Been a while since I posted, so before the year runs out, here's a memory from my three wonderful years at Capital Maharaja Group, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Mr. R. Rajamahendran, whom we tragically lost in July 2021 after COVID related complications, was then the Chairman of this amazingly diverse conglomerate. I worked for his consumer business, IPL Marketing, and he would often call me up to attend meetings associated with the broader consumer sector which, inter alia, spanned significant interests in carbonated beverages and broadcasting.
A renowned supplier of broadcast technologies was visiting Colombo, to showcase their latest product range, a lot of which would be of direct and immediate interest to the group's radio and television broadcast operations. Some products were even classifiable as of urgent procurement priority, given that broadcast was, is, an extremely competitive sector, and as category leader, Maharaja stood to lose a lot if it didn't stay at the top of its game.
RR, as he was popularly known, would always ask his overseas visitors to arrive in Colombo a day before the scheduled business meetings. Guests would be received at the Bandaranaike International Airport and dropped to one of the fancy hotels dotting the Galle Face, with a welcome note detailing their schedule while on the island, and including an invitation to a dinner, later that evening.
RR decided that he needed me in this meeting and I was asked to attend the previous evening's dinner, so I could meet and greet the visitors.
Exactly per schedule, RR was at his bar to receive his visitors at 7 pm. The delegation arrived about a half hour later and were ushered in to his presence. He would tend his bar himself, pouring, mixing and serving his guests' tipples using the finest wines, spirits and liqueurs to grace any bar anywhere. If they'd visited earlier, he would remember his guests' choices and surprise them by passing them 'the usual'. When a country's top business magnate lays out such hospitality, the hardest businessman will turn gently into putty, as the lashings of fine bev and superb food mellow their mood.
Eventually, well past midnight, it was time for good-night-and-see-you-tomorrow.
Just hours later, at 8:15 the following morning, we were all back in the office, in RR's personal board room, waiting for the visitors to make their way in. They came, still battling jetlag and too much alcohol, and after a short presentation about the Maharaja Organisation, RR let them take charge.
They may have imagined that they were carrying priceless treasures which a small third-world business would instantly snap up. They discovered instead that their host wore an air of dispassionate equanimity, making it clear that he had no particular interest in their shiny gewgaws. This wasn't a mask. A deal would only happen on his terms, or he would be happy to part as friends.
In those 16 hours between the party and the business meeting, RR taught me more about the fine art of negotiation than any book or paper might.
The only path to a successful outcome of negotiation is to enter it without desire or temptation. What we would call निरिच्छ भाव in Indian languages.
Guests would still be feeling almost beholden after their welcome upon arrival, and would feel almost ungrateful if they didn't close their deal, even if it might break their own terms. And ever so often, they did, giving RR the reputation of a great host and tough deal-maker rolled into one.
It's a hard act to follow, but I try. I try.
