The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate When Yes Is Not Enough.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Bookshelf - Brief article - Book review

The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate When Yes Is Not Enough. By Danny Ertel and Mark Gordon. Harvard Business School Press, 265 pages. $26.95

The Point of the Deal actually has a complementary message of sorts to Lee Miller's book above. Authors Ertel and Gordon, founding partners of Vantage Partners and experts on negotiation, argue that too often, negotiators work to close a deal at all costs, not looking past the signing ceremony to address the future of the partnership.

In that sense, the book echoes Miller's. It argues that, like the executive who fails to do the research needed to understand where the other person is coming from (and so fails to persuade), the short-term notion of just getting a signature on the merger document shouldn't be the final goal.

"If the parties haven't established an effective governance mechanism, put the tough issues on the table, paid attention to how they are going to work together, clarified their commitments to ensure that they are mutually understood and prepared to deal with inevitable surprises they will face, they are doomed to failure,"...