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Home » Resources » Case Studies » Negotiating with WalMart Buyers

Negotiating with WalMart Buyers

Walmart buyers are trained to treat their vendors in a variety of ways, depending on where you fit into their plan. This case shares a story of a vendor called Sarah who negotiated a win-win outcome with Walmart.

WalMart, the world’s largest retailer, sold $514.4 billion worth of goods in 2019. With its single-minded focus on “EDLP” (everyday low prices) and the power to make or break; suppliers, a partnership with Walmart is either the Holy Grail or the kiss of death, depending on one’s perspective.

There are numerous media accounts of the corporate monolith riding its suppliers into the ground. But what about those who manage to survive, and thrive, while dealing with the classic hardball negotiator?

In “Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Walmart” and “Tom Muccio: Negotiating the P&G Relationship with Walmart,” HBS professor Jim Sebenius and Research Associate Ellen Knebel show two very different organisations doing just that. The cases are part of a series that involve hard bargaining situations.

“The concept of win-win bargaining is a good and powerful message,” Sebenius says, “but a lot of our students and executives face negotiation counterparts who aren’t interested in playing by those rules. So what happens when you encounter someone with a great deal of power, like Walmart, who is also the ultimate non-negotiable partner?”

The case details how P&G executive Tom Muccio pioneers a new supplier-retailer partnership between P&G and Walmart. Built on proximity (Muccio relocated to Walmart’s turf in Arkansas) and growing trust (both sides eventually eliminated elaborate legal contracts in favor of Letters of Intent), the new relationship focused on establishing a joint vision and problem-solving process, information sharing, and generally moving away from the “lowest common denominator” pricing issues that had defined their interactions previously. From 1987, when Muccio initiated the changes, to 2003, shortly before his retirement, P&G’s sales to Walmart grew from $350 million to $7.8 billion.

“There are obvious differences between P&G and a much smaller entity like Frey Farms,” Sebenius notes. “Walmart could clearly live without Frey Farms, but it’s pretty hard to live without Tide and Pampers.”

Sarah meets Goliath

Sarah Talley was 19 in 1997, when she first began negotiating with Walmart’s buyers for her family farm’s pumpkins and watermelons. Like Muccio, Talley confronted some of the same hardball price challenges, and like Muccio, she acquired a deep understanding of the Walmart culture while finding “new money” in the supply chain through innovative tactics.

For example, Frey Farms used school busses ($1,500 each) instead of tractors ($12,000 each) as a cheaper and faster way to transport melons to the warehouse.

Talley also was skillful at negotiating a coveted co-management supplier agreement with Walmart, showing how Frey Farms could share the responsibility of managing inventory levels and sales and ultimately save customers money while improving their own margins.

“Two sides in this sort of negotiation will always differ on price,” Sebenius observes. “However, if that conflict is the centerpiece of their interaction, then it’s a bad situation. If they’re trying to develop the customer, the relationship, and sales, the price piece will be one of many points, most of which they’re aligned on.”

Research Associate Knebel points out that while Tom Muccio’s approach to Walmart was pioneering for its time, many other companies have since followed P&G’s lead and enjoyed their own versions of success with the mega-retailer. Getting a ground-level view of how two companies achieved those positive outcomes illustrates the story-within-a-story of implementing corporate change.

“Achieving that is where macro concepts, micro imperatives, and managerial skill really come together,” says Sebenius. And the payoffs—as Muccio and Talley discover—are well worth the effort.

Sarah Talley’s Key Negotiation Principles

• When you have a problem, when there’s something you engage in with Walmart that requires agreement so that it becomes a negotiation, the first advice is to think in partnership terms, really focus on a common goal, for example of getting costs out, and ask questions. Don’t make demands or statements. Rather ask if you can do this better. If the relationship with Walmart is truly a partnership, negotiating to resolve differences should focus on long term mutual partnership gains.
• Don’t spend time griping. Be problem solvers instead. Approach Walmart by saying, “Let’s work together and drive costs down and produce it so much cheaper you don’t have to replace me, because if you work with me I could do it better.”
• Learn from and lobby with people and their partners who have credibility, and with people having problems in the field.
• Don’t ignore small issues or let things fester.
• Try not to let Walmart become more than 20% of your company’s business.
• It’s hard to negotiate with well trained buyers who know that their company could put your company out of business.
• Never go into a meeting without a clear negotiation agenda . Make good use of the buyers’ face time. Leave with answers. Don’t make small talk. Get to the point; their time is valuable. Bring underlying issues to the surface. Attack them head on and find resolution face to face.
• Trying to bluff Walmart buyers is never a good idea. There is usually someone willing to do it cheaper to gain the business. You have to treat the relationship as a marriage. Communication and negotiated compromises are key.
• Don’t take for granted that just because the buyer is young they don’t know what they are talking about or that it will be an easy sell. Most young buyers are very ambitious to move up within the company and can be some of the toughest, most educated buyers you will encounter. Know your product all the way from the production standpoint to the end use. Chances are your buyer does, and will expect you to be even more knowledgeable.

My top 3 favorites are don’t ignore small issues, be a problem solver and hold on to a high percentage of your business. You should always communicate when something comes up instead of letting it fester because it could develop into something big that would have never happened if discussed in the first place. When you develop your own business you should never let someone take over more percentage than you have because then you will lose control over what you started. Never gripe and be a problem solver. Larger companies don’t want to hear complaining they want to see action and larger profits

I have negotiated with Walmart for large and small business and I don’t recall any subjects of the conversations that were valued more or equal to price and their margin protection. Logistics or supply it was still a an unyielding stand of profit. Kroger,Publix, Winn Dixie, would &will negotiate for volume -promotions -discounting. Your article is not specific enough for analysis nor to draw the conclusions you present.

The two cases, one with a large vendor and the other with a small one, both working with Wal-Mart reframes some of the classic views of negotiating in a practical way.

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The efficiency of humanitarian response following a disaster depends on how fast coordination structures are established, supply chains are enabled, and human and financial resources are mobilised.

Negotiating in disaster contexts becomes challenging because of the many parties involved. Often, survivors are turned into first responders until traditional humanitarian response mechanisms are set up. Then, when humanitarian actors step in, it’s necessary to negotiate and coordinate the response among the multiple actors.

In 2023, the CCHN launched its research on negotiating in the context of disasters. Since then, we have conducted a series of interviews to understand field practices, produced a report and developed a thematic session with the project to expand this topic in the future.

The CCHN first started researching the topic of communities at the centre of negotiations in the framework of the Middle East Think Tank, a year-long project developed in collaboration with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

A group of CCHN community members shared experiences, reviewed litterature and worked with experts from other sectors to identify the main challenges related to the topic.

The group then led focus group discussions to develop good practices and tools that support frontline workers when negotiations involve communities.

Negotiating and operating in contexts affected by gang violence requires a strategic approach. These contexts tend to be volatile, unpredictable and hard to access. Establishing clear communication lines is hindered because gangs are highly fragmented and command changes often.

Research conducted by the CCHN points towards the importance of staff continuity, the need for long-term psychological support and building trust as best strategies to operate in gang-controlled areas.

We continue to work on this topic and offer practical advice to humanitarians working in these contexts.

To assist affected populations, humanitarian professionals often carry out negotiations with the support of interpreters. Communication changes when interpreters are involved, and if the negotiator or interpreter have little experience doing this, challenges arise, and negotiation outcomes suffer.

The CCHN regularly talks to negotiators and interpreters who work together in humanitarian contexts to understand what obstacles they face and how to remove them. Since 2022, we have developed a report, guidelines and learning modules to help interpreters and negotiators improve their working relationship.

Unlike negotiators in other fields, humanitarian negotiators are often exposed to extremely stressful environments over prolonged periods of time in addition to episodic intense pressure peaks.

Research conducted by the CCHN focuses on the causes and consequences of pressure, and best practices to counter it. We have developed a programme to help humanitarians to prepare, handle and reduce pressure, and offer regular meetings to discuss this topic in our community.

Humanitarian negotiations and humanitarian diplomacy are inherently intertwined, but what differentiates them isn’t always clear. Some see humanitarian negotiations as one of the many instruments of humanitarian diplomacy, whereas others see the latter as efforts made at a “higher” level by heads of agencies, heads of state and diplomats.

The CCHN continues to investigate this link to bring more clarity and identify opportunities of synergy between the two types of negotiations.

Humanitarians working in displacement contexts negotiate with multiple counterparts, including governments, camp authorities, host communities and affected people themselves. Negotiations often take place in a politically charged environment where humanitarians operate in a legal grey zone.

Since 2020, the CCHN collects information on negotiations in displacement contexts to understand the challenges faced by humanitarians. We have developed contextual simulations, case studies and workshops to support humanitarian practitioners working in these contexts.

Negotiations around health care are distinctive. They involve not only armed actors, but patients and their families, and are often highly emotional. Humanitarian practitioners must also navigate complex public health systems while maintaining humanitarian principles.

At the request of humanitarian professionals, the CCHN launched its research on the topic of healthcare and negotiations in 2019. Since then, we have developed negotiation workshops and case studies tailored to health care contexts, as well as a learning module on how to de-escalate a tense situation.

Protection remains one of the most challenging humanitarian outcomes to negotiate. It’s considered a “sensitive, abstract, non-priority, and controversial” topic by most humanitarians. This lack of consensus is what makes protection negotiations particularly difficult.

Together with its community, the CCHN has identified common challenges and best practices when negotiating protection outcomes. Out of this research, we developed a negotiation workshop on protection, simulations and a thematic group.

Private military companies, state militaries, government forces and armed groups are some of the most common counterparts humanitarians negotiate with.

These actors, however diverse, follow their own values, beliefs, honour codes and hierarchies. Understanding what makes them tick is key to building trust and negotiating effectively.

At the CCHN, we conduct research on how to best engage with state- and non-state armed groups and make it available for the wider humanitarian community through webinars, thematic sessions and publications.

Negotiating for safe and durable access often feels unstructured and speculative. Working conditions for humanitarian agencies can be difficult, local authorities may not be open to collaboration, and the compromise humanitarian practitioners achieve may not be appropriate to respond to humanitarian needs. So, how do humanitarians gain safe access?

The CCHN conducts research on humanitarian access negotiations. Our work aims to understand how humanitarians gain trust, establish guarantees and evaluate the impact of compromises. We collect best practices and lessons learned and share them during our workshops and in our publications.

Since 2018, the CCHN has investigated the impact of diversity in humanitarian negotiations.

Humanitarian practitioners at different managerial levels have shared their views in how their identity and their counterpart’s identity influenced negotiations they have conducted.

