HKS Case Program

Negotiation

The teaching cases in this section introduce students to the theory and practice of negotiation by emphasizing both analytical and interpersonal skills. Several lessons can be found, including how to trade on differences to create value, overcome a status and power imbalance, build a multi-party coalition, and balance the demands of internal vs. external negotiations.

Simulation - Shimla City High School & Camp Sunshine: Negotiating Over Limited Resources

Shimla City High School & Camp Sunshine: Negotiating Over Limited Resources

Publication Date: November 13, 2024

Scenario:In this fictional simulation, Shimla City High School has been dealing with financial troubles and is leasing its fleet of five school buses during the summer holidays to raise funds. Camp Sunshine, an environmentally oriented children’s...

the case study of negotiation

Tackling Homelessness and Addiction: Coalition-Building in Manchester, New Hampshire Practitioner Guide

Publication Date: May 28, 2024

This practitioner guide accompanies HKS Case 2285.0. Elected at the height of the opioid epidemic, Mayor Joyce Craig came to represent the city of Manchester, New Hampshire as it grappled with the dual tragedies of substance use disorders and...

the case study of negotiation

Tackling Homelessness and Addiction: Coalition-Building in Manchester, New Hampshire

Elected at the height of the opioid epidemic, Mayor Joyce Craig came to represent the city of Manchester, New Hampshire as it grappled with the dual tragedies of substance use disorders and chronic homelessness. An idealist in a state that...

Teaching Case with Video Supplement - Cracking Oyster: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Confront a Tough Contract (B) (Sequel)

Confronting Constraints: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract Sequel

Publication Date: December 19. 2023

This sequel accompanies HKS Case 2275.0, "Conflicting Constraints: Shashi Verma &Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract."  The case introduces Shashi Verma (MPP 97) in 2006, soon after he has received a plum appointment: Director...

Confronting Constraints: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract

Confronting Constraints: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract

The case introduces Shashi Verma (MPP 97) in 2006, soon after he has received a plum appointment: Director of Fares and Ticketing for London's super agency, Transport for London. The centerpiece of the agency's ticketing operation was the Oyster...

Evelyn Diop

Evelyn Diop

Publication Date: May 30, 2023

 Evelyn is a seasoned nonprofit fundraising professional with roots in the corporate world, who thrives when faced with a strategic challenge. While she had been successfully leading change as a chief development officer (CDO) at...

the case study of negotiation

Leadership and Negotiation: Ending the Western Hemisphere’s Longest Running Border Conflict

Publication Date: October 4, 2022

For centuries, Ecuador and Peru each claimed sovereignty over a historically significant, but sparsely inhabited tract of borderland in the Amazonian highlands. The heavily disputed area had led the two nations to war—or the brink of...

Simulation - Galvis City

Galvis City Schools Collective Bargaining Simulation

Publication Date: June 8, 2022

This is a seven-party exercise, with six negotiators and one facilitator. Representatives from a large school district and its affiliated teachers’ union must negotiate for three rounds. The Mayor serves as a facilitator and convening...

Issue Brief - “Be SURE” You Are Prepared to Negotiate WELL

Briefing Sheet: “Be SURE” You Are Prepared to Negotiate WELL

Publication Date: May 6, 2022

This briefing sheet reviews a four-step “Be SURE” negotiation preparation framework. It was developed to complement educational and resource materials accessible through the HKS SLATE Negotiate WELL (Work, Education, Life, and...

When Gender Matters in Organizational Negotiations

When Gender Matters in Organizational Negotiations

Publication Date: March 18, 2022

Learning Objective:The overarching learning objective is to help students recognize the situational circumstances that moderate gender effects in negotiation. Core lessons include: (a) A person’s gender is not a reliable predictor of their...

Teaching Case - Priya Iman

Negotiate WELL (Work, Education, Life, & Leadership): A Strategic Preparation Workbook

Publication Date: October 5, 2021

The Strategic Preparation Workbook guides students in preparing for a work or life negotiation so that they are more likely to succeed in negotiations. The Workbook outlines a four-part process in preparing for a negotiation and finishes with...

Teaching Case - Maryam Hassan

Maryam Hassan

Publication Date: March 8, 2021

Maryam and Sameer, brother and sister, were searching for an apartment in Hitech City, Hyderabad. Recent college graduates who were now starting jobs with high-profile technology firms, they wanted to lease an apartment together. The case...

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Unlocking Success: The Role of Negotiation Case Studies in Business and International Contexts

  • Author Georgie Mclean
  • Published 3 March 2024

Negotiation is an integral skill in both personal and professional settings, dictating the success of interactions ranging from everyday decisions to major corporate deals. This article delves into the importance of case studies, providing a structured path to mastering this crucial skill through examples and analyses. We explore how these case studies can improve negotiation skills, the best types of cases to study, and where to find real-life scenarios.  

