Negociations project

Masters of Entrepreneurship and Business Administration

Adelina Suteu

2nd year, group 2

Trapped Room Escape Game is a company founded in 2014 which is dealing with
room escape games. The design of the rooms, but the puzzles themselves as well are designed
by the two owners of the company, one of them being an architect, and the other two game
masters, using only imagination and creativity without buying rooms from other sources.
Over time, they created five rooms with different themes.

The other party involved in this negotiation is In Time Room Escape, an escape room
from Greece that has not opened yet. The owners visited Romania last holiday and decided to
come play all of our rooms in order to get an idea about this type of business. After a week,
Catalina, the owner of Trapped, received an email regarding an eventual franchise involving
two of our rooms: The Bunker and Don Vito’s Investigation, mentioning that they want to
change the name of the rooms into something else. For the moment, Catalina didn’t want to
accept t the proposal, but she thought that she may change their minds by inviting them back
in Romania for a negotiation meeting. Anatoli and Ida, the owners of In Time Room Escape,
accepted the invitation and agreed to come back in Romania after 1 month in order to listen
for Catalina’s proposal.

From the point of view of Catalina and Andrei, what they hope to accomplish is to
make sure that they can advertise themselves on the international market by selling these two
rooms, taking into consideration lowering the price of the rooms as well from 5000 euros to
4000 euros. Considering the fact that in Greece is always sunny, it is well known that all the
year is full of tourists coming from all over the World. They believe that if the rooms will be
sold with their initial name, or with the mention “Powered by Trapped Room Escape”, they
will be contacted by other escape rooms, not only from Greece, but from all over the Globe.

On the other hand, from the point of view of Anatoli and Ida, they do not really want
to change the name of the rooms because they think that these ones are the most suitable. The
fact is that they sensed that the other party wanted to advertise themselves on their behalf so
they have found a way to make sure that the price will be a little bit lower than it was firstly
offered.

The discussion was initiated by Anatoli, which I noticed to some extent nervous but at
the same time very enthusiastic about the purpose of the negotiations. The negotiation went
easy; the main issue that was put on the table at the beginning of discussion was that Catalina
and Andrei did not want to accept the possibility of changing the name of the rooms. The
explanation being the fact that they took in consideration what benefits could bring this
decision: they can advertise themselves internationally in an easy way.

Discussing the issue, Anatoli and Ida reached the conclusion that the best option is not
to change the name of the rooms, but considering the obvious fact that Catalina and Andrei
will advertise their business internationally, they wanted to lower the selling to price from
5000 euros to 4000 euros, proposal that was approved by Catalina and Andrei eventually.

Anatoli and Ida will pay the amount of 4000 euros in order to buy The Bunker and
Don Vito’s Investigation, with no further changes of the names. Catalina and Andrei would
give them all the plans of the rooms together with all the custom-made locks and technologies
especially made for them. They will also advertise themselves internationally on the behalf of
this selling.

For Andrei and Catalina, the alternative would be to give the franchise to another
escape room that has contacted them, also from Greece, but from a part of it that is not that
visited by tourists as Athens is (Anatoli and Ida are opening their escape room in the capital
of Greece). After some emails received from the owners of this second escape room, Catalina
understood that they would agree to pay the whole amount of 5000 euros for both of the
rooms and they would keep their names untouched. The only matter is that they have not
played the rooms yet, and they only contacted Trapped because of the good reviews they
found on Trip Advisor. So, there is a slight chance that they would like to change something
in the room, which is not going to be accepted by Trapped.

For Anatoli and Ida, the best alternative if this negotiation would not end as they
planned, is to buy a franchise from another place. They have visited multiple escape rooms in
Bucharest in their last holiday and had discussions with some owners, but the only problem
was that none of the rooms had that special thing they were looking for, even if these rooms
were sold at a smaller price than the ones from Trapped. They found this special thing after
they have played The Bunker and Don Vito’s Investigation and found out that these were
exactly what they were looking for.

The only cultural difference that I managed to observe during the negotiation was
Anatoli’s attitude in the first few minutes when the four met. His attitude seemed to say that
he is superior than us, and that he is somewhat indifferent to the fact that he is in the process
of negotiating. We had the idea of documenting beforehand about the attitude of the Greeks in
general and we read that Greeks tend to see themselves as quintessentially European, and this
is in large part due to their view that it was their cultural ancestors who laid the foundations
of European civilization. Yet, quite understandably, many Greeks are still fervently attached
to the very cultural features that differentiate them from other Europeans.
When interacting with people from different cultures, speaking in a neutral tone and
making a conscious effort to be considerate of others’ input, even if it is given in a manner to
which you are not accustomed, can help foster effective business communication. In this
negotiation, the male part was clearly the one that took the responsibility of finding a solution
to come to a win-win situation where both the parties are reaching their goals, by considering
the needs of others as well as theirs. The assertiveness in this situation was expressed by both
of the parties through listening the views of the others and responding appropriately,
expressing appreciation of others for what they have done (Anatoli and Ida expressly pointed
out how well the two rooms were made) and being open to new ideas in order to reach a win-
win sitiation.
The power was definitely on our side, as we realized immediately that the two Greeks
love the rooms from the moment they have played them and most certainly they want to buy
them. But we did not want to exercise this power to the full, because we were prepared to
lower the 1000 euros from the initial price anyway, which is why we decided to give them the
satisfaction of thinking they are in advantage.
The whole negotiation, both Anatoli and Iva, but also Andrei and Catalina used the
collaborative style. They have utilized their creativity to find solutions to both sides’ interests.
Even though the negotiation started more difficult because of Anatoli's attitude when we met,
Andrei was able to turn the wheel through a few jokes and stories that de-stressed the
situation. From that point on, the negotiation took place friendly and that's why both parties
decided to use the collaborative style for both to gain from this business.

Considering the industry we are talking about, the one of escape room games,
everyone present at the negotiation has a past based on a lot of creativity and artistic vision, so
it is needless to say that we are all extroverted people. Of course, there were some moments
of chaos in which everyone talked at the same time and the lack of a person to calm down the
spirits feels complete in some moments. But the spirits were not overwhelmed by a dispute,
but simply because the enthusiasm was too high at some point to reach the chaos I mentioned.
I really think that an introverted person would have felt a little bit overwhelmed by our
extroverted attitude and it would have made the discussion more difficult.

The female part of the negotiation has a harmonizer temperament, being aware of the
big picture and undertaking problems with a broad perspective, but without being able to
reach a conclusion. On the other hand, Anatoli and Andrei are both action seekers, very
hyperactive and adopting decisions based on attention to details.

The outcome was that both parts ended up satisfied. Anatoli and Ida managed to buy
the two rooms they wanted with 4000 euros instead of 5000 euros, while we managed to sell
the two rooms to them, but also advertise ourselves on the international market by not
changing the names of the rooms, thing that we wanted to achieve in the first place.