negotiation technique

The following items are tagged negotiation technique.

Tough Tactics: Do ‘Death Threats’ Really Work?

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What would you do if someone threatened you? Strike back? Run away? Beg for mercy? Try to negotiate?

Last April, The New York Times in effect held a gun to the heads of Boston Globe employees – twice. The confrontation, say experts at the Harvard Program on Negotiation, offers valuable lessons in handling high-risk, high-stakes situations.

Background: Sixteen years earlier, The Times bought The Globe for $1.1 billion, the highest price ever paid for an American newspaper. The investment paid off at first, then the newspaper business started heading south. In 2008, The Globe lost $50 million; in 2009, it was on track to lose $85 million.

So The Times threatened to shut the paper down unless employee unions agreed to $20 million in pay cuts, lower severance pay, and an end to lifetime job guarantees for certain employees. Half the concessions – $10 million – were to come from The Globe’s largest labor union, the Boston Newspaper Guild.

Financial Negotiations: Brad Pitt’s Negotiation Nightmare

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In challenging economic times, negotiators can find themselves in an entirely new ball game. That’s what happened to actor Brad Pitt, film director Steven Soderbergh, and their production team when Sony Pictures abruptly pulled the plug on their film project Moneyball just days before the start of shooting in late June.

Become a Better Haggler

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Imagine you’re celebrating a special occasion with friends at an upscale restaurant. Soon after you take your seats, the wine director introduces himself and hands you a list of high-end bottles of wine. You notice that the prices—all in the $200–$600 range—have been slashed through with a red pen.

How to Avoid the “Winner’s Curse”

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Imagine that at the beginning of class, a professor produces a jar full of coins and announces that he is auctioning it off. Students can write down a bid, he explains, and the highest bidder wins the contents of the jar in exchange for his or her bid.

The Value of Making Several Offers in Business Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily.

What’s the right number of options to put forward in financial negotiations? In their April 2005 article in the Negotiation newsletter, “Putting More on the Table: How Making Multiple Offers Can Increase the Final Value of the Deal,” Northwestern professors Victoria Husted Medvec and Adam D. Galinsky write that issuing three equivalent offers simultaneously can be a good strategy in financial negotiations.