Confidential information for PXWX
Your president has asked you to decide whether to immediately break with RekiMan and start court proceedings or, if it seems useful, explore whether there really was any theft of intellectual property. If not, you must explore continuation or expansion of business relations with RekiMan.
Demands/reserves
According to the president of PXWX, you should:
-
Try to continue current business activities with RekiMan, if you are comfortable that RekiMan did not steal your IP. You can agree to some kind of explanation or retraction of the claim you made in some medium or at some event, as long as it is not too expensive or too embarrassing for the president or company. For example, you would not hold a press conference involving TV. However, you are open to a variety of other actions.
-
Recover the stopped business relationship and contracts.
-
Restart business immediately. If you think RekiMan is likely to cancel the contract, you can offer a discount of up to 10% of the total contract value.
-
Agree to a slightly longer deadline (at least 10 more days, 20 would be better) to avoid cost and difficult production scheduling. If RekiMan really seems to need the current deadline (difficult!) or less than a 10 day extension, try to get them to share the cost of hiring more staff or of outsourcing some work to another company in Hangzhou, as it will require extra staff and overtime and the cost would be high.
-
Explore any new tasks or business activities that you could undertake with RekiMan.
Your Task
Assemble an appropriate team from PXWX (not including the president) to negotiate with RekiMan. First, determine if they stole PXWX ideas or not. If not, try to restart the business. Try to form a Win-Win (and beyond) agreement with RekiMan.
Table PXWX white snake storyboards
A giant white snake lived in the icy glacier at the top of a tall mountain.
1
|
The snake could freeze a person by breathing on him or her.
2
|
Many people tried to destroy the snake but they were not successful.
3
|
The snake captured the daughter of the village chief.
4
|
Finally, a single hero fought the snake.
5
|
He used a large amount of burning oil to destroy it.
6
|
He rescued the daughter and they got married and had lots of kids.
7
|
|
Table RekiMan storyboards (modern version)
A giant white snake lived in the mountains. Its home was a river that flowed down into the valleys.
1
|
When people first settled the area, the snake took the form of a tall woman.
2
|
The people tried to live in peace with the white snake, but they feared it.
3
|
Together, they fought against it
4
|
…and were successful when they set fire to the forest around its home
5
|
When it came out to avoid the fire,
6
|
a group of people shot it with arrows
7
|
Many people were killed, but the white snake was also killed.
8
|
The balance of nature was disturbed in that area for centuries.
9
|
Now people believe there is a new white snake, and they protect it carefully.
10
|
|
Confidential information for RekiMan
Your president has asked you to present enough evidence to PXWX to prevent them from starting court proceedings and to further explore the possibility of maintaining or expanding the relationship with PXWX.
Your storyboards are based on an obscure folk tale from Japan involving a giant white snake in the Yamashiro mountains. You can present an ancient version of this story that your storyboards approximately follow.
Demands/reserves
According to the president of RekiMan, you should seek:
-
A public apology regarding the statement in the Hangzhou Business Press and in other media. At the least, you want a written retraction of the claim in the Hangzhou Business Press. Best would be an article in the WBP and a statement on TV, as well as comments in other media.
-
Restart of business. The disruption of work has only been a little more than one week. Restart should begin right away with some kind of guarantee from PXWX that deadlines will be kept. Deadlines should not be extended more than 10 days.
-
To manage the deadlines, encourage PXWX to agree to hire more staff or subcontract some of the work to another company. If they subcontract, you are willing to pay up to one half of that cost. If PXWX wants, you are willing to send a staff member from your Hirakata office to help with the process. This individual speaks some Chinese and has recently completed an excellent MBA program in Kyoto!
-
If you are comfortable with the relationship, you can discuss new business activities with PXWX. These could include buying stories and ideas from PXWX, doing an adaptation of their White Snake for the Japan market, identifying suitable Japanese historical or folk content that PXWX might use in China, training or staff development projects, or almost anything else.
BATNA
Having been active in Hangzhou and at trade events in China for some years, you are very aware of other quality companies in Hangzhou and other locations in China that could provide the same services reliably for a reasonable (or possibly better price). Breaking your relationship with PXWX would cost you $1,200,000, in the short term for urgent replacement services plus about $100,000 to start and develop a new relationship with another company.
Your task
Assemble an appropriate team from RekiMan (not including your president) to negotiate with PXWX. First, try to convince them that you did not steal their ideas. If successful, try to restart the business. Try to form a Win-Win (and beyond) agreement with PXWX.
Table PXWX white snake storyboards
A giant white snake lived in the icy glacier at the top of a tall mountain.
1
|
The snake could freeze a person by breathing on him or her.
2
|
Many people tried to destroy the snake, but they were not successful.
3
|
The snake captured the daughter of the village chief.
4
|
Finally, a single hero fought the snake.
5
|
He used a large amount of burning oil to destroy it.
6
|
He rescued the daughter and they got married and had lots of kids.
7
|
|
Table RekiMan storyboards (modern version)
A giant white snake lived in the mountains. Its home was a river that flowed down into the valleys.
1
|
When people first settled the area, the snake took the form of a tall woman.
2
|
The people tried to live in peace with the white snake, but they feared it.
3
|
Together, they fought against it
4
|
…and were successful when they set fire to the forest around its home
5
|
When it came out to avoid the fire,
6
|
a group of people shot it with arrows
7
|
Many people were killed, but the white snake was also killed.
8
|
The balance of nature was disturbed in that area for centuries.
9
|
Now people believe there is a new white snake, and they protect it carefully.
10
|
Table RekiMan storyboards (ancient version, more than 1400 years old)
A giant white snake lived in the mountains. Its home was a river that flowed down into the valleys.
1
|
When people first settled the area, the snake took the form of a tall woman.
2
|
The people tried to live in peace with the white snake, but they could not.
3
|
Together, they fought against it
4
|
…and were successful when they set fire to the forest around its home.
5
|
When it came out to avoid the fire,
6
|
a group of people shot it with arrows.
7
|
|
|
Teaching notes
The initial problems, whether one company stole the other’s idea and whether they will work together, should be quickly solved. The issues regarding timing and cost are simple distributive matters with limited room for integrating. The parties, however, have to manage the apology without damaging the face of either company. Wise parties will convert this problematic issue into an opportunity for joint publicity, improved reputations, and new value.
Key education points include exchanging information, equitable claiming of value, maintaining a relationship, and creative exploitation of new value opportunities.
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