Cadbury tagged posts

June 6, 2014,  Guru in a Bottle, News  No comments

Pfizer’s attempted takeover bid for British drugs company Astra Zeneca has been permanently consigned to the history books and with it the dream of creating the world’s biggest drug company that would’ve been worth a colossal $119bn.

So what went wrong?

Clive Rich, an expert negotiator who’s been behind some pretty big deals in his time, offers the following incisive point of view: “Whenever people negotiate the airwaves always seem to be dominated by organisational issues like price, delivery date, quantity, or valuation. We are all very comfortable hiding behind these issues...

August 2, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  One comment

A few years’ ago I had the privilege to work with one of my heroes, Dr Edward de Bono, the grandfather of lateral thinking, in helping to launch his book, Think! Before It’s too Late.

The book launch was unlike others in that we decided that Edward de Bono should host a lunch for a cross-section of some remarkable people from all walks of life at the River Terrace at the House of Lords.

Edward de Bono conceived of a way in which we can solve problems by ‘wearing’ different coloured hats that had the power to break the habit of linear thinking or critical analysis that we tend to default to as a result of our narrowly constructed education experience in the West.

‘Six...