Experiences vary, but most humanitarians explained that during negotiations they stress specific elements of their identity, skills, and background — playing up those that allow them to establish a rapport more easily with their counterparts, and downplaying those that are perceived to be detrimental.

To continue the conversation around diversity, we regularly organise informal discussions to collect experiences, impressions and insights and bring back our findings to the community.

The CCHN supports humanitarian agencies in expanding their internal negotiation capacity by providing bespoke learning and development support for all staff members.

This activity is for you if...

…you are looking to strengthen staff members’ negotiation skills within your organisation. …you would like your internal negotiation training to be informed by recent research and by the practice of hundreds of humanitarian professionals working around the globe.

What will you learn?

The CCHN can support your internal Learning department in the design of a specific curriculum (either ad-hoc or permanent), based on our methodology and in line with your agency’s current challenges and learning strategy.

The curriculum may take a peer-to-peer online/onsite format, or it may be an individual experience through e-learning materials and self-learning.

We provide the requesting agency with access to the complete CCHN learning methodology. Alternatively, we embed learning sessions based on our methodology in an existing learning programme delivered by the agency.

We also support your agency in responding to specific challenges through tailored learning content with a thematic or regional focus.

Who can sign up?

Any humanitarian agency or learning institution.

What language will we speak?

English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

How to sign up?

Please contact us to obtain more information and a tailored proposal.

We support humanitarian agencies or field teams by advising them on negotiating access and protection based on our analytical tools and policy work.

…you are looking for tailored guidance navigating a complex humanitarian scenario. …you wish to be supported in the application of CCHN’s strategic tools to your local challenges.

The CCHN provides different levels of advisory support. Level 1  –  Bilateral technical support . We provide guidance to community members and partner organisations through the expertise of CCHN staff and specialised consultants. Level 2  –  Specialised research and policy response . The CCHN’s Research and Development team will provide in-depth analysis and guidance, in collaboration with the Operations team and selected members of our community of practice. Level 3  –  Direct advisory support . You will be supported by a CCHN Mobile Advisory Team comprising our internal operational capacity as well as external resources.

Discover state-of-the-art negotiation tools, apply them to your own negotiations, and critically reflect with peers while contributing to the advancement of research.

… you would like to “deep dive” into CCHN negotiation tools learned during Peer Workshops, Advanced Humanitarian Negotiation Workshops or Thematic Sessions. … you are testing and practising these tools in your daily professional life and engaging in critical reflection about the tools and your practice with peers and with potential support of CCHN mentors. …you wish to be among the first to test and validate innovative negotiation tools that have been recently developed by CCHN researchers and community members. …you are available and committed to joining at least three Negotiation Lab sessions.

Negotiation Labs are critical discussions and exchanges among field practitioners around existing or pilot tools and models that have been recently elaborated by CCHN researchers or by community members in the context of Thematic Groups. Labs may be co-facilitated by CCHN mentors and other selected members of the CCHN community with extensive humanitarian experience and excellent knowledge of CCHN tools. You will have the opportunity to test the tools, apply them in your negotiations and provide feedback for further development, while also supporting ongoing research efforts.

You should have previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop or Executive Programme.

What is the event format?

Negotiation Labs are organised in small groups, based on demand, over three to five sessions. They take place online and include three to five participants.

Will you receive a certificate?

You will not receive a certificate for this activity.

Negotiation Labs are organised on demand.

Join other humanitarian practitioners and mental health experts over the course of a few days and strengthen your capacity to prepare, manage and recover from high-pressure negotiations.

…you are seeking a safe and confidential space to discuss with other humanitarian professionals about the personal challenges and dilemmas of negotiating under pressure or in high-risk contexts. …you wish to explore the latest tools and methods to identify, manage and cope with stress in complex environments. …(for retreats aimed at training facilitators) you are willing to facilitate similar activities in the future and to organise additional ones in your region.

Retreats will provide you with a safe environment to exchange and new techniques to better prepare, manage, and recover from high-pressure situations. You will learn how to build your resilience and support colleagues facing personal, ethical, and professional dilemmas.

Among the topics tackled during retreats are the mental, emotional and physical dimensions of pressure management and self-care as well as the “before”, “during” and “after” of negotiating under pressure.

You should have previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop or Executive Programme. Retreats are particularly suitable for community members with a strong interest in the CCHN’s mental health and pressure management activities.

Some retreats aim to train new facilitators, providing them with the tools to organise their own workshops. In this case, you should have completed a Training of Facilitators and have a strong interest in the topic of resilience in negotiation under pressure. You should have the commitment and resources to organise at least two sessions / series of sessions / a retreat in your local context within the 12 months following the training.

English, French or Spanish; additional languages may be available for self-organised workshops, depending on the context where the retreat takes place.

Retreats take place in person. They typically last five days (some parallel activities may take place online for the wider community). They feature group discussions and exercises.

Retreats include a maximum of 25 participants. In-person participants should be able to cover flight expenses and visa fees.

Yes. Those who attend the event in its entirety receive a Certificate of Completion.

Visit the special events calendar reserved for CCHN community members and sign up online for the next event.

Learn helpful techniques to become more resilient to pressure during high-stakes negotiations and provide similar support to the members of your team.

…you wish to learn techniques to better prepare, manage, and cope with high-pressure negotiations. …you feel a need to share and exchange confidentially about issues relating to mental health and self-care during negotiation processes. …you would like to become more resilient and prevent the negative impact of pressure in the future. …you are planning to use self-management tools to support your team members through complex negotiations.

The “Prepare for Pressure” programme will help you better understand your behaviour, master your emotions, and learn methods to reduce the impact of pressure during high-stakes negotiations.

The workshop is provided regularly in English, French and Spanish.

The workshops, facilitated by expert pressure management consultants, take place online and are based on the sharing of the participants’ experiences. They include breathing and other body exercises.

The programme is composed of four modules lasting 10 hours in total. Workshops are normally organised every two months. Each event features a maximum of 25 participants.

Create a one-on-one relationship with another humanitarian professional within the CCHN community. Learn from and with a colleague who understands your negotiation context in a safe space for exchange and reflection.

… you are currently negotiating at the frontlines of humanitarian action. … you are looking for ways to strengthen your negotiation skills while discussing your own experience. … you would like to connect with other professionals while stimulating reflection, critical thinking, exchange of ideas, and brainstorming.

Mentors expand their negotiation expertise while developing soft skills like active listening, critical thinking, and providing feedback.

Mentees gain access to a safe, confidential space of reflection and exchange with an experienced peer negotiator.

Both mentors and mentees should have previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop or Executive Programme. Mentors join the programme upon invitation, depending on the skills and expertise they demonstrate. They attend an onboarding workshop before becoming listed in the CCHN mentors’ database. Mentees can join the programme by submitting an online application. The CCHN team provides them with guidance so they can fully take advantage of the mentoring relationship.

Training and onboarding materials are available in English, French and Spanish; however, the mentoring exchanges can take place in any language shared by the mentor and mentee. The mentors currently available in our database collectively speak more than 80 languages.

Before entering a mentoring relationship, mentors attend an onboarding workshop where they learn about mentoring practices and skills including structuring a mentoring relationship, active listening and providing feedback. They later practice these skills during role-play simulations. Mentees who apply gain access to the CCHN mentoring database, where they can autonomously select and contact the mentor(s) whose profile or expertise best matches their needs. The one-on-one relationship between a mentee and a mentor takes place privately and confidentially according to the participants’ preferences.

The CCHN organises “Mentoring Coffee” events twice per month. All participants are welcome to attend and discuss mentoring practices as a group.

The mentors who attend an onboarding workshop in its entirety receive a Certificate of Completion.

Mentees do not receive a certificate.

Contact us if you are interested in becoming a mentee.

Join an informal, regular gathering of humanitarian professionals to discuss a specific negotiation challenge and produce practical guidance for humanitarian colleagues.

…you’re looking to receive practical guidance from other frontline negotiators on your operational challenges. … you are committed to working with other community members towards developing concrete tools, guidelines, or frameworks that can support humanitarian practitioners. …you wish to discuss with experts and researchers, engage yourself in operational research, create space for discussion, and think outside the box to find creative solutions to shared challenges. … you can commit to attending periodic discussions around the group’s topic.

You should have previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop or Executive Programme. You should be committed to developing a particular topic related to humanitarian negotiation.

English or any other language depending on the preference of the group.

Thematic group meetings take place online at regular intervals (typically every 4-6 weeks).

Thematic groups are informal exchanges, and you will not receive a certificate for this activity.

Informal but structured group discussions around a specific negotiation angle or context, either online or in person.

…you’re looking for an informal group exchange on a certain challenge relating to humanitarian negotiations. …you wish to rely on the support of a global network to help you plan and carry out future humanitarian negotiations.

Anyone who has previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop or Executive Programme.

Arabic, English, French, or Spanish depending on the geographical focus of each event.

Peer circles may take place online or in connection with in-person events. Their length varies depending on the theme; online events typically last one to two hours. Each event has an average of 20 participants.

Peer circles are informal exchanges; you will not receive a certificate for this activity.

Test your negotiation skills in a realistic scenario and put your knowledge of the CCHN tools into practice.

…you would like to test your understanding of the negotiation tools and methods learned during previous workshops. …you are looking to strengthen your problem-solving skills through roleplay and better prepare for your next negotiation.

Arabic, English, French, or Spanish.

Simulations can take place either in person or online, with the use of virtual interactive boards. They are usually organised as a complement to a Peer Workshop or another learning activity.

A simulation lasts between two and four hours and features a maximum of 30 participants.

Become a CCHN workshop facilitator and help other humanitarian professionals strengthen their negotiation skills while benefitting from their collective expertise. Take your engagement in the CCHN Community of Practice to the next level and lead Peer Workshops for your team or for the wider humanitarian community, with support from the CCHN.

…you are interested in learning facilitation techniques that are applicable across different domains. …you would like to benefit from the expertise of frontline negotiators sharing their own experience and practice. …you wish to share your learning on humanitarian negotiation with members of your organisation or other professionals across the sector. … you are available to facilitate CCHN Peer Workshops both online and onsite.

You will learn facilitation techniques to guide other humanitarian professionals in applying the negotiation methodology developed by the CCHN.

The topics discussed include active listening, effective communication, storytelling and delivering presentations without making use of PowerPoint.

At the end of the training, you will be able to facilitate CCHN Peer Workshops, including by using case studies and simulation exercises.

Active CCHN facilitators gain access to dedicated learning and sharing opportunities, including the Facilitators Annual Meeting.

