Having worked with leading firms across the spectrum of American business, the stiffest negotiating challenge faced by procurement and sourcing professionals is trying to make a favorable agreement when buying from a sole source supplier. This topic was the focus of an article I co-wrote with Howard Levy, the Sourcing VP of Zimmer Biomet. The article, running in the current… read more →
Every year, sometime in May, the ISM convention is held at rotating sites around the country. This year’s event, held in Orlando, May 21-24, was attended by several thousand procurement and sourcing specialists from leading companies across the U.S. Mobus Creative Negotiating brought a small team to share some of our expertise in negotiation, and to learn from other… read more →
Why Every Company Should be Afraid, Very Afraid Our title is inspired by a recent New York Times article: $1 Billion for Dollar Shave Club: Why Every Company Should Worry In the modern world, companies disappear in a blink of an eye. “Creative destruction” is the name given to technological change that destroys companies and sometimes entire industries. Think of… read more →
Money May Not Be What Really Matters to the Other Side An important part of being a successful negotiator is figuring out what really matters to the other side – which they may not know. The common error is to assume the other side wants money and money alone, when in fact other things may matter more to them.… read more →
In our last webinar we referred to the work of one of today’s leading business thinkers, Adam Grant, and his book, GIVE AND TAKE. When opening the Op-Ed section of today’s Sunday New York Times, I was interested to see a piece by Dr Grant titled: “Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ is Terrible Advice” What struck me is that his… read more →
How to Make Giving a Route to Success We saw that Adam Grant of the Wharton School wrote in his book Give and Takeabout how takers are the most successful engineers. That that may be no surprise, the next result of Grant’s research may be. He found that the engineers with the lowest productivity are givers, but the ones with… read more →
The core of negotiation is how do you compromise, or what’s called the process of give and take. And specifically, what kind of balance should you strike between giving and taking? To put that question in a broader context, negotiating has a competitive side and a cooperative side. Some people may seem hyper-competitive, but the very reason they are negotiating… read more →
Supply chain professionals, eager to keep up with the latest trends in the market would do well to attend the ISM (Institute of Supply Chain Management) annual conference. Coupled with a large trade show, attendees can see the latest services being offered to supply chain organizations, as well as the most recent trends in the procurement world. This year’s annual… read more →
Take the Advice of Shark Tank’s Daymond John: Aim Higher to Do Better What role do expectations play in business success in general, and success at the bargaining table in particular? The story of Shark Tank’s Daymond John is instructive. Raised by a single mom in Brooklyn and Queens, and burdened with dyslexia, he overcame significant hurdles to captain… read more →
Since I’ve spent the last 30 years teaching negotiating skills, I’ve been asked several times to rate Donald Trump’s abilities in this area. My immediate response has been since I’ve never actually seen Trump himself practicing the “art of the deal” it’s hard to say. I’ve heard back: Well, c’mon, there must be something you can say about Trump as… read more →
Can Donald Trump Negotiate His Way to the White House? The 2016 presidential election will be forever be looked back upon as the year of the “Trump phenomenon.” The pundits have been shocked not once or twice, but repeatedly. The original announcement of his candidacy was met with reactions that ranged from polite dismissal to outright ridicule. And then… read more →
Negotiation Skills Training in the 21st Century This program addresses the highest level of negotiating in today’s tough world of business: capturing value. Cutting-edge companies work hard and invest heavily in innovation to add value to their product line and to their supply chain. But that value doesn’t automatically go straight to the bottom line; it only happens through deals negotiated by key personnel within the company. Yet, traditional… read more →
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