Know Your Client

As a business or legal consultant, familiarity with your client or employer, is the key cornerstone for your success along with his. This is by far what will separate you from the herd – separate the wheat from the chaff.

There are four significant aspects of your client each will need your close attention: Territory, Status, Activity, Policy. Each interact, often heavily influence, and radiate with the others.

Territory

Each country has its own laws, regulation and international treaties along with local concepts and traditions, that effect your client’s business. Employment relations for example: women status at work and the ability to employ women, or religious factors that may influence your supply scheduling.

Bureaucracy, depends on the business at hand, may have a strong bearing on the financial performance. For instance, the time requires to issue building permits will be directly reflected on your balance sheets, whether your business is construction or investment in real estate.

Tax obviously plays major part in your entire layout, as domestic and international taxation dictates the desirable and specific relations between the businesses’ various departments and structure – supply, services, logistics and management.

The geography may also have a strong impact on costs – island or secluded area, approachability to transport rout, and even weather conditions, definitely will affect energy consumption and professional work force availability.

Status

Private, Public, Listed, Governmental, and any possible combination of each will have direct impact on the business daily routine and contracting.

Inclination to Public, Listed, Governmental entities, introduces a higher and more elaborate regulation régime – from the basics of the decision making process which dictates some rigid protocol of board meetings secretarial monitoring and time planning, going through the mandatory, immediate and periodical, reports to the relevant regulatory competent body.

In these instances, the inevitability of tender laws must be considered and addressed, along with the painstaking course of seeking the right and suit exemption, or adhering with the tender detailed requirements.

If the business happens to hold a significant part of the territory’s market or about to, then the antitrust and fair competition legislation will have to be considered and may curve your activity.

Global entities, which combines the two parameters of Territory and Status, will obviously require addressing the implications thereof.

Activity

Military, Energy, Pharmaceutical, and Information are but few examples of activities that are subject to additional regulations and monitoring. Some activities perceived as having a strong impact on the state’s policy or on privacy laws or on natural resources, thusly required additional regulatory measures.

Hence, one cannot sell a fighter jet to whomever he chooses, and one cannot drill for fusil fuel or erect wind turbine wherever he like; licenses, permits, public sharing, steering committee are but some of the proactive tools that certain industries must adhere to.

Policy

This is the more elusive term of the four; it enfolds a vast array of variables – the ethics of the managers, shareholders, beliefs and religion, and goes through the degree of aggression that may be accustomed in the relevant market or even the specified activity at hand.

Same businesses may react differently and reach the same results, some may reach different results altogether. Some may not react and reach the highest results.