THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON NORTHAMPTON BUSINESS SCHOOL MODULE: International Business Negotiation 2015-2016 International Business Negotiation: Assignment Two Module Code STRM060 Level 7 Credit Value 20 Module Leader Dean Brookes Assignment Two Brief Assignment title: Explain the Negotiating Strategy and detailed Negotiation Plan devised by your group to deal with your case study exercise AND reflect on your individual performance through the exercise and what you have learned from the process. Word count: 2,500 - evidenced based essay Weighting: 50% Classroom activity: Submission date: Resit date: Explain the Negotiating Strategy and detailed Negotiation Plan devised by your Delegation Team to deal with your case study exercise AND reflect on your individual performance through the exercise and what you have learned from the process. Please ensure that you are in contact with your colleagues and you, as a group, will identify key aspects/topics/issues/demands you wish to bring to the negation table. These key aspects will be covered in dedicated one-to-one group sessions two weeks before the class negotiation activity. The meetings are confidential until/unless the groups themselves decide to divulge them as part of the negotiating process. Once again, it is important that you are in contact with your group to ensure that you have all of the relevant information to hand. Please also comprehensively understand the following core briefing for the assignment. Each group will receive further individual instructions for the assessment. Background Beaufort and Sons is a shoemaking firm based in Northampton in the United Kingdom and a manufacturer of traditional 'high-end' shoes for men and women. It was founded in 1912 in a single factory in the heart of the town. At the high point of production, in the early 1960s, the firm employed 1700 people in administrative, sales, and skilled leather ware roles across two sites - the old city centre factory and a newer one in Rushden, Northamptonshire. Traditionally, the firm sold mainly into British markets and to some extent into Europe but the world of shoemaking changed very quickly and the company has had to adapt. Your role in this set of negotiations is to decide the next stage in the company's development. From the 1970's Beaufort's traditional markets went into decline. Competition from producers in Asia intensified and traditional marketing techniques began to change. Footwear gradually came to be seen as a more disposable product and prices came down dramatically as a consequence of developing technology to some extent but principally the lower labour costs available to new international producers. Shoes were no longer sold in specialist shops but through department stores and clothing retailers who were not interested in Beaufort's traditional products. The firm's market became increasingly niche and they had to show great ingenuity in accessing customers. The British market is now dominated by relatively low cost imports but it is still possible to sell through specialist fashion outlets and in the City of London. Most significant has been the development of internet sales and a relatively large customer base in the USA, where the 'quality' mark of British shoe making still has some marketing power. Nevertheless, even in those premium markets costs have to be contained in order to remain competitive with American quality shoe manufacturers. Most recently in 2008, as the recession hit Beauforts, the company took the decision to close the older site in the city centre completely and to 'offshore' production to XFM, a specialist shoemaking facility in Dongguan, China. The objective was to maintain quality standards while driving down production costs: Guangdong province has a highly skilled workforce but labour costs are lower than the UK. Beaufort's UK workforce was reduced from 1000 in 2008 to about 300 the following year. Most of the remaining staff is now employed in design and marketing with only a small group of shop floor workers engaged mainly in new product development rather than production for the market. In 2015, however, Beauforts began a process of business review. Not all of the company's expectations of the offshoring experiment have been realised. It attracted a good deal of negative publicity in the UK, particularly in Northamptonshire where the firm and the city centre site had once been prominent local institutions. Markets in China have not opened up to the extent hoped for and the company continues to sell mainly into the USA and Britain. As important, it has not been easy to control quality over long distances and wage costs in China began to rise almost as soon as Beaufort's set up their contract with XFM. In November 2014, Beaufort was approached by Northampton Borough Council and the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership to encourage the firm to expand UK production in the town once again. Land and a new unit near to the motorway can be made available to the company at reduced rates and support would be available to retrain a local workforce. Might it be time to consider 'reshoring' Beaufort's shoe production and integrating the firm once again? The Task The group must engage in negotiations involving three parties - Beaufort's management; XFM management; and representatives of Unity, a UK trade union representing the interests of the shoemaking workforce in Britain. The negotiations are likely to be complex and it will be for the parties involved to consider how they will be structured. Is it desirable for all parties to meet together at the same time or are separate meetings preferred? How will the scope of discussions be agreed? And, within teams, it will be necessary to identify your negotiating strategy