You should have previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop as an engaged participant. You should demonstrate a very good understanding of the CCHN negotiation tools and commitment to share your learning with other professionals.

Trainings of Facilitators are available both online and in person. Online workshops include four sessions lasting two hours each and welcome a maximum of 25 participants; they focus on building facilitation skills for online events.

In-person workshops last four full days and welcome a maximum of 15 participants. They are aimed at building skills to facilitate in-person events.

Once you complete the training, you will be invited to join Peer Workshops as a facilitator.

Yes. Those who attend the workshop in its entirety and consequently facilitate at least one Peer Workshop will receive a Certificate of Completion.

Advanced Humanitarian Negotiation Workshops offer participants an opportunity to consolidate their previous learning while acquiring advanced skills and tools to plan, manage or evaluate humanitarian negotiations. You will dive deeper into the behavioral aspects of negotiation through CCHN tools, putting them into practice in context-specific scenarios.

…you took stock of the negotiation tools and strategies discovered during a Peer Workshop and feel the need of more solid or in-depth grounding. … you are interested in advanced and more complex tools to plan and evaluate your negotiations and critically reflect about your current practice. … you wish to improve your negotiations and communication skills, experimenting and learning from mistakes. …you are a mid- or senior-level humanitarian professional carrying out regular negotiations at the frontlines.

Advanced Humanitarian Negotiation Workshops tackle different topics over four days:

• Day 1: Designing and understanding the mandate of the negotiation.
• Day 2: Understanding your counterpart.
• Day 3: Building trust and crafting an argument.
• Day 4: Designing a negotiation strategy (optional).

A negotiation simulation completes the workshop on the fourth day. The Advanced Humanitarian Negotiation Workshop is based on the sharing of the participants’ negotiation experience and simulations. You will be asked to (confidentially) share your negotiation stories with the group as a basis for joint discussion and exercises.

You should have previously attended a CCHN Peer Workshop or Executive Programme. You should also have several years of experience negotiating in the field.

English, Spanish and French – with the possibility of live interpretation into other languages.

Advanced Humanitarian Negotiation Workshops may take place online or in person. In-person workshops last for three or four full days, welcoming 16-20 participants. Online workshops can be organised on demand.

Applied Negotiation Workshops help humanitarian professionals develop additional skills to plan and carry out negotiations in specific contexts or around particularly challenging operational topics. Participants are introduced to context-tailored methods, tools and case-studies based on the latest CCHN research and on humanitarian practice.

… you’re seeking to consolidate your previous learning from attending a Peer Workshop. …you wish to acquire advanced skills and tools to plan and evaluate humanitarian negotiation and issue a mandate. …you are a mid- or senior-level humanitarian professional carrying out regular negotiations at the frontlines.

Applied Negotiation Workshops tackle different topics over three days:

• Day 1: Humanitarian negotiation as a personal endeavour and institutional process.
• Day 2: Humanitarian negotiation as a professional relationship: managing and leveraging risks.
• Day 3: Building trust and fostering legitimacy and strategic planning in complex environments.

In-person workshops last for three full days. They feature 16- 20 participants.

A successful negotiation does not only rely on the tools and strategies applied; it also depends on how the negotiator interacts with the counterpart. Learn how to develop negotiation skills including communication, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and conflict management.

… you wish to become more aware of how your behaviour and body cues may affect the outcome of a negotiation. …you’d like to discover additional approaches helping to build a relationship of trust with a counterpart.

Each workshop is divided into four sessions, respectively focusing on:

• Self-awareness (social and emotional intelligence, microexpression and emotional triggers, conflict handling styles).
• Leading the team into the negotiation process (decision making, delegation and empowerment, making appropriate decisions).
• Communicating and transaction (local codes, influencing, listening skills, linguistics, creating trust, intercultural communication).
• Roleplay and the behavioural aspects of a negotiation.

Soft skills workshops are usually delivered online over the course of two days; they include roleplay and simulations. They are often organised in connection with another in-person workshop. Each event welcomes an average of 20 participants.

A first step into your CCHN learning pathway and an opportunity to join a global community of humanitarian negotiators. Peer Workshops provide you with knowledge of fundamental negotiation tools which are essential to plan, carry out and evaluate field negotiations. This knowledge will come in handy as you expand your negotiation expertise and prepare for more advanced workshops. Completing a Peer Workshops is a pre-requisite to join the CCHN community of practice and to attend other CCHN learning activities.

…you want to gain a fundamental understanding of negotiation tools and methods, share your negotiation experience and learn from others, connect with frontline negotiators in your region or around a specific topic, and set the foundation to attend more advanced workshops in the future.

• Carrying out a context analysis to understand the environment in which the negotiation takes place.
• Developing a tactical plan and assembling the right negotiation team.
• Critically reflecting on your role in the negotiation and how your counterpart may perceive you.
• Identifying the actors that may influence your counterpart.
• Understanding your counterpart’s position, reasoning and values.
• Defining your own position, your institutional limitations and bottom lines.

You will also discover some basic techniques to de-escalate a high-tension situation. You will then put your new learning into practice during a simulation exercise at the end of the workshop.

You should be a humanitarian professional with a minimum of three years of negotiation experience in a field context. Peer Workshops are open to both national and international staff of humanitarian organisations.

Arabic, English, French, Spanish or Portuguese, depending on the regional focus of each workshop. Learning materials can be translated into additional languages.

Peer Workshops are based on the sharing of the participants’ negotiation experiences. You will be invited to (confidentially) share your own stories with the group as a basis for joint discussion and learning.

Online workshops include six sessions, each lasting two hours (10 hours in total), taking place over the course of either three or five days.

In-person workshops are held over three full days and may feature additional thematic sessions.

The CCHN will accept a maximum of 30 people for in-person workshops and a maximum of 50 people for online workshops.

Visit our public events calendar to discover which of our upcoming workshops is most relevant for you, then submit your application online.

An interactive and confidential safe space for humanitarian decision-makers and senior management to share complex negotiation experiences and better lead negotiation teams as they navigate relationships with difficult counterparts. Completing the Executive Programme allows access into the CCHN community of practice as well as other advanced learning opportunities.

…you are a decision-maker within a humanitarian agency (Country Representative, Country Director, Deputy Director or equivalent level) and act as the mandator in frontline negotiation processes. …you wish to strengthen your leadership in guiding your agency’s negotiation teams. …you wish to build advanced negotiation skills in complex environments while becoming part of a professional network of senior managers.

The Executive Programme makes use of practical exercises, peer exchanges and simulations to encourage learning around the following topics:

• Designing adequate strategies for complex humanitarian negotiations.
• Sorting information and coping with disinformation in complex environments.
• Leading high-stakes negotiations while managing competing agendas.
• Managing and leveraging risks in frontline negotiations.
• Facing difficult counterparts and regaining trust.
• Constructing a positive dialogue on controversial issues.
• Developing a collaborative approach and professional culture in complex environments.

Seasoned humanitarian managers currently covering a Country Director, Deputy Director, or equivalent role.

Executive Programme workshops are usually held in person over the course of three days. However, different formats may be available upon request. Each event welcomes an average of 30 participants.

…you want to take a closer look at a specific topic or challenge you face as part of your negotiation processes and receive practical guidance from other professionals.

Thematic sessions are based on CCHN research and on the sharing of the participants’ negotiation experiences. We select operational themes or contexts and tailor the session around them.

Some of the topics we tackled in previous thematic sessions include: negotiating humanitarian access and corridors in sensitive contexts, negotiating with the help of interpreters, managing mis- and disinformation in humanitarian contexts, negotiating with armed groups, negotiating in the context of protection or healthcare operations.

Arabic, English, French, or Spanish depending on the geographical focus or topic of each session.

Thematic sessions may take place either online or in person. Length varies depending on the theme discussed. Each session has an average of 30 participants.

No, you will not receive a certificate for this activity.

…you want to gain a fundamental understanding of negotiation tools and methods, share your negotiation experience and learn from others, connect with frontline negotiators in your region or around a specific topic, and set the foundation to attend more advanced workshops in the future.

Each event welcomes an average of 30 participants.

Visit our public events calendar to discover which of our upcoming workshops is most relevant for you, then submit your application online. frontline-negotiations.org/events [email protected]

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Case Studies

Since ENS was established in 1978, it has become the trusted partner of global brands and large corporations. To understand the pivotal role ENS has played in various industries, here are a few stories of how our programs have transformed the way people and organisations view negotiations and the successful outcomes it has helped achieve.

• Posted by ENS Team

Untangling a $100 million crisis

The possibility of a second five-year marketing agreement between the world's largest producer of a certain commodity and a major trading house looked to be destroyed. Our advisers were called in by the producer company to give process advice, check the quality of preparation and to rehearse the team. The second agreement was signed to the benefit of both parties.

Resurrecting a monopoly relationship critical to delivering shareholder value

Video - ahold delhaize: fact based negotiating using scale to improve buying in europe.

A negotiation case study video about using scale to improve buying in Europe.

Restoring Predictability in a World-wide Commodity Agreement

Achieving cultural shift in workplace agreement negotiations.

A client in the energy industry was faced with complex workplace negotiations and impending hostile strike action. ENS was called in to intervene and facilitate peaceful negotiations between the two parties.

Humanising the Process of Hostile EBA Negotiations

A client in the printing industry needed to conduct three separate negotiations quickly to avoid threatened strike action. We helped all sides to focus on relationship aspects and 'humanise' the process. Negotiations were concluded quickly, industrial action was avoided and the level of hostility significantly reduced.

Strategic Response to a Price Increase Demand

A client received a demand for a cost increase of over 20%. ENS trained the negotiating team and developed a negotiating strategy that focused on identifying and managing risks via structured questioning. After the negotiation, costs were reduced by more than 20% without straining the business relationship.

Empowering Key Staff to Become Effective Negotiators

The client was renegotiating an annual supply contract with a large supplier that set a contract price based on faulty assumptions on upward annual price reviews.

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What Is the Negotiation Process? 4 Steps

• 04 May 2023

Negotiation is part of daily life—whether buying a car, leasing property, aiming for higher compensation, raising capital for a startup, or making difficult decisions as an organizational leader.

“Enhancing your negotiation skills has an enormous payoff,” says Harvard Business School Professor Michael Wheeler in the online course Negotiation Mastery . “It allows you to reach agreements that might otherwise slip through your fingers. It allows you to expand the pie [and] create value, so you get more benefits from the agreements that you do reach. It also—in some cases—allows you to resolve small differences before they escalate into big conflicts.”

Here's an overview of the negotiation process’s four steps and how to gain the skills you need to negotiate successfully.

