Planning and preparation

Pakistani Prunes exercise is a negotiation between Dr. Kim Wilson and Dr. Rubio Sanchez. Dr Wilson is working for an American company and Dr. Sanchez is a research scientist working at United Nations Standing committee on world of hunger. Objective of both is to outbid each other on the prunes. I played Dr. Rubio Sanchez role. The sole purpose of my organization is to reduce death worldwide from malnutrition and starvation. This can be achieved by a substance that when added to the soil reduced the amount of moisture needed to grow staple crops. This new substance can only be found in the Pakistani Prune.

I had limited info about Dr. Kim Wilson and Its Company. I heard that Dr. Wilson's company is one of the biggest biotech firms in the US. They probably have a lot of money to throw around and outbid me. I decided to contact Dr. Wilson and influence him not to purchase the prunes.

I had limited information about Dr. Kim Wilson, I decided to probe Wilson. I adopted integrative approach so that I would be able to identify his interest and end Goal.

My BATNA.

Try to find another company to do negotiation and outbid competitors.

Go alone.

Progression.

As its mentioned in case study Dr. Kim Wilson is ruthless, I was very careful in my approach. I did not start the conversation. I let Dr. Wilson to drive the conversation. My objective was to collect maximum information from him. He was very keen to know my interest for buying the prunes. This give me an opportunity to explain my company's objective is to reduce the millions of deaths that occur worldwide from malnutrition and starvation. Wilson really appreciated our good cause. Seeing him sympathetic to my cause I probed his interest in prunes. To my surprise he also had the same noble cause as ours to create medicine in order to reduce the heart attacks, blood pressure and diseases related to the same.

It created base of trust as we both were working for good cause. This also helped us to open about specific need of prunes. I require the pit of the fruit and Wilson need the pulp of fruit. This made negotiation easier as we had a common interest with adverse need. We decided instead of competing we should work together.

In order to win the bid, we had to outbid our competitors. we decided to bid together. I announce maximum amount I could spend on this project which is 5 million $. Wilson was reluctant to share his full spending budget. I understood his hesitance. I took leadership role and reminded Wilson that we are in together for a good cause. We cannot lose the bid as this would be the only chance we have if we work together. This helped and Wilson shared his budget which was 7 million dollars. We decided to combine our individual amount which would be the sealing of the final bid amount 11 million $.

The biggest challenge for us to decide who will get the prunes first.We mutually decided that Wilson will get the pulp and hand over the pit to me. But It was difficult for me to trust Wilson company. To mitigate this, we both decided to hire a third party who split the pulp and pit and give it to us at the same time. This helped us to overcome logistics. We would get items at the same time so both companies will be responsible of its own logistics.

Solution/Agreement

1.Both decided to work together as we have a common purpose to make the world a better place by saving as many people as possible. It's more beneficial for both sides to do research together to save time and money.

2.Dr. Wilson takes the pulp of the fruit and Sanchez takes the pit of the prunes. This will help both parties to minimize purchase expenses and utilize a budget in other areas necessary.

3.Both Companies will hire a third party that will split the pulp and pit.

4.Both Companies will bid together to make sure they get the contract.

5.Both companies' amount would be the sealing of the final bid which is (13 Million)

6.Both companies will work together for the next 5 years.

7.In case of dispute will hire a third party to mitigate.

Criticism of Performance.

Asked probing question which helped us to understand each other's objective.

Integrative negotiation helped in this situation as we both provided each other with information about ourselves and 'why' for our need to purchase the harvest of prunes.

Clear understanding of our Goals. We quickly realize although we both want a resource which is limited but require different part of the prune. This helped us to

Lessons learned

Disclosing information builds trust among the participant.

Cooperation is better than competition.