Business and Commercial Role-Play:

Alplaus Supply Company

$0.00$6.50

Duncan MacLaren

Two-party negotiation between a company field representative and a large corporate customer over a possible product return

Quantity

Please note: you must order a copy (a.k.a. license/usage fee) for every person participating in the simulation in your course. This simulation has multiple roles, so you will be unable to complete your purchase without meeting the minimum quantity requirement of copies per role.

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SCENARIO:

The senior field representative for Alplaus Supply Company is meeting with the General Manager of a company that prints and distributes many kinds of documents. The general manager recently bought a machine that performed simple folding and envelope-stuffing tasks. The machine was a good deal, but now the company is having some problems with it. The general manager wants to return the machine. The field representative knows that Alplaus has already gone over their returns budget for this month. This negotiation is based on The Blender by Bruce Patton.

MECHANICS:

This is a simple two party that may be done with teams or individually.

TEACHING MATERIALS:

Role Specific:

  • General Manager
  • Field Representative for Alplaus Supply Company

 

Teacher's Package:

  • All of the above

 

MAJOR LESSONS:

  • The scenario makes it easy to slip into a negative, reactive mode, with unsatisfactory outcomes usually resulting.
  • Those parties willing to consider the perceptions and interests of the other party relevant can usually engage effectively in mutually beneficial joint problem solving.
  • The perception of who is in power in this negotiation and how that affected the results of the negotiation can be explored by comparing different groups.
  • In this negotiation, unlike in The Blender, the two parties have a previous relationship, and may have one in the future. The values involved are also much larger.

 

SIMILAR SIMULATIONS:

 

Alplaus Supply Company Attributes

Time required: 30 minutes-1 hour
Number of participants: 2
Teams involved: No
Agent present: None
Neutral third party present: None
Scoreable: No
Teaching notes available: No
Non-English version available: German, Norwegian