How Will Case Studies Help M e Improve As A Negotiator?  

Case studies are not just stories; they are valuable learning tools that provide insights into the dynamics of negotiation processes. They help in understanding both successful strategies and common pitfalls. Through analysis of different negotiation scenarios , such as famous business case study examples, individuals learn to anticipate potential challenges and react appropriately, enhancing their negotiation capabilities significantly.  

Case studies often detail the strategies used by negotiators, the outcomes achieved, and the lessons learned. They allow individuals to see the application of theoretical principles in real-world contexts, helping to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice. By studying varied international negotiation scenarios and corporate deals, individuals can broaden their understanding and adaptability, which is crucial for successful negotiations.  

What is the Best Type of Negotiation Insight Example to Study?  

The best type of insight depends on one’s professional needs and the complexity of the negotiations they face. For students and newcomers to negotiation, starting with basic ones that cover essential principles, such as the example of negotiation between two companies, can be very beneficial. As one advances, more complex scenarios involving multiple parties or high stakes, like those seen in international negotiations or government agreements, can provide deeper insights.  

Business case studies often involve a range of elements such as deadlines, legal implications, and high financial stakes. Studying these cases helps in understanding sector-specific nuances and can prepare employees for similar challenges in their fields.  

Where Can I Find Real Life Business Negotiation Case Studies?  

Real-life cases on negotiation can be found in several places: 

  • Books and eBooks: There are numerous books dedicated to negotiation techniques that include detailed case studies. Books specifically focusing on  negotiation cases for students are also available.  
  • Training Programs: Organisations like ENS Negotiation and Influencing offer workshops and seminars that include a variety of case studies and real-world scenarios to help professionals understand and improve their negotiation technique.  
  • Online Platforms: Websites like negotiate.org provide resources and insights into negotiation strategies and also include examples and case studies drawn from real-life business scenarios.  

What Makes Case Studies So Crucial for Business Negotiators?  

Case studies are critical because they provide a granular view of tactics and decision-making processes in high-stakes business environments. These studies allow negotiators to dissect complex involving large companies, significant financial stakes, or critical strategic outcomes. By understanding the moves and countermoves of seasoned negotiators, learners can develop a robust toolkit of strategies and approaches. Such insights are invaluable for anticipating challenges and crafting nuanced responses that leverage proven tactics, thereby enhancing the negotiator’s ability to manage complex with greater confidence and strategic foresight.  

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Georgie Mclean

Part of the edventureco group, a certified b corporate.

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the case study of negotiation

PON – Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School - https://www.pon.harvard.edu

Team-Building Strategies: Building a Winning Team for Your Organization

the case study of negotiation

Discover how to build a winning team and boost your business negotiation results in this free special report, Team Building Strategies for Your Organization, from Harvard Law School.

Negotiation Case Studies: Teach By Example

Great negotiation case studies.

By Lara SanPietro — on July 22nd, 2019 / Teaching Negotiation

the case study of negotiation

Once a year, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School selects an outstanding individual who embodies what it means to be truly great negotiation case studies examples. To earn the Great Negotiator Award , the honoree must be a distinguished leader whose lifelong accomplishments in the field of dispute resolution and negotiation have had compelling and lasting results.

To help students and professionals learn valuable lessons from these highly skilled negotiators, our Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) offers the Great Negotiator Series featuring in-depth negotiation case studies such as Stuart Eizenstat: Negotiating the Final Accounts of World War II and Lakhdar Brahimi: Negotiating a New Government for Afghanistan .

Stuart Eizenstat: Negotiating the Final Accounts of World War II – Featured Negotiation Case Study

This factual case study examines former EU Ambassador, Deputy Treasury Secretary, and Special Representative to the President Stuart Eizenstat’s career as a negotiator, with special emphasis on his work negotiating reparations for victims of the Holocaust. As a result of these efforts, Eizenstat received the Program on Negotiation’s 2003 Great Negotiator Award.

Designed to spark class discussion, this case study features a variety of strategic issues including:

  • Facilitating negotiations among multiple governments and industries
  • Addressing volatile and important issues such as reparations for slave and forced labor, confiscated property (including looted art and frozen bank accounts), and unpaid insurance policies
  • Handling large dollar value settlements – ultimately, $8 billion for victims of the Nazis
  • Exploring new approaches to the search for justice to right historical wrongs

Order copies here.

Lakhdar Brahimi: Negotiating a New Government for Afghanistan – Featured Negotiation Case Study

This factual case study examines former U.N. Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi’s involvement in negotiating an interim Afghan government after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. As a result of these efforts, Brahimi received the Program on Negotiation’s 2002 Great Negotiator Award.

