Negotiation & Presention

During the 1960s, Kennecott Copper Corporation’s long-term, favorable contract to manage the El¬ Teniente mine seemed to be falling through. The political situation had changed drastically since the contract was signed, and the terms of the contract – including low royalties for the mining rights – threatened to change. Chile had prepared a very attractive […]

The relationship level between negotiating partners very often determines the success or failure of negotiations. However, emotions can also be used deliberately to deceive the negotiating partner. The following rule therefore applies: “Separate the relationship level from the factual level” or “Be conciliatory in your dealings with your negotiating partner, but tough on the matter”.

Donald Trump is President of the USA again. But there is one thing we can learn from presidential candidate Kamala Harris for our everyday business lives. Whether for appearances in front of a critical audience or in sensitive meetings: Walk confidently into the lead and don’t let anyone interrupt you, because you have something to

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, bans PowerPoint presentations in his meetings. And for good reason, because PowerPoint is not a management tool! PowerPoint is purely a visualization tool. Nothing more and nothing less. Here are a few tips for preparing a successful presentation in important meetings: 1) Start with the goal of your presentation. Incidentally,

Niklaus-Samuel Gugger was born in India and grew up in Switzerland. […] Whenever grey storm clouds loomed over the negotiating table, he remained confident. In autumn 2022, Parmelin took him to India for the first time. After that, the positions on both sides loosened and the negotiations accelerated rapidly. A year ago, setbacks threatened again. 

Richard Mueller negotiated for the UK in hostage-takings in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The most important thing in negotiations was that communication between his team and the hostage-takers never broke down. The tools were patience, listening and engaging the hostage-takers in dialogue, which allowed him to gain time and important information. The goal was

A negotiated solution can only be found if both sides benefit from it. Objective criteria, including their weighting, must be defined in order to assess the benefits. Agreeing on these criteria and their weighting in advance speeds up the negotiations. ‘Electricity companies, environmental protection organisations and cantons have agreed on rules and a list of

How can ‘influencing’ and ‘negotiating’ be used to turn projects into reality? What negotiation strategies should be pursued and what framework conditions are needed to ensure that negotiations result in stable contracts in both the political and economic environment? Dr Adis Merdzanovic (lecturer at the ZHAW) and Dr Adrienne Suvada (lecturer at the ZHAW) asked

Arguments should be valid and credible. This is how we prepare ourselves if we want to win over our counterpart for a project idea. We deliberately focus on the three most important arguments, the weakest in the middle and the strongest at the end. So what about assessing a large number of counter-arguments? Reality shows