Hello Buyers for Do-Rite Gardening Supplies (DRGS)-

Below are the confidential facts you will need to complete the prep plan.  This week is the planning/prepping stage for the first online negotiation simulation that will take place next week.

You have been assigned the role of the Senior Buyer for DRGS and you are looking to purchase office supplies for the business.  Read the confidential facts below and use the template in the week 4 folder to submit a prep plan no later than Sunday.  I will be watching for the prep plans and will assign you a rep from Arrival Office Supplies to negotiate with once you have submitted your prep plan.  You will have all of next week to go back-and-forth with AOS to form an agreement to purchase office supplies.

Below are the facts you need to complete this assignment:

Confidential Facts for Do-Rite Gardening Supplies

You are the Senior Buyer for Do-Rite Gardening Supplies located in Dayton, OH. You have been charged with purchasing all the office supplies that Do-Rite uses in any given year. Do-Rite employs over two hundred office employees in Dayton, OH, all of who need supplies to take and process customer orders.

You currently buy paper, paper clips, rubber bands, and printer ribbons from four different suppliers - all local (within a 20 mile radius). You pay $14 per pack of paper (1 pack = 6 reams), $0.50 per box off 100 paper clips, $0.65 per box of 100 rubber bands, and $11.95 per printer ribbon.

You send your office truck to pick up supplies at each location when you order.

You are unhappy with your current suppliers because they all offer different terms of payment and the multiple coordination of shipment pickup has led to more than one office snafu. You are under pressure to find a single supplier for all office supplies. And, as always, you are under pressure to reduce your costs.

You have emailed an office supplies vendor: Arrival Office Supplies located in Richmond, IN. You have heard they have been operating in neighboring states for years but have no track record in Ohio. Their reputation is for quality, inexpensive products that are sometimes late in delivery.

You have asked around about Arrival Office Supplies. Negotiate with Arrival Office Supplies to see if they can be your single source for office supplies.

You have given Arrival your annual usage:

Preparation for Negotiation

1. List the information about you and your company that you want to share with the other party.

2. List the information about the other party that you already know.

3. List the questions (and the answers to those questions) that you think the other party will ask about you and your company.

4. List the questions you want to ask about the other party.

5. List your issues and interests in this negotiation.

6. List issues and interests that may be important to the other party.

7. Prioritize your issues.  One way to think about it is what you must have, what you would like to have, and things you could care less about.  Or, you can classify the issues as high, medium, low.  You can also list what you may concede in order to make a deal.  And, any "killer" concerns - conditions that would kill the deal if they could not be met.

8. List your BATNA.  What are possible alternatives should this deal not be made?

9. Prioritize the other party's issues as you listed in #6.  What do you think will be most important to the other side?

10. List the other party's BATNA. 

11. If you are negotiating as part of a team, determine team member roles. List assignments given to each team member. You may also want to decide who will be the Lead Negotiator. If this is a one-on-one negotiation, determine your role in the negotiation and your title.