Negotiation
Top 10 Business Negotiations of 2013
January 9, 2014
A number of noteworthy disputes among businesses, organizations, and individuals made headlines in 2013. We point out the negotiation angles behind stories first reported by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets. Keep an eye out for these common themes: hardball tactics that backfire, costly legal battles that could have been avoided, and disputes over poorly worded contracts. Robin Thicke versus the family of Marvin Gaye Starbucks and Kraft Foods Michael...
January 9, 2014
A number of noteworthy disputes among businesses, organizations, and individuals made headlines in 2013. We point out the negotiation angles behind stories first reported by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets. Keep an eye out for these common themes: hardball tactics that backfire, costly legal battles that could have been avoided, and disputes over poorly worded contracts. Robin Thicke versus the family of Marvin Gaye Starbucks and Kraft Foods Michael...
Toyota Begins Settlement Negotiations on Acceleration Lawsuits
December 23, 2013
Toyota has announced it will begin negotiations to settle hundreds of pending federal and state lawsuits over the sudden acceleration of its vehicles, the New York Times reports. The announcement comes two months after the Japanese automaker lost a court case in Oklahoma. In that case, a jury found that Toyota Camry’s electronic throttle system was defective. Legal analysts said that the verdict most likely spurred Toyota to pursue a broad settlement of its remaining cases. In July, Toyota...
December 23, 2013
Toyota has announced it will begin negotiations to settle hundreds of pending federal and state lawsuits over the sudden acceleration of its vehicles, the New York Times reports. The announcement comes two months after the Japanese automaker lost a court case in Oklahoma. In that case, a jury found that Toyota Camry’s electronic throttle system was defective. Legal analysts said that the verdict most likely spurred Toyota to pursue a broad settlement of its remaining cases. In July, Toyota...
The Starbucks-Kraft Dispute: In Business Negotiations, Prepare for Problems
December 16, 2013
A three-year dispute between Starbucks and Kraft Foods over distribution of Starbucks packaged coffee in grocery stores was resolved on November 12, when an arbitrator determined that Starbucks had breached its agreement with Kraft and ordered the coffeemaker to pay the food giant $2.75 billion, Stephanie Strom reported in The New York Times. The dispute dates back to an agreement negotiated in 1998 when Kraft began selling Starbucks packaged coffee through grocery stores. In 2010, with sales...
December 16, 2013
A three-year dispute between Starbucks and Kraft Foods over distribution of Starbucks packaged coffee in grocery stores was resolved on November 12, when an arbitrator determined that Starbucks had breached its agreement with Kraft and ordered the coffeemaker to pay the food giant $2.75 billion, Stephanie Strom reported in The New York Times. The dispute dates back to an agreement negotiated in 1998 when Kraft began selling Starbucks packaged coffee through grocery stores. In 2010, with sales...
Crisis Negotiations: How Jamie Dimon Avoided Disaster
December 12, 2013
Sometimes the goal in negotiation is to improve your fortunes. But sometimes, the best you can hope for is to lessen the fallout from past mistakes. Take the case of JPMorgan Chase, which in September was threatened with a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for its sales of troubled mortgage investments during the financial crisis. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s hands-on negotiations to settle the potential charges and avoid a lawsuit, as recounted by Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg...
December 12, 2013
Sometimes the goal in negotiation is to improve your fortunes. But sometimes, the best you can hope for is to lessen the fallout from past mistakes. Take the case of JPMorgan Chase, which in September was threatened with a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for its sales of troubled mortgage investments during the financial crisis. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s hands-on negotiations to settle the potential charges and avoid a lawsuit, as recounted by Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg...
Getting the Other Guy to the Negotiation Table
December 5, 2013
This just in from Harvard's Program on Negotiation: In a new study, Nour Kteily of Northwestern University and his colleagues found that low-power groups can influence powerful parties to engage with them through their framing of the proposed negotiating agenda. Specifically, across four experiments, participants in the high-power position were more willing to negotiate when a low-power group proposed negotiating less important issues before more significant areas of disagreement, rather than vice...
December 5, 2013
This just in from Harvard's Program on Negotiation: In a new study, Nour Kteily of Northwestern University and his colleagues found that low-power groups can influence powerful parties to engage with them through their framing of the proposed negotiating agenda. Specifically, across four experiments, participants in the high-power position were more willing to negotiate when a low-power group proposed negotiating less important issues before more significant areas of disagreement, rather than vice...
