Analysis comparison

Intercultural Negotiations

Analysis and Comparison: Sun Tzu, The Art of War vs 12 Negotiations Skills

Introduction

The book The Art of War by Sun Tzu, written more than 2,000 years ago by this Chinese General Sun Wu, was intended to military causes, analyzing the behavior of army and military tactics to go victorious. This book was later absorbed by Japan Samurai andlater on by business leaders, sports and political managers, due to all strategy learning that can be found here.

The first quote that is stated at the book “Warfare is a great matter to the nation is a matter of life and death…must be examined”. This sentence can show that every battle, negotiation or “war” is very important to the country, company or even just any person, that’s improvingits own personal behavior. In comparison, the Negotiations Strategy Manual shares 12 main techniques that can be used to improve the negotiation skills, which are enough to win battles, defeat competitors and mainly to succeed in life.

Negotiations not always means win everything and leave your opponent without anything, or defeat them until they are broke or devastated. A goodnegotiation is when both parties accomplish the initial goal, a good win situation is when you achieve your objectives and win some long term relationships that can help to win more than one battle.

Analysis

First chapter of the book “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, explains the matter of calculations, which are very important before the beginning of a war or business applied a negotiation.There are 5 main factors that need to be examined and analyzed.
These 5 factors are fundamental for the good operation of a team; the politics are the thing that causes the people to in accordance with their leader with no fear. Environment refers to the state of the battle filed, if it’s cold or hot, dark or light. Ground goes directly to the easiness or difficulty to approach the enemy,distances and danger at the terrain of battle. Leader is the commander of the troop, is the person that has the ability to lead and rules a team, should have credibility, wisdom, courage and discipline. The fifth and one of the most important is Laws, which are the rules of the game that gives organization and control of the resources for the big “battle”
The way a leader can manage al these5 factors can help to do all estimations needed before a negotiation or “battle” begins. With a good calculation you can know your advantages or weaknesses so if you have advantages you can not let know your opponent, if you discover that your enemy has no organization you should take advantage on that and no relax the attack.

The author Sun Tzu also explains about doing a quick battlenot to waste the resources, when an army or a team is exposed to a prolonged battle, negotiation or war, the resources that were loaded at beginning will not be enough. The skilled leaders will carry enough equipment and provisions to complain their goal, also will take advantage from the enemy. Directly related to war we can learn that an arm that wins will take enemy’s wealth as a reward. Inbusiness we can relate this when you eat the market share of your competitor, or when you defeat the competence and take all their customers, when you get a good negotiation and take advantage on your supplier. When you are in a deep negotiation, you can use all your resources that are on your hands, the Negotiation Skills Manual quotes: “By being silent at the right moments, you can give the otherparty a chance to see your strength” (Teissier, Carlos). Also we can use another sentence that comes to same focus, “Don’t tip your hand” which in this situation means that you do not have to waste information which can be valuable later on the negotiation.

“Win a battle without a fight is the highest excellence”, that is doing a good calculation, making a strength strategy and knowing...