Coronavirus killed the handshake deal. Now what will business leaders do?
A handshake says a lot about someone, a way to size up a competitor or customer quickly. Is the grip firm, exhibiting confidence? Or weak, like a fish?
Handshakes close deals too, including some of the most famous in history. Pennzoil, the Houston oil company, bought Getty Oil in 1984, sealing the deal with a handshake. New York-based Texaco muscled in with a higher bid and the question of who owned Getty centered around a simple concept: Is a handshake a contract, akin to a written document with signatures and ink and a lot of fancy legal language?
In Texas, deals are done over handshakes, and the Houston jury awarded Pennzoil $10.5 billion.
But as we move physically further apart as the coronavirus spreads, nobody wants to shake hands anymore. No one wants to share the same conference room either. So how will people in the energy industry greet each other, signal that a satisfactory deal has been reached, telegraph they’re the smartest one in the room?
One alternative is the nod, a slight tilt of the head down and then back up. It can work. But like the handshake, it’s not so easy to pull off well.
Posture and eye contact are really important, said Jamie Belinne, who runs the career center and academic internship program at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. Nodders have to stand with purpose and signal a sense of power.
“I’m entitled to be in the space and I’m comfortable,” she said.
Then there is the wave, which is starting to catch on. But it can’t be too limp.
Move your hand from your wrist back and forth a few times, recommends Michael Blankenship, an energy lawyer who represents midstream and upstream clients at Winston & Strawn in Houston.
“You need to give it oomph and meaning that you care,” he said.
Elbow bumps were an alternative for a time, but the act faded quickly because it’s hard to practice social distancing by tapping elbows, and they required clumsy body-blocking moves.
Fist bumps are too germy. An OPEC meeting in March included an awkward foot shake for the cameras between OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Each put their right foot out and rubbed it against the other, but it looked more like they were playing a popular party game than saying hello.
Handshakes may be history — at least until there’s a vaccine for the coronavirus. But the need for personal connection hasn’t gone away, one local business leader said.
“People want to have that moment of eyeball-to-eyeball, person-to-person exclusive contact,” said Bob Harvey, CEO and president of the business group Greater Houston Partnership. It’s that moment you acknowledge someone’s existence and their significance to you.
Harvey said he’ll try elbow tapping if social distancing rules are eased, and he’ll give the wave a try. But what will replace the phrase “a handshake deal” in the Texas oil market?
“That’s a good question,” said Harvey, laughing. “We have bigger issues to worry about right now.”