The CBS – Time Warner Cable Dispute: Making a Bad BATNA Even Worse
December 2, 2013
On October 31, Time Warner Cable reported a huge quarterly loss of television subscribers, the largest in its history: 306,000 of its 11.7 million subscribers dropped the company, the New York Times reports. The bad news has been attributed largely to an impasse with television network CBS over fees, which led to Time Warner blacking CBS out of millions of homes in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas for a month this summer. The agreement reached by the two parties was viewed as a victory for CBS,...
December 2, 2013
On October 31, Time Warner Cable reported a huge quarterly loss of television subscribers, the largest in its history: 306,000 of its 11.7 million subscribers dropped the company, the New York Times reports. The bad news has been attributed largely to an impasse with television network CBS over fees, which led to Time Warner blacking CBS out of millions of homes in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas for a month this summer. The agreement reached by the two parties was viewed as a victory for CBS,...
Doug Noll’s Advanced Legal Negotiation Master Class Tomorrow Featuring Picture It Settled
December 2, 2013
Learn how to exploit lawyer predictability in mediation using concession planning. When: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Time: 9:00 am Pacific/Noon Eastern Length: 60 minutes Cost: $49.99 What participant's say about these webinars: "I had an intense mediation yesterday, an employment case with a lot of hard feelings and an opposing attorney who lost her professional distance. Your latest webinar helped me prepare myself & the clients. But better still, it helped me help a very...
December 2, 2013
Learn how to exploit lawyer predictability in mediation using concession planning. When: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Time: 9:00 am Pacific/Noon Eastern Length: 60 minutes Cost: $49.99 What participant's say about these webinars: "I had an intense mediation yesterday, an employment case with a lot of hard feelings and an opposing attorney who lost her professional distance. Your latest webinar helped me prepare myself & the clients. But better still, it helped me help a very...
Ebner on Negotiation via (the New) Email
November 27, 2013
Noam Ebner (Creighton) has posted his new article, Negotiation via (the New) Email, to SSRN. The abstract: While certainly one of the most familiar modes for online communication, email is a constantly shifting entity. This chapter explores common pitfalls encountered in negotiating via email as well as advantages the medium offers, and offers best practices for negotiating through this communication channel. In a significant update to the existing literature, this chapter describes the changes...
November 27, 2013
Noam Ebner (Creighton) has posted his new article, Negotiation via (the New) Email, to SSRN. The abstract: While certainly one of the most familiar modes for online communication, email is a constantly shifting entity. This chapter explores common pitfalls encountered in negotiating via email as well as advantages the medium offers, and offers best practices for negotiating through this communication channel. In a significant update to the existing literature, this chapter describes the changes...
Lessons on Negotiating With Adversaries
November 19, 2013
In their Mediation column, Abby Tolchinsky and Ellie Wertheim, partners at Family Mediation, discuss a new book by former governor of New Mexico and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson that provides many lessons to keep in mind when trying to reach an agreement with an adversary, particularly one who seems mercurial and irrational at best.
November 19, 2013
In their Mediation column, Abby Tolchinsky and Ellie Wertheim, partners at Family Mediation, discuss a new book by former governor of New Mexico and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson that provides many lessons to keep in mind when trying to reach an agreement with an adversary, particularly one who seems mercurial and irrational at best.
Vulnerability, A Defense Against Difficult People
November 13, 2013
This weekend, I gave a speech on dealing with difficult and we were discussing the strategy of making yourself vulnerable to combat a difficult person. Being vulnerable allows you to achieve some very valuable things in developing rapport with that difficult person. First, you can start to build trust. Today, most people are exposed to a lot of talk, but very little action. They feel that many people aren’t genuine in their interactions. And as such, they don’t let their guard down....
November 13, 2013
This weekend, I gave a speech on dealing with difficult and we were discussing the strategy of making yourself vulnerable to combat a difficult person. Being vulnerable allows you to achieve some very valuable things in developing rapport with that difficult person. First, you can start to build trust. Today, most people are exposed to a lot of talk, but very little action. They feel that many people aren’t genuine in their interactions. And as such, they don’t let their guard down....
