The_Negotiation_Society_Magazine_Issue_9

ISSUE 9
The Negotiation Society
BRINGING THE ART AND SCIENCE OF NEGOTIATION TO LIFE
A RISING
TIDE
Japan’s new normal
as price increases bite
IN FRONT OF
THE DRAGONS
Candid tales from
TV’s Dragons’ Den
SIMPLY
THE BEST
How to deliver exceptional
client service
MINORITY
REPORT
Negotiation from a
position of difference
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Senior partner Lance Ward
is living up to a legacy

INSIDE THIS ISSUE
07 10
A Rising
Tide
How Japan is facing into
price increases after years
of deflation.
In Front Of
The Dragons
Entrepreneurs who’ve
braved Dragons’ Den reveal
how they kept their cool.
WELCOME FROM GRAHAM
14 20
Simply
The Best
A client relationship guru’s
top tips for how to excel at
customer service.
The head of our US
business on what drives
him to succeed.
26 36
Minority
Report
Three professionals share
personal perspectives on
negotiating from a place
of difference.
Great
Expectations
Question
Time
Our diverse panel of
experts’ concise advice
on how to negotiate
transformation.
This edition of The Negotiation Society
magazine has themes of transformation,
partnership, and client-centricity running through
it. Just when we felt some normality returning
post-pandemic, the economic impact of it globally
has once again demonstrated the only consistent
factor in today’s commercial arena is inconsistency.
The need for change, collaboration, and empathy is
stronger than ever.
At The Gap Partnership, we’re transforming
our operating model, structure, and processes and
systems, in order to remain relevant to our clients
in this new world. We’ve overhauled the way we
listen to them, engage with them, and innovate
solutions for them. In short, we’re transforming
to become truly client-centric.
Many of our clients are doing the same.
Rob Schipperen details how big businesses are
putting their customers front and center, while
Keilee Sperinck explains how she does it in her
role. As part of our own internal transformation,
senior partner (and cover star!) Lance Ward has
taken on the mantle of building our business
across the Americas. He gives a very open insight
into what has formed him and his character.
From the personal to the macroeconomic,
Taichiro Matsuhashi uses the Japanese economy
as a case study of the impact of rising inflation,
and how to ensure you’re equipped to deal with
the new reality of dramatic price increases.
My challenge to you as you peruse the following
pages: in a world of uncertainty, is it possible to
predict the future? I believe it is. Being anticipatory
requires thorough analysis of both hard (factual)
and soft (intuitive) trends. If you aren’t strategically
planning with anticipative analysis, it is unlikely
you will transform to succeed in this new world.
Graham Botwright
CEO, The Gap Partnership
2

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Maxim Van Meeteren
Maxim is a negotiation consultant
based in the Netherlands at
The Gap Partnership. Prior to
joining TGP in 2021, he worked
in the oil and gas sector, FMCG,
and set up three ventures of his
own. Maxim has led international
negotiations for both B2B and
B2C suppliers and customers,
across multiple lines
of business.
Kristi Means
Kristi has over 25 years’ experience
in clinical social work, sales,
consulting and organizational,
learning and executive development
in non-profits, pharma, government,
and the fashion industry. Kristi’s
diverse and global experience offers
her the privilege to serve as
a thought partner to mid-level,
senior and c-suite leaders as an
executive coach.
Muhannad Alghanmi
Muhannad’s background is in
developing talent and successors
for multinational and local
companies in retail, FMCG and
real estate, and building sales
capabilities and being a champion
of mega change projects impacting
organizational development. Now
based in Riyadh, Muhannad heads
talent development and employee
experience at ROSHN Real
Estate, owned by the Saudi Public
Investment Fund.
Keilee Sperinck
UK-based Keilee has specialized
in account management for 20+
years, with 18 of these at The Gap
Partnership. During her time with
TGP, Keilee has been responsible
for developing and managing highvalue
partnerships with our global
clients. Before joining the business,
Keilee led a global team in the
recruitment IT sector.
Taichiro Matsuhashi
With over two decades of sales
and key account management
experience, Taichiro has negotiated
with clients including global,
regional and local manufacturers,
and retailers in Japan and
Singapore. Since joining The Gap
Partnership as a senior negotiation
consultant in 2021, Taichiro has
led the Japan business, delivering
negotiation consultancy and
capability workshops.
Bruna Lautert
A native Brazilian now based in
Miami, Bruna joined The Gap
Partnership in 2017. Prior to
joining TGP, Bruna experienced
both sides of the negotiation table,
with over a decade working with
international sales strategy and
marketing for consumer goods
companies and several years on
global sourcing.
3

INSIDE
MY HEAD
NATHALIE PFAFF
IS GENERAL MANAGER OF DANONE IN BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG.
SHE GIVES US THE LOWDOWN ON THE QUALITIES THAT HELPED HER
CLIMB THE LADDER, HOW NEGOTIATION HAS ALWAYS BEEN A STRENGTH,
AND HER ADVICE TO THOSE WHO SEEK TO EMULATE HER SUCCESS.
How did you make it to where
you are today?
Growing up in France on the border
with Germany, it was evident to me
that there was a big, exciting world
out there! I’ve always had a daring
streak and so I grabbed opportunities
to travel and stretch myself. I’ve also
been fortunate to have bosses who saw
me in bigger shoes than I saw myself.
Now, with a husband who also has
a big job, and 7-year-old twins, I have
a firm belief that a dual career family
is possible.
What’s the best thing about
your role?
I love the ability to connect the
dots of the business because of my
helicopter view. The other amazing
opportunity is that Danone is across
so many categories with different
business models from FMCG to
pharma. I also enjoy having an
impact and shaping my role into
what I want it to be.
How important is it to be customer
centric in your role?
Super important; I spend 95% of my
time understanding our customers.
They aren’t just the consumer of our
products, they are also part of our
value chain, like the retailers or the
governmental bodies we partner
with to better serve both consumers
and societal needs…in fact, any
stakeholder in what we do.
How important is the skill
of negotiation in your career?
I always had a knack for it. I grew up
in a family as one of four daughters
and remember one of my sisters being
very frustrated as I was able to get
more stuff than her from my parents!
Since having P&L responsibility and
interacting with retailers, it’s taken a
new spin. One thing I know is that
you never stop learning when it comes
to negotiation, and when I speak with
consultants at The Gap Partnership,
I learn a lot.
Any negotiation disasters?
I was on a leadership program in
which we were given role plays.
I was doing a talk with a customer,
and it was the most difficult
experience I’ve ever had. I froze and
felt like a prisoner, my posture fell
apart – all of which was filmed and
shown in a debrief! When I saw it,
I said – oh no…postures, body
language, everything was not ok!
Now, every time I go back to a job,
I always remember what not to do.
And what about negotiating
outside of work?
With my twins, it’s always, “He’s got
three strawberries more than me!”.
With my husband, a negotiation on
career choices is more a conversation
sitting around a table.
What’s the most important lesson
you’ve learned as a negotiator?
The one thing we believe we always
do but I realize it’s never enough,
is to really know, understand and
get under the skin of the other side.
I believe we can always do this better.
You have been very successful.
What advice would you give to other
people with similar aspirations?
Trust yourself. At the end of the day,
you’re the only one who knows what’s
best for you. Also, be hungry, stay
curious and keep learning. I hope
that when I’m 90 years old, I’ll still
be learning. TNS
4

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
Just like any relationship, commercial
partnerships can go wrong. But how can
you tell if the rot has set in for good, or it's
a temporary blip? Adam Frampton reports.
P
artnership can be a buzz word that is thrown around all too often.
Almost on a weekly basis, I have clients, friends, and even family
who tell me they are in a strong partnership, be it personal or
business. However, of those partnerships, I ask the question, is it onesided?
Are you committing the age-old mistake of being in a one-sided
alliance? And there is no more revealing time for this to be shown than
during our recent pandemic.
A partnership should be the same through the good times and
through the bad. As IATA executive Giovanni Bisignani said, “If one
of the partners in partnership is losing his shirt while the other is
counting his money, it is no longer a partnership.” While this revealing
truth can be worrisome, if it prompts time for reflection, then that is
a good thing. In a commercial setting we should periodically evaluate
our relationships with our business partners to understand if it is still
a healthy partnership.
What can you do to evaluate your business relationships, to either
continue to grow them, or maybe even exit them? There are a few
variables to consider here, with examples from the public eye that
can help us to see the impact of these factors on partnerships.
5

TIME OUT
I’d hazard a guess that a high percentage of the
readers of this article have Facebook. If you are among
them, maybe you use it very frequently, or maybe just
occasionally. But even if you’re not a Facebook user,
you may well recognize the name of at least one of the
two founders, Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg
– the latter still at the helm to this day, and the one
I predict most people will have heard of.
What you may not know is that Saverin’s original
34% ownership was later cut to an extremely small
amount. But why did this happen? Well, there are
many issues behind the story, but one of the areas to
highlight is that Saverin was allegedly absent from a
lot of the early work of launching Facebook in Silicon
Valley. In those early days, it was Zuckerberg who
was putting in the time, while Saverin took away the
spoils. Of course, unless you were part of the team
at that time, we can’t really know what the actual
“If the values of the
two companies do not
remain aligned then it’s
likely the partnership
will reach its conclusion.
situation was; this is just one side of the story. But
the point is that in a partnership, time is an important
measurement of effort, for example when invested to
learn about each other’s needs. So quantifying that
time can be a black and white sign of whether you
are in a good partnership or not.
In the case of Facebook, Zuckerberg may have seen
that Saverin wasn’t investing the time and so sought
to break up the partnership. The moral of the story?
Ask yourself, are you demonstrating the relevant
amount of time investment, and are your partners
demonstrating this to you?
A TRUST OVERDRAFT
When we look at a partnership, do we see a
50/50 split, those romantic “win-wins”? The truth
is that it’s almost impossible for this to be the case,
simply because so many different factors influence
partnerships above and beyond that of the dollar
number at the end. But it’s important that both
parties can continue the partnership with a sense
of achievement and profit from it, whether it is
tangible or intangible gain.
What I have seen in a number of examples recently
is that one side of the partnership professes for this to
be the case, even advocates it, but the reality transpires
to be much more on the side of, Give me everything
and I’ll give you nothing, expressed in the sentiment,
“You’re just lucky you’re in the room with me”. These
desperate times can call for desperate measures and
we can often be lured in by the story behind the
requests, because requests can be built by trust.
For example, trusting that if you do this now, then
perhaps later down the line you’ll reap the rewards.
However, as the famous adage reminds us, trust is
like a bank: the more you deposit into the bank of
trust, the more you can withdraw. If you end up
withdrawing more than you’ve deposited, well then,
you’ve run out. That is where partnerships fracture.
Time for another question: Are you in a partnership
where your counterpart has continuously made
withdrawals and not made any deposits? If that’s
the case then perhaps it’s time to seek a new partner.
SHARED VALUES
When we get into a long-standing relationship, it
may well be because our values align. We see the same
future and have a common approach in reaching for it.
But with long term partnership, these values change.
We often see it in personal relationships – what one
person sees as morally right completely conflicts with
another person’s view. That’s why partnerships can be
so difficult to maintain; no one side may be right in
their thinking. It’s just different.
When it comes to commercial partnerships, a lot
of the greatest recent partnerships exist due to this
mutual vision and goals. But what happens when this
isn’t maintained is that some lengthy partnerships
have an end date. Consider the partnership between
Shell and LEGO. Prior to the dissolution of their
partnership in 2011 they’d enjoyed a successful
partnership for 50 years. The event that led to this
fracture was the infamous YouTube video released
from Greenpeace that showed LEGO figurines
engulfed in oil, echoing Greenpeace’s stance that a
toy company shouldn’t align itself with a company
supporting questionable environmental practices.
After public outcry from loyal LEGO customers,
the partnership ended, showing that if the values of
the two companies do not remain aligned then it’s
likely the partnership will reach its conclusion. Again,
ask yourself: Are you seeing this in your partnership?
Did a long-standing relationship built upon similar
values change, and are you stuck in this partnership,
or can you (should you) seek to end it?
We can look at a partnership as a pact between
two parties to do something jointly, thereby benefiting
both. The resulting outcome could not be achieved
without the other, making it mutually valuable. If we
are entering into, existing within, or even have exited
and are considering the next partnership, we need to
consider the major factors that influence an effective
partnership: time, values, support, people, and profit.
Have both parties invested sufficient time? Are both
parties’ values aligned? Is one party supporting the
other outside of the norm (and vice versa)? Are both
parties profiting from the partnership? And, are the
people involved willing to commit to the partnership
for the long term?
It’s up to you to explore each of these to assess
whether you are in a true partnership, or if perhaps
it’s more one-sided than you first thought. TNS
6