Access your free e-book today.

4 Steps of the Negotiation Process

1. Preparation

Before entering a negotiation, you need to prepare. There are several things to define, including your:

• Zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) : The range in which you and other parties can find common ground. To establish the ZOPA, think about your perspective and your counterpart’s. What do you each want and need? Where might you be willing to compromise?
• Best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) : Your ideal course of action if an agreement isn’t possible. To determine your BATNA, consider alternatives that provide some of the value you aim to gain from the negotiation. In Negotiation Mastery , Wheeler gives the example that if you can't negotiate down a new car’s price, your BATNA may be to have your old car repaired.
• Walkaway: The line where ending negotiations is better than making a bad deal. Use your BATNA to determine your walkaway. At what point would the BATNA provide more value than a possible negotiated outcome? That’s your walkaway.
• Stretch goal: The best-case scenario for the negotiation’s outcome. It’s critical to give the negotiation a potential ceiling to gauge offers. In Negotiation Mastery, Wheeler recommends choosing a scenario that’s unlikely but not impossible; something that has a 10 percent chance of occurring.

Preparing in advance can improve your confidence, give you clear goals to work toward, and provide a strategy to base your approach on.

2. Bargaining

The second step, bargaining, is what most often comes to mind when thinking about negotiation. Yet, before discussions even begin, there are three levers that determine how the bargaining stage will play out:

• Engaging (the “who”): How do you engage with each other? Is this a friendly conversation, or do you fall into enemy territory?
• Framing (the “what”): How do you define the negotiation? For instance, is it a battle, partnership, or problem to be solved together?
• Norming (the “how”): How do you relate to one another? What behaviors are established that characterize the negotiation?

You typically define these levers in a negotiation’s first few minutes simultaneously. You negotiate the “who,” “what,” and “how” implicitly as the broader negotiation happens explicitly.

How do you and other parties enter the room? Do you greet each other warmly and make small talk, or is there immediate tension? How do you first mention the negotiation? What norms do you imply during the conversation?

Through these levers, you can establish the negotiation’s tone, which is vital as you head into it with someone who may greatly differ from you.

Your counterpart may have different preferences, expectations, risk tolerance, and time horizons. The bargaining stage is about creating value for both you and other parties despite your differences. It requires finding the ZOPA and working within that space to claim the value needed to make the negotiation worthwhile.

“There’s a fundamental tension between creating and claiming value,” Wheeler says in Negotiation Mastery . “Negotiation isn’t one or the other—it’s both at the same time.”

Related: 7 Negotiation Tactics That Actually Work

The third step in the negotiation process is closing—either coming to an agreement or ending the negotiation without reaching one.

How a negotiation closes depends on each party’s walkaway, BATNA, and ZOPA. It also relies on how you use engaging, framing, and norming to create a relationship with the other parties.

If you can’t reach a solution in the ZOPA, perhaps one or more parties decide to go for their BATNA instead. If you and the other parties create and claim value, you may strike a deal.

4. Learning from Your Experience

The final step of the negotiation process is possible to overlook but critical to your ongoing growth: Reflect on your experience. What went well? What went poorly, and why? How do you feel about the outcome?

No two negotiations are the same. The foundational elements can vary (such as the scenarios and people involved), as well as the finer details (for instance, people’s demeanors, emotions , walkaways, and BATNAs).

Reflecting on the process enables you to get to know yourself better as a negotiator and integrate your learnings into your next negotiation.

What Skills Do You Need for Successful Negotiation?

Even after learning about the negotiation process, negotiations can still feel intimidating. To gain confidence, it can help to understand the skills that great negotiators possess .

The best negotiators are strong communicators with high emotional intelligence . Developing your skills in those areas can help you form connections with counterparts and communicate goals. They can also enable you to craft a strategy and remain agile as a negotiation progresses.

“Great negotiators have keen analytical skills,” Wheeler says in Negotiation Mastery . “They assess the matter at hand and craft strategy that best fits those particular circumstances. They know that with negotiation strategy, one size doesn’t fit all.”

Finally, you must create value. As Wheeler puts it in the course: You know how to “expand the pie” rather than argue for a bigger slice—creating value for everyone involved while still achieving your goals.

To learn more about the skills needed for successful negotiation, check out the video below and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

How to Become a Better Negotiator

Familiarizing yourself with the negotiation process and what each step entails can demystify it and help you feel more comfortable.

The best way to improve your negotiation skills is through practice. This can take place in real life through interactions like determining a lease’s terms or asking for your desired salary in job interviews.

If you’d prefer to practice in a supportive learning environment, consider enrolling in an online negotiation course featuring virtual simulations.

In Negotiation Mastery , Wheeler leads you through negotiation practice by pairing you with other learners for mock negotiations. He then debriefs each scenario so you can reflect on it and integrate the insights into future negotiations.

Through thoughtful preparation and dedicated practice, you can strengthen your skills and create value in any negotiation.

Do you want to deepen your understanding of negotiation dynamics? Explore our eight-week online course Negotiation Mastery , one of our online leadership and management certificate programs . Not sure which course is right for you? Download our free flowchart .

About the Author

The Coca-Cola Company and Microsoft announce five-year strategic partnership to accelerate cloud and generative AI initiatives

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Editor’s note – April 23, 2024 – The quotation from Judson Althoff was updated following initial publication.

ATLANTA and REDMOND, Wash . — April 23, 2024 — Microsoft Corp. and The Coca-Cola Company on Tuesday announced a five-year strategic partnership to align Coca-Cola’s core technology strategy systemwide; enable the adoption of leading-edge technology; and foster innovation and productivity globally.

As part of the partnership, Coca-Cola has made a $1.1 billion commitment to the Microsoft Cloud and its generative AI capabilities. The collaboration underscores Coca-Cola’s ongoing technology transformation, underpinned by the Microsoft Cloud as Coca-Cola’s globally preferred and strategic cloud and AI platform.

Through the partnership, the companies will jointly experiment with groundbreaking new technology like Azure OpenAI Service to develop innovative generative AI use cases across various business functions. This includes testing how Copilot for Microsoft 365 could help improve workplace productivity.

“Through our long-term partnership, we have made significant progress to accelerate system-wide AI Transformation across The Coca-Cola Company and its network of independent bottlers worldwide,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft. “We are proud to support Coca-Cola as it continues to embrace the era of AI and looks to solutions like Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 to drive innovation across every area of its business.”

Coca-Cola has migrated all its applications to Microsoft Azure, with most major independent bottling partners following suit. As a pioneer in AI adoption, Coca-Cola has been innovating with generative AI for nearly a year and has already leveraged Azure OpenAI Service to reimagine everything from marketing to manufacturing and supply chain and beyond. The company is currently exploring the use of generative AI-powered digital assistants on Azure OpenAI Service to help employees improve customer experiences, streamline operations, foster innovation, gain a competitive advantage, boost efficiency and uncover new growth opportunities.

“This new agreement builds on the success of Coca-Cola’s partnership strategy with Microsoft, showing our commitment to ongoing digital transformation,” said John Murphy, president and chief financial officer of The Coca-Cola Company. “Our partnership with Microsoft has grown exponentially, from the $250 million agreement we initially announced in 2020 to $1.1 billion today.”

The agreement reflects a significant step in advancing Coca-Cola’s digital transformation, focused on providing expanded access to Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms — as well as solutions such as Microsoft 365, Power BI, Dynamics 365, Defender and Fabric — to enhance efficiency and scalability while fostering innovation across the system.

“Our expanded partnership with Microsoft is an important next chapter in Coca-Cola’s journey toward a digital-first enterprise powered by emerging technologies,” said Neeraj Tolmare, senior vice president and global chief information officer for The Coca-Cola Company. “Microsoft’s capabilities help accelerate our adoption of AI to create incremental enterprise value.”

About The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Our company’s purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference. We sell multiple billion-dollar brands across several beverage categories worldwide. Our portfolio of sparkling soft drink brands includes Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta. Our water, sports, coffee and tea brands include Dasani, Smartwater, Vitaminwater, Topo Chico, BODYARMOR, Powerade, Costa, Georgia, Gold Peak and Ayataka. Our juice, value-added dairy and plant-based beverage brands include Minute Maid, Simply, innocent, Del Valle, fairlife and AdeS. We’re constantly transforming our portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative new products to market. We seek to positively impact people’s lives, communities and the planet through water replenishment, packaging recycling, sustainable sourcing practices and carbon emissions reductions across our value chain. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people, helping bring economic opportunity to local communities worldwide. Learn more at  www.coca-colacompany.com  and follow us on Instagram , Facebook and LinkedIn .

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

The Coca-Cola Company, Scott Leith, [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft Source at  http://news.microsoft.com/source . Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at  https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts .

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Middle East Crisis Hamas Resists Israel’s Latest Cease-Fire Offer

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• Israeli military vehicles on the border with Gaza. Atef Safadi/EPA, via Shutterstock
• Demonstrators in Tel Aviv demanding the return of hostages on the day that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and President Isaac Herzog of Israel were meeting. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
• Displaced Palestinians next to a placard thanking pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses in the United States. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• A funeral for an Israeli soldier in Ashdod, Israel. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
• Walking past the rubble of a destroyed building in Rafah, Gaza, on Tuesday. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Follow live news updates on the crisis in the Middle East .

Hamas says its position is ‘negative’ on Israel’s offer but signals willingness to keep talking.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas leaders could save Palestinian lives by accepting a proposed deal under which they would free 33 hostages in exchange for a six-week cease-fire and the liberation of many Palestinian prisoners.

“We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Mr. Blinken said at the start of a meeting in Tel Aviv with Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel. “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now, and the time is now long past due to bring the hostages home to their families.”

But on Wednesday night, a spokesman for Hamas, Osama Hamdan, said in an interview on Lebanese television, “Our position on the current negotiating paper is negative.”

The Hamas press office later clarified Mr. Hamdan’s comments, saying that while Hamas’s leaders would not accept the current Israeli proposals without changes, they were willing to keep negotiating. “The negative position does not mean negotiations have stopped,” the press office said. “There is a back and forth issue.”

Mr. Blinken’s comments were part of a concerted campaign by President Biden and his top aides to press Hamas leaders to accept the six-week halt in fighting and possibly lay the foundation for a longer-term cease-fire.

Mr. Blinken made similar comments to reporters the previous evening outside a humanitarian aid warehouse in Zarqa, Jordan. Earlier this week, Mr. Biden urged the leaders of Qatar and Egypt to push Hamas to accept the terms, after Israel agreed to lower the required number of hostages released in the initial round to 33 from 40.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said he supports the latest proposed deal, but at the same time he has vowed to carry out a major ground offensive in the city of Rafah “with or without a deal.” Israeli officials say their objective is to eliminate four battalions of Hamas fighters in Rafah.

