Introduction to Negotiation Strategy
At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Negotiation Strategy and other business case study solution. Impulsesoft - Music in the Air case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by K. Balakrishnan. The Impulsesoft - Music in the Air (referred as “Bt Impulsesoft” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Strategy & Execution. It also touches upon business topics such as - negotiation strategy, negotiation framework, International business, Strategy, Technology.
Negotiation strategy solution for case study Impulsesoft - Music in the Air ” provides a comprehensive framework to analyse all issues at hand and reach a unambiguous negotiated agreement. At Oak Spring University, we provide comprehensive negotiation strategies that have proven their worth both in the academic sphere and corporate world.
What’s my BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) – my walkaway option if the deal fails?
What are my most important interests, in ranked order?
What is the other side’s BATNA, and what are his interests?
"Impulsesoft Private Ltd (IS) is a Bangalore-based information technology company that was founded in 1999 by three software engineers. IS was engaged in developing Bluetooth (BT) middleware. The founding engineers had been working with Texas Instruments in Bangalore since 1995. After establishing their own company, the founders began looking for a chief executive officer (CEO) to run their business while they concentrated on technology and product development. At that time, the founders of IS were merely a set of aspiring entrepreneurs who were short on ideas, funds and clients but rich in aspirations; they quit their jobs in 1999 and set about undertaking contract software development projects in order to learn about building and selling IT products and to generate cash for their venture as well. The founders wanted to build a software product out of India targeting a global market. This desire was verbalized as an idea "to build a Sony or HP (Hewlett-Packard) out of India" and "to build a world-class products company." In its infancy, IS undertook different kinds of development projects for third parties and considered several other options until it discovered BT middleware as an area to focus on for various reasons. By 2004, IS had turned profitable; with 52 employees by 2005 and a branch office in Silicon Valley, Impulsesoft's BT software was in 50 per cent of all BT stereo headphones that were being shipped at the time. The market for BT-embedded accessories exploded but chip manufacturers began to incorporate BT features in their chips and gave the technology away for free, and the long-term outlook for IS deteriorated. There were also doubts about how scalable a technology licensing business model could be. At this juncture, the president and CEO of Impulsesoft received a proposal from John Lin, CEO of TEN Technology, a customer of IS and a US$20 million company, suggesting a merger of the two companies."
By interests, we do not mean the preconceived demands or positions that you or the other party may have, but rather the underlying needs, aims, fears, and concerns that shape what you want. Negotiation is more than getting what you want. It is not winning at all cost. Number of times Win-Win is better option that outright winning or getting what you want.
Options are the solutions you generate that could meet your and your counterpart’s interests . Often people come to negotiations with very fixed ideas and things they want to achieve. This strategy leaves unexplored options which might be even better than the one that one party wanted to achieve. So always try to provide as many options as possible during the negotiation process. The best outcome should be out of many options rather than few options.
When soft bargainers meet hard bargainers there is always the danger of soft bargainers ceding more than what is necessary. To avoid this scenario you should always focus on legitimate standards or expectations. Standards are often external and objective measures to assess the fairness such as rules and regulations, financial values & resources , market prices etc. If the negotiated agreement is going beyond the industry norms or established standards of fairness then it is prudent to get out of the negotiation.
Every negotiators going into the negotiations should always work out the “what if” scenario. The negotiating parties in the “Impulsesoft - Music in the Air” has three to four plausible scenarios. The negotiating protagonist needs to have clear idea of – what will happen if the negotiations fail. To put it in the negotiating literature – BATNA - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. If the negotiated agreement is not better than BATNA then there is no point in accepting the negotiated solution.
One of the biggest problems in implementing the negotiated agreements in corporate world is – the ambiguity in the negotiated agreement. Sometimes the negotiated agreements are not realistic or various parties interpret the outcomes based on their understanding of the situation. It is critical to do negotiations as water tight as possible so that there is less scope for ambiguity.
Many negotiators make the mistake of focusing only on the substance of the negotiation (interests, options, standards, and so on). How you communicate about that substance, however, can make all the difference. The language you use and the way that you build understanding, jointly solve problems, and together determine the process of the negotiation with your counterpart make your negotiation more efficient, yield clear agreements that each party understands, and help you build better relationships.
Another critical factor in the success of your negotiation is how you manage your relationship with your counterpart. According to “K. Balakrishnan”, the protagonist may want to establish a new connection or repair a damaged one; in any case, you want to build a strong working relationship built on mutual respect, well-established trust, and a side-by-side problem- solving approach.
According to
Harvard Business Review
, there are three types of negotiators – Hard Bargainers, Soft Bargainers, and Principled Bargainers.
Hard Bargainers – These people see negotiations as an activity that they need to win. They are less focused less on the real objectives of the negotiations but more on winning. In the “Impulsesoft - Music in the Air ”, do you think a hard bargaining strategy will deliver desired results? Hard bargainers are easy to negotiate with as they often have a very
predictable strategy
Soft Bargainers – These people are focused on relationship rather than hard outcomes of the negotiations. It doesn’t mean they are pushovers. These negotiators often scribe to long term relationship rather than immediate bargain.
Principled Bargainers – As explained in the seven elemental tools of negotiations above, these negotiators are more concern about the standards and norms of fairness. They often have inclusive approach to negotiations and like to work on numerous solutions that can improve the BATNA of both parties.
Open lines of communication between parties in the case study “Impulsesoft - Music in the Air” can make for an effective negotiation strategy and will make it easier to negotiate with this party the next time as well.
K. Balakrishnan (2018), "Impulsesoft - Music in the Air Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.
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