Are you trusting the right person?

It happened in the year 1997–98. Head of team B(also the other “B” in this incident!)and others put us across to a certain other group(Let us call them team A for simplicity! )

When we approached B… We also had in our team great professionals from impeccable background who knew team B head especially . Anyway as it was destined! we met team A(to whom “B” put us across to) very happily.

A drama followed which was a picture perfect situation…..

Everything looked wonderfully perfect in that meeting.And we entered into a deal with team A with lot of hope based on the faith we had on B and his team members.

Well………………..

Once the deal was over some strange things started surfacing out.Out of the blue things started appearing ( Alien forces?). We were baffled and many a times taken aback by the invisible forces playing havoc to derail the very trust we had in this new deal itself.

B… and his team started bad mouthing about team A

Big Shock, Pain , Agony and lot of new things surfaces.B… takes absolutely no responsibility but instead kept adding to the pain in his own way and his team members were also singing the same song and nothing other than that.A split in his team during this time only resulted in spilling more beans and it was evident that B…. was playing an unfair game and he had several other aspects in his mind which they should have let us known then to be fair with us as we believed him then.

Our team later realized that…It was only that B…. just wanted that deal to take place with them for some vested interests which was his short term objective and was also part of his long term game plan(unfair plan).

He was also looking for an opportunity to take revenge on team A even at the cost of our peace of mind!..One of the reasons we later realized to our surprise was , he was upset with them even then for an earlier deal he had with team A for someone very dear to him several years back(that didn’t end well) ..

We also realized that B…. and team had an axe to grind with team A and just wanted to reach a certain level and was waiting for yet another deal to take place after a certain period of time and then wanted to spill the beans and making it uncomfortable for everyone who trusted him and his teammates .(More reasons also to it than I could probably elaborate here)

Also a communication from one of his team members who is known for his unconventional approach and outspoken manner made it easy for everyone among us to understand the crux of the problem .

Where actually the issue was and this was supposed to be briefed to us then enabling us to take sufficient shelter for future protection(Even we would have gone ahead with the deal if this information was given then but we should have gone for the deal with the added advantage of a protective cover with the information known). Instead they were hiding this valuable information from us and started acting funny later blowing hot and cold.

It also surfaced that,that team never had a good rapport with those people they put us across to(team A again) and it was just a drama enacted to take place the deal with the difference in opinion between them never sorted out. For Just the deal to take place they pretended that they were in a good relationship which was far from true!(This is too big a story to explain here and could very well form part of a book!)…Lessons learnt : — —

#More than that meets the eye!:-

Don’t get tempted to take decisions just because you might know someone “somewhat” or someone recommend you to go ahead.That alone is not sufficient to safeguard.Have your facts and figures ready as many a times there might probably be a lot more hidden and resurface in an unpleasant manner.. “More than that meets the eye..”

Check,Counter Check and take a decision after studying all the aspects carefully

#Before getting into the deal itself, Ask questions wherever it is relevant.

Also ask your team members to prepare as much information as possible through various background checks and other modes which could be obtained so that you could ask for more clarity.

If they are uncomfortable about answering certain questions start thinking that something is wrong.

#It might be a good idea to also get a common reference point a via media which is more dependable.

Someone who would have successfully had an earlier deal with them will prove to be very useful. Dwell deep into details and gather more details from via media and other sources in order to make sure that that you can actually trust and get in.I repeat someone who would not just know them but had a deal with them would be a good via media for this purpose..Then only you will know the full story.

#Please put everything in black and white.

#Take enough precautions to make sure that right from the beginning everything is recorded and concurrence also taken from either side for every possible short term and long term aspects which are bound to be important for a successful implementation.

Thanks for reading and hope this is helpful.