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
After years of sluggish inflation and even deflation,
some Japanese businesses are starting to raise
their prices. Taichiro Matsuhashi charts the
impact, and how to negotiate this new normal.
I
n recent years, the price of energy
such as gas, gasoline, kerosene, and
electricity, as well as commodities
such as wheat and other grains, have
soared worldwide. Alongside this,
logistics prices have also risen. As a
result, the Japanese market has been
impacted and there continues to be
a rush of price hikes across various
industries, products, and services.
It’s no longer unusual to see a price
hike every time you open a newspaper,
read a menu in a restaurant, or set
foot in a supermarket.
The problem for many Japanese
consumers is that while prices are
rising, salaries are not. People used
to being considered the middle class
are now facing a situation in which
their salaries are not rising, or worse,
their income is actually declining. The
government has put in some measures
to try and ensure that price increases
are accompanied by salary increases.
For example, they provided a certain
amount of tax credit to companies
who had increased salaries to their
employees by a given amount compared
to the previous year. However, this has
not happened yet in many industries.
7

The Japanese economy has been described in various ways
over the last few decades, but probably the most accurate
description would be “A lost two decades in Japan” –
although some would make it even three or four decades.
As we can see from the inflation consumer price index, the
growth rate has been negative or very low during the period:
3.50
Inflation: Consumer Price (annual%)
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0
-.50
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
-1.00
CHINA
EUROPEAN UNION
FRANCE
N O R T H A M E R I C A J A P A N
Source: International Monetary Fund
Back in 2011, when I was in
my previous role, I told one of
my clients that we were going
to increase the price of services
provided to them at the time of
our annual contract renewal. They
responded, "At our company, we
cut down on many things and
make as much effort as we can to
avoid raising prices. Why do you
come to me and talk about raising
prices?" I fully understood what he
meant, because to that client, and
potentially most companies, raising
prices means they are not making
enough effort and not putting the
consumer first, and those are not
good things to discuss. In fact, even
mentioning price increases meant
they thought we were not making
the right effort in our business
relationship with them.
Whether as a result of this
way of thinking or not, prices
in Japan did not rise in many
industries unlike other countries,
and consumer product and service
prices were relatively low by
comparison. One positive aspect
of the situation was that, in part
due to the lower price, the number
of international visitors to Japan
jumped from 8.6 million in 2010
to 31.1 million in 2018. Visitors
to Japan go sightseeing and then
stop by the store to buy consumer
“If you can negotiate another
variable at the same time,
the negotiation presents an
opportunity to increase total
value to both parties.
IMAGE CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/G/PIO3
8

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
products. This phenomenon was
named bakugai, meaning an
explosion of shopping. One regional
electric retailer reported their sales
going up 2.7 times in one year due
to these sales.
But this trend has now ended,
since there have been price hikes
in Japan in recent years and
negotiations are underway to raise
prices. Because price hikes have not
been as frequent in Japan as they are
today, companies may face resource
and capability related problems,
with teams uncomfortable with
such negotiations, having little
experience with them.
There will always be the potential
to cancel or delist products as
a result, but importantly, we
must be aware that this is also
an opportunity to build a bigger
business, strengthen relationships,
and increase total value for both
parties from the negotiation.
Here are some considerations when negotiating a price increase:
1. THE LEADER (DECISION MAKER) EXPLAINS THE
RATIONALE FOR THE PRICE INCREASE, AND WHAT
WE WANT TO ACHIEVE FROM THE NEGOTIATION
Clarify their position on why they are raising
prices, and make it known what you aim to
accomplish as a result of it. The team should have
a good understanding of the background and refer
back to it when they face difficult negotiations.
2. AGREE ON A RANGE OF POSSIBLE PROPOSALS
Consider what could be negotiated with the price
increase. If you can negotiate another variable
at the same time, the negotiation presents an
opportunity to increase total value to both parties.
Once identified, agree with the team what they
can propose and what they cannot, and how far.
thinks, “Other companies are raising their prices
too, so they should be fine with our proposal”,
or “I know them very well!”, or “My contact
point said it is okay”. You always need to prepare
the next proposal when your assumption does
not happen.
5. UNDERSTAND THE OTHER PARTY’S DECISION-
MAKING AUTHORITY AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
Does the other party with whom you are
negotiating have the final say? If not, they will
escalate to the appropriate person who will make
the final decision. You should consider who you
should talk to in the negotiation, and who you
should take with you from your organization
when you meet.
3. THE PERSON IN CHARGE SHOULD ONLY
PROPOSE WITHIN THE DEFINED RANGE OF
POSSIBLE PROPOSALS
Do not treat as “my client is special”, but strictly
follow the guidelines provided.
4. DO NOT BE OVERCONFIDENT, BUT BE
PREPARED FOR ANY COUNTER PROPOSAL
It is most likely your first proposal will be rejected.
But this would only surprise the person who
6. UNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR PREPARATION
Those in charge of negotiation who are busy
with their day-to-day work might prepare later
than they should – perhaps even too late. Leaders
must make them aware of the importance
of preparation.
7. SET A REALISTIC TIMESCALE
To complete the above, the work should start
at least six months in advance of the negotiation.
In Japan, if it is your first time
negotiating a price increase, it may
also be the first time negotiating
a price increase for the other party.
The market is changing every day,
so in order to avoid unexpected
occurrences, it’s necessary to
prepare the plan for a variety
of items and situations and then
proceed with the negotiations
within assumptions, so you
can deal with whatever
counter proposal might
come your way. TNS
9

Few business scenarios are more stressful than pitching to
investors. Add in an audience of millions and the potential
for emotional meltdown escalates. Dragons’ Den alumni
Maxim Van Meeteren shares his own Den experience and
that of other successful entrepreneurs, and the role that
negotiation best practice played.
N
egotiation is stressful and
uncomfortable, always. But
there is one place where
emotions are fired up to absolute
boiling point. It’s a place where every
move is magnified under the watchful
eyes of millions of viewers, and only
the best negotiators will keep their
nerves under control. Of course, I am
referring to what might arguably be,
apart from politics, the most
public negotiation stage: Dragons’
Den – the reality TV show in which
budding entrepreneurs pitch for
investment to a panel of multimillionaire
investors.
It's here I should declare my dual
interest in this TV and negotiation
phenomenon. In 2020 I went on the
Dutch Dragons’ Den, successfully
secured investment for my business,
quit my corporate job, and then found
an exciting new one as a negotiation
consultant. Now I enjoy a stimulating
two-lane career: working at The Gap
Partnership to support our corporate
clients in building a high-performing
negotiation culture in their businesses,
while building my own business on
the side.
Wearing these two hats gives me
an understanding of and fascination
with the emotional journey that the
brave entrepreneurs who enter the
Den undertake, and the negotiation
principles and learnings at play
throughout. I wanted to explore
that further by talking to two other
entrepreneurs who successfully
raised money on the show about the
emotional journeys they underwent
during their pitches and what they
did to manage them. I also spoke
to my own investor, international
hospitality tycoon Won Yip, who
gave me an exclusive sneak peek
into the other side of the negotiation
table and the minds of the Dragons.
“IMAGE: FREEPIK.COM”. THIS COVER HAS BEEN
DESIGNED USING IMAGES FROM FREEPIK.COM.
10

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
Chika pitching her business to the Dragons.
Preparation is key
“For me, preparation was really
important”, Julianne Ponan, CEO
at Creative Nature, says. “I prepped
for every scenario, remembered
all our numbers by heart and
composed an answer to every
possible question.” She adds,
“I even profiled each Dragon on
what they would ask, what answers
they would enjoy hearing and how
to lead them to a next question for
which I already knew the answer.”
At The Gap Partnership we
teach people how to get inside
the other party’s head before and
during negotiations. Everybody
needs to invest time in prospecting
and prediction beforehand on how
the negotiation will unfold to fully
prepare for what’s coming. After
all, negotiation is 90% preparation.
Julianne recalls how this “uberpreparedness”
was crucial to her
time in the Den: “Initially my
partner was very laissez-faire,
but once we were standing on
the spot and he forgot his words
due to the stress, it was the muscle
memory that I created through
practice that got us through the
more overwhelming parts of the
pitch.” Just like Julianne and any
professional athlete, negotiators
should visualize and prepare for
whatever may come or whatever
they plan to do.
I vividly recall my own physical
response to the stress I experienced
when in the Den. I remember
feeling like my heart was in my
throat when I saw the green light,
which was my sign to enter
the Den. I hadn’t told my boss
at my corporate job that I was
doing this and I was about to
put my face on TV, feeling like
it was all or nothing. But I had
a few things on my side to help
me cope: experience in public
speaking and the careful
preparation and planning I had
done upfront helped the anxiety
to quickly fade away. I was also
very aware that I had to stand
out and come up with something
that would impress them.
My moment of theatre, carefully
planned, was when I went down
on one knee during my pitch to
propose to one of the Dragons
– purely for demonstration, of
course. Spontaneous smiles and
looks were sent across the room.
My strategy was working: I wanted
them to sympathize with me and
my product first, to open their
mind for investment. After all,
who would invest in a product or a
person if they don’t even like them?
Pitching with confidence
But it is not only preparation
that can get you the big bucks on
the Dragons’ Den show. Chika
Russell, CEO of Chika’s Foods,
had zero time to prepare. “My
audition was two weeks before the
recording and I do not pitch that
often. But I know my brand and I
am very social, so that is why I was
able to come across confidently.”
Skilled negotiators need to be
in control of the negotiation. And
although you might not feel like
that from the inside, you need to
be in control of your emotions too.
“Not getting an investment did
not cross my mind. I didn’t plan to
not get an offer.” Being confident
brought the result she wanted;
Chika got an impressive (and rare)
five offers, one from each Dragon.
Chika’s absolute self-belief
resonates with my own experience.
I also, somehow, knew that I would
get an offer. I was determined to
enjoy the whole experience, and
I knew what I was going to do
and say. If you know your business
inside out, you can deliver with
confidence, and the likelihood of
a deal increases to its full potential.
Delivery is important, whether you
are hard bargaining or working
out a mutual partnership. Being
intentional in your proposals and
deliberate about your emotions,
you can steer many negotiations
in your favor.
Looking back, Julianne regrets
certain parts of her pitch too.
“Normally I do much better in
negotiations. In a negotiation you
don’t want the other party to know
that you are in doubt. In my case,
I even said that I didn’t know
what to do out loud!” You can
try to get inside the head of the
other party, but you should equally
try and prevent them doing the
same thing to you. Are you aware
of your body language when you
make an offer? And are you a good
listener, someone who carefully
listens to how your counterpart
presents their proposals? When
you are sitting across from a skilled
negotiator, your verbal
Above left: Maxim demonstrating how his product works by proposing to a Dragon.
11

