Lessons in negotiation: Do your home work, and never overestimate your value

Sometimes people overestimate their leverage on the negotiating table, and you must know when to make concessions and demands By Donovan Chimhandamba This week on the Brawlers Book Club I would like to share interesting stories as posted by Graham Ndanga over: Staying at the table, even when negotiations fail to keep the relationship alive: out of the book Negotiating The Impossible by Deepak Malhotra. Also of interest in the same chapter is: Not having done your homework and overestimating your leverage at the negotiating table. Story One In 2012 my private equity fund management company, Arkein Capital Partners, I was managing AngloAmerica's community trust with assets close to $1bn at that time (ZAR9bn and exchange rate was $1:R9). We eyed Rwanda as a new investment frontier and wanted to be pioneering and take up leading positions in the emerging projects in gas (Rwanda Energy Company in Gisenyi bordering Goma across Lake Kivu), cement (Cimerwa in Bugarama), peat bogs (coal equivalent in districts of Nyanza and Bugesera) and Tin in Rwinkavhu. Of relevance to this topic about doing homework, we decided to find a local guy who is connected enough to arrange meetings for us with anyone we