Nakatori Cinema Corporation

Your team represents the local interest for the Nakatori Cinema Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Your company represents 850 theaters worldwide, and your team is in charge of purchasing new theaters.

Your company has successfully pursued the policy of entering a small town, purchasing all the town's theaters, and coordinating the entire town's showing of movies.

Part of the company's strategy depends on purchasing all the theaters and coordinating showing within six months of entering a town. 

Five months have passed since you purchased your first theater in Beaumont, NC.

The strategy is less successful when one theater in town is not absorbed by the corporation.  These "rogue" theaters have successfully managed to galvanize support in each town they exist in by lowering prices, showing competitive movies, and organizing local citizens against Nakatori.

Your team is under pressure to make Beaumont a success.  You have invested $250,000 already in two local theaters.  Now, only "Lights and Action" remains as the local alternative.

You are authorized to spend up to $500,000 in any given town and licensed to hire any townspeople as employees of the corporation at competitive wages.  You are allowed to buy space, rent space, lease space, sell space, but your mission is to convert the town in the manner of the Nakatori strategy.

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.