Corporate United hosts regional meetings for
its members and other procurement
professionals each year. This year, the
meetings center around negotiation strategy
and are led by Stephen Frenkel, director of
negotiation programs for MWI.
Mr. Frenkel engaged
audiences in Baltimore/DC and Chicago in
November, and registration for the Cleveland
and Minneapolis meetings (Dec. 10, 2009 and
Jan. 12, 2010, respectively) is near maximum
capacity. Corporate United would like to
extend its sincere appreciation to BAE
Systems, Parker Hannifin and Medtronic for
hosting these meetings.
Presented by Stephen Frenkel,
Director of Negotiation Programs for MWI
The workshop was designed to
increase awareness, introduce negotiation
tools and a proven framework for success,
discuss the current economic challenges
being faced by procurement professionals,
provide an action plan for moving forward
and provide a low-risk learning environment.
To kick off the session, Mr.
Frenkel introduced himself and MWI.
Afterwards he immediately launched into an
interactive program called "Win as much as
you can" that allowed conference attendees
to begin negotiating with each other in
groups of four. Once the game was over, Mr.
Frenkel reviewed the outcome of each group
and shared several general lessons that
could be learned from the activity –
question your assumptions, identify your
goals and be purposeful (don’t just react).
He explained that just because you are
making assumptions about how things are
going in a negotiation, it does not mean
someone else is feeling the same way; it is
important to ask yourself if there is
another way this can be interpreted.
Mr. Frenkel’s presentation
also reviewed the various types of
negotiation styles and the seven elements
that make up the framework for negotiation.
After the framework was set up, Mr. Frenkel
asked the group what types of challenges
they were facing in this economy. After a
short question and answer session, he
reviewed several ways in which negotiations
are different in this economy; to name a few
– 1) there are unknowns: neither "the
bottom" nor "the upswing" can be predicted
and 2) there are looming challenges: the
consequences of failed agreements may be
much greater.
Mr. Frenkel provided the attendees
numerous ways to address the different types
of negotiation challenges brought on by the
current economic climate. He also suggested
they prepare for negotiations beforehand by
using the new tools and materials he shared
throughout his presentation. Additionally,
Mr. Frenkel explained the importance of
practicing what they learned in the session
in their every day lives, so when it comes
time to have a serious negotiation, they do
not revert back to old habits – they use
what they learned.
