Sri Lankan Ambassador conducts an International Seminar on “Strategic Negotiations” at Hanoi Business School
Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Viet Nam, Prof. A Saj U. Mendis, was invited by the elite Hanoi Business School (HSB) of Viet Nam National University to deliver a special lecture on “International Strategic Negotiations” to senior faculty and graduate students of HSB in Hanoi. The select seminar on International Strategic Negotiations was attended by nearly 100 chosen graduate students and faculty members. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Mai Viet Dzung, Head of Science and Development Cooperation Department and a senior faculty of HSB.
In the opening remarks of Dr. Dzung, he stated that today negotiation skills, whether its bilateral, trilateral or multilateral or national or international have become an inherent and intrinsic attribute and skill for advancement, promotion, augmentation and marketability as well as value addition to any given entity or organization. Negotiations are an imperative skill not only for diplomats but also for corporate captains, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and political leaders in disciplines and trades ranging from finance & banking, manufacturing, services, education, shipping & aviation, government to IT & ITES, amongst others.
Ambassador Mendis, in his address on International Strategic Negotiations, highlighted and accentuated a myriad of negotiations including but not limited to Leverage Buy-Outs (LBOs), negotiations with unions, contract & sales negotiations, negotiations for remuneration, promotions and emoluments as well as negotiation process, strategies and techniques, amongst others. Prof. Mendis also cited and quoted numerous examples of internationally known and respected authorities on negotiations and the techniques and tactics employed and implemented by them in conducting highly productive and mutually beneficial negotiations, thus deriving and engendering highly favorable results and outcomes to their institutes, entities, corporates or nations respectively.
One of the key factors Prof Mendis enunciated to the faculty and students of HSB was to extend and invest the maximal possible amount of due diligence, effort and labor on research and analysis, before the commencement of any given negotiation. He further added that most, even season negotiators, tend to overlook this fact, which is seminally critical in negotiations. Prof Mendis also underscored and underlined a number of shortcomings, fallacies, flaws and miscalculations that people commit during negotiations including in some of the most critical and pivotal negotiations. He further added a list of techniques of how to recognize, distinguish and identify such flaws in order to avert them. The premise and thesis of the negotiation seminar of Prof Mendis was that “anything in the world could be negotiated as long as it is a product of negotiations”. In other words, anything which is being negotiated before reaching the final product, figure or outcome, can be negotiated. This could be attained by employing and executing the most pertinent and efficacious skill-sets, techniques and strategies.
After the seminar, the floor was opened for Q&A session and a number of participants broached and posed questions as well as coments to the speaker. Ambassador Prof. Mendis has specialized on corporate and strategic negotiations and earned his Ph.D. in International Economics from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and is a visiting faculty/guest lecturer/professor/examiner in a number of academic institutions and universities of repute in both Postgraduate and Ph.D. programs.
Ha Noi
26th January 2024
