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Other Applications 359

• bugging hotel bedrooms and rooms used for pre-meetings by your side;
• glamorous blondes sat next to you on the aircraft while travelling to or from the meeting

or in the bar, restaurant or bingo hall;
• briefcases, pens, coats etc. containing tape recorders left behind by the opposition when

your side remains in the meeting room during adjournments;
• collection of waste paper from bed and conference rooms (including partly used notepads

which will contain ESDA sensitive impressions);
• theft of personal computers;
• arranging social trips for the participants’ wives so that they can be pumped for informa-

tion.

Fortunately, most opponents don’t stoop to such tactics, but some do: so don’t let your guard
drop.

Preparing the meeting room

You should always be the first to arrive at the venue and, if possible, enter the meeting room
before anyone else and generally check it out.

THE SAUSAGE CASE A vigorous pull on this cable resulted in
a scream from the roof void, then a loud
A post acquisition meeting was planned with crash and the words ‘Oh shit!’. Further
a father and son who had sold their sausage investigation revealed a young man who
making machine business to a British listed had concealed himself in the roof void,
company at around four times its real value, wearing earphones connected the cable.
mainly because assets had been grossly When this sad creature was interviewed
inflated. The listed company’s team arrived he admitted that the father and son had
early in the room and heard shuffling noises intended to start the meeting, then adjourn
which appeared to be coming from a void it, leaving the listed company’s team alone
in the gabled roof of the office. They looked to discuss their position. They then planned
around and found a microphone hidden in to react based on this inside information.
an exotic plant connected to a cable going
under the carpet and then into a cupboard
and up into the roof void.

If you have called the meeting, consider setting out place names, putting the opposing
power player to your right and as far away as possible from his supporters. If you cannot do
this, get your team in their seats before the opposition arrives and try to marginalize them.
If you know the power player is deaf in his left ear, sit him to the right of everyone else and
preferably near a noisy window.

If you plan to use PowerPoint, video conferencing or any other equipment, check it out
because if you are unable to operate it, you look a plonker and are thus put in the role of a
child: this is not good news.

The meeting
Basic principles

If you have planned effectively the meeting will be a cinch but you must: