Smarter Outsourcing: An executive guide to understanding, planning and exploiting successful outsourcing relationships

Understanding assumptions and motivations

Where disconnects such as these exist sharp detailed questioning by experienced, specialist and – by definition – external lawyers during the drafting stage will bring them into the open. If this questioning is left too late the result will be tensions between the parties, and the reopening of commercial issues that had been perceived as effectively closed under the terms of the ‘handshake’ deal.

The need to avoid this eventuality – and the resulting delays or even collapse of the deal – means two further perspectives are crucial when entering negotiations. One is to document key aspects of the transaction in a term sheet, so that both parties understand each other’s assumptions and can see how the plan ...