On October 14th and 15thAssistant Professor Ofer Sharone from MIT Sloan offered two guest lectures on the “Art of Negotiations” at Fudan University School of Management.
The lectures, part of the Fudan-MIT lecture series, presented an introduction to effective business negotiations and an opportunity for students to participate in several negotiation simulations. Professor Sharone teaches negotiations at MIT Sloan School of Management with a focus on the practices and experiences of professionals negotiating terms and contracts. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School and acted as lead negotiator in severalncomplex transactions in Japan,Indonesia and the U.S.
Based on Professor Sharone’s philosophy of learning by doing, the class focused on negotiation simulations with the intent to help students better understand theories of negotiations. Students were asked to work in pairs and role play situations such as buying a used car, negotiating terms of employment and completing a negotiation case study. These simulation provided an opportunity for students to experiment and experience different negotiation approaches, styles and theories. After each simulation Professor Sharone talked students through relevant concepts such as BATNA, best alternative to a negotiated agreement, RP, reservation price, and the anchoring effect. He also explained basic negotiating strategies and the means to maximize outcomes. Professor Sharone broadened students understanding of negotiations by redefining students expected outcome of a win-lose scenario by teaching negotiation strategy through the lens of mutual benefit in possible win-win scenarios.
Professor Sharone ended the lecture with a negotiation case study that highlighted the nuances and difficulties of multicultural negotiations and challenged students to continue to develop and practice their negotiation skills.
(By 2013 IMBA Student , Casey)
