Friday, December 14, 2012

Pack up your toys and go home

Oh man, I love the theatrics of negotiations. 

After two weeks of pitched battle, we're down to the wire on this deal -- the documents are getting hammered out, there's only a handful of outstanding, big-ticket items left to be resolved, the negotiations are ferocious.  I had just finished turning another draft of the main contract and was about to send it out for review when suddenly our lead negotiator burst into the room and told everyone to go home.  The other side had refused to budge on one of her key issues; it was time to send a message.  Specifically: Give me what I want or find someone else to play with.

Twenty minutes later, we were gone. 

It's all a game, of course, albeit one with billions of dollars at stake.  Who's going to cave first?  Who knows.  Walk-outs are a gutsy negotiating move that can cut both ways.  Could be that the other side will be sufficiently thrown off by our walk-out that they'll concede the points we care about.  Could also be that our negotiators have misjudged the other side and have just exploded the deal.  Either way, it'll be fun to see how it plays out overnight and tomorrow morning.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Let's hope SOMETHING works to get this thing wrapped up so you can be home for Christmas!! Lady