The Negotiation Society - Issue 1
The exclusive magazine for Alumni of The Gap Partnership
The exclusive magazine for Alumni of The Gap Partnership
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ISSUE 1<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
THE EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI OF THE GAP PARTNERSHIP<br />
FLINCHING<br />
<strong>The</strong> ultimate guide<br />
CROSS-CULTURAL<br />
NEGOTIATION<br />
Navigating the minefields<br />
RECORD BREAKER<br />
How Michael Jackson landed<br />
<strong>The</strong> Beatles’ songs<br />
WHEN STEVE<br />
MET CHRIS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership’s CEO Steve Gates<br />
in conversation with ex-FBI hostage<br />
negotiator Chris Voss
INSIDE THIS ISSUE<br />
06 11<br />
When Steve<br />
Met Chris<br />
Commercial negotiation<br />
expert Steve Gates and<br />
hostage negotiator Chris<br />
Voss trade insights from<br />
their respective worlds.<br />
Advantage<br />
Agassi<br />
12 16<br />
Negotiating<br />
Around <strong>The</strong><br />
World<br />
Understanding the impact<br />
of culture on negotiation<br />
style and etiquette.<br />
<strong>The</strong> extraordinary story of<br />
how Andre Agassi succeeded<br />
in defeating Boris Becker.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Art of<br />
<strong>The</strong> Flinch<br />
20 28<br />
We Need to Talk<br />
About Kevin<br />
Getting under the<br />
skin of Regional<br />
Head of Consulting,<br />
Kevin Lecompte.<br />
Why flinching in response<br />
to a proposal is so effective<br />
and how to avoid falling<br />
victim to it.<br />
Question<br />
Time<br />
Leaders from the retail,<br />
consulting, employee<br />
relations and tech<br />
industries offer their<br />
point of view on Brexit.<br />
WELCOME FROM STEVE<br />
A warm welcome to this first edition of<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> <strong>Society</strong> magazine. Over the<br />
past 20 years, we have consulted with hundreds<br />
of businesses and tens of thousands of negotiators<br />
have attended our workshops in over 60 countries.<br />
And, because the team at <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership<br />
believe that negotiators should never stop learning,<br />
we formed <strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> <strong>Society</strong>, a community<br />
available to all of our alumni.<br />
Why <strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> <strong>Society</strong>? Well, not only do<br />
we want to promote great ideas and share negotiation<br />
insights, we also want to keep alive the incredible<br />
enthusiasm for getting great deals agreed that we<br />
experience when working with you, our clients.<br />
When you consider the skills, strategies, behaviors,<br />
tactics and relationships which are fundamental<br />
to how business gets done, within a discipline that<br />
demands composure, preparation and control of one’s<br />
ego, and yet can deliver incredible incremental value<br />
that others would not even recognize…you start to<br />
get a sense of why negotiation is fundamental to<br />
business. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> <strong>Society</strong> is about you and<br />
those you build agreements with, based on an activity<br />
that for every minute you invest your time, will be<br />
repaid many times over.<br />
This edition includes an insight into the<br />
consulting projects undertaken by our own Kevin<br />
Lecompte, thoughts from alumni members on<br />
relationships and how EQ can positively impact<br />
your negotiation, as well as analysis and tips for<br />
high performance negotiation.<br />
I hope you enjoy reading and we welcome your<br />
feedback and ideas for the next one.<br />
Steve Gates<br />
CEO, <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership<br />
2
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
OUR CONTRIBUTORS<br />
Kristina Pereira Tully Angela Barbazeni Chris Webber<br />
As a member of<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership’s<br />
US PR and communications<br />
team at Caliber Corporate<br />
Advisers, Kristina works with<br />
senior executives running PR<br />
events and media training.<br />
She originally hails from<br />
California and received her MBA<br />
from New York University’s<br />
Stern School of Business.<br />
Angela has 15 years experience<br />
in commercial business as well<br />
as Mergers and Acquisitions.<br />
She is fluent in German, Italian,<br />
English and French, and speaks<br />
conversational Spanish.<br />
Angela currently resides in<br />
Australia, delivering world class<br />
negotiation training to hundreds<br />
of people each year.<br />
Chris’s areas of specialism<br />
in negotiation include the<br />
psychology of influence,<br />
strategic and tactical aspects<br />
of planning, and managing<br />
difficult relationships. As well<br />
as delivering negotiation<br />
consulting, Chris is a regular<br />
contributor to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>, writing frequent articles<br />
and thought pieces.<br />
Matt Maia Amaryllis Jones Alistair White<br />
Matt currently helps start-up<br />
businesses build brands, bring<br />
new products to market and<br />
develop selling strategies.<br />
He developed a passion for<br />
brands, products and innovation<br />
after a decade-long career in<br />
FMCG. It was after attending<br />
a TCSN while at General Mills<br />
that Matt became particularly<br />
fascinated with negotiation.<br />
Amaryllis is a professional in the<br />
CPG industry, managing key<br />
retail accounts and a portfolio<br />
of professional customers for<br />
Duracell. She is passionate about<br />
youth and female empowerment,<br />
coaching students across Canada<br />
and volunteering with Lean In<br />
Canada and Forward Together<br />
Canada. Amaryllis is currently<br />
pursuing her MBA.<br />
Alistair has three decades<br />
experience in the FMCG and<br />
perfume industries, and now<br />
specializes in negotiation as<br />
Head of Quality for Europe at<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership. Alistair is<br />
an accomplished linguist, fluent in<br />
French and German, and a prolific<br />
writer on both the theory and<br />
practice of negotiation.<br />
3
MY HEAD<br />
LAURA D’ANDREA<br />
IS VP OF SALES IN THE CONSUMER BEAUTY DIVISION OF<br />
COTY. THIS DEPARTMENT COMBINES COTY COLOR COSMETIC<br />
AND FRAGRANCE BRANDS WITH P&G COSMETICS AND HAIR<br />
COLOR TO FORM THE LARGEST DIVISION AT COTY.<br />
How did you end up working in the<br />
beauty industry?<br />
I worked in the toy industry prior<br />
to beauty. When I made the move<br />
to Coty, I thought that it would be<br />
a comparable CPG category – same<br />
structure of doing business, same KPIs,<br />
and so on. Over time I learned that<br />
beauty is a unique industry within<br />
CPG for a few reasons – its complexity<br />
and depth of assortment, the pace<br />
of innovation, and the emotional<br />
response beauty evokes both in<br />
retailers and consumers. It really is<br />
an “art and science” business and it’s<br />
very compelling as a result.<br />
What do you like most about<br />
your role?<br />
I love the multi-faceted aspect of my<br />
role. I have responsibility for sales,<br />
trade marketing, category management,<br />
in-store execution and customer supply.<br />
All of these functions are intertwined<br />
in our business and each is essential<br />
to building a successful plan. Our best<br />
work occurs when multiple functions<br />
contribute and feel accountable to<br />
the end result. <strong>The</strong>re is usually some<br />
healthy conflict to get us there but a<br />
common sense of pride and fulfillment<br />
in the end.<br />
What is the biggest achievement<br />
of your career?<br />
Ten months ago we doubled in size<br />
with the acquisition of P&G’s beauty<br />
brands. As a result, we are truly a<br />
start-up but with instant scale. It<br />
has been a rewarding and exciting<br />
experience to articulate how we will<br />
impact the beauty industry in Canada<br />
moving forward, while optimizing how<br />
we operate and working to ensure we<br />
have the right team to get us there.<br />
How important has negotiation<br />
as a skill been for you?<br />
Incredibly important. In the beauty<br />
business there is often a need for<br />
collaboration and compromise on<br />
both the brand side and the retailer<br />
side to develop truly breakthrough<br />
execution plans. Relationships are<br />
of the utmost importance as a result.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most successful results are driven<br />
by relationships where there is enough<br />
trust and mutual respect to have tough<br />
conversations that facilitate what is<br />
ultimately right for the business.<br />
What has been your<br />
greatest negotiation?<br />
I’ve certainly enjoyed some more than<br />
others! <strong>The</strong> ones that stand out are the<br />
ones that produce something tangible<br />
that changes the landscape of the<br />
business – a new brand, a new<br />
go-to-market idea or a category<br />
strategy that drives organic growth.<br />
Any negotiation disasters?<br />
I had a strange experience years<br />
ago in a previous company. I was<br />
negotiating a deal with a party<br />
chain in the U.S. when in walks CNN<br />
filming a spot on the retailer for their<br />
“Business Unusual” segment. I just<br />
remember really bright lights and<br />
wondering if this was a tactic…<br />
What’s the most important lesson<br />
that you’ve learned as a negotiator?<br />
Probably that truly understanding<br />
what is meaningful to the other party<br />
is the key to unlocking solutions.<br />
Questions, questions, questions…<br />
And that less is more when it<br />
comes to stating your position.<br />
4
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
<strong>The</strong>y say you never forget your first pet, first teacher and first love.<br />
But what of your first TCSN? We asked our alumni for their enduring<br />
memories of <strong>The</strong> Complete Skilled Negotiator.<br />
TCSN PRIMER<br />
What’s TCSN?<br />
<strong>The</strong> Complete Skilled Negotiator<br />
Workshop length:<br />
3.5 day residential<br />
How many delegates: 8<br />
What can be expected?<br />
An intensive journey of self<br />
discovery that enables delegates to<br />
adopt appropriate negotiation skills<br />
to ensure maximum value creation<br />
in every scenario.<br />
I will never forget the<br />
group exercise run by<br />
Kevin Lecompte. We all<br />
learned a very valuable<br />
lesson, a negotiation is<br />
no place for winning.<br />
Sarah Harris, Oxford, UK<br />
If you don’t have anything<br />
to say...shut up!<br />
Marcillat Etienne,<br />
Frankfurt, Germany<br />
Giving nothing for free...<br />
If you...then we...<br />
Siddhartha Medhi,<br />
Mumbai, India<br />
‘Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.’<br />
Brian said this and it has stuck with me to this day.<br />
Amaryllis Jones, Toronto, Canada<br />
I remember the first<br />
exercise, I was too honest<br />
to reduce my costs to<br />
the minimum. Lesson<br />
learned!<br />
Edith Darteh,<br />
Ghana, Africa<br />
Focus on getting inside<br />
their head and not on<br />
winning. Leave the other<br />
side feeling satisfied.<br />
Great job by Rodrigo.<br />
Cristian Rubio,<br />
Adriasola, Chile<br />
‘Generosity engenders<br />
greed’ – such unintuitive<br />
wisdom in a simple<br />
phrase.<br />
Will DelHagen,<br />
San Francisco, USA<br />
I think I hold the TGP<br />
record for the first<br />
negotiation…we won’t<br />
share that though Mark<br />
Davis!! Also a key learning<br />
from me around body<br />
language and psychology,<br />
people enjoy getting<br />
things that are hard to get<br />
so make it hard for them.<br />
Alex Smith,<br />
Peterborough, UK<br />
<strong>The</strong> first day was HE_ _ ...<br />
I still remember debating<br />
if I needed to fly back later<br />
that night or stick it out.<br />
I’m glad I stayed.<br />
Sherry Prather,<br />
Texas, USA<br />
5
When Steve<br />
met Chris<br />
Kristina Pereira Tully sat down with Steve Gates,<br />
CEO of <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership and Chris Voss, former<br />
FBI hostage negotiator, to discover how two of the<br />
most powerful voices in the field of negotiation came<br />
to discover their love of the subject, and to share with<br />
us some of what they have learned on the way.<br />
6
WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF<br />
EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATION?<br />
STEVE If I look back, negotiations have shaped the decisions<br />
I’ve made since I was a child. As children, we hear the<br />
word “no” but we don’t listen. We ask and ask and ask like<br />
a broken record to wear our parents down or concede to a<br />
demand when an offer of enticement is made. Fairness has a<br />
different meaning as a child until of course you are educated<br />
to be more rational. As I got older I recognized that tenacity<br />
and positioning were important but so was collaboration<br />
and creativity. <strong>The</strong> concept of winning changes as you look<br />
beyond the here and now. Later in life, I learned to overcome<br />
customer objections, present different ideas which allowed<br />
them to “win”, and which won the customer over.<br />
Getting creative, understanding people’s egos and the law of<br />
relativity resulted in a lot of great deals. I learned to create<br />
value and thought “Wow, this is like magic”.<br />
CHRIS I first understood the power of negotiation when I was<br />
volunteering on a suicide hotline. During one memorable<br />
call, a guy desperately said, “I need your help to put a lid on<br />
this day.” He told me he was battling the disease of paranoia.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following day he was due to go on a car trip with his<br />
family, and while they were very supportive, he knew his<br />
paranoia was going to cause him to meltdown. Knowing<br />
what was coming, the night before the trip, his mental state<br />
was in crisis. He was melting down over melting down.<br />
I’d been taught to use a tool called an “emotion label”<br />
in hostage negotiations, something that helps a person<br />
understand their own emotions. I said three things at key<br />
points in the conversation:<br />
Initially: “You sound frantic.” This immediately connected<br />
with the caller. He felt understood and it removed some of<br />
his anxiety.<br />
About halfway: “It sounds like your family is very close.”<br />
“We are close”, he replied and he suddenly changed his<br />
tone and told me about the steps he was taking to try to<br />
beat his paranoia.<br />
Just before the end: “Wow, you sound really determined”,<br />
I said. To which he replied, “You know, I am determined.<br />
I’m going to go on that car trip tomorrow, and I’m going<br />
to be fine. Thanks for everything you did.”<br />
I was blown away by how three small sentences could<br />
make such a big difference.<br />
INTRODUCING TWO<br />
NEGOTIATORS AT THE<br />
TOP OF THEIR GAME<br />
STEVE GATES<br />
CEO and founder of <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership,<br />
Steve has worked with the world’s leading<br />
businesses and supported them on their<br />
most critical negotiations. Author of<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> Book, he is currently<br />
writing a new book which examines the<br />
critical impact of time on negotiation.<br />
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE MOMENT YOU KNEW YOU<br />
WOULD MAKE NEGOTIATION THE FOCAL POINT OF<br />
YOUR CAREER?<br />
CHRIS When I applied to become a hostage negotiator with<br />
the FBI I was told I was “uniquely unqualified”! “Sure, you<br />
want to be a hostage negotiator”, they said, “Everyone wants<br />
to, but what are you bringing to the table? If you really<br />
want to be a hostage negotiator, go volunteer on a suicide<br />
hotline, but until you do, go away!” So I volunteered. When I<br />
returned they were so surprised to see me again that I quickly<br />
found myself sitting in the FBI Crisis <strong>Negotiation</strong> course<br />
surrounded by people from across the FBI and even across<br />
the world. I had walked into this international community,<br />
and by the second day, I thought: This is what I’ve been<br />
living my whole life for.<br />
CHRIS VOSS<br />
Chris spent 24 years at the FBI and became<br />
their lead hostage negotiator, working on<br />
numerous high profile and high-stakes deals.<br />
His book Never Split the Difference explains<br />
how the negotiation principles he developed<br />
in that role can be successfully applied to<br />
everyday working life.
