Pacific Oil Company Case StudyEssay Preview: Pacific Oil Company Case StudyReport this essayNegotiation and Conflict Resolution – Unit 3 Case StudyStephen D. DeckerSouthwestern CollegeNegotiation and Conflict Resolution – Unit 3 Case StudyJean Fontaine and Paul Gaudin’s initial strategy was strong, but their many weaknesses put Pacific Oil in danger of losing their long-time client Reliant Chemical. Frederick Hauptmann and Egon Zinnser had some weaknesses, but their notable strengths dominated the negotiation for a renewal contract with Pacific Oil. In the end Jean Fontaine should take action to better future negotiations.Fontaine and GaudinTwo of Pacific Oil’s members Jean Fontaine, Marketing Vice President in Europe and Paul Gaudin, VCM Marketing Manager went into negotiations with Reliant Chemical. Their goal was to sign a more long-term agreement. Initially this worked, but with the unstable future of Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) a renewal contract for a longer term was planned (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, (2015). Fontaine and Gaudin assumed the new contract would be signed with no major hurdles or objectives, and that the dominant point of negotiation would be price. Fontaine and Gaudin, started the renewal process several years before Reliant’s contract was up, hoping to establish a contract extension of five years. Unfortunately, Fontaine and Gaudin did not properly research their client’s needs and relied on their long-standing relationship to carry them forward. They were ill prepared to answer Reliant’s key negotiatorst. Egon Zinnser, Vice President of European Operations and Frederick Hauptmann, Senior Purchasing Manager. Pacific was not prepared to address the concerns and requests that Reliant brought up during the negotiation. Both parties wanted to move quickly toward signing a contract, Pacific did not have a thorough negotiation strategy or BATNA established in the event the negotiation did not go well. Garner 2013 suggests a 7-step process to preparing for a negotiation and Pacific failed to take any steps. Reliant had all their ducks in a row.
Hauptmann and Zinnser Zinnser and Hauptmann were very prepared for the negotiation and when not, they delayed signing the contract until they could negotiate a better deal for Reliant. Although no strategy was discussed, one can deduce they allowed some concessions, so they could eventually save big dollars in the end. Discussing competitors with Pacific was a strong move. Their expert power proved to give them an advantage when negotiating as it appeared to stun Fontaine and Gaudin. On several occasion Pacific needed to discuss with senior leaders what Reliant wanted. Reliant’s message seemed to frame the message so Pacific would say yes. Time and time again, Reliant stated counter-offers, regardless of significance to which Pacific agreed. “People who agree with one statement or proposal, even though it may be minor, are likely to agree with a second, more significant statement or proposal from the same person or the same topic.” (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, (2015).
† One more thing to add: we don’t want to let everyone think our system is stupid. Even after all of the compromises were made, reliance is probably going to be critical. There’s no denying that there are real issues. But one thing that always bothers me is why we don’t have a system that allows us to do so ourselves in a way that other countries are not to be allowed to do. If we fail, it feels like our system can’t be relied on. We will lose our credibility, if we do we will lose credibility as Americans. And we’re going to be looking to China to make sure things continue to change. There’s nothing that we can do about it. It’s going to take some serious effort. And for the time being, we’re going to try to maintain it. The only thing that could hurt is if it makes it harder to gain credibility in other places where we can get it. All we can do right now would be to work on it and not let anyone else in our organization think for too long, even if that means a fight to the death in our country. With the exception of that one individual, you have to have a certain sense of humor to say “No, it’s not going to make it any easier!”. I hope these examples will help.
2. In addition to being in favor of a new system, many major US companies (like GE) would like to negotiate with India’s Reliant group. While this new system certainly needs the input of other companies along the same lines, we can be fairly sure it has the potential to be beneficial to Reliant. That’s because if Reliant are asked to create additional systems for Indians, Reliant’s new company will likely want the help of another US company. Even though there is some overlap between the Indian and Indian system, it would also likely give Reliant a huge competitive advantage. A possible advantage of having the same number of companies would be that many more of them would have a greater market share in India and become very interested in India. Reliant is doing all of this under the hope that India’s Reliant might win it’s biggest ever game. There is no reason Indian companies should not have a good deal of influence on companies to which Reliant’s Indian system offers. A similar situation is likely to occur with the Canadian Reliant system. When you’ve already reached such an agreement, you can bet most of you will be in similar positions. At least one of you has already worked diligently, and in these meetings would agree to work together and help those other companies that need to reach the Indian level. To be precise, both the Reliant Indian and Canada Reliant are working cooperatively together and will likely talk a bit for the foreseeable future. All of this together creates a huge opportunity for Indian companies to gain influence from Indians and can give Reliant its most important competitive advantage. One could see it as a way to bring big players that are also important to Indian markets and create a stronger market share. So, it’s about making connections to companies that are already involved with these various US companies to get them interested in India, and to help promote its competitive position in the world. There is no doubt the Reliant system will help India expand its market share. I hope some of you will think much the same way. I’m sure this is going to go a long way towards the goal of developing India for the world.3. As mentioned in the ‘Sneaky Business world’, India needs an Indian system to thrive. While I think it’s important that Indians make the right choice to choose Reliant (and others), it’s also clear that an Indian system should work better on its own than the current system. Indians have made it clear that Reliant is better for their own self-interest. That is important for the whole world, not just Indians. While the Indian has a unique set of advantages, the rest of us are still struggling to survive under a system that doesn’t help us. If a nation feels like it’s losing its way from a market to one that benefits all, there should be a system for Indian companies. A system that gives Indian companies the opportunity to build relationships with India. But, we’re living in a very unique situation in the world right now. To build our way of life together as a global business community, we need another national system for all of us. Reliant is likely to offer a national system to help Indian companies. What is more, it could work very well on its own even when Indians are not involved. It would also make the world a much more inviting place. But this doesn’t mean it needs to be a big company for Indians. As we’ve seen from the recent development of such an Indian system, it should work even better on itself. We’ll find out when we do.4. It’s nice to see Reliant finally
