NEGOTIATION 3 - REFLECTION PAPER

-Abdul Rahman Gulam

The Island cruise negotiation helped me understand how two different views could come together with an agreement mutually acceptable. The Captain of the ship and the Mayor of the Island are the parties involved in this negotiation.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

I was the captain of the ship. My primary role was to ensure that I achieve the best outcome that is profitable for my company and at the same time maintain a good relationship with the mayor of the Island. Days before the negotiation, I had very limited knowledge of understanding the ideal acceptable outcome. Hence, I decided to start with debriefing the primary and secondary-interests of the Mayor and the Captain.

Mayor's primary interest: Allowing cruise tourism, but with certain restrictions, that leverages the economic condition of the island. Mayor's secondary interests: Protect the pristine nature of the island, introduce measures that ensure to reduce the number of students leaving to pursue higher education, promote the Island agricultural industries and finally, his Interest to be re-elected as mayor.

Captain's primary interest: To secure cruise tourism rights that leverage profit for his company.

Captain's secondary Interests: Protect the pristine nature of the island thereby sustaining the tourism at the island., Increasing number of passengers traveling by his cruise, thereby earning more profit, Interest in being promoted to the next level and to ensure that the passengers adequately utilize the facilities in the ship by limiting passenger disembarkation.

My next task was to identify and prioritize the variables that I will be using during the negotiation process. Prioritizing the variables helped me to choose different techniques based on which I built my strategy.

Variables

Priority

Number of Visits High

Length of Visit Low

Number of Passengers Medium

Safeguarding the Pristine Nature High

Measures to build infrastructure ( basic amenities) Medium

The above processes helped me to create two strategies. Either I can start the negotiation with the highly prioritized variables i.e. Number of Visits or apply bogey technique to the variable of low priority i.e. Length of visit and get something of more value to me. This helped me to draw my final expectations out of the negotiation, that is

Variables

Number of Visits 12 Visits (per year)

Number of Passengers 1200 passengers

Length of Visit 2 days

Further, as a backup plan, I came up with my BATNA which I intend to use when there is a deadlock.

Variables

Number of Visits 6 Visits (per year)

Number of Passengers 600 passengers

Length of Visit 2 days

ACTUAL PROGRESSION OF EVENTS

We were given an hour and a half for the negotiation. I and my counterpart met at the lounge and started the negotiation. We managed to agree at the end but with certain terms and conditions.

I started with the highly prioritized variable for me: the number of visits to the island. I asked for 12 visits to the island While current demand may not warrant a trip every month, it is valuable to have this option in order to meet potential future demand.

As expected, my counterpart was not okay with it but want it for 5 visits. Since the number of visits is my priority, I utilized the technique of anchoring and tried to keep up the number. He said a greater number of visits will destruct the pristine nature of the bay area. I tried boogie tactic At this point and reminded mayor that we are also considering Desert Island as well. But I like to give this opportunity to Tropical Island. I reminded Mayor the worth of Island queen and what kind of opportunity it can bring for the Island. I boosted a little about our clients and how it can bring employment opportunities for the Island. I just wanted to wow the Mayor and made sure they understood what we can offer.

The next important variable was the number of passengers and I asked for a minimum of 700 passengers per day at onshore with a 4-day visit. I know that a 4-day visit is too long but I used this as my bogey technique. I am intended to get a greater number of visits by comprising on length of visit. I negotiated for 700 passengers for a 4-day visit and gave substantial explanations on why this will benefit economically. But my counterpart wanted for 300 passengers and 1-day visit stating that there is no proper infrastructure to provide basic amenities in the Island and having people more than 300 will certainly affect the existing set up of island and might create new diseases that are not native to the island. Since his expectations were rational, I agreed to invest in creating infrastructure pertained to basic amenities. But at the same time, I Insisted on having 800 hundred passengers for 3 days. Again, it was not accepted by my counterpart. He stated that the council members would not approve such huge numbers but came up with 400 passengers for 1 day which is unacceptable for me. Mayor also raised concern about the Trash and pollution if more people are allowed. So I came up with another proposal where Island Queen will employee 100 people from the island and make sure we take care of the trash during the 2 day stay for the first 6 years. This will give employment to the locals. I also agreed to build basic infrastructure . for that to happen I insist on having at least 800 passengers for 3 days. My counterpart seems to be interested in the proposal and came 700 passengers for 2 days. At this point, I informed that I am fine with 700 passengers for 2 days but on two conditions. One have exclusivity to Tropical Island, ie Tropical island will be the only cruise ship allowed when staying at marina, also Island queen will charge other cruise ship companies for the maintenance fee using our infrastructure .Though my counterpart was reluctant initially she agreed on these terms and finally we agreed in having 700 passengers with a 2-day visit and having 7 visits per year.

SOLUTION ACHIEVED

For me, the objective of this negotiation was to achieve exclusive cruise rights to the island and bring profit to the company and at the same time, I want to sustain a long-term relationship with the mayor. I always wanted a better deal than BATNA. Thus, during the negotiation, I ensured to provide both quantitative and qualitative justifications that would be beneficial for the mayor and the island too. Finally, I ended with an agreement that is greater than BATNA .

Variables Expected Agreement BATNA Final Agreement

Number of Visits 12 Visits (per year) 6 Visits (per year) 7 Visits (per year)

Number of Passengers 1200 passengers 600 passengers 700 passengers

Length of Visit 2 days 2 days 2 days

EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

As said, my primary interest was to increase the profitability of my company and thus need to have maintained long term relationships with the island. I utilized techniques such as bogey technique, bridge solution and anchoring to have an agreement with what I desired. The key aspect of my performance was to identify and list down the primary interest of myself, as a Captain, and the Mayor. This way I was able to find the common interest among us. Specifically, both of us had great concern over preserving the pristine nature of the island and wanted to retain more people on the ship. This would help to increase the profitability of the ship and safeguard the islands pristinely. I strongly believe to have exclusivity to Tropical island and have a control of infrastructure in form of maintaince fee will go a long way. My proposal for employing 100 islanders for trash pickup will it will address one of the key secondary interests of my counterpart whereby they can retain young natives moving out of their island. Overall, I am sure that my performance was good not only because I came up with creative strategies to convince the mayor but also ended up with an agreement that on most part acceptable and better than BATNA.

SUMMARY

I found this negotiation exercise very useful as it gave me many opportunities to develop my creativity as well as my communicative skills. Initially, I felt that the time is too short to bring an agreement on to the table and felt impossible to bring a possible solution acceptable by both parties. But following the direction given by Dr. Kohut, my approach to debriefing the primary and secondary interest of either party gained my confidence to move to the next level of approach. Tactics such as bridge solution, bogey technique, and anchoring helped my negotiation skills be creative and much stronger. I am sure if I didn't use these tactics we would not have ended for an agreement. At this moment, I should also appreciate the efforts and creative solutions brought by my counterpart which improved my horizon of perception. I was equally amazed at the creativity, the ways and the solutions brought up by other teams who had undergone the same exercise. I realized how the same variables had different interpretations and priorities. I was surprised to see how the other teams employed different mechanisms and approaches to tackle hurdles in their negotiation.

I wish to do two important points in my agreement, If I had to do this negotiation exercise again. First, I would ensure to have certain financial values written on the final agreement that would precisely help decide the future agreements. Second, I would implement the concept of reducing the number of hours per person per day. This would enable me to increase the number of people on the island and gain more profit for the company.