Industry Rorschach – Negotiation As A Way of Life, A Way of Work

Whether you believe it or not, we negotiate in our lives everyday. Pleading and offering concessions to your kid to do his homework – that’s a negotiation. Buying a house? That’s definitely a negotiation. Disputing a charge on your credit card bill? Well, you get the point. So, if negotiation is a part of our routine tasks, what determines if you’re good at it or not? And what about jobs and industries that rely on you to be a successful negotiator? Does your everyday negotiation exercise actually hinder or help you?

To answer this question and gain some insight into what it’s like to have negotiation as a career skill, I reached out to Jakob Conner, owner of Jakob’s Ladder, an entertainment management company, and attempted to “negotiate” my way into getting a fictitious artist signed with his company. After about 2 hours, I was able to successfully get my artist signed; a major win for me since I was up against an artful negotiator. However, I had to give up an advance. After our mock negotiation, I was able to ask Jakob some direct questions about his experiences.

What do you find to be the most important skill in negotiating?

“People skills- hands down. If you are a person that cannot relate to people, do not have compassion and empathy, then negotiation is going to be a brutal, full contact sport. You have to remember that you’re dealing with people from beginning to end.”

Have you ever had any bad negotiation experiences? If so, how did you overcome them?

“Oh, I’ve had plenty. I think my worse negotiations had to do with me making bad assumptions about the other side; assumptions about their personalities or their positions in a company, it makes for a bad strategy. I’ve had to leave the room, take breaks and come back into the conversation with a clean mental slate in order to help talks progress.”

What do you do when you find that you’re not able to reach a mutual agreement?

“You try your absolute hardest to make negotiations work. And I’ve always walked into talks knowing what I was going to ask for, and with an open ear to what they were asking for, as well as a few alternatives, but after that, if negotiations do not work, they you have to make peace with that.”

Do you worry about being fair? If so, what kind of checks and balances do you have in place to ensure that you’re being fair?

“I don’t take much joy in being ruthless and squeezing everything I possible can from the other party. Yes, I worry about being fair. Depending on the deal, I always refer to precedence to guide me through the ins and outs of the deal.”

Do you find that having sharp negotiation skills improves other areas of your life?

“Absolutely. Negotiation has made me a better communicator, and has given me more patience.”

Any advice for me, or anyone moving forward in their careers regarding negotiation?

“I would say the most important advice I can give to anyone again is to realize that if you strip off all of the titles, and stereotypes, and assumptions, that you’re dealing with people. And with that comes people’s hopes, fears, needs and desires. Acknowledge those in the beginning, and you’re on your way to a successful session.

Excellent advice from Jakob, being that I entered our negotiation exercise nervous, knowing that Jakob had more experience and power at the negotiating table. The best move I could have made for myself (to ease the nerves) and for the other team was to shift the focus of power, acknowledge their experience/status, and move forward with my recommendations.

Although this was a mock exercise, it gave me a taste of what it’s like to negotiate in the entertainment industry where you’re often sitting at the table with moguls.

Industry Rorschach – An (unauthorized) View Into Digital Publishing Negotiations – Positioning and Coming To Terms

Publishers are eager to recapture the momentum they have lost since they began launching iPad editions last year. Since the introduction of the iPad, Conde Nast’s Wired Magazine has sold 100,00 digital copies, but has since seen sales drop dramatically, further cannibalizing publishing profits.

With consumers complaining about paying the cover price for an iPad version (even being paid print subscribers), publishers looking for ways to stop hemorrhaging money, and Apple’s content interests, a viable solution for all parties needed to be created.

“Our negotiations with Apple came down to reconciling Apple's need for a quick-and-easy purchasing process with their [Condé Nast's] desire to sell several different iPad packages and to receive data about who is buying the publisher's apps,” stated Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet services, as quoted in The New York Times.

From a leverage and power perspective, Apple had the advantage moving forward in these negotiations, its disruptive device has forever change how consumers and brands interact. And since tablet owners are increasingly consuming more digital than print content, publishers are playing catch up. However, Apple did not enter negotiations without knowing that its interests lie in the need for content for its then new subscription service. Apple’s restrictive app policies were a major contention point for Condé Nast heading into negotiations. Painstaking negotiations ensued, as Ashley S., counsel team member for Condé Nast report, but major tenets of the negotiation include:

• Apple makes 30% on all purchases made through an app- this was a position Apple will not budge on. (This was not necessarily a contention point for Condé Nast, since the majority of their money will be based on ads for the digital editions)
• Publishers receive names, email addresses and zip codes only (if customer opts to share information)
• Condé Nast to offer digital only, or print-plus-digital subscription options at a monthly or yearly price

In the end, the negotiations help modify Apple’s app buy-flow process and shaped a mutual agreement around the customer relationship and digital publishing. The deal also signified two powerhouses negotiating in what may now be considered a baseline or objective criteria for additional Apple-Publisher deals.