Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of A Done Deal.

Keshav: It is my pleasure and honour to introduce my guest today - Mr. Raju Venkataraman on the show today. Raju brings 30+ years of rich C-suite experience from the corporate world as CFO, Head of Strategy, Business Unit Head, Head of Sales & Distribution - marking him out as a versatile and savvy leader. His most recent corporate role was as CFO & Head of Strategy of Walt Disney Company for South East Asia. Presently, as a Coach and Corporate educator, Raju is powering on senior leaders to fulfil their potential and aspirations amidst change and disruption. Raju's cross-functional range, sharp business acumen, art of people management and insight into the Asia-Pac business region, make him a sought-after leadership and career coach. So, welcome, Raju.

Raju:
Thank you, Keshav

Keshav: So, ladies and gentlemen, Many people think of Negotiation as a formal process conducted behind closed doors by high powered executives, politicians or world leaders. Still others think of it as the same as Bargaining in street markets. While both of those may well be subsets of negotiation - However, Raju, you view negotiation as a common, everyday activity or process that most people use to influence others and to achieve personal, team or organisational objectives - even as we take the other party's objectives and needs into account. The truth is, nearly everyone must negotiate. Your career, your finances, your reputation, your love life, & more - at some point, all of these hinge on your ability to negotiate. That is why, Negotiation is one of the most important business (and life) skills you should work on developing. Is negotiation a critical part of what you do? Do you need to resolve conflict and persuade & influence others at work? If you have answered yes to those, you will love my discussion with Raju

Keshav - Raju, Let's get started by having you tell the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Raju:
I love negotiating, talking about it and teaching it. I also continue to learn more about it especially teaching and training people in negotiation skills using virtual medium.

Keshav:could you please tell me more about the last point?
Raju:
In Sept 2nd week and 3rd week - I did 2 workshops - both virtually. The first one was a 3 day "The Art of Negotiation" workshop for Global MBA students of Essec Business School. Hybrid one using Zoom platform with a few students present in person in the Singapore classroom and many others dialling in from countries as dispersed as Canada, Poland, Indonesia, India, Korea, Japan and Madagascar. Doing the role play simulation virtually using breakout rooms was a first time for me and went quite well. Next, did a training on Decision Making and Negotiation Skills for mid-level executives of an insurance company with executives across South East Asia dialling in. We used the Webex platform and we needed to adopt workarounds but eventually got there. The most important aspect is to ensure the attendees feel engaged and are able to participate. So yes, both went well and thanks for asking Keshav.

Keshav:So, You've been there and you've done that - in various types of negotiations, in different geographies, in different industries. And now you train people in the art and science of negotiation. How would you characterise your negotiating style? And is there one particular style that gives people wins more often than others?
Raju:
There are different approaches and then about my preferred approach and emphasise - flexibility and situational awareness. you have to be able to treat each situation differently. You need to find out the tools and methods for each situation. There are no stereotypes. The only rule is that every situation is different.

Keshav:In your view, What're the three biggest mistakes people make in personal negotiations or in business negotiation?
Raju:
1. Not listening enough - we are all dying to talk, we talk over others, thinking of negotiation as persuading convincing and arguing and miss out the other half - i.e. empathetic listening, this also will show us as us not asking enough questions, not spending time in understanding their concerns, their interests, not spending time to build trust and rapport - this missing out on opportunities to create value. We are not learning while we are talking - we are only learning when the other side is talking. Patience is an enormous weapon as is strategic silence - for a negotiator.

Keshav - Indeed. That's so true. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they simply listen with the intent to reply. And what is the second mistake?
Raju:
Not preparing enough - All of you must have heard a lot about the importance of preparation. A lot of people are overconfident about their abilities or are plain lazy and this leads to their downfall. Lack of preparation causes us among others to become prisoner of our assumptions and limiting beliefs - and we leave value on the table. Preparation means preparing on the substance of the negotiation, preparing for building and nurturing the relationship with the other party at multiple levels and last but not the least - preparing well for the negotiation process -

I call it the 3 Ps - problem, people and process. And preparation takes on additional dimensions when there are multiple stakeholders that you represent and even more so, when you are not the sole negotiator but you are leading or part of a negotiating team. Of course, business negotiations are highly unpredictable. Some of your prep work won't turn out to be relevant, and new issues and problems will crop up and demand your attention. But having a solid understanding of what's at stake and where each side is coming from will help you think on your feet. And preparation and planning well does not mean rigidly sticking to the preferred plan but it actually allows us to be dynamic and dance well in the moment since we'd have foreseen and prepared for eventualities and multiple scenarios.

There are various tools to aid your preparation and I favour the Seven Elements worksheet tool. Preparation also includes anticipating and preparing to handle questions that you don't fancy answering or handling issues you pray that they wont raise.

Preparation is not something you do only at the start; as you go through the negotiation, you will unearth new questions that you need to find answers too, discover that some of your starting assumptions were incorrect etc...so preparation activities continue through the negotiation process.