and nonverbal communication
can give away your position and
enormous amounts of value.
A pair of trained eyes and ears can
deduce your opponent’s position
and increase the outcome of any
given negotiation. “If I could do it
all again, I would definitely try to
be more relaxed”, says Julianne.
Shift in the balance
of power
On the TV screen it seems
clear, but in a negotiation one of
the hardest things is to keep all
senses open so you can read the
room and spot when the balance
of power is shifting in your favor.
When did this moment happen
for Chika and Julianne? I asked
them to share the exact moment
they started feeling in control of
the negotiations.
Chika recalls, “After my pitch,
Touker [Souleyman] was smiling,
and so was Deborah [Meaden].
Right then and there I knew
I had them. Immediately after,
I received my first offer and the
others followed shortly. I was in
the Den for almost three hours,
but since I received offers from
all five of them, the rest of the
time it was me who was asking
all the questions.” Gathering
information by asking questions
is a great way
to influence the
balance of power.
“I was genuinely
seeing who could compete with
who, but of course I also raised
competition among them”, Chika
tells me to our shared amusement.
Julianne’s experience in part
mirrors Chika’s, although she’s not
quite so convinced that the balance
of power had wholly moved in
her favor, as she explains: “When
you enter the Den you are mainly
focused on your own pitch. You
are entirely inside your own head.
When the conversation opens up,
you can finally try to get inside
their heads. To me the balance of
power shifted when I received an
offer from Deborah. But I would
say we were still on a par as of
that moment, at best, and it never
leaned completely towards me.”
Having alternatives, or in this
case multiple offers from different
Dragons, influences one’s position
heavily; not only the dependence
on the other party, but of course
also in confidence. In negotiations
you must be careful, however, in
pretending to have alternatives.
Being too specific about your
fake alternative may kill the
deal or raise questions as to why
you are still even sitting at the
negotiation table. Failing to
answer swiftly will punch the
balance of power to the other
side when your counterpart
calls out your bluff.
Saying “no”
and “the nibble”
My experience in the Den taught
me a valuable lesson about the
power of that small word, “no”, and
not giving in to the easy option of
saying “yes” straightaway. When I
finished my pitch, the smiles of the
Dragons gave me positive
“My experience in the Den
taught me a valuable lesson
about the power of that small
word, “no”, and not giving in
to the easy option of saying
“yes” immediately.
signals and I could read their
excitement; some of them were
fiddling with their pens and
moving in their chairs. But I
wouldn’t say the balance of power
had shifted yet. When I got my
offer, I was naturally relieved and
felt I was slowly building more
bargaining power. But still I wanted
to make the best deal possible and
was very conscious that I had to
keep my head cool, even in such
an emotionally charged moment.
So, once I’d received an offer,
I asked for a moment to call my
business partner. On that call
we agreed we would go for the
cheeky challenge – or “nibble” as
we call it at The Gap Partnership –
by asking for a lower percentage
of equity share. Our wouldbe
investor (and seasoned
businessperson) Won Yip wouldn’t
budge and kept his price and offer
as it was initially. That was the most
nerve-wracking moment because
we didn’t want to upset him and
put a bomb under the whole deal.
But I have no regrets: we owed
it to ourselves to at least try.
Preparation, confidence, and
a quick-thinking mind got Chika,
Julianne and myself a deal on one
of the most popular TV shows in
the world. But for any negotiation,
one cannot optimize a deal without
a solid preparation (what to do,
what to say, and when), delivered
in a confident manner, with your
senses alert to read and analyze
what is happening in the room.
Because even without those
cameras with millions of
viewers and five multi-millionpound
worth individuals, any
negotiation will be stressful,
so you have to be comfortable
being uncomfortable. TNS
12
One of Julianne's products from her allergen-free baking range.

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
The Dragon’s perspective
One of the Dutch Dragons in
the Netherlands is Won Yip,
former owner of Sushi Samba
and international hospitality
tycoon with businesses in Europe,
the US and Asia. He invested in
my company, Remember Ringbox,
a ring box with a camera and
microphone to record the
marriage proposal. I asked him
to share the thought process
of a Dragon investor.
What goes through your mind
before every pitch?
Every pitch each Dragon starts
with an open mind. We do
not know anything upfront,
so it requires focus. This can
be challenging since we have
around ten pitches every day
and the recording days are long.
What is it that sets a pitch and an
entrepreneur apart from all the
other pitches?
The first impression is crucial, the
storytelling is very important, and
of course the answers to some of
the more critical questions.
Are there any moments when
doubt crawls in? Which moments
are these?
Insecurity and doubt on our end
come when the entrepreneur’s
answers are vague, and the
valuation is extortionate. Most
often when the valuation is too
high, without any foundation
for it, you already have a false
start and there is little you can
do to correct it.
At the start of the pitch the balance
of power mainly lies with the
Dragons. Has there ever been a
moment where the balance of power
shifted towards the entrepreneur?
When the entrepreneur conveys a
great story pitch and a reasonable
valuation, the Dragons will enter
into a bidding game and start to
bid against one another.
Have you ever caught yourself
selling yourself to the entrepreneur,
trying to convince them to pick you,
instead of you picking them?
Apart from sharing how I can
bring value to the table, I haven’t
experienced it. But what you see
is what you get with me. Moreover,
as a businessman I stopped doing
“auditions”. After all, I already
have the name and fame.
How do you feel when another
Dragon makes an offer to the
same entrepreneur?
Every Dragon is free to make
an offer as they please, I am
not emotionally impacted by
it. Most entrepreneurs already
have a specific Dragon in
mind, which then predicts
their choice unconsciously.
Are the Dragons competitive
with each other?
Definitely! When the pitch
is good and the valuation is
alright, I will stop asking
questions and make my offer.
More information will only
increase other Dragons’ interests.
Julianne Ponan is the owner and CEO of Creative Nature
Superfoods, a company specializing in allergen-free baking mixes,
snack bars and a range of superfoods, available in major UK retailers
as well as exporting to over 14 countries worldwide. Julianne has
won multiple awards for her entrepreneurship, including being
listed in Forbes 30 under 30, the youngest winner of the National
Natwest Everywoman Artemis Award for Women Entrepreneurs,
Young Director of the year in the IOD Awards, and The Guardian’s
Leader of the Year.
Chika Russell is an international entrepreneur, mentor, and
speaker. After a career in finance and banking, she launched
CHIKA’S Foods, a range of African-inspired, boldly-flavored
snacks that are now listed in 3,000 retail stockists in the UK
and internationally, including airlines and hotels. In July 2015,
Chika launched her snacks for change program to help send
more girls to school and has since formalized a partnership
with World Vision with the aim of supporting 38,000 girls
through their education by 2025.
13

As a veteran of client management, Keilee Sperinck
knows a thing or two about how to do it brilliantly.
Here she reveals the strategies and tactics she uses
to build exceptional and productive relationships.
Ihave been at The Gap Partnership for nearly 19 years, always in a clientfacing
role, and predominantly looking after our international clients.
These are important, high-value clients, but this isn’t the only reason they
deserve the best white glove service. It’s also because our brand and proposition
are premium and best-in-class, as is the product we provide. Therefore it’s
essential that this optimum quality extends to our account management.
I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to ensure that, as a strategic
account manager, this is what I deliver. Account management allows us the
opportunity to work with individuals and improve their businesses every
single day, being a part of their journey toward success. In this article I wanted
to explore some of the characteristics and behaviors that I think make an
excellent account manager, and how you can implement them into your role.
Put the client first
Client service is given in
all areas of life, from
grocery shopping to
having a meal in a
restaurant or visiting
the local cinema.
I love excellent service
and when I don’t receive it,
I’m not afraid to give feedback.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m
so passionate about being client centric
in my job, and this concept of client
centricity truly sits at the heart of what
The Gap Partnership does. It’s so
important to our business that we truly
partner with our clients, adding value
to their business. My mission is to
create a fantastic customer experience
for my clients, supporting them so
they can achieve even more success.
I nurture my relationships with them
and love to see them flourish and
grow, both individually and as part
of their business.
Make connections
I am a high connector. I like to know
about my clients personally, such as
information on their family, where they
are going for their summer holidays,
what they did at the weekend, and so
on. Of course I read the room and some
people prefer not to share this with me,
but for most of the clients I work with
this has formed the start of a fantastic
partnership. Never underestimate how
important this is.
Get inside their head
Excellent account management is
working together in partnership with
your client. Get inside their head, and
ask yourself, how would I like to be
treated if I was them? Understand how
they wish to work and make it easy for
them to work with you. One example is
to mirror your clients’ business regions.
Another is, if they want one person to
work with, provide them with that.
Be a good listener
Listen to your clients, even if what they
think might not always be the right
solution. Never be complacent, keep
thinking of new ideas to bring to the
table. Create a plan together with
your client, agreeing the objectives
14

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
you both want to achieve. Have a
weekly meeting and share documents
that you can both access.
Work collaboratively
Agree ways of working together,
from designing an operations process
to communicating to senior leaders
within their business. Work on
something you are both comfortable
with, and review every quarter. Also
remember to let your internal client
team know, so you are all on the same
page. Keep your client informed if you
are working on a project together, with
regular updates on timescales and
development – and be honest about
“Do what you say you are
going to do and when you
say you are going to do it.
any bumps in the road. Make sure
the client understands the roles and
responsibilities of everyone in the
team; organize a call and introduce
the team. Work together and
understand each other’s values, never
compromising them and holding each
other accountable for their actions.
Build trust
Do what you say you are going
to do and when you say you are
going to do it. My personal mantra
is to go back to your client within
12 hours. If something goes wrong
and it’s your fault, own up and fix it.
However tempting, don’t cover it up,
it will only come back and bite you.
Be responsible for your actions,
and accountable.
Communicate brilliantly
This is one of the key skills in
successful account management,
and sometimes I think underplayed.
I always ask
myself who
else needs to
know this
information,
whether it’s
someone internal
in my business,
or external within
a client. I work
with many global
teams and they are not always aware
of conversations we might be having
with their local markets, so create
a client contact report. One top tip:
over-communicate; send the message
via multiple channels, whether
that’s email, Workplace, Teams,
Slack, etc.
Understand their business
Are you reading your clients’ financial
reports? Many will be readily available
and are essential reading, as they will
give you great insight into the health
of your clients and allow you to
understand their pressures, as well
as potential opportunities to support
them. Get an understanding of where
your client is heading. What is their
vision? How can you help them
achieve their goals?
Always look for more
Keep striving for more. Be an explorer;
never be satisfied with what is in front
of you, always looking to find the next
unexplored geography, business unit or
hierarchy. I regularly use a stakeholder
matrix to understand who I know, and
as importantly, who I need to know.
Make lists your friend
Everyone who knows me knows I have
lists for every corner of my life. As far
as I’m concerned, effective account
management runs on lists. Write
everything down – get it out of your head
and into a notepad. Set lots of reminders;
my calendar is brimming with these,
but they help me not to forget. And, as
every good negotiator knows, planning
and preparation are essential. Another
tip – check out the Stephen Covey
time management matrix. TNS
What the clients say
Lara Vanden Eynden,
Learning Director for Customer
Development, Unilever
I like to think of gold standard customer
service as aligning around Unilever’s values.
Integrity means an authentic and trusting
relationship and building the best decisions
together; respect helps the markets grow
and build capability; mutual responsibility
means putting what is best for the learner
first; and lastly, pioneering, which necessitates
a co-creation mindset. The Gap Partnership and
Unilever are held together by these values, which
enables a very human, engaging, collaborative,
and fun relationship which grows capability
and business through a powerful collaboration.
Helen Butterworth, Learning and
Development Manager and Global
HRBP for Procurement, Unilever
Keilee delivers the execution of our
programs flawlessly and is highly dependable.
She can craft a plan together with me, from
bouncing around initial ideas of what we
want to achieve, to making it happen on
a large scale, and often short timeframe!
She is also able to bring together the different
experts across TGP to take a project to the
next level – marketing to help us craft the
communication, technical to help us track the
results we want to measure, consultants to help
us understand what product will meet our needs.
And, Keilee is a great communicator, keeping
us informed and working closely with people
across the Unilever network.
15

