Sohaib Hasan 7e0b7908/15114394 TUTORIAL 5: CROSS-CULTURAL NEGOTIATION & DECISIONMAKING.

Tutorial activity 1: Stage one: Preparation The staffs of Business Ville Hotel first must familiarize themselves with the entire context and background of Swiss National Shooting team. Furthermore, they also need to consider and justify several negotiation problems, for examples differences in culture, language, and environment. This can be done through outlining thought profiles of the Swiss people in general. The Swiss profile: 1. Facts Switzerland is a very diverse country having 63.7% Germans, 20.4% French and 6.5% Italians as its inhabitants. Swiss people are usually very experienced in interacting with other cultures 2. Etiquette Respect for privacy and discretion are key values in social interaction. Kindness and politeness in social interaction is expected. Cultural differences between the linguistic regions include more frequent use of titles and professional functions in the German-speaking region, and the use of a kiss rather than a handshake in the French-speaking region. 3. Social Stratification The cultural norm is for wealth to remain discreet. Too manifest a demonstration of wealth is negatively valued, but poverty is perceived as shameful, and many people hide their economic situation. 4. Communication Style

Communication style depends greatly on personality but the Swiss are generally direct in their communication. The Swiss tend to be private people and asking personal questions in not that common in their culture. 5. Time In general, the Swiss are orderly, careful and conscientious, therefore, being late is considered rude. Furthermore, punctuality is highly valued throughout the country. Being on time for business meetings, service appointments, etc is expected.

Stage two: Relationship building

Building lasting and trusting relationships is important to most people in this country. However, they are usually not a necessary precondition for initial business interactions. Most Swiss people expect their partners to make a long-term commitment to the engagement. If your company replaces you with someone else over the course of a negotiation, it may be easy for your replacement to take things over from where you let them. Likewise, if you introduce someone else from your company into an existing business relationship, that person may quickly be accepted as a valid business partner. This does not mean that the Swiss do not care about who they are dealing with. Personal integrity and dependability are important if you want to win their trust. The Swiss view it as very important to keep business and private life separate. It takes a long time to build rapport and establish personal relationships. At empts to accelerate this process may only raise suspicion Stage three: Exchange of task-related information

Capturing and exchanging meeting summaries is standard practice in Switzerland. It is an eective way to verify understanding and commitments. Although interim agreements are usually kept, do not consider them nal. Only a nal contract signed by both parties constitutes a binding agreement. Writ en contracts are serious matters in Switzerland and tend to be lengthy. They often spell out detailed terms and conditions for the core agreements as well as for many eventualities. Legal aspects may be reviewed repeatedly. Signing the contract is important not only from a legal perspective, but also as a strong conrmation of your Swiss

partners commitment. Contracts are almost always dependable, and the agreed terms are viewed as binding. Requests to change contract details atfer signature may be considered as bad faith and could meet with strong resistance. Stage four: Persuasion Typically, both parties try to persuade the other to accept more of their position and to give up some of their own. The majority of the persuasion takes place over one or more negotiating sessions. This process of bargaining and making concessions is fraught with difficulties because of the different uses and interpretations of verbal and nonverbal behaviors. The use of various tactics (promises, threats, and so forth) is sometimes used in negotiation process. Conservative at ire is important when doing business here. While colored shirts are ok, male business visitors should wear dark suits with neckties on most occasions. First impressions can have a significant impact on how people view you. Business lunches and dinners are common. Business may be discussed over meals. Gift giving in business settings is rare. It is best not to bring a gift to an initial meeting in order to avoid raising suspicions about your motives.

Stage five: Concessions and agreement The manager of Business Ville Hotel must be well-prepared and aware of various concession strategies and have decided ahead of time what their own concession strategy will be. The process of reaching an agreement involves careful timing of the disclosure information and of concessions. Negotiations can be conducted by individuals or teams of negotiators. It is Vital that teams be well aligned, with roles clearly assigned to each member. The Swiss are good at exploiting disagreements between members of the other team to their advantage. If possible, schedule meetings at least one to two weeks in advance, and do not cancel one on short notice since that can be viewed as rude. The Swiss may want to know whom they will be meeting, so provide details on titles, positions, and responsibilities of attendees ahead of time. The rank of visitors does not matter as long as they are knowledgeable and have sufficient decision authority. Agreeing on an agenda upfront is common practice. That agenda is usually strictly followed.