STEVE I was working for a company called Kingfisher, which<br />
is a UK-based retail group that has hundreds of buyers<br />
who do business internationally across various disciplines,<br />
including electrical, health, beauty and DIY. My boss<br />
approached me about a new project, saying, “Steve, we would<br />
like you to work out what negotiation best practice looks like<br />
from around the world. We’ll give you 12 months to come<br />
back and tell us what you find.”<br />
In that year of researching and studying the various<br />
models and philosophies which were advocated as best<br />
practice negotiation, I read dozens of books and became<br />
consumed by how negotiation influences world economics,<br />
politics, all the way down to family affairs. I also came to<br />
realize the complexity of human interaction – and to learn<br />
that while there are countless different ways to negotiate, the<br />
one thing that gets in the way of good negotiation practices<br />
most often are human beings. I wanted to understand more<br />
about the psychology versus the process. I just thought, “This<br />
is what makes the world go round.” <strong>The</strong>re’s so much value<br />
you can create by making better deals, and I decided my<br />
career focus would be to help organizations and individuals<br />
to optimize their negotiations.<br />
“If you bring in a SWAT<br />
team and threaten to<br />
shoot, that’s effectively<br />
taking away their ability<br />
to say, ‘no’, and the guy<br />
inside will likely say,<br />
‘Go ahead and shoot me’.<br />
– Chris Voss<br />
HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS IN NEGOTIATION?<br />
STEVE <strong>The</strong>re are a variety of factors you can benchmark<br />
against. What success looks like is largely determined by<br />
what is valued. For example, one business may take a higher<br />
price, while another might be happier with a lower risk<br />
profile and greater certainty in the longevity of the deal. If<br />
you understand what you want, optimize what is before you,<br />
and optimize the level of value possible, I would consider<br />
that a success. Some will measure in relative terms – is it<br />
better than what we were on or could attain elsewhere? What<br />
you should set out is your definition of success before you<br />
start, otherwise you leave yourself open to reinterpretation,<br />
later justifying your performance based on circumstance.<br />
CHRIS I consider a deal successful if we get something better<br />
than what we expected. It kind of boils down to that.<br />
Most people think, “If I meet my objectives to start with,<br />
then this was a successful negotiation.” But because it’s<br />
impossible to know everything, it’s impossible to know the<br />
best deal that’s available right at the outset. So, if we get<br />
something better than expected, that means we discovered<br />
some cool stuff in the deal and we’re really happy about it,<br />
and most of the time the other side are, too.<br />
CHRIS – IN YOUR BOOK NEVER SPLIT THE<br />
DIFFERENCE, YOU PRESENT THE IDEA THAT THE<br />
ART OF NEGOTIATION LIES IN MASTERING THE<br />
INTRICACIES OF “NO” – NOT “YES”. CAN YOU<br />
TELL US MORE ABOUT THE POWER OF “NO” AND<br />
WHY THE NUANCES OF “NO” ARE SO ESSENTIAL<br />
IN HIGH-STAKES SCENARIOS?<br />
CHRIS “No” is one of those words that is massively different<br />
when you hear it from when you say it. A key point in any<br />
negotiator’s journey is to stop being horrified by “no”. <strong>The</strong><br />
thinking is that if “yes” is success, then “no” must be failure.<br />
But what we’ve discovered is that when people say “no”,<br />
they feel protected and safe – and they have a tendency to<br />
listen more. Steve made the comment earlier about kids<br />
negotiating with their parents, and how kids actually become<br />
immune to the word “no”. I think a big part of that is that<br />
we say “no” to our kids, having protected ourselves with the<br />
word, we’re then more willing to hear them out and even<br />
change our minds.<br />
When my son was seventeen, he’d start to ask me<br />
something, “Dad, can I –” and I’d just say, “No”, before he’d<br />
even finish his sentence. But I always found myself after I’d<br />
said “no” thinking, “Right, now I can hear him out,” because<br />
I already said “no”, and I felt protected. So I think we’re not<br />
so much teaching our kids to be immune to the word “no”<br />
as we’re teaching them that after we’ve said “no”, we’re more<br />
willing to listen.<br />
8
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
I discovered that concept when I was reading the book<br />
Start with No, which is about the effect on someone if you<br />
let them know they’re free to say “no”. It’s an autonomy<br />
issue, and that’s what hostage negotiation is all about.<br />
In law enforcement, we realized we needed hostage<br />
negotiators when we saw that as soon as we took away<br />
somebody’s right to say “no”, they’d die over it. If you bring in<br />
a SWAT team and threaten to shoot, that’s effectively taking<br />
away their ability to say, “no”, and the guy inside will likely<br />
say, “Go ahead and shoot me”. And that leads to shooting<br />
people you don’t have to shoot.<br />
If you intentionally get someone to say “no” to make that<br />
person feel safe and protected, it’s going to make a huge<br />
difference. <strong>The</strong>y’ll be able to hear you at that point. “No” is<br />
one of the most powerful of emotional words, and its impact<br />
depending on whether you hear it or say it, is nothing alike<br />
– it might as well not even be the same word. Operating<br />
under that principle is how we’ve really made a big difference<br />
in the way people approach negotiation.<br />
STEVE – IN YOUR BOOK, APTLY TITLED,<br />
THE NEGOTIATION BOOK, YOU DETAIL THE TRAITS AND<br />
BEHAVIORS OF THE COMPLETE SKILLED NEGOTIATOR.<br />
SPEAKING FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE, HOW MANY<br />
OF THE BEHAVIORS AND TRAITS OF THE COMPLETE<br />
SKILLED NEGOTIATOR SHOULD BE INHERENT AND<br />
HOW MANY CAN BE LEARNED?<br />
STEVE All the behaviors can be learned and through selfawareness<br />
we can manage our strengths and weaknesses<br />
effectively. So the book sets out to promote the idea of<br />
understanding and being honest with yourself. You can only<br />
be in charge of a negotiation if you have self-control and<br />
self-awareness. Human beings can be very emotional in their<br />
responses to situations when there is a perception of conflict<br />
and become drawn to that rather than maintaining<br />
9
“When you can negotiate<br />
well, you really can create<br />
something out of nothing.<br />
– Steve Gates<br />
perspective. It’s essential that a complete skilled negotiator<br />
is able to consciously consider the situation they face and do<br />
that which is appropriate to the situation rather than become<br />
a victim of emotional decision making.<br />
In the book I also outline other desirable characteristics<br />
including nerve, curiosity, and tenacity. Those who are able<br />
to hold their nerve tend to be better equipped to think and<br />
articulate in a measured manner, controlling the frustrations<br />
that will inevitably arise. Curiosity helps us to see the other<br />
party’s perspective and establish and qualify their interests,<br />
priorities and what value they place on their issues. Tenacity<br />
gets you through the setbacks and rejections and helps when<br />
discussions drag out, wearing away at your resolve. Traits are<br />
what you are and behaviors are what you do. <strong>The</strong> book sets<br />
out to challenge the reader to be what they need to be and<br />
do what they need to do rather than just be yourself which is<br />
likely to lead to unnecessary compromise.<br />
WHAT IS THE HARDEST NEGOTIATION YOU HAVE EVER<br />
BEEN INVOLVED IN?<br />
CHRIS When somebody’s life is at stake, be it at their own<br />
hands or those of others, every negotiation becomes the<br />
“hardest”. <strong>The</strong>re was one particular kidnapping negotiation<br />
that does however stand out. In this situation, all our<br />
intelligence pointed to the fact that the victim’s life in<br />
question was in effect already lost. So the focus of the<br />
negotiation shifted to publicly showing who was really<br />
responsible for the death of the soon-to-be deceased.<br />
We needed to ensure that nothing the family said publicly<br />
would enhance the hostage takers’ image as terrorists, but<br />
instead, would actually show them to be the criminals they<br />
were. This was an emotionally incredibly delicate balance<br />
to strike in supporting and advising the family.<br />
STEVE In 2014 we decided to sell a stake in TGP that would<br />
enable us to realize some capital that we wanted to reinvest<br />
and grow the business, buy back shares from ex-business<br />
partners and also to reward those who had been with us<br />
along the journey. At the time TGP was a business that I<br />
had grown and led for 17 years. It was a negotiation that<br />
would have a huge financial impact on my colleagues, friends<br />
and their families. For some it would be life changing.<br />
This negotiation was not just business, it was personal.<br />
But, at the 11th hour I had to take a decision to abort the<br />
negotiation. <strong>The</strong> deal on the table was simply not what we<br />
set out to achieve. It made sense as a business to walk away,<br />
take stock and re-examine the situation. It was the right<br />
decision. But it was the hardest decision I have ever had to<br />
take. Two years later we completed a successful deal but I<br />
still bear the scars from the decision to pull out in 2014.<br />
WHAT ARE YOUR FINAL THOUGHTS FOR READERS<br />
OF THIS MAGAZINE AS THEY PURSUE SUCCESSFUL<br />
NEGOTIATIONS WITHIN THEIR OWN CAREERS?<br />
CHRIS Going back to what Steve said about how he fell in<br />
love with this in the first place, I agree. It seems like magic<br />
when you can get good at this. When you can negotiate<br />
well, you really can create something out of nothing.<br />
You can make things happen that nobody else expected<br />
or thought could happen.<br />
STEVE And, as Chris said, when you get into it, it’s not just<br />
fascinating. It’s something you can use to help people change<br />
their lives and the direction they take with them. In my case,<br />
that has to do with their careers. <strong>The</strong> number of people who<br />
have told me the work we’ve done for them has projected<br />
their careers beyond what they’d ever hoped gives me a<br />
massive sense of satisfaction and purpose. TNS<br />
10
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
When Agassi began to consistently defeat his<br />
arch-rival, Boris Becker, the world watched in awe.<br />
But what was his secret? Years later he revealed the<br />
surprising truth. Floris Wils looks back at<br />
what happened and draws out the learning<br />
for negotiators.<br />
ADVANTAGE<br />
AGASSI<br />
PHOTO GETTY IMAGES<br />
J<br />
ust recently, a friend of<br />
mine sent me a link to an<br />
intriguing short film on<br />
YouTube. I duly clicked<br />
on it and proceeded to<br />
watch the film agog. In what is surely to<br />
become part of sporting history’s folklore,<br />
it showed tennis legend Andre Agassi<br />
revealing an incredible secret to his<br />
success in defeating the devastating<br />
Boris Becker serve.<br />
<strong>The</strong> story goes that Agassi retreated<br />
to his dressing room after having been<br />
beaten by Becker in all of their first three<br />
matches, utterly bewildered as to how he<br />
was ever going to read that demon serve.<br />
But he knew he had to try. And so, by<br />
intensively and repeatedly studying film<br />
of Becker’s game he spotted a pattern.<br />
Each time Becker prepared for his serve<br />
he unconsciously stuck out his tongue in<br />
the direction he intended to serve. He was<br />
completely unaware of his body language,<br />
and also the signal he was sending out to<br />
his opponent. This gave Agassi the ability<br />
to accurately predict where Becker was<br />
going to place his serve.<br />
This immediately got me thinking<br />
about how our unconscious behavior<br />
can affect our success in negotiations.<br />
In commercial negotiations, untrained<br />
negotiators are mostly unaware of their<br />
verbal and non-verbal communication,<br />
which gives the trained negotiator the<br />
advantage as it provides invaluable<br />
insight into the position of the other<br />
party. Effective negotiators are always<br />
interpreting the behaviors of the other<br />
party to gain useful information.<br />
<strong>The</strong> really clever bit to Agassi’s ongoing<br />
success was that he was careful not to<br />
inadvertently reveal his newly gained<br />
insight about Becker’s body language.<br />
As a conscious competent he deliberately<br />
missed some returns of serve so that he<br />
could keep his secret for crucial moments<br />
in the match. As a result he followed his<br />
three initial consecutive defeats by winning<br />
nine out of eleven subsequent matches.<br />
Skilled negotiators are always<br />
consciously competent. <strong>The</strong>y leave nothing<br />
to chance. Everything they say and do,<br />
they say and do for a reason.<br />
A consciously competent negotiator<br />
can even send messages to the other party<br />
that they want them to interpret in a<br />
particular way by using deliberate verbal<br />
and non-verbal gestures. <strong>The</strong>y give the<br />
other party the symbols of success, while<br />
they focus on the outcome.<br />
Just imagine if Boris Becker had<br />
worked out what Agassi was up to. He<br />
could then have turned the consciously<br />
competent table around and started to<br />
consciously poke his tongue out in the<br />
direction that he wasn’t then going to<br />
serve. Or, if he was clever like Agassi,<br />
to make the tongue-poking direction<br />
random, and put Agassi back in the<br />
position he originally was in – with no<br />
