Not all bullies are created equal

Bully Bribery

When inspiration strikes (a rare occurrence), I jot down the outline of the idea before it’s gone from my progressively sieve-like memory. A few months back, I wrote, “Bully bribery, how to respond to extortive officials - facts and assumptions, don’t assume they have leverage and power, could be chancers. They’re also risking a lot.”

Two weeks ago, I looked at the line and thought, “Urgh, that’s tricky to flesh out.” Now it seems less so.

You stand up to bullies

I was bullied for a while during primary school. Notably, by a kid who had a prosthetic arm - a sort of pincer hook - and liked taking my lunch. I now see how hard life probably was for him in the 1980s UK. His cronies I have less sympathy for.

My parent’s response to this bullying was interesting. My Mum stuck a thick layer of cayenne pepper in my sandwich and told me to hand it over to the bully and act perplexed when he turned puce. Don’t mess with a kid who can take that much spice! My Dad, who had been a boxer in his youth, turned the garage into a boxing gym (heavy bag, speed bag, ropes, medicine balls). He trained us (my brother and I), and we loved it.

Both tactics worked, but no one likes PBC sandwiches!

But what does this have to do with bribery?

Who are you dealing with?

When you receive an unethical or illegal demand, the first step is to ask, “Who is this person and why are they doing this?” Of course, you may not know, but it’s still a worthwhile experiment. Your local colleagues will often know how the game works. Negotiating with a lowly official who is expected to trickle up the majority of the ‘rent’ to more senior toads is a very different proposition to the opportunist apparatchik who thinks there’s scope to make a quick buck. Some questions to consider might include:

1. Is this a systemic scheme or opportunistic? If their bosses are in on it, then escalating is trickier, but if not...
2. Can this person cause the harm they’re threatening (e.g., cancelling a license, choosing a different provider)? Few decisions these days rest on one person.
3. What do we know about how this process should work? If we don’t know enough, get educated!
4. Who are these people connected to? Not all officials are powerful (but some are).
5. Do we know anyone else who could help? Maybe a less corrupt colleague of the official, a powerful local client, or some other local community connection.

How should we respond?

If the process is not (super) time-sensitive, I would always move to delay. Most MNCs are bureaucratic, and approvals take time. This sluggishness can be an asset as you fall back on the “I’ll need to discuss internally.” If the process is critical, learn from it and plan more next time. But in the interim, you’ll need to choose a path:

1. Delay: A surprisingly effective tactic, especially when dealing with an opportunist who may move on to easier marks. The trick is to be convincing. You’ll need to explain how money is released and the process, preferably in detail. If you can safely play dumb, do so. For example, asking for a schedule of fees or invoices for unethical requests. The goal is to preserve your safety but be so tedious to deal with that you become more hassle than you’re worth.
2. Appeasement: Can this person be otherwise motivated? For example, if officials at your factory gate continue to set up impromptu tolls (or weigh stations), what is the issue here? Officials who are paid peanuts sit out in the heat (or cold) and hustle for scraps. If they have a legitimate function (e.g., weigh stations outside a mine), would providing them with a shelter (simple hut) and meals improve their lives?
3. Avoidance: If processing visas through City B is fraught with bribe requests, can you check if City A is easier? The fly your people in via City A and travel by land to City B. It’s a pain, but it can make sense for a daily and repeated bleeding problem. This tactic is especially prevalent in anything logistical (different ports, roads, and airports present varied levels of governance, even in the same country).
4. Resistance: If you’re pretty sure the requestor lacks support from on-high and they cannot follow through (easily) on their extortive threat, resist. BUT, do not put your safety or liberty at risk. Resistance is a team and spectator sport, be very careful about doing it alone and anywhere you are isolated/uncontactable.
5. Escalation: When the tactics above have failed, you may need to escalate. For some of you big companies, this will be your first recourse. I’ve seen Fortune 100 types pick up the phone to a senior government official to quash demands. For the rest of us, escalation can involve diplomatic missions, chambers of commerce, industry associations, corporate neighbours in collective action, and even religious figures in the local community. Think laterally, and be careful as many people will crawl out of the woodwork to offer to help you for a fee; they are often part of the scam or sensing a chance to create a new income stream.

Recovery-led approaches

Whatever situation or response, the goal is to make intelligence-led decisions that don’t lead to worse (unintended) consequences. There is no exact science here, but the crisis response framework offers the best recourse.

1. Facts: What do we know for certain? Usually a shortlist.
2. Assumptions: What assumptions are we making? How can we test assumptions to move them to fact/fiction (prioritise assumption-testing by ease and impact)?
3. Scenarios: What are the possible scenarios? I’ve discussed our difficulties conceptualising likelihood in verbal terms, so ask people individually to attach a % probability to each scenario. The median numeric value has an uncanny accuracy when we estimate in groups.
4. Communication: Who needs to know what, when? Prepare them.
5. Action: Take action, and accept that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so you’ll need to reconvene regularly (hourly in the most severe extortive incidents).

If this looks like a long process, it gets a lot quicker with practice. You can almost engrain the framework into impactful decisions with minimal brain processing power.

Over to you

I want to ask you how you deal with unethical demands from peskily powerful or persistent stakeholders, but I realise that few may wish to go public. So, I give you three options:

1. How might you deal with such a situation were you to face it?
2. How did someone else deal with a similar situation?
3. Message me if you’d like to discuss this in private.