Negotiation Case

Negotiation Case

It was evening time on 17^th August, 2009 when a SMS dropped on the mobiles of 8 shortlisted GMPians. We were carry out an exercise on negotiations with a group of 20 students undergoing Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program from Saint Mary’s College of California. Prof. Shyam Kamath of the School of Economics and

Business Administration, St. Mary’s College of California, USA and Ms. Darcelle Lahr, Lecturer in Strategy at the College of Business and Economics at CSU, East Bay, USA had developed a case under Global Executive Negotiation Program (GENPRO). The case involved negotiation to be carried out between an Indian Public Sector Undertaking (namely India Semiconductor Corporation) which has planned to set up an in-house power plant and an American Firm (namely California Power Development Corporation) who were the shortlisted vendors for the plant. A group of 20 students of XLRI were divided into four teams with 5 members in each team to represent the Indian firm i.e. ISC. All the four teams had to strategize and conduct negotiations with the American teams. The Indian teams consisted of students with a diverse background with zero to thirteen years of work experience. The American team comprised of senior executives with an average work experience of 17.5 years.

Process of the Negotiation Program

The entire progam was divided into five phases. These are as under:

Phase I : Formation of groups and informal introduction over dinner one day before the date of actual negotiations.

Phase II : Formal introduction of the exercise by Prof. Shyam Kamath if St. Mary’s College, California and Prof. Jeetu Singh of XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Phase III : Teams carry out actual negotiations in separate rooms. Though efforts had to be made to close a successful deal but not sealing a deal would also succeed if the teams avoided a bad deal or concluded that more time is required.

Phase IV : The complete group re-assemble with the Professors and discuss their negotiation experience and learning.

Phase V : Further sharing of experiences in an informal way over lunch.

Objectives of the Negotiation Program

The GENPRO program was designed to achieve the following objectives:-

1) Enable mid-career executives and managers to learn about the fundamentals of negotiation in practical, applied context.

2) Enable participants to understand the cultural dimensions and barriers to negotiation and learn strategies to successfully conduct cross-cultural negotiations.

3) Deepen understanding of how to negotiate in a Win-Win mode rather than a Win-Lose mode and to successfully deal with a host of general and culture specific negotiation tactics.

4) To learn in depth regarding the cultural dimensions and negotiating styles of Americans and Indians from the other’s point of view.

5) To learn-by-doing and participate in a structured but open-ended negotiation exercise based on real-world case.

Experience of the Negotiation Program

The program provided a very enriching experience to all the participants at XLRI. After having a sumptuous meal with the guests at MDP residence the teams started brain storming to understand the case and come up with strategies to negotiate a good deal with the Americans. The discussions went on to 3.00 in the morning of 18^th August 2009. After catching up with some sleep we assembled in the hall at 8.30 AM. Professors carried out a brief introduction to the case after which we were again given time to plan our strategies for an hour. Then real negotiations commenced in separate groups of 10 with 5 students representing the American side and 5 representing the Indian side.

All participants thoroughly enjoyed in making all out efforts to negotiate the best deals for their organizations and came up with all kind of financial and operational innovations. The American and the Indian sides were given separate targets which they needed to realize through the negotiations. Some of these targets were competing in interests and generated a lot of deliberations and discussions. In all the two hours of negotiations exposed all participants to the various dimensions of cross cultural negotiations and the differences involved in negotiating with people belonging to diverse cultures and mindsets.

After the negotiations were over we all contributed through the experience gained in the entire exercise. It was evident to all there were marked differences in the way Americans and Indians thought and negotiated. While Indian side was found to be more directed towards cost the Americans were seen to reflect more on the total project dynamics. Indian team was able to keep many options under consideration while the Americans were more focused on step by step approach.

In all from the exercise both sides could well appreciate the role cultures played in the way we negotiate. Further elucidations by both Professors help us to gain knowledge regarding the skills required to ensure success in a negotiation involving members from various cultural and social backgrounds. The Americans had earlier done a similar exercise in Austria and could thus appreciate the ease of communication with Indians because of their similar democratic and open culture profile.

Truly, the exercise on negotiations was a rare opportunity which can only be accessed at premiere institute like XLRI. XLRI is known to give high emphasis on people management and such exercises go a long way in to reinforce this image.