SIX COMPANIES WHO
HAVE DEMONSTRATED
UBER
CLIENT-CENTRICITY
By Rob Schipperen
Learning to see things from another’s
perspective is a critical commercial
skill. How have some of the world’s
most successful companies done it?
Client-centric is a buzzword very much
of today’s zeitgeist. What sometimes happens
with such “of the moment” phrases is that
their meaning can get lost or misconstrued
because of overuse. But in the case of
client-centric, the definition is pretty simple:
a business that puts their customer at the
center of their philosophy, operations or
ideas. Doing so ensures the business remains
relevant, appealing and distinctive to its
desired target audience.
There are parallels here with negotiation.
At The Gap Partnership we regularly speak
about getting inside the other party’s head
– which is another, more prosaic way of saying
you are client or customer centric. Why is this
important? Because understanding the people
you negotiate with – what motivates them,
what pressures they are under, what they
truly value, what they aren’t so concerned
with – helps you craft trades that are low
cost to you but high value to them, resulting
in a better deal.
For some famous examples of how this
works in practice, look no further than six
of the most successful consumer-facing
companies in the world.
IMAGE CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
16

HILTON
Price sensitivity has always been
a major part of the hospitality
industry. Worldwide hotel chain
Hilton announced a change to their
pricing policy at the end of 2018.
Rather than offering best available
rates, all available pricing was made
100% refundable until two or three
days in advance, or sometimes even
up to the day of arrival. This was
commercially viable because of
a small increase in pricing to give
a higher average daily rate across
their hotels, while also increasing
revenue per available room. Having
this flexibility for customers
reduced cancellations and increased
guest appreciation scores.
IKEA
At the offices of IKEA all furniture
comes directly from their own
portfolio. Employees in the many
offices worldwide work at an IKEA
desk and drink out of an IKEA cup.
Not only does this lead to lower
cost of purchasing products but also
ensures all staff use and become
ambassadors for their own products.
Problems and improvements are
quickly noticed and can be resolved.
This leads to better products for
customers in store, while requiring
minimum investment as a company.
JETBLUE
Who doesn’t like free stuff? JetBlue
is famous for giving out free snacks
during flights. In general, flying is
not most people’s favorite activity.
The airline’s research showed
that people find multiple things
impact their flight experience.
Food appeared as one of these.
By handing out free snacks to
the people who fly with them
they meet this important flight
experience head on. The results?
Higher client loyalty
and satisfaction,
and customers
willing to pay
extra to fly
with them.
STARBUCKS
In 2012 one of the
most well-known
coffee chains around
the world started
writing the names of
customers on cups: a simple and
cheap change to the process of
getting your coffee. The action
created a first name relationship
with their customers, improved
efficiency and increased brand
awareness. Clients loved to post
pictures of their (misspelled) names
on social media, providing free
publicity – all by providing a simple
black marker to their shops.
COSTCO
Since 1985 you can get
a hotdog and soda at Costco for just
US$1.50. This price has not changed
and is kept intentionally low. With
more then 100 million hot dogs sold
each year, it’s one of the retailer’s bestselling
products. The hot dog and soda
is a loss leader, but it helps to attract
many customers to stores who go on to
buy other products. Therefore it results
in profits on those products sold, and
as an extra bonus it gives the customer
positive closure at the end of the
shopping trip.
DISNEY
Under the name of Magic Moments,
employees in any Disney amusement
park worldwide can give guests a
special memory they will never forget.
Cast members, Disney's name for
their parks’ employees, are encouraged
to partake in these moments. This
could be an upgrade to a better room,
a free ice cream, a front of line ticket,
or a sticker celebrating a special guest
moment, and so on. These small
gestures are designed to show that the
guest is valued. While many of these
small attentions from cast members
are at a low cost to the company,
guests are shown to appreciate these
special moments highly.
Examples like these show that thinking from your client’s perspectives,
considering their needs and how much value something brings to them, can give
you a (negotiation) advantage. So remember, during a negotiation don’t only think
about your own position. Giving away something that’s low value to you and high
value to the other party will help negotiations move forward. Something that the
biggest businesses of today understand only too well. TNS
17

Major league baseball had a delayed season start
as its hard hitters hammered out an agreement.
Avid fan and negotiation expert, John McDermott
analyzes the negotiation principles at play.
m
arch 2022, and baseball fans could finally
breathe a sigh of relief. After months of
contentious negotiations, Major League
Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball
Players Association (MLBPA) agreed a tentative
collective bargaining agreement that allowed
the lockout to end, and spring training to begin.
This agreement and the process to reach it had
contained no shortage of drama, and there had
been many moments where fans had every right
and reason to be frustrated with either side of the
table. But ultimately, the two sides were able to
work in the best interest of everyone involved to
ensure baseball would play a full season in 2022.
Let’s look at how this agreement was reached,
and steps that both sides could take moving
forward to avoid a situation like this in the future.
We’ll start at the beginning. In November of
2021, the Atlanta Braves won their first World
Series title since 1995, upsetting the Houston
Astros. The average baseball fan’s mind turned
to football, basketball, and hockey to get them
through the winter. But everyone knew something
was brewing that would keep baseball in the
headlines well beyond the final out in Houston.
The collective bargaining agreement between
MLB and the MLBPA that allows baseball
to operate was set to expire on December 2nd,
and there was very little faith that a deal would
be struck in time to avoid a lockout. Given the
environment that baseball and every other business
had been navigating the past two years with the
Covid-19 pandemic, these collective bargaining
negotiations were bound to be long and drawn
out. The initial offers proved that to be true,
with both sides tens of millions of dollars
apart on almost every issue.
One of the first things that comes to mind
when looking at this negotiation is the balance
of power. In most commercial negotiations, the
problem with power is that everybody believes the
other party has it, and that they themselves don’t
– this is what leads to unnecessary concessions,
and suboptimized agreements. That, however, was
never the case with this negotiation. Both parties
understood the power they had: the owners had
the power to lock the players out, understanding
that this left players without a job. The players
had the power to hold out as long as they needed
to in order to gain a favorable deal, knowing that
losing out on games ultimately meant losing out
on revenue for the owners.
18

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
This became a problem when both sides were
willing to flex that power. They were both
displaying a behavior called “super competitiveness”.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you
consider that this negotiation surrounded a sport.
But this type of behavior, had it continued, would
have only led to deadlock because both sides
were only focused on winning, not on creating
meaningful value that would last over the
term of this collective bargaining agreement.
Unsurprisingly, when you get millionaires
and billionaires in a room together
to negotiate, there’s going to be ego
involved. When you add the media
attention that this process garnered,
and the fact that everyone involved
was either a high-profile owner of
a baseball organization, or a higherprofile
baseball player, it’s surprising
they found a room large enough
in Jupiter, Florida to contain the
personalities alone. This was evident
in the early stages of this negotiation,
and it was not helpful in progressing
the conversation.
Ego will only hurt you in a negotiation;
especially one where you should be focused on
joint partnership and relationship building for
the future. Lesson learned for the next inevitable
collective bargaining agreement negotiation – do
not focus on your own objectives and stresses;
rather, focus on the other party. Understand what’s
valuable to them and draw your own conclusions
about how you can create value for them without
eroding your own position.
Now, how can you create that value for the other
party without trading away valuable (and expensive)
positions? You must think creatively! There were so
many variables in this negotiation that ultimately
helped get it over the line but weren’t introduced
to the conversation until the late stages. I’m not
talking about the luxury tax, league-minimum
salaries, or arbitration framework – those
are frankly issues that are well above my
paygrade as a mere New York Mets fan…
I’m referring to things like expanding
the amount of playoff teams, larger
bases, banning defensive shifts, and
the addition of a universal designated
hitter. Ideas like these may upset the
diehard traditionalist baseball fan, and
it’s understandable that MLB felt they
were in no position to do something
that could result in lower viewership
in stadiums and at home, but there’s
another side to that coin: expanded
playoffs create more revenue for both
the league and the players over the
course of the season, and the rest of
these new policies are designed to
create more excitement around the
game among a younger fan base
– something the league has been longing
for since the steroid era of the late 1990s. They
are two variables that both sides were able to easily
agree to that would help grow the game. And what’s
best about variables like these? They cost nothing
to either side! It was impressive to see how both
sides were able to use these variables to deliver value
to the other party and get something valuable back
in return.
Perhaps what was most surprising in this process
is that after only three weeks of semi-consistent
“Ego will only hurt you in a negotiation;
especially one where you should be
focused on joint partnership and
relationship building for the future.
meetings, the league made a “best and final” offer
to the player’s union. Pro tip: this is only a good
idea if it’s actually your best and final offer, or if you
genuinely believe that your counterparty will accept.
Neither of these things could have been considered
true when you look at the perceived gaps between
proposals at that time, and the MLBPA was wise to
push back on that and continue negotiating. While
this tactic by the league may have been misguided,
their use of multiple deadlines was effective in
creating urgency among players to get a deal done.
I referenced it while discussing the balance of
power in this negotiation, but there was ultimately
too much to lose for all parties involved – the
League, the players, and the fans, to not reach
an agreement. A year-long deadlock was never
an option, and we’re all
fortunate that both sides
realized this in time to
play a full 162 game
campaign. Spring
training officially
began, and MLB and
the players can look
forward to a new, more
profitable, and more
enjoyable era.
And this Mets fan
is thrilled about that,
because this year is
definitely our year.
It has to be, right? TNS
19

