国际商务谈判

　Unit1 Preparing the ground

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　 ANDREW：You sure you don"t want one, Karen? KAREN：Not for me. ANDREW：Of course, I don"t know Francoise at all, but you"ve got to be on your guard with Sean. I told you about negotiating with him in Dallas two years ago, didn"t I? KAREN: I"m sure you did, Andrew. Can we just focus on the final package? We mustn"t get stuck on the price. They"re going to want to knock us down, but we have got some room to manoeuvre. ANDREW: That"s right. Sean was Head of Procurement at TEC in Atlanta. KAREN: What we must keep in mind is a fall-back position if they push us on staff cuts. ANDREW: Oh, we don"t need to worry about that, Karen. We"ll just play it by ear. Sean, how are you? SEAN: Good to see you again, Andrew. Atlanta,wasn"t it? ANDREW: Dallas, actually. SEAN: Right, three years ago. ANDREW: Two. SEAN: Yeah, Sure. You two know each other, right? FRANCOISE: You must be Karen Black. I"m Francoise Quantin. Welcome to Levien.

　KAREN: We"ve spoken on the phone, haven"t we? This is Andrew Carter, our Export Sales Executive. ANDREW: Sorry, I thought you two already knew each other. SEAN: Well, we all know each other now. Can we…? FRANCOISE: Before we start, would you like a coffee? KAREN: That would be nice. FRANCOISE: Milk? KAREN: Yes, please.

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　ANDREW: There you go. KAREN: Thanks. ANDREW: So, we"ll wait for them to respond to our proposal. KAREN: Yes, we know that the staff cuts and the price are the main issues, but we"d better let them set the agenda. ANDREW: And you"d still like me to do the presentation? KAREN: That"s what we head-hunted you for, Andrew. ANDREW: And you"ll watch for their reactions and… KAREN: And deal with any questions.Yes. ANDREW: Be careful with Sean, Karen. He drives a hard bargain. KAREN: I"m sure I can handle him.We"re in for a long day, aren"t we? ANDREW: Well, you did pack a toothbrush, didn"t you?

　FRANCOISE: Sorry to have kept you waiting.You must be Karen Black. I"m Francois Quantin and this is Sean Morrissey. SEAN: Good to meet you, Karen. Francoise, this is my old sparring partner, Andrew Carter. FRANCOISE: Nice to meet you, Andrew. How was your flight? KAREN: Excellent. Less than an hour. ANDREW: Hardly time for the breakfast they serve. FRANCOISE: What about a coffee then, before we start? SEAN:Yeah, you can bring it through.

　FRANCOISE: There"s no need to hurry. Karen? SEAN: Andrew, you"ll have another one? ANDREW: Please. Milk, three sugars. FRANCOISE: Sit down, please ANDREW: Are you missing the States, Sean? SEAN:Yeah, I"m missing the kids and my wife. Andrew and I negotiated a deal in Dallas two years ago. Andrew:Yes, quite a marathon -thirty-six hours, wasn"t it? SEAN: Andrew, if a job"s worth doing, it"s worth doing well. FRANCOISE: Perhaps we had better start now.

　Un it 2 Setting the agenda

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　FRANCOISE: We have studied your proposal with interest and, generally it seems to fit with our needs. But I am especially worried about cuts to my team. KAREN: Perhaps Andrew could present our proposal and then you "ll see .... FRANCOISE: I "m sure you can understand my concern. I have a team of four people in IT. They are very dedicated, of course, but they are very unsettled. ANDREW: Can I suggest we present the pluses for you if you choose Okus, then perhaps we can identify your areas of ... SEAN: We do need some assurances here. Any cuts are going to need approval from the Works Council. FRANCOISE: We must sort this out before we continue. KAREN: I see. Have you got the documents about rehiring staff? As I"m sure you"ll understand, staffing is a major cost area for us and the prices are based on the staffing proposal we"ve made. Now, if you can agree to the prices before we go on ... SEAN: No, we can talk prices later. We want to resolve the staffing issues first. They "re two separate problems. ANDREW: But what Karen is saying is that the two are dependent.

　SEAN: Not for us they "re not. We want closure on the staffing issue first.Yours isn"t the only offer on the table you know.

