Introduction to Negotiation Strategy
At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Negotiation Strategy and other business case study solution. Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Probir Kumar Banerjee, Moez Limayem, Louis Ma. The Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services (referred as “Remittance People's” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Technology & Operations. It also touches upon business topics such as - negotiation strategy, negotiation framework, Entrepreneurship, Technology.
Negotiation strategy solution for case study Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services ” 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?
Mr. Rao, with several years of banking experience, approached People's Group Dubai, a venture capitalist firm, seeking financing for a micro-remittance-cum-foreign exchange service operation in Hong Kong. He argued that demand for currency exchange services in Hong Kong would continue to grow because of the high number of tourists who visited Hong Kong on their China tour. He also argued that a captive market of domestic workers who remitted their wages to their home countries would provide continuous demand for remittance services. Mr. Rao was confident that he could start quickly with a small office staffed by a few tellers and one manager in a busy location of Hong Kong, and then expand operations to other locations. However, financing to cover fixed assets and working capital would be required to open additional outlets. A major enabler of the proposed strategy was the telecommunication network of Western Union, which had established a presence in several parts of the world as a trustworthy provider of remittance services. Mr. Rao also intended to benefit from the technology support and expertise of the IT arm of People's Group based in Bangalore, India. People's Group Dubai welcomed realistic entrepreneurial ideas if they were backed by clear strategies for business growth and promised an acceptable rate of return on investment (ROI). With competition and low-cost micro-remittance services provided by pure Internet players, there were questions about the adequacy of technology support from the Bangalore arm in steering Mr. Rao's proposed venture to success and generating adequate ROI in the short and long run. People's Group directors debated the viability of the proposed venture.
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 “Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services” 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 “Probir Kumar Banerjee, Moez Limayem, Louis Ma”, 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 “Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services ”, 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 “Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services” can make for an effective negotiation strategy and will make it easier to negotiate with this party the next time as well.
Probir Kumar Banerjee, Moez Limayem, Louis Ma (2018), "Entrepreneurship and IT Complementarity: The Case of People's Remittance and Exchange Services Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.
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