Post negotiation Analysis of Les Florets Case
This case particularly resonates with me because it highlights the problems that arise when two individuals have reference points which do not overlap. An impasse was reached between myself (VP of operations for Les Florets) and the Restaurant owner and this was primarily due to the fact that we both had reference points with a ceiling which we felt we could not exceed.
Going into this negotiation as the VP of operations my goal was to primarily succeed in buying the restaurant. Prior to starting the negotiation, i identified several certain non monetary concessions that could be made to sweeten the deal such as paying a percentage of travel expenses, and also allowing the restaurant owner
The negotiation differed from the previous exercises because of the ceiling effect created by the 160,000 euro boundary which was set by the management which I tried to go around by offering a deal of 140,000 Euros now and 40,000 Euros 2 years from now. which also didn't work. This ceiling effect raised the question that if a boundary is given to you and during the negotiations you have considered the options and realize that the option of building a new office from scratch would be costlier (200000 Euros) do you increase your offer in light of this fact?
There were several things I learnt by myself from the exercise one of which was my desire , perhaps too strong to reach an agreement quickly and this perhaps did not favor a smooth transition and allowed the opposition to interpreted this wrongly as desperation, perhaps a laissez- faire approach would have been more suitable to create an impression that we could do without this restaurant. Another important point is that once threats have been issued it is difficult to regain the trust of the individual on the other side of the table. Thus if a strong arm tactic is to be used you must be prepared to back it up and realize that a transition back to a neutral one may be particularly difficult and may be viewed as a sign of weakness as