Purchasing and Negotiation Training

Editor’s Note:  This is the second part of a four part series on using professional negotiation skills as applied to personal life.  The tone is intended to be light and instructive but ultimately demonstrates just how critically important your negotiation skills can be in this entirely (certainly so) “hypothetical” story.  See also the Set Up of Part 1 , the Denouement of Part 3, and Lessons Learned of Part 4.

Robert Menard,

Certified Purchasing Professional,
Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant, Certified Green Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Manager

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research  

Jane’s dad was an accomplished veteran professional buyer, trainer, and consultant in purchasing and negotiation with many earned certifications and designations with a worldwide clientele.  He would have preferred his daughter’s antics had not occurred but if wishes were horses and turnips were bayonets is not a realistic approach to winning a complex negotiation. 

Before leaving campus on Sunday morning, dad, mom, and Jane gathered all the relevant contractual and related documents.  These included a Student Code of Conduct, the Student Manual, and Contract for Housing Services, among others.  Dad knew that any bureaucracy’s documents are chock full of regulations, policies, and procedures that almost none of the employees had ever read.  Most are only vaguely aware that they exist and conduct themselves in a manner they see practiced by superiors, who also are also generally ignorant of the standards. 

The research and planning stage must precede the establishment of sound negotiation strategy so dad put Jane to work on the ride home studying the documents and gathering information.  She had created the problem so had a big stake in the outcome.  Dad tasked her with highlighting passages to use in advancing her case.  Jane knew she had screwed up and took the research assignment seriously.  It was also a life lesson she would never forget and, her parent’s hoped, a mistake she would never repeat.    

A splash of genius never hurts

 The document review is de rigueur, necessary but not sufficient.  The sole contribution of mom proved to be one of the most compelling arguments, perhaps even the match in the powder barrel; the college certainly thought so. 

Recall that the roommate was a very large young woman and she and Jane were not compatible.  Jane related several exchanges in which she stated the dislike of the roommates for each other.  There had been some intimidation and threats that Jane had reported to the housing office, although not to her parents until the debrief session on the weekend.   Dad ascribed the exchanges to immaturity but mom was much more prescient.  She recognized the exchanges as “bullying”, the topic that trumped all others in the obsessive scholastic sphere.  

The research and evidence were being fashioned into an impressive arsenal of negotiation weapons, but none more powerful than the bullying cannon which would ultimately collapse the college’s arguments and force the negotiation to conclusion. 

The arsenal

Colleges’ have a societal interest and perhaps a legal obligation under the doctrine of “in loco parentis” in minimizing and controlling inappropriate behavior of the young adults in their quasi-charge.  When fillies and colts leave the corral, they can often wander into unfamiliar pastures.  When the gentle guidance of fences is breached, the bit, bridle, and saddle (sometimes the whip) become necessary.  The college’s fences were its documents.  When kept in repair and updated, the fences serve their purpose.  When neglected, the youngsters are left to their natural devices.  To extend the metaphor, in the practical business world, no institution is allowed to breach its own fences and then claim that the horses are at fault.   

Not only did the college personnel not know their standards, they egregiously violated them and felt justified in applying the whip.  The relative recency of the VMI campus violence led this college (by its own admission) to revisit their policies and procedures.  Jane’s college had adopted the ill-advised policy of case by case evaluation which
reeks of subjectivity.  The obvious consequence is its embedded “ad hoc” nature which breeds inconsistency. 

online negotiation course

The second most effective weapon

 Jane and dad had done their due diligence vis-a-vis research and strategy formation.  Dad’s decision of negotiation strategy a Win-Lose  because the college had violated its own standards and arbitrarily subjected Jane to unwarranted discipline.  While most parents want to believe their child is good but might sometimes stray, dad found several devastating faults to hoist the college on its own petard by showing how their many violations had voided any self-serving decisions.   

The college’s documents cited in many places with respect to disciplinary actions that “under no circumstances shall any student be subject to denial of tuition or housing services for which full payment has been made and that expulsion or removal from campus can only be ordered by the college president and then, only after all appeals have been exhausted.”  This black letter law  contributed to the college’s demise in this negotiation but would not have done so absent the extensive research of Jane and dad.

Planning and Strategy

 Dad’s decision to pursue the take no prisoners Win-Lose negotiation strategy was not his preference but dictated by the college’s actions.  The facts were immutable but positions of the parties can change and soften.  Go to the Denouement (link) page to learn how the negotiation played out and how the research, planning, and strategy paid off.