Medlee Negotiation

Journal Entry #2

Week 2

Participants

Lee Medical Team:

Lawrence Villermin

Russel Williams

Vince Panepinto

MedDevices Team:

Tyler Fredericks

Reed Cupps

Journal MedLee Negotiation:

In reading the text and following the lectures, I attempted to gain as much knowledge as I could of the company that I could in preparation for this negotiation.  Since the companies that are negotiating are fictitious I was not able to gain any knowledge outside of what was offered by the professor.  I was however able to research the customs of countries on the internet.  I began the preparation for this negotiation by researching the business customs on the United States.  I wanted to know what not to do or what to expect from the US MedDevices team.  I found that most US business negotiations are pointed and direct since, “time is money”.  I learned that a firm handshake is good for a greeting, as well as acceptance of a contract and goodbye.  

Initially I attempted to contact the MedDevices team by phone to discuss setting up the initial negotiation meeting.  I was able to make contact with Tyler Fredericks (VP of Global operations), but I was unable to make contact with Reed Cupps (Executive Vice President of Business Development) due to the fact that he was on assignment in Angola South Africa for the next three to four months.  I discussed a meeting time with Tyler and asked him to try to see if he could get Reed in the meeting since his buy in would be critical to a joint venture agreement.  I contacted my fellow team members Russel Williams and Vince Panepinto, and informed them that an initial meeting was set up for Friday the 4th at 5 pm.  Vince had a previous engagement and would not be able to make the meeting Friday.  In addition to that others informed me that they had been called to a last minute budget meeting and would have to reschedule.  I set a new meeting date and time for Sunday the 6th at 10 am.  All members were available at that time.

As for the skills used I wanted to rely on the “Build a working relationship” as stated in the text.  “Knowing the other side personally really does help.”  By understanding the person we are negotiating with and giving them a feeling that we do really care about them as a person lends itself to a perception that we do care about his company as well.  We all took the advice of the text and did not use positional bargaining in this negotiation.  We more emphatically approached the merits of the negotiations as an alternative to our positions.  I relied more importantly on truth and trust.  I entered into this negotiation with trust and respect and expected to receive the same from the other team member.  The one issue that did arise as a potential deal breaker was the revenue spilt of 60:40.  We felt that since the company Lee Medical is a country distributor and has the contacts and the cultural advantage that the 40% capital investment from out end represents at least a 50% profit split.  Med Devices felt differently to this and pushed for the 60% profit for his company.  We explained that the interest and Med Devices understood and accepted the even profit share.  There really wasn’t any hard bargaining that went on it was mostly soft and non-argumentative or confrontational.  All representatives were completely polite and honest and upfront.  There were some cultural differences or maybe I should call them regionally cultural differences.  Some were a bit bull headed in that they would talk over other members and not allow some to get a word in edge wise.  This was overcome by waiting until the thoughts were completed.

This exercise was an eye opener for me in that I forgot how to hard it is to get people at the same site in the same room at one time, not to mention having a team member in another time zone.  We were met with this obstacle at the beginning knowing we had a member that was 6 hours ahead of us on the clock.  Added to that he is the manager of a production rig in the middle of the ocean.  We were compassionate to his activities and the time difference in that we did not want to impact him when he had the potential to effect the rig safety.  If there was one thing I would like to do differently it would be that I would like to research the company a little more and maybe even the people we are negotiating with.  During the lectures the professor discussed the time when he had ex-government officials get information on a bank account for a country that owed his client some money.  I would appreciate being able to dig up that kind of leverage and have it in my back pocket during the negotiation, just in case.