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Cross-Cultural Negotiation

A leading negotiator shared some powerful negotiating tips at the intensive five-day MarketReach America ICET 2004 strategy conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, from July 18 to 22.

According to its website, ThinkFire Inc. "provides Intellectual Property Licensing Advisory and Representation Services to the world's most innovative technology companies." The company was co-founded by Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO at Microsoft and Dan McCurdy. McCurdy was formerly the president of Lucent Technologies' intellectual property business and chairman of Lucent's intellectual-property licensing subsidiaries. He was also a VP at IBM, where he was in charge of its market entry into the life sciences IT market.

Dan McCurdy, co-founder and CEO of ThinkFire Inc., one of the foremost intellectual property licensing companies in the United States, led a highly energetic, informative, and insightful workshop on "Cross-Cultural Negotiatons: Tricks of the Trade." Dan is a skilled, seasoned negotiator with extraordinary presentation talents.

In the course of his three-hour session, Dan outlined a number of important points, then led all the conference participants through a rigorous negotiation exercise that was intense, humorous, and insightful simultaneously.

Laying the Foundation

Negotiations are always personal. Dan reminded the participants that "deals are made by individuals, not by companies." Complex business deals succeed because of the personal relationship between the negotiating parties. Conversely, deals fall apart because of a failure to establish this all-important relationship.

Before negotiations even begin, do your homework about the people you will be negotiating with ("what did they study, what are their interests"). Dan's suggestion: go out for dinner the night before the negotiations begin. "Drink wine," he offered, and keep the atmosphere a balance somewhere between informal and not too formal. "Encourage people to talk about themselves," and make a small, but significant, "investment in success:" pay for dinner.

Finding the Win-Win

This Way Out
Dan was very clear about identifying some characteristics that Americans dislike and cause negotiations to break down. "Arrogance, intimidation, people who don't listen, unethical behavior, inflexibility, and personal attacks." In short, these will not get you anywhere.

Dan reminded all of the conference participants that "the art of negotiation is finding areas of agreement, areas of disagreement, and then dissecting the areas of disagreement to understand where there are areas of shared interest. In some of my previous "Views," I've stressed the importance of listening. Dan also emphasized how important it is to listen rather than talk. "It's not all about you," he stated rather emphatically. To say what you need, and why you need it, is legitimate; to demand what you want, however, just doesn't fly.

Compromise is integral to successful negotiating. If you adopt the "my way or no way" attitude, you'll quickly find your way to the door. Dan summed this up by comparing negotiators to painters "painting an exceptionally intricate and complex painting. The more colors you have on your palette to work with, the greater your chance of success."

To "find the win-win," Dan proposed the following:

		Rank the importance of the desired outcomes
		Understand what the other side needs in the overall sense
		Hold off on monetary discussions as long as possible

"Compromise is key," he said, "but always be prepared to walk away if the alternative to a negotiated solution with the party is better than the solution you can gain in the negotiation."

When the deal has been reached, or when you think there is agreement, you have to put everything in writing, but Dan cautions against sending lawyers in to lead your negotiation. The details of the agreement should be on a "detailed term sheet" that "clarify the understanding you think you have reached." Sometimes differences in language or culture can cause misunderstandings or miscommunication, which only reinforces why everything must be in writing. Disagreements over the term sheet do not necessarily signify that "the other side cannot be trusted." Rather, Dan notes, it might just be a sign that "humans (particularly from different cultures and working in different languages) are only mediocre communicators of complex ideas. "