Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond [Hardcover]

Deepak Malhotra (Author), Max Bazerman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 25, 2007

From two leaders in executive education at Harvard Business School, here are the mental habits and proven strategies you need to achieve outstanding results in any negotiation.

Whether you’ve “seen it all” or are just starting out, Negotiation Genius will dramatically improve your negotiating skills and confidence. Drawing on decades of behavioral research plus the experience of thousands of business clients, the authors take the mystery out of preparing for and executing negotiations—whether they involve multimillion-dollar deals or improving your next salary offer.

What sets negotiation geniuses apart? They are the men and women who know how to:

•Identify negotiation opportunities where others see no room for discussion

•Discover the truth even when the other side wants to conceal it

•Negotiate successfully from a position of weakness

•Defuse threats, ultimatums, lies, and other hardball tactics

•Overcome resistance and “sell” proposals using proven influence tactics

•Negotiate ethically and create trusting relationships—along with great deals

•Recognize when the best move is to walk away

•And much, much more

This book gets “down and dirty.” It gives you detailed strategies—including talking points—that work in the real world even when the other side is hostile, unethical, or more powerful. When you finish it, you will already have an action plan for your next negotiation. You will know what to do and why. You will also begin building your own reputation as a negotiation genius.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An absolutely brilliant negotiation framework and tool kit of negotiation strategies, compellingly illustrated from extensive real and complex situations. It’s the most comprehensive, wise, practical book on the subject I’ve ever seen.”—Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleand The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

“Few skills in life are as valuable as negotiating—and we can all become better at it. Professors Malhotra and Bazerman show us how, combining insightful analysis with clear, practical, and ingenious recommendations.”—William Ury, coauthor of Getting to Yes and author of The Power of a Positive No

“Shortly after I sat down with Negotiation Genius, I reached for pen and pad and began to make notes. Thirty-five years in the space with hundreds of major negotiations, and this work still has something to teach me. It’s the rare book that I would recommend to people at any experience level. With its engaging blend of real-world stories, intelligent tools, and emphasis on ethics and integrity, it is must reading for all who wish to excel.” —Brian McGrath, Global Vice President, Chief Procurement Officer, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies

“Malhotra and Bazerman are offering a heck of a deal: for a handful of dollars, you can buy a book that invites you into a classroom conversation at the Harvard Business School—an experience that would normally cost fistfuls. This is a classic win-win bargain. No wonder they write so well about ‘negotiation genius.’”—David Gergen, former U.S. presidential adviser; Director, Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government

“Invaluable. Whether in business, politics, or the nonprofit sector, leaders must rely on the power to persuade, and Malhotra and Bazerman unlock the secrets of how to do so strategically, ethically, and successfully.”—Bill Shore, Founder and Executive Director, Share Our Strength

“Whether your passion is sports, politics, or business, negotiations are an integral part of your world. Negotiation Genius offers an insightful and entertaining perspective on the negotiation process, plus—even more important–highly effective and relevant advice for conducting negotiations day-to-day."—Andy Wasynczuk, former Chief Operating Officer, three-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots

“For both the novice and the master, Negotiation Genius is the single, most essential source for the basic understanding of this increasingly important skill set.” —Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Management, University of Southern California; coauthor of Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls

“If you'll spend 26 bucks and a night or two of reading time, [Malhotra and Bazerman] show you how to dramatically upgrade your negotiating skills. Packed with case studies, their book shows how to spot opportunities, discover hidden information, identify leverage and successfully confront an adversary's dirty tricks."—Newsweek

About the Author

Deepak Malhotra is an associate professor at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches negotiation in the MBA program, the Advanced Management Program, and the Owner/President Management Program, in addition to providing negotiation consulting and training for businesses worldwide.

Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the author of Negotiating Rationally and Judgment in Managerial Decision Making.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055380488X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553804881
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Create Desired Outcomes September 28, 2007

By M. L Lamendola TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Good negotiators are methodical, so it's not surprising that this book takes a methodical approach. For example, it's laid out in three parts that are naturally sequential. Each part consists of chapters in progressive order. This structure helps the reader absorb the material rapidly. Not everyone is comfortable with a methodical approach or a structured way of thinking. But unstructured thinking and haphazard approaches put a very low ceiling on performance in negotiation and in many other disciplines. The book itself exudes the methodical approach and structured thinking that are key to good negotiating. The authors obviously take their own medicine.

You may have read a new book in which the author claims to have the insight everyone else is missing and then contradicts what came before. Diet books are notorious for that. Fortunately, Negotiation Genius builds on the existing body of knowledge. Having read other books on the topic of negotiation, I was pleased to find that this book is consistent with the established literature while also providing new insight.

