Intl

International Negotiation and Diplomacy
CASE: Canada Timber. Negotiation with the Japanese.

Teacher: Mr. Valon Murtezaj

During a negotiation process, lots of components have to be taken into account by both parts to seal a good deal. Culture is one of the most important of them because it stays the first purpose of war between humans and the one that is used as the symbol of ethnic differentiation. When a country as Canada meet another with so much values and beliefs as Japan, negotiation will surely be harder in terms of understanding and finding common point between both teams than with a Canadian one. In the case Canada Timber: Negotiation with the Japanese we can find lots of these misunderstanding points and cultural troubles than can be created by an extra cultural negotiation.

It’s this case, the choice of the negotiation team is very important. Here we can clearly see that when Tim (CEO of Canada Timber) chose his team, he didn’t take into account all elements that could be useful for him to compose his team. Firstly, he took his brother in law Johnny that is not employee of Canada Timber. We can assume that in front of the Japanese, a simple attorney will not get lot of influence on it. Besides he’s not involved directly into the Hardwood business. And as we saw on this case, he was useless for the entire trip, not taking importance in all the negotiation process. Then it was a good choice to get Bill, the person that knows the most about the business they are in. And the last one Kevin, is not qualified enough to go to this negotiation as the part of the team but I think his presence can be useful as he know a lot about Japanese culture. The only problem is he should have been the one who talk and who take the head of the negotiation team. He looks more patient, more thoughtful than Tim and should have avoided been anger or stressed. At the end, the global team was not homogenous with someone out of the company and another one