Mr. Hamdan, the Hamas spokesman, said in his comments on Al Manar television, “If the enemy carries out the Rafah operation, negotiations will stop.”

Biden administration officials are opposed to a major ground assault in Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge during the war.

Mr. Blinken discussed the hostage and cease-fire deal on the table in a nearly three-hour meeting with Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to a summary from the State Department. He also spoke about efforts to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza and the U.S. government’s “clear position” on Rafah, the summary said.

Israeli officials said a new crossing into northern Gaza, near the Erez kibbutz, had just opened to allow aid deliveries, and that 30 trucks with goods from Jordan had rolled through the crossing earlier on Wednesday. The opening was promised weeks ago, but the Israeli military said it had to build inspection facilities and pave roads on both sides of the border before the crossing could be used by aid trucks.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.

— Edward Wong traveling in the Middle East with the U.S. secretary of state

Israel has softened some demands in cease-fire negotiations, officials say.

After a monthslong standoff, Israel is softening some of its demands in negotiations over a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held there.

As part of its latest proposal, Israel would allow displaced Palestinian civilians to return to northern Gaza, according to two Israeli officials, which is a sharp reversal on an issue that has been a sticking point in the talks.

For weeks, Israel has demanded that it be allowed to impose significant restrictions on Palestinians going back to the north because of worries that Hamas could take advantage of a large-scale return to strengthen itself. Now, Israel has consented to Palestinian civilians’ going back en masse during the first phase of an agreement, according to the officials, whose account was confirmed by a non-Israeli official familiar with the talks.

One of the Israeli officials said those returning to the north would be subject to no inspections or limitations, while the second said there would be nearly no restrictions, without elaborating. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to share details of the proposal.

It was not clear whether Hamas would accept the most recent Israeli proposal, which is part of negotiations that the two sides are conducting indirectly through mediators from Egypt and Qatar. As of Wednesday afternoon, the group hadn’t officially issued a response.

The cease-fire talks were a focus of Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken as he visited Israel on Wednesday. “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses,” Mr. Blinken said before meeting with President Isaac Herzog. He later discussed the talks and other issues in a nearly three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas has long demanded that any deal include a permanent end to the war, which has forced most of Gaza’s more than two million people to flee their homes. The Israeli offer, according to one of the Israeli officials, doesn’t include language that refers explicitly to an end to the fighting.

Hanging over the negotiations is Israel’s threat to invade Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where roughly a million civilians are sheltering, along with what Israel says are thousands of Hamas fighters. But even as it vows to carry out its plan for a ground invasion there, in defiance of pleas from world leaders and humanitarian groups, it is showing some willingness to make concessions in talks to stop the fighting and free hostages.

On Monday, The New York Times reported that, as part of its proposal, Israel had reduced the number of hostages Hamas would need to release in the initial phase of a deal. For months, it had been insisting on the release of 40 hostages, but in the new offer, the Israeli government said it would agree to 33.

That change was prompted in part by the fact that Israel now believes that some of the 40 have died in captivity , one of the officials said.

As details of Israel’s latest offer have emerged, Mr. Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from his right-wing coalition partners to reject compromise. If they withdraw from the government over a deal, Israel could head to early elections, threatening Mr. Netanyahu’s political future.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hard-line member of the coalition, has said that if Mr. Netanyahu gives up on invading Rafah immediately, a government under his leadership doesn’t have “the right to exist.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu said an invasion of Rafah would take place, without saying when.

“The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” he said in a meeting with the families of hostages, according to a statement from his office. “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal — in order to achieve the total victory.”

If Israel and Hamas strike an agreement, it would be the first cease-fire since late November, when a short-lived pause in the fighting allowed for the release of more than 100 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas and its allies captured roughly 240 Israelis and foreigners in their attack on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza. More than 130 hostages are believed to still be held in Gaza, but some are thought to have died.

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.

— Adam Rasgon reporting from Jerusalem

Israeli settlers attacked aid trucks headed to Gaza, Jordan says.

Israeli settlers attacked several aid trucks on the way from Jordan to Gaza around dawn on Wednesday, including some that were headed for the newly opened border crossing on the north edge of the Gaza Strip, Jordan’s foreign ministry said.

The ministry said that the settlers dumped some of the aid onto the street . It condemned the Israeli government’s failure to protect the aid as a violation of its legal obligation to safeguard the flow of food and other humanitarian necessities to the devastated Palestinian enclave, and said the attack undermined Israel’s claim that it was working to allow more aid into Gaza.

Asked about the attack, the Israeli military said in a statement that overnight, Israeli civilians had “caused damage” to aid on several trucks from Jordan “secured” by Israeli forces.

Details about the attack, including where it happened and how much aid was dumped or damaged, were not immediately released by the Israeli military or the Jordanian foreign ministry, though both said the trucks ultimately managed to reach Gaza.

Honenu, a right-wing legal aid group that often represents Israeli extremists accused of violent crimes against Palestinians, said that four people had been arrested for blocking aid trucks near Ma’ale Adumim, one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The trucks were part of two convoys, one of which was headed for the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, the Jordanian foreign ministry said. The other convoy was the first to enter northern Gaza through the Erez crossing, according to the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, who called the attack “despicable” on social media and called for global condemnation and international sanctions against Israel.

Israel agreed to open the Erez crossing on Wednesday, after some of its closest allies, including the United States, pressured it to allow more aid into Gaza in the aftermath of the Israeli military’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in April. For months beforehand, United Nations officials and aid organizations had been pleading with Israel to open the crossing to allow aid to move directly into northern Gaza, in hopes of averting famine.

Honenu said on Wednesday that it had provided legal counsel to the four arrested individuals, and that they had been released after being issued a restraining order requiring them to stay away from aid convoys and not participate in illicit gatherings.

Israeli civilians have repeatedly blocked the passage of aid trucks — sometimes as Israeli security forces stand by — with many demanding that no aid reach Palestinians in Gaza until hostages held in the enclave are released.

The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, who has been on another wartime tour of the Middle East, was in Jordan on Tuesday at the warehouse where medical and food aid was being loaded onto the convoy heading to the Erez crossing. He praised Israel’s opening of the crossing as “real and important progress,” adding that “more still needs to be done.” On Wednesday, during a visit to Israel, Mr. Blinken included the Kerem Shalom crossing among his stops.

— Anushka Patil and Johnatan Reiss

Blinken’s visit to the Kerem Shalom crossing puts aid for Gaza front and center.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited an inspection checkpoint at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Israel on Wednesday, part of an effort to prioritize the issue of humanitarian aid for Gaza during his Middle East tour.

Under pressure from President Biden after an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers , Israel announced last month that it would open more avenues for aid to enter Gaza . Israel has since expedited the flow of aid into Gaza amid intense international scrutiny, though humanitarian organizations say more is urgently needed to alleviate the severe hunger that is gripping the enclave.

Here’s a look at where things stand .

Border Crossings

Israel imposes stringent checks on incoming aid to keep out anything that might help Hamas, which it has pledged to eliminate. Since the start of the war, most of the aid for Gaza has been transiting through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Israel opened the crossing at Kerem Shalom in December after pressure from the United States to speed up the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. However, Israeli protesters have regularly gathered at the crossing, trying to block aid convoys from entering the enclave in the hopes of raising the pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.

The Rafah and Kerem Shalom checkpoints both touch southern Gaza. Aid officials pleaded with Israel for months to add additional entry points — especially in the north, where the risk of famine was deemed greatest by the United Nations.

Under pressure, Israel said last month that it would reopen the Erez border crossing into northern Gaza and that shipments bound for the enclave would be accepted at the Israeli port of Ashdod. On Wednesday, Israel said that the first aid trucks, 30 in total, had passed through the crossing after being inspected.

But the Erez crossing, which was primarily used for pedestrian traffic before the war, was badly damaged during the Hamas-led raid on Israel in October. As international officials and humanitarian agencies looked for signs that Israel was making good on its pledges, Israel said it would be opening another crossing into northern Gaza — not Erez.

Other Efforts

U.S. Army engineers also are working to construct a floating pier off the coast of Gaza. The pier — which Mr. Blinken said Tuesday would be operational in about one week — could help relief workers deliver as many as two million meals a day.

And the Jordanian military and government have in recent weeks increased the amount of aid arriving in overland convoys, which travel from Jordan through the West Bank and across part of Israel before reaching the southern Gaza border crossings. The Jordanian military carries out its own inspections. Government trucks are inspected by Israel.

Situation on the Ground

There are widespread food shortages in Gaza, and the United Nations has warned that a famine is looming . Aid groups and United Nations officials have accused Israel of systematically limiting aid delivery. Israel denies the assertion, blaming the shortages on logistical failures by aid groups, and has recently increased the number of trucks entering the strip.

In recent weeks, Israel’s efforts to increase the flow of aid have been acknowledged by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks also appeared to be reaching Gaza, especially in the north.

On Wednesday, Mr. Blinken discussed how aid delivery has improved when he met with Mr. Netanyahu and “reiterated the importance of accelerating and sustaining that improvement,” according to the State Department.

— Cassandra Vinograd

‘Thank you, American universities’: Gazans express gratitude for campus protesters.

Thousands of miles away from the campus protests that have divided Americans, some displaced Palestinians are expressing solidarity with the antiwar demonstrators and gratitude for their efforts.

Messages of support were written on some tents in the southern city of Rafah, where roughly a million displaced people have sought shelter from the Israeli bombardment and ground fighting that Gazan health officials say have killed more than 34,000 people.

“Thank you, American universities,” read one message captured on video by the Reuters news agency. “Thank you, students in solidarity with Gaza your message has reached” us, read another nearby.

Tensions have risen at campuses across the United States, with police in riot gear arresting dozens of people at Columbia University on Tuesday night and officers across the country clashing with pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had erected encampments and seized academic buildings at other institutions. The protesters have been calling for universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel, and some have vowed not to back down.

The protests have come at a particularly fearful time in Rafah, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowing to launch a ground invasion of the city to root out Hamas battalions there despite glimmers of hope for a temporary cease-fire.

Palestinians “are very happy that there are still people standing with us,” said Mohammed al-Baradei, a 24-year-old recent graduate from the dentistry program at Al-Azhar University who spoke by phone from Rafah.

“The special thing is that this is happening in America and that people there are still aware and the awareness is growing every day for the Palestinian cause,” he added.

