Contract 101: The Van Halen M & M Test
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Staten Island, NY Posted: 12/11/2016 1:00:00 AM
How Van Halen used M & M's to make sure every contract was followed to the letter.
In the 1980's Van Halen was playing huge arenas and stadiums around the world. Because their stage equipment was so heavy and had very specific power and weight requirements, they wanted to make sure each venue followed their instructions to the letter, so they wrote extensive contracts with detailed instructions.
Their biggest fear would be that a venue would ignore the instructions and have the stage collapse or cause a fire if they didn't get every detail right.
David Lee Roth came up with a very inventive way to make sure each venue followed their instructions. He added a small clause in the middle of the contract specifying the band's backstage "Munchie" requirements which featured the following:
1. Potato Chips and assorted dips.
2. Nuts
3. Pretzels
4 . M & M's (WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES)
5. Twelve (12) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
6. Twelve (12) assorted Dannon yougurt (on ice)
The key to that list is the 4th line, which not only specified that there was to be M & M's backstage, but that the brown ones had to be removed. While that may sound like a pretty dumb request, it was the key to the whole contract. If the band looked in the bowl of M & M's backstage, and found brown ones, they knew the venue didn't follow the details of the contract. Their assumption was that if they didn't pay attention to details like that, chances are they would make other mistakes that could be far more important, such as not meeting their power or weight specifications.
We can learn a lot from this idea. Putting something simple into the middle of a contract or business proposal is a great test to see if potential candidates are following your instructions, or just phoning it in.
For example, a friend of mine always puts a unique request into every Request For Proposal (RFP), and job listing he advertises that asks candidates to write something specific in the header of their response emails. This cuts the time it takes to review resumes or business proposals by letting him simply delete any submission that doesn't follow the instructions.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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