predictive powers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lesson for commercial negotiators?<br />
If you are not consciously competent, you<br />
will pay the price for your behavior when<br />
faced with a skilled negotiator. TNS<br />
11
NAVIGATING THE<br />
MINEFIELDS<br />
Do you arrive at your meeting five minutes early,<br />
or on principle half an hour late? Who do you<br />
field in your negotiation team? Do age, beauty or<br />
linguistic gymnastics confer an advantage? And,<br />
what skulduggery should you look out for from<br />
your counterparty?<br />
We asked TGP consultants from around the<br />
world to share their insights into how to navigate<br />
the minefields of cross-cultural negotiation.<br />
12
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
SOUTH AFRICA<br />
By Miles Hodge<br />
‘Africa time’ does not lend itself,<br />
as such, to the notion of punctuality<br />
and timekeeping. More time than you<br />
may at first consider necessary needs<br />
to be allowed for during negotiation.<br />
Moreover, it is essential that you<br />
invest time upfront in relationship<br />
building. With fewer commercial<br />
choices in South Africa, business is<br />
fundamentally driven by this.<br />
Language too can have a tactical<br />
dimension. South Africa has eleven<br />
official languages, and while English<br />
is the common one, it’s possible for a<br />
team to hide behind the fact that the<br />
meeting is not being held in their first<br />
language. Someone who previously<br />
appeared to be fluent in English<br />
may suddenly become linguistically<br />
challenged as the negotiation heats up.<br />
Make sure you recognize this tactic<br />
and adjust your approach accordingly!<br />
South Africa is still very<br />
patriarchal. <strong>The</strong> most sensible advice<br />
is be prepared and aware. Similarly,<br />
the age of the negotiator can play a<br />
role. Direct eye contact from a young<br />
person to an older person can be seen<br />
as disrespectful so is best minimized.<br />
Broader cultural dynamics make it<br />
essential that due process is followed<br />
and the right people are spoken to in<br />
order to get to the decision maker.<br />
Finally, a small but significant<br />
piece of advice. Take into account<br />
the numeracy of your counterparty.<br />
Historically lower levels of maths<br />
education can mean calculations<br />
within a discussion take longer.<br />
Be respectful and allow all parties<br />
the time they need. It’s in no one’s<br />
interests to reach a number that is<br />
misunderstood and then reneged on.<br />
ITALY<br />
By Alex Adamo<br />
In many places in Europe, being<br />
just three minutes late can be<br />
considered rude and unacceptable.<br />
In Italy, time is, shall we say,<br />
more “fluid” and it can be entirely<br />
acceptable for a meeting to start up<br />
to thirty minutes late. Moreover,<br />
lateness is sometimes used as a power<br />
statement to show just who’s boss.<br />
A client I worked with in Italy told<br />
me how the buyer he was dealing with<br />
would consistently be up to two hours<br />
late for their meetings. <strong>The</strong> net effect<br />
was Giovanni felt disempowered<br />
and out of control. After discussing<br />
an appropriate strategy to adopt,<br />
Giovanni went back to his buyer and<br />
told him politely, but firmly, “If you<br />
make me wait more than five minutes<br />
again, we won’t do business.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> buyer did not speak for an<br />
intensely uncomfortable five seconds,<br />
but then said, “I am very sorry, it won’t<br />
happen again.”<br />
Proxemics is the study of how<br />
close people tend to get to each other<br />
when they interact (Hall, 1963).<br />
While some cultures may extend<br />
their arm fully when shaking hands,<br />
Italians can get as close as kissing each<br />
other on the cheek during greetings.<br />
Equally, it is culturally acceptable for<br />
an Italian to invade your personal<br />
space when emphasizing a point in a<br />
tense negotiation. This behavior may<br />
unsettle the international negotiator<br />
who has not prepared for it!<br />
Finally, in Italy, verbosity is greatly<br />
admired and more is definitely<br />
more! Using the most amount of<br />
words possible to describe a concept<br />
indicates wisdom and language skills,<br />
all of which suggest credibility. In<br />
negotiation, however, the more you<br />
say the more you give away. Silence<br />
can be the best form of counterattack.<br />
Three seconds of silence<br />
in Italy can feel longer and more<br />
uncomfortable than five seconds in<br />
the UK, and nine seconds in Japan.<br />
RUSSIA<br />
By Pyotr Sviridov<br />
Preparation before a negotiation<br />
can get a little…heated. Despite<br />
the antiquated image of Russians<br />
as unsmiling and cold, emotion<br />
plays a very important role in<br />
Russian negotiations. Establishing<br />
an emotional connection between<br />
parties is as important as agreeing<br />
the commercial terms. Russians will<br />
ask themselves – “Can I trust you?”,<br />
“Are you the right person to talk<br />
to?”, and even, “Do I like you?” This<br />
inherent need to connect necessitates<br />
time given to the “preliminaries” of<br />
a negotiation. One common activity<br />
often called upon to contribute to<br />
a successful pre-negotiation period<br />
is meeting informally in a Russian<br />
“banya” or sauna. One of the main<br />
Moscow banyas markets itself as the<br />
ideal place for business meetings and<br />
chatting together in the baths is seen<br />
as the ultimate ice-breaker, as a neutral<br />
territory where both parties feel at ease<br />
(or at least the Russian ones do!).<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘creative’ negotiator is highly<br />
prized in Russia and creativity is<br />
hardwired into the genes of Russian<br />
negotiators. With the complexities<br />
of the law and volatile market<br />
conditions, Russians have evolved to<br />
find a way to get things done. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
are ingenious, proactive and think<br />
laterally. <strong>The</strong>y establish close personal<br />
connections. If you can do the same,<br />
you open up enormous opportunities.<br />
Once the negotiation is underway<br />
several discomfiting tactics may be<br />
deployed. This can include invading<br />
personal space and confrontational<br />
behavior. If you are on the receiving<br />
end, it’s important to stand your<br />
ground. Be prepared and demonstrate<br />
a resolve to do so. This will help<br />
to ensure that your counterparty<br />
recognizes you as an equal.<br />
13
GREATER CHINA<br />
HONG KONG, CHINA, TAIWAN<br />
By Wai Lau<br />
Due to Hong Kong’s unique<br />
history, they are the closest to a<br />
“Western” negotiation style, but be<br />
aware that people in Hong Kong<br />
can be extremely blunt and will put<br />
things on the table with no qualms<br />
at all. <strong>The</strong>ir determination and hard<br />
working culture can come across<br />
as uncompromising.<br />
Taiwan, just a short flight away and<br />
Western educated, is in contrast to<br />
Hong Kong, very relaxed. <strong>The</strong>y have a<br />
slower pace of business and take time<br />
getting things done.<br />
China is a country of many faces.<br />
Your counterparty could have grown<br />
up in metropolitan China and have<br />
since done business all over the world.<br />
Or they could have been raised and<br />
still live in the rural provinces running<br />
a large agricultural joint venture.<br />
Despite these complexities, some<br />
general rules can apply to all:<br />
» Understand the concept of life<br />
changing. China had one of the<br />
lowest literacy rates post World<br />
War II, but today ranks one of the<br />
highest in the world. <strong>The</strong> person<br />
you’re negotiating with could<br />
have personally experienced such<br />
dramatic change.<br />
» Stay away from stereotypes.<br />
Some “junior” people you negotiate<br />
with may have responsibility for<br />
$20m a year.<br />
» Be aware of hierarchy and the<br />
traditional deference to age<br />
and experience.<br />
» Language skills can run deep and<br />
may surprise you.<br />
LATAM<br />
By Rodrigo Malandre<br />
In Latin America there is typically<br />
a different approach to business<br />
depending on whether you are dealing<br />
with a local Latin American company<br />
vs that of a multinational organization.<br />
Hierarchies, bureaucracy and<br />
following process tends to play an<br />
important part in negotiations with<br />
Latin American companies, while<br />
multinationals are often able to work<br />
in a quicker, flexible manner.<br />
Conversations here are often<br />
verbose. People take a long time<br />
to say things and feel the need to<br />
express and justify themselves –<br />
which provides an excellent source<br />
of information for the skilled listener.<br />
In addition, people often need<br />
“higher approval” to accept or concede<br />
decisions, either because they are very<br />
cautious or because they are truthfully<br />
not empowered. Despite this, it is<br />
unwise to attempt to “jump” seniority<br />
levels. This would almost certainly<br />
disrupt relationships. Instead, ensure<br />
you leave the time to go through the<br />
process and accept it as the cultural way.<br />
NETHERLANDS<br />
By Floris Wils<br />
Holland has a rich history and trade<br />
negotiating comes naturally to Dutch<br />
people; you could say it’s in our DNA.<br />
Timekeeping may be fluid in some<br />
parts of Europe, but the Dutch like to<br />
be on time. Don’t expect to be<br />
kept waiting for a meeting, and don’t<br />
be late – unless you are using this<br />
as a tactic.<br />
Although the Netherlands has<br />
some very large companies, quite a<br />
few are still privately owned. Don’t<br />
be surprised if you find yourself<br />
negotiating directly with the CEO or<br />
owner. While these businesses aren’t<br />
on the Stock Exchange, they can be<br />
powerful in revenue and scope. Don’t<br />
be intimidated by the job title and<br />
never underestimate your own power.<br />
Remain focused on getting inside<br />
their head – albeit a very senior one.<br />
A few countries in LATAM<br />
over-index on bureaucracy and<br />
there can be a lot of red tape.<br />
As such negotiations might take<br />
longer and require greater creativity<br />
to solve issues, avoid restrictions and<br />
make deals work.<br />
Latin Americans are generally<br />
very polite and friendly in<br />
negotiations. Nevertheless, this<br />
positive attitude towards people<br />
doesn’t mean that the other party trusts<br />
you. <strong>The</strong> idea of maintaining a “good<br />
relationship” with your counterpart<br />
often means little conflict, being polite,<br />
avoiding disruption, but never lowering<br />
your guard.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dutch are, in general, tough<br />
negotiators. Be prepared for directness<br />
and a willingness to embrace conflict.<br />
Use this straight talking style as<br />
an opportunity to get information,<br />
understand their company and the key<br />
stakeholders. Bear in mind the maxim<br />
“going Dutch”. This saying didn’t<br />
appear from nowhere, so let’s just say<br />
that in Holland we are not inclined to<br />
fritter or give away money or indeed value.<br />
A final thought. Due to a milk<br />
surplus in the 1970s, the government<br />
in Holland launched a campaign<br />
extolling the virtues of several<br />
daily glasses of milk, and the habit<br />
has stuck with many. So, if your<br />
counterpart has a glass of the white<br />
stuff and not the more usual tea,<br />
coffee or water – pass no comment.<br />
It’s entirely normal.<br />
14
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
FRANCE<br />
By Cyril Fontaine<br />
French people are well-known<br />
to have a natural need to argue. This<br />
desire for argument stems from the<br />
education system which has an early<br />
focus on the importance of language<br />
and rhetoric. Students spend hours<br />
learning how to analyze, interpret and<br />
argue, as they immerse themselves in<br />
historic French texts from literature,<br />
philosophy and history.<br />
Furthermore, there are about five<br />
noted engineering and commercial<br />
colleges (the “voie royale”), where<br />
people are recruited as the managers<br />
of the future. Graduates are seen as<br />
the “crème de la crème” – and leapfrog<br />
over the more junior positions to start<br />
near the top.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sum of these two observations<br />
– 14 years of education based on<br />
rhetoric and a love of argument<br />
alongside six years of theoretical<br />
studies through the “royal path” – is a<br />
healthy ego, a desire to win, and a need<br />
to argue!<br />
How to respond? <strong>The</strong>re are three<br />
cornerstones of what makes a skilled<br />
negotiator that will help you when<br />
negotiating in France: 1) Plan and<br />
prepare; 2) Recognize that people<br />
negotiate with people; 3) <strong>Negotiation</strong><br />
takes place in the other party’s head.<br />
However, perhaps the most useful<br />
thing you could do – although certainly<br />
not the quickest or easiest – is to learn<br />
French. Many discussions will quickly<br />
turn to French, and it will build trust<br />
and avoid your counterparty feeling<br />
inferior (and therefore less collaborative)<br />
because of their perceived lower level of<br />
English. Bon chance!<br />
GERMANY<br />
By Thomas Strack<br />
Germans, particularly the older<br />
generation, tend to keep business and<br />
private life very separate. It is quite<br />
common that informal discussion will<br />
not include mention of their family or<br />
hobbies which can make relationship<br />
building more challenging. Be aware<br />
that a firm handshake as greeting and<br />
goodbye with men and women alike<br />
is a very common custom – but not so<br />
much the kiss on the cheek!<br />
Furthermore, German is not<br />
