International Negotiations

Lisa Smirnova

Lisa Consulting

Introduction

  • Background and scope
  • Personal and corporate levels
  • Personal and group bargaining, company contracting, alliance agreements and labor negotiations
  • Applications - buying, selling, recruiting, allocating resources, compensating, resolving conflict

Some background Issues

  • Currency fluctuations
  • Political risk - changing tax levels, import quotas, etc.
  • Government involvement
  • Ideological, religious and other cultural differences

Two Models of Negotiation

  • Distributive negotiation
  • Integrative negotiation

Distributive Negotiations

  • Maximizing outcomes
  • Balance between parties not always quantitative
  • Target outcomes and resistance points
  • Keeping alternatives in mind

Integrative Negotiations

  • Not just dividing up the pie but finding ways to expand the pie.
  • Substantive versus intrinsic motives of the parties
  • Setting up win-win situations
  • Looking for similarities between the parties, not differences

A Framework for Successful Negotiations

  • Planning and preparation
  • Relationship building
  • Exchanging task-related information
  • Persuasion
  • Reaching agreement

Planning

Background and Circumstances

  • Company and country profiles, management styles.

Negotiation Issues

  • what must be achieved, what would we hope to or would like to achieve, timing and location

      • Participants

      • use of third parties

        • Processes

        • dress code, location, ‘getting to know you’
          • women’s roles

Relationship Building

  • personal introductions
  • building trust
  • socializing
  • importance of patience
  • seniority, age, authority and rank issues
  • business cards and gifts

Exchanging Information

  • formal presentations and position statements
  • ‘putting cards on the table’ (distributive) versus seeking others’ point of view (integrative)
  • selecting important data for the negotiations and information about expectations

Persuasion

Tactics

  • clouding the issue by asking detailed questions
  • searching for direct answers
  • threats and promises
  • avoiding concessions
  • use of emotional behavior
  • the power of silence
  • getting beyond ‘yes’

Reaching Agreement

  • Formal agreements
  • Informal agreements
  • Agreement not to agree
  • Agreement to continue

Managing Conflict

  • Conflict - good or bad
  • treatment of conflict
  • approaches to managing conflict
  • resolving disputes

Implications for the Manager

Preparation

  • check aspects of the other country and the other culture

Team

  • make-up. consultations, authority for both sides

Where and when to negotiate

Preparing a strategy

  • priorities, importance, other party’s needs, concessions, development of trust, structure for negotiations