Middle of a tender.

PPP project.

Pressure everywhere.

The client wants the best offer.

The lenders want certainty.

The SPV wants bankability.

The construction company wants protection.

The bid team wants sleep.

The bid manager wants to make it until the 5 days snap holidays in Cuba starting the day after the submission.

Somewhere in the middle of that beautiful circus, the SPV and the construction company start negotiating the construction contract.

The contract that will sit behind the Project Agreement.

The contract that is supposed to pass down the right risks.

The contract that is supposed to make the whole structure work.

Lovely.

In theory, everybody is on the same side.

Same consortium.

Same logo on the submission.

Before we used Paint… in those days something called Fotochó or “algo así”

Same smiling faces in the bid room.

Same “one team” speech in the weekly meeting.

Very emotional.

Almost Disney.

Until the construction company starts saying things like:

“We cannot take that risk.”

“This should be an SPV risk.”

“We need relief if the Authority does this.”

“We need more flexibility.”

“We need an entitlement here.”

“Just a small carve-out.”

Of course.

Always small.

Nobody ever says:

“Hello, we are here to blow up your risk transfer and make your equity case uninvestable.”

No.

They say:

“This is just to clarify the position.”

I had to go to the bathroom for a pee after writing that sentence…

Sorry…

Look.

The biggest enemy of its bid may not be the competing consortium.

It may be sitting inside its own room.

Wearing the same badge.

Drinking the same terrible and undrinkable coffee.

Pretending to be aligned.

And this is where inexperienced people get destroyed.

They think being in a consortium means being friends.

Wrong.

A consortium is not a yoga retreat.

Ask my wife about that…

It is a temporary alliance of commercial and deadly animals with different appetites.

It’s not paperwork.

This is war with comments in track changes.

One bad carve-out and you destroy your pass-down.

One “minor” drafting point can become a beautiful invoice factory.

And then people act surprised.

“How did this happen?”

Congratulations.

You now have alignment… behind your lawyers.

That is why being in the room is not enough.

You need to understand what is happening in the room.

You need to know when a “clarification” is not a clarification.

You need to know when a partner is protecting itself so much that it is quietly killing the bid.

And you need the courage to say:

“No. This does not work.”

Even when the person across the table is technically on your side.

Look.

Trust does not mean stupidity.

Alignment does not mean surrender.

And partnership does not mean letting someone park a bomb inside your construction contract because they smiled nicely while doing it.

If you want to perform in those rooms…

If you want to understand the game behind the game…

If you want to stop being impressed by titles, logos and confident bullshit…

You know where to click.

​The Room​

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