20

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
Our Senior Partner for the Americas, Lance Ward,
talks to Alistair White about living up to a legacy,
owning responsibility, and the case for diversity.
Expectations were high in our house when
I was growing up”, says Lance, early in
our hour-long interview. As he says it,
I get the sense that this is a familiar line,
a pre-formatted, even rehearsed, sentence that
he has used before to articulate to others, and
to himself, who he is and why he is that person.
To understand the nature of these expectations,
you need to understand the household in which
Lance and his brother were raised. His father,
having been born as one of five children into
relative poverty in a humble two-room dwelling
in Michigan, drew on a potent mix of ability
and determination to forge a career that led
to him becoming one of the first black CEOs
of an American Fortune 500 company.
The first black CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Think about it.
The achievements of his father and
the expectation
levels placed on
him at home
could have acted
as a suffocating
burden.
Is that the way
he recalls it?
“No, not at all,”
responds Lance,
emphatically.
“It was always expressed as encouragement
of effort and never disappointment at failure.
As long as I was putting in the effort at school,
or in sports, or in any other pursuit, I was
rewarded with praise. ‘Dare to dream’ is
something my father always taught us.”
And then, with a steely, eyeball-to-eyeball
gaze and a firm set to his jaw, Lance adds,
“Anyway, the expectations of others were never
a burden because they were never anywhere near
the expectations I had of myself.” A moment’s
pause and then a wry smile, “But it did take me
until my mid-twenties to stop comparing myself
to my father and start to take satisfaction in my
achievements in their own right. In recent years
it has become less about comparison and more
about understanding my own drivers.”
I ask the next logical question: Is he
a competitive person? “Yes, very. Off the chart.
Competition is my way of measuring myself.
Am I getting better? Am I able to do things
others cannot? We all know that competitiveness
in negotiation can be a very destructive force.
But without the drive to achieve something,
there is an absence of ambition. Competitiveness,
if it is managed in a self-disciplined way, can
be a very positive force in life and in a career.”
“Self-disciplined” strikes me as an interesting
choice of word. Is that a quality that he tries to
foster in himself? “Absolutely. I was always told
that, as a black person, I have to be twice as good
as a white person to get the same opportunity
and, in every aspect of life, I make a real effort
to manage my behavior so as not to give other
people a pretext to find fault with me.”
Is that still
the case in
modern-day
America?
Lance hesitates
and, drawing
on the selfdiscipline
he referred
to, chooses
his words
with care. “I think so, yes. The vast majority of
American people are not racist, but I do think
that there is an unconscious bias that persists,
and one of the challenges facing American
society and American business is to call this
out and thereby eliminate it. We need to make
people conscious of their unconscious bias.
“I remember one situation at school, in
maybe the fourth or fifth grade, when I was
getting physically bullied by a bunch of white
classmates solely because of my race. I was
with a white friend of mine and I kind of
expected him to stick up for me, but he didn’t.
He just did nothing. That has stuck with me.
He made a choice – to do nothing. But bad
things happen when good people do nothing.”
“The expectations of others were
never a burden because they
were never anywhere near the
expectations I had of myself.
21

I sit for a moment and wonder what shades
of bias might lurk beneath the surface of my own
consciousness, and how I would feel if I thought
that others were biased towards me. I ask
Lance if that makes him angry.
“I don’t think that getting angry fixes the
problem. As a younger man, I occasionally
found myself in situations, sometimes with
law enforcement officers, where I felt I was
pre-judged because of my race. But I make a
point of not allowing my emotions to override
my sense of rationale and I realized that getting
angry would only make the situation worse.
My priority was to extricate myself from that
situation and losing my temper would not
have achieved that.
“To your wider point, given the upbringing
I had and the privileges and opportunities that
I enjoyed, it would be ridiculous for me to
claim that I feel angry about the way I have been
treated. But there are plenty of black Americans
who have not had those opportunities and, while
anger may be too strong a word, I do feel a sense
of injustice on their behalf. There are many people
in this country whose lives have been blighted by
bias, whether conscious or unconscious.”
I suggest to Lance that his wider family has
escaped the poverty trap that ensnares so many
black people in America; he doesn’t respond, but
he nods his assent. Does that make him feel like
he hovers between two communities, fitting
neither the white and affluent nor the black
and underprivileged stereotypes?
“No, not that exactly. But I do feel
a responsibility to the wider black community.
Very often, especially in a work context, I find
myself being the only black person in the room
and I am very, very conscious of my behavior
and my performance.
“I feel that I am representing my race and
any judgment people make of me, positive or
negative, could be a judgment on black people
as a whole. I know that doesn’t make rational
sense but it is how I feel.” It is the first and only
time during our conversation that Lance admits
– even tacitly – to entertaining a thought process
that might not make complete
rational sense, but I let it pass.
I remark that Lance has just
been promoted to a position
in which he heads up all of
The Gap Partnership’s business
across the Americas. Does he
see himself as a standard-bearer
for black professionals? “No, my
priority is to further my own
career, to achieve what I think
I can be capable of, to be a good
father to my two girls. If, as
a result of that, some people’s
views about black professionals
are changed for the better, then
I would be proud of that, but it
isn’t my primary objective.”
I look down at my notepad,
pondering which of my preprepared
questions to ask next,
but I needn’t have bothered as
Lance is warming to his theme.
“There is a lot of talk about
increased diversity and how companies need
to ensure that they have a diverse workforce.
It is still viewed in some quarters as a boxticking
exercise that we need to complete to
demonstrate that we are keeping up with the
times, but it is more than that. Increasingly
our clients are requesting, even demanding,
that we send them a consulting team that
is diverse in terms of ethnicity, gender,
demographics – you name it.
“They recognize that when you are paying
people for their opinion, their experience and
their expertise, as they do with The Gap
Partnership, you get a better outcome when
22

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
you have as broad a range of perspective and
experience as possible. Otherwise you just get
a bunch of similar people giving you similar
opinions to the ones you already hold. What
is the point of that?”
Confession time…you may have already
guessed that I am a white, middle-class, middleaged
male. I reflect on the fact that, despite my
experience, I don’t think I have ever heard the
argument for increased diversity in the workforce
put so succinctly, or phrased in such a way that
presents it as a commercial imperative and
a potential source of competitive advantage.
Our time together is drawing to a close and
I scan my notes, reflecting on the course of our
conversation. I recall Lance’s opening remarks
and the influence his remarkable father has
clearly had on his career and outlook. Has his
father’s influence extended to the way in which
he interacts with his two teenage daughters?
“In some ways, yes, but not necessarily in
the ways you might expect. My dad worked
really hard to build his career and that inevitably
involved trade-offs and sacrifices. If it weren’t
for him and the opportunities that he and my
mom provided for us, my brother and I wouldn’t
be where we are now. I try to make fewer tradeoffs
in terms of the impact of my career
on my family, but I am grateful to my dad
that he helped put me in a position where
I have the freedom to make those choices.”
Are his girls
as competitive as
“You get a better outcome
when you have as broad
a range of perspective and
experience as possible.
he is? Lance laughs.
“The elder one
definitely is. We make
a competition out of
everything – even if
we are just sitting
watching TV, we’ll
have a competition
about who can land the
most empty candy wrappers in the waste
basket. The younger one just rolls her eyes
and goes to her room.”
And does he ever let her win any of these
contests? “No way! She has to win on merit.
No one is going to just let her win later in
life, so why in the world would I create the
expectation that life is easy by letting her win
at home?”
You get the sense that the world should brace
itself for yet another generation of Wards with
great expectations of themselves. TNS 23

DOES YOUR COMPANY HAVE
CORPORATE AMNESIA?
Bruna Fell Lautert explains why recordkeeping
in negotiation is a practice that
companies overlook at their peril.
efore I was a negotiation consultant
I held different roles, mostly in sales,
and I want to take this opportunity to
share you with you one of the most
interesting transitions that I experienced when
I moved from the world of confectionery to
that of footwear.
From sweets to fashion, my new role was to
develop 15 existing clients, a mix of key accounts
and distributors. After going through induction
and all the systems training, I started learning
about each client. To my surprise, each client
had a specific folder containing all the details
of previous negotiations, including internal
alignment meetings, autonomy thresholds,
stakeholder matrix, power perception,
preconditioning pieces, opening positions,
movements, timings, escalation (why they
happened and when), negotiators profilers and
preferences, and a detailed review after each
negotiation about what worked well and what
they could have done better. I just couldn’t believe
it, what else could I ask for? Not only had a lot
of the heavy lifting already been done for me,
but I was also able to notice patterns that my
counterparties had been following, making it
possible to preview how my negotiations would
unfold before they had even started. All that
knowledge would provide me with strategic
and tactical advantage to maximize my next
deals. What an exciting start – I couldn’t wait
to start negotiating!
Then I woke up...
Yes, it was a dream, of course. And if you have
changed roles in the past, you know exactly what
I am talking about. You get into the new role,
and sometimes the person who was in your new
position is completely gone, and with them the
information they had on the clients. You will
inherit emails and data from systems, but nothing
even close to what I described above.
Or perhaps you are one of the lucky ones,
and the person previously in your role is still
within the company and will now download some
of the information they have. Why some? Well,
if there wasn’t a systematic way to record specific
information from previous negotiations, then
it’s likely they will have forgotten some aspects
of it. Some studies suggest that humans forget
approximately 50% of new information within
an hour, and that goes up to an average of 70%
within 24 hours. With that in mind, if you have
been in the same position for several years
and are not in the habit of recording your
negotiation information, then you are also
a victim of forgetting!
Companies invest considerable money
in systems but seem to fail in building
negotiation memory. Information is power
in negotiation, and the more you know
your counterparty, the better you will be
able to leverage your position. Lately
when I’m having conversations with
clients, I hear this is a struggle they
face, especially companies with a high
turnover in the last couple of months.
24

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
Whether you are the lead negotiator or involved
somehow in negotiations, this is something to
think about, and most importantly, address.
Let’s say you are the lead negotiator: from
a selfish lens, building negotiation memory will
put you in a better position for your upcoming
negotiations; and now from a selfless lens – as
you progress in your career, the next person in
your seat will start negotiating from a much
stronger position.
The what – recording information – seems
quite simple, but the how and where might not
be. Those who want to run successful organizations
should deliberately invest in company memory,
giving their teams the tools and the time that they
need to do the extra work. Amnesia is a real threat
for those looking to improve their bottom-line
year on year, and who isn’t looking for that?
Will company memory solve all your
commercial problems? The short answer is no.
Retaining information alone won’t bring you
results, because negotiation is both an art and
a science. The “art” piece needs skills, behavior
and discipline. The “science” piece can be mastered
with the appropriate tools and processes so that
the negotiator can employ objective thinking
and structured planning.
So, try and remember...what are you doing
to avoid company amnesia? TNS
“Information is power
in negotiation.
25

As the corporate world increasingly
prioritizes recruiting, retaining
and promoting diverse talent, what’s
it like to live and breathe the
reality of being in the minority?
Three professional negotiators
share their perspective.
Kristi Means explains why both race
and gender should be acknowledged
and neutralized within any negotiation
relationship in order to create the best deal.
A
s a minority woman, sometimes it’s
not the other person who is projecting
bias, it’s you wondering how the other
person is going to receive you. That thought
alone can make you hesitant to engage directly
or be as assertive as your instincts dictate you
should be. You worry you may be perceived as
too aggressive or off-putting in some way, often
resulting in not asking for the value you know
you deserve. These past experiences of feeling
limited by your gender and or race/ethnicity
often serve to color your preset opportunities.
If you don’t know what the baseline truly is
because you’ve been lowballed in the past,
you might think it’s a great idea to come in
at a certain number when you really should
have come in at another.
However, there is a reality of negotiations
as a minority female that cannot be ignored,
and nor should it. I have experienced not being
taken seriously up front and it’s taken longer to
build a business rapport to get the individuals to
recognize that I am a force to be reckoned with.
When I was growing up, I felt judged, but
I never could understand why. I just thought
it was my nature. When I entered corporate
26