“German”. Language dialects are<br />
so diverse that the people from the<br />
north in “Ostfriesland” will not<br />
necessarily understand their fellow<br />
countrymen from “Bavaria”, let alone<br />
people from the bordering countries<br />
speaking Austrian or Swiss German.<br />
Establishing the language to be used<br />
in the negotiation ahead of time is<br />
therefore worthwhile.<br />
On arrival at your negotiation<br />
meeting, punctuality will be expected,<br />
but remember the German negotiator<br />
will expect the planned end time of<br />
your meeting to be adhered to as well.<br />
Structure, organization, process and<br />
order are important disciplines here.<br />
Once you begin your negotiation ensure<br />
there is a clear agenda and follow it<br />
sequentially ending with a summary and<br />
follow-up. If you want to wrong-foot a<br />
German, ignore the above!<br />
You may find that keeping silent<br />
comes more naturally here than in<br />
other European cultures. Germans<br />
have less of an urge to fill an awkward<br />
silence and prefer only to speak when<br />
they have something meaningful to<br />
say. Your counterpart in Germany will<br />
appreciate precision and directness,<br />
with minimal beating about the bush.<br />
Say it like it is. <strong>The</strong> use of buzz words,<br />
platitudes or ambiguous phrases can<br />
be regarded as incompetence and time<br />
wasting. If you want respect, keep an<br />
eye on the waffle. TNS<br />
15
<strong>The</strong> Art of<br />
the<br />
Flinch<br />
flinch (flĭnch)<br />
intr.v. flinched, flinch•ing, flinch•es<br />
1. To start or wince involuntarily, as from surprise or pain.<br />
2. To recoil, as from something unpleasant or difficult; shrink.<br />
n. An act or instance of starting, wincing, or recoiling.<br />
16
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
Learning how to flinch – and displaying it at the appropriate time – is a<br />
critical skill in the complete skilled negotiator’s toolkit. But flinching does<br />
not always come naturally, for good reason. Angela Barbazeni explains why.<br />
ILLUSTRATIONS MATTHEW HOLLINGS<br />
Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of<br />
a well-timed and perfectly executed flinch<br />
knows the impact it can have. It can leave<br />
the recipient feeling disempowered and<br />
wrong-footed. Uncomfortable. Perhaps<br />
even a little foolish. In negotiation, a flinch is designed to<br />
send the message that the proposal that’s just been put on<br />
the table is both totally ludicrous and entirely unacceptable,<br />
irrespective of whether it is or isn’t.<br />
To understand why flinching in response to a proposal is so<br />
effective, it’s necessary to consider some of the hard-wiring<br />
of human behavior. As social animals, we accept that there<br />
are certain rules to observe and ways to behave in order to<br />
have a stable and functioning society. One such rule is that<br />
we should not cause offence or upset people unnecessarily.<br />
If everybody consistently disobeyed that rule, societies and<br />
other groupings – families, companies, clubs, friendship groups<br />
– would fall apart, and this<br />
breakdown could negatively<br />
“Flinching is something<br />
everyone struggles with<br />
initially. Most people find it<br />
challenging because it feels<br />
fake and not genuine.<br />
impact our very survival.<br />
Understandably we are, on<br />
the whole, highly motivated<br />
to avoid this happening.<br />
<strong>The</strong> flinch exploits this. It<br />
implies that the recipient has<br />
broken some rule or societal<br />
norm and has caused offence.<br />
<strong>The</strong> instinctive reaction to<br />
the flinch, developed over<br />
millennia of social development, is to remove the cause of the<br />
offence and repair the damage. Our social conditioning makes<br />
us think that we are the guilty party, and we take that guilt<br />
on ourselves and pay the price of redemption. In negotiation,<br />
the price could be high – and significant value lost – as the<br />
recipient of the flinch recalculates their proposal (to their own<br />
detriment) to avoid causing further “offence”. Likewise, a<br />
flinch can work to give the other party false satisfaction, that<br />
is to suggest to them that while their offer was unacceptable<br />
they can move closer to you without giving away unseen<br />
value on offer.<br />
<strong>Negotiation</strong> consultant Brian De Fatta is passionate<br />
about the importance of the flinch. He acknowledges that,<br />
“Flinching is something that everyone struggles with initially.<br />
Most people find it challenging because it feels fake and<br />
not genuine.” <strong>The</strong> reality is that we do flinch naturally and<br />
instinctively – when our subconscious is in control. It’s so<br />
automatic in fact that we rarely think about it. As Brian<br />
points out, “Think about your reaction when someone cuts<br />
you off in traffic. Probably pretty pronounced – maybe you<br />
shouted or thumped the steering wheel. This type of a big<br />
reaction may be appropriate for negotiations that fall from<br />
1 to 5 on the Clockface. <strong>The</strong>n consider your reaction when<br />
you have a disagreement with your partner about how to<br />
spend your anniversary – you want a luxury hotel, they<br />
suggest camping. Perhaps you shook your head in mild<br />
disagreement or grimaced slightly. You are again sending a<br />
message, albeit this time smaller, that you are rejecting what<br />
you just heard. This smaller reaction is more appropriate for<br />
negotiations that occur from 6 to 11 on the Clockface, but<br />
the fundamental message of disagreement and rejection is<br />
still the same.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> difference between flinching in the car and<br />
anniversary scenarios and in a negotiation is that in the<br />
latter you are choosing (consciously) to send a rejection at<br />
an unnatural time (the proposal could be good but you still<br />
need to reject it). <strong>The</strong>refore it’s the opposite behavior of<br />
your subconscious sending messages naturally. So it’s crucial<br />
that you remain ‘consciously<br />
competent’ to land this and<br />
send the message you want<br />
the other party to receive<br />
– that they need to keep<br />
conceding because the deal<br />
isn’t good enough for you.”<br />
So no matter how good<br />
the proposals from the other<br />
party get, a skilled negotiator<br />
continues to flinch<br />
appropriately throughout<br />
the negotiation, until they “reluctantly” accept. Not only<br />
that, but they learn how to flinch in a credible way. This is<br />
not to suggest that you can’t have more than one type of<br />
flinch, depending on how strong the rejection message that<br />
you want to deliver is. <strong>The</strong> further around the Clockface, the<br />
more appropriate it may be to soften the flinch. Equally, it<br />
is essential not to over use the flinch, to become an actor in<br />
your own play. Finally, stay mindful that any change in your<br />
message to the other party may signal to them that they are<br />
inside the bargaining range and they may stop conceding.<br />
And that means lost value for you.<br />
If the thought of that is enough to have you practicing<br />
your flinches morning, noon and night, Brian has 3 golden<br />
rules of flinching to keep top of mind: “Flinch appropriately,<br />
flinch consistently and flinch authentically.” If following that<br />
advice results in mutual value creation in your negotiations,<br />
then overcoming the result of thousands of years of social<br />
conditioning will have been worth the effort.<br />
<strong>The</strong> theory may make sense, but if you’re short of<br />
inspiration for how to perfect your own authentic flinch,<br />
turn the page for our tongue-in-cheek guide.<br />
17
THE TANTRUM<br />
Throwing a pen down on the table<br />
and looking annoyed.<br />
Channel your inner child. A grown-up<br />
version of stamping the foot, this move<br />
combines physical drama with<br />
sound effects.
THE DRAMATIC EXIT<br />
Leaving a meeting room.<br />
Sends a strong message but requires<br />
confidence. Need to consider the<br />
possibility you won’t be called back.<br />
THE HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL<br />
Raised eyebrows and silence.<br />
Like the uncomfortable silence of<br />
being sent to the principal’s office,<br />
this flinch is silent but effective.<br />
THE HAWK<br />
Indignant glare from above the<br />
rim of spectacles.<br />
A dramatic build on the raised<br />
eyebrows for those that wear glasses.<br />
THE DRAMA QUEEN<br />
Face changing color and veins<br />
popping on the head.<br />
For Oscar-worthy performers only.<br />
One to practice in the bathroom mirror.<br />
THE JOKER<br />
Laughing out loud.<br />
Suggesting the offer made is simply<br />
laughable and cannot be taken seriously,<br />
it undermines the other party’s position.<br />
THE PATRONIZER<br />
“You are new to this, aren’t you?”<br />
Devastating, with a high “insult”<br />
warning. Effective with the<br />
right audience.<br />
THE TIME BUYER<br />
Rapid blinking and long silence.<br />
Suited to highly collaborative yet<br />
tense negotiations (9-12 o’clock on<br />
the Clockface).<br />
THE CHALLENGER<br />
“WHAT?!” Paired with a look<br />
of disbelief.<br />
An easier flinch to implement.<br />
Less offensive than <strong>The</strong> Joker, but<br />
plied with similar intent.<br />
THE HOTHEAD<br />
Pounding the table after<br />
an awkward silence.<br />
Physical and intimidating. Highly<br />
effective, but should be used sparingly.<br />
19
20
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
WE NEED TO<br />
TALK ABOUTKevin<br />
Alistair White tracked down Regional Head of Consulting,<br />
Kevin Lecompte to discover why being instrumental in others’<br />
success is what gets him out of bed in the morning.<br />
Most people recognize <strong>The</strong> Gap<br />
Partnership as a expert in<br />
developing negotiation skills.<br />
However, there is another side<br />
to our business that is much less known, that<br />
of negotiation consulting. Here we work with<br />
clients to create and execute plans for specific<br />
negotiations. <strong>The</strong> specifics of which are nearly<br />
always highly confidential, further adding to<br />
the mystique of “what do they actually do”?<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> <strong>Society</strong> asked me to spend<br />
some time with Kevin Lecompte, Regional<br />
Head of Consulting, to lift the veil on the<br />
world of negotiation consulting.<br />
Kevin arrives for our interview at the appointed<br />
time, takes a seat opposite me, leans back in his<br />
chair, folds his hands behind his head and smiles<br />
mischievously. “What do you want to know?”,<br />
is his opening line.<br />
I think about the five years I have worked with<br />
Kevin and realize how little I know about the<br />
day-to-day work that he and his team do.<br />
“Tell me what a negotiation consultant does”,<br />
is my somewhat uninspired opening. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
something quite strange happens; and indeed it<br />
happens again and again over the subsequent<br />
hour of our conversation, to the point where I<br />
come to expect it. As dramatic as it may sound,<br />
it’s as if someone has passed a small electric charge<br />
through Kevin’s body. He jolts forward, his eyes<br />
light up, and there is an almost palpable crackle<br />
of energy about him as he replies.<br />
“We don’t tell clients what to do or give them<br />
‘the answers’, that would be arrogant and lazy.<br />
We combine the best of what we do with the best<br />
of what the client does. We provide a process, a<br />
methodology, a toolkit and our experience, and<br />
we combine that with the client’s intelligence<br />
and market knowledge to create a plan that is<br />
crystal clear, purposeful and robust. Essentially we<br />
question and challenge the client’s thinking in a<br />
process that I describe as ‘collaborative wrestling’,<br />
until we are both convinced that we have<br />
a solution.”<br />
Before joining <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership, Kevin<br />
worked for a number of other consultancy<br />
companies, including a division of KPMG.<br />
I wondered what was different about his work<br />
with <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership compared to his<br />
previous consulting experience.<br />
“That’s easy. I get to see a result. When I<br />
was with other companies, we would develop<br />
a strategy document, draw up a five year<br />
business expansion plan or formulate a change<br />
management program and I rarely got to see the<br />
outcome. With <strong>The</strong> Gap Partnership, we are part<br />
of the strategy development but, critically, we get<br />
involved in the execution of the plan. That means<br />
we get to see the deal done and we see a tangible<br />
result, a number on a profit and loss account.<br />
21
<strong>The</strong> feeling of being instrumental in someone else’s success is<br />
something I never experienced before and it is one of the best<br />
bits about this job.”<br />
Someone else’s success? As I said, I have known Kevin<br />
for 5 years and I know he has a healthy level of self-esteem.<br />
(Some may describe it as ego, although I’ve never really<br />
understood why that has to be a negative trait. And for<br />
Kevin’s line of work a robust sense of your own ability is<br />
surely a non-negotiable).<br />
Given this, I decide to tease him a little. Really, Kevin?<br />
You enjoy being part of other people’s success? You enjoy<br />
watching other people take the credit for what you helped<br />
bring about?<br />
“Absolutely. I, or one of my team, are hired by someone at<br />
one of our client companies to do a job for them, to secure a<br />
commercial result. When we get that result, it is only right<br />
that the client who put their own reputation on the line<br />
by hiring us should get the corporate acclaim, the promotion,<br />
