Military.Com just published an interesting article about salary negotiations.
Perhaps you should have a look?
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Litigation as a Negotiation Tactic
Almost all the time... especially for "little people"... filing a lawsuit is a sure way to END negotiation. At that point, the lawyers take over, and you are normally in for an expensive, time consuming... and very public spectacle. Maybe sometime down the road, the lawyers themselves will settle the matter using negotiation, but the litigation expenses (lawyer's time, depositions, interrogatories, requests for production, requests for examination, court motions, etc.)... the time wasted... and the public records... all will remain. Given human nature, the chances of these parties ever voluntarily doing business again in the future is pretty much nil.
So, as a general rule, if you NEVER want to do business again with someone, file a lawsuit!
But there can be exceptions...
Sometimes major corporations, with extremely deep financial pockets, can USE lawsuits as part of their negotiation tactics and strategy. The idea (if you have plenty of money) is to use litigation to pressure your opponent into settling or into getting a better deal than you otherwise would get without the litigation. In this case, you are using litigation as an adjunct to your normal negotiation tactics. In essence, you are running two tracks in parallel... an ongoing negotiation track.... and, of course, a separate litigation track.
See for example... Google Decides To Fight Back Rough Against Viacom.
All this is fine, but when two financial giants do battle in a public court of law, should taxpayers subsidize the filing fees and other court expenses in this contest of giant corporate egos? (Court filing fees, in the US, are generally the same for everyone, rich and poor alike.) Or should the rules be amended so that when a giant corporation files a lawsuit, it has to pay proportionately higher court filing fees based upon its market capitalization?
What do YOU think about this?
Almost all the time... especially for "little people"... filing a lawsuit is a sure way to END negotiation. At that point, the lawyers take over, and you are normally in for an expensive, time consuming... and very public spectacle. Maybe sometime down the road, the lawyers themselves will settle the matter using negotiation, but the litigation expenses (lawyer's time, depositions, interrogatories, requests for production, requests for examination, court motions, etc.)... the time wasted... and the public records... all will remain. Given human nature, the chances of these parties ever voluntarily doing business again in the future is pretty much nil.
So, as a general rule, if you NEVER want to do business again with someone, file a lawsuit!
But there can be exceptions...
Sometimes major corporations, with extremely deep financial pockets, can USE lawsuits as part of their negotiation tactics and strategy. The idea (if you have plenty of money) is to use litigation to pressure your opponent into settling or into getting a better deal than you otherwise would get without the litigation. In this case, you are using litigation as an adjunct to your normal negotiation tactics. In essence, you are running two tracks in parallel... an ongoing negotiation track.... and, of course, a separate litigation track.
See for example... Google Decides To Fight Back Rough Against Viacom.
All this is fine, but when two financial giants do battle in a public court of law, should taxpayers subsidize the filing fees and other court expenses in this contest of giant corporate egos? (Court filing fees, in the US, are generally the same for everyone, rich and poor alike.) Or should the rules be amended so that when a giant corporation files a lawsuit, it has to pay proportionately higher court filing fees based upon its market capitalization?
What do YOU think about this?
Thursday, May 3, 2007
The Granddaddy of All Negotiation Books
If you haven't read it yet, you simple MUST read "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In " by Roger Fisher and William Ury.
Not that this is a perfect book in any way. It simply won't help you in a situation like negotiating one time for a used car... a situation where you'll never see the other person again and have absolutely no interest in maintaining a relationship with them.
But in any situation where you DO have an interest in maintaining an ongoing relationship, like between a manufacturer and a supplier, the ideas in this book can be extremely helpful!
The book introduces the concept of BATNA... Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. The idea is that you should go into any negotiation with your best alternative in mind, should this negotiation fail. If the present negotiation starts heading in the wrong direction, you certainly have an idea of what your best alternative is, and thus you should be prepared to choose it, if the current negotiation does not provide the prospect of something even better.
A classic... well worth your time and attention!
If you haven't read it yet, you simple MUST read "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In " by Roger Fisher and William Ury.
Not that this is a perfect book in any way. It simply won't help you in a situation like negotiating one time for a used car... a situation where you'll never see the other person again and have absolutely no interest in maintaining a relationship with them.
But in any situation where you DO have an interest in maintaining an ongoing relationship, like between a manufacturer and a supplier, the ideas in this book can be extremely helpful!
The book introduces the concept of BATNA... Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. The idea is that you should go into any negotiation with your best alternative in mind, should this negotiation fail. If the present negotiation starts heading in the wrong direction, you certainly have an idea of what your best alternative is, and thus you should be prepared to choose it, if the current negotiation does not provide the prospect of something even better.
A classic... well worth your time and attention!
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