Executive Summary
People normally engage in some form of negotiation in their daily lives. Successful negotiations are characterized by a situation in which both parties agree on the best solution. Effective negotiations require a cea rtain set of skills from the involved parties. However, professional negotiators have the relevant skills for participating in negotiations. It is noteworthy that the best negotiation is win-win.
It is characterized by everyone involved in achieving satisfactory outcomes. People should prepare in order to have effective participation in win-win negotiations. This research focuses on win-win negotiation, which is the most beneficial type of conciliation. Collaboration is the best strategy for engaging in win-win negotiations. This is because it encourages problem-solving through the application of integrative processes.
There are diverse techniques and skills that simplify win-win negotiations and contribute to the achievements of desirable benefits. Furthermore, win-win negotiations present many advantages compared to the limitations.
Tameer Micro-financial Bank and Telenor Pakistan successfully employed win-win negotiation to realize massive benefits for each of them. Tameer is a micro-financial institution in Pakistan, which needed to augment their customer base through mobile banking services. On the other hand, Telenor Pakistan is the second largest telecommunications firm providing mobile services to over 30 million people.
The regulator provided a new direction that required all mobile network operators to partner with financial institutions in order to offer mobile banking services to the millions of people who were not accessing the services. This directive facilitated the initial negotiations between the two firms.
The win-win negotiations enabled the firms to benefit from the opportunities provided by each other as well as develop the capacity to provide mobile money banking to millions of Pakistani’s. This research has established that win-win negotiations are the best form of concession because of the benefits it provides to the participants.
This study recommends that parties engaging in win-win negotiations should employ a collaborative strategy as well as strategic planning during win-win negotiations. It recommends that negotiating parties should trade concessions to enable them to focus on core issues.
Summary of Findings and Recommendations
The application of win-win negotiation was helpful in solving challenges facing micro – financial institutions in Pakistan. The banks lacked the capacity to deliver mobile banking services to their millions of potential clients. Tameer Microfinance Bank needed to identify ways of improving their service delivery structures in order to escalate the number of people with accounts in Pakistan.
Tameer was interested in putting in place a mobile banking platform to attract more clients and activate its growth. A directive by the regulator in Pakistan that mobile network operators (MNO) shall partner with financial institutions in order to provide mobile banking services became the breakthrough for Tameer.
Tameer entered into win-win negotiations with Telenor Pakistan, which is the second largest MNO in the country as a way of complying with the new regulations. Tameer initiated the negotiations with the aim of acquiring the over 30 million clients belonging to Telenor Pakistan and the company’s agent network approximating to 180,000 together with its national advertising and marketplace leadership.
The companies agreed during the negotiation process to partner and form Easypaisabrand to offer money transfer service. Telenor Pakistan eventually bought 51 percent of shares in Tameer.
The positive outcomes of the negotiation between Tameer and Telenor Pakistan are that Tameer easily accessed a large customer base and reduced cost of doing business because of taking advantage of the 180,000 Telenor agents.
Conversely, Telenor Pakistan escalated its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) as well as develop new revenue sources because of charges on the mobile money banking platform. The two institutions used a win-win negotiation approach to realize gains as well as enable millions of Pakistani’s to access banking services.
It is recommended that parties engaging in win-win negotiations should employ a collaborative strategy in order to settle the process when each side has won. The role of strategic planning in managing win-win negotiations is also recommended because it makes the process to run smoothly. It is also recommendable that negotiating parties should trade concessions in order to carry out the negotiation process by focusing on core issues.
It is recommended that the parties engaging in win-win negotiation should have effective communication skills, particularly while working with people from varying cultural backgrounds. This is because cross-cultural negotiations are complex and require a new set of skills.
Conclusions
Win-Win negotiation is helpful in enabling two opposing sides to reach an agreement in which everyone benefits. The process of conducting a win-win negotiation requires the participants to maintain focus. Professional negotiators are the most successful in the negotiation because they have the relevant skills and capacities. However, communication also plays a momentous role in negotiations.
This is particularly important in cases where negotiation involves participants from multicultural backgrounds. It is notable that win-win negotiation is the most beneficial strategy for solving outstanding problems. This paper has highlighted the win-win negotiation involving Tameer Microfinance Bank and Telenor Pakistan, which is a telecommunications firm.
The two companies entered into win-win negotiations after a directive that MNO’s should start offering mobile banking services. The negotiation was successful thus making the two firms to form a new platform for mobile money transfer. The greatest lesson learned between the two firms is that win-win negotiations ensure that everyone involved benefits.