the bonus, whatever. My satisfaction comes in surpassing<br />
client expectations.”<br />
I am starting to believe him. “80% of our consulting<br />
business comes from clients with whom we have already<br />
worked. We do our job, people want to hire us again,<br />
and that gives me the<br />
personal satisfaction.”<br />
By now he is in full flow.<br />
I resolve to try and take<br />
him down a peg…“Kevin”<br />
I interject, “You just said,<br />
‘When we get that result.’<br />
Surely you mean ‘if ’? <strong>The</strong>re<br />
must be occasions when you<br />
don’t get the result you were<br />
aiming for?”<br />
Kevin leans forward<br />
and I prepare myself for<br />
a volley of elegantly<br />
articulated abuse. “This<br />
is not a ‘win some, lose<br />
some’ game of poker. This<br />
is about taking the element<br />
of chance out of the equation – it is about detailed preparation,<br />
pre-conditioning, risk assessment, contingency planning.<br />
To date it has worked because we have never not hit<br />
an objective.”<br />
He lets that statement hang in the air for a while, just to<br />
make sure I got the full implication. I am wondering, is he<br />
confident, or cocky? For now, let’s call it confident.<br />
“So, what’s the secret?”, I ask mischievously, goading him<br />
again. “Is Kevin Lecompte a magician, an alchemist, some<br />
kind of negotiation guru?” To my surprise – and I must<br />
admit, to my secret satisfaction – a flash of irritation<br />
crosses his face.<br />
“It’s not about me or how well you can bluff or stay strong<br />
at the table or any of those other Hollywood preconceptions<br />
about negotiation. We have a very robust process, we have<br />
some versatile tools and we have a reservoir of confidence and<br />
experience that we have built up over the years. I said before that<br />
what I do is question, challenge and provide insight.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> first question I ask is ‘What do you want to achieve?’<br />
Many people struggle to answer that question and it would<br />
surprise you to know how many different answers I hear<br />
“My job is to guide people<br />
through a process of planning<br />
and preparation, acting as<br />
guardian angel and devil’s<br />
advocate in equal measure.<br />
Well, probably more devil’s<br />
advocate, if I am truthful.<br />
from different people within the same company. I think<br />
one of the reasons we hit our objectives is because we spend<br />
so much time at the outset of a project defining what the<br />
desired outcome is. If we think that the client’s vision of a<br />
desired outcome is unachievable, then we will say so, I regard<br />
that as part of our job. But, until we have secured unanimous<br />
agreement to an objective across all management levels, we<br />
don’t move forward. But once we get that level of clarity and<br />
focus, it makes delivering – and frequently exceeding – the<br />
objective so much easier. If we – the client and <strong>The</strong> Gap<br />
Partnership – start to get lost in detail or we start to feel the<br />
pressures of expectations, we just ask ourselves if what we are<br />
doing is helping to achieve the objective. That really helps to<br />
re-focus our work.<br />
“My job is to guide people through a process of planning<br />
and preparation, acting as guardian angel and devil’s advocate<br />
in equal measure. Well, probably more devil’s advocate,<br />
if I am truthful.<br />
“I am constantly amazed how so many people do not<br />
make the time to prepare adequately for a negotiation.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y say they don’t have the time. So they end up doing<br />
a deal and they then spend the next five years trying to<br />
make it work or trying to improve the profitability. Why<br />
not take a few weeks up<br />
front and invest the time in<br />
negotiating a better deal in<br />
the first place? To me, that<br />
is a no-brainer. Just recently,<br />
we worked with the CEO<br />
of a client company who<br />
was planning an acquisition<br />
with a budget of $900m.<br />
Previously M&A activity<br />
was not planned in terms<br />
of a negotiation strategy<br />
and objectives were only<br />
approximately achieved.<br />
In this instance he and his<br />
colleagues invested eight<br />
weeks of their time with<br />
our consulting team, spread<br />
over a period of five months and they ultimately acquired<br />
the target company for just over 12% less than they had<br />
budgeted. That’s an ROI of nearly $3m a day.”<br />
Kevin pauses for breath and there is a moment of silence<br />
as we both contemplate the prospect of $3m a day. He leans<br />
back in his chair and I get the sense that he is almost a<br />
little embarrassed at the impassioned nature of his previous<br />
statement. Almost, but not quite.<br />
I look down at my notes and one phrase leaps off the page<br />
– devil’s advocate. What form does that typically take? Does<br />
he find himself more frequently putting a brake on clients’<br />
ambitions or emboldening clients to aim for greater things?<br />
“Almost always the latter”, is the response. “People tend to<br />
underestimate their own negotiating power – we provide an<br />
objective, third party assessment of an outsider’s perception<br />
of their negotiating power. Perception is the key word.<br />
<strong>The</strong> majority of the work we do happens long before anyone<br />
sits down at the negotiating table and much of it is devoted<br />
to influencing the perception of the balance of power.<br />
If we can shift that perception from 40/60 to 60/40, that<br />
can be worth a lot of money.”<br />
22
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
I decide to get personal. “What are the best bits about<br />
the job of a negotiation consultant? What excites Kevin<br />
Lecompte?”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> fact that, at the outset of any project, no matter<br />
how well briefed I am, I am walking into the unknown<br />
and I will need to think on my feet. <strong>The</strong> bottom line is<br />
that this is the client’s negotiation and they know their<br />
business infinitely better than I ever will. Hearing about<br />
their circumstances, their environment for the first time and<br />
having to absorb that quickly is always a challenge, but a<br />
genuinely exciting one. And the confidence that grows in<br />
me as I figure out how we can add value and deliver a result<br />
is one of the best elements.<br />
“Frequently, we get called in because things have gone<br />
wrong, a bit like going to the doctor; you don’t go to see<br />
them when you are healthy, you go when there is a problem.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a lot of pressure in the early stages of a new<br />
project. But I never feel more alive than when I am having<br />
breakfast in a hotel prior to the first day’s engagement on<br />
a new project. Just thinking through the various issues and<br />
permutations and how I balance these with the risks to<br />
manage an outcome and continue the run of hitting<br />
the objective. It is an intoxicating mixture of excitement,<br />
anticipation, nerves, apprehension. Fantastic feeling.”<br />
And the worst bits?<br />
“<strong>The</strong> travel can be a bit of a drag. If I never see the inside<br />
of another airport in my life, I wouldn’t complain.”<br />
Kevin pauses. “One of the biggest frustrations is being<br />
called into a project when clients are encountering problems,<br />
particularly with newer clients. I often think how much more<br />
we could have achieved if we had more time. But I suppose<br />
that is inherent in the nature of the job. With established<br />
clients, we more typically get involved at an earlier stage<br />
and the difference is huge.”<br />
Our hour is up. We stand to say our goodbyes, before<br />
walking perhaps twenty feet or so to our respective desks.<br />
As I walk I ponder, what must it be like to work on a project<br />
that not even your spouse will know about, to achieve<br />
heady results, and then to keep them shrouded in a veil of<br />
confidential secrecy? But Kevin has reached his desk before<br />
I can ask. TNS<br />
23
UNDER<br />
PRESSURE<br />
FIVE STRATEGIES TO KEEP EMOTIONAL<br />
CONTROL DURING A NEGOTIATION<br />
One of the major game changers in negotiation is the ability to successfully<br />
control emotional responses. A counterpart may use shock tactics such as<br />
aggression to create an unplanned emotional reaction. In this state it is all too<br />
easy to accidentally disclose information that can tip the balance of power.<br />
<strong>The</strong> skilled negotiator is aware of this risk and is prepared to be provoked.<br />
Matt Maia proposes five strategies for channeling<br />
emotions to your advantage during a negotiation.<br />
STRATEGY 1<br />
REACTION RESET<br />
In order to prepare yourself for an impending emotional<br />
response, it’s important to understand your vulnerabilities.<br />
Everybody is different so there is no one solution to<br />
managing emotions. To take control you need to address your<br />
own specific weaknesses and blind spots.<br />
First things first: reflection and self-assessment.<br />
Start to keep a record of your emotional reactions, feelings<br />
and associated body language each time you have conducted<br />
a negotiation. Remember, negotiations don’t happen<br />
exclusively in the office, so consider the negotiations you<br />
are undertaking in all aspects of your life. If possible, ask for<br />
feedback from colleagues, family and friends.<br />
Try to identify patterns. Do you start to shake or stumble<br />
over words when you are nervous or uncomfortable?<br />
Could a counterpart spot a smirk or blush that could give<br />
away your position?<br />
Next step: action plan.<br />
Once you begin to understand the situations you need to<br />
manage, you can begin to utilize strategies to change your<br />
behavior. If you can manage your emotions and discomfort<br />
better than your counterpart, you are more likely to take control.<br />
Pair up with a colleague to conduct a mock negotiation<br />
making sure that your colleague deploys the triggers that you<br />
know will unsettle you. Practice responding in a different way<br />
to your instinctive reaction. For example, if you know your<br />
tendency is to talk quickly and stumble over words, take time<br />
to pause and breathe deeply before you reply.<br />
Once you have practiced in the safe environment with<br />
your colleague, start utilizing your techniques in the real<br />
world. Keep returning to step one and reflecting and<br />
assessing your progress.<br />
This strategy is simple: understand yourself, practice, change.<br />
24
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
STRATEGY 2<br />
MENTAL COACHING<br />
“When it comes to negotiations, leave your emotions<br />
at the door.” In <strong>The</strong> <strong>Negotiation</strong> Book Steve Gates writes:<br />
“Behavioral, mental control and emotional detachment are all<br />
needed to get inside the other party’s head.”<br />
I cannot emphasize this enough. <strong>The</strong> emotional part<br />
of your brain, the limbic lobe, creates reactive and often<br />
irrational responses, filling in gaps with non-factual<br />
theories. <strong>The</strong> more rational part of your brain, the frontal<br />
lobe, calculates a course of action based on facts and data,<br />
with input from your emotions. During negotiations it is<br />
imperative to pay special attention to this part of your brain<br />
and your more rational approach to thinking.<br />
This second strategy is very simple but requires<br />
organization and reasoning. <strong>The</strong> objective is to effectively<br />
pause or hold your emotions until an appropriate time. Prior<br />
to going into a negotiation you must remind yourself that<br />
emotional analysis and emotive reactions are helpful to get<br />
a broader perspective, but during this meeting they are not<br />
needed and you will review the situation fully with your<br />
emotions after the meeting. Be very clear with yourself and<br />
allow ten minutes after each negotiation (planned into your<br />
diary) to make a list of your emotional responses and thinking.<br />
This is a great exercise that will not only relieve stress but will<br />
decrease tension in your mind between your frontal lobe, and<br />
your limbic lobe, allowing you to think more clearly.<br />
This approach is explored in more detail in the book<br />
Mind Management by Professor Steve Peters.<br />
STRATEGY 3<br />
30 MINUTE PREP<br />
Let’s face it, there isn’t always enough time to prepare a<br />
detailed plan for negotiations. However, it is very often the<br />
more prepared party that will maximize the value of the deal.<br />
If you find yourself in a situation where you have limited<br />
time to prepare, this 30 minute strategy will ensure you cover<br />
the fundamentals and are emotionally prepared for<br />
your negotiation.<br />
First, write a list of topics that if raised during the<br />
negotiation could provoke an emotional response. Remember<br />
to include your own emotional triggers that you identified<br />
in Strategy 1.<br />
Secondly, add to the list areas where you think it is likely<br />
your counterpart will try to apply pressure. For example,<br />
if you are currently negotiating with a retail buyer who<br />
continuously attempts to weaken your position by calling your<br />
company non-collaborative, assume they will do the same again.<br />
Finally, for each topic you have identified, decide on and<br />
write down your response. For example:<br />
Topic: Raised voice and aggression<br />
Response: “Please do not raise your voice. I would like us to<br />
speak to each other in a professional manner.”<br />
Topic: Extreme demand for cost reduction<br />
Response: Extreme demand for distribution improvement<br />
You will be surprised at the number of areas you can<br />
predict during this preparation, and how much more<br />
comfortable you feel having completed this exercise,<br />
despite its brevity.<br />
STRATEGY 4<br />
