今天感到心情不太好, 因为我们的小组报告下午五点前就要交上去, 可是临交时仍然存在很多问题, 最后没办法, 为了不错过时间, 就算知道里面仍然有些问题, 我们还是把它交了上去.
这两份报告是整整用了七周的时间慢慢磨出来的. 交上去以后, 我没有之前想像的那样兴奋, 而是感到异常的失落与空虚. 和桂花通完最后一个电话后, 我对着电脑的屏幕, 有一种欲哭无泪的伤痛. 桂花和我说, 她担心我们这门课会挂了. 我当时安慰她说挂应该不太可能, 但是我们这门课应该拿不到好分数了. 暂且放下这些作业不说, 单是之前我就和老师关于组员的分配发生过矛盾, 后来桂花问她关于那个SPSS软件的使用又留给她不好的印象. 然而我嘴里安慰别人, 可是当我一个人独处时, 我却比谁都担心. 不过现在一切已成定局, 我也只能听天由命了.
本来现在我应该在写着最后一份大作业的, 可是我怎么也静不下心来. 回顾着我们这么长时间的小组工作, 我有很多感想. 我觉得非常有必要在这里, 通过日记的方式, 来重新审视自己. 小组工作没有做好, 我觉得我没有资格埋怨别人. 而且与其现在说谁没有做好, 倒不如想想自己哪里没做好更实际. 别人没做好是别人的事, 虽然说会影响到整个小组的工作, 可是将来到了社会, 是和你没关系的. 真正和你切身相关的, 是你的能力与不足.
首先第一个我需要反省的是自己的学习心态. 有一个同学曾经评论过我, 说我越是不喜欢的东西, 就越抗拒, 最后就越不懂, 然后就更加不喜欢, 形成一种恶性循环. 比如说这次使用SPSS软件, 本身我就对这些电脑操作性的东西很厌恶, 而这个软件又是新东西, 所以我就是不想去接触. 要不是桂花硬逼着我去了解, 并且一直讲解给我听, 我到现在仍然一无所知. 我现在发现这是一个非常严重的问题! 我记得以前我们有些课, 比如说商业银行经营管理, 老师有要求我们去一个模拟银行系统进行业务操作的. 然而我由于讨厌这些东西, 居然叫舍友帮我做完了. 当时很多同学说做那个系统没用的, 和实际不沾边, 做了也等于白做. 于是我就想, 与其做一个没用的系统, 倒不如去学英语. 现在想想, 那种做法真的是大错特错! 有时有些东西, 你去做了可能对实际没有帮助, 但是却可以锻炼你一种能力. 我想要是所有的关于网上系统的业务我都认真去做了, 我对SPSS软件就不会这么怕, 更不会这么抗拒. 我以前特别佩服我的舍友, 比如说梁石和伟雄, 做些那些系统业务来很快上手. 可是我从来没有想过为什么别人这么快上手而我却这么慢. 我一直把自己的低效率归因为自己在电脑操作上没有天赋. 现在想起来, 一个大学生居然还会有这种想法, 真的有点愚不可及!要想提高自己的能力, 我必须要彻底改变我的心态, 我不能再让自己这样下去, 否则哪一天我就栽在这个节骨眼上了!
第二点我要反省是的自己的团队协调和组织能力. 在这两个大project里面, 我知道我是做得很失败的. 虽然这其中有project以及组员们的客观原因, 但是我要承担很大的责任. 首先我没有比大家更加全面地去了解我们要做的东西. 作为一个team leader, 你必须要比任何人了解要做什么, 并且要非常明确项目的方向以及任务的分配与协调. 然而我没有做好, 我只是和大家一样, 都感到一知半解, 以致我们完成的进度远远落后于其他的小组. 我想如果我当初真的肯下苦功把一切事先弄清楚, 后面就不会这样. 最明显的可以体现我协调的失败的现象是: 开小组会时很多组员不知道自己要干什么!! 虽然我和其中一个组员在研究那个系统, 可是别的组员呢? 他们来了可以干什么? 我没有很好地分配好任务给他们. 我以前从来没有遇到过这么尴尬的情况, 这次我总算是受教了. 我想要是以后在工作中也这样, 我不被上司批死才怪, 弄不好还可能丢了饭碗!
