On an afternoon of 22nd October 2020; the marketing club came up with an idea to conduct an event to increase the negotiation skills of the batch of PGDM; a great initiative towards focusing on skill-sets that included patience, listening, right presence of mind, and being conscious about time. It was the first Inter-Club event that was conducted by the club, which proved out to be an afternoon well-spent. An afternoon, on a virtual platform; and we have to admire the coordination that was displayed by the members of the club starting from the management of the participants, and the negotiations held. The guidance of Dr.Lakshmi was reflective of the professionalism maintained by everyone. Seniors, from the batch, were invited to pass the judgment in the manner of how the negotiation was held by every team throughout the event. A timer of 15 minutes displayed on the screen helped teams be aware of the time constraint that was placed for the competing teams.
A team of 10 participants dealt with different situations or scenarios given to them on the spot, and an additional 2 minutes given for internal discussion within the team was done before the face-off between two teams of two, each.
One such situation mentioned was – An HR manager of a BPO firm in Bangalore. And night shifts in the firm include Cab services to female employees. And the company makes it a mandatory policy to choose the service providers carefully. Yet for three such female technical assistants, who have their residence far away from the office, face disagreements with the cab driver, because the person is not willing to go. The reason was since the residence was too far from the city, coming back to the city was difficult. The driver says that he would drop them at a certain employee’s destination and someone from the women’s home can come help with the rest of the commute. And since, during the admissions of the female employees, it was clearly mentioned that a cab service would be provided to drop and pick them up.
The negotiation was held between the cab driver, the HR Manager, and the team leader of their female technical assistants.
Every team that participated came up with a spontaneous and professional method of negotiating within the short-allotted time and they also exhibited oratorical skills with the right tone of voice.
The final winners of the event were announced the next day – Team Anshita Sharma and Kavya Varrier were declared as the winners. The first runner-ups were Team Sai Vamshi and Vaishnavi, which was followed by Team Srashti Saini as the 2nd runner-up.
The event was concluded with a formal vote of thanks and on a very joyous note.