Akram al-Satri, a 47-year-old freelance journalist sheltering in Rafah, said Gazans were “watching with hope and gratitude the student movement in the United States.”

“For us this is a glimmer of hope on a national level,” he added in a voice message on Wednesday.

Bisan Owda, a 25-year-old Palestinian who has been documenting the war on social media, said in a video posted to her more than 4.5 million Instagram followers that the campus protests had brought her a new sense of possibility.

“I’ve lived my whole life in Gaza Strip and I’ve never felt hope like now,” said Ms. Owda.

Nader Ibrahim contributed reporting and video production from London.

— Hiba Yazbek reporting from Jerusalem

Colombia’s president says the country will sever ties with Israel, calling its government ‘genocidal.’

Colombia will sever diplomatic ties with Israel over its prosecution of the war in Gaza, President Gustavo Petro announced in Bogotá on Wednesday, describing the Israeli government as “genocidal.”

His announcement came in a speech in Colombia’s capital city in front of cheering crowds that had gathered for International Workers’ Day.

“The times of genocide, of the extermination of an entire people cannot come before our eyes, before our passivity,” Mr. Petro said. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies.”

Colombia is the second South American nation to break off relations with Israel after Bolivia, which cut ties in November over its strikes in Gaza. On the day that Bolivia made its announcement, Colombia and Chile both said that they were recalling their ambassadors to Israel, and Honduras followed suit within days. Belize also cut diplomatic ties with Israel that month.

The Israeli government denounced Mr. Petro’s move on Wednesday.

“History will remember that Gustavo Petro chose to stand at the side of the most abominable monsters known to man, who burned babies, killed children, raped woman and abducted innocent civilians,” Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X . “Israel and Colombia always enjoyed warm ties. Even an antisemitic and hateful president will not change that.’’

Mr. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist leader and a critic of U.S. drug policy toward his country, had threatened to cut ties with Israel in March if it did not comply with a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. And he called on other countries to do the same. In response to that threat, Mr. Katz wrote on X that Mr. Petro’s “support for Hamas murderers” who carried out massacres and committed sex crimes against Israelis was shameful.

“Israel will continue to protect its citizens and will not yield to any pressure or threats,” he added.

In February Mr. Petro suspended Colombia’s purchase of Israeli weapons in February after Israeli forces opened fire while a crowd was gathered near a convoy of trucks carrying desperately needed aid to Gaza City, part of a chaotic scene in which scores of people were killed and injured, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.

“Asking for food, more than 100 Palestinians were killed by Netanyahu,” Mr. Petro wrote on X at the time, comparing the events to the Holocaust “even if the world powers do not like to acknowledge it.”

“The world must block Netanyahu,” he added.

— Genevieve Glatsky reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Netanyahu’s pledge to invade Rafah could undermine efforts to reach a cease-fire deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel once again pledged on Tuesday to launch a ground invasion into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, a move that could undermine efforts to negotiate a cease-fire agreement after seven months of war in the Palestinian enclave.

The United States, Qatar and several countries have been pushing to get a cease-fire deal, with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visiting the region and expectations rising that Hamas and Israel might be edging closer to an agreement.

But with Hamas arguing that any agreement should include an end to the war, and with right-wing politicians in Israel threatening to leave the government coalition if the long-planned incursion into Rafah is delayed, Mr. Netanyahu made clear that Israel would reserve the right to keep fighting.

“The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” he said in a meeting with the families of hostages held in Gaza, according to a statement from his office. “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory.”

Israeli officials have said repeatedly that they plan to move into Rafah, but over the weekend, they made clear they were open to holding off if it meant they could secure the release of hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. One official also suggested that Israel was using the threat of an imminent military maneuver to press the armed group into a hostage deal.

In anticipation of an offensive, some families in Rafah have been moving north into areas of Gaza that had already been attacked by Israeli forces, but on Tuesday, the scale of the evacuation remained unclear. As of last week, more than one million Gazans, many of them previously displaced from other parts of the territory by Israeli bombardment, were still sheltering in the city in makeshift tents.

American officials and other allies have been pressing Israel to either avoid an assault on Rafah or develop specific plans to adequately minimize civilian casualties.

On Tuesday, Mr. Blinken met with officials in Jordan to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, and to press for peace and an increase in humanitarian aid. There was no immediate reaction from the State Department to Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain spoke to Mr. Netanyahu on Tuesday, his office said in a statement. The British leader “continued to push for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow more aid in and hostages out” and said that Britain’s focus was on de-escalation, it said.

For weeks, cease-fire talks had been at a standstill. But Israeli officials have said that negotiators have reduced the number of hostages they want Hamas to release during the first phase of a truce, opening up the possibility that the stalled negotiations could be revived.

A senior Hamas official said on social media on Monday that the group was studying a new Israeli proposal.

A Hamas delegation met with officials in Egypt’s intelligence service on Monday, according to a senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about sensitive discussions between Hamas and Egypt.

Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.

— Damien Cave

A father in Rafah whose family survived an airstrike asks, ‘What should we do?’

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel repeats his vow to launch a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza and Israeli airstrikes continue to pummel the city, it is a particularly fearful time for displaced families sheltering there.

“What should we do? Where will we go?” said Mohammed Abu Youssef, who spoke on Wednesday in video shot by the Reuters news agency about how he and his children had narrowly survived an airstrike. “I am waiting for a tent so I can leave,” he added as he burst into tears.

Mr. Abu Youssef said his family had recently fled to Al-Shaboura neighborhood in Rafah, seeking safety. He suffered a head injury in the strike, he said, and his brother-in-law, who was sheltering with him, lost two children. Several other relatives were also wounded, he said.

Roughly a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Rafah from the Israeli bombardment and ground fighting that health officials say have killed more than 34,000 people across Gaza. Israel has said that the purpose of the planned invasion is to root out Hamas fighters there.

Mr. Abu Youssef said he was now left grappling with the uncertainty of again trying to find a place where his family could be safe. Some displaced families in Rafah have already been moving north into areas of Gaza that were combat zones earlier in the war.

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Lessons from Amazon’s Early Growth Strategy

If you’re interested in strategies for scaling start-ups, this episode is for you.

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So much has been written about Amazon’s outsized growth. But Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta says it’s the company’s unusual approach to strategy that has captured his scholarly attention. Gupta has spent years studying Amazon’s strategy and its founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.

In this episode, Gupta shares how Amazon upended traditional corporate strategy by diversifying into multiple products serving many end users, instead of having a narrow focus.

He argues that some of Amazon’s simplest business strategies — like their obsession with customers and insistence on long-term thinking — are approaches that companies, big and small, can emulate.

Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, leadership, scaling, Jeff Bezos, long-term thinking, customer focus.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Jeff Bezos Built One of the World’s Most Valuable Companies (2020)
• Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business.

So much has been written about Amazon’s outsized growth. But Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta says it’s the company’s unusual approach to strategy that has captured his scholarly attention.

Gupta has spent years studying Amazon’s strategy and its founder and former CEO, Jeff Bezos.

In this episode, Gupta shares how Amazon upended traditional corporate strategy by diversifying into multiple products serving many end users instead of focusing more narrowly.

And he argues that some of their simplest business strategies – like their obsession with the customer and insistence on long-term thinking – are approaches that companies, big and small, should emulate.

If you’re interested in innovation strategy, this episode is for you. It originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in November 2020. Here it is.

ALISON BEARD:  Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review.  I’m Alison Beard.

If you had to name the most successful business leader alive today, who would you say?  I can’t hear you from my basement podcasting room, but I would bet that for many of you, the answer is Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.  This is a man who over the past 25 years turned his online bookstore startup into a diversified company currently valued at $1.6 trillion.

Amazon is a digital retailing juggernaut, it’s also a web services provider, media producer, and manufacturer of personal technology devices like Kindle and Echo.  Oh, and Bezos also owns the Washington Post and Blue Origin, a space exploration company.  Forbes tells us he is the richest person in the world.

How did he accomplish so much?  How did he change the business landscape?  What mistakes has he made along the way?  A new collection of Bezos’s own writing, which full disclosure, my colleagues at Harvard Business Review Press have published, offer some insights.  Here’s a clip from one speech that’s included.  The book is called Invent and Wander.

And our guest today, who has spent years studying both Amazon and Bezos, is here to talk with me about some of the key themes in it, including the broad drivers of both the company and the CEO’s success.  Sunil Gupta is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and cochair of its executive program, and cochair of its executive program on driving digital strategy, which is also the title of his book.  Sunil, thanks so much for being on the show.

SUNIL GUPTA:  Thank you for having me, Alison.

ALISON BEARD:  So Invent and Wander.  I get that Bezos is inventive.  You know, he created a new way for us to buy things – everything.  How is he also a wonderer?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So he’s full of experiments.  His company and his whole style is known for experimentation, and he says that in so many words that if you want big winners, then you have to be willing to have many failures.  And the argument is, one big winner will take care of a thousand failed experiments.  So I think that’s the wandering part.  But also his experiments are not aimless.  There is a certain thought and process behind what experiments to do and why they will connect to the old, old picture of what Amazon is today.

ALISON BEARD:  And your expertise is in digital strategy.  How does he break the traditional rules of strategy?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So for the longest time the way, at least I was taught in my MBA program and the way we teach to our MBA students and executives, is strategy is about focus.  But if you look at Amazon, Amazon certainly doesn’t look like it’s focusing on anything, so obviously Jeff Bezos missed that class, otherwise it’s a very, very different thing.

And then you’d say, why is it that so called lack of focus strategy seems to be working for Amazon?  And I think the fundamental underlying principle that he’s guiding his whole discussion of strategy is, he’s changed the rules of strategy.  So the old rules of strategy were, the way you gained competitive advantage is by being better or cheaper.  So if I am selling you a car, my car is better of cheaper.  But the inherent assumption in that strategy statement is, I’m selling one product to one customer.  And what Amazon is basically arguing is, the digital economy is all about connection.  We have got to connect products and connect customers.  Let me explain why that is so powerful.

So connecting products, here the idea is, I can sell you, this is a classic razor and blade strategy.  I can sell you a razor cheap in order to make money on the blade.  So I can sell you Kindle cheap in order to make money on the ebooks.  Now, at some level you might say, hey, razor and blade have been around forever.  What’s so unique today?  I think unique today is razor could be in one industry and blades could be in completely different industrys.

So for example, if you look at Amazon’s portfolio of businesses, you sort of say, not only Amazon is an e-commerce player, but also is making movies and TV shows, its own studio.  Well, why does it make sense for an e-commerce player, an online retailer to compete with Hollywood.  Well, Walmart doesn’t make movies.  Macy’s doesn’t make movies?  So why does it make sense for Amazon to make movies?