and to plan how negotiating roles will be organised. The Delegation Teams will be allocated in the week beginning 14th March 2016 Beaufort's Management Unity XFM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Purpose of the Assessment To develop a negotiation plan geared towards a real-life case example detailed in the Negotiating Exercise Background and Negotiating Exercise Role Brief given to students. Students will be required to analyse and organise the case materials and to identify and critically apply the relevant principles, tools, techniques and theories required to produce a convincing and appropriate plan to best meet the requirements of the assessment brief. Assessment Task To explain the negotiation plan developed in real-life negotiation and to reflect upon personal roles and expectations (2,500 words). Assessment Submission To submit your work, please go to the 'Submit your work' area of the International Business Negotiation NILE site. It is important that you submit your work to the correct module NILE site, and that your work is submitted on time. Assessment Guidance Ensure that the assignment is - Closely structured to the requirements of the question: The published title should be set out at the head of the assignment and referred to throughout the text. Concluded in such a way as to provide an answer to the published question: An authoritative conclusion should synthesize the arguments developed through the essay and establish that the central requirements have been met. Written in simple and direct language: Complex sentence structures and the use of jargon should be avoided as much as possible. Founded on a suitable range of reading and effectively referenced: Core arguments should be supported by appropriate reference (using the Harvard system) to reading indicated in the Module Guide and found in literature searches. Academic Practice This is an individual assignment. The University of Northampton policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage. Support and guidance on assessments and academic integrity can be found from the following resources SkillsHub: http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk CfAP: http://tinyurl.com/UoNCfAP Learning outcomes The learning outcomes being addressed through this assignment are: Subject Specific d) identify and be able to selectively apply the key negotation styles, ploys and techniques; e) understand and apply the principles of argumentation to diferent and contrasting negotiation situations; f) to critically analyse negotiation standpoints, styles and situations; Key Skills g) to plan negotiation strategies appropriate to a variety of business situations by analysing and synthesing relevant data sources; h) construct and communicate effective and ethical negotiation plans and strategies in cross-cultural business situations; i) develop a level of self awareness with regard to personal negotiation position and style. International Business Negotiation - Assignment 2 Guidance The students, within each class, will be put into 3 Delegation Teams. Each Delegation Team will need to establish their negotiating strategy and plan. Emphasis, from pre and post class reading, should be set against the importance of preparation and research in support of your negotiating strategy. Ensure that each negotiating strategy/objectives are clear and they are thought through and includes the negotiating tactics necessary to secure them. Need to describe the broad approach prepared by the groups; the allocation of tasks within and between groups; and the responses required by the live negotiating context. Remember that the in-class negations will only last a maximum of three hours - in reality, it is unlikely that each group will have sufficient time to tie down every detail (e.g. wage levels and working hours). Agreement on the overall course of action and the key features of the process may well be realisable. The most accomplished assignments are likely to come from individuals in groups that have determined to experiment with the negotiating approaches and have prepare their approach carefully. A common theme should be the balance drawn between the description of the process, analytical discussion and personal reflection. A focus on the practical skills and awareness required in live negotiating contexts is also needed. However, it is important that individual assignments do not become a purely descriptive account. Students are required to analyse the processes and events in two senses. First, the question explicitly asks you to evaluate what you have learned from the process. The best essays are likely to provide a suitably critical discussion of the negotiating exercise, not necessarily negative but an analyse the extent to which preparation was adequate (in the light of developments on the day) and the way that negotiating power and tactics were deployed. For example, choices between competitive and co-operative negotiating strategies depend in part upon calculations of relative power. In the international contexts like this one, which actors hold the most power and why? How was this evidenced in the negotiating exercise and what tactics were available to other parties to mitigate that structural authority? Finally, the tutor will be getting into role of observer and WILL NOT play a part/role in the negotiations process. Everything that happens within and between the 3 different Delegation Teams will be down to the students within them. Sections for the 2,500 word essay can be broadly based around the following: framework: Introduction Background to the Negotiation Exercise Strategy the group took [either as Unity, XFM, or Beaufort's Management] Their groups Negotiation Plan including aims and outcomes Individual self-reflection Conclusion References