　 Version 2

　RANCOISE: I"d like to start by saying a few words about the meeting today and what we expect to achieve. One thing I"d like to clarify from the start is that we see Okus as a strong candidate, but, of course, not the only one. What we hope to do today is to find enough common ground. Is that clear? AREN: Fine. RANCOISE: I"ve drawn up an agenda. First we"d like you to present your proposal. We have read it, but we"d like you to go over the critical areas. Andrew, I understand you"ve come prepared to do this? NDREW: It should take about ten, fifteen minutes. Please feel free to ask any questions while I"m talking. RANCOISE: Good. That will help us to identify issues which need more discussion. After that I suggest we try and resolve any outstanding differences and then, finally, assuming that we can agree, I thought we could draw up an action plan for the next few months. SEAN: I just want to add that you can use the room next door anytime. There"s coffee and stuff there if you need it. AREN: Thanks.

　RANCOISE: What about the end of the day? Are you flying back this evening? AREN: Yes, well,we could get rooms at one of the airport hotels. EAN: I"m sure we can get you somewhere better than that. RANCOISE: Hopefully, you won"t need a hotel.

　Unit 3 Establishing Positions

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　ANDREW: And as you can see,we also have a broad range of clients in various industries. For example,we recently took over IT management at Central… FRANCOISE: We know all this,

　Andrew. It"s the offer you"ve made us that we"re interested in. ANDREW: Of course, yes. Let me…Here we are. We"ve broken this down by department… SEAN: Sorry. KAREN: Andrew, sorry to interrupt, but perhaps Francoise and Sean would like to hear about control systems, pricing and staffing levels. SEAN: Staffing would be good. ANDREW:Yes. sorry. Yes, I"m sure I"ve got another overhead on that. We"ve looked at your-here we are -at your current levels of IT operation and support … SEAN: That"s great, Andrew, but what I really want to know is ---are you going to hire our staff or not? KAREN: Andrew, perhaps I should answer that. As you know, staffing levels depend on the level of service you decide to go for.The one you choose depends on the degree of service and support you require.

　Version 2

　ANDREW: So, moving on, I "d like to focus quickly on the three critical areas, and then hear your response . Now, this slide covers management control. As this is really the make or break factor in an outsourcing contract, we"ve really got to match, and then improve on, your own management systems. So, what we propose to do is put one permanent manager on site and one support engineer as well.

　Any questions so far? SEAN: And who"d deal with special projects or problems?

　 ANDREW: Our plan for that would be to use our own UK-based engineer on an ad hoc basis. FRANCOISE: I"m not sure I understand how your project management system operates for urgent work. ANDREW: We"ve used a similar approach on other contracts: the IT manager here would have day-to-day control, but when he or she needs help, that can be called in from Okus in the UK. Do you have any questions on this? SEAN: But won"t this be a first for you --- serving a contract overseas?

　 KAREN: Yes, that"s right, but we do have similar clients in Edinburgh, for example, and time and distance wise, there"s not a lot of difference between Belgium and Scotland. So we don"t anticipate any problems on that score.

　ANDEW: Perhaps you"d like to talk to our clients in Edinburgh? FRANCOISE: No. We have already followed up your references. Please go on.

　 ANDREW: Fine. Can I go on and talk a little bit about pricing?

　Unit 4 Clarifying positions

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　KAREN: No, what we are saying is that costs are based on a number of factors, the time of day, of course, is one of them. we keep a log of all call-outs and, if the figure for a month exceeds the fixed invoice fee, there’ll be an adjustment the following month. FRANCOISE: What is the fixed invoice fee? KAREN: The rates are on page twenty-two of the proposal. It depends… SEAN: What about the call-out rate? KAREN: It depends on the time of day. SEAN: Can you give me a ballpark figure? FRANCOISE: Where are the figures for project manager fees? KAREN: Right. Andrew, have you got the rates for that? The point we"d like to stress is that we have calculated a global price, and you only pay more if you go over the generous level of support we have offered. SEAN: Yeah, but do we get a choice on this? KAREN: That was What I saying. We have offered two levels of support. The basic level buys you… FRANCOISE: Sorry, Karen, before you go on, I see Andrew has my figures for project management. ANDREW: Our project manager rate is hourly, but if you look at the overall package, the rate can come out much lower than those figures.

　SEAN: What about my options? KAREN: They"re spelt out on page thirty-four.

　 Version 2

　KAREN: If you look a page twenty-two: What we do is keep a log of all call-outs and, if the figure for a month is more than the fixed invoice fee, we make an adjustment the following month.