MINDSET MANAGEMENT<br />
Once you understand your own mindset and emotional<br />
processing, you will start to understand the emotions of<br />
others, and you will be able to identify highly emotive states.<br />
By mastering your own mindset you can begin to exert<br />
influence on others.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are many different ways to approach this topic.<br />
Meditation and mindfulness can offer great benefits by<br />
enabling you to clear your head of emotive thinking, remove<br />
stress easily, and be in the present moment. Yoga is also a<br />
discipline that can aid focus and strength of mind.<br />
Any and all of these methods can positively aid the skills<br />
of the successful negotiator by placing control more firmly in<br />
their hands.<br />
STRATEGY 5<br />
COMMUNICATE HONESTLY<br />
This strategy is for those instances when you are<br />
struggling to gain control of your emotional reactions<br />
during a negotiation. <strong>The</strong> most important thing is to firstly<br />
recognize when this is happening. You will start to see your<br />
behavior taking on the patterns that you identified in yourself<br />
during Strategy 1.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next step is to breathe. Stop talking, and try to put<br />
the rational part of your mind back into control. This can<br />
be an extremely difficult task. You may be experiencing<br />
many emotions all at once. You may be fearful of a loss of<br />
a contract, and resent the other party because of this. You<br />
may be ashamed if you lose the business, and nervous about<br />
what the other party will do next. Remember that being<br />
led by your emotions means your brain fills in the gaps and<br />
overthinks as a built-in protection strategy. Giving into this<br />
can cause more stress and an emotionally driven reaction.<br />
Honest communication is a critical strategy for<br />
these occasions.<br />
Typically, people in an emotive state will try to hide the<br />
fact that they are emotional, and struggle through a meeting<br />
with their mind clouded. <strong>The</strong>y then make poor decisions or<br />
rush to solutions too quickly minimizing value. Take a timeout.<br />
Tell the other party you would like a break in order to<br />
reflect on where the negotiation has reached. You could say:<br />
“I would like to take five minutes of my own time to reflect<br />
on where the deal is.”<br />
This strategy is about being aware of yourself, and<br />
having the ability to take control of proceedings. This<br />
requires a high level of confidence, as it will certainly<br />
make you feel uncomfortable, but it will be highly<br />
beneficial to the outcome. TNS<br />
25
OPEN<br />
FOR BUSINESS<br />
Understanding and managing relationships in negotiation<br />
is an important skill, as Amaryllis Jones explains.<br />
n the earlier part of my career, as a fresh and<br />
bright-eyed new graduate, I honed in on my<br />
social skills to develop my style of negotiation.<br />
Eager to be flexible and fierce, I entered my<br />
negotiations with the facts and fundamentals<br />
of my business to demonstrate why the<br />
“opportunity of the month” could drive the<br />
business in the interest of the retailer and vendor. However,<br />
little did I know that it was the predeveloped relationship<br />
and my understanding of emotional intelligence, or EQ as<br />
it’s commonly referred to, that swung the pendulum in my<br />
favor (most of the time).<br />
Working in the CPG (consumer packaged goods) is<br />
probably similar to other industries you have worked<br />
in that we exist as an interconnected community of<br />
individuals that know someone through a “friend<br />
of a friend of mine.” Anyone that can recognize<br />
this intermingling early enough can imagine<br />
the amount of leverage every internal and<br />
external interaction can have on<br />
the quest to master the art of<br />
relationships. We often like to<br />
perceive ourselves as experts in<br />
networking, where we<br />
skillfully work the room at the<br />
annual business summit – wine<br />
in hand, business cards in pocket<br />
and the intent to lock in that<br />
15 minute chat with a<br />
decision maker that could<br />
propel the proposal.<br />
But how skillful can<br />
we be when we haven’t<br />
taken the time to pave<br />
the foundation for that<br />
relationship? Think about<br />
this…when was the last time you<br />
emailed or called a past client, colleague or<br />
customer, regardless of if you do business with<br />
them currently, to say “hello”?<br />
When I start a new relationship with a<br />
manager, client or customer my first priority<br />
is to negotiate time. “My preferred frequency<br />
for customer connects is bi-monthly” or “I will<br />
be scheduling weekly 1:1 meetings”…so on and<br />
so forth. Why? Because in a fast paced and highly<br />
competitive environment, I want to ensure that I have<br />
locked in my fair share of time with the key individuals<br />
important to my success. Remember, it’s better to give<br />
time back than to ask for more. Each of these interactions<br />
provide an opportunity to build the relationship by<br />
allocating time at the beginning,<br />
not the end, of the meeting to<br />
learn more about the individual on<br />
an emotional level. This is the magic<br />
ticket to learning what excites, ignites<br />
and infuriates the individual. But this<br />
is also where the hard work starts –<br />
because understanding EQ is impossible<br />
if you simply don’t understand yours. EQ<br />
is “the ability to identify and manage your<br />
own emotions and the emotions of others.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> key is to draw connections between your<br />
EQ and your counterpart’s, gathering “clues” to<br />
conclude how best to work together. Individuals<br />
with a high EQ exhibit the ability to cope with<br />
environmental demands and pressures while<br />
demonstrating empathy, accountability and<br />
emotional labor.<br />
As a TGP-trained negotiator, I am sure many<br />
of you struggled with being too fair (at least I did).<br />
“How skillful can we be<br />
when we haven’t taken the<br />
time to pave the foundation<br />
for that relationship?<br />
In my most recent negotiation I caught a bad case of<br />
“fairness” – I was a new face to the customer at a rocky time<br />
where the business was not growing and there were national<br />
changes ahead. I couldn’t help but feel like the customer got<br />
the short end of the stick. But in actuality it was the low EQ<br />
of the buyer resurrecting these emotions in me. Recognizing<br />
that the buyer was emotionally frustrated because his<br />
targets were at risk while transitioning the business to a new<br />
individual on his team helped me to exercise empathy rather<br />
than fairness. It was during my short interactions with him<br />
that I learned about his career changes in the new year and<br />
his eagerness to set his successor up for success. So, “How<br />
bad do you want it?” <strong>The</strong>se are the infamous six words that<br />
I ask myself in every sticky situation, and when I uncovered<br />
how badly the buyer wanted resolution I pounced at the<br />
opportunity to negotiate creatively.<br />
In any situation, understanding emotional intelligence is<br />
critical for productivity but even more so when embarking on<br />
a negotiation. Taking the time to reflect and own yours can<br />
truly help you master the art of relationships. TNS<br />
26
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
ASK ALISTAIR<br />
In the first of our Ask Alistair series, negotiation expert<br />
Alistair White answers questions from our alumni.<br />
Q: My boss is always giving away<br />
value in our negotiations.<br />
How can I stop him?<br />
Kevin, FMCG, UK<br />
A: Don’t take him with you!<br />
But seriously, 90% of the time,<br />
you can eliminate this problem<br />
through preparation and having<br />
a conversation in advance to<br />
agree the proposals you are<br />
going to make, the sequence<br />
and where your breakpoints<br />
lie. Decide which of you will<br />
do the talking, which of you<br />
will make decisions and, crucially,<br />
separate these two. Perhaps agree<br />
that, before you deviate from your<br />
pre-laid plan, you take a time-out to<br />
discuss. At all costs, avoid spontaneous,<br />
ill-considered concessions.<br />
Q: <strong>The</strong> hardest discussions I have<br />
are internal. What are your tips for<br />
negotiating internally?<br />
Wayne, Procurement, Sydney<br />
A: <strong>The</strong> same principles apply<br />
equally in internal as well as external<br />
negotiations. <strong>The</strong> difference lies in<br />
how we feel about them. <strong>The</strong>re is an<br />
expectation that because you work for<br />
the same company, your negotiation<br />
should be collegial. But<br />
if you are negotiating<br />
over the same, finite,<br />
internal resource –<br />
budget, manpower,<br />
deadlines – it is hardly<br />
surprising that these<br />
discussions are hard.<br />
Moreover, the potential<br />
to exchange low-cost<br />
for high-value (the<br />
commercial foundation<br />
of more collaborative<br />
negotiations) is much lower in internal<br />
negotiations than when negotiating<br />
with an external partner with a different<br />
business model and different KPIs.<br />
My advice is to analyze the circumstances<br />
dispassionately and focus less on the fact<br />
that you are dealing with a colleague.<br />
Q: When is extreme too extreme?<br />
Elodie, CPG, USA<br />
A: We only discover where a frontier<br />
lies by crossing it. So the short<br />
answer to your question is, “Only<br />
in retrospect.” <strong>The</strong> fact that you ask<br />
this question tells me that, because<br />
you are concerned about opening too<br />
extreme, there is less likelihood that<br />
you will. Most people who open too<br />
“We only discover where a<br />
frontier lies by crossing it.<br />
extreme have not even considered the<br />
consequences in advance, so you are<br />
already ahead of the game. Consider<br />
this – would you rather open too<br />
extreme, or not extreme enough? With<br />
a little forethought and experience you<br />
will rarely, if ever, overstep the mark.<br />
Q: I’m involved in tenders. How do I<br />
get my number on the table first?<br />
Eric, Oil & Gas, UK<br />
A: You can’t. Most tenders in my<br />
experience have a firm, or at<br />
least indicative, pricing level.<br />
However, there are a couple of<br />
things you can do. In many<br />
instances, you know in advance<br />
that a tender is on its way,<br />
and you can make an effort to<br />
influence the conditions of the<br />
tender, including the pricing,<br />
before your customer draws<br />
up the final draft. If that proves<br />
impossible, as soon as you receive<br />
the tender, enter into a conversation<br />
with your customer about how the<br />
product or service in question could be<br />
specified, configured, delivered, priced,<br />
etc...differently. If your customer is<br />
prepared to entertain this discussion<br />
then you have an opportunity to<br />
redesign the parameters of the tender<br />
and effectively move the tender onto<br />
a negotiation ground more of<br />
your choosing.<br />
Q: All my customer ever wants to talk<br />
about is price. How do I manage to<br />
broaden the discussion?<br />
Alena, FMCG, China<br />
A: Send an agenda up<br />
front which documents<br />
the issues you want to<br />
discuss. Assuming you<br />
are commercially able<br />
to do so, make one<br />
or more conditional<br />
proposals which offer<br />
your customer a partconcession<br />
on price, in<br />
return for something<br />
which compensates you<br />
for this concession. An “if you...then<br />
we...” proposal is the simplest way of<br />
achieving this. In this way, you are<br />
forcing your customer to consider what<br />
you want to talk about because you are<br />
making his reward conditional on you<br />
getting what you want. TNS<br />
27
QUESTION<br />
T I M E<br />
Brexit has been<br />
described as “the mother<br />
of all negotiations”, but<br />
what negotiation lessons<br />
has it taught us so far?<br />
We asked a panel of<br />
experts from different<br />
industries to give us<br />
their assessment.<br />
Ian Rennie<br />
FORMER GENERAL SECRETARY, POLICE<br />
FEDERATION, ENGLAND AND WALES<br />
From 2008–14 I had responsibility<br />
for negotiating the pay and conditions<br />
for all police officers in the UK.<br />
My biggest challenge was managing the<br />
expectations of those I represented and<br />
convincing them they should accept<br />
the deal that we had achieved. This<br />
was only ever successful if I agreed a<br />
clear mandate beforehand with a set of<br />
principles and negotiating strategy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Brexit negotiations are an<br />
object lesson in how to minimize your<br />
prospects of achieving a negotiated<br />
settlement that doesn’t worsen the<br />
arrangements that currently exist. <strong>The</strong><br />
Chief Negotiator appears to be going<br />
into negotiations with no clear mandate<br />
on what those behind him – in the<br />
government, parliament or the country<br />
– actually want, and more importantly<br />
what they are prepared to concede.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Foreign Secretary’s comments<br />
that we can “have our cake and eat<br />
it” and the EU “can whistle” for any<br />
divorce money have only served to<br />
make the negotiators’ task more<br />
difficult. <strong>The</strong> Prime Minister’s stance<br />
of “Brexit means Brexit” and “no deal<br />
is better than a bad deal” together with<br />
her red line positions have done little to<br />
improve the negotiating environment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> referendum question was asked<br />
without any real knowledge of what a<br />
deal to leave would look like. Only now<br />
are the complexities of EU membership<br />
and the consequences of leaving<br />
