As part of our series on internationally relevant topics by our author Sergey Frank, we are devoting a 3-part article to the extremely important question of how to conduct a successful negotiation in detail on the international stage.
Negotiations play a significant role in any business, including at the international level, of course, and rarely proceed in a uniform manner. Internationally, complex situations often arise, for example due to different language levels of the negotiating parties or diverging cultural and value views. Discussions are usually conducted in English or third languages, often with the help of interpreters, as described above. In addition, there are diverging priorities and time constraints.
These aspects are complex and carry considerable risks that can end in misunderstandings, loss of time and frustration. To prevent this and at the same time improve communication and understanding between the negotiating partners, certain rules of the game must be observed.
These rules include a clear negotiation process in four steps: opening and setting the essential milestones (part 1), communication and exploring the interests of the other side (part 2), the actual negotiation (part 3), and agreement and ideally conclusion of the contract (part 4). The result of a negotiation can initially only be a partial agreement before the further issues are negotiated in a further round. And the process of understanding, listening and negotiating can also be repeated several times. Especially in people-oriented cultures, such as in the Middle East, Asia or even Russia, negotiation talks can drag on for a long time.
In many countries, the personal level is perhaps even more important than the factual level. To avoid serious conflicts, it is therefore important to separate the two levels. Often the partner is not seen as a representative of a company, but as a human being. Displeasure about an unpleasant situation can lead to taking it out on the other person. To avoid this, it is better to precisely separate relationship elements such as understanding, respect, affection, fear and anger on the one hand and factual elements such as prices, specifications, competitive advantages, payment and delivery terms on the other. You can always negotiate your interests consistently, but at the same time be polite with your partner.
The goal
Personal esteem and integrity are essential components of any business relationship, whether national or international. In this context, it is impossible to provide a patent recipe for successful negotiation at the international level. Furthermore, it is not the intention to provide rhetorical tricks that may "trick" or "bamboozle" the other party. The following is about conscious negotiation, i.e. how to act factually, rationally and structurally. It is in the negotiator's overriding interest to
negotiate effectively and professionally
Avoid ineffective conflicts
Achieve appropriate results as quickly as possible
to achieve bindingness also in an intercultural context.
After thorough preparation, including a clear definition of what is wanted, the actual negotiations can begin. In principle, negotiations follow the pattern shown in the figure below, whereby the process of understanding, listening and negotiating can be repeated several times. Often, the final agreement is reached in the form of partial agreements.
The figure above clearly shows the overall constellation and also the dynamics of the contract negotiations. In principle, these are based on good negotiation preparation, reaching partial agreements and then continuing the negotiations. Finally, one arrives (or not) at the overall conclusion of the contract.
It is a good idea to think about the individual steps as follows:
Preparation
Before the actual negotiations take place, you should try to get to know the partner in question. The more you know about him, both in business and personally, the better. Therefore, it is very important to create a positive atmosphere at the beginning of a negotiation.
Courtesy and hospitality go without saying in this context. Added to this are interest in the person of the partner, open communication, friendly eye contact and, last but not least, humour. In addition, national customs play a very important role in international negotiations.
It is always advisable to allow enough time for negotiations. A lot of negative results are achieved under time pressure. The lack of time often becomes a means of pressure, especially in international negotiations.
If you define your negotiation topic precisely in advance, you can be sure that the negotiation will proceed according to plan and not get out of hand. A good way to do this is to divide the issue into main topic, sub-topics, main arguments and sub-arguments. An issue that initially appears complex will thus become structured and comprehensible, both in itself and for the partner. The following points should be noted:
Agenda - structure the negotiation topic
Definition of key terms, because it is often important, ideally together with the other side, to define terms precisely
Developing a negotiation strategy and preparing for one's own goals, but also reflecting on priorities of the other side
Flexibility - looking for options and considering possible concessions
A Step-by-Step Approach - From Smaller to Larger in the Course of Negotiation
The argumentation
Apart from personal aspects, the procedural approach is also relevant and a clear structure of the conversation is indispensable. With regard to argumentation, care should be taken not to start the negotiation too coldly and too soberly. This form of negotiation with high initial positions and negative stipulations such as "up to here and no further" is seen in many countries as clearly too demanding. You also risk losing face if you give in on your expectations in the course of the talks.
It is therefore important not to be too demanding from the outset, but rather to build up appropriate positions. Factors such as saving face and being interested in the other person's culture and personality are generally very important. Therefore, negotiate less about positions and more about upstream interests. If you can successfully summarise the position of the other party and then explain your own position, you will significantly improve your own chances of success.