With this enlightening case study, participants explore issues such as:

  • Negotiating an interim Afghan government as the first step toward peace and stability
  • Creating a sustainable new central government by convincing the victors in war to share power with others in Afghanistan – and with each other
  • Harnessing the often conflicting self-interests of the country’s powerful neighbors, allies and adversaries in the service of these goals
  • Making the case for peace instead of conflict

Take your training to the next level with the TNRC

The Teaching Negotiation Resource Center offers a wide range of effective teaching materials, including

  • Over 200 role-play simulations
  • Critical negotiation case studies
  • Enlightening periodicals
  • More than 30 videos
  • 100-plus books

Most TNRC materials are designed for educational purposes— for use in college classrooms or corporate training settings. TNRC  negotiation case studies, role-plays and exercises help mediators and facilitators introduce their clients to a process or issue and help individuals who want to enhance their negotiation skills and knowledge .

Negotiation case studies introduce participants to new negotiation and dispute resolution tools, techniques and strategies. Videos are also a helpful way of introducing viewers to key concepts, and TNRC books , role-play simulations , and periodicals address the theory and practice of negotiation and conflict management.

Check out all that the TNRC has in store >>

Originally published in 2014.

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No Responses to “Negotiation Case Studies: Teach By Example”

One response to “negotiation case studies: teach by example”.

A partner in your law firm has come to you for advice involving her representation of a 32-year old professional basketball player injured in a serious automobile accident where he tore his Achilles heel. There is a good chance that he will never be able to play professional basketball again, and his rehabilitation will take many months. At the time of this accident, the player was making Taka5,000,000.00 a year and would be a free agent at the end of the season where he might be able to command taka10,000,000.00 a year. Although the player was a passenger at the time of the accident, he had given the driver some marijuana, and they were both smoking it at the time of the accident. Fortunately, no arrests were made, and the player thinks no one knew about the marijuana. The player is looking for taka500,000 for medical expenses, taka100,000,000 in lost future earnings, and taka20,000,000 for pain and suffering. The partner tells you that the liability is reasonably certain since the player was a passenger, but there is a question about damages because the player had an earlier Achilles heel injury in college that had been repaired. There is also the question of contributory negligence since the player had supplied the marijuana to the driver.

Although there has been some discovery, the defendant has not yet learned of the marijuana use, but the partner thinks it is only a matter of time that the defendant will discover this.

Although the trial is not scheduled to start for at least six months, the partner fears that the defendant is on the verge of discovering the marijuana use and that his will substantially diminish the recovery. The partner tells you that the defendant’s lawyer called today and proposed submitting the case to some form of alternative dispute resolution. The partner tells you that she does not know much about ADR. She asks you do some research and prepare and fax a memorandum to her that will help her decide how to respond to the defense lawyer’s proposal. Specifically she asks you to deal with the following questions:

Which method would you recommend trying first stating the reasons for that recommendation? i am support the basketball player. i am with him. how can i save him? i am against the driver. so now what can i do? please give me a solution quickly.

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Preparing for negotiation.

Understanding how to arrange the meeting space is a key aspect of preparing for negotiation. In this video, Professor Guhan Subramanian discusses a real world example of how seating arrangements can influence a negotiator’s success. This discussion was held at the 3 day executive education workshop for senior executives at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

Guhan Subramanian is the Professor of Law and Business at the Harvard Law School and Professor of Business Law at the Harvard Business School.

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Home » Case Studies » Negotiating with WalMart Buyers

Negotiating with WalMart Buyers

Walmart buyers are trained to treat their vendors in a variety of ways, depending on where you fit into their plan. This case shares a story of a vendor called Sarah who negotiated a win-win outcome with Walmart.

WalMart, the world’s largest retailer, sold $514.4 billion worth of goods in 2019. With its single-minded focus on “EDLP” (everyday low prices) and the power to make or break; suppliers, a partnership with Walmart is either the Holy Grail or the kiss of death, depending on one’s perspective.

There are numerous media accounts of the corporate monolith riding its suppliers into the ground. But what about those who manage to survive, and thrive, while dealing with the classic hardball negotiator?

In “Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Walmart” and “Tom Muccio: Negotiating the P&G Relationship with Walmart,” HBS professor Jim Sebenius and Research Associate Ellen Knebel show two very different organisations doing just that. The cases are part of a series that involve hard bargaining situations.

“The concept of win-win bargaining is a good and powerful message,” Sebenius says, “but a lot of our students and executives face negotiation counterparts who aren’t interested in playing by those rules. So what happens when you encounter someone with a great deal of power, like Walmart, who is also the ultimate non-negotiable partner?”