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
America and began negotiating with internal
and external parties, I was judged, but then
I had the evidence to support the racism,
sexism and the intersectionality of both.
In many instances, particularly in vendor
negotiations, the vendor tended to prefer dealing
with a male colleague or did not recognize me
as the decision maker. With that comes a level
of hesitation or withholding of information that
would allow me to make an informed decision
or create the most impactful win-win. Many
times, I would only receive the full picture when
a male colleague was in the room. I would end
up feeling like the ‘junior’ person in the room
and had to fight to get my leverage back as the
subject matter expert and decision maker.
At times, this miscalculation, whether
conscious or unconscious, makes the other party
underestimate you and allows you to gain the
upper hand unexpectedly. For instance, I was in
negotiations with a leadership content provider,
who directed all their conversation to my male
subordinate, despite his repeated redirection to
me. I quickly took control of the negotiation,
letting her know I was the final decision maker
and would authorize the contract. Additionally,
having done my due diligence of previous
services provided by the organization, I was
able to negotiate other concessions from the
vendor to obtain an even better deal than
prior contracts. What was interesting about
this particular situation was that it was a
white female who refused to acknowledge my
authority. This does not mean that gender gets
sidelined as a bias, and it could shed light on
women’s own bias towards female authority.
I’m hopeful that there will be a time when
race and gender are not factors in anything,
be it negotiations, hiring, or any other area of
life. The reality is that humans are wired to be
attracted to what looks like them. What we can
do is continue to be aware of our own biases and
check in with ourselves as to what’s driving our
decisions and reactions. When deciding during
a negotiation, we (women and men, regardless
of race) should ask ourselves, “Is bias playing
any role in this negotiation?” Whether your
bias is for or against the other party, it should
be acknowledged and neutralized. To help
neutralize the bias, we should ask ourselves,
“Am I getting the best value out of this
negotiation? Will I feel good about this
deal in the long term?”
Additionally, those in positions of power
need to widen the gate for others to ascend.
With increased diversity of decision makers,
exception then becomes the rule, thereby
helping to minimize the unconscious bias.
If we see women and women of color in
positions of power and influence more
frequently, our first instinct will not be
to defer to the man.
THE ADVICE I WOULD GIVE TO
WOMEN (OF ALL RACES) WHEN
ENTERING A NEGOTIATION:
1 Be overprepared. Understand their
business as much as you understand
your product/business.
2 Know your value and your worth.
The product might be the same,
but the value might be in you.
3 No one wants to overpay for anything,
so ask yourself where can I create added
value? If you can’t match, beat or receive
a better price, where can you provide or
gain something that’s an added value.
According to The Gap Partnership’s
gender and negotiation research, we know
that only 9% of women with no negotiation
training rated their confidence above 75 out
of 100. But with training, 34% of women
rated their confidence high. And for men,
this went from 25% without training to
44% when they’ve received training.
While the correlation between training
and negotiation confidence is great to see,
lived experience says that both numbers
would be negatively impacted when
broken out by race. Perhaps the next phase
of the research needed is to look at the
intersectionality of race and gender in
negotiation confidence.
27

Victoria Karelina considers her position as a
female negotiator operating in a man’s world,
and gives some useful insight into how she has
overcome potential obstacles and flourished.
W
hen I was commissioned to write about
what it’s like to negotiate as a woman
in a male-dominated environment,
I realized I’d never given it much thought.
Having worked for 13 years in the maledominated
oil and gas industry, I didn’t question
the established state of affairs, and nor was I
driven by an ambition to change it. I accepted
the situation as an axiom and performed my
tasks accordingly.
“I was often the only woman
in a meeting room – or at
best there would be only one
woman on each side.
Perhaps that helped me cope: rather than
questioning why there were always more men
when I entered a meeting room, while
I represented the minority and therefore
might be underestimated or not taken seriously,
I simply took the situation ‘as-is’ and focused
on my task.
According to joint research of the World
Petroleum Council and Boston Consulting
Group , five years ago women represented 22%
of the workforce in the energy sector worldwide.
As of December 2021, that statistic remains
unchanged. Within the oil and gas sector,
gender diversity varies from one function to
another: for example, there are more women in
office-based corporate and support roles, such
as legal, compliance, HR, finance – which is not
dissimilar in other sectors. On the other hand,
operations, supply chain, and technical positions,
particularly offshore where tough physical
labor is required, are mostly filled by men.
Yet there is a whole array of other jobs also
dominated by men, regardless of the country
or region – be it Europe, Africa, Middle East
or Asia. These are not roles that require manual
labor, but ones in which there is interaction
with clients, for example in sales, investment
relationship or business development.
These roles may require building customer
relationships, securing new projects,
client research, agreeing on commercial terms,
negotiation with counterparties in general,
and representation of the employer’s interests.
And despite recent, increasing efforts to
encourage women’s growth and promotion,
the bias that women are, let’s call it, “less
suitable” for these types of roles still prevails
in the energy sector.
This might seem frustrating and
demotivating, but from the inside it does
not look that scary. I started as a lawyer and
continued as a contract advisor, and have
always been involved in contract negotiations.
I was often the only woman in a meeting
room – or at best there would be only one
woman on each side.
However, notwithstanding such a significant
disproportion coupled with the specific cultures
of the Middle East countries I used to travel
to, I’m not able to recall a situation when I felt
negatively judged, left out, disrespected or even
a hint of harassment because of my gender.
Yes, negotiating and closing a deal, especially
when you are a fresh graduate, was and is still
not easy. I had long working hours and
sometimes sleepless nights, and hours of online
research – because law school doesn’t teach you
how to apply your theoretical knowledge to
a real transaction, nor does it teach you an
essential skill a lawyer must have – the art
of negotiation.
I learned some articles and contract
provisions by heart, went through pre-meeting
self-doubt and post-meeting self-analysis
sessions, and undertook weeks of preparation
followed by weeks or months of negotiations.
But who doesn’t do all this? It’s an indispensable
part of the natural process of learning and
getting professional experience. I have never
justified any unfavorable outcome as a result
of unfair treatment due to my gender. For if
I did, even if it was true, my focus would have
shifted. Instead I always explain to myself
that I did not take enough effort and time
to achieve the desired result.
When you negotiate as a minority, it
is important how you convey your mood:
if you feel insecure and find the ambiance
intimidating, it will intimidate you, and the
other party will talk to you from a position
of power. But if you find it empowering,
28

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
it will be easier for you to control the agenda.
Besides, some men get confused when they
have to negotiate with a woman, and will take
time to “study” you, and this time can be used
in your favor.
OF COURSE YOU WILL NEED TO USE
NEGOTIATION TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE
IN YOUR ARSENAL, AND I WOULD LIKE
TO SHARE THE KEY LEARNING POINTS
THAT HAVE ALWAYS HELPED ME:
• Know the subject . A universal one. If you
negotiate as a lawyer or commercial or
technical specialist, try to have the full picture
and understanding of the deal, not only the
piece you are responsible for.
• Prepare for each negotiation session. Even if
you have read that contract a hundred times,
there might be a tiny detail that has slipped
from your memory and requires a refresh.
• Be self-confident. In negotiations you have
the same power as a man.
• Be insistent. Develop your persuasive skills
and use them determinedly.
• Stay emotionally uninvolved. Use your
emotional intelligence but don’t get emotional.
• Follow strict dress code. This should go
without saying: be respectful of the culture
you are in, and always look professional.
• Take each negotiation as your personal
challenge. My favorite: first of all do it
for yourself, and then for your employer.
In the end, you will always be judged by your
look or age or gender or, in my case and in the
light of current events, nationality, and you will
have to prove that you are not a “giraffe”. But
you will have to do it anyway in any other
industry, in any other job. And the first person
you will have to prove it to is yourself. Once you
realize that, gender and anything else become
absolutely irrelevant.
Amy Van Hoveln reflects on the incongruity of male
dominated teams making decisions about how best to
create, market and sell products to a female consumer,
but also reports encouraging signs of progress.
I
n the consumer packaged goods (CPG)
industry, retailers and manufacturers
spend an inordinate amount of time
negotiating everything from physical and digital
shelf space to promotions to displays…and the
list goes on. Both sides spend time planning
the details of each negotiation, as learned in
The Gap Partnership’s The Complete Skilled
Negotiator workshop. Should we open extreme?
Will they open extreme? At which position on
the Clockface will we conduct our negotiation?
Which position will they take? What is our
breakpoint? What is their breakpoint? Who
will play each role in the negotiation for us
and them? What’s important but easy for each
party to give?
While retailers and manufacturers negotiate
frequently, they certainly agree on one thing:
the desire to put consumers at the heart of
everything they do. The pandemic has forever
changed shopping patterns. Consumers have
consolidated trips and narrowed the number
of brick-and-mortar retailers they visit. They
shop in-store, online, and on their phones,and
spend more each trip. Consumers want to shop
however, wherever, and whenever they want
and expect their brands to be in stock. They
are much less retailer-loyal than they used to
29

e given the rise of the digital economy, where
shoppers can – with the touch of a few clicks
on their phone – know the price and availability
of an item from a nearby store or an ecommerce
pure play retailer. Knowing these evolving
consumer dynamics, retailers and manufacturers
must fight even harder to win the hearts and
minds of shoppers.
Did you know that women make up more
than half of the US population and control
or influence 85% of consumer spending?
(Forbes 2019). It’s particularly interesting
to consider that within the CPG industry
the target consumer is regularly female, but
the teams responsible for developing, testing,
producing, marketing, and selling products
to her tend to be disproportionately male,
especially at the leadership level. This is
true also for the negotiation teams.
“Because each gender brings
specific strengths to the table,
building gender diverse negotiation
teams should be a no-brainer for
both manufacturers and retailers.
One negotiation best practice is “getting
inside the other party’s head” by actively
listening with empathy to understand the
position of the counterparty and position the
deal in a way they can agree to it. Another
best practice is “beginning with the end in
mind,” continually focusing on what outcome
will create the most impact vs. “winning” the
negotiation. If manufacturers and retailers’
top priority is capturing consumers, and
women control or influence 85% of consumer
spending, wouldn’t it make sense to ensure
women are part of their negotiation teams?
The Gap Partnership’s gender and
negotiation research found multiple
significant gender differences in both
approach to and implementation of
negotiations, which means having little to
no gender diversity within negotiation teams
is not optimal. Because each gender brings
specific strengths to the table, building gender
diverse negotiation teams should be a nobrainer
for both manufacturers and retailers.
I have been a part of numerous negotiation
teams throughout my career. The most
successful negotiations have happened when
both negotiation teams were gender (and other)
diverse, allowing for diversity of thought and
style in both the planning and execution of the
negotiation. One negotiation was particularly
memorable because we started the negotiation
with a small, all-male team. The retailer’s
negotiation team was primarily
female with one male included.
The negotiation leads had such
different styles that the negotiation
came to a standstill. At that point,
we brought in two females to join
our negotiation team; doing so
helped facilitate progress in the
negotiation. It wasn’t that the
females were better negotiators,
but they were better equipped
to get in the heads of the lead
negotiators on the other side as well as
adapt their style to be more relatable to
the other side as well.
Gender (and other) diversity is firmly
on the agenda of global business leaders.
While there are encouraging signs of progress
and support, there is still a lot of work to do.
As leaders in the CPG industry, we need
to ensure our teams represent not only our
customers (retailers), but also our consumers.
The time to act is now as it’s never been
more difficult to win and keep
consumers loyal. TNS
30