A clear and thus consistent argumentation should be well prepared. The preparation for this usually takes some time. It is advisable to check the coherence of one's own position and possible changes to it. At the same time, as many options as possible for the negotiation goal and strategy should be developed in advance.
It is no less important to take into account objections from the other party, insofar as they are foreseeable, in order to be able to react to them quickly and appropriately.
In reality, there is often a lack of such preparation, especially due to time constraints. The parties usually enter the negotiation ill-prepared and with what they believe to be the correct and therefore infallible solution; conflicts are then pre-programmed.
Please bear in mind: In few other areas can so much be won so quickly, but also lost, as in international negotiations. In the next part we will look at the right structure and show how helpful a change of perspective can be.
Recruitment consultancies constantly receive new interesting job offers from their corporate clients and then check which candidates from their career pool could match them. If the candidate's qualifications match the requirements of the searching company, that is a match. The more accurate a candidate's profile is, the better the match will be in the end.
It is essential that the data stored is up to date. If, for example, a candidate has indicated that he or she is willing to change jobs, but this information is not up to date, this ultimately brings disadvantages for both sides. On the one hand, the recruiter contacts the candidate in the hope of being able to place him or her, and remains unsuccessful. On the other hand, the candidate receives supposedly unwanted calls or e-mails from the recruitment consultancy.
In order to ensure that the candidate pools are up-to-date, the cooperation of the candidates is therefore indispensable. The HR experts of HR Consult Group AG have investigated the level of willingness to do so in their study with over 10,000 participants, among other things.
More than half would like to be reminded by e-mail
In principle, a large proportion of respondents (57 per cent) are willing to check their candidate profile regularly and update it if necessary. More than half would like to receive a reminder by email, while 17 percent would update their profile every six months. Updating their profile once a year was indicated by 13 per cent of the candidates. Likewise, 13 per cent are not prepared to update their data themselves.
We are very pleased with this positive response from respondents. The topicality of the data in our candidate pool is one of the keys to our work. Only with up-to-date data can we guarantee precisely fitting placements and thus optimally help both our clients and our candidates to take the next career step.
After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.
In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".
At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.
"The world has changed - it's never going back to normal - and that's what you have to love!"
All companies are facing this changed world. Buzzwords such as digitalisation, flexibilisation, globalisation, competitive management, communication at eye level, value and cultural change - to name but a few - are haunting all departments.
In order to be able to cope with the complexity of these issues, a new "mindset" in the heads of the management and in the heads of the HR departments is absolutely necessary.
The process of change in the labour market has been noticeable for years - the demographic change has not only been known since yesterday. By 2020, there will be a shortage of 6 million people - due to the low birth rate in the 70s and 80s. Closely linked to this is the ageing of society. This poses just as great a challenge for companies. These facts should be a wake-up call for all companies, because it means that those who do not act now, who do not change their mindset now, will lose a decisive competitive advantage within the next three to five years: people, plus the opportunity to find and develop them for a company.
The age of "post & pray" is long gone - for a long time now, standard job advertisements have not received the desired number of applications. It is therefore imperative to go new ways - one of many possibilities is the establishment of a strategic talent relationship management. This can also be summarised in one sentence:
"Knowing tomorrow's talent today".
But how? This is exactly where "out of the box" thinking comes in: Finding the talents - and this really means all potential candidates, whether active or passive - where they are. Surely you are not on some online job ad platforms. Finding talent doesn't mean spending all day online / at your desk. It means going out, attending trade fairs, actively networking, being active in the market, using events, etc.
"Be bold and creative."
Go where the talents are. For example, with the help of a "talent scout". Where can you find young innovative fashion designers, for example? The best places are the various fashion fairs in Berlin, Amsterdam, etc. The talent scout's sole task is to approach these talents directly on site and establish contact - not to approach them for a specific position. His task is to build a long-term / strategic relationship - to inspire the talent for the company today, so that when a suitable position becomes vacant - he can offer it to this talent. But it also means that intensive contact with the talent should be built up over time. A one-off birthday card is not enough - you have to stand out, stay in touch with the talent individually. With such measures, it should never be disregarded that the necessary acceptance for the position of talent scout must exist from the top of the company in order to build and maintain a strategic talent relationship pool. It is equally important that the processes behind a talent relationship management pool are supported in the best possible way with a well-functioning tool, e.g. embedded in an existing applicant management system.