　FRANCOISE: So, we can"t be certain about how much the monthly invoice will be. KAREN: It depends which level of support you opt for. FRANCOISE: Can you explain that? KAREN: Certainly. As you can see, there are two levels. Level A is all inclusive.You pay a set fee, you specify what IT projects you want doing, and you don"t pay anything extra. FRANCOISE: So our contract would specify all IT projects for the next five years. KAREN: No, It"s shorter term. We"d draw up an annual schedule. SEAN: Okay. What"s the difference between project and regular support work? KAREN: Can I come back to that in a moment, Sean? I"d just like to get the two options out of the way. With Level A, you only pay a monthly bill. With Level B, there are no project management fees in the charge, so

　there would be additions to the monthly bill. FRANCOISE: So what we have to decide is how we want to pay: an even cost each month, or project by project. KAREN: Which is Level B. Exactly. SEAN: I still don"t get it, Karen. When is it a project and when is it just regular support work? ANDREW: As Karen was saying, we"d specify the projects in Level A. With Level B, the IT manager will need to get approval for each project as it comes up. SEAN: Okay. Can we go over the approval process? ANDREW: Yes. If you look at section three of the proposal, you"ll see...

　Unit 5 Managing conflict

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　ANDREW: We"ll draw up a schedule of projects, which we both feel need to be carried out

　over the following year. These could be introducing new software, training,hardware upgrades… SEAN: Yeah, but how do we know when you guys are doing support work and when they"re doing project work? ANDREW: I think we will all know what type of work… SEAN: I don"t think so. It will be in your guys" interest to log support work as project work and charge us for it at the month end. ANDREW: Sean, I"m interested in a partnership---based on trust. SEAN: Great idea, Andrew, but you won"t be on site working here, will you? ANDREW: Me personally, no. I don"t see your point. SEAN: My point is that we won"t know what your guys are doing. ANDREW: But we "re going to appoint a manager from your staff. SEAN: Look Andrew, I"ve seen hundreds of these projects, and there"s always room for manoeuvre. You haven"t got a whole lot of experience in this type of contract. ANDREW: Sean,I"ve been in this industry for fifteen years. I really don"t see how you can call me inexperienced. KAREAN: Andrew, I don"t think Sean was saying that. Can I suggest we

　take a break? FRANCOISE: Yes. A good idea.Why don"t you go next door? There is coffee if you need it. SEAN: Coffee"ll be the last thing he"ll need. FRANCOISE: What are you trying to do, Sean? SEAN: What am I trying to do? I was just getting them right where I wanted them when you let them call a time-out. FRANCOISE: No. I"ll have to work with these people and I want a positive relationship. I don"t see what we achieve by getting personal. SEAN: It"s tactics, Francoise. They were getting too comfortable there. It was time to shake them up. FRANCOISE: That may be the way you do things, but it"s not the way I run things in my department.

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　ANDREW: So we"ll draw up a schedule of projects, which we both feel need to be carried out over the following year .These could be introducing new software, training, hardware upgrades... SEAN: Sorry to interrupt, Andrew, but I still need to know when your guys are doing support work and when they"re doing project work. ANDREW: That does need to be clarified. KAREN: What if we put something in the contract?

　SEAN: That"d be a start. It"s more the logging I worry about. You know if one of your guys has spent a couple of hours sorting out a problem with one of the PCs and then an hour back on our customer databases, won"t he just think: ‘well, that"s three hours of project work’? ANDREW: I hope not, Sean. Our team will be working to your budget. SEAN: I know that, Andrew, but who"s going to supervise all this? ANDREW: We have talked about taking on one of your team as our IT manager. SEAN: Yeah, But you’re still gonna bill us from the UK. It’ll all be down to your log.

　ANDREW: So it"s the accuracy of the log that"s worrying you? SEAN: Yeah, that and the lack of experience here. Please, don"t get me wrong. It"s the people on the ground I"m worried about. We all know there can be a lot of room for manoeuvre with these contracts. KAREN: I think I see what you"re getting at, Sean. Can I suggest a break? Andrew and I need to talk this through a bit more. FRANCOISE: Good idea. Please use the room next door. How do you think it"s going? SEAN: OK. This logging business could be a nightmare though. We"ve got to find some way to make them drop it. FRANCOISE: Their Level A option does that. SEAN: Yeah, but the cost of it. It"d be great if we could push them

　towards a global price for support and minimum project work. FRANCOISE: Could we suggest it? SEAN: No. Let"s see what they come up with.