Three things I found especially helpful were in Part III, "Negotiating in the Real World." There were:

Chapter 9: Confronting Lies and Deceptions. Many of the strategies espoused in negotiation books, seminars, and courses work well if the other party is negotiating in good faith and trying to work with you. But even small, unintended deceptions (they believe it, even if it isn't true) can easily undermine otherwise brilliant strategies. A good negotiator doesn't use any particular strategy in isolation. A negotiation genius goes a step further, by using strategies specifically targeted at uncovering lies and deceptions, then using other strategies to overcome them with the best outcome in mind. This book provides those strategies.

Chapter 11: Negotiating from a Position of Weakness. We've all had to negotiate from a position of weakness. Situations include such things as negotiating a salary, dealing with the IRS for a reduction in the amount of unpaid taxes they erroneously claim you owe, trying to get help getting another flight when yours is cancelled at the last moment, or solving a problem with a customer who seems to hold all the cards while being unreasonable. You can probably add to this list, with very little effort. So, what do you do in these situations? If you have nothing really to offer the other party, you can't do a quid pro quo or do any kind of bartering. If you have nothing to offer, how can you motivate the other party to help you get what you want? The answers to these, and related questions, are in this chapter.

Chapter 12: When Negotiations Get Ugly: Dealing with Irrationality, Distrust, Anger, Threats, and Ego. Things can get out of hand, simply because someone assumes an insult you didn't make or misreads your intentions. People look at things through their own lenses, based on their situation, their culture, their experience. Negative emotions can cause both sides to engage in mutual destruction. A case history that illustrates how close we can come is the Cuban Missile Crisis. This book uses that case history to explain several strategies for defusing a situation and getting things back on track.

As mentioned earlier, this book consists of three parts.

Part I: The Negotiator's Toolkit consists of three chapters. Here, we learn about claiming and creating value. The authors give the reader several proven tools for obtaining the information needed for claiming and creating value. They call those tools, collectively, "investigative negotiation."

Part II: The Psychology of Negotiation also consists of three chapters. The essence of Part II is that we are all human beings. We make mistakes, and we have our biases. But the biases are systematic and predictable. The authors draw from the latest research to provide the reader with tools to help avoid biases. They also provide tools to help the reader identify biases of the other side, and actually use those to advantage.

Part III: Negotiating in the Real World makes up almost half of the book. It consists of eight chapters, and I've already covered three of them. The other five that I didn't cover are all worth reading and absorbing. Actually, all eight are worth studying and implementing, using the book as an ongoing coach.

As noted earlier, Negotiation Genius is consistent with the established literature. What I didn't note then, and will note now, is it's consistent with more than just the established negotiation literature. The basic tenet of the book is that if you work to overcome your ignorance, you will be able to work from an informed position and therein lies your real power. The details of how and why to do that, along with some things not to do, are what you will gain from reading this book. The authors assert that going beyond simply reading it will give you the best value for your book purchase. Conscientiously study and apply the principles in an ever-increasing circle of what you consider negotiable, and you will not only reap huge personal rewards but also enrich others. After reading this book, I am inclined to agree with them.

Be sure to read Getting Past No, Getting to Yes, and The Power of a Positive No, as well.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading December 2, 2007

By Robert Selden

Format:Hardcover

"Negotiation Genius" is another book on the subject in a long line of similar books. It is not surprising that the authors, Malhotra and Bazerman are both professors at Harvard Business School, genesis of the most famous book ever on the subject "Getting to Yes" by Roger Fisher, Bruce M. Patton, and William L. Ury

Like "Getting to Yes", this book is simplicity itself. Full of case studies that explain and demonstrate "how to" it provides the reader with five clear principles to apply in any negotiation. The authors use a nice analogy of the crime detective to emphasise their main point - that the best and often the only way to get what you want from a negotiation is to approach the negotiation from an investigative viewpoint rather than assuming you know what the motivation is behind the other party's wants. They argue that most negotiators assume they understand the other party's motivations and therefore don't explore them further. And so, they often get stuck in trying to bargain around their own position rather than looking at the reasons "why?" the other party wants what they want.

Simple, but effective. Like so many good books of its type, it's a shame that the people who really need to apply the principles outlined by Malhotra and Bazerman in "Negotiation Genius" (e.g. our politicians, international trade negotiators and the like) will not be reading and applying their investigative approach. Never mind, you and I will become all the better for applying our investigative skills to our future negotiations.

Bob Selden, author of What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You have to buy this book !! November 25, 2007

By Jill Simpson

Format:Hardcover

I had the good fortune to have the writers as lecturers at a recent short course at Harvard. This book was as good as their classes. One of the most readable non-fiction books I have come across in a long time. The subject is dry but the book relates the learnings to real life negotiations that most of us are already aware of. Its witty (yes really !) and I have found it of tremendous use. AlthoughI would recommend reading from cover to cover you can skip to the chapter about negotiating with crazies (which I did out of desperation) if you need to.