THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON

NORTHAMPTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

MODULE: International Business Negotiation

2015-2016

International Business Negotiation: Assignment Two

Module Code
STRM060

Level
7

Credit Value
20

Module Tutor
Dean Brookes

Assignment Two Brief

Assignment title:

Explain the Negotiating Strategy and detailed Negotiation

Plan devised by your group to deal with your case study
exercise AND reflect on your individual performance
through the exercise and what you have learned from the
process.

Word count:

2,500 evidenced based essay

Weighting:

50%

Classroom activity:

27 April 2016 (Wednesday class)

28 April 2016 (Thursday class)

Submission date:

16 May 2016

Resit date:

25 July 2019

Explain the Negotiating Strategy and detailed Negotiation Plan devised by

your Delegation Team to deal with your case study exercise AND reflect on
your individual performance through the exercise and what you have learned
from the process.
Please ensure that you are in contact with your colleagues and you, as a group, will
identify key aspects/topics/issues/demands you wish to bring to the negation table.
These key aspects will be covered in dedicated one-to-one group sessions two
weeks before the class negotiation activity. The meetings are confidential
until/unless the groups themselves decide to divulge them as part of the negotiating
process. Once again, it is important that you are in contact with your group to

ensure that you have all of the relevant information to hand.

Please also comprehensively understand the following core briefing for the
assignment. Each group will receive further individual instructions for the
assessment.
Background
Beaufort and Sons is a shoemaking firm based in Northampton in the United
Kingdom and a manufacturer of traditional high-end shoes for men and women. It
was founded in 1912 in a single factory in the heart of the town. At the high point of
production, in the early 1960s, the firm employed 1700 people in administrative,
sales, and skilled leather ware roles across two sites the old city centre factory
and a newer one in Rushden, Northamptonshire. Traditionally, the firm sold mainly
into British markets and to some extent into Europe but the world of shoemaking
changed very quickly and the company has had to adapt. Your role in this set of
negotiations is to decide the next stage in the companys development.
From the 1970s Beauforts traditional markets went into decline. Competition from
producers in Asia intensified and traditional marketing techniques began to change.
Footwear gradually came to be seen as a more disposable product and prices
came down dramatically as a consequence of developing technology to some
extent but principally the lower labour costs available to new international
producers. Shoes were no longer sold in specialist shops but through department
stores and clothing retailers who were not interested in Beauforts traditional
products.
The firms market became increasingly niche and they had to show great ingenuity
in accessing customers. The British market is now dominated by relatively low cost
imports but it is still possible to sell through specialist fashion outlets and in the City
of London. Most significant has been the development of internet sales and a
relatively large customer base in the USA, where the quality mark of British shoe
making still has some marketing power. Nevertheless, even in those premium
markets costs have to be contained in order to remain competitive with American
quality shoe manufacturers.
Most recently in 2008, as the recession hit Beauforts, the company took the
decision to close the older site in the city centre completely and to offshore
production to XFM, a specialist shoemaking facility in Dongguan, China. The
objective was to maintain quality standards while driving down production costs:
Guangdong province has a highly skilled workforce but labour costs are lower than
the UK. Beauforts UK workforce was reduced from 1000 in 2008 to about 300 the
following year. Most of the remaining staff is now employed in design and marketing
with only a small group of shop floor workers engaged mainly in new product
development rather than production for the market.
In 2015, however, Beauforts began a process of business review. Not all of the
companys expectations of the offshoring experiment have been realised. It
attracted a good deal of negative publicity in the UK, particularly in
Northamptonshire where the firm and the city centre site had once been prominent

local institutions. Markets in China have not opened up to the extent hoped for and
the company continues to sell mainly into the USA and Britain. As important, it has
not been easy to control quality over long distances and wage costs in China began
to rise almost as soon as Beauforts set up their contract with XFM.
In November 2014, Beaufort was approached by Northampton Borough Council
and the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership to encourage the firm to expand
UK production in the town once again. Land and a new unit near to the motorway
can be made available to the company at reduced rates and support would be
available to retrain a local workforce. Might it be time to consider reshoring
Beauforts shoe production and integrating the firm once again?
The Task
The group must engage in negotiations involving three parties Beauforts
management; XFM management; and representatives of Unity, a UK trade union
representing the interests of the shoemaking workforce in Britain.
The negotiations are likely to be complex and it will be for the parties involved to
consider how they will be structured. Is it desirable for all parties to meet together at
the same time or are separate meetings preferred? How will the scope of
discussions be agreed? And, within teams, it will be necessary to identify your
negotiating strategy and to plan how negotiating roles will be organised.
The Delegation Teams will be allocated in the week beginning 14th March
2016
Beauforts Management

Unity

XFM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Purpose of the Assessment

To develop a negotiation plan geared towards a real-life case example detailed in
the Negotiating Exercise Background and Negotiating Exercise Role Brief given to
students. Students will be required to analyse and organise the case materials and
to identify and critically apply the relevant principles, tools, techniques and theories
required to produce a convincing and appropriate plan to best meet the
requirements of the assessment brief.
Assessment Task
To explain the negotiation plan developed in real-life negotiation and to reflect upon
personal roles and expectations (2,500 words).
Assessment Submission
To submit your work, please go to the Submit your work area of the International
Business Negotiation NILE site. It is important that you submit your work to the
correct module NILE site, and that your work is submitted on time.

Assessment Guidance
Ensure that the assignment is
Closely structured to the requirements of the question: The published title should be
set out at the head of the assignment and referred to throughout the text.
Concluded in such a way as to provide an answer to the published question: An
authoritative conclusion should synthesize the arguments developed through the
essay and establish that the central requirements have been met.
Written in simple and direct language: Complex sentence structures and the use of
jargon should be avoided as much as possible.
Founded on a suitable range of reading and effectively referenced: Core arguments
should be supported by appropriate reference (using the Harvard system) to
reading indicated in the Module Guide and found in literature searches.
Academic Practice
This is an individual assignment. The University of Northampton policy will apply in
all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have
obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage.
Support and guidance on assessments and academic integrity can be found from
the following resources
SkillsHub: http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk
CfAP: http://tinyurl.com/UoNCfAP
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes being addressed through this assignment are:
Subject Specific
d)

identify and be able to selectively apply the key negotation

styles, ploys and techniques;

e)

understand and apply the principles of argumentation to

diferent and contrasting negotiation situations;

f)

to critically analyse negotiation standpoints, styles and

situations;

Key Skills
g)

to plan negotiation strategies appropriate to a variety of

business situations by analysing and synthesing relevant
data sources;

h)

construct and communicate effective and ethical

negotiation plans and strategies in cross-cultural business

situations;
i)

develop a level of self awareness with regard to personal

negotiation position and style.