Negotiation Strategies: Creating and Maximizing Value

Negotiation is no longer is no longer just a skill—it’s a leadership imperative.

Negotiation Strategies: Creating and Maximizing Value is an intensive, three-day journey that redefines your approach to deal-making. Moving from foundational one-on-one exercises to dynamic, multi-party simulations, this program empowers you to think strategically, act decisively, and negotiate with confidence across complexity.

Led by Robert N. Bontempo, Academic Director in Executive Education, the program blends cutting-edge research with real-world application. Bontempo is a trusted advisor to executives at Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Glaxo-Wellcome, NASA, and the US State Department. Named one of the top MBA professors in the United States by Businessweek, his insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.

“The most rewarding feedback is hearing how participants immediately apply what they’ve learned, whether negotiating with a government minister or discussing compensation.”

Faculty director Bob Bontempo discusses his application-oriented teaching approach for immediate application.

Persuasion vs. Negotiation

Are you using the right influence strategy at the right time? In this short video, Faculty Director Robert N. Bontempo reveals the critical differences between persuasion and negotiation—and how mastering both can elevate your leadership impact.

“Negotiation creates mutual benefit through exchange; persuasion creates impact by changing beliefs. Effective leaders know when to use each.”

Faculty director Bob Bontempo discusses why persuasion and negotiation are different sets of behaviors but with two complementary skill sets

Power, Preparation, and Perspective

The first day sets the foundation for everything that follows. Participants are paired for a high-stakes, one-on-one negotiation focused on a single issue. With results ranked and shared, this session drives home the realities of power, pressure, and performance. The afternoon builds in complexity as participants move into multi-issue negotiations drawn from real-world dynamics, revealing new strategies for value creation—and exposing common mindset traps along the way. Throughout the day, they receive real-time feedback designed to shift behavior, sharpen instincts, and reframe how they approach negotiation.

Strategy in Action

The second day raises the complexity and the stakes. Participants move from one-on-one scenarios into high-stakes, multi-party negotiations with layered issues and competing priorities. The day focuses on strategy—how to prepare, prioritize, and build packages that create value while advancing one’s agenda. Through structured exercises, participants learn how to work across the table and around it, gaining tools to lead in complex, often messy organizational environments.

From Insight to Impact

The final day brings it all together. Participants apply what they’ve learned to a capstone negotiation—one that mirrors a challenging, high-stakes workplace conversation. It’s a scenario filled with power dynamics, emotions, and competing goals. The day also includes a feedback-driven workshop where participants share real negotiation challenges from their own experience, bringing personal relevance to the tools and strategies they’ve built over the course of the program.

Our Negotiation Strategies program is designed for executives at all levels and seasoned leaders who:

“Negotiation Strategies was a terrific program, particularly because we negotiate every single day in our lives. I learned about methods to find common ground in order not to negotiate myself into a gridlock.”

“I took Negotiation Strategies not knowing the impact it would have on my professional life. It has changed the way I perceive a problem, the way I plan my arguments prior an important meeting, how to create mutual value with your counter-party which creates a long-term solid relationship, and much more. The main strength of the course was the practical cases that pushed us to interact and practice, 1-on-1 with our classmates.”

“It was unique to discover that, while negotiating, it is crucial to create value for yourself but also value for your counterparties. In the complex global business world, value is often destroyed due to one way thinking: I take all and leave you with nothing. During the course, through the theoretical approach as well as practical case study simulations, I learned that combined value creation is beneficial for both parties.”

“Negotiating is always part of my job, especially since I work in a cross-cultural environment. BATNA was an interesting and useful concept for me to learn. How to plan your BATNA before your negotiating sessions is absolutely key.”

“Bob [Bontempo]'s insights about different negotiation strategies and his deep understanding of human behavior across cultural differences provides a powerful platform to understand this topic from a new, fresh perspective.”

“This course is extremely valuable and directly applicable to many real-world business interactions. I highly recommend it. The best part is the ability to network and learn from world business leaders.”

“As a manager I negotiate with stakeholders every day. In the program, I learned that negotiation isn't about winning, but about adding value for all participants involved. In my opinion, every executive should take a negotiation course.”