long-term impact of the property on people and communities, and the exhilarating and ultimately satisfying pride of ownership. Much less media emphasis has been on properly managing property after the deal making is over. It is here in the somewhat more mundane day-to-day world where we believe that good deals are made, bad deals can be salvaged, and good deals gone sour can be made sweet again. This is the art after the deal.

In his book The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump relates this story of a proposed cost cutting initiative at Trump Tower. The initiative was put forth by someone from his partner, Equitable. Resisting the proposed cuts, he remarked, "When you set the highest possible standards, they're expensive to maintain." The representative from Equitable wished to proceed with the cuts anyway. Trump said, "That was probably the end of my partnership with Equitable."

This is “The Donald” at his inimitable best. The Trump anecdote says much about how a real estate investment relationship should not be run. Where in Trump’s story are the normal budgetary controls that would address expenses? Where are the operating projections that would have included the costs in
question? What is the ramification in legal and other professional fees of forcing a partner to withdraw over a relatively trivial issue (frequency of polishing the brass)? Yes, Mr. Trump may have written the book on the art OF the deal, but what about the art AFTER the deal?
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Want to read more? Click on the links above.
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