In his popular book: “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, Perkins (2004) posit that the world is governed by a shadowy “corporatocracy”, an invisible empire of wealth and greed that deploys an assortment of bribes, assigns and seductive women as their arsenal to enslave the poorest countries and rivalry corporates. Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars and their major weapon is negotiation.
This article therefore seeks to interrogate the concept of negotiation intelligence by critically analyzing the basic elements of Negotiation Intelligence and how they impact on organizational survival and sustainable development in an era of Economic Hitman. The article addresses Negotiation Intelligence through a descriptive philosophical model covering a wide range of key terms linked to negotiation intelligence and the constituent parts of the negotiation intelligence process. In articulating the issues before hand, practical examples will be proffered from Zimbabwe’s contemporary business and social landscape. The article will discuss the key elements of negotiation intelligence. But what is negotiation intelligence?
The word “negotiation” originated from the Latin expression, “negotiatus”, and past participle of negotiare which means “to carry on business”. “Negotium” (from “Nec Otium”) means literally”not leisure”. Negotiation is a specialized and formal version of conflict resolution most frequently employed when important issues must be agreed upon. Negotiation comprises four elements: strategy, process, tools, and tactics. Elsewhere, theorists have portrayed negotiation as an event of diplomatic artistry, mechanical reflection of relative power, weighted interaction between personality types or rational decision-making process. Negotiation intelligence is the ability to recognise and take advantage of knowledge or insights of the connectivity between and among remotely connected elements or situations in a negotiation encounter or phenomena. It is also regarded as the ability to think 360 degrees. Negotiation Intelligence should be systematically embraced by corporate leaders. In this article I propose an 8 step approach as follows:
- Achieve internal alignment
It is key to be aware of those individuals whose support you need and who could block or throw spanners in the negotiation process later on. A sound starting point is often found by looking backwards by asking whose signatures will you need to seal the deal that you hope to negotiate. It is important to determine who would stand to lose on your side should that negotiation go through. Thought should also be given as to which forces could block you from successfully consummating your deal or could prove to be hindrances in the successful execution of it. These internal or peripheral sources of sabotage could be leaders of any unit that could be impacted by the agreement.
- Score Your Objectives and Walk-Away Points
Having a clear set of objectives that need to be achieved by the negotiations is very critical. It’s therefore important to meet with your group beforehand to determine these objectives. One effective method for determining your negotiating objectives is to develop a Negotiating Scorecard. Using a Negotiating Scorecard negotiators should determine the relative value of each of the terms they seek. Negotiating Scorecard also help to determine when you have achieved a satisfactory agreement, Illuminate the goal posts for the initial negotiators and the assessment of which areas or points have the team not gotten what they had hoped for and which areas they managed to get more than they expected and the net loss or gain from the negotiation encounter.
- Negotiations Timeline
As the well-worn adage reminds us, time is money. The time intensity of negotiations results in a great deal of overhead being expended during the course of negotiations. Related costs include compensation for the lead negotiators and their teams as well as the compensation for other professionals (tax advisors, technical experts, valuation professionals, etc.) whose expertise is sought. A good example is that 2013 when the term of the inclusive government was about to come to an end there was a lot of pressure for a number of things to happen within a short period of time. These included the new constitution and elections. As elections were supposed to happen within a stipulated time it meant that there was a lot of pressure to conclude the constitution making process which meant that a number of compromises and concessions were made with the hope of them being corrected later. This led to some laws being in conflict with each other and some part of the constitutional requirements not being implemented before the elections were conducted in June 2013.
- Insulate Your Team from Common Negotiating Tactics
Your team should huddle together to devise offensive negotiating strategies as well as to immunize everyone from common negotiating tactics that could be utilized by the opposing side. Some of these tactics include:
- Sit Down which occurs when the opponent contacts your boss and complains about your inadequacy in terms of a team member’s understanding of the deal, team member’s experience or team member’s professionalism
- Sit Down with a Stomp Down which is a more aggressive variation of the Suggested Sit Down in which the opponent expresses extreme frustration with your supposed incompetence, lack of professionalism, or arrogance and is inundated with the opposition threatening to cancel the deal as long as a particular team member is part of the negotiation process.
- The End Run which usually happens when the opponent has a pre-existing relationship with one of the members in the other negotiating team and instead of going through the chief negotiator they decide to deal with the other person they know from previous encounters. However, there are other tactics two numerous for a two pager article.
- Assessing the Institutional Goals of the Adversary
It is naïve to assume that the reasons mentioned by the other party you are negotiating with are the main reasons they have are seeking the deal. Through negotiation intelligence you need to ascertain the goals of the company you are negotiating with through guerrilla tactics such as reviewing their CEO’s memos to shareholders, communications to stakeholders, shifts in spending, focus of research, skills of new employees, as well as where the company is investing and divesting will shed light on the strategic direction of the company.
- Create Wedges between Your Opponents and Their Agents
In Negotiation intelligence it is important to have an understanding of who has decision making authority. The terms agreed upon by the opponents and their agents can have a bearing on the negotiation process. For example, a project manager or lawyer who has a fixed fee for the whole negotiation process or project phase may want the whole negotiating process to be concluded as soon as possible. Knowing this allows you to prolong the negotiation process and if skilled enough make it seem as if the delay is the opponents fault. This tactic can be used against your organisation if internal alignment has not been achieved.
- Profile the Individuals on the Opposing Side
Another step you should take—along the lines of determining who has real decision making power—is to isolate the critical decision makers among the principals. Once key decision makers have been determined it is important to determine how decisions are made within that group.
- Intelligence Gathering
Intelligence gathering should be a continuous and ongoing process before and during the negotiation process as the economic and competitive pictures change so do the players during long-term negotiations.
If negotiations are effectively and efficiently executed, positive results will manifest themselves in accordance to the negotiators efforts. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and as negotiation is something that socio-economic entities can’t hide or run away from, they might as well do it right.
