Students of the Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Silesia took second place in the World Negotiation Championship, which took place in the Netherlands in early April. They even defeated Harvard representatives in the competition! The best negotiators included: Aleksander Łabuć, Dominik Zdebik, Paweł Urzenitzok and Bartosz Dominikowski. For the first time in a decade, a team from Poland was on the podium of this competition.
photo: Ministry of Science and Higher Education
The World Negotiation Championship was held on April 5 and 6 in the Netherlands. This is the oldest and most prestigious competition of this type. Each edition gathers thousands of young people who can test their negotiation skills in practice by confronting the best strategists from around the world.
The Polish team was represented by: Paweł Urzenitzok and Dominik Zdebik from the University of Silesia, as well as Aleksander Łabuć from the Warsaw School of Economics. The competitors were prepared for the competition by Bartosz Dominikowski, a graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics.
Polish students advanced to the finals after several qualifying rounds. During the competition, they negotiated, among others: with the team from Georgetown University and Eindhoven University of Technology. 66 of the best universities from around the world took part in the final competition. They included, among others: Harvard Business School, Columbia Law School, Princeton University, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and HEC Paris.
Participants had to demonstrate above-average ability to conduct strategic conversations. Their skills were assessed in terms of the terms of the negotiated contract, the impact of negotiations on the relationship with negotiating partners and experts' opinions on the way of conducting negotiations. The jury's assessment included an analysis of the negotiation techniques used and the effectiveness of their use by the teams.
The competition finalists conducted negotiations regarding, among others: exporting a Swiss product to new markets along with optimizing its production costs. They also discussed the details of conducting promotional campaigns to increase the effectiveness of the product sold in the Dutch store chain. In the final round, they faced a task involving the analysis of key stages of artificial intelligence development.
As part of the event, Polish students also had a unique opportunity to participate in specialized workshops on negotiation techniques and in training conducted by Gary Noesner, head of crisis negotiations at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The world vice-champions do not hide their pride in the title they have won. – Hard work, many hours of training and countless number of negotiation books read paid off. As a Pole, it was a great pride for me to win the statuette of the World Vice Champions of Negotiations. All this brought results. Our negotiation journey began a few years ago. I hope that our success will also be an inspiration for others, emphasizes Paweł Urzenitzok from the University of Silesia.
– The whole tournament was an excellent experience. I hope that we will constantly deepen this knowledge and contribute to the development of negotiation skills among students and professionals in Poland - adds Aleksander Łabuć from SGH.
source: Ministry of Science and Higher Education
Kommentare