Robust Routers Job Offer

The negotiation exercise this week was the Robust Routers Job Offer. It was interesting to change things up and do the negotiation as a class.

 However, I don’t think that the “Joes” put the situation into perspective. Yes, it was important to get the best deal possible, but I could not believe that the “Joes” would think about talking to a potential future boss in the manner that they did. I guess it depends on each person’s personality, but I would never repeat over and over how great I am or talk down on the opposite sex. It’s one thing to tell someone that the situation is out of your control or take the blame for something away from you, but it’s completely inappropriate to disrespect anyone, especially in a professional setting.

I think that both of the “Leighs” handled the situation very well, staying professional. Emily did a great job of sticking to her guns and not raising the salary. Also, when Dan went back and tried to renegotiate the relocation without changing the signing bonus, Emily stayed persistent and said hey we already agreed on this, we’re not changing the relocation without changing the signing bonus as well. I think that Greg did a great job of negotiating because at the end Matt didn’t get a very good deal for the “Joes” but Matt still felt like he got a good deal.

Overall I don’t think that Matt settled on a good deal for the “Joes”. He was too concerned about the department, when the change of department was guaranteed within 2 years. If I were to negotiate this case, my first priority would be the title. I would strive to get the product manager position because management levels and job titles are directly linked to the size of year-end bonuses and options. My second priority would be the salary. I would not have accepted anything below $83,000 (because of the trade off). My next priorities (in order) would be: relocation, signing bonus, stock options, start date and assignment. The relocation and signing bonus weren’t as important because they are one time collections. On the other hand, the title determines the bonus each year and the salary will be paid each year, so these are continuous collections that build up. The start date would definitely be used as leverage for a higher salary. I would even consider using the relocation or signing bonus as leverage also.

Week 4

This week we did the Bestbooks negotiation. I was the representative for Paige Turner negotiating against Luke. We started the negotiation talking about the contract signing bonus. I explained that Paige is an excellent author and signing bonuses are so common that we shouldn't even need to negotiate. He offered me $15,000 and I said that I would really like $20,000 and he accepted that. So the negotiation started off pretty well until he said that he thought a signing bonus and an advance were redundant and asked if there was any specific reason we would need both. I didn't know what to say because I didn't really know the difference between the two. Now I realize that I should have really thought about why each category was important in the deal and I should have played on the fact that Paige Turner was a best-selling author. Also, I didn't realize or take advantage of the fact that three of the categories were common interest categories. I just assumed that everything that would be beneficial to me would be disadvantageous to him. I think we ended up with less countries than we should have because he said that it would be time consuming and expensive to print the books in other languages and distribute in other countries. I think he suggested a low number so I thought that we could just meet halfway and he agreed to that. When we were done negotiating and 'signing the contract' I felt okay about the negotiation until I added all of my points and realized that I had almost 10,000 less than the points possible. All in all, for the next negotiation I will be doing a lot more planning and possibly researching information before class. Also, I will think more of interests instead of positions and realize that there might be some things in which we have a common interest.

Week 3

In class this week, I learned the distinction between distributive negotiation and integrative negotiation. I think that distributive negotiation is best when you don’t know the person and the relationship that you have won’t matter in the future. The best example of this is the used car negotiation; it is more like a compromise. Each side is only concerned about what they get out of the negotiation. On the other hand, integrative negotiation is more like a negotiation with a friend or family member. Each side is more considerate about the other and the future relationship matters. Integrative is more collaborative so that each side wins.  Another realization that I came to is that your BATNA and your reservation price are generally the same. However, this is hard to see when your BATNA is below your cost.

Week 2

On Monday we did the Knight-Excalibur exercise. I was the representative from Excalibur trying to sell the pistons for a profit and trying to get the name out there with free advertisement. My asking price was $616 including the quality control insurance program. I further explained the insurance plan and how this would be a good deal. My fellow negotiator said that he knew that we were looking to get into some government contracts and asked what I could exchange for some free advertising. I said that I could eliminate the rush fee. He then mentioned that he thought they were worth more like $500 and asked me if our pistons were worth the extra $116. I said that they certainly were! He suggested splitting the difference to $558 including the quality insurance, no rush fee, and the free advertising. We struck a deal.  Before the negotiation, I looked over the negotiation strategies in the textbook and planned to implement some. But when the time came to it, I completely forgot any of the strategies. Also, I neglected to realize that I would have 2000 pistons that would have to be sold at a loss for $100 each. If I had realized this, I would have pushed selling more pistons and avoided mentioning the quality insurance program.

On Wednesday we did the Universal Computer Company exercise. I was the Phillips plant manager trying to get the Crawley plant manager to cover some costs of fixing their faulty modules. My negotiating partner seemed to approach this problem as if we were from two different companies (I mentioned a few times that we are working for the same company, but he was only concerned about his plant). He was very competitive and argumentative, but I kept hammering what I believed right back at him. We argued about how to interpret the 95% acceptance level. I was starting to get scared that he wasn’t going to cover any of the costs and make my plant look bad. I was thinking that I had more to lose than he did because my plant has been plagued by poor quality. Eventually I asked him what he suggested we do and he said to split the cost of fixing the 12 types of faulty modules 50/50. I said that that was not logical and I said that I would agree to 75/25 if Crawley sends an employee over to Phillips to fix the faulty modules and Crawley incurs 75% of these costs. Finally we reached an agreement. Before this negotiation, I planned to write down and use two negotiating techniques (forbearance and probing) and one closing technique (alternative). However, the negotiation did not go as I planned (there was a lot more arguing back and forth) and I did not get to use any of these techniques.