At any meeting, whether business or social, it is strongly advisable to be very punctual. The Swiss are not fond of bargaining and strongly dislike haggling. They do not appreciate aggressive sales techniques. Although the bargaining stage of a negotiation can be extensive, prices rarely move by more than 10 to 15 percent between initial offers and final agreement. Businesspeople in this country do not make concessions easily. When selling, they focus on convincing you that their product or service is worth what they are asking. They are very good at making you believe that you get what you pay for. Tutorial activity 2: Negotiation Role Play Tutorial activity 3: What conditions and negotiation factors pushed forth the merger in 2006 that were not present in 2001? In 2001, the merger negotiation is failed due to disagreement between the Alcatel and Lucent on how much control the French company would have. Lucent wanted the deal as a merger of equals, rather than a takeover by Alcatel. In 2006, however, renewed negotiations took place, resulting in the transatlantic relationship being consummated. Shareholders in France approved the $10.7 billion merger of the telecommunications equipment makers Alcatel and Lucent on September 7, 2006. 2. Research the status of the merged company at the time of your reading of this case. What has happened in the industry since the merger, and how is the company faring? Since the merger of these 2 companies, they are able to create the worlds biggest telephone equipment maker. The combined company would realize 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in cost savings over the next three years, in part by cutting 9,000 jobs, about 10 percent of the combined workforce. Besides, Alcatel-Lucents revenue would be spread almost equally across Europe, the United States and Asia, offering greater longterm stability.

1.

3.

Evaluate the comment that the merger is a giant transatlantic experiment in multicultural diversity. What evidence

is there that the company has run into cross-cultural problems since the merger took place in 2006? Alcatel-Lucent is creating the first truly global communications solution provider. This indicates that the company is already operated as an international company with a wide mix of nationalities. 4. How much decline do you attribute to the leadership problem as apposed to the industry factors? Lack of visionary leadership is one of the most evident factors that created problems for the company in the case discussed. I would suggest that leadership is the soul of the company and everything else comes into place if the leadership is strong. So I would place immense significance to leadership in this case. Appointments of CEOs have massive influences on stock prices - up and down. Corporate performance is often described as a product of one individual's leadership. A succession plan - or failure to implement one - is regarded as a bellwether of subsequent corporate performance. The success of organizations like Coca-Cola, General Electric and IBM is not considered a product of the thousands of people they employ, but of the individual leadership qualities of Goizueta, Welch and Gerstner. And yet leadership in a vacuum isn't leadership at all. What impact can any CEO have, speaking to an empty room? It is the people that work for an organization, and their willingness to accept, embrace and further a leader's vision, that ultimately determine results. Yet the most common measure of an organization is seldom the quality of its staff, and all too often the quality of its leaders.

5.

What if any factors should have been negotiated differently? The merger negotiations could have been carried out in the following way 1. Facilitator When meetings occur between the cooperatives trying toreach agreement on a plan for combination, a facilitator helps improve communications and the process of developing altemative solutions to many of the problems that arise. Some problems may seem to be solvable without a facilitator, such as making decisions on various business operating changes for a combined organization. However, the participating organizations usually

have different preferences and priorities. Customarily, each participating organization has an equal number of representatives on a joint merger committee. Frequently, two cooperatives are involved in negotiating a combination, which sets the stage for group decisions to become deadlocked. A facilitator initiates team-building discussions aimed at finding alternative ways around these deadlocks. 2. Develop producer-to-producer contract Experience shows that durable progress in consolidation or merger talks requires directors to be the leaders in the discussion and planning sessions. A joint merger committee should formally consist of directors. Managers serve as advisors and provide information as experts in operations and the industry. Committee members will usually seek the opinions and judgement of managers of their cooperatives on important decisions. But, the board should not permit managers to exercise excessive influence over the progress and direction of talks. 3. Follow a strategic plan Before a merger committee convenes, it should develop a strategic plan that sets out major objectives. For example, increased economic efficiency of the cooperative is usually a major objective of mergers and consolidations. As negotiating progresses, the committee will face numerous difficult decisions and tradeoffs. A strategic plan provides criteria for making hard decisions. Efficiency-related objectives specified in a strategic plan help the committee give adequate weight to choices that will increase the economic pie and prevent contentious pie sharing issues from derailing the process. The distinct roles of directors and management are particularly clear in strategic planning. Directors are responsible for developing a strategic plan and defining the vision for a neworganization. The joint merger committee is charged with developing a consensus plan. Managements role is to advise on feasibility and to carry out the agreement 4. Use the word WE Directors must focus on using the word we during discussions. They must avoid employing protective card playing traits and getting caught up in a game of who is coming to the table 9with the most to offer. Usually, each cooperative brings value to a potential combination. It is important to avoid arguing about who is offering or contributing the most. While cooperative directors must protect the assets and operations with which they are entrusted by members, they must also keep an open mind while creating a new, unified cooperative.

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