Intermediate Reflection Report

Intermediate Reflective Report

Name: Vaibhav Ghodeswar

Banner Id: 000689941

Course: BUSI-1360 Professional Practice

Tutor: Dr. Xinfa Lin

Negotiating Skills

Working on a construction project is an ideal situation for a General Manager to get into

negotiations. It provides with lot of opportunities to use negotiating skill in practice. Taking all

this into consideration, I took active participation in negotiations of land dealings to practice and

develop my negotiating skills. For that I approached my company's managing Director and

requested him to get me involved into the team looking after negotiations.

I read literature related to this key management skill to develop my understanding of negations. I

started with reading herb Cohen's book "You can negotiate anything". I then go on to read

"Negotiating Skills for Managers Management MBA" - Steven Cohen and other academic

articles. I spoke to some of managers working for other companies who had experienced

negotiations personally to the effect. I then tried to incorporate my own ideas to develop this skill

into me.

For any construction project, purchasing land is the most important activity. Land prices are

highly negotiable. Getting desired land price requires proficient negotiating skills. Land owners

always try hard to get highest price for their land. But generally land price costs 50% of total

construction project cost. Thus negotiating land price for 5-10% of its cost adds up to profits.

In the beginning of new financial year, company decided to go into pilot project of building its

first residential apartment on prime location of suburban are of tier 3 city of Maharashtra, India.

After carefully surveying of the town, team had found a land suitable for the project. The totalarea of land was 4350 square feets and it comprises of three equal plots of 1450 square feets

each, located Badnera, suburban area of Amravati district. It was owned by two different

persons; one owning one plot and the other person owing two. The chosen location had great

connectivity by bus, train and other public transport means. It was located at 100 meters from

national highways that connects Amravati with two cities of Maharashtra - Yawatmal and Akola,

100 meters from main bus stand and 500 meters from Badnera railway station.

Both land owners were involved in the dealing. They were contacted through credible sources

and negotiations began. One of the land owners wasn't willing to sell his both plots at a time, out

of fear of losing money from selling in bulk. All three plots were required for the project. But

company was short on initial capital required to make all three plots purchases. Company

decided to approach banks to back up our project. But banks only finance construction projects if

the land, onto which construction is to be done, is owned by the loan seeker. This meant that we

had to buy two plots and sign a development agreement for remaining plot to make all three

purchases in order to get a bank loan. The development agreement was going to entitle company

to use land for development purpose with land owners consent. So we have to negotiate price

and make one of land owner sign development agreement by offering him either shares in the

company or flat in residential apartment.

Personally, the whole experience was a great opportunity to bring learned and acquired

knowledge into practice. It tested many qualities like patience, persuasiveness and coordination

of a team looking after negotiations.

The ideal result for a negotiation is a win-win situation at all times. This situation is satisfactory

for everybody involved in negotiations. To foster a co-operative atmosphere is in the best interest

of negotiator in most negotiations. This increases the chances of win-win outcomes (Stark,

2003). If negotiator gets what he wanted; and it does not mean a win for one party and lose for

other participant. It is a sign of good negotiator to find a balance between each party's objectives

to create a win-win outcome (Black, 2009). Overall objective should be to increase company's

profit levels, the levels where the company want to buy and sell, the type of product or service

they want and the type of business or supply that they want (Oliver, 2010).As long as negotiator is not the loser, he cannot go to a negotiation table with the stance that he is

willing to work for a win-lose outcome. There is a better possibility to create favorable long-term

relationships if the outcome of negotiation is win-win. Narrowing negotiation down to one issue

should be avoided and overall picture of the deal should be taken into consideration by

negotiators. The price of a service or product is the most common issue of negotiation (Stark,

2003). Quality and timing are important issues that should be taken into consideration while

negotiating and price should not be given all the importance. The overall price of a product

consists