10Breaking a Negotiation Deadlock through Intangibles1
Based on an interview with William Ury
Deadlocks are nothing new in negotiation. However, when parties take a positional approach to negotiation, with very high stakes involved and with much of the negotiation playing out in the public sphere, the stage is set for a perfect storm of confounding and self-defeating behavior. When this confluence of events comes together in just the right way, otherwise attainable objectives remain elusive.
This was indeed the case when my colleague William Ury heard from the daughter of one of the people embroiled in this negotiation quagmire. She implored Ury to get in touch with her father to try to help him out of this seemingly endless trap. Ury agreed, but with some trepidation, wondering what he could offer. After meeting with the father and asking some critical questions, Ury could begin to see a possible way through the conundrum. This is the story.
Background and the Negotiation Challenge
Abilio dos Santos Diniz, a retail tycoon from São Paulo, Brazil, is the son of a Portuguese immigrant. Diniz's father founded Grupo Pão de Açúcar in 1948 in Brazil. Under Diniz's management, Grupo Pão de Açúcar became Brazil's largest retailer, with revenue of $24.9 billion in 2012. How Diniz got to this point and where the negotiation in question comes from have to do with a French company called Groupe Casino.
The relationship between the two companies began in 1999, when Groupe Casino acquired ...
Get The Book of Real-World Negotiations now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