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
NEGOTIATING A PATH
TO COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
Chris Atkins explains why creating and implementing
a high-performing negotiation culture can help a business
deliver its business strategy.
58%
do not often plan beyond
objectives for negotiations
15%
say objectives are often changed
during a negotiation causing
problems in the negotiation
83%
do not get the chance to role
play negotiations internally
before they happen
20%
21%
do not seek to understand
the balance of power
before starting a negotiation
tell us leadership will
go beyond agreed
breakpoints at the
end of a negotiation
Negotiation Culture Index Feb 2021.
M
ention the desire to change your company’s
culture and you will swiftly find yourself facing
some resistance. There will be many who have
grown up, and grown successful, within the existing
culture, and the forces for maintaining the status quo
will be as strong, if not stronger, than those that see
the benefit in change.
Add to that the suggestion that the new culture
should be anchored in a skill that may be considered
to be merely a commercial necessity and eyebrows
will understandingly begin to rise.
But consider this...
Every day, every team in your company negotiates
internally and externally to get their job done. Only
through negotiations can they achieve their goals.
Only through their negotiations can you realize
your company’s goals. So, when we talk about
implementing a negotiation culture we are talking
about developing a culture that directly enables
31

your team’s ability to implement your business strategy.
So, let’s examine each of the elements of negotiation
culture and try to unpick the “Why?”
I’ll start by considering and correcting some
common misconceptions.
MISCONCEPTION #1: NEGOTIATION IS A WIN-LOSE GAME
One of the challenges of being a negotiation
consultant is that people expect and assume that you
specialize in being tough, argumentative, and insistent
on driving a hard bargain. And when negotiation is
considered to be an aggressive activity of last resort,
then driving this into organizational culture could be
considered a negative, even retrograde step, creating
an unpleasant place to work for all but the toughest,
most Machiavellian individuals.
But this is a narrow and misleading definition of
negotiation. The much more interesting and complex
truth is that in its most complete form, negotiation
is a subtle, combined art of listening, understanding,
and creative problem-solving.
When we work with our clients in negotiation,
regardless of the intervention, we consistently
concentrate on supporting the desired behaviors
of a successful negotiation team, who:
1. Know what they’re doing, their responsibilities,
and their level of empowerment.
2. Plan efficiently and completely.
3. Objectively evaluate and mitigate risk.
4. Take control of their situation.
5. Understand and select options effectively.
6. Know their counterparty.
7. Develop strategies and understand the
“How?” as well as the “What?”.
8. Value elements and priorities from their
point of view and their counterparty’s.
9. Ensure all parties are aligned throughout
the process.
10. Ensure their plans and activities align
with the overarching strategy.
11. Communicate effectively – internally
and externally.
12. Have a replicable process and tools that
maximize the chance of success.
Viewing these principles through a different
lens, I suggest they are also the principles of sound
commercial management which, when firmly
embedded within a cultural framework that rewards
these principles, will lead to better decisions being
made, understood, and implemented effectively.
In our experience these principles, while appearing
obvious when they are written down, are not
commonly, consistently or completely practiced in
many business environments. Sometimes it’s because
we don’t have time to plan properly. Sometimes it’s
because objective evaluation is not rewarded. And
sometimes it just feels more heroic to fight fires than
to stop them from igniting in the first place.
Whatever the reason, introducing and encouraging
the habitual adoption of negotiation principles will
start moving the needle toward a more commercially
aware and astute approach. This will in turn start
moving the profitability dial.
MISCONCEPTION #2: NEGOTIATION IS LIMITED
TO CERTAIN SPECIALIST TEAMS
The sales team – they do the negotiating, right?
Oh, and Procurement, of course. And while we are
thinking about it, Supply Chain negotiates all the
time. Hang on, what about Employee Relations,
and their negotiations with unions or prospective
hires? And Legal, well of course they negotiate
contracts too. Marketing – don’t they negotiate
with agencies? IT have ongoing negotiations with
contractors and service providers. As do Facilities.
I could go on.
Every team negotiates with someone daily, be it
internal or external, because negotiation is the act
of two or more parties coming together to reach an
agreement. And in today’s world multiple stakeholders
have an impact on the trajectory of negotiations that
would have previously been conducted in a onedepartment
“bubble”.
Here’s an example. We recently supported
a multibillion-dollar RFP process for a significant
portfolio of raw material commodities. Because
this raw material sat at the core of our client’s end
product, the award decision needed to consider many
dimensions: environmental sustainability, contractual
requirements, supply chain resilience, innovation,
technical support, customer service, productivity,
quality and, of course, cost. In total, more than 30
different factors were assessed, and all stakeholders
needed to be satisfied. It is this ecosystem of factors
that needs to be considered in any negotiation,
all of which require suitable planning, alignment,
and communication if a negotiation is to be
successful in today’s environment.
MISCONCEPTION #3: NEGOTIATION HAPPENS AT
THE END OF THE BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS
No. Negotiation is the means by which an
organization delivers its business strategy. At The Gap
Partnership we’ve built a reputation as negotiation
specialists – and we’re proud of that. But increasingly
it’s clear that we’re also specialists in the execution of
business strategy, in realizing the goals set within that
strategy, and maximizing the chances of success.
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THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
We often encounter critical failure points in our
negotiation support activities:
1. Specific negotiation goals are mismatched
to individual KPIs.
2. Individual KPIs are mismatched
to departmental objectives.
3. Departmental objectives are mismatched
to business strategy.
The magnifying effect of this layering of mismatches
results in a negotiated outcome that fails to deliver
the business strategy, and in many cases has
“Introducing and encouraging
the habitual adoption of
negotiation principles will start
moving the needle toward a
more commercially aware and
astute approach.
a directly contradictory outcome. So, the overarching
business strategy is bound to fail in its execution.
Consequently, our first task is recreating the
connections between specific negotiation goals
and business strategy.
The connection between
organizational strategy and
its execution – its negotiation – is inextricable,
so it’s critical to consider the end-to-end process
with all its many facets as the strategy is developed.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
What is negotiation culture, at its most
fundamental? A great place to start is with the
meaning of the words themselves. Both have their
roots in Latin:
Negotiation is from the Latin negotiari, meaning
to carry out business. Cultureis from the Latin cultus,
meaning foster or cultivate.
So, negotiation culture is, literally, Fostering
a [new/better] way of carrying out business.
To implement a successful negotiation culture
requires us to understand and address shortcomings
in three key areas:
The people that we hire, the methods by which
we develop their capability, and the ways in which
we encourage their behaviors.
The replicable process and methodology
which provides a more consistent chance of success
in multiple scenarios, and the tools provided to
support those processes with the thinking that
underpins them.
The organizational structures that we put in place
to provide governance, guidance, and empowerment.
The cultural reinforcement which develops habits,
facilitates communication, and creates a safe learning
environment and a corporate memory which reduces
reliance on the knowledge of few individuals.
Let’s return to our original questions: “Why do
I need to change the culture of my organization
and why would I choose a negotiation culture?”
Here’s why…
Because an organization with a strong negotiation
culture has everything in place to execute and deliver
its commercial business strategy. Because the
commercial world is changing, and the
speed of change will continue to accelerate.
Because it is imperative to keep pace with
change today: the competitor you’ve never
heard of is doing it already.
I rest my case. TNS
This is an edited extract from Negotiation culture:
A manifesto for commercial success. If you
would like to read it in full, email us at
negotiationculture@thegappartnership.com
33

Tricks of my Trade
Consulting project manager Catherine Oh reveals how a varied
first role in a Big 5 consultancy firm led to a career at TGP and
the igniting of a passion for negotiation.
The Negotiation Society: Cat, tell us about life before
The Gap Partnership.
Cat: I grew up in Houston and moved to Austin
to study finance at The University of Texas. It gave me
a good foundation in business, and I became interested
in management consulting. In my senior year,
PricewaterhouseCoopers reached out and asked
if I was interested in working in Hong Kong. In
September 2018 I made the move, just me and two
suitcases. When I arrived, I didn’t know anyone!
TNS: Wow, that was brave. How was it?
Cat: I was constantly on the move, traveling to Korea,
Malaysia, and cities in China, working on lots of
different projects.
TNS: What kind of projects?
Cat: Retail organizational design, pharma supply chain,
and digital transformation. I led an escape room activity
for a change management training exercise. I locked senior
partners in a conference room and left them clues to figure
out how to use the new system. It was chaos! Another
project was an audit for private wealth management clients,
analyzing their private banking
portfolios, discovering how
millionaires made their
money. I also got to
analyze a major pharma’s
distribution network
at the height of Covid.
TNS: How did you go from
PWC to TGP, and how’s
it been so far?
Cat: I was headhunted.
From day one, I loved
the friendly and
helpful vibe, plus
I’ve always been
interested in
the behavioral
aspects of
negotiation.
I’ve never had
so much fun
at work as
when I did
The Complete Skilled Negotiator workshop,
it was truly empowering.
TNS: What is it about negotiation that feels so exciting?
Cat: I’ve learned that every conversation, personal and
professional, can be a negotiation; an opportunity to create
better outcomes for everyone involved. The projects I’ve
worked on at TGP have been incredibly relevant to today’s
macroeconomic events, and I’m extremely interested in how
businesses manage these challenges and come out stronger
using the power of negotiation.
TNS: Have your negotiation skills been put to the test
outside of work?
Cat: Yes! My landlord wanted me to sign a long-term contract,
so I renegotiated with him and cut it back to four months.
I was so proud of myself!
TNS: Brilliant! Any spare time for passions outside
of negotiation?
Cat: I went to India for a month and became a yoga instructor.
During lockdown, I was teaching classes from my terrace.
It’s been super fun and a great work-life balance.
TNS: What’s next for you at TGP?
Cat: I’m working on consulting projects with clients from
various industries, planning and executing commercial
negotiations with their counterparties. I’m about to move
to London to be part of the EMEA team, partnering with
principals and partners on client engagements.
TNS: Sounds great. What’s prompted the move?
Cat: It’s important to me to have a global career, and after
a few years in Hong Kong, London seemed like the natural
step. I’ve been to the UK before and loved it; I felt like a real
Londoner, taking the tube and running each morning along
the river.
TNS: How do you see your journey mapping out over
the longer term?
Cat: I love project delivery; everything is so relevant and every
day I am learning more about what’s going on in the world
and how it impacts businesses. There’s never a dull moment
and always something new to learn. TNS
34

