This book is about the personal skills which engineers use in negotiations. It covers the different negotiating skills needed during all three phases of a contract: to secure it, during its lifetime, and to settle outstanding matters afterwards. The book also shows how to respond to negotiators from other styles and cultures. It is a handbook of methods: ways to prepare, to establish a climate, to plan and control. It discusses the processes of bargaining and settling, and how to select the most appropriate course for the changing relationships.
Drafting and Negotiating Commercial Contracts, Fourth Edition is the 'one-stop-shop' for practical contractual matters, making it essential reading for anyone involved in negotiating and drafting commercial contracts. Many works published on the topic of negotiating have dealt with techniques of and preparation for negotiation from a psychological standpoint, but this book contends that in the commercial world, hard commercial considerations rather than psychological warfare matter most in successfully negotiating commercial contracts. The text highlights the most important special features of selected contracts, namely payment contracts and petroleum contracts in addition to ordinary export contracts, syndicated loan agreements, international engineering and construction contracts, and issues relating to project finance and risk. One of the basic themes of this work is to remind negotiators of the changing attitudes towards the negotiation of international commercial contracts, including more awareness of bargaining powers of both parties. The Fourth Edition has been fully updated to take account of important court decisions regarding the interpretation of contracts and changes in consumer legislation. This includes commercial lawyers, contract managers, in-house lawyers, lawyers in private practice, LPC course tutors and law and business students.
Construction is a complex business. Each project has its own unique physical and commercial considerations. Since there’s no such thing as a “standard” or “typical” construction project, construction contracts should also not be considered standard. The contractor must carefully manage both in order to have a successful outcome and protect the company’s interests and assets. This book will help you manage all these elements of the contract: Scope of work and schedule Terms of payment and cash flow Assurances of performance Insurance, bonding, indemnity, and warranties Changes to the contract Disputes and their resolution Damages Termination and suspension Force majeure International contracting
Engineering Contracts is intended for those who wish to acquire skills in drafting, negotiating and working with commercial and engineering contracts. It aims to bring a different approach to the subject; combining the traditional legal perspective of the law of contract with the needs of the commercial manager or engineer who is seeking solutions to technical and commercial problems.The context within which these matters are examined is as wide as possible; for the purposes of illustration cases are drawn from the fields of mechanical, electrical, chemical, electronic and civil engineering, as well as from construction and building contracts. In many cases the important points are common to all disciplines, for instance the importance of ensuring that what has been specified is what is delivered by a supplier, and that any such delivery or indeed any event critical to the timely conclusion of a project takes place when arranged.There is advice on how to the concepts broached relate to real-life requirements and the reader will benefit from the helpful 'Legal Questions Answered' section that is included in most chapters. In addition there is a summary guide to drafting an engineering contract, a section on the relevant statutes and other legislation in force, and a list of the engineering institutions and their standard forms of contract. Case-studies of genuine and practical origin from the author's wide-ranging experience in industrial practice complete this comprehensive treatment of the subject matter.
Tirella and Bates help professionals conduct effective negotiations by showing how to prepare teams for the game, read and interact with the opposition, and, most importantly, to define winning and losing before, during, and after the negotiation.
In the workplace, negotiation is used to arrange business deals of all sorts - in the engineering world these range from establishing schedules and budgets in the context of Project Management to developing and entering into extensive contracts, such as for large construction projects. This is a guide to becoming more aware of the art of negotiation and putting it to use with tips and examples. It provides knowledge and the tools to become a successful negotiator. Valuable for both personal situations as well as professional.
Annotation Terry Gillen's practical guide explains everything managers need to know about finding and winning new business, both from existing and new customers. The author shows them how to improve their skills in the areas of selling, negotiating, writing proposals, making presentations in support of a tender, working with business partners and providing the kind of service that will enable them to keep customers once they have won them.
