Dealmaking: The New Strategy of Negotiauctions

by Guhan Subramanian

Overview

Based on broad research and detailed case studies, Dealmaking provides the jargon-free, empirically sound advice you need to close the deal.

Leading dealmaking scholar Guhan Subramanian specializes in understanding how deals work. As a Harvard Business School professor, he has spent years examining and teaching corporate dealmaking through two classic lenses: negotiation theory and auction theory. As he looked at real-world situations, however, he discovered that complex deals usually combine both approaches: negotiators are "fighting on two fronts"—across the table and on the same side—with known, unknown, or potential competitors.

In Dealmaking, Subramanian provides classroom-tested examples of "negotiauctions" as diverse as buying a house, haggling over the rights to the television show Frasier, or selling "toxic" assets into the U.S. government’s bailout fund. With each scenario, he identifies the specific moves that ensure success.

The first book to bring together auction and negotiation strategies in a meaningful way, Dealmaking is an indispensable guide to negotiating deals in the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393358391
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,117,995
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Guhan Subramanian is the faculty chair for the JD/MBA program at Harvard University and the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. As the Joseph Flom Professor of Law and Business at the Harvard Law School and the Douglas Weaver Professor of Business Law at the Harvard Business School, he is the first person in the history of Harvard University to hold tenured appointments at both schools.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I Negotiations and Auctions

1 Preparing to Negotiate 3

2 At the Table 13

3 When to Auction, When to Negotiate? 31

4 Choosing the Right Kind of Auction 55

5 Playing the Game as Process Taker 76

6 The Limits of Existing Theory 103

Part II Negotiations

7 An Introduction to Negotiauctions 119

8 Setup Moves 133

9 Rearranging Moves 146

10 Shut-Down Moves 157

11 The Shadow of the Deal: Legal Constraints in Negotiauctions 177

Conclusion 196

Acknowledgments 201

Notes 205

Index 219

Editorial Reviews

"Insightful and detailed…adds depth and sophistication to the analysis of negotiations."

Negotiation Journal - David Lax

"This brilliant book exposes the connections between negotiations and auctions, and will be indispensable for every professional involved in dealmaking."

Robert Mnookin

"Packed with transformative insights, Dealmaking will help a new generation of business leaders get to yes."

William Ury

"Guhan Subramanian’s Dealmaking will prompt even the most experienced and successful deal professionals to recognize that there is an underlying structure to their intuitive grasp of the complex art of dealmaking. Skilled negotiators will respond to this book with a combination of recognition (‘That’s what I do!’) and regret (‘That’s what the other did to me!’)."

Donald Gogel

"In this pathbreaking book, Guhan Subramanian shows that most deals are neither negotiations nor auctions, but a combination of both. Dealmaking, through a lucid dissection of real-world cases, offers indispensable advice for veterans and newcomers alike."

Robert Pozen