　Unit 6 Making and responding to proposals

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　SEAN: So what have you got for us? KAREN: We"d like to make a proposal. SEAN: Before you do that, let me explain our position. KAREN: Go on. SEAN: We don’t like the the concept of logging. We think that every call will be logged as project work and we could end up throwing money away. We want a global price to include support work and project work. Andrew：But that"s exactly what our level A package offer you. Sean：Your level A package is prohibitive on cost. Karen: What? Sean: Expensive. We don"t want to pay for something we don"t use. Karen: We do understand that, Sean. That"s why we feel we could offer you something between the two. Sean: We want a full support package with agreed IT projects for a fixed price. Okay? We don"t want any surprises. Andrew: That"s why we offered you level A, Sean. Sean: And it"s way too expensive, Andrew. Andrew: You can"t have it both ways. You"re asking for a Rolls Royce, but you"re only willing to pay for a Ford. If you want complete security, you"re got to pay for it.

　Sean: If you can"t make it work, I guess we"ll just have to look elsewhere.

　 Version 2

　KAREN: We have discussed this problem of logging support and project work, and we would like to make a proposal. SEAN: Let"s hear it. KAREN: Firstly, we do understand your concerns about the pricing systems. Level A is too expensive and Level B holds too many potential surprises. So we propose a level of support between A and B. We include all maintenance and support work at a fixed price, plus a minimum project load. How does that sound? SEAN: Good, in theory. But I can"t see any difference between that and Level A. We want to agree a monthly rate for essential support and project work. KAREN: What about urgent, additional work?

　FRANCOISE: You could quote for that when it"s necessary. ANDREW: Wouldn"t that be difficult to manage in reality? We could get delays while we waited for your approval. KAREN: How would it work, Francoise? FRANCOISE: Maybe we could agree a contingency sum at the start of the year to cover urgent projects. KAREN: Would the IT Manager have control of that?

　FRANCOISE: NO, but I"m sure I could approve most of the work myself. KAREN: At the risk of sounding excited, that could work. ANDREW: Let"s go back to the original proposal and put some figures to this. SEAN: Great. Let"s get started.

　Unit 7

　Bargaining

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　FRANCOISE: I"m very concerned about my team. I have to protect as many of these jobs as possible. ANDREW:We understand your concerns, but we cannot be expected to take on all your team, and provide the cost-effective support you"re looking for. SEAN: I find that hard to believe, Andrew. With the support package we just negotiated you"re gonna need people to service the contract.

　KAREN: As we said, we plan to hire one of your existing IT team as project leader and one as a support engineer. Beyond that, we can"t commit ourselves. SEAN: We"re not asking you to hire people for the rest of their lives, but we have to have more than two jobs to take back to the Works Council.

　FRANCOISE: This is very important to us, Karen. We can"t sign this contract without commitment on this. ANDREW: We cannot afford to offer contracts to all your staff on top of the support deal we"ve come up with. We"ve got our own team, and we"re going to have to utilize them. SEAN: Isn"t that going to cost you a lot---sending them over here? KAREN: We"re losing sight of the objective here. We want to... FRANCOISE: I am sorry, Karen, but we have to have commitment from

　you on staff. KAREN: I see. Can I suggest another break then? Andrew and I need to discuss this. FRANCOISE: Please. Take your time. ANDREW: We might as well call it a day. KAREN: No, I haven"t come all this way to get nothing. ANDREW: Come on, Karen.They"ve driven us down over the support pricing and now they"re asking for staffing commitments we can"t make. We"d be crazy to sign up four members of Levien staff. KAREN: What if we look on one more member of their team---on a one year contract---to work at Levien, but also at some of our other projects?

　 Version 2

　FRANCOISE: Can we return to the staffing question for a moment ? As we said the start, we have certain obligations to our four IT people. KERAN: We do understand that. Our main priority is to give a good quality, value for money service. So, We think one of your team should become our project leader. SEAN: OK. KAREN: And another should become the support engineer. FRANCOISE: That is good, but we had hoped to safeguard all four jobs.

