Live negotiation scenarios
A global airline was in negotiation wot merge a niche player into its operations. A competitor was also in negotiations at the time for the same business.
The airline assembled a panel of aviation and organisation consultants to predict the implications of a merger. The panel made recommendations to the main board's negotiators on a daily basis. These indicated the issues which were likely to prove sensitive, such as the ratio of pilots and first officers from each company in the new entity. Promotions and redundancies needed to be handled fairly.
Without exaggerating the role of the panel, we believe it can be helpful in complex negotiations to predict scenarios 'away from the table' in a way that informs tactics 'at the table'.
