国际商务谈判 chapter 2.doc

Chapter 2 Choosing your team Big guns, little guns How big should the team be? There are several reasons to keep your negotiation team (NT) as small as possible. The first few deal with the expense and difficulties that arise when your NT must operate overseas. Flights, ground transport, meals, hotels, communication, conference centers, taxes, and cargo can make trip for even a small team extremely expensive. Arranging for passports, visas, inoculations, and potential medical care for a large group can easily become unmanageable. Problems and additional expenses may also arise when attempting to deal with various family and business schedules. Finally, for NT’s operating overseas, keeping track of large groups in a foreign country is nightmarish at best-ask any tour guide. The rest of reasons for keeping the NT compact apply to both domestic and overseas assignments. Primarily, communication is a source of strength within any organization and never more so than within the NT. Premeetings, recaps and midmeeting breaks demand that communication be both precise, as major decisions are made in a matter of seconds. The CN must be able to seek the input of the team quickly, and large group are cumbersome. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, presenting a unified front is key. The CN must be able to redirect tactics as counterparts bring new issues to the table. Agreement on tactics become more difficult in direct proportion to group size, even when there’s agreement on strategy. Keeping the NT small enables the CN to make timely adjustments to the negotiating plan and to disseminate that information quickly. Additionally, small teams are more easily able to withstand the “wedges” that counterparts may attempt to drive between members of large teams. Thirdly, the members of the NT have other job duties unrelated to the negotiations. The fewer you pull away from their regular assignments the better. There’s no sense disrupting the company’s core business. As exciting as the inte