becoming apparent. <strong>The</strong> government<br />
has belatedly produced a series of<br />
position papers which the EU team<br />
has criticized for lacking clarity and<br />
“realism.” <strong>The</strong> negotiations appear to<br />
be stalled before they have started with<br />
our Chief Negotiator left pleading for<br />
“imagination” and “flexibility.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> two parties look like they<br />
couldn’t be much further apart and<br />
the chances of getting any deal,<br />
never mind a good deal, appear to<br />
be getting slimmer by the day. But<br />
whatever comes out of the negotiations<br />
the hardest part will be selling it to<br />
parliament and to the country.<br />
Graham Ross<br />
MANAGING PARTNER, CONTINENTAL<br />
EUROPE, THE GAP PARTNERSHIP<br />
We haven’t learned much about<br />
the Brexit negotiations just yet.<br />
But we should not have expected to.<br />
<strong>Negotiation</strong> has existed since the dawn<br />
of civilization, but is still remarkably<br />
misunderstood. Certainly, the execution<br />
of Brexit is complex. Many laws and<br />
rules of the EU will have their first tests.<br />
<strong>The</strong> interesting thing right now is the<br />
similarity in messaging that negotiation<br />
teams are sending on both sides of<br />
the channel.<br />
Undoubtedly Messrs. Barnier<br />
and Davies, May and Juncker have a<br />
tough job. <strong>The</strong>y must come to some<br />
agreement. But they must also convince<br />
their stakeholders – the various EU<br />
governments – the agreement is worth<br />
accepting. However, their stakeholders<br />
are the electorate. That’s a lot of people<br />
with little education of the process who<br />
need to be satisfied the solutions are the<br />
best available.<br />
As any skilled negotiator knows,<br />
people value that which is hard to<br />
obtain. This deal, with so many people<br />
looking for satisfaction, will have to look<br />
very hard to obtain. With work and<br />
some humility, initial positioning should<br />
develop to proposing and eventually<br />
some elements of the deal should start<br />
to emerge.<br />
In the meantime currencies are<br />
fluctuating, input and transfer costs vary<br />
across our region, and renegotiation is<br />
necessary to reallocate profits and costs.<br />
All before we consider the impact of<br />
potential new tariffs and red tape. It is<br />
not a question of whether there will be<br />
commercial change, but a question of<br />
when, by how much, and how frequently<br />
we will have to renegotiate.<br />
For now we should brace ourselves<br />
for the public face of these negotiations<br />
to be tough. Claims that either side<br />
is “underprepared”, “unrealistic”,<br />
“unimaginative” or “inflexible” shouldn’t<br />
surprise. <strong>The</strong>re will be deadlocks,<br />
breakthroughs, and late-night meetings,<br />
with tired-looking protagonists reporting<br />
the outcome to the cameras. How else<br />
will we be satisfied that our negotiators<br />
have given everything they could?<br />
28
Andrew Magowen<br />
GENERAL COUNSEL & COMPANY<br />
SECRETARY, ASOS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Brexit negotiations (is it a<br />
“negotiation” if you don’t appear<br />
interested in offering anything tangible<br />
to the other side, and instead seem to<br />
be talking about completely different<br />
things?) demonstrate something that it<br />
took me a long time to learn.<br />
You have to trust your counterparty.<br />
Because ultimately, you will have to<br />
move. You’ll need to get past the feeling<br />
that you might lose face or be seen as<br />
weak. You’ll need an outcome and a set<br />
of trade-offs that you can explain. And<br />
you can only do that when you trust<br />
the other side to reciprocate. That trust<br />
comes from building a relationship. It<br />
doesn’t happen when you belittle or<br />
refuse to engage with their concerns.<br />
Trust is only created when you<br />
properly listen to the other side, try to<br />
understand their views and position<br />
(even if you don’t agree), and attempt to<br />
address their issues in the way that least<br />
impacts you.<br />
You won’t win someone over with<br />
your power or intellect, or browbeat<br />
them into seeing your point. It may<br />
sometimes feel like it, but a negotiation<br />
is not a fight. A negotiation is a trade.<br />
You have to have something the other<br />
side wants (or wants to avoid), and you<br />
have to help them get that in order to<br />
get what you need.<br />
And that means you have to know<br />
what you need (or need to avoid).<br />
You must understand what’s likely to<br />
happen if you don’t strike a deal, and<br />
how you can live with that. Not what<br />
you hope might happen. Not what<br />
you think you might get away with.<br />
What’s likely to happen. Only then can<br />
you understand the best way forward,<br />
whatever the public glare and whatever<br />
your ‘face’ may be telling you. Only<br />
then will you be able to explain the<br />
good points from a deal that justify the<br />
compromises you had to accept.<br />
Barry Hoffman<br />
GROUP HR DIRECTOR,<br />
COMPUTACENTER<br />
It is fairly clear that the British<br />
public is an unpredictable and<br />
somewhat fickle bunch of voters.<br />
Brexit has taught us a number of<br />
things about negotiation – from the<br />
impressive hubris and inflated claims<br />
of Boris Johnson, which had more<br />
impact than expected (for him as<br />
well as us), to the powerful groups<br />
of minority voters who were severely<br />
underestimated by the government.<br />
But more than that, it has shown us<br />
that agility and the ability to adapt to<br />
rapidly changing circumstances is what<br />
makes governments, businesses and<br />
individuals successful. Who’d have ever<br />
thought that Boris would end up as the<br />
UK government’s Foreign Secretary?<br />
Whatever the outcome, Brexit will<br />
have a profound impact for many<br />
years to come. <strong>The</strong> good news is<br />
that there can be winners. As an IT<br />
services business, Computacenter has<br />
more business outside of the UK than<br />
it transacts inside Britain. So for us<br />
diversification has been a clear route<br />
to flexibility and choice. It enables<br />
businesses and people to adapt and<br />
react swiftly whilst feeling in control of<br />
their own destiny, which is absolutely<br />
crucial in a fast-moving negotiation<br />
where many factors are outside of<br />
our control. Political and economic<br />
instability should not have come as a<br />
surprise to anyone. Like an electrical<br />
storm, the rumblings have been audible<br />
long before the eye of the storm hit the<br />
UK on June 23rd.<br />
Businesses may leave the UK, or<br />
they may not, but the key learning<br />
from Brexit is that bemoaning the<br />
situation will get you nowhere. In any<br />
negotiation, the successful party will<br />
detach themselves from the emotion<br />
of the situation and find solutions that<br />
are beneficial for both sides. Because<br />
ultimately, it doesn’t have to be a zero<br />
sum game.<br />
James Lowe<br />
CLOUD AND ANALYTICS LEADER UK<br />
AND IRELAND, IBM<br />
Given the formal Brexit negotiations<br />
began in June 2017, I wonder how<br />
much we can have learned so far.<br />
That said, there have been some<br />
significant events that offer substance<br />
for debate and comment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> UK general election back<br />
in May was intended to create<br />
a significant majority for the<br />
Conservatives and result in a clear<br />
political position on the desired<br />
outcomes of Brexit for the UK. But in<br />
reality the election result only served<br />
to provide a more confused political<br />
backdrop to the negotiations and<br />
create a perceived weakness in the<br />
UK’s negotiating position with the EU.<br />
Additionally the changes in the<br />
UK negotiating team, with the loss of<br />
key figures such as James Chapman<br />
and David Jones, has served to<br />
further compromise the UK position.<br />
Irrespective of your view of these<br />
individuals’ capability, continuity of<br />
personnel throughout negotiation is<br />
vitally important. Both of these factors<br />
– the election result and changes in the<br />
UK team – are vital elements that will<br />
impact the success, or otherwise, of the<br />
negotiations for the UK.<br />
But a final observation is around<br />
the lack of clarity of the UK’s “walk<br />
away” position. No one has been able<br />
to clearly articulate what will happen in<br />
the event of a “no deal” outcome. Some<br />
commentators speculate that Britain<br />
could operate under the World Trade<br />
Organization framework. However,<br />
the devil is in the detail and how<br />
that would play out in reality is little<br />
understood. What this means is that<br />
no one can truly map out the respective<br />
impacts of accepting the other parties’<br />
position, versus standing firm and<br />
risking a “no deal” scenario. In the<br />
short term, the UK’s position is further<br />
undermined. <strong>The</strong> longer term risk is<br />
that trivial points will be argued over<br />
for hours, whilst conversely those that<br />
require a firm stance from the UK may<br />
be agreed far too easily.<br />
29
JAMES DONOVAN<br />
THE WORLD’S BEST NEGOTIATOR?<br />
Chris Webber analyses an intelligent<br />
Hollywood thriller and considers the wisdom<br />
it contains for today’s commercial negotiators.<br />
James Donovan, an American lawyer, was born<br />
in 1916. He rose to become General Counsel<br />
for the OSS (predecessor to the CIA) and an<br />
international diplomatic negotiator. He became<br />
famous for two pieces of<br />
brilliant negotiation diplomacy.<br />
He negotiated the release of<br />
American pilot Gary Powers in<br />
exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf<br />
Abel, and he also negotiated the<br />
release of prisoners from Cuba<br />
after the Bay of Pigs invasion.<br />
<strong>The</strong> release of Powers was<br />
the subject of the 2015 Oscar<br />
winning film “Bridge of Spies”,<br />
starring Tom Hanks and<br />
Mark Rylance.<br />
In the film Donovan<br />
demonstrates a number of traits<br />
of successful negotiators. He is<br />
able to disassociate himself from<br />
the events. He does not accept<br />
the populist view of what to<br />
do and he flatly refuses to conform to expectations.<br />
He instead focuses on what he believes is in the best<br />
interests of his client. At the time, 1950s and 60s USA,<br />
the country was a hotbed of suspicion. Anti-communist<br />
feelings were strong as <strong>The</strong> Cold War escalated. In that<br />
atmosphere the capture of a Soviet spy by the Americans<br />
resulted in a frenzy, cursing him to a cruel fate.<br />
Donovan saw it differently. When he was instructed<br />
to represent Abel during the trial he chose not to<br />
conform to pressure and deliver a show trial, but to<br />
defend his client to the best of his ability. Ultimately he<br />
escalated the case to the Supreme Court, losing only<br />
narrowly on a point of law regarding the rights of<br />
foreign nationals and the US constitution.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se actions demonstrated that Donovan was able<br />
to separate his feelings from behavior, instead focusing<br />
solely on the outcome.<br />
It also underlined his position<br />
as a man of integrity who took<br />
action not for selfish gains, but<br />
for the<br />
bigger<br />
picture. This is critical<br />
to his position as a diplomatic<br />
negotiator. Later in his career this<br />
reputation no doubt enabled his<br />
proposals to be taken seriously at<br />
a time when trust could not have<br />
been lower between nations on<br />
the verge of war.<br />
<strong>The</strong> story also beautifully<br />
illustrates some other important<br />
fundamentals of negotiation:<br />
Strategic thinking – the<br />
capacity to consider the long term<br />
implications of decisions made<br />
that affect two parties likely to<br />
be required to negotiate again.<br />
Power and influence –<br />
understanding dynamics in<br />
multi-party negotiations to create leverage through<br />
knowledge of what is important to each party.<br />
Focus on the other party’s breakpoint – not setting<br />
targets based upon requirements, but considering how<br />
much the other party might be prepared to give.<br />
Once convicted the fate of Abel was clear in the<br />
mind of the judiciary and the majority of Americans.<br />
<strong>The</strong> death penalty. However, again Donovan took an<br />
alternative view that put him at the heart of further<br />
controversy. He predicted that in the future an<br />
American would be in a similar situation and that the<br />
US would require both a bargaining chip and a moral<br />
position against the mistreatment of captured citizens.<br />
He was proved right. An American pilot was shot<br />
down by the Soviets, captured and convicted of spying.<br />
30
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
Tom Hanks plays James Donovan in<br />
Hollywood blockbuster ‘Bridge of Spies’.<br />
Inset: James B. Donovan in 1962<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY ABOVE: JAAP BUITENDIJK/©WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES<br />
COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION/MARY EVANS. INSET LEFT: GETTY IMAGES<br />
<strong>The</strong> US were determined to secure his release and unable<br />
to open official channels engaged Donovan as an indirect<br />
liaison. <strong>The</strong>y had one clear goal in mind – the pilot, and they<br />
were prepared to trade Abel for him. <strong>The</strong>y were also under<br />
tremendous time pressure and feared that given time the<br />
Soviets could extract enough information from Powers that a<br />
trade would be irrelevant as all the secrets would be lost.<br />
Donovan was sent to East Berlin to secure the<br />
