Negotiation Columns & Blogs

As detailed in The New York Times, Honest Tea is a specialty juice and tea company with 2009 revenues of $47 million. Coca-Cola owns 40% of the company with an option to buy the remainder next year. One of Honest Tea’s products marketed for consumption by children...

In sophisticated negotiations, the parties will typically find the standards that favor their side and use their most favorable standards to independently justify the “fairness” of their positions.  The parties will then negotiate over which standard represents the...

In a recent LeClairRyan webinar about successful mediating, attorney Robyn Gnudi Kalocsay pointed out that failing to get the agreed-upon terms in writing can be a critical mistake at the end of the negotiation process.  She said, “You can leave the mediation thinking...

The Greenberg-Ryan ownership group, which includes Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, recently won bankruptcy court approval to purchase the Texas Rangers baseball team for $593 million.  This came after a 16 hour auction bidding war with Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas...

USA Today provides us with another great example of the standards dance – where opposing sides make their case as to why their standards are the “most fair.”  In researching compensation differences between government employees and private sector employees, USA...

The Potash Corporation recently received an unsolicited $38.6 billion offer from BHP Billiton.  When made, BHP's bid was 16% higher than Potash's market capitalization.  The Potash board rejected the bid and announced it was seeking additional bids.  Potash's CEO,...

As the NFL preseason comes to a close, a number of high-profile players are still holding out, some claiming a willingness to skip the season if they don’t get what they want. Why would a player hold out?  To strengthen their leverage.  The player wants to emphasize...

Hewlett-Packard recently purchased 3Par, a computer storage system company, for $33 per share ($2.3 billion).  Dell had engaged in an 18-day bidding war with H.P. but in the end decided not to counter H.P.’s winning offer.  What can we learn from this? Evaluating your...

The NFL Players Association provides us with a great example of a party taking concrete steps to limit the attractiveness of one of its counterpart’s alternatives, or Plan Bs.  When done right, doing so will strengthen your leverage and improve your results. Here, the...

In August 2000, former White House OMB Director Jack Lew told me “(t)he most critical thing in a negotiation is to get inside your opponent’s head and figure out what he really wants.” In a talk today assessing the Vietnam war, former Secretary of State Henry...

In 1938, psychologist Gregory Razran found that his subjects developed a more favorable view of the people and things they experienced while they were eating – a result Razran coined as the “luncheon technique.” So the next time you have an important negotiation,...

Most of us have a strong desire to appear consistent. Consistency is valued in our society and is associated with other positive traits like honesty, stability and intelligence. Similarly, most of us will go to great lengths to fulfill our commitments....

Here is an example of counterparts in a negotiation beginning the “standards dance” – when the parties identify the most favorable independent standards justifying their position and then negotiate over which is the most fair and reasonable. Community Health Systems...

Derek Jeter recently signed a three-year contract worth up to $65 million to continue playing baseball for the New York Yankees.  At the official announcement, Jeter expressed anger that the Yankees had asked him to “go shop” himself to other teams even though Jeter...

As I finish up my holiday cards, I’m reminded of a story from Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: Science and Practice, about a university professor who sent holiday cards to a group of strangers to see what, if any, response he would get.  Amazingly, cards “came...