Reflection Paper: Texoil (from the point of view of the sellers)

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Reflection Paper: Texoil (from the point of view of the sellers)

Planning for this negotiation was more difficult than the first negotiation in class. The first negotiation had a point system; therefore I knew what the maximum, minimum and average amount points were. Not only does the Texoil negotiation not have a point system, but there were two people on my side (sellers) and only one on the other side (buyer).

My partner and I played the roles of the sellers. Prior to the negotiation we discussed what our reservation point, our BATNA and our target point were going to be. The reservation point was basically given in the write up of the case. We needed $488,000 after taxes or $580,000 before taxes. If we received less than this we would not be able to continue our plans to sail around the world. At this point we had not discussed attempting to make the pie bigger and pursuing the option of working when we return.

We decided that we would not tell the buyer about my exhaustion (wife) or that we needed the money to sail around the world. We were afraid that he would use it against us.

Our BATNA was that we could continue working there, perhaps hire someone in place of me, since I am not supposed to work 16 hour days. This is not a strong BATNA, as I do not know that we could afford to hire a new person, as well as we already sold our condo, and put money down on the boat. Als...

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... about myself as a negotiator. If one of the other people did not have the idea to expand the pie, we would have not come to an agreement. I noticed that I stuck to the case like it was the guide to life. I realize in order to make the negotiations work; I will have to learn to think outside of the box. I do not believe that I am a strong negotiator at this point, but I think I have already learned a lot about negotiation. I am now firm believer that the more information on the table, the better the outcome for both sides. On my next negotiation, I am not going to hide information and I am going to try to overcome any bias that I hold. I am going to see where it gets me to just tell the whole truth.

Reference

Fisher, R & Ury, W (1991). Getting to Yes: Negotiation Agreement Without Giving In. Penguin: New York

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