Please sign here.

Regular readers of this blog and Devant clients will know that we're really hot on the use of contracts to prevent companies and individuals from getting into disputes in the future, and to enable them to have productive commercial relationships from the start.

With this in mind, we work with our clients to help them structure great deals that benefit both parties, and to draft readable contracts that reflect their expectations. Recently, though, we've learned that we seem to be missing out one vital step - standing over our lovely clients and making sure they and their own customers/partners/fellow shareholders actually sign their agreements!

Examples of non-signing-induced trauma include:
- dispute over who owns which bits of a custom-developed website
- shareholder dispute leading to director resignation
- dispute over payment terms

...where all of these would have been agreed in black and white if the parties concerned had actually signed the contracts they'd negotiated. And they would now be getting on with running their businesses rather than wasting valuable effort resolving needless disputes.

Of course, there is an argument that even if un-signed, the last draft of the contract to be exchanged could be taken to represent the intention of the parties. But this does not give either party the concrete position that it would have had if signature had occurred - and in order to discover how much weight a Court would give to it, the parties have to actually sue each other. This is a step further than most would really like to go, and if the agreements had been signed the chances are that the party in the wrong wouldn't be trying to push their luck in the way they are now.

So I'm considering offering a new service - the "Signing Ceremony", where one of the Devant team will turn up with two copies of the contract for signature and a pen, and oversee their signature by both parties. Maybe we offer celebratory Champagne to seal the deal. Because getting those signatures is essential to being able to rely on the contract, particularly if you intend to use it to manage the relationship without wanting to go to Court to prove your point.

Helping "them" communicate with "us"

There is a general perception that Government and public sector bodies do not understand the commercial world.

But the reality (as in so many cases) is rather different. During our recent programme of commercial contract and negotiation workshops for the Department of Work and Pensions, I've met some incredibly competent, bright and switched-on people. They're creative, pragmatic and surprisingly willing to see the world from a commercial viewpoint.

One of the exercises in the workshop splits the delegates into two teams - essentially a supplier and a buyer - and pits them against each other in a negotiation role play. Although there were lots of groans about doing role play, the delegates quickly got into the spirit of the thing. And those playing the part of the supplier rapidly picked up the issues that would be of concern to a company offering products or services to a Government organisation, and negotiated their corner eloquently and effectively.

The purpose of this post is not to flatter our client (although they are lovely!). The point I wanted to draw from these observations is that even non-commercial teams have people within them capable of developing good commercial skills, to the great benefit of their organisations and suppliers alike. There is a tendency to see buyers of services and products (particularly public sector or technical buyers) as "them", a group of beings quite different to "us", the suppliers. But with a little encouragement, "they" can learn "our" language, enabling both supplier and client to communicate their requirements more effectively and build more productive commercial relationships.

Sending senior (i.e. very busy!) non-commercial staff for training in contracts and negotiation in a commercial environment was not an obvious move, but illustrates a great deal of common sense on the part of the DWP. And I think it will pay huge dividends in the way these folks interact with the commercial entities that support their work on a daily basis, and the value that the Department (and, ultimately, the tax payer) realises from the various commercial relationships it enters into.

Electric Dreams

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster at Devant towers. We, like several of the surrounding villages, experienced a power cut that started late morning and continued until 8.30pm. Although our laptops had a couple of hours' battery life, we were unable to send or receive email. Even the local mobile base station was out, so telephony was a challenge too.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised at how dependent we are on those little moving electrons - in both our domestic and business lives. But it certainly made me glad that the age of the fully automated house hasn't arrived yet! It was quite romantic eating our fish and chips by candlelight, but being locked out of an electric house would have been quite another story...

All's back to normal today, and hopefully we've caught up with all of yesterday's emails. If you tried to call or to leave us a voicemail yesterday please do try again! Or you can always email me at tiffany.kemp@devant.co.uk.