第三是, 我没有充分利用组员的才能. 我最大的优点是对于问题反应很快, 也可以想出很多idea, 写作能力也挺强(在中国学生眼中), 所以总是想自己承担大部分的工作, 特别是自己胸有成竹的时候. 可是这从另一方面来讲, 也是我最大的缺陷. 因为我自己很有见解, 所以往往会很容易排斥别人的看法, 特别如果最后决定权在我手里的时候, 我经常觉得别人提的意见有问题, 而不会再三思考它的价值. 另外更重要的是, 我并没有很好地引导我们的组员去思考某些问题. 当我发现组员搜集给我的资料没有什么用时, 我就宁愿自己把他们的工作也做完, 从搜资料到写报告, 全部一手包办. 小组工作最后几乎变成了个人工作. 我不否认在这个过程中我会到很多东西, 但是与此同时, 我也失去了很多. 当组员找的东西不是我想要的时候, 我为什么不思考一下为什么他们找不到合适的资料? 很关键的一点是他们可能还没弄清楚我们的工作究竟具体要做什么, 他们只是有一个大概的了解, 所以只能盲目地找资料. 如果当时我可以和他们讲清楚我们要找的东西究竟是怎样的, 或许他们就会找到我想要的东西. 另外, 就算我写作比较好, 最后的报告由我来完稿, 我也不应该让其他组员闲着, 让他们等我写完. 我应该把任务分配下去, 让他们每人写一部分. 尽管最后他们写的东西可能我不会用到, 但是这也起码给了他们一个锻炼, 让他们更好地了解我们究竟正在干什么, 而不会在presentation的当天, 才解释给他们听我们都干了什么. 想想整个过程, 我自以为自己很能干, 可以做很多事情, 就包办了很多, 结果到头来自己累死不说, 还落得一个失败的下场. 我能不自省吗?
回想起整个学期的学习过程, 我觉得哭笑不得. 说差吧, 好像也不是自己想的那么差; 说好吧, 好像也好不到哪去. 来了爱尔兰以后, 我有一种被打入冷宫的感觉, 再也没有在深大的优越感. 一切仿佛都变了, 变得那么陌生. 自己曾经擅长的, 来了这里发现别人更擅长, 比如说外语; 自己不懂的, 好像别人都懂, 自己成了白痴. 前几天和两个同学在学校的canteen吃午饭, 他们一个是来自德国的, 一个是来自捷克斯洛伐克的. 交谈中发现, 那个捷克斯洛伐克的同学GMAT居然考了780分(总分800), 着实让我吃惊! 之前看过他写的一篇东西, 就发现, 虽然他母语也不是英语, 可是水平却很高. 从那时起我就明白我前面的路, 如果要走好的话, 会走得多么的艰辛! 是的, 我不甘心, 不甘心得过且过的日子!
新的一年快要到来了, 等十二月一过, 我真正学习的时间大概就只有七个月左右了. 经过今天的反省, 我很明白这七个月的学习时间对我来讲有多重要! 我也很清楚接下来的日子自己要做些什么! 每当我想起自己的目标, 再看看自己的现状, 我就觉得很惭愧. 不过我相信, 一切都会好起来的, 只要我坚持到底!
Preparing for the Negotiation Report
作者: 爱尔兰都柏林大学 赖小琪
Preparing for this negotiation report is challenging as well as interesting and enlightening. We began our first group meeting at the end of the sixth week and discussed how to accomplish this project satisfactorily.
First of all, we had to select a real negotiation case. According to the group project assignment details, we avoided selecting those negotiations involving multiple parties. We were merely searching for the two-party negotiations. As we had access to sufficient amount of information about the Lenovo-IBM PC Division acquisition, we decided to build upon it and chose to analyze and discuss this case as our project.
However, there were other reasons for choosing this particular case:
(1) The case we studied had better be well-known to most people, so that the viewers of our report could easily understand the content of our negotiation and search for more information conveniently if they need references.
(2) As the case we selected was well-known, it is also easier for us to search as much additional data as possible.
