<Return to Negotiations
  
   

In today’s global marketplace, trade negotiations are a critical mechanism for ensuring national well-being and competitiveness. They can help maximize the potential of interdependencies in a world growing smaller. And, they can level the playing field for developing countries that are often at a significant disadvantage due to size or historical global imbalances.

CRI and Tandem insourcing partner with trade teams to support them in the process and analysis of the complex negotiations in which they find themselves. This can include facilitating the understanding of the issues, interests, and priorities of all sides, coaching the team in ideal communication behavior, and supporting the choice of an ideal strategy given the circumstances.

Trade negotiations are highly challenging because of the importance of the issues at stake and the numbers of parties and issues involved. We work with our clients to manage the various levels at which these negotiations occur – among team members themselves, among stakeholder groups of the client country, among local trading partners and between the client and the dominant trading partner.		  
A joint partnership of CRI, New York, USA and Tandem insourcing, Bogota, Colombia,  www.tandemadr.com.

CRI and Tandem have worked with trade teams from the United States, Colombia and Bolivia as well as individual trade negotiators from all over the world.
 
 

Our Approach
At the outset, we typically begin with a needs assessment. What has been going well? What could be done differently? How has the team performed in previous rounds – with each other, with trading partners, with negotiation counterparts? Needs assessments usually take the form of written questionnaires or in-person individual and group interviews.

Based on the needs assessment, and in partnership with the team, we then develop a plan that could include any and all of the following types of activities.

  • running practice negotiation simulations
  • facilitating the assessment of previous negotiation rounds
  • training in negotiation skills
  • cross-cultural briefings on issues relevant to negotiation styles
  • developing strategy
  • process consulting during the negotiation rounds
  • individual or group coaching throughout the process
  • presentation of best practices and theory in negotiation
  • facilitating an internal negotiation to align negotiation team, coordination meetings with trade partners, or internal lobbying by various interests groups
Finally, we end the process with an evaluation—both of the success of the negotiation as well as the benefits from our consultation.

Tandem Negotiation Software—An Added Bonus: In all three stages of the consulting process, Tandem negotiation software gives our clients an important edge in the negotiation process. The software tracks issues, potential trade-offs, as well as variables that need to be taken into account, providing the Chief Negotiator, the teams, and the consultants with a clear overview to guide the negotiators in different stages. At the outset, we use the software to measure previous performance; during the negotiation rounds, to track progress; and during the post negotiation evaluation stage, to determine how well goals were reached.