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
Tim Green
A work in
progress
March 2020
Employee: ‘I want to be able to work from
home instead of the office.’
Employer: ‘No. Office-based means just that.’
March 2022
Employer: ‘We need everyone to come back
and work from the office.’
Employee: ‘No. Home-based has worked just
fine and you can’t force me to return.’
Before Covid, many office workers were largely
powerless in negotiations with their company
to be allowed to work from home, even for part
of their working week. It just wasn’t how things
were done. Now, as many companies try to get people
back to the office, has the impact of our enforced remote
working shifted the balance of power in favor of the
individual? Or is the situation more nuanced?
“With the return to work
conundrum, the balance of
power could be estimated by
both parties to be in their favour.
As with all negotiations, the ideal is both parties show
flexibility and arrive at a mutually agreeable solution.
However, with the return to work conundrum, the
balance of power could be estimated by both parties
to be in their favor.
On the one hand, workers may perceive a shift in
power to themselves because precedent has been set
that working from home works, and use this as
a blunt instrument by refusing to go back to the office,
especially if they can’t legally be compelled to. Conversely,
employers may perceive that a return to normality sought
by governments and industry bodies has given them
power to be able to force people back to the office.
While the two parties’ respective self-assessment of
the power balance could negatively impact the progress
of negotiations,
resulting in deadlock,
the flipside of a more
equitable power balance is
that it could facilitate more creative
and collaborative approaches in finding
optimal working practices.
The power of the company in part lies in the
objectives their employees must deliver against to
fulfill their contractual obligations. Companies could
look to underline the need to hit these objectives but
give responsibility to the individual to prove they can
do so in a more flexible working pattern.
The employee also has power, partly because the
global working culture has changed to make working
from home more acceptable, but also because the
employer will need to ensure that if they offer the option
of all or part of a working week from home, that they
provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate this.
To reach a mutually acceptable solution, creative
thinking is essential. How can employers make it more
appealing to come back to the office? For sectors where
flexible or remote working poses less challenge to a role’s
performance, ideas such as flexible office hours, uncapped
holiday, or a minimum number of office-based days per
week, are all being used to show flexibility, while putting
responsibility for their output on the individual.
In the same breath, how can employees demonstrate
an equal or greater productivity and loyalty to the
business if given flexible working arrangements?
And could this show a saving in the costs of running
the business? Well, the proof of the pudding is in the
eating: by producing the goods, whether metaphorically
or literally, employees can prove that flexible working
benefits their business as well as themselves – whether
through a more desirable employer brand that attracts
millennial talent, or bottom-line results.
As in any successful collaborative negotiation, the key
to reaching a mutually agreeable solution is creativity,
conditionality, flexibility, and trust. Covid led to a change
almost overnight in how we work and communicate,
together with an accelerated evolution or uptake of tools
and tech to facilitate this. There has never been a better
time to find a way to work smarter. TNS
35

QUESTION
TIME
We asked our panel of experts for their pithy
yet considered response to the statement,
“An organization lacking in negotiation
capability will never be able to
successfully transform.”
Rachel Montañez
Holistic Career Coach,
Career and Burnout Keynote Speaker
In offices across the globe, burnout
is a big threat. There’s a tug-of-war
between employers and employees.
One side pulls for more productivity
while trying to maintain equity and
the other side pulls for career success
while trying to sustain well-being.
But what if, in our attempts to
prevent and manage burnout, we’ve
failed to consider what we can learn
from the discipline of collaborative
negotiation? Both require emotional
intelligence, problem-solving, planning,
and communication.
Seeing as each employee makes up
the organization and self-preservation
is the first law of nature, let’s replace
“organization” with “employee”. There
is no customer-centricity or business
transformation when an employee is
not fully functioning.
If you are in danger of heading
toward burnout, there’s an organizational
root cause and perhaps life and career
skills to sharpen and execute. You need
to enter into a win-win solution with
your colleagues and boss to protect
yourself – and ultimately help end
the tug-of-war.
36

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
Marc Wehrum Muhannad Alghanmi Mel Anders
Managing Partner EMEA,
The Gap Partnership
Associate Director Of Talent Development,
ROSHN
Senior Negotiation Consultant,
The Gap Partnership
Ever heard of VUCA? It stands
for volatility, uncertainty, complexity,
and ambiguity, describing a world in
which conditions change constantly
and drastically, creating an imperative
for organizations to transform.
To do this successfully, companies
must reassess the way they negotiate.
In the past, three or five-year contracts
could be agreed, assuming relative
stability during that time period. But
now negotiators need to be clearer
upfront on the primary objective,
whether that’s price, supply chain
security, or knowledge transfer, and
build in flexibility for situations that
may change.
They will also need to manage the
what-ifs, focusing on the long-term
objective but also considering short
term “losses”. This makes deal-making
more complex as it will be harder to
evaluate the potential value or cost of
hypothetical scenarios. But the most
successful organizations will be those
that can protect their business from
as many what-ifs as possible.
Volatility, complexity, ambiguity,
and uncertainty are going to
continue to rise, so you had
better come prepared.
Organization transformation
is a business strategy for change
management that aims to shift
your organization from its current
condition to a desired future state,
and all change necessitates negotiation,
and successful negotiation necessitates
effective negotiation.
The majority of change management
models’ failure to apply essential
negotiation principles leads to
missed opportunities and disgruntled
stakeholders. Change negotiations
have to take place at all levels of the
organization. Managers and leaders
should meet on a regular basis
to discuss issues and address
problems, ideas, and solutions
in the process mapping.
Negotiation is fundamental in
anchoring change at all levels, from
top management to employees, as they
all can benefit from open conversations
that foster a sense of belonging. From
both an individual and organizational
standpoint, negotiating change
ensures quality and well-supported
decisions. Goals, effectiveness, working
techniques, and leadership can all
be discussed as part of the reflective
practice. Although negotiating
change is rarely a quick fix, anchoring
change at all levels is critical for
long-term success.
We find ourselves in the early years
of The Fourth Industrial Revolution.
To survive, businesses are compelled
to transform to keep up with
disruption driven by emerging
technologies. Traditionally
transformation occurred through
the lens of productivity – better,
faster, cheaper. Technology businesses
like Siemens and Amazon are now
focused on agility, utilizing strategic
partnerships, and alliances to grow
their revenues to suit the pace of
change within the new environment.
With the failure rate of partnerships
typically high, realizing potential
from collaborations requires effective
negotiation. Businesses must
consciously enter partnerships with
a mindset of positivity, transparency,
and with an intent to create greater
value for both sides front and center.
Only an organization with strong
negotiation capability will be well
equipped to approach, execute and
maintain sustainable partnership
arrangements, thus ensuring they
remain on the correct path and
avoid competitiveness and that
(all too easy) unconscious swing
from value creation (win-win)
to value distribution (win-lose). TNS
37

DEAR DIANA
Negotiation expert Diana Jusepeitis tackles the
ultimate negotiation conundrum of our times.
Q: Whether it’s a pandemic,
war, or ongoing political
instability, it seems the world
is lurching from one crisis to
another. At the same time,
we are expected to create
and execute commercial and
negotiation plans as though
there is certainty for the
future. But how do you plan
in such volatile times, when it
seems as if the planning should
have taken place yesterday?
D: Planning is one of my favorite
words, because I love it when a plan
comes together. In negotiation,
nothing should happen by accident,
but rather through structured planning
and controlled execution. That’s
easier said than done, especially in a
crisis when structured planning may
falter because time, circumstances,
and parameters have changed. But
problems must be solved
and difficult decisions
made quickly that may
mean the difference
between survival today
or success tomorrow.
But even when making
such time-pressured
decisions, I believe there
is value in working
methodologically.
So let’s anchor this
in some methodology.
When we speak about negotiation
culture at The Gap Partnership, we
mean that you need to ensure you have
the people, process, and organization
to enable your teams to succeed. When
a crisis hits, considering these three
pillars will help you to maneuver your
business through troubled waters.
Let’s do the internal view first.
Take action by being proactive. Start
by scenario planning, analyzing the
risks and their impact. This doesn’t
have to be time consuming but will
allow you to prioritize and build
contingency plans.
Next, seek support and alignment,
and manage expectations. Any new
decisions or change of direction may
mean that goals and performance
“Crisis means change, and
change can be an opportunity
to do new things.
measurement have changed. Make sure
you share these new goals with all of
your stakeholders so they buy in to your
new plan and don’t derail it. Be specific
about who does what and prepare an
escalation path.
This leads me to something really
fundamental in crisis management –
don’t forget the people! Emotions and
anxieties may be running high. As a
professional negotiator, I’ve learned how
important it is to separate emotions
from behavior. Naturally it’s
difficult to be in charge of your
emotions when facing into
stressful circumstances. But
as a leader, you must stop and
consider how your reactions
affect other people. Lead your
internal negotiation team
with empathy, focus on safety
and health, and remember the
importance of appearing calm.
Understand the circumstances
of the people in your team first
so you can work on finding coping
mechanisms for them.
Talking of people, what about
“the other side”, the counterparty?
Take time to explore their emotions
as well. Get inside their head. How
have their circumstances changed?
And do they have to be seen as the
other side? Crisis means change, and
change can be an opportunity to do
new things. Working
side by side and
developing a true
partnership could
overcome unforeseen
challenges and secure
value creation for both
long-term. Of course it
takes time to build trust.
But a crisis and your
action or inaction in
such times can catalyze
the level of trust in one
or other direction.
Finally, let’s move on to the crisis
passing, or at least dissipating. Make
sure you learn from the experience.
Reflect on where you may have
struggled, and why. What have you
learned? Then include this information
for future contracts and processes to
prevent the same challenges recurring
(as far as possible), and to be prepared
for the next crisis.
Stay healthy and safe! TNS
38

THE NEGOTIATION SOCIETY
CROSSWORD
Our fiendishly challenging British-style crossword returns.
ILLUSTRATION: CARTOONRESOURCE/CARTOONSTOCK
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10
11 12
16 17
18
14 15
21 22 23
24
25 26
27 28
ACROSS
1 Engineers half-heartedly
swore being unable to present
their case (7)
5 Son running for 14 (7)
9 Repeatedly note describing
a US city (5)
10 Supporting the party over
chaos season (2-7)
"We worry more about deflation"
13
19 20
11 Targeting of messages that's heard
by those with acute perception (3,7)
12 Parliamentary food? (4)
14 North and South in bridge
contract (11)
18 Reform, let dropouts show
emphatic disagreement (4,7)
21 Trace Greek character (4)
22 Resolve our violent mutiny (10)
25 Way to categorize miners’
association by the sea (9)
26 Push in grim PE lesson (5)
27 Give attention to advert
for water barrier (7)
28 See 17 Down
DOWN
1 Disheartened, ready to
collect setter for repair (6)
2 Suspend during church
transformation (6)
3 One that gives comfort
has hippies dancing (6,4)
4 Doctor’s surgeries
providing sweets (5)
5 Celeb’s man remodeled
outward appearance (9)
6 Part of church beginning to accept
protestant services eagerly (4)
7 One evening hosting a flyweight,
initially participating at a bout (2,1,5)
8 Large animal found in gloomy
band reportedly (5,3)
13 Transactions for female
in wealth projection (10)
15 Cook Nigel almost prone
to starting again (9)
16 14 revealing everyone in Council
of Europe includes American (8)
17/28 Surprisingly cut corners etc, I'm
inclined to listen to clients (8-7)
19 Child shows leg raises before
exercises with runs (6)
20 All together, state how neck
positioned in French 22 (2,4)
23 Soldiers (English and an
American) caught applying
to a wild gathering (5)
24 Eye up for dance (4)
For solutions email
hello@thenegotiationsociety.com
39

© The Gap Partnership, 2022. All rights reserved.