The first full day of IBC Global Forum sessions opened with Dr. Dennis Leclerc, educator and principal in his own consulting firm, who led the two-part morning program on international negotiation strategies.

Dr. Denis Leclerc teaches cross-cultural communication and global negotiations at Thunderbird School of Global Management. There Dr. Leclerc teaches in multiple programs such as on-campus MBA, Executive MBA, customized programs such as Thunderbird International Consortia, and multiple oil and gas executive programs. Dr. Leclerc’s research has been published in leading journals in his field, and he leads seminars for leading global corporations on cultural misunderstanding, improving multi-cultural awareness, and cultural strategic negotiation preparation. As the principal of his own consulting firm, Dr. Leclerc has conducted cross-cultural research for companies in North America and France.

He began his program with an example from the world of sports media rights: the unintended consequences of a sentence or two in a contract signed in the 1970s. This agreement benefitted two brothers and resulted in more than a decade of legal actions by a national sports organization to change payment percentages.

He outlined the topics of today’s presentation:

• Challenges in global negotiations
• Communication nuances in international negotiation
• Mapping negotiation stakeholders and institutional capabilities

And he noted that, “Organizations do not see negotiation as central to their key success. They first look at revenue growth, cost management, innovation, customer management and leadership development.” Danny Ertel (2012)

Lessons Learned from Past Negotiations

Dr. Leclerc’s interactive presentation engaged participants in frequent conversations. He started by asking participants to converse with their neighbor about a chief lesson learned from their past negotiations. Experienced international sales executives offered a list of lessons, often painfully learned:

• Prepare!
• Underestimated time needed to build a relationship. It’s a long-term game.
• Big cultural differences
• Be Patient: for some countries we might be talking for six months; in the U.S., next quarter results
  dominate the vision.
• Choose your battles: what do you absolutely need and what can be a compromise? One decision might not see the total picture.
• Know when to walk away. Most businesses are poor at this and keep digging without seeing the impacts of such decisions. Eventually, increased investments still produce no returns and make the decision to abandon a project all the more costly.
• Ask a lot of questions. Make sure you know what you want to know.
• Be sure on what is important for your business and the costs of the choices.
• Have a clear understanding of how long a contract will last and when terms are up for review. Twelve months might be too short or you might need to recoup money quickly in first year.
• Protect your IP from capture.
• Learn how to interpret silence. Western societies differ greatly from Asian cultures in the use and timing silence. Long silences can be uncomfortable for Westerners and advantage Asians.
• Stresses and jet lag involved in frequent cross border travel affect performance. Travelers are
  motivated by requirements from the home office and carry lists of what to accomplish in a short
  time.

Negotiation is Central to all Aspects of an Organization

• Sales personnel
• Procurement and supply chain
• Legal and risk management: Involve legal advisors at the beginning, not the end.
• IT personnel
• Customer support
• Senior leaders
• Internal negotiation

Professor Leclerc peppered his presentation with frequent examples from his wide experience with students and corporate veterans. He cautioned participants to be aware of human limitations on attention, which impacts negotiations. Humans have 20-minute attention spans; add time zone changes and jet lag so that you can structure time allocated to the negotiation process. Younger generations have shorter attention spans than older, so younger team members may lose focus after 10 to 15 minutes. It is estimated that every generation loses two minutes.

Leclerc often offered best practices he has encountered in organizations of varied sizes. Regarding preparation, he noted that lawyers excel at preparation and backgrounding. Conversely, businesses often spend 70% of their time on planning the negotiation team and just 30% on preparation.

Prepare for a Negotiation: The Why, What If, You, What and How

Leclerc offered this basic outline for how to organize your approach to preparation.

Why – includes your self-interests: needs, concerns and purpose
What If – leverage: Outline your alternatives, create a Plan B, set standards and rules
You – know yourself. Note when you are tired and must take a break

• Cognitive — Thinking
• Emotion — Feeling
• Social — Behavior
• Physical — Performance
• Spiritual – Beliefs

What – identify the information needed: goals, targets, facts and issues
How – outline your strategy, problem solving and tactics

In short, operate with a BATNA: Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Always have a Plan B.

Leclerc then engaged the audience with conversations about:

Costs Associated with Poor Negotiation Performances

• Opportunity cost: not being able to create any value to the organization
• Process management cost: staff time and other costs associated with prolonged negotiation. Affects
  all functions of the organization
• Relationship cost: inability to maintain good working relationships. Most impacted: newest employees

On building relationships: Leclerc conversed with the participants about modes of communication for internal communication with co-workers and with external partners. Participants offered examples of conflicts over phone vs. email and the value of in-person conversations to allow interpretations of body language. Walking a short distance to have a personal conversation with coworkers can be quicker and more efficient that email. Non-verbal communication provides context and visible reactions impart intonations and inflections. Encourage personal contacts with phone calls and quick personal conversations. Emails document conversations and decisions. Technology is efficient for note taking and texts for translations for language differences. Phone conversations also force people to slow down and in speaking.