And I think once you dig into it, the answer becomes clear that the purpose of the movies is to keep and gain the Prime customers. Two day free shipping is fine, but if  you ask me to pay $99 or $119 for two day free shipping, I might start doing the math in my head, and say, OK, how many packages do I expect to get next year?  And is the Prime membership worth it or not?

But once you throw in, in addition to the two-day free shipping, you throw in some TV shows and movies that are uniquely found only on Amazon, I can’t do this math.  And why is Prime customers important to Amazon?  Because Prime customers are more loyal.  They buy three or four times more than the non-Prime customers, and they’re also less price sensitive.

And in fact, Jeff Bezos has said publicly that every time we win a Golden Globe Award for one of our shows, we sell more shoes.  So this is, and he said it in your book, Invent and Wander, also, that we might be the only company in the world which has figured out how winning Golden Globe Awards can actually translate into selling more products on the online commerce.

So this is a great example of the razor being in a very different industry and blade being in another industry.  Take another example.  Amazon has a lending business where they give loans to small and medium enterprises. If Amazon decides to compete with banks tomorrow, Amazon can decide to offer loans to the small merchants at such a low price that banks would never be able to compete.  And why would Amazon be able to do that?  Because Amazon can say, hey, I’m not going to make money on loans, as much money on loans, but I’ll make more money when these businesses, small businesses grow and do more transactions on my marketplace platform.  And I get more commissions.  So again, loan can become my razor in order to help the merchants grow and make money on the transaction and the commission that I get from that.  The moment I make somebody else’s, in this case the banks, core business my razor, they will make a very hard time competing.  So I think that’s the key change, the fundamental rules of strategy and competition in that direction.

The second part of connection is connecting customers, and this is the classic network effect.  So marketplace is a great example of network effects.  The more buyers I have, the more sellers I have.  The more sellers I have, the sellers I have, the more buyers I get, because the buyers can find all the items.  And that becomes flywheel effect, and it becomes a situation where it’s very hard for a new player to complete with Amazon.

ALISON BEARD:  In this diversification that Amazon has done, how have they managed to be good at all of those things?  Because they’re not focused.  You know, they’re not concentrated on an area of specific expertise.  So how have they succeeded when other companies might have failed because they lacked that expertise, or they were spreading themselves too thin?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So I think it depends on how you define focus.  Most of us, when we define focus, we sort of define focus by traditional industry boundaries, that I’m an online retailer, therefore going into some other business is lack of focus.  The way Amazon thinks about is focus on capabilities.

So if you look at it from that point of view, I would argue that Amazon had three fundamental core capabilities.  Number one, it’s highly customer focused, not only in its culture, but also in its capability in terms of how it can actually handle data and leverage data to get customer insight.  The second core capability of Amazon is logistics.  So it’s now a world class logistics player.  It uses really frontier technology, whether it’s key word, robotics, computer vision, in its warehouse to make it much more efficient.

And the third part of Amazon’s skill or the capability is its technology.  And a good example of that is Amazon Web Services, or AWS.  And I think if you look at these three core capabilities, customer focus and the data insight that it gets from that, the logistics capability, and the technology, everything that Amazon is doing is some way or the other connected to it.  In that sense, Amazon, and there’s no lack of focus, in my judgment on Amazon.

Now, if he starts doing, starts making cream cheese tomorrow or starts making airplane engines, then I would say, yes, it’s got a lack of focus.  But one of the other things that Jeff Bezos has said again and again is this notion of work backwards and scale forward.  And what that means is, because you’re customer obsessed, you sort of find ways to satisfy customers, and if that means developing new skills that we don’t have because we are working backwards from what the customer needs are, then we’ll build those skills.

So a good example of that is, when Amazon started building Kindle, Amazon was never in the hardware business.  It didn’t know how to build hardware.  But Bezos realized that as the industry moved, people are beginning to read more and more online, rather, or at least on their devices, rather than the physical paper copy of a book.  So as a result, he says, how do we make it easier for consumers to read it on an electronic version?  And they’re spending three years learning about this capability of hardware manufacturing.  And by the way, Kindle came out long before iPad came out.  And of course, that capability now has helped them launch Echo and many other devices.

ALISON BEARD:  Right.  So it’s the focus on the customer, plus a willingness to go outside your comfort zone, the wander part.

SUNIL GUPTA:  Exactly.

ALISON BEARD:  Yeah.  How would you describe Bezos’s leadership style?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So I think there are at least three parts to it.  One is, he said right from day one that he wants to be a long-term focus.  The second thing is being customer obsessed.  And many times he has said that he can imagine, in the meetings he wants people to imagine an empty chair.  That is basically for the customer. And he says, we are not competitor focused.  We are not product focused.  We are not technology focused.  We are customer focused.  And the third is, willingness to experiment.  And fail, and build that culture in the company that it’s OK to fail.

ALISON BEARD:  What about personally, though?  Is he a hard charger?  Is he an active listener?  What’s it like to be in a room with him?

SUNIL GUPTA:  Oh, he’s certainly a hard charger.  I mean, he’s also the kind of guy, when he hires people, he says, you can work long, hard, or smart.  But at Amazon, you can choose two out of three.  And I think this is similar to many other leaders.  If you look at Steve Jobs, he was also a very hard charging guy.  And I think some people find it exhilarating to work with these kind of leaders.  Some find it very tough.

ALISON BEARD:  Do you think that he communicates differently from other successful CEOs?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So the communication style that he has built in the company is the very famous now, there’s no PowerPoints.  So it’s a very thoughtful discussion.  You write six-page memos, which everybody, when their meeting starts, everybody sits down and actually reads the memo.

In fact, this was a very interesting experience that I had.  One of my students, who was in the executive program, works at Amazon in Germany.  And he is, he was at that point in time thinking of moving to another company and becoming a CEO of that company.  So he said, can I talk to you about this change of career path that I’m thinking about?  I said, sure.  So we set up a time, and five minutes before our call, he sends me an email with a six-page memo.  And I said, well, shouldn’t he have sent this to me before, so I could at least look at it?  He says, no, that’s the Amazon style.  We’ll sit in silence and read it together.  And so I read it together, because then you’re completely focused on it.  And then we can have a conversation.  But this discipline of writing a six-page memo, it’s a very, very unique experience, because you actually have to think through all your arguments.

ALISON BEARD:  You also mentioned the long term focus, and that really stood out for me, too, this idea that he is not at all thinking of next year.  He’s thinking five years out, and sometimes even further.  But as a public company, how has Amazon been able to stick to that?  And is it replicable at other companies?

SUNIL GUPTA:  I think it is replicable.  It requires conviction, and it requires a way to articulate the vision to Wall Street that they can rally behind.  And it’s completely replicable.  There are other examples of companies who have followed a similar strategy.  I mean, Netflix is a good example.  Netflix hadn’t made money for a long period of time.  But they sold the vision of what the future will look like, and Wall Street bought that vision.

Mastercard is exactly the same thing.  Ajay Banga is giving three year guidance to Wall Street saying, this is my three-year plan, because things can change quarter to quarter.  I’m still responsible to tell you what we are doing this quarter, but my strategy will not be guided by what happens today.  It will be guided by the three-year plan that we have.

ALISON BEARD:  There are so many companies now that go public without turning any profit, whereas Amazon now is printing money, and thus able to reinvest and have this grand vision.  So at what point was Bezos able to say, right, we’re going to do it my way?

SUNIL GUPTA:  I think he said it right from day one, except that people probably didn’t believe it.  And in fact, one of the great examples of that was, when he was convinced about AWS, the Amazon Web Services, that was back in the early 2000s, when a majority of the Wall Street was not sure what Jeff Bezos was trying to do, because they say, hey, you are an online retailer.  You have no business being in web services.  That’s the business of IBM.  And that’s a B2B business.  You’re in a B2C business.  Why are you going in there?

And Bezos said, well, we have plenty of practice of being misunderstood.  And we will continue with our passion and vision, because we see the path.  And now he’s proven it again and again why his vision is correct, and I think that could give us more faith and conviction to the Wall Street investors.

SUNIL GUPTA:  Oh, absolutely.  And he’s one of the persons who has his opinion, and you always surround yourself with people better than you.

ALISON BEARD:  How has he managed to attract that talent when it is so fiercely competitive between Google, Facebook, all of these U.S. technology leaders?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So a couple of things I would say.  First of all, it’s always good fun to join a winning team.  And all of us want to join a winning team, so this certainly is on a trajectory which is phenomenal.  It’s like a rocket ship that is taking off and has been taking off for the last 25 years.  So I think that’s certainly attractive to many people, and certainly many hard charging people who want to be on a winning team.

And a second thing is, Amazon’s culture of experimentation and innovation.  That is energizing to a lot of people.  It’s not a bureaucracy where you get bogged down by the processes.  So the two type of decisions that we talked about, he gives you enough leeway to try different things, and is willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into things that may or may not succeed in the future.  And I think that’s very liberating to people who are willing to take on the ownership and build something.

ALISON BEARD:  But don’t all of the tech companies offer that?

SUNIL GUPTA:  They do, but if you think about many other tech companies, they’re much more narrow in focus.  So Facebook is primarily in social media.  Google is primarily in search advertising.  Yes, you have GoogleX, but that’s still a small part of what Google does.  Whereas if you ask yourself what business is Amazon in, there are much broader expansive areas that Amazon has gone into.  So I think the limits, I mean, Amazon does not have that many limits or boundaries as compared to many other businesses in Silicon Valley.

ALISON BEARD:  So let’s talk a little bit about Bezos’s acquisition strategy.  I think the most prominent is probably Whole Foods, but there are many others.  How does he think about the companies that he wants to bring in as opposed to grow organically?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So some acquisitions are areas where he thinks that he can actually benefit and accelerate the vision that he already has.  So for example, the acquisition of Kiva was to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the systems that he already put in place in his warehouse.  And logistics and warehouse is a key component or key part of Amazon’s business, and he saw that Kiva already was ahead of the curve in technology that he probably wanted to have that in his own company.  So that was obvious acquisition, because that fits in the existing business.

Whole Foods is kind of a slightly different story, in my judgment, because I some ways, you can argue, why is Amazon, an online player, buying an offline retail store, Whole Foods?  And in fact, they bought it at 27% premium.  So that doesn’t make sense for an online retailer commerce to go to offline channels.  And I think, in fact, part of the reason in my judgment is, it’s not just Whole Foods, but it’s about the food business, per se.  And why is Amazon so interested in food?  In fact, Amazon has been trying this food business, online food delivery for a long period of time without much success.  And Whole Foods was one, another way to try and get access to that particular business.  And why is that so important to Amazon, even though you could argue, food is a low margin business?

