I hear what you guys are saying re: time needed to get internal approvals for a large expenditure.

In a past life, one of my responsibilities was to perform as "resident expert" on the Hughes Aircraft "Chart of Executive Approvals Required and Corporate Commitment Authority". There were times, at our subsidiary, where the President needed to know if he could do something "locally" (without having to go to Hughes Corporate or GM - which owned Hughes), so he'd call the CLO, who would tell him to call me.  I used to joke about how I was one of the very few people in the company that could tell the President that he could not do what he wanted - and he was very used to getting his way!  I digress....

When it comes to getting approvals in an expeditied fashion, it all depends on the level of urgency.  Urgency easily equates to dollars.  IF, by approving an action today you can save millions tomorrow, things can happen very fast. Teleconferences if necessary, FAXing approval forms, conducting "signing parties" with all required approval authorities one one room, etc. 

In a situation where you are considering a license for IP, you have to figure the VP of Technology is already aware, as is the CLO and Director of Contracts.  Once they are convinced and have approved the license language, they'd confront the CFO and CEO/President.  The Directors of HR, Security/Safety, Procurement, Manufacturing and Quality Assurance needn't be involved in this type transaction.  So you really don't have that many players, and once the primaries (Contracts, CLO, Technology) have given their blessing and give a compelling argument - gotta get it, and now - the decision by the CEO could come fast.  And you have to assume that all the players had been briefed previously and may have been staying abreast of negotiations - again depending on the dollars involved.  And negotiations may have have been going on for months.

So, while I hear what you're saying, if it's considered urgent, it's treated as such. 

In that job, we were primarily doing Government contracting, and our little 2,000 person subsidiary originated an average of 350-400 new contracts a year, mostly for Infrared Target Detectors/Sensors.  Many of those contracts (most of which had to be approved by darn near everybody) required a proposal be submitted - always a crunch situation to compile the proposal and get it approved, because in Government contracting, your proposal absolutely must be timely submitted.  A late proposal submittal is considered "non-responsive" and is not considered, period (unless you are sole source, in which case a full blown proposal is not required because there is no competition; you simply submit a bid in most cases).  So whatever needed to happen to expedite did happen, and all the players had to be involved.  Much more complex than a licensing agreement.

All this babble to make the point that IF the risk of the transaction costing more tomorrow is high enough, action will happen today.  And the dollars for agreements from here on out will be big, with a higher price tag looming. The only additional approvals I can think of would be from the Corporate Board of Directors, again depending on the dollars involved.

So while getting approvals can be daunting, it can be done very quickly.

This I KNOW!

SGE