There are three specific purposes of Construction Dispute Research. First, this volume aims to summarise studies on construction dispute. Second, apart from the theoretical constructs, where appropriate empirical tests are also included. This approach serves to go beyond the commonly used anecdotal approach for the subject matters. Third, it is the sincere hope of the authors that this book will help shaping research agenda of construction dispute. The studies are mostly framed from a management perspective drawing on methods and concepts in contract law, economics, psychology and management science. The book has twenty chapters that are arranged in four parts covering conceptualisation, avoidance, negotiation and mediation. Part 1 is devoted for dispute conceptualisation. A building is only as strong as its foundation. Thus it is no better start to study construction dispute by conceptualisation. The theme of Part 2 is dispute avoidance. The conventional wisdom of ‘prevention is better than cure’ seems can be applied to all problems. As far as construction dispute is concerned, equitable risk allocation and trust are the two most commonly accepted avoidance strategies. Part 3 focuses on negotiation that is the gateway to resolution as almost all disputes are negotiated first before the service of other mechanisms. Negotiation is sometimes described as an art because settlement may not be obtained solely from legal and rational approaches. Part 3 discusses the behavioral dimensions of construction dispute negotiation. Part 4 deals with Mediation- a form of assisted negotiation. Specially, the skill of the mediators in facilitating settlement, the interrelationships among dispute sources, mediator tactics and mediation outcomes are explored. The studies presented in Construction Dispute Research collectively demonstrate holistic approach in dispute management. Each chapter can be read as a study on its own. Practitioners will find the book a handy reference in dispute management and resolution. Students would find the book useful in explaining in details the causes of dispute, the processes to resolve them. The research design and empirical approaches are particularly useful to students in construction management, architectural, surveying and civil engineering programs.
We all negotiate on a daily basis. We negotiate with our spouses, children, parents, and friends. We negotiate when we rent an apartment, buy a car, purchase a house, and apply for a job. Your ability to negotiate might even be the most important factor in your career advancement. Negotiation is also the key to business success. No organization can survive without contracts that produce profits. At a strategic level, businesses are concerned with value creation and achieving competitive advantage. But the success of high-level business strategies depends on contracts made with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Contracting capability—the ability to negotiate and perform successful contracts—is the most important function in any organization. This book is designed to help you achieve success in your personal negotiations and in your business transactions. The book is unique in two ways. First, the book not only covers negotiation concepts, but also provides practical actions you can take in future negotiations. This includes a Negotiation Planning Checklist and a completed example of the checklist for your use in future negotiations. The book also includes (1) a tool you can use to assess your negotiation style; (2) examples of “decision trees,” which are useful in calculating your alternatives if your negotiation is unsuccessful; (3) a three-part strategy for increasing your power during negotiations; (4) a practical plan for analyzing your negotiations based on your reservation price, stretch goal, most-likely target, and zone of potential agreement; (5) clear guidelines on ethical standards that apply to negotiations; (6) factors to consider when deciding whether you should negotiate through an agent; (7) psychological tools you can use in negotiations—and traps to avoid when the other side uses them; (8) key elements of contract law that arise during negotiations; and (9) a checklist of factors to use when you evaluate your performance as a negotiator. Second, the book is unique in its holistic approach to the negotiation process. Other books often focus narrowly either on negotiation or on contract law. Furthermore, the books on negotiation tend to focus on what happens at the bargaining table without addressing the performance of an agreement. These books make the mistaken assumption that success is determined by evaluating the negotiation rather than evaluating performance of the agreement. Similarly, the books on contract law tend to focus on the legal requirements for a contract to be valid, thus giving short shrift to the negotiation process that precedes the contract and to the performance that follows. In the real world, the contracting process is not divided into independent phases. What happens during a negotiation has a profound impact on the contract and on the performance that follows. The contract’s legal content should reflect the realities of what happened at the bargaining table and the performance that is to follow. This book, in contrast to others, covers the entire negotiation process in chronological order beginning with your decision to negotiate and continuing through the evaluation of your performance as a negotiator. A business executive in one of the negotiation seminars the author teaches as a University of Michigan professor summarized negotiation as follows: “Life is negotiation!” No one ever stated it better. As a mother with young children and as a company leader, the executive realized that negotiations are pervasive in our personal and business lives. With its emphasis on practical action, and with its chronological, holistic approach, this book provides a roadmap you can use when navigating through your life as a negotiator.
Empowering organizations to thrive, this book provides a clear diagnostic framework with specific approaches and processes that leaders can use to build a negotiation function that will succeed each and every time. Negotiation is a required skill and a core competency, but most organizations focus exclusively on individual negotiation skills and abilities and pay little attention to the internal culture and environment that shapes and guides these individuals. This book takes a dramatically different approach to building success in each and every negotiation, producing results that align with organizational strategy at all levels. Professionals in sales, procurement and supply chain, human resources, change management, mergers and acquisitions, contracts, start-ups, construction partnering, and training consultants and students of business and law will value a text that understands how to build negotiation skills and capability across the organization by aligning individual skills with an evidence-based approach that actually works.