The case details how P&G executive Tom Muccio pioneers a new supplier-retailer partnership between P&G and Walmart. Built on proximity (Muccio relocated to Walmart’s turf in Arkansas) and growing trust (both sides eventually eliminated elaborate legal contracts in favor of Letters of Intent), the new relationship focused on establishing a joint vision and problem-solving process, information sharing, and generally moving away from the “lowest common denominator” pricing issues that had defined their interactions previously. From 1987, when Muccio initiated the changes, to 2003, shortly before his retirement, P&G’s sales to Walmart grew from $350 million to $7.8 billion.

“There are obvious differences between P&G and a much smaller entity like Frey Farms,” Sebenius notes. “Walmart could clearly live without Frey Farms, but it’s pretty hard to live without Tide and Pampers.”

Sarah meets Goliath

Sarah Talley was 19 in 1997, when she first began negotiating with Walmart’s buyers for her family farm’s pumpkins and watermelons. Like Muccio, Talley confronted some of the same hardball price challenges, and like Muccio, she acquired a deep understanding of the Walmart culture while finding “new money” in the supply chain through innovative tactics.

For example, Frey Farms used school busses ($1,500 each) instead of tractors ($12,000 each) as a cheaper and faster way to transport melons to the warehouse.

Talley also was skillful at negotiating a coveted co-management supplier agreement with Walmart, showing how Frey Farms could share the responsibility of managing inventory levels and sales and ultimately save customers money while improving their own margins.

“Two sides in this sort of negotiation will always differ on price,” Sebenius observes. “However, if that conflict is the centerpiece of their interaction, then it’s a bad situation. If they’re trying to develop the customer, the relationship, and sales, the price piece will be one of many points, most of which they’re aligned on.”

Research Associate Knebel points out that while Tom Muccio’s approach to Walmart was pioneering for its time, many other companies have since followed P&G’s lead and enjoyed their own versions of success with the mega-retailer. Getting a ground-level view of how two companies achieved those positive outcomes illustrates the story-within-a-story of implementing corporate change.

“Achieving that is where macro concepts, micro imperatives, and managerial skill really come together,” says Sebenius. And the payoffs—as Muccio and Talley discover—are well worth the effort.

Sarah Talley’s Key Negotiation Principles

  • When you have a problem, when there’s something you engage in with Walmart that requires agreement so that it becomes a negotiation, the first advice is to think in partnership terms, really focus on a common goal, for example of getting costs out, and ask questions. Don’t make demands or statements. Rather ask if you can do this better. If the relationship with Walmart is truly a partnership, negotiating to resolve differences should focus on long term mutual partnership gains.
  • Don’t spend time griping. Be problem solvers instead. Approach Walmart by saying, “Let’s work together and drive costs down and produce it so much cheaper you don’t have to replace me, because if you work with me I could do it better.”
  • Learn from and lobby with people and their partners who have credibility, and with people having problems in the field.
  • Don’t ignore small issues or let things fester.
  • Try not to let Walmart become more than 20% of your company’s business.
  • It’s hard to negotiate with well trained buyers who know that their company could put your company out of business.
  • Never go into a meeting without a clear negotiation agenda . Make good use of the buyers’ face time. Leave with answers. Don’t make small talk. Get to the point; their time is valuable. Bring underlying issues to the surface. Attack them head on and find resolution face to face.
  • Trying to bluff Walmart buyers is never a good idea. There is usually someone willing to do it cheaper to gain the business. You have to treat the relationship as a marriage. Communication and negotiated compromises are key.
  • Don’t take for granted that just because the buyer is young they don’t know what they are talking about or that it will be an easy sell. Most young buyers are very ambitious to move up within the company and can be some of the toughest, most educated buyers you will encounter. Know your product all the way from the production standpoint to the end use. Chances are your buyer does, and will expect you to be even more knowledgeable.

My top 3 favorites are don’t ignore small issues, be a problem solver and hold on to a high percentage of your business. You should always communicate when something comes up instead of letting it fester because it could develop into something big that would have never happened if discussed in the first place. When you develop your own business you should never let someone take over more percentage than you have because then you will lose control over what you started. Never gripe and be a problem solver. Larger companies don’t want to hear complaining they want to see action and larger profits

I have negotiated with Walmart for large and small business and I don’t recall any subjects of the conversations that were valued more or equal to price and their margin protection. Logistics or supply it was still a an unyielding stand of profit. Kroger,Publix, Winn Dixie, would &will negotiate for volume -promotions -discounting. Your article is not specific enough for analysis nor to draw the conclusions you present.

The two cases, one with a large vendor and the other with a small one, both working with Wal-Mart reframes some of the classic views of negotiating in a practical way.

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    Walmart buyers are trained to treat their vendors in a variety of ways, depending on where you fit into their plan. This case shares a story of a vendor called Sarah who negotiated a win-win outcome with Walmart. WalMart, the world’s largest retailer, sold $514.4 billion worth of goods in 2019.