Communication, Case Study Example

Was this a Distributive or Integrative negotiation?- was it the optimum approach and why or why not.

The negotiation between Sarah Talley (Frey Farms) and Wal-Mart was a distributive negotiation. This is also known as hard-bargaining or positional negotiation. The reason being that Sarah Talley had counted the price range that was going to be profitable for the fourth of July in 2005 which Wal-Mart was not willing to offer making her try severally to come to the best possible price for both buyer and seller. Since the prices of watermelons were fixed seasonally, the bargain that was being negotiated was to distribute the fixed amount of value (Wood, 2008). This was not the optimum approach given the circumstance of the market at the time it would have been more productive to engage in integrative negotiation by creating a suitable value for both parties in the negotiation thus showing a degree of cooperation (best for both seller and buyer).

Other than not doing the deal, list the BATNA’s Sarah had for this deal.

The Best Alternatives to a Negotiated Deal between Sarah (Frey Farms) and Wal-Mart Stores would have been:

• The other BATNA would have been to increase the size of her next best offer in order to have more bargaining power in subsequent negotiations
• The other BATNA was to transport watermelons from Arizona to Georgia thus incurring increased transportation costs.
• Another BATNA in the deal to attaining Co-management by Wal-Mart, which failed, was to sell their products to the mega co-managed suppliers.

Discuss any BATNA’s she didn’t pursue that you would have to strengthen your position.

A BATNA that Frey Farms did not consider was that of having set aside a reservation price (walk away price) beforehand in order the traditional deal needed renegotiation. This is setting for you the least possible price that would bring in at least some profit. By having a reservation point (price) and arming themselves with Wal-Mart’s reservation price, then Frey Farms would have presented an irresistible offer to Wal-Mart.

Do you believe Sarah did enough preparation and research for the negotiation? Is there any additional preparation she could have done that would have substantially improved her outcome? If so, what?

I believe that Sarah had not done enough preparation and research for negotiation. The fact that she assumed that no deal had ever gone sour between her and Wal-Mart was negligence on her part to lack competent negotiation skills and information. I believe that she could have presented pre-calculated data and analysis of the market situation as part of her negotiation (Spangle & Isenhart, 2003). Having one’s facts in an ordered manner shows seriousness in what one is doing attracting the other party’s full attention and commitment to come to an agreement.

How would you have done this negotiation differently? Please cite. Negotiations best practices that you would have utilized.

I would have done this negotiation differently in my mode of approach with view to closing the best possible deal. The best practices of negotiation I would have utilized are:

• Information is power-I would have gotten all the market information in order to set my goals then write them down.
• Maximizing my leverage by determining the level of need of the produce by Wal-Mart (knowing their BATNA).
• Employing objective (fair) criteria by finding powerful independent standards.
• Designing a strategy that is offer-concession by knowing what to do regarding size, speed, and timing of concessions and offers.
• Having control of the agenda by knowing how to negotiate the agenda and managing deadlines.

Given the outcome at the end of the case, is there anything Sarah can do to salvage the relationship and/or possibly get back in the running for comanagement?

Given the outcome at the end of the case, Sarah can still salvage the relationship by being consistent in delivery of quality products especially in the places like Arizona where Frey Farms had direct delivery to Wal-Mart to begin with (Sebenius & Knebel, 2006). Creating a good rapport with the management team at Wal-Mart by showing commitment to supplying could possibly get Frey Farms back in the running for co-management.

References

Sebenius, J. & Knebel, E. Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A). November 8, 2006

Spangle, M. & Isenhart, M. (2003). Negotiation: Communication for Diverse Settings. London: SAGE

Wood, F. (2008). Relational Communication in Negotiation Interaction. New York, NY: ProQuest