Essec Business School

High-impact and Sustainable Negotiating: Investing in return on relationship. Aurélien Colson PhD MBA, Professor at ESSEC Business School and Director of the Institute for Research and Education on Negotiation (IRENE) talks about negotiating strategies and his recently published interactive i-Book for professionals, instructors, and students. 

Picture any of these negotiation challenges:

A cultural misunderstanding upon opening the talks. Agreement over a major issue that impacts the wider ecosystem of stakeholders. No deal, and continuing conflict on another key issue in the Middle East. Pressure tactics to impress the others around the table. No quick solution that creates frustration for the UK delegate. A ‘yes’ on maintaining relations and continuing the negotiations.

Are we talking about the recent G20 talks in Hangzhou, China? Or the visit to the French car production plant near Paris by a group of international suppliers? Or then again, the annual strategy meeting that brings together all the VPs of your group from around the world? The answer could well be – all. Because everything that happened at the G20 also happens in any other negotiation scenario. 

Innovation at ESSEC: a fully interactive i-Book for the negotiator

Together with his team at ESSEC IRENE, Aurélien Colson has gathered insights and best-practices from assignments in more than seventy countries and in a wide set of sectors, be they industry, high tech, or public organizations. He has repeatedly experienced how to help negotiators overcome deadlocks. More than often, negotiators think that there is no room for agreement. There is – but many negotiations fail because of lack of concern for people, and/or poor process management. This i-Book will help you overcome these stalemates.

Indeed, negotiation is not simply about deciding who gets what now – it is first and foremost about creating a productive, fair, and therefore long-term partnership. In his new book, Aurélien Colson guides the reader through innovative and proven approaches – “win-win…but not at any price”, and leads the negotiator towards high impact and sustainable negotiations with a focus on aiming for return on relationship. 

Aurélien Colson emphasizes that the book caters for all-important negotiations at all levels, whether finding solutions to people management issues, sealing a deal on a sales package, or entering into high-level strategic or political negotiations involving multi-party stakeholders. 

Specially written and designed for the Apple suite of mobile devices, High Impact and Sustainable Negotiations: Investing in return on relationship, interactively accompanies the negotiator right up to the last minute before entering talks. It covers the 3 crucial steps in any negotiation: how to get prepared, what makes a good deal, and how to overcome deadlocks. The book also features a special bonus – negotiating business deals in China – and includes fully-interactive exercises, quizzes, videos, food-for-thought sections, self-assessment, printable tools and flashcards.

Visit the ESSEC IRENE website for further information or go directly to the Apple iBookstore to purchase the book.