agreement. <strong>The</strong> complicating factor was the detainment of an<br />
American student, Pryor, by the newly formed East German<br />
government. It created an added dynamic, an additional person<br />
to be released and the complication of another government.<br />
<strong>The</strong> US were prepared to sacrifice the student and focus<br />
on Powers. Donovan was not. He focused not on his own<br />
goals, but what the other party were prepared to give,<br />
specifically both prisoners in return for Abel.<br />
<strong>The</strong> challenge he then faced was possibly his most<br />
significant. <strong>The</strong> Soviets were going to receive their man back<br />
in return for the release of Powers to the Americans. What<br />
were the East Germans getting? <strong>The</strong> way that Donovan solved<br />
this dilemma was patience and creativity. He did not rush<br />
the agreement. He took his time to meet and understand<br />
the situation, caught in various power games by the East<br />
Germans in a tense and dangerous post separated Berlin.<br />
He understood that intangible variables carry huge value<br />
in negotiation, something that cannot be easily measured<br />
like reputation, association or collaboration. He also carefully<br />
assessed where influence lay across the three parties – the US,<br />
the Soviets and the brand new East Germany.<br />
On face value the East Germans held the power. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
had something Donovan wanted and he had little to trade.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir demands were recognition by the US for their role,<br />
and recognition of their government. Neither of these were<br />
acceptable to the US. Donovan saw that an association with<br />
the Soviets was much more valuable to the East Germans<br />
in the long term. He used his bargaining position to force<br />
the Soviets to pressure the East Germans. He refused to<br />
co-operate with them unless they secured the release of the<br />
student and released Powers.<br />
He made one concession, a separate exchange point.<br />
<strong>The</strong> East Germans handed over Pryor at Checkpoint Charlie<br />
rather than the official exchange on the bridge, a concession<br />
that gave some satisfaction to the East Germans.<br />
“A man of integrity who took<br />
action not from selfish gains,<br />
but for the bigger picture.<br />
Throughout Donovan demonstrated a sophisticated<br />
understanding of power, influence, value and strategy.<br />
Critically though it was his personal style, traits and discipline<br />
that made a difference. He remained detached, patient, tough<br />
on issues, prepared to leverage demands and ambitious.<br />
But perhaps what is even more remarkable about<br />
Donovan is his success in 1962 of negotiating with Cuba for<br />
the release of prisoners. Relations between the two countries<br />
were at a low following the failed invasion by the US at<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bay of Pigs, and the Americans wanted the release of<br />
1,113 prisoners. Donovan went to Cuba with his son and<br />
met Castro, who was moved to remark on the courage of<br />
Donovan bringing his son. Donovan<br />
saw that Cuba was is dire need of medicines and food and<br />
set about raising over $50 million from private companies.<br />
He used the money to buy drugs and food and traded them<br />
for the release of prisoners. He left Cuba not with the 1,113<br />
prisoners he was challenged to secure - but with 9,703. TNS<br />
31
Think before you readily<br />
agree to something your<br />
counterparty wants or<br />
needs. Remember,<br />
“People value the things<br />
that are hard to obtain”.<br />
STRESS OFTEN LEADS TO<br />
UNNECESSARY TALKING,<br />
AND EVERY TIME YOU SPEAK<br />
YOU COULD BE GIVING AWAY<br />
VALUABLE INFORMATION.<br />
REMEMBER, “NEGOTIATION<br />
IS SILENCE”.<br />
Do you let your<br />
competitive spirit<br />
and desire to succeed<br />
cloud your judgement?<br />
Remember, “If you<br />
want to win you will<br />
pay for it”.<br />
DO YOU REALLY LISTEN TO<br />
WHAT YOUR COUNTERPARTY<br />
IS SAYING? INFORMATION IS<br />
POWER, SO “LISTEN FOR<br />
THE MEANING BEHIND<br />
THE WORDS”.<br />
<strong>Negotiation</strong> is a<br />
stressful activity. Don’t concede<br />
too quickly to alleviate your<br />
anxiety and stress. Remember,<br />
“<strong>Negotiation</strong> is uncomfortable.<br />
Learn to be more comfortable<br />
with being uncomfortable”.<br />
A WORD<br />
DO YOU EASILY FALL<br />
INTO THE PITFALL OF ASSUMING<br />
THE OTHER PARTY IS IN A BETTER<br />
POSITION THAN YOU? GETTING<br />
INSIDE THEIR HEAD MAY REVEAL<br />
THE PROBLEMS AND PRESSURES<br />
THAT THEY ARE FACING.<br />
REMEMBER, “YOU ARE OFTEN<br />
MORE EQUAL THAN YOU THINK”.<br />
PEARLS OF NEGOTIATION WISDOM TO KEEP TOP OF MIND<br />
32
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
GOING<br />
FOR<br />
City of Liverpool<br />
PENNY<br />
LANE L18<br />
When the King of Pop<br />
went after <strong>The</strong> Fab Four’s back<br />
catalog, records were bound to be<br />
broken. Sib Law takes us inside the<br />
negotiation that shook the music industry.<br />
A SONG<br />
WIn 2016, Sony announced that it would pay $750<br />
million for the Michael Jackson estate’s stake in<br />
Sony/ATV. This is the company that controls large<br />
parts of the Beatles catalog. But even with such<br />
a price tag, how the singer came to control one of the most<br />
iconic collections in the history of music is a much more<br />
interesting story. Furthermore, it illuminates one of the basic<br />
truths about negotiation: when something has a low cost to<br />
one party and a high value to the other, it can make all the<br />
difference in sealing the deal.<br />
A month after the deal was complete, in 1985, the L.A.<br />
Times ran an exposé on how Jackson made the acquisition.<br />
In the article, staff writer Robert Hilburn describes a decade<br />
long journey taken by a number of Beatles songs during the<br />
1960s. That journey began inside a tax-shelter-holdingcompany<br />
set up by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.<br />
However, the songs had many stops before they became part<br />
of ATV Music Ltd., owned by Robert Holmes a Court.<br />
In a 2010 four-part retrospective on Michael Jackson,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wrap – a Hollywood industry publication – added more<br />
details to the story. In the article by Johnnie L. Roberts, he<br />
describes super lawyer John Branca’s guile and chutzpah as<br />
the main reason behind the successful acquisition. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
offer from the Jackson camp came in at $46 million.<br />
Both <strong>The</strong> Wrap and the L.A. Times refer to a story in<br />
Fortune Magazine, where Holmes a Court compares<br />
his own negotiation style to that of the Viet<br />
Cong. As seems typical of large deals these days,<br />
negotiations were on and off. In fact, things got<br />
so bad that in May 1985 the Jackson team broke<br />
off negotiations for a month.<br />
Another offer emerged during the period that<br />
Jackson was out of the running. This one came<br />
from the team of Martin Bandier (currently<br />
the CEO of Sony/ATV) and Charles<br />
Koppleman (a longtime entertainment<br />
executive and investor).<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir number was $50 million. Branca discovered that the<br />
opposing offer was financially backed by MCA Music, which<br />
was headed by Irving Azoff. Branca and Azoff were old<br />
acquaintances, having worked together prior to<br />
these negotiations.<br />
Both parties were on the same plane to London to<br />
meet with Holmes a Court. Both parties believed they<br />
were traveling to seal the deal to secure the Beatles songs.<br />
Roberts describes an interaction between the two parties<br />
where Bandier and Koppelman asked Branca “What brings<br />
you to London?”, to which he responded, “Just business.”<br />
What they did not know was that Branca had convinced<br />
Azoff to pull the MCA Music backing and that he had<br />
sweetened Jackson’s offer.<br />
Jackson’s successful proposal was $47.5 million, which<br />
according to the 1985 L.A. Times article, was the most ever<br />
paid by an individual for a music catalog. Even so, this was<br />
still $2.5 million less than an offer Holmes a Court had inhand;<br />
the same man who compared his own negotiation style<br />
to the Viet Cong.<br />
Working to ensure his offer would be accepted, Branca<br />
threw in a number of intangibles. In addition to the money<br />
changing hands, Branca included a Michael Jackson<br />
benefit concert for Holmes a Court’s favorite charity. But,<br />
what may have finally sealed the deal was a lifetime of<br />
income from the Beatles classic, “Penny Lane”, for<br />
Holmes a Court’s daughter Catherine. <strong>The</strong> measurable<br />
personal costs of either of these negotiating variables<br />
would have been very low for Jackson while clearly<br />
representing a high value for Holmes a Court.<br />
Many negotiation competencies were at play as<br />
Branca maneuvered to acquire the catalog that<br />
contained the Beatles songs in 1985. But, the<br />
use of low-cost/high-value intangibles made it<br />
possible to sweeten the deal to the other party<br />
without having to match the price offered<br />
by the competition. TNS<br />
33
CROSSWORD<br />
British in style, a fiendish cryptic crossword. Some of the clues and some<br />
of the answers have a negotiation theme.<br />
ACROSS<br />
1 In this, you do what you do - I ain’t<br />
got one prepared (11)<br />
7 A proposal at first after good<br />
opening (3)<br />
9 Telephone after end of Brexit<br />
producing irritation (5)<br />
10 Cleansers perhaps deployed round<br />
about spots (9)<br />
11 New lab blocks changes in x, y<br />
and z? (9)<br />
12 Appreciate that EU can get<br />
rejected (5)<br />
13 Stratagems from feline repelled<br />
blood suckers reportedly (7)<br />
15 <strong>The</strong> Complete Skilled Negotiator<br />
finally arranged plant (4)<br />
18 See 27<br />
20 Tone down a painting technique (7)<br />
23 Middle Eastern artist and queen in<br />
one-to-one gathering (5)<br />
24 Formulated bananas are<br />
dumped (7, 2)<br />
26 Mowers’ ROI potentially<br />
disturbing (9)<br />
27/18 Notice busy café shows time<br />
dependent display (5,4)<br />
28 <strong>The</strong> Russian Front ultimately<br />
produced trap (3)<br />
29 Immigrant possibly believed<br />
broadcast by tradesman (5,6)<br />
DOWN<br />
1 Four-to-one in smart beginning? (8)<br />
2 Improve prospects as good bank’s<br />
productive (4,4)<br />
3 Country featured in Charleston<br />
Gazette (5)<br />
4 Everyone starts to examine large<br />
elongated structures for alternative<br />
forms of genes (7)<br />
5 One cutting American company’s<br />
operational research (7)<br />
6 ‘Rising Maiden’, the French former<br />
president’s wife’s name for tree (6,3)<br />
7 Ordinary interruption of righteous<br />
is significant (6)<br />
8 Advertisement showing primarily<br />
partnerships, our strategy, trust,<br />
excellence, relationships (6)<br />
14 Apple publication maybe popular in<br />
German reckoning (9)<br />
16 One moved by turning the key that<br />
occurs when 1A breaks down (8)<br />
17 Lighting device said to be<br />
welcomed by fish (3,5)<br />
19 Profilers’ limits? (7)<br />
20 Most outstanding person from<br />
ancient city given time (3,4)<br />
21 Repeatedly contract group in<br />
situation where everyone benefits<br />
(3-3)<br />
22 Secretary to go off without right<br />
copy (6)<br />
25 Expression of triumph after MCA<br />
played tough (5)<br />
For solutions email<br />
alumni@thegappartnership.com<br />
Do you find yourself giving things<br />
away which are of value to your<br />
counterparty? Remember,<br />
“Don’t give things away, trade them”.<br />
IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOUR<br />
COUNTERPARTY NEEDS THINK ABOUT<br />
HOW YOU CAN MAXIMIZE VALUE FROM<br />
THIS. REMEMBER, “IF IT COSTS YOU<br />
NOTHING, TRADE IT FOR SOMETHING OF<br />
EQUAL OR GREATER VALUE”.<br />
34
THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY<br />
TCSN ACRONYM BRAIN TEASER<br />
If you’ve been on <strong>The</strong> Complete Skilled Negotiator<br />
workshop, you’ll remember that we use a lot of carefully<br />
formulated phrases to encapsulate and embed key<br />
points of learning. But how many can you identify from the<br />
following acronyms? <strong>The</strong> first one is complete to start you off.<br />
1 NISNIL <strong>Negotiation</strong> Is Silence, <strong>Negotiation</strong> Is Listening<br />
CLUE<br />
2 GEG<br />
Think before you speak<br />
CLUE<br />
<strong>The</strong> more you give, the more they’ll take<br />
3 TMYSTMYGA<br />
CLUE<br />
4 NPFFIN<br />
CLUE<br />
5 CBBCB<br />
CLUE<br />
6 IIDGO<br />
CLUE<br />
7 NIAUEIA<br />
CLUE<br />
8 IYTW<br />
CLUE<br />
9 TAYN<br />
CLUE<br />
10 NSTD<br />
Idle talk costs money<br />
Leave your values at the negotiation room door<br />
Fight and you will be fought<br />
Appropriate exit<br />
All to play for<br />
Propose to start<br />
Get your figure out<br />
HIS FACE EXUDED CALM,<br />
BUT HIS TAIL BETRAYED HIM<br />
DO YOU BECOME TOTALLY<br />
FOCUSED ON YOUR<br />
PERSONAL AND COMPANY<br />
OBJECTIVES WHEN<br />
NEGOTIATING? - THIS COULD<br />
SUB-OPTIMIZE WHAT IS<br />
POSSIBLE. REMEMBER,<br />
“NEGOTIATION IS NOT WHAT<br />
YOU WANT, IT’S WHAT THEY<br />
CAN GIVE YOU”.<br />
CLUE<br />
11 GCWBU<br />
Fair warning<br />
CLUE<br />
12 OE<br />
CLUE<br />
Awkwardness is ok<br />
Bold beginning<br />
13 TBWTBAPITMAP<br />
CLUE<br />
14 WTPPTP<br />
CLUE<br />
15 NHITH<br />
Optimum response to an offer<br />
Politeness means progress<br />
Do you find yourself<br />
getting frustrated by<br />
entrenched positions<br />
and disagreements?<br />
Remember, “Don’t say<br />
what you can’t do, say<br />
what you can do”.<br />
CLUE<br />
<strong>The</strong> location of the deal<br />
For solutions email alumni@thegappartnership.com<br />
35
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