As human beings we like to think that we are very good communicators. We have developed sophisticated languages with huge vocabularies and complex grammar, and using these we can communicate through both speech and the written word. It is this ability that has enabled us to organise as communities and to trade. We have now also developed electronic technology - including the telephone, email, the internet and video conferencing - and this has advanced our basic ability to communicate. When it comes to doing deals in the pharmaceutical industry, whether they are licensing or acquisition based, we are using all of the tools of communication at our disposal. We are dependent on communication to do the deal, and we have to communicate across the table as well as within our own organisations. If any of these communications fail, the ability to close the deal is likely to be undermined. In the end, the final decision revolves around whether the agreement, as written, is good for the organisation, and this written agreement is itself the product of negotiation using all the communication tools available. In effect, therefore, it is a communication document that will have to be interpreted by third parties if a dispute ever arises.
.Our ability to communicate allows us to build confidence in the other side. Key to this is the often underestimated and undervalued component to communication that can only be achieved in face-to-face meetings.. The other essential ingredient in the decision to make a deal is trust. Do we trust the other side regardless of what is written in the agreement? In the Encarta World English Dictionary, trust is defined as 'confidence in and reliance on good qualities, especially fairness, truth, honour, or ability'. How do we develop trust, and how is it undermined? In my view, trust is earned by communication and is often destroyed by either negative actions or a lack of communication. Our ability to communicate allows us to build confidence in the other side. Key to this is the often underestimated and undervalued component to communication that can only be achieved through face-to-face meetings. These are valuable because we can learn from them so much that can never be obtained through electronic forms of communication. At meetings we can observe body language, we can ask questions that it would be difficult to ask or even answer through other means of communication, we can explore the other side.s values and culture, and we can come to have 'confidence in and reliance on good qualities, especially fairness, truth, honour, or ability'. Ultimately, we have to acknowledge that, although the new electronic forms of communication are convenient and rapid, they leave out much that is needed in the overall interaction between companies and which, in the final analysis, forms the basis of a good deal.
Fintan Walton
Chief Executive Officer
PharmaVentures Ltd