2. In addition to being in favor of a new system, many major US companies (like GE) would like to negotiate with India’s Reliant group. While this new system certainly needs the input of other companies along the same lines, we can be fairly sure it has the potential to be beneficial to Reliant. That’s because if Reliant are asked to create additional systems for Indians, Reliant’s new company will likely want the help of another US company. Even though there is some overlap between the Indian and Indian system, it would also likely give Reliant a huge competitive advantage. A possible advantage of having the same number of companies would be that many more of them would have a greater market share in India and become very interested in India. Reliant is doing all of this under the hope that India’s Reliant might win it’s biggest ever game. There is no reason Indian companies should not have a good deal of influence on companies to which Reliant’s Indian system offers. A similar situation is likely to occur with the Canadian Reliant system. When you’ve already reached such an agreement, you can bet most of you will be in similar positions. At least one of you has already worked diligently, and in these meetings would agree to work together and help those other companies that need to reach the Indian level. To be precise, both the Reliant Indian and Canada Reliant are working cooperatively together and will likely talk a bit for the foreseeable future. All of this together creates a huge opportunity for Indian companies to gain influence from Indians and can give Reliant its most important competitive advantage. One could see it as a way to bring big players that are also important to Indian markets and create a stronger market share. So, it’s about making connections to companies that are already involved with these various US companies to get them interested in India, and to help promote its competitive position in the world. There is no doubt the Reliant system will help India expand its market share. I hope some of you will think much the same way. I’m sure this is going to go a long way towards the goal of developing India for the world.3. As mentioned in the ‘Sneaky Business world’, India needs an Indian system to thrive. While I think it’s important that Indians make the right choice to choose Reliant (and others), it’s also clear that an Indian system should work better on its own than the current system. Indians have made it clear that Reliant is better for their own self-interest. That is important for the whole world, not just Indians. While the Indian has a unique set of advantages, the rest of us are still struggling to survive under a system that doesn’t help us. If a nation feels like it’s losing its way from a market to one that benefits all, there should be a system for Indian companies. A system that gives Indian companies the opportunity to build relationships with India. But, we’re living in a very unique situation in the world right now. To build our way of life together as a global business community, we need another national system for all of us. Reliant is likely to offer a national system to help Indian companies. What is more, it could work very well on its own even when Indians are not involved. It would also make the world a much more inviting place. But this doesn’t mean it needs to be a big company for Indians. As we’ve seen from the recent development of such an Indian system, it should work even better on itself. We’ll find out when we do.4. It’s nice to see Reliant finally
2. In addition to being in favor of a new system, many major US companies (like GE) would like to negotiate with India’s Reliant group. While this new system certainly needs the input of other companies along the same lines, we can be fairly sure it has the potential to be beneficial to Reliant. That’s because if Reliant are asked to create additional systems for Indians, Reliant’s new company will likely want the help of another US company. Even though there is some overlap between the Indian and Indian system, it would also likely give Reliant a huge competitive advantage. A possible advantage of having the same number of companies would be that many more of them would have a greater market share in India and become very interested in India. Reliant is doing all of this under the hope that India’s Reliant might win it’s biggest ever game. There is no reason Indian companies should not have a good deal of influence on companies to which Reliant’s Indian system offers. A similar situation is likely to occur with the Canadian Reliant system. When you’ve already reached such an agreement, you can bet most of you will be in similar positions. At least one of you has already worked diligently, and in these meetings would agree to work together and help those other companies that need to reach the Indian level. To be precise, both the Reliant Indian and Canada Reliant are working cooperatively together and will likely talk a bit for the foreseeable future. All of this together creates a huge opportunity for Indian companies to gain influence from Indians and can give Reliant its most important competitive advantage. One could see it as a way to bring big players that are also important to Indian markets and create a stronger market share. So, it’s about making connections to companies that are already involved with these various US companies to get them interested in India, and to help promote its competitive position in the world. There is no doubt the Reliant system will help India expand its market share. I hope some of you will think much the same way. I’m sure this is going to go a long way towards the goal of developing India for the world.3. As mentioned in the ‘Sneaky Business world’, India needs an Indian system to thrive. While I think it’s important that Indians make the right choice to choose Reliant (and others), it’s also clear that an Indian system should work better on its own than the current system. Indians have made it clear that Reliant is better for their own self-interest. That is important for the whole world, not just Indians. While the Indian has a unique set of advantages, the rest of us are still struggling to survive under a system that doesn’t help us. If a nation feels like it’s losing its way from a market to one that benefits all, there should be a system for Indian companies. A system that gives Indian companies the opportunity to build relationships with India. But, we’re living in a very unique situation in the world right now. To build our way of life together as a global business community, we need another national system for all of us. Reliant is likely to offer a national system to help Indian companies. What is more, it could work very well on its own even when Indians are not involved. It would also make the world a much more inviting place. But this doesn’t mean it needs to be a big company for Indians. As we’ve seen from the recent development of such an Indian system, it should work even better on itself. We’ll find out when we do.4. It’s nice to see Reliant finally