A major grocery chain wanted to build a new superstore on a 10-acre parcel in a suburban town that lacked any sort of food store. Using the design of one of its most financially successful stores as a template, and without consulting local planning or public safety departments, the company filed a completed application with the town seeking a special permit and site-plan approval to build a 65,000-square-foot supermarket with almost 300 parking spaces, a pharmacy, and a bank.
Business Negotiations
Negotiations between corporate entities, their vendors, or their employees.
The following items are tagged Business Negotiations.
Penguin Sues Its Own Writers: When Business Negotiations Become Bad PR
In this business world, it’s typically smart practice to keep disputes with key partners private, at least until doing so becomes unfeasible for financial or other reasons. That’s why the book publisher Penguin’s decision to file lawsuits against 12 of its authors for breach of contract is being widely judged as a public relations misstep.
December 2012
- Acting Up: Improve your improv performance.
- Why your presence isn’t enough.
Business Negotiations: Cooperate to Claim Value
What happens in negotiations between two individuals who care little about each other’s outcomes? Suppose an engineer and an industrial designer are arguing over the design of a car bumper. The designer only cares about whether the bumper matches the style of the vehicle; the engineer is concerned only about how the bumper connects to the front. After describing the trouble he’s having with the existing design, the engineer presents a solution that the designer deems “ugly.” The designer threatens to involve her boss if the engineer doesn’t revert back to the prior design.
Try Skills-Based Strategies First
Before launching a workaround, run through this list of skills-based strategies adopted from Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation by William Ury (Bantam, 1993). Only attempt a workaround if you’ve tried them all without success:
Google Searches for a More Diverse Team
Recently, executives at the Silicon Valley-based internet giant Google noticed a disturbing trend: the company was having difficulty hiring and retaining female employees, from engineers to senior executives, Claire Cain Miller writes in the August 22 issue of the New York Times. Women were dropping out during the job interview process and were not being promoted at the same rate as men. In addition, women have lost ground in top leadership positions since Larry Page took over as the company’s CEO in 2011. The issue at Google reflects a larger trend, as the percentage of women working in professional computing jobs fell from 25% in 2011 to 16% in 2010. In many cases, women have been leaving large computer companies for jobs in the public sector or with start-ups.
November 2012
- Acting Up: Improve your improv performance.
- Why your presence isn’t enough.
Telling Time in Different Cultures
Despite the bloody conflicts in the Middle East, people of goodwill from both Arab and Western nations earnestly seek to collaborate in diplomatic and business transactions.
October 2012
- Acting Up: Improve your improv performance.
- Why your presence isn’t enough.
Negotiating for Continuous Improvement: Report Negotiation Results Internally
To further improve negotiations, a company could publish an internal negotiation newsletter that can be distributed through a secure company intranet. Each month, the person overseeing the newsletter could choose a negotiation involving someone within the company.









