competition

An approach to negotiation that emphasizes assertiveness over empathy. Competitive negotiators have winning as a goal, and enjoy feeling purposeful and in control. They also may seek to control the agenda and frame the issues in a negotiation, perhaps resorting to intimidation or bullying to get the biggest slice of the pie. (Robert H. Mnookin, Scott R. Peppet and Andrew S. Tulumello, Beyond Winning [Belknap Press, 2004], 51)

The following items are tagged competition.

Apple and Samsung: A Dispute Between Business Negotiators

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

For two days in late May, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Gee-Sung Choi met with a judge in the U.S. District Court of Northern California in an attempt to reach a settlement in a high-profile U.S. patent case, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Back in April 2011, Apple filed a lawsuit accusing Samsung of copying the “look and feel” of the iPhone when the Korean company created its Galaxy line of phones. Samsung countersued Apple for not paying royalties for using its wireless transmission technology. Since then, the number of patents under dispute has skyrocketed, according to the Korea Times, as has the number of courts involved in various countries. The two companies have repeatedly accused each other of copying the appearance and functions of their smartphones and tablet devices.

Learning from International Negotiations: The Chen Guangcheng Crisis

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

The Obama administration’s powers of diplomacy were put to the test in recent weeks when Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made a dramatic escape from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on the eve of the United States’ and China’s annual negotiations on strategic and economic issues.

Negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials involving Chen’s fate were conducted under top secrecy, at the Chinese government’s insistence. “Face is more important in Asian society than any contract,” one senior American official told the Times, emphasizing China’s need to keep the sensitive negotiations under wraps.

Accounting for Outsiders in Your Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

If you’re in the middle of talks that seem to be going well, here’s a warning: consider the impact of the agreement on those who aren’t at the table, or suffer the consequences. That’s a lesson that Apple and some of the largest U.S. book publishers are currently learning the hard way.

On April 12, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Apple and five major U.S. publishers for colluding to raise the price of e-books during secretive, anti-competitive negotiations. Three of the publishers have settle the suit; two others and Apple have so far been unwilling to settle.

Are We in Competition?

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Ford vs. GM. Coke vs. Pepsi. Oxford vs. Cambridge. These famous rivalries remind us that the top two achievers in a given realm often compete fiercely with each other.

Now Stephen M. Garcia and Richard Gonzalez of the University of Michigan and Avishalom Tor of the University of Haifa have produced a useful series of studies on when competition between entities will exist – with findings that are relevant to all negotiators.

A Win Without Regrets: Winning an Auction and Not Feeling Disappointed

Posted by & filed under Crisis Negotiations.

We have all been in situations in which we are pitted against others in competition for a certain item, whether an award, a promotion, or even in an auction. Often, this competitive atmosphere pushes you to ‘play’ harder than you normally would, overvaluing your objective and over-assessing the importance of victory. Often when a group of people are vying for the same thing, the winner of the auction is revealed to have been overly optimistic about the value of the objective and thus is a victim of the “winner’s curse,” typically described as paying more than the asset is actually worth. The January 2008 issue of the Negotiation newsletter offers three helpful pieces of advice for avoiding the “winner’s curse.”

To Avoid Destructive Competition, Take the Pledge

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

It was shaping up to be one of the most expensive Senate races in U.S. history. By this January, Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts each had raised millions in their contest for Brown’s U.S. Senate seat, and third-party groups were spending even more on negative ads.

Both candidates had publicly tried to distance themselves from the so-called super PACs and other big spenders. On January 23, Brown and Warren put their money where their mouths were: they signed a “People’s Pledge” designed to end the influence of outside spending in the campaign.

Negotiating Performance-based Pay

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Imagine that you are a sales rep with a company that is getting hit hard by the current financial crisis. No one has been laid off yet, but everyone is nervous about that possibility. In an effort to save jobs, your sales manager has quietly proposed that everyone take lower base salaries, along with more

The Benefits of Coalition Building

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In 2006, representatives of wind-energy developers started knocking on the doors of Wyoming ranchers. They were seeking to persuade the ranchers to sell the rights to build wind turbines on their land, reporter Addie Goss recounted on National Public Radio. Typically, the developers build wind farms by leasing large blocks of land from many different landowners in western states. In Wyoming, ranchers began signing leases without knowing the true value of the wind sweeping across their land.

Capitalize on negotiator differences

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Adapted from “What Divides You May Unite You,” by James K. Sebenius (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, July 2005.

Some years ago, an English property development firm had assembled most of the land outside London that it needed to build a large regional hospital. Yet a key parcel remained, and its

Let your reputation precede you

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Adapted from “Want the Best Deal Possible? Cultivate a Cooperative Relationship,” by Catherine H. Tinsley (professor, Georgetown University) and Kathleen O’Connor (professor, Cornell University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, December 2006.

In multi-issue negotiations, research suggests that the advantage goes to negotiators with a reputation for collaboration rather than competition. In a series of studies