　SEAN: We appreciate your flexibility on the support contract, Karen, but staffing is just as important. Labour laws here are real tough, and we probably won"t be able to sign this contract if we don"t get a better offer. FRANCOISE: I"d like to go back to the Works Council and tell them we can find work for all four members of my team. SEAN: What about taking the other two on short-term contracts? KEAN: We won"t be able to do that. We might be able to take on one other person as a project engineer, but he ... ANDREW: Or she.... KAREN: Thank you, ANDREW. They would have to be flexible about where they worked. FRANCOISE: But what about staff to cover this contract? KERAN: We feel we can"t guarantee more than the two jobs.We have our project engineers to support the team here in Brussels. SEAN: So, what" s on the table for this third person? A one year contract based in Brussels ? ANDREW:Yes, but whoever does it would have to be prepared to work elsewhere as well.

　FRANCOISE:Three out of four. That would be something. KAREN: FRANCOISE, can we break for a free minutes? Andrew and I need to talk this through. FRANCOISE: Of course. Take your time.

　KAREN: I think we are almost there. ANDREW: Absolutely. We can go for a deal now. KREAN: I do want them to understand that we select the staff we need. ANDREW: Absolutely.

　Unit 8 conclusion and agreement

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　FRANCOISE: ...And you have agreed to take on all four members of our existing IT Department. We have confirmed the appointment of Bernard Lagisquet as your on-site IT manager. KAREN: Wait a minute, Francoise. This is not confirmed. We want to see if he"s the right person. FRANCOISE: He is the best candidate. SEAN: He"s the only candidate. KAREN: And he"ll be an Okus employee, so we"d like to interview him. FRANCOISE: OK. Yes. A contingency sum will be agreed at the beginning of the year for urgent IT projects and I will be responsible for authorizing any spending. KAREN: Will this be in the contract? SEAN: No. I guess that about does it . It"s been a very productive day---a definite result. FRANCOISE: I"m very pleased we managed to solve my staff problems. I don"t think there"s anything more... KAREN: I think there are a couple of things: a system for payment and employment contracts. SEAN: You and Francoise can do that by phone. How about we order you a taxi?

　KAREN: Could we just...? ANDREW:Thanks, Sean. If we go fairly soon, we can get the earlier flight. KAREN: What are you doing? There"s no way we"re finished here. ANDREW: Come on, Karen,let"s just cut our losses and go home while we"ve still got something. SEAN: You should make that dinner. Ten minutes. ANDREW: Excellent. FRANCOISE: I"m afraid I have to go. Andrew, a pleasure to meet you. ANDREW: Likewise. KAREN: Francoise, I really think... FRANCOIS: Karen,I will call you tomorrow. I think we have made excellent progress today. SEAN: We should be going too. ANDREW:Yes, let"s go. Karen. KAREN:Yes,we can do any more here,can we?

　 Version 2

　FRANCOISE: ...And you have agreed to take on three of our existing IT Department：two permanently，and one on a short-term contract. Is that correct？ KAREN：Yes. We do understand you feel that Bernard is front runner for the job of IT manager. We would like to arrange an interview with him，

　though. Can we do that on the twentieth？ FRANCOISE：That wouldn"t be a problem. He will be working for you after all. KAREN：Good. ANDREW：Can we just clarify this contingency sum for urgent projects？ FRANCOISE：Yes，Karen and I will agree a sum before the contract starts. I will sign for any expenditure. ANDREW: Will it be the contract? SEAN: The actual sum won"t be. ANDREW: I see. SEAN: Let"s put a clause in which details the contingency option without saying how much it"ll be. We don"t want any delays while we sort out the actual amount. FRANCOISE: We do want this to be up and running by the start of next year. ANDREW: That sounds good. FRANCOISE: So, we have agreed an initial one-year contract on the basis of full support and minimal project work. We will meet again here to interview Bernard and you will fax us your standard employment contract for the two permanent staff. Can we leave it here today? KAREM: Could we discuss payment terms? FRANCOISE: Can we delay that until the next meeting? I"m afraid I have

　to go now. SEAN: Fax us a proposed scheduled and we can talk it through in two weeks. KAREN: That"ll be fine. FRANCOISE: I"m sorry I have to leave so abruptly.Sean will arrange a taxi for you. KAREN: Thank you. See you in two weeks. FRANCOISE:Yes, you must stay the night and see more of Brussels. ANDREW: That"d be great. FRANCOISE: Goodbye then.I hope we both got the deal we wanted. KAREN: I think we did. Goodbye.

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