Commercial Negotiation Skills

Commercial Negotiation Skills

by Mr. Christopher Lennon

8-10 August 2016 | Hanoi, Vietnam

Overview

The ability to achieve goals, to win business, to have ideas accepted by others, are just some of the dimensions of negotiation – we all do it on a daily basis. For those of us engaged within, or who must participate in some role within complex commercial negotiations, the ability to influence others, solve problems and diffuse conflict is invaluable to everyone. Formal training in this area is often difficult to find – most people ‘learn’ how to negotiate through experience. Effective negotiation is by no means a simple task – there are a myriad of underpinning factors that must be identified, as well as the often unforeseen or random events impacting upon the process. The negotiator needs to be quick thinking and adaptable, they need to possess superlative communicative abilities, they need to be facilitators, problem solvers and above all they must understand people and what motivates and/or drives them within different situational environments and contexts.

This course will develop these skills and abilities within the attendees. Focus is on interaction and the acquisition of value adding skills – delivered through an immersive, detailed program lasting 3 days

Training Program Objective

The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive, holistic training package that encompasses the ambit of commercial negotiation – though the skills taught here are of a transferable nature. The focus is on ‘real world’ added value – providing attendees with relevant and useful knowledge and skills that can be immediately utilized and implemented post course. There is significant attention paid to interaction through both individual and team based exercises; problems and tasks.

Training Methodology

The course is based on a balanced combination of classroom teaching and syndicate exercises supported by case studies and exercises within the industrial environment. This course is designed in with leading industry knowledge and practical case studies discussion and analysis to provide an interactive learning environment.

Training Program Agenda

Day 1: Introduction/Overview

• Setting the context-understanding the key drivers of the modern corporate environment

• The nature of competition and co-operation in the commercial world-examining the reasons for these forms of behaviour – risk management; venture capitalisation; Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances

• A shifting paradigm – leveraging advantages in commercial negotiations-finance; technology; IP; process

• Stakeholders-Why do we negotiate? The changing dimensions of stakeholders – power and influence; internal and external stakeholders; understanding that stakeholders are not static. The problem with different agendas

• Corporate Social Responsibility – a significant factor in commercial negotiations? Understanding both the ‘tangibles’ and ‘intangibles’ of the CSR process – consequences and benefits. Can CSR make or break a contract? Stakeholders and CSR Corporate Governance structures.

• Factors of critical impact on negotiations-stress; time; communication; information/knowledge and experience; ability to learn

• Styles of negotiation - competitive/co-operative/active/passive/singular/multi-party

• Negotiation in context - strategic/tactical/contractual/personal/formal/informal

• Individual exercise: Preparing to negotiate as part of a commercial team

Day 2: Planning and preparation

• Preparing to negotiate-the due diligence process /importance of information/tools and techniques for collection/collation-Porters’ 5 Forces; SWOT analysis; PESTEL analysis

• Planning to negotiate – setting an agenda-goals and objectives; preparation is everything; the importance of building scenario’s;

• Understanding the environment within which the negotiation will occur – the ramifications of neutral, hostile or ‘home’ ground

• The importance of contingency in negotiation-anticipatory strategies; BATNA explained. The relationship between critical success factors and key performance indicators of a negotiation and their relationship with contingency planning and preparation. The contingency element of scenario building.

• Managing conflict – the ‘Fire Principle’; conflict and costs – time is money – determining a way forward towards resolution; the deadly nature of miscommunication

• Managing stress – understanding the personal nature of stress; identifying ‘trigger’ events; strategies to maintain ‘emotional equilibrium’; the role of subjective vs. objective perspective. Operational efficiency – ‘good stress’ and the role of confidence

• Negotiation as a tool for dispute resolution – formal and informal processes – mediation; structured and unstructured negotiation; med-arbs; arb-med; the importance of the Arbitral clause in commercial contracts; escalation clauses explained; the Doctrine of Separability explained and its vital importance.

• Team/group exercise – negotiating a commercial agreement

Day 3: The importance of the ‘Intangibles’

• The gender dimension - The differences between Male and Female perspectives and attitudes/personalities – attitude to risk; temperament – how to build successful negotiation strategies. Gender in the International corporate world

• Understanding non-verbal communication – facial expressions and body language. The ramifications of hand movements (gestures); eye movements and posture of an individual. The universality of facial expression – a key factor in cross cultural negotiations within the international oil and gas industry; proxemics and different cultural behaviour norms – what this tells us about individuals in a commercial negotiation; the role played by touch or Haptics – another potentially vital clue in commercial negotiations. Physical appearance and dress.

• Power and negotiation – types of power and what they mean to negotiations – positional power; informal power; the role of charisma; the ‘power balance’ within a commercial negotiation – can this be redressed if unequal?

• Establishing and maintaining control – the critical importance of emotional control; when do you play an ace? What do you do if you don’t have an ‘ace’? How a structured agenda creates control and establishes a framework procedure for the negotiation

• Establishing and maintaining trust – the cornerstone to long term business relationships

• Organisational/national culture and negotiation–the impact of different belief and value systems on commercial negotiations – cultural norms and their role in negotiations – avoiding miscommunication

• Effective communication and comprehension – types of communication; effective presentation skills

• Qualities of the effective negotiator – confidence; charisma; the ability to ‘ad lib’ – thinking on ones feet; ability to assimilate complex and varied information; focus on the ‘core’ – processing information in a dynamic; high pressure environment

• Strategies and tactics of negotiation-dealing with uncertainty; unknowns and random events – making the disclosure choice – what to ‘burn off’ towards your real goal; the value of information; equity – engineering the ideal outcome

• Negotiating as part of a team – the role of leadership; harnessing the synergy; advantages and disadvantages of team negotiations; the ‘remote’ team challenge; advantages and disadvantages of remote team negotiations

• Multilateral negotiations – the importance of control; the danger of duplication; beware of ‘wild cards’ ; the ‘prima donna’ syndrome

• Team/group exercise – collaboration with competitors? JV’S? Strategic Alliances?

About the Trainer

Christopher Lennon has 26 years’ experience within the oil and gas industry – initially working offshore on rigs in the UK and Norway before becoming involved with projects and supply chain issues. He helped establish an anti-corrosion production facility in Aberdeen for casing tubular – running the production facility initially before going on to create and manage the supply chain. He has set up distribution networks supporting the North Sea E&P industry within Aberdeen. He has managed (and continues to do so) a variety of ‘special projects’ internationally – normally strategic or change management focused.

He has worked/consulted extensively within the field of supply chain management – is a contracts specialist and an international commercial arbitrator. He has the Freedom of the City of London; is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators and a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. He holds an MBA and LLB from the University of Aberdeen, as well as the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators DipICArb. He has over 13 years teaching experience at a number of universities across a wide range of subjects. He is currently the author and tutor of the module ‘Managing Projects and Optimizing Operational Performance.’ For Middlesex University’s International Oil and Gas MBA programme (an online delivery medium). Chris works internationally consulting/training. He has delivered training to project managers of PDVSA; SONATRACH; OMV and a variety of North Sea based companies.

Recently he travelled to the Republic of Myanmar – where he delivered a bespoke training package in all areas of project management to the heads of the country’s oil and gas companies. He was personally welcomed by the Minister of Energy.

Investment Fee

SG$ 2,985.00 per person