Managing an executive or board visit to Iraq

A two-day visit by senior people costs more in attention than in cash, and it is usually planned forwards: flights, hotel, and then whatever meetings can be arranged around them. The result is a full schedule that answers nothing in particular.

Start with the decision

Write down what the visit has to conclude. Whether to proceed. Whether the partner is credible. Whether the site is what the reports describe. Then work backwards: what would have to be seen or heard to reach that conclusion, and who would have to be in the room.

Verify before you meet

Counterparty verification before a senior meeting is cheap and rarely done. Commercial registration, ownership where appropriate, due diligence checks and references take a few days. Discovering a problem in the meeting costs considerably more than discovering it beforehand.

Build the day around movement, not optimism

• Cluster meetings geographically rather than chronologically where you can
• Choose accommodation against the meeting locations, not only by rating
• Allow realistic transit time, and a contingency for the meeting that overruns
• Assign one driver for the whole visit rather than a different one each day
• Confirm every meeting the day before, and again on the morning

One coordinator, one document

The itinerary should cover movements, meetings, contacts and contingencies, be issued to every provider before departure, and be reissued centrally whenever it changes. The coordinator holds it, attends where useful, and stays reachable for the whole stay.

Interpreting is a professional service

Using a driver or an administrator to interpret at a board-level meeting is a false economy and occasionally a serious one. Brief the interpreter in advance on the subject matter and the names, and give them the agenda.

Gifts and hospitality

Hospitality is normal and expected. It should stay within your own anti-bribery policy, be recorded in a register, and never be arranged on the assumption that it will influence an outcome. Salt Corporate Services does not make facilitation payments and does not offer access to officials as a service.

The debrief

A visit produces value when it produces actions. A debrief note written within forty-eight hours, listing what was decided, what was learned and who owns each follow-up, is what separates a visit from a trip.