Sublime

Identifying value-creating opportunities requires probing for the underlying interests of each side, rather than playing the traditional game of positional bargaining.

Competition for the deal must be deployed in a nuanced way—seemingly small process choices can have big substantive implications.

Professor Howard Raiffa’s maximum bid of others (or MBOO, pronounced “maboo”) analysis, which captures the fundamental trade-off in graphical form.

Putting MESOs on the table allows you to diagnose what is important to your counterparty, which is then the raw material for identifying value-creating trades across issues.

To bid in a disciplined way, you trade the likelihood of winning against the profits from winning. Some sophisticated dealmakers do this instinctively.