Establishing a strategic talent relationship management takes time - but saves money in the long run - because it results in precisely fitting recruitments.
Now is the time to go new ways, implement them and thereby generate an absolute competitive advantage.
Ms Petra Carl is a fully qualified lawyer specialising in labour law. She has been working in HR for 20 years and has learned her trade from the ground up. She has managed the HR department in various companies and has consistently developed it over the last few years in line with the challenges of the labour market. As a long-time HR manager in the fashion and lifestyle industry, she has profound knowledge of HR processes. Her expertise covers the entire employee life cycle.
The five focal points of their further development are employer branding, candidate journey, social media based active sourcing, direct approach and strategic talent relationship management.
At Senator Executive Search Partners, Petra Carl is responsible for the area of HR process optimisation. She offers you for your HR department:
Tailor-made, forward-looking HR solutions
Support and accompany the transformation of your current human resources system into a 'state-of-the-art' one.
Development of 'HR 4.0' in particular with regard to its five focal points
Experts and entrepreneurs alike probably agree that compliance has become a must. At the same time, it is clear that compliance is subject to constant change and that companies must constantly adapt their compliance management systems to the new requirements. For the future, it is therefore important to know what challenges lie ahead in terms of compliance and what trends can be expected.
The year 2017 already included two important core topics of compliance:
On the one hand, money laundering, which has become more concrete through the implementation of the 4th EU Money Laundering Directive. On the other hand, data protection with the associated challenges, especially for information security. The implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took place in May 2018.
Apart from IT and data security, another focus is the introduction and implementation of business partner audits. "The extent to which the new ISO standard 37001 can provide impetus in the prevention of corruption will be just as interesting to observe as the development of the relationship between corporate responsibility, sustainability and compliance in organisations. Ultimately, the measurability of compliance measures will continue to be important." 28
Future compliance must increasingly address the expectations of the company's stakeholders. "Customers increasingly want to be able to rely on a clean supply chain. Thus, the competitive relevance of compliance for companies is increasing," according to the authors of the study "The Future of Compliance 2017". When asked which stakeholders have the greatest interest in a functioning CMS, the customer was named most frequently with 62 percent.29
Against the backdrop of scarce resources - especially in medium-sized companies - the question of an individual, customised CMS continues to gain in importance. The differences in the respective compliance functions are due in particular to the industry to which the company is assigned. Many companies still orient themselves to IDW PS 980 (auditing standard). This is certainly justified, as it is recognised and also fulfils the most important requirements of an "effective compliance management system", as also required, for example, by case law. However, it must be taken into account that the structure of the IDW auditing standard - especially for companies that belong to a so-called "regulated industry" - must also integrate the requirements for specific regulatory requirements (e.g. Bafin requirements or GMP requirements for pharmaceutical companies).
In our experience, there are still very different views on the question of what compliance means for a company. Many managers still believe that compliance is limited to the fulfilment of regulatory requirements. In order to convey that compliance is much more and can make an important contribution to the corporate culture, we believe that more intensive information and awareness-raising is still needed in the companies. Against this background, we see the "promotion of the compliance culture" as one of the most prominent topics to be mentioned in the context of the future of compliance. Closely connected to this is also the communicative aspect, because building a compliance culture in the company requires intensive and targeted communication.
The fact that many companies also have other management systems in place - such as quality and/or environmental management systems - makes the consideration of integrating a CMS into existing management systems very important. This is all the more important because synergies can be created and costs saved.
28 Compliance trends in 2017, in: Compliance - Die Zeitschrift für Compliance-Verantwortliche, February 2017 issue
29 The Future of Compliance 2017 - Challenges and Trends in Compliance Management, in: https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pa- ges/audit/articles/future-of-compliance
Studied law and business administration, postgraduate studies to become a Master of Business Administration (MBA). In-service training to become a European Quality Manager (DGQ), a mediator specialising in business mediation and a Certified Compliance Manager (TÜV).
Eckart Achauer worked for about 10 years in the international insurance industry in the management of a Swiss insurance group in various functions (claims department, sales, assistance) before switching to management and business consulting in 1997.
As a consultant and managing director of various consulting companies, Mr Achauer has specialised thematically in organisational and process optimisation as well as in the development and implementation of management systems - quality management, risk and compliance management.
