
Insights


The businesses that are coming out of the crisis truly leading the market are those who have both responded to the short-term challenges and opportunities, and put in place a robust infrastructure to serve the long term, setting up for growth in the upturn that will follow.

With the ever-increasing rise of purpose-driven brands and organizations putting a spotlight on the ethics of business, where does this leave negotiation? Can a laser-like focus on optimizing value coexist with an ethical approach, and if so, how?

A special feature in The Times newspaper's "The Future CEO" supplement reports that when business strategy execution goes wrong, it's likely that the negotiations that underpinned it were suboptimal.

An ancient text on warfare contains three aphorisms that over two thousand years later can help a modern negotiator overcome some common pitfalls. Expect practical wisdom on managing up, first proposals and the value of investing effort into truly knowing your counterparty.

In these post-Covid times we are seeing inflationary pressure caused by rising commodity prices, as well as increasing wage demands. For companies who are now facing into negotiations with trade unions, there are five simple principles to keep in mind which will aid the discussions and ensure a positive result.

It's understandable that a natural response to the commercial havoc that Covid has wrought would be to assume a competitive negotiation position. But paradoxically this is the time, now more than ever, for procurement teams to seek collaborative and creative solutions with their suppliers.

In times of instability and unpredictability, the established patterns associated with business relationships can be severely tested. This may cause significant disruption and negative impact to planned or ongoing commercial negotiations. What can businesses and their negotiators do when faced with uncertainty and the risk it brings?

A statement from our CEO about The Gap Partnership's response to the war in Ukraine.

Omnichannel and e-commerce negotiations have been part of market considerations for close to a decade. Over the last two years this conversation has moved from a theoretical to commercial imperative due to consumer acceptance of e-commerce and significant growth of other non-traditional fulfillment models. In this article we'll explore the fundamentals of negotiations within each and how they are different from regular negotiations.