(3)As one of our teammates had previously done relevant studies on this case in his bachelor’s thesis, so he has a sound understanding of the whole acquisition process that can facilitate our work. Based on these three reasons, we chose the case mentioned above. And we decided to represent Lenovo to negotiate with IBM
After settling the case selection, we moved on to outline the framework of our report and further look into the data we found in order to identify the issues that will be negotiated in this case. After identifying these key issues, with the data we had found, we discuss the possible situations or conditions that would come out in the course of negotiating each issue and work out the strategies we would like to use to negotiate. We firstly analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of both parties. After, we created possible scenarios of what the other party would ask from us and how they would respond to our requirements based on the information we had. Further, the assessment of areas and issues where we will most probably have to make a compromise and where we could stick to our initial request or even ask for more was conducted. Hereby we also refer to comments made by some authoritative experts about the final result of this acquisition, to see which aspects we could further improve to make the acquisition more successful.
In the preparation phase, one of the key issues we analyzed were the major cultural differences between parties, which we believe have a strong impact not only on the final success of the negotiation, but also on the process itself. Here we argue that not being aware of the cultural specifics and customs of the other party, prejudices and ethnocentrism may create major obstacles for successful communication. There are several cultural aspects that have to be taken into account:
1) Individualism versus collectivism
individualism –independent behavior, self confidence, not afraid to have an opinion, win-lose strategy (IBM as an American company will probably want to adapt this approach as it stems from the American culture and negotiations characteristics that will be further explained)
collectivism – the appearance of individuals is humble, win-win strategy (Lenovo)
2) Verbal and non verbal communication
high – context culture - implicit, unpleasant information said indirectly (America)
low – context culture – explicit (Asian countries)
non - verbal communication – gesticulation, interpersonal distance, mimics, body language
3) Time
mostly the problem of punctuality
4) Personal relationship
in some cultures, form and structure of the speech is more important than the content itself (particularly Asian countries)
5) Norms and values
differences in perception of moral standards and good manners
6) Religion and positions
politics and religion are not suitable topics of conversation
7) Logical thinking versus intuition
very important is trust (not only trustworthiness of the individuals but the firm as whole)
8) Working customs
hierarchical organizational form, or emphasis on participation and team work
The negotiator is the key figure of the whole negotiation process and has to be selected very carefully. Here we list several skills and characteristics of the negotiator we perceive necessary:
Patience – This includes mainly active listening and letting the other party talk; in Asian countries, the negotiation is based on personal trust, very important is the introduction phase, sometimes and holding techniques
Persistence – Particularly important because of the power differences between the negotiating parties. Representing Lenovo, we will not make concessions right away, won’t take the first offer and try not to get distracted by disapproval or disagreement
Determination and persuasiveness
Empathy – Consideration of the views, needs and interests of the other party; asking question “How would I act, being in the other party’s shoes?” is a core part of our negotiation preparation
Ability to sense and use the power – It is necessary to avoid the misuse of power, especially when in situation of a long-term partnership or relationship. This issue is considered mainly because of the repetitive character of the negotiation with IBM
Analytical thinking – At the beginning of our preparation, we have put high emphasis on analyzing our and partner’s position, assessing strength and weaknesses/advantages and disadvantages (both IBM and Lenovo), stating which points are important for us and what issues are important for IBM; we have also dealt with question “Should we start with the most tough issues right away or go with the easier first?”
Self control, courtesy and tact
Ambitious – The higher our goal is set, the more successful we might be; however, if we call too high, we might appear un-trustworthy; if too low, we will not achieve our limit/reservation point
Communicational skills – Because the negotiation is multi-cultural, it is important to recognize what the other party expects and try to fulfill it
Cultural sensibility – Being open, tolerate other culture’s aspects and sometimes even adapt might secure pleasant negotiation with positive outcomes and create more value
Other issues we have deeply dealt with were the characteristics of the negotiation process and how they should be manage throughout the whole process. First, every negotiation is characterized by contradictory interests of the parties. Because this occurs regularly, we need to try to find a way how to overcome them. This could be done by identifying and stressing common interests (for example long term cooperation and relationship) that could even be repeated in situation of crisis, supported by the identification and setting of a common goal - reaching of the agreement in our negotiation case. We have to try to prevent the situation when one of the parties feels not satisfied or „defeated“ as it may strongly affect the future relationship. Another important characteristic of every negotiation is a need for reciprocal concessions. Otherwise asymmetry of the positions will be created and will result in win-lose negotiation outcome. Necessary is therefore honest information sharing. However, it needs to be careful, step by step and reciprocical. In the end, one of the core parts is also the necessity of risk taking. This can be avoided by well and deep preparation, information verification and comparison. |