For the HR Consult Group, Mr Achauer is responsible for the area of compliance management. Within the framework of compliance audits, he analyses their organisational "compliance fitness", he sensitises and trains the management, executives and employees and supports the companies in setting up and implementing individual compliance management systems. In doing so, he always takes into account the specific risk situation of the companies. Due to his many years of experience as a manager and consultant, he is very familiar with the entrepreneurial challenges from practice.
If you want to offer your candidates particularly good services, you should know exactly the needs and wishes of the target group and adapt your offer accordingly. In order to be able to take this step, the HR experts of HR Consult Group AG conducted a candidate survey - in which more than 10,000 participants responded - to investigate, among other things, which services candidates place particular value on.
The top answers are no surprise: At 93 per cent, almost all candidates expect new professional offers from recruiters. Three quarters of the respondents assume that their profile will be actively marketed by the recruitment agency and brought to the attention of potential employers. A personal interview with a consultant is seen by a similar number of participants, 72 percent, as a fixed component of the process. This is primarily about individual service and the creation of a basis of trust.
More than half expect an aptitude diagnostic procedure / a potential analysis
In 4th and 5th place in the ranking come coaching and an analysis of potential with a total of 52 per cent and aptitude diagnostics with 46 per cent. Both procedures aim to work out the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate and thus possibly identify completely new professional focuses and career perspectives.
"The candidates' primary expectations of a recruitment consultancy are quite clear. We are supposed to help them find a job and that is exactly what we do. It is interesting, however, that the survey participants obviously attach great importance to a personal and individual exchange. As personnel consultants, we welcome this very much, because through direct and personal contact, wishes and goals can be defined faster, better and more clearly. Supplemented by the available analysis procedures, we can thus find the right job and the right employer for the respective applicant very efficiently and precisely," explains Mr Lars Osmers, HR consultant at SENATOR.
Within the framework of aptitude diagnostics, many personality traits are scrutinised. The so-called key criteria are particularly important.
The question often arises as to which prerequisites the candidate must absolutely fulfil in order to be able to successfully cope with the requirements of a job position. Or which personality traits are decisive for the success or failure of a job holder. Answers to these questions are provided by the key criteria from aptitude diagnostics.
In contrast to the criteria defined as key criteria by superiors or personnel developers for respective positions, the key criteria of the aptitude diagnostics at HR Consult Group AG result from the most significant characteristics of the available comparison group.
The 10 key criteria of a norm or best practice profile are generated from the results of the group itself. These are the ones that have the smallest spread. Here, the agreement of the expression is the highest.
The evaluations of the test results for the different characteristics each show different scatter (see sample evaluation above), i.e. the range of test results varies from characteristic to characteristic. This is due to the fact that the test person of a comparison group assesses the individual characteristics differently.
The decisive factor here is that the range of the trait is very narrow, i.e. the test person forms an almost identical assessment of this topic and thus agrees with the comparison group that this trait is significant for this occupational group precisely in this form. Thus, personality traits that have the lowest dispersion / range become the key criterion for the respective position- or occupation-specific norm or best practice group.
Thus, key criteria have the highest significance (importance). These are checked using the values of the standard deviations. If the standard deviation is low, the scatter caused by the values of the different tests is also low. This means that the values are closer to the mean. This results in a smaller range and therefore a more distinct and significant characteristic, which is called the key criterion.
If a result value of the candidate, as seen in the example above, lands within the coloured bandwidth, the candidate is within the comparison profile. If the result is lower, i.e. to the left of the spread of the comparison group, the candidate has a clearly different assessment of this characteristic than his/her comparison group. In this case, it should be specifically questioned why the candidate assesses himself/herself in this way. This is usually a characteristic with development potential.
If the candidate's score is to the right of the coloured band, he or she is stronger than the comparison group in this respect, which is usually a sign of strength. The percentages on the far right indicate the exact values of the average of the comparison group, the candidate's value and the delta calculated from this, i.e. the exact deviation from the average of the comparison group.
The key criteria can be sorted according to the degree of significance. Depending on the procedure chosen, a number of criteria are then selected and evaluated as key criteria. Various methods are conceivable and can be implemented in a meaningful way:
On the one hand, a fixed number of criteria can be tapped, e.g. the first five or ten criteria. On the other hand, a percentage number can also be set so that, for example, 20 % of all criteria are considered key criteria that have the lowest dispersion.
The great insight is that the key criteria for successfully holding a position are self-evident and do not have to be determined in laborious coordination processes with the specialist and HR departments.
The next article in our series of topics is about the soft skills, which are almost identical in the characteristics of a successful professional group.
After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.
In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".
At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.