And I would say, part of the reason is, food is something, grocery is something that you buy every week, perhaps twice a week.  And if I, as Amazon, can convince you to buy grocery online from Amazon, then I’m creating a habit for you to come onto Amazon every week, perhaps twice a week.  And once you are on Amazon, you will end up buying other products on Amazon.  Whereas if you are buying electronics, you may not come to Amazon every day.

So this is a habit creation activity, and again, it may not be a very high margin activity to sell you food.  But I’ve created a habit, just like Prime.  I’ve created a loyal customer where you think of nothing else but Amazon for your daily needs, and therefore you end up buying other things.

ALISON BEARD:  And Amazon isn’t without controversy.  You know, and we should talk about that, too.  First, there are questions about its treatment of warehouse employees, particularly during COVID.  And Bezos, as you said, has always been relentlessly focused on the customer.  But is Amazon employee centric, too?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So I think there is definitely some areas of concern, and you rightly said there is a significant concern about the, during the COVID, workers were complaining about safety, the right kind of equipment.  But even before COVID, there were a lot of concerns about whether the workers are being pushed too hard.  They barely have any breaks.  And they’re constantly on the go, because speed and efficiency become that much more important to make sure customers always get what they are promised.  And in fact, more than promised.

Clearly Amazon either hasn’t done a good job, or hasn’t at least done the public relations part of it that they have done a good job.  Now, if you ask Jeff Bezos, he will claim that, no, actually, they have done things.  For example, they offer something called carrier choice, where they give 95% tuition to the employees to learn new skills, whether they’re relevant to Amazon or not.  Pretty much like what Starbucks does for its baristas, for college education and other things.  But I think more than just giving money or tuition, it requires a bit of empathy and sense that you care for your employees, and perhaps that needs, that’s something that Amazon needs to work on.

ALISON BEARD:  And another challenge is the criticism that it has decimated mom and pop shops.  Even when someone sells through Amazon, the company will then see that it’s a popular category and create it itself and start selling it itself.  There’s environmental concerns about the fact that packages are being driven from warehouses to front doors all over America.  And boxes and packaging.  So how has Bezos, how has the company dealt with all of that criticism?

SUNIL GUPTA:  They haven’t.  And I think those are absolutely valid concerns on both counts, that the small sellers who grow to become reasonably big are always under the radar, and there are certainly anecdotal evidence there, small sellers have complained that Amazon had decided to sell exactly the same item that they were so successful in selling, and becoming too big is actually not good on Amazon, because Amazon can get into your business and wipe you away.  So that’s certainly a big concern, and I think that’s something that needs to be sorted out, and Amazon needs to clarify what its position on that area is, because it benefits from these small sellers on his platform.

And your second question about environmental issues is also absolutely on the money, because not only emission issues, but there’s so many boxes that pile in, certainly in my basement, from Amazon.  You sort of say, and it’s actually ironical that Millennials who are in love with Amazon are extremely environmentally friendly.  But at the same time, they would not hesitate to order something from Amazon and pile up all these boxes.  So I think Amazon needs to figure out a way to think about both those issues.

ALISON BEARD:  And at what point will it have to?  I mean, it seems to be rolling happily along.

SUNIL GUPTA:  Well, I think those issues are becoming bigger and bigger, and it’s certainly in the eye of the regulators, also, for some of these practices.  And not only because it’s too big, and there might be monopoly concerns, but these issues will become larger, and any time you become a large company, you become the center of attraction for broader issues than just providing shareholder value.

ALISON BEARD:  Yeah.  So those are weaknesses possibly for the company.  What are some of Bezos’s personal weaknesses that you’ve seen in studying him and the company?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So I think one thing that stands out to me, and at least in the public forums, I have not seen any empathy.  And it’s, I mean, we talk about that the leaders have, should have three qualities.  They should be competent.  They should have a good character.  And they should have compassion.  So he’s certainly very competent.  I mean, he’s brilliant in many aspects, right, from the computer vision and AI and machine learning, to the nuances of data analytics, to the Hollywood production, etc.  He also seems to have good character, at least I have not heard any personal scandals, apart from his other issues in his personal life, perhaps.

Those characteristics of competence and character make people respect you.  What makes people love you is when you show compassion, and at least I haven’t seen compassion or empathy that comes out of him.  I mean, he certainly comes across as a very hard charging, driven person, which probably is good for business.  But the question of empathy is perhaps something lacking right now.

ALISON BEARD:  Yeah.  The other issue is his just enormous wealth.  He did invent this colossally valuable company, but should anyone really be that rich?

SUNIL GUPTA:  Well, I guess that’s, you can say that’s the good or the bad thing about capitalism.  But I think, and again, my personal view is there’s nothing wrong in becoming rich, if you have been successful and done it with hard work and ingenuity.  But how you use your wealth is something that perhaps will define Jeff Bezos going forward.  I think Bill Gates is a great example how he actually has used his wealth and his influence and his expertise and his brilliance into some certain thing that actually is great for humanity.

Now, whether Jeff Bezos does that down the road, I don’t know, whether his space exploration provides that sort of outlet which is both his passion as well as good for humanity, I don’t know.  But at some point in time, I think it’s the responsibility of these leaders to sort of say, my goal is not simply to make money and make my shareholders rich, but also help humanity and help society.

ALISON BEARD:  If you’re talking to someone who’s running a startup, or even a manager of a team at a traditional company, what is the key lesson that you would say, this is what you can learn from Jeff Bezos?  This is what you can put to work in your own profession?

SUNIL GUPTA:  So I would say two things that at least I would take away if I were doing a startup.  One is customer obsession.  Now, every company says that, but honestly, not every company does it, because if you go to the management meetings, if you go to the quarterly meetings, you suddenly go focus on financials and competition and product.  But there’s rarely any conversation on customers.  And I think, as I mentioned earlier, that Jeff Bezos always tells his employee to think of the imaginary chair in which a customer is sitting, because that’s the person that we need to focus on.  Howard Shultz does the same thing at Starbucks, and that’s why Starbucks is so customer focused.

So I think that’s the first part.  And the argument that Bezos gives is, customers are never satisfied.  And that pushes us to innovate and move forward, so we need to innovate even before the rest of the world even sees that, because customers are the first ones to see what is missing in the offering that you have.

And the second I would say that I would take away from Jeff Bezos is the conviction and passion with what you do.  And many times that goes against the conventional wisdom.  And the Amazon Web Services is a great example of that.  The whole world, including the Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street analysts were saying, this is none of Amazon’s business to do web services.  But he was convinced that this is the right thing to do, and he went and did that.

And part of that conviction may come from experiments.  Part of that conviction comes from connecting the dots that he could see that many other people didn’t see.  I mean, that’s why he went, left his job, and went to Seattle to do the online bookstore, because he could see the macro trends as to what the Internet is likely to do.  So, I think that’s the vision that he had.  And once you have the conviction, then you follow your passion.

ALISON BEARD: Sunil, thanks so much for coming on the show.

SUNIL GUPTA:  Thank you for having me. Alison.

HANNAH BATES: That was Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta, in conversation with Alison Beard on the HBR IdeaCast .

We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review.

And when you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, find it all at HBR.org.

This episode was produced by Mary Dooe, Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. And special thanks to Maureen Hoch, Nicole Smith, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

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A Case Study of Conflict Management and Negotiation

There is a lot to be learned from this case study of conflict management and negotiation..

By PON Staff — on January 22nd, 2024 / Conflict Resolution

Group negotiations are a fact of managerial life, yet the outcomes of teamwork are highly unpredictable. Sometimes, groups cohere, reaching novel solutions to nagging problems, and sometimes infighting causes them to collapse. This is where you may find a case study of conflict management helpful.

How can you predict when the conflict will emerge in groups, and what can you do to stop it?

The following is drawn from a case study of conflict management and negotiation involving multi-party negotiation scenarios. Dora Lau of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Keith Murnighan of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University have examined group conflict in terms of fault lines the cracks that result when groups split into homogenous subgroups according to demographic characteristics.

For instance, in a four-person group made up of two white males in their forties and two African American females in their twenties, a very strong fault line would exist, one clearly defined by age, gender, and race. In a group consisting of one white male, one Asian male, one Hispanic female, and one African American female, all in their thirties, fault lines would be less evident.

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In our FREE special report from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School - The New Conflict Management: Effective Conflict Resolution Strategies to Avoid Litigation – renowned negotiation experts uncover unconventional approaches to conflict management that can turn adversaries into partners.

A Case Study of Conflict Management – Divisions in Group Negotiation

Recently Katerina Bezrukova of Rutgers University and her colleagues compared the effects of fault lines based on social categories (e.g., age, race, or gender) with those based on information (e.g., education or work experience). Their negotiation research found that groups with strong information-based fault lines perform better than groups with strong demographic-based fault lines.

While the latter create dysfunctional conflict within the group, information-based fault lines provide the diversity of information needed for effective performance – in other words, they provide functional conflict .

These studies provide useful hints on how diversity can be effectively managed. Specifically, when forming teams, avoid obvious demographic fault lines that would allow group members to split into categories. When broader diversity exists, fault lines can simply disappear.

Related Conflict Resolution Article:  Conflict Management and Negotiation: Personality and Individual Differences That Matter – How much do personality differences matter in negotiations? Negotiation research has found that negotiators perform similarly from one negotiation to another negotiation and that performance was only slightly impacted by other variables at the bargaining table like personality traits. Unchanging traits, like gender, ethnicity, and level of physical attractiveness, were not tied to negotiation performance. Some traits did affect negotiating performance, however, and in this study, those factors identified by the latest negotiation research are outlined and discussed. How can your beliefs about negotiation impact your ability to negotiate? Read more for negotiation skills and negotiation techniques a negotiator can do to mitigate the impact of these variables on her negotiating performance.

What is your favorite case study of conflict management? Let us know in the comments.

Originally published in 2012.

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No Responses to “A Case Study of Conflict Management and Negotiation”

One response to “a case study of conflict management and negotiation”.

I would love to consider the details of the research that suggests that “demographic fault lines” produce dysfunction in groups. The conclusion has a very subtle bias that could benefit from further investigation. Is it at all possible that the information and proposals are considered differently by people operating in different social contexts and that by “avoiding obvious demographic fault line” the management practice is to simply allow the internal power dynamics – which often have differential impacts along certain demographic fault lines – to play out unimpeded?

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