Sarah Talley and Wal-Mart Essay

Gina Blair represented a competitive-cooperative negotiation strategy which represented a middle ground, both combined in a style which was open minded but assertive. Gina had scheduled the telephone meeting between herself and Daniel Trent; therefore she had more knowledge about what was going to be discussed. As she had initiated the negotiation she had prepared well for the issues concerning her clients. She presented her negotiation in a logical structure, showing that she had prepared all the areas of concern which she intended to address. Her preparation allowed her to identify and prioritise her client’s concerns. She avoided small talk and was very direct, her approach was assertive and she projected confidence. She had a clear understanding of the issues which were of concern to her clients and had proposed

(1) Wal-Mart’s promotional strategy of “everyday-low-prices” meant offering customers brand name merchandise for less than department and specialty store prices.

1. Review text pages 137–139 in Chapter 4. These pages cover step 9 in the planning process, assessing the social context of negotiation.

Summary: This was a multiparty negotiation, which involved 6 players all with very different negotiation styles. It was an exercise in which teams easily form a coalition. There were concessions about the value added each team would bring to the “table”, and my team in a situation of power saw how negatively the other teams reacted in name of fairness and how important was to share the pie.

The next three issues we negotiated were editorial control, preproduction budget, and post production schedule. Again we logrolled with the issues and came to an agreeable decision. The outcome of the negotiation of this particular bundle was evenly distributed. I felt that the director was willing to collaborate with me on these issues. I wanted the entire negotiation to follow the concept of the integrative negotiation process by setting the tone of the negotiation as a win-win. Reflecting on how the negotiation was going to this point I felt that I may have conceded on more of the issues than the director, but the hope was that the director would concede on the issues that were important to me. I felt I was sensitive to the director’s

A. Identify the issues that you thought were the most important issues to be negotiated, and briefly explain why you thought they were the most important.

Because of their power and supremeness in the market, they can basically pick their price and if the supplier cannot match it, they find someone else who can. Take Rubbermaid as an example. One of our own decent companies was almost put out of business because their prices were too high for Wal-Mart, and so Wal-Mart found someone else. If there was more market segregation, Rubbermaid could have simply sold to other companies that wanted their quality products. It is clear Wal-Mart does not support The US’s economy, and all they want is whatever they will make the most profit

Prepare responses to the questions below after viewing the Negotiation Strategy and Tactics Tutorial in this week's lecture. In drafting your answers to the questions, make sure that you apply course concepts in your answers.

b) Historical Context: Does the context of the negotiations clarify the intentions and expectations of the parties?

Getting to YES, Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In is an excellent book that discusses the best methods of negotiation. The book is divided into three sections that include defining the problem, the method to solve it, and possible scenarios that may arise when using these methods. Each section is broken down into a series of chapters that is simple to navigate and outlines each of the ideas in a way that is easy for any reader to comprehend. There are also several real life explanations for each issue that make the concepts easier to apply and understand. These ideas are reflective of a method developed by the Harvard Negotiation Project called “principled negotiation”. This method combines the two ideas of soft and hard negotiation

b) What is your evaluation of the position taken by Mr. Sullivan in his conference with the principal? In what way would you have acted differently if you had been the principal, during the conference with Mr. Sullivan?

Stores like Wal-Mart are famous for keeping their prices so low. This is one reason why they are able to maintain a grip on the consumers of an area. They accomplish this by keeping the cost to produce and transport the goods low. In January, a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found that, “an individual family could save $589 a year on groceries by shopping at a supercenter. Overall, shoppers could save $3.76 billion in merchandise nationwide.” (Blazier, A, 2004) A major reason they can keep prices lower than mom-and-pop run businesses is their ability to buy merchandise in bulk. Buying in bulk works the same way it does for a consumer. The more of a product that is purchased, the less the cost is per unit. Consumers see this every day when they go to stores like Sam’s Club or Costco. When they buy their merchandise in bulk, they are able to offer it to the consumer at a lower price. (Kale, 2011) This is what could eventually drive the mom-and-pop owned businesses out of the area, and draw a negative criticism from the public. The interesting thing about this criticism is that the public complains about Wal-Mart

iv. During negotiation “business issues” took the centre stage and legal issues were to be addressed later. It shows mutual trust and focus on goals.

Q.8 One of the factors that might have changed this negotiation could be the non-compromising attitude of the parties. (Improve it please)

Negotiating is something that has been around since the beginning of mankind. We all start off negotiating as little kids, even for little things such as candy and toys. When we grow up, negotiating becomes sort of the norm. We negotiate consciously and subconsciously every single day. When you think about it, negotiation takes up most of our lives. We are always trying to see what we can get as a benefit without giving up much. It always comes down to the pie, how big is the pie and who can get the biggest slice. As we become adults with careers, there are ever some that become flat our ‘Negotiators’. This means that all they do for a living is negotiate. They are master negotiators and are praised for being so. When it comes to negotiation, persuasion is also within that talent. You have to be able to get what you want from people without them feeling like they are being taken advantage of and that they are also getting just as big a piece of the pie as you are getting, although in reality they are not.