Readers of a certain age may recognise the above blog title as a quote from the film “Withnail and I”. It’s a tragi-comic film (if you know, you know – if not, it’s worth a watch) and the holiday in question captures how best-laid plans don’t always work out.
It was brought to mind by the news earlier this month that a corporate buyer (to protect the guilty, that’s as far as I’ll go) sent a round-robin letter from one of their procurement heads to their suppliers, in which they stated that a mandatory discount on current agreements would be implemented immediately. The resulting furor forced the buyer’s CEO into a public climbdown in which it was claimed that the original demand was “an error”. We’ve gone on holiday by mistake, indeed.
Now, if you have the objective power to impose unilateral demands, this is risky on the basis that your suppliers may start to plan their exit strategy/revenge immediately, leaving you at longer term disadvantage. On the other hand, if you don’t have the power to do this, the disadvantage is likely to be more obvious a lot more quickly. And in this particular instance, it became very clear very quickly that the organisation making the demand did not have the power to impose their discount, as evidenced by rapid withdrawal of the demand.
The letter was widely shared in public the moment it landed (perhaps starting the letter “Dear Supplier”, thus signaling very obviously that there were other recipients than yourself, emboldened this?). Tone deafness risks landing badly: “We are asking all of our supplier partners to work with us as we support each other through this difficult period.” The letter was a demand, not an ask (even including some legalese for contract fans). The demand was diametrically opposed to the idea of mutual support, being unilateral and one-way. Whether a genuine mistake or a misguided attempt to wield power, there are some useful questions for negotiators to mull:
- Have you made an objective assessment of the balance of power?
- Are your objectives realistic and achievable (even if ambitious)? If not, the likely result is deadlock or failure
- Have you got a plan B (or C, or D) if your first attempt to achieve your objectives doesn’t work?
- Are your interests best served through a cooperative approach or by behaving more competitively?
- If you do meet resistance, have you considered what you might be prepared to trade in order to secure your more important objectives?
In this instance, it’s hard to see any evidence that those questions were asked, let alone addressed in advance. If you want something – whether it's from suppliers, customers or colleagues – there’s an awful lot you can do beforehand that’ll help you avoid doing the negotiator’s equivalent of going on holiday by mistake.
