Reflections on “BioPharm-Seltek”

1661 Words4 Pages

This negotiation took place between the Chief Officer of a US based company (BioPharm) and a small company (Seltek). BioPharm is operating in the pharmaceutical industry. It wants to buy or build a plant in the US to manufacture a new product called Depox. The main goal of our group as negotiators is to play the role of BioPharm to buy a plant belonged to Seltek. It is on sale. This plant is the most appropriate choice for BioPharm for a number of reasons, namely to save time and cost of building a new plant because the Seltek’s plant is running and gets the FDA approval. Besides, it also has a highly experienced workforce, which can help us reduce the cost and the time for recruiting and training new employees.
The most important issues to bring to the negotiation table are the time period in which the plant will is available to use, the determination of the current workforce, and the patent of Petrochek that accompanies to the plant. Among these issues, the time is significant because we incur a loss of profit of $1 million every month for waiting the plant to be available. In preparing for this role play, we had analysed the situation of ourselves, assessed the counterpart and developed a set of strategies to deal with this negotiation.
Firstly, in assessing ourselves, we determined that our BATNA associated with $37 million. I comprised the cost of building a new plant ($25 million), loss of profits in 12 months ($12 million) and the cost of 90 day option to buy land ($0.5 million). A non-refundable expense of $10 million on buying the option for the land is considered the sunk cost. The maximum amount of money that our group could spend on this buying intention is $40 million. We decided that our target point would be $16 m...

... middle of paper ...

...istic and ambitious enough to avoid setting wrong limit and target. A common tactic is that people ask for a price (S1) that is higher than their intended target (Stp). However, making an unreasonable demand is not beneficial at all because “Trades would not take place unless it was advantageous to the parties concerned” (Benjamin Franklin). In fact, it is not a mistake in case the negotiators think that they need to ask for more. To get appropriateness, good reasons are the key for the negotiators to demonstrate to the other side that the price is reasonable and credible. In our negotiation, the other group sets a weird price ($53m). This price was certainly rejected by our group as the buyer. The final price was only $16m. Therefore, asking for something strange is not a wise tactic. It can undermine the reliability of the negotiator and maybe hurt the other side.

Open Document