“How can we more effectively negotiate with these aggressive lawyers on the other side? They argue over every issue. I generally know how to deal with them, but is there a specific move or tactic you would recommend?” This question, posed by a potential client this...
Does success at your job require top-notch negotiation skills? Are you in sales, purchasing/procurement, business development or customer service? Are you a lawyer, business consultant, executive, investment banker, or private equity partner? Does your job require you...
He swore at me in front of my client. I was really surprised. I was a young lawyer at the time, and he was the opposing counsel and managing partner of a prominent law firm. I had requested documents that his associate had promised, and that my client had flown in to...
We just returned from a family trip to Japan, and I couldn’t help but consider some of the culturally different negotiation approaches – and the lessons we can learn from them. Here are three. Of course, these are broad and general tendencies. And exceptions abound,...
We recently solicited bids to repaint our house from three residential painters/painting companies, all of whom came recommended by friends or family. We also requested bids for an upcoming home renovation. (Yes – our house needs some work!). Despite having gone...
Masayoshi Son had “earned a reputation as the Bill Gates of Japan” by making it big with the software distributor SoftBank. According to Sebastian Mallaby in The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, while Son’s “childhood home was a squatter’s...
Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of the Ethernet computer-networking technology and founder of a tech company sold in 2010 to Hewlett-Packard for $2.7 billion, called this negotiation tactic of a potential venture capital investor the “Oh-by-the-Way Syndrome.” Here’s what...
“Does it help or hurt to be unpredictable in a negotiation,” I am often asked these days. Let me give you a great legal answer – it depends! What does it depend upon? 1. A future relationship with your counterpart Do you have, expect and/or want a future relationship...
Our son recently interviewed for internships this summer (he’s a Northwestern University junior double majoring in computer science and psychology). It got me thinking about one of the most consequential negotiations of our lives, our first real career opportunity....
