Negotiation skills: Analysing the scenario—sample negotiation: band dispute

Self-test questions

Have a look back at the sample negotiation: band dispute earlier in this chapter (p. 461) and have a go at analysing the scenario, remembering to take account of these six key points:
1.   What is the legal framework for the negotiation?
2.   What does Jonny want?
3.   What are Jonny’s interests?
4.   Are any boundaries placed on the negotiation?
5.   What do you anticipate that Jo-Jo might want from the negotiation?
6.   What are the strengths and weaknesses of Jonny’s case?

Answers

1. The legal framework for the negotiation is contract as it deals with a variation in the way that royalties are shared between the band members, but there are also intellectual property issues in terms of the copyright in the band’s songs, the right to perform the band’s songs, and the right to perform under the name Persimmon For Gaia.
2. Essentially Jonny wants to preserve the status quo. He wants the band to stay together and to continue to perform and he cannot see any justification to vary the existing four-way split on royalties.
3. Jonny’s interests are all tied up with his sense that the band belongs to him because he founded it. He wants to stay, preserve the line-up of the band, and maintain his role in it. He has acknowledged that there is a possibility that he may be forced to leave the band and has identified a financial package that he would want if this occurred but it is clear that this is very much a measure of last resort for him. So you should have the preservation of the band with all four members performing together very much in mind when negotiating from Jonny’s perspective.
4. There is no absolute boundary placed on the negotiation as there does not seem to be anything that Jonny would not accept although it is clear that he would be reluctant to accept a situation in which he is removed from the band. He is also not prepared to let the band perform his song ‘Owl’ without him.
5. Jonny has been made aware that Jo-Jo wants to revisit the way in which the royalties are split between the band members so it seems reasonable to assume that he now wants more (possibly far more) than his original 25 per cent share of the royalties. It also seems likely that Jo-Jo wants Jonny to leave the band and allow the other three members to perform without him.
6. Jonny’s greatest strength seems to be his ownership of the band’s most popular song, ‘Owl’. It seems unlikely that the band will want to lose the ability to perform this so it may give Jonny a fair amount of leverage. It is possible that the other band members will support him especially as he was the founder of the band and it seems that Jo-Jo wants to reduce their share of the royalties. His weakness is that his online dispute with Omnoo seems to have jeopardized the band’s booking for a key festival performance and he seems to have caused a lot of bad publicity for the band.