Sunday, November 15, 2009

Negotiating in an uncertain environment

Negotiation techniques teach us to be prepared and work on a collaborative style to reach the best outcome. So we spend time to understand our strengths & opportunities while getting into a negotiation. Yet, we find yourself struggling when the rules suddenly change. Michael Wheeler, a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School takes a look at military strategies to understand negotiation techniques in an uncertain environment.
 
HBS Working Knowledge article "Negotiating When the Rules Suddenly Change" gives me some insight on planning for negotiation in an uncertain environment.
 
Published: September 11, 2006


Author: Michael Wheeler


http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5477.html

Organizations go through technology upgrade - so what about the staff who use it?

Yesterday, I spent some time to understand supply chain process and then ended up how Technology can help to improve the supply chain process. Although I went in circles trying to keep focused on the topic, I couldn’t get something off my head. You must have seen organizations spend millions of dollars to upgrade their technology to the latest and greatest. They have it all wired up and ready to use. Yet you find that the software developers are not using 20% of the upgraded technology. Still worst is when you find that your entire business operation is still in Stone Age when they could be on the new infrastructure.

So keeping technology current is not the only thing that an organization must do. It is equally important that they spend time to create awareness of the usage of these new features with the upgraded technology.

Let’s assume you need to send order request to your supplier. He takes only fax or phone calls as inputs for orders. Why would you spend additional time to print out an order request, sign it and fax it while all of these could be done from your multi processing photocopier that can convert your printouts into fax automatically? Aren’t you wasting paper, ink, time and human resources to do all this when your printer could handle all that by the click of a mouse? By using old methods, you are not using your latest and greatest. That’s wasted money on technology. If it was physical inventory such as a Ford Mustang sitting in the warehouse, you may be concerned that the inventory isn’t moving. Why can’t a business leader think of unused features in the upgraded technology as wasted inventory?

I hope you are able to relate to my thought process. In this era when the world is looking for greener and smarter solutions, we still have organizations that are not taking enough efforts to train their staff to support the cause. Business leaders think by approving to upgrade technology to the latest and greatest, the whole organization will become smart. Don’t think buying a Ferrari and taking your kid to school @ 25mph is doing justice to the machine. It does make you proud, but that’s not what the engine was built for. Get it?