Publications

January 1986
Article

Interests: The Measure of Negotiation

By: James K. Sebenius and David Lax

Keywords: Negotiation

August 1978
Exercise

Streaker: Negotiating Exercise - Buyer

By: Howard Raiffa

Keywords: Negotiation

March 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Background Note

A 'Rich-vs.-King' Approach to Term Sheet Negotiations

By: Noam Wasserman, Furqan Nazeeri and Kyle Anderson

This note offers a new approach to venture capital term-sheet negotiations, with actionable steps based on insights from Professor Wasserman's "Rich-vs.-King" approach to founder decisions. A core thesis of this note is that trying to negotiate all terms in a term... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Framework; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

01 Jun 2002
News

HBS Students Negotiate a Victory

Chung and Kapadia: winning teamwork. (photo by Thomas J. Fitzsimmons) Chung and Kapadia: winning teamwork. (photo by Thomas J. Fitzsimmons) Two students in the MBA/JD joint degree program took top honors at Harvard Law School's 79th annual Williston Competition in... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Transportation

18 Nov 2024
Podcast

How to Think Like a Great Negotiator

In the final episode of Season One of Dealcraft: Insights from the World's Great Negotiators, I’ll offer you several fresh negotiation insights plus a look back over the dealmakers and diplomats from whom we've heard during these last twelve weeks. Each of these... View Details

08 Mar 2010
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Successful Negotiation

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions To Be Answered: How is negotiation evolving? How important are opening talks in determining... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Paul Weiss: Fighting or Negotiating with POTUS

By: Eugene Soltes and Anthea Brady

In early 2025, Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp weighed how to respond to an Executive Order from President Trump that could threaten the financial livelihood of his law firm. Paul Weiss and Karp had to decide to mount a legal fight or negotiate with the White House. The... View Details

Keywords: Federal Government; Decision Making; Law; Mission and Purpose; Negotiation; Business and Government Relations; Government Administration; Legal Services Industry; United States

2016
Working Paper

Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Southern Africa

By: James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns, Robert H. Mnookin and L. Alexander Green

In 1976, United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger conducted a series of intricate, multiparty negotiations in Southern Africa to persuade white Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to accede to black majority rule. Conducted near the end of President Gerald Ford’s... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Negotiation Process; Race; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal; Government and Politics; Africa; United States

SSRN

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Research Summary

Negotiation Analysis and the Structuring of Financial Transactions

Jay O. Light is developing materials that will explore how negotiation analysis and related techniques can be used in structuring financial transactions in the context of entrepreneurial situations, and how they might be used to enhance value in private equity... View Details

09 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Five Steps to Better Family Negotiations

Negotiations between family members who own a business are different—different from negotiations between non-family members and also different from negotiations between family... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis and Deepak Malhotra

July–August 2016
Article

How to Negotiate with a Liar

By: Leslie John

People, including negotiators, lie every day, so when you're trying to make a deal, it's important to defend against deception. The best strategy, says the author, is to focus not on detecting lies but on preventing them. She outlines five tactics that research has... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Participants

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31 Jan 2013
News

Women Don’t Negotiate Because They’re Not Idiots

12 Oct 2020
News

How Mothers WFH Are Negotiating What’s Normal

August 2008 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Real Property Negotiation Game (A): Buyer Case, Celia Hernandez

By: Arthur I Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.

The Real Property Negotiation Game simulates the experience negotiating the sale, purchase, or financing of a property. The class competes as either a lender, buyer, or one of two groups of sellers, Raleigh, North Carolina and Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the buyer case... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Negotiation; Property; Real Estate Industry

January 2002 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

A Note on Maneuvering in War and Negotiation

By: Michael Wheeler and Gillian Morris

Military metaphors are commonplace in business writing about strategy, but they are rarely used in the negotiation literature. This case takes the Marine Corps philosophy of warfighting and compares it with the tactics and techniques of effective negotiators. Some of... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Situation or Environment; Conflict and Resolution; War; Adaptation

August 2008 (Revised April 2012)
Supplement

Real Property Negotiation Game (B): Seller, Las Vegas Pines

By: Arthur I Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.

The Real Property Negotiation Game simulates the experience negotiating the sale, purchase, or financing of a property. The class competes as either a lender, buyer, or one of two groups of sellers, Raleigh, North Carolina and Las Vegas, Nevada. The seller case, Las... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Property; Price; Sales; Financing and Loans; Real Estate Industry; Las Vegas

December 2019
Article

Communicating with Warmth in Distributive Negotiations Is Surprisingly Counterproductive

By: M. Jeong, J. Minson, M. Yeomans and F. Gino

When entering into a negotiation, individuals have the choice to enact a variety of communication styles. We test the differential impact of being “warm and friendly” versus “tough and firm” in a distributive negotiation, when first offers are held constant and... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Style; Communication Strategy; Perception; Performance Effectiveness; Outcome or Result

August 2008 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Real Property Negotiation Game (A): Seller Case, Raleigh Commons

By: Arthur I Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.

The Real Property Negotiation Game simulates the experience negotiating the sale, purchase, or financing of a property. The class competes as either a lender, buyer, or one of two groups of sellers, Raleigh, North Carolina and Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the seller... View Details

Keywords: Price; Negotiation; Property; Sales; Financing and Loans; Real Estate Industry; Raleigh

Winter–Spring 2024
Article

Grand Bargain: Negotiating Toward a Better Middle East

By: James K. Sebenius

How can sophisticated negotiation bring about a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East? While a "grand bargain" to accomplish this lofty goal may seem implausible, the potential value of such an agreement would be vast for most Israelis, Palestinians, and key... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; War; Conflict and Resolution; Israel; West Bank