(NEWS) WMU Participates in The Negotiation Challenge

April

2013

WMU Participates in The Negotiation Challenge

Three WMU students recently participated in The Negotiation Challenge (TNC) hosted by ALBA Graduate Business School in Athens, Greece from 4-6 April. TNC is the first international negotiation competition in Europe and one of only a few international negotiation competitions in the world. The competition is intended to help prepare students for complex business negotiations they will face after graduation. All teams compete in four rounds. The final round takes place between the two best teams in front of an international jury composed of lawyers, business leaders, and professors.

Applications were submitted by 60 teams from universities around the world and WMU's team was chosen along with 17 others, representing 12 different countries, to compete in the event. The WMU team was coached by Associate Professor Ilias Visvikis (Greece) and was comprised of Oluseyi Samuel Osho (Nigeria), Kristijonas Valatka (Lithuania), and S M Sakhawat Mahmud (Bangladesh). Out of the eighteen teams participating, WMU placed eighth. The team stated the following about their experience:

“Participation in The Negotiation Challenge was a great experience for us. We negotiated every day, even though we sometimes were unconscious of this fact. Shipping business requires professional negotiation skills at all times, and at different levels. For example, how do we balance environment, sustainability and profit goals? Crew wages and welfare have to be negotiated to keep crew happy and motivated, whilst keeping profitability. Financing, Sales and Purchase, etc., all have to be negotiated. Moreover, in the difficult business environment of today, our negotiation skills will be called to play more and more.

In addition to the exposure of the WMU brand, we gained interaction with future colleagues and collaborators in area of law, management, banking and finance, academics, among others. The preparation and participation has developed our consciousness and professional negotiation skills and we are better equipped to face the challenges of the future in the shipping profession that we have chosen. We are grateful to WMU, our Professor Ilias Visvikis and our colleagues in SPM for their support and encouragement”.

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