Jordan Electronics Company

Today we did the Jordan Electronics Company negotiation activity, which was a collective attempt to come to an agreement on what is best for the company. It took everyones cooperation to figure out what we needed to do to best benefit the company. Before the negotiation, we were required to do a negotiation checklist.

A.   About You

a.     The overall goal in this negotiation is to convince each of the departments that a new, portable design for the JAC 36 is better for the future of the Jordan Electronics Company.

b.     Issues

                                               i.     One issue is that some members would rather redesign the old JAC 36 rather than create a new, portable device, which will cost more, but will have a better outcome because the competitors have updated versions that are portable. The designers are close to a breakthrough and fixing the bugs for the portable machine.

                                             ii.     Another issue is the frivolous features, such as voice control and optical coupling. The features may not need to be added because of the lack of use by the users, or the minimal difference in temperature.

                                            iii.     There are features that should be implemented such as the new microprocessor (64-bit from Japanese)

c.     Importance of the issues

                                               i.     Portable machine

Adapted:       30 pts (x 100%)

Not adapted: 0 pts

                                             ii.     Wanted features

1.     64-bit Microprocessor

Implemented: 10 pts (x 33.33%

Not Implemented 0 pts

                                            iii.     Frivolous features

1.     Use of optical coupling:

Not Implemented: 5 pts (x 16.7%)

Implemented        : 0 pts

2.     Use of Voice Control:

Not implemented: 5 pts (x 16.7%)

Implemented       : 0 pts

d.     BATNA

                                               i.     The best alternative to this would be to redesign the standard machine, without much changing in portability or to include options that may be unnecessary.

e.     Resistance Point

                                               i.     The lowest agreement I can accept would be to have the frivolous features, no 64-bit and no portability, even though it is not preferred, we are working on this together and the R&D preferences may not be every department’s preferences

B.    About the other sides

a.     The VP of sales wants to keep the selling price the same

                                               i.     They also are confusing with whether or not they want to adapt the portable machine after they convinced the president to go with a simple redesign.

b.     The VP of production is concerned with the price of the changeover to produce the new product.

c.     Resistance point unknown

d.     The target would be to get everyone on the same page, and convince them to adapt the portable device with no useless features.

C.    The situation

a.     There is no deadline because demand for the old JAC 36 is still there, but customers are complaining about the lack of updates. Therefore, a new design is needed soon and the president says that the sooner it is designed, the better.

b.     We need to come up with a fair deal that will not drive up costs too much, and will not drive up the selling price too much.

c.     There are not really any avoided topics for this negotiation, because I feel that we are working together to come up with the best possible solution for the company.

D.   The relationship between the Parties

a.     The negotiations could be repetitive, but we need to come to an agreement because the future of the company depends on updated products. The competitors have far more updated versions of the machine on the market right now.

b.     I feel that there is a common trust between each party of the negotiation because we do have the same goal, and do work for the same company. An updated product will benefit the company, but the issue is how much to update the product.

c.     I hope for the other parties to be straightforward without bluffing because of our common goal. Laying it out on the table will be the best thing for this negotiation to work.

d.     The financial president is the chair at this negotiation, so they will probably have the most say in everything, other than that, we may have similar authority over all the decisions.

We found during the activity that we had the same goal, and we could use each other's information to see what our best option was. We ultimately decided to go ahead with the revised version of the JAC 36 for now and eventually move onto the portable version when the engineer is trained, and the bugs are worked out of the software to run the new device. It was unclear what the terms of each party was before the negotiation started, so we had to learn what each other wanted after it started.

Other then a few sections, the checklist definitely helped organize the negotiation and helped pinpoint what the issues are and which ones are most important. My point system may have been off a little because some values may be missing. 

Final Offer- Movie

Final Offer, the movie, was an interesting documentary on an negotiation that took place between General Motors and the Canadian Union workers. The negotiation took place in the 1980s and what made it so interesting is that the American union workers had already worked out a deal with General Motors, which meant that GM could not give the Canadian workers a much better offer because this would change how the Americans felt and could create future implications. The film was centralized around Bob White who was leading the negotiation on the union's side. He wanted to work out a deal with getting the leader, Owen Beiber involved. Bob feared that if they were not able to work out a deal, Owen Beiber would step in and work out something that may not be fair for the union. GM wanted to go with a different type of contract, where the union would share profits that GM made. The union would rather get a cost of living allowance increase of 3%. The agreement was pushed off and eventually the workers went on a wildcat strike that started 16 hours before it was intended (which showed some lack of control and organization by Bob White and the union officials). There was now a deadline that was set for the workers to go on a more long term strike if there is not a deal made so the pressure was really on. Bob White used a bluffing strategy by saying he had 10 million dollars in strike funds when he did not. This made the other side feel that there was less pressure on Bob and the union then there actually was. GM had some leveraging power of their own. They were able to threaten the closing of plants and loss of jobs. Owen Beiber threatened to take over control of the negotiation and make a contract that was similar to the deal that the Americans came up with, which is not what the Canadians wanted. After 8 days of the strike by the Canadian Union, General Motors had flinched. They offered Bob White a 2.25% increase for three years, which was not the 3% that the union had wanted, but Bob convinced them that it was a good enough deal to take.

During the negotiation, when working with GM, Bob White was able to keep calm and control his emotions, even though cameras showed that he was stressed over the situation. By being able to control his emotions, GM was able to sense his confidence and this was probably able to help the union with the negotiation.