You are Joe Campbell, oldest son in the Campbell and Lessing families. You have been an integral part of running the family business for ten years. Your dad and mom, James and Sue, rely on you to run the cattle operation – which is a cash cow (you love that joke) for the family business. The cow?calf operation brings in around $70,000 per year for 150 head of cattle and 1500 head of stocker cattle. Realistically you think that you could increase the profit of this operation to $100,000 per year, but you don’t want to work any more than you already are. There are other things that you have going on, so why mess up your comfortable life.
In addition to the Campbell ranch, your mom’s family was also involved in farming in the Perryton area. In fact, your mom, Sue Lessing Campbell, and her brother Bob, own much of the surrounding farm area. The Lessing farm has been in the family for over 100 years and Bob and Sue have a Texas Heritage Farm designation, for family farms that have been in operation for over 100 years. Bob is farming some of the Lessing land. Bob is the older brother by fourteen years, and inherited the better sections of the Lessing farm. Bob’s four?plus sections (of 640 acres each, plus some extraneous parcels) have access to water and are irrigated. Bob’s wife Alma passed away suddenly three years ago. Your Uncle Bob relies on you for income as well. If you weren’t running the cattle, your dad would have to do it, and Bob wouldn’t be able to rely on your dad to help him out with the farming.
Bob doesn’t have any kids, and he’s pretty old. He’s likely to die soon, and when he does you’re sure that his land will get added to the family farm. Since you’re the oldest it’s pretty likely that you will get most of the farm, if not all of it when your father James dies. Particularly since your little brother, Andy, has been gone for the past eight years. Hopefully your mom will still be alive, she does the books. You were never interested in the books (too boring and confusing), so you would be happy if Sue could continue in that role. It would be nice if Sue could teach your wife, Sara, to do the books, so when Sue quits doing it you wouldn’t have to do it.
James and Sue have been really good to you. In fact, they built a house for you and your family close to their house on some of the Campbell land. Maybe a little too close. You love your parents, but you don’t really like them meddling in your business. But it will keep Sara happy. She gets mad when you have to go away on your “business trips” to Oklahoma. But who can blame you? Perryton is boring. So you spend some time in the Lucky Star Casino? Big deal. It’s not like the kids go hungry. And the people there are more interesting than the people in Perryton. But now that Sara is out of that stinking old doublewide and close to James and Sue to keep her busy, it will make your life easier. On the whole James and Sue treat you well. On top of the house you get $3000 per month for running the cattle operation. It’s nice to have a salary instead of being tied to profits on the farm.
Some years the crops don’t look too good and you don’t want to make less money because your dad is old? school and won’t invest in irrigation and other new farming techniques. You are certain that the farm has struggled in the past. You get your salary, and he has to suffer. You wish the farm was doing better because you need a new pickup truck. You always have the oldest junk to drive around.
If James weren’t so cheap, you could have a new truck. At least your mom understands that you work hard for the farm. Because you have to travel to meet with breeders and buyers for the cattle you spend a bunch of time away from the farm, in Oklahoma mostly. This gets expensive, so Sue gives you $500 a month in cash under the table. No one knows about it except you and Sue. You don’t even tell Sara.
Your little brother, Andy, is coming this weekend for your mom’s birthday. He’s an okay kid. He went to college ? twice, once at Texas Tech, and he’s at Texas A&M right now. He had a big city job in Dallas, but had to give it up to go back to school. It doesn’t seem like he makes good decisions. Why would he give up that money to go to more school? At least he made a good choice in his wife. Charlene is a good woman and comes from a good family. Your dad has asked that the three of you meet while Andy is in town. He wants Andy to come back and work on the farm, but you doubt that he would be willing to work in a small operation after living in Dallas. You don’t know how much he made in Dallas, but you know he doesn’t make anything right now, since he is in school. Charlene is waiting tables; she probably doesn’t make much doing that. You know that Charlene’s parents have lots of money, so maybe they are supporting your brother and sister?in?law. They might have enough money that coming back to Perryton would be a good thing. Maybe they could even buy you out. If you had a lump sum of money to live off of, you would quit the farm today. You could still live in Perryton. Everyone knows you here, and most of your high school football records still stand to this day. In fact, you are a legend in Perryton. But if Andy wants to come back and work for your dad, that’s great. He’s a good worker, and more hands makes for less work that each person has to do.
You certainly hope that Andy doesn’t think he’s going to be in charge. Your father has been the CEO, President, top farm hand, chief planter, and king of the harvest since you were a child. Even when Uncle Bob was involved in the operation more actively he always deferred many of the decisions to your dad. Andy has made some suspicious comments on different occasions when he has been home. He is always talking about how productivity could be increased if he were running things. Well, that’s not going to happen. You are the oldest and if anyone is going to run things, you are. But if you are completely honest with yourself, you don’t want things to change much now. You are happy with James running the operation for the next ten years and then passing it to you to run when he’s ready to retire.
At some point in the future you would like to be in charge. But you know James, he will likely make it a joint deal. Since you have a good knowledge about the cow?calf operation, and Andy should be very knowledgeable about the crops after all that school, he will probably want you two to share control if Andy comes back. You know that the two of you haven’t always agreed in the past, but for the good of the family farm you might put differences aside. You are brothers after all. If you have to, you would accept a joint leadership position in ten years, shared equally. That said, another option could be to split control of the crop operation and the cattle operation.
Unfortunately, the farm shares some equipment and splitting the operation would lead to conflicts, and some costly coordination efforts. These would have to be discussed, but it shouldn’t be a problem as long as Andy is reasonable about using your equipment.
Your most important issue however is compensation. If Andy does come back to the farm, he better not make more money than you do. You are the oldest, you have put ten years into this farm and you expect to be compensated for that. You would not be happy at all if Andy makes more than you do. And he should do his time in that doublewide before James and Sue build him a house. Andy and Charlene don’t even have kids yet. You don’t want to buy him a house with your cow profits. You are also concerned about the distribution of the land. Land in Perryton is a surprisingly lucrative holding. Therefore, if you are able to negotiate for a share of the ownership of the land, it would greatly increase the value of your total compensation package. This is your legacy. You want this farm. Worst case scenario would be if you get the irrigated land, since it’s worth more, and Andy will get the dry land. Your most important issues are preserving your ownership position in the future (but not now) and maintaining the status quo – that is, no changes to the cattle business – so you have time to take your “business trips” to Elk City. By no means do you want to work for your little brother. And, he better not think that he’s going to be the heir to this enterprise, you’re the oldest and you have put a lot of work into this farm. You want it. Of course you would be happy to have your brother work for you. He is your brother after all, and he should be pretty good with the crop side of the business. He could make you some good money in the future.
Questions
What are the issues to be negotiated?
What are the priorities among the issues in the bargaining mix?
What are the primary underlying interests?
What are my limits on each issue - walkway points and BATNAs?
What are my target point and opening requests on these issues?
Who are the important constituencies to whom I am accountable?
What do I know about the other negotiator's interests, negotiating style, and personal reputation?
What overall strategy do I want to pursue?