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Press Release- "Negotiating Across Borders" Workshop

By Brian Edwards.
Harlingen, TX-October 2, 2003-Harlingen,TX.

The Harlingen Country Club at 5500 EL Camino in Harlingen will be the setting on Tuesday October 22nd for an important workshop aimed at local businessmen and women who regularly cross the international border to conduct business and find culture and language differences etc inhibitor delay proceedings.. The purpose will be to examine the strategic area of international business negotiation by focusing primarily on issues and differences facing businessmen and women in Mexico and Texas.

The workshop will be a business development process simulation that will address the complicated issues of business negotiation and examine how the differences in culture, language, and practices can unexpectedly unravel seemingly promising opportunities. The workshop has been limited to forty participants with twenty spaces reserved for each country (USA and Mexico). Breakfast, lunch and all workshop materials will be provided.

Dr Habib Chamoun-Nicolas, an authority in business negotiations will host the one-day workshop and will lead participants through the process of business negotiation between two different cultures, introducing new methods and mindsets that he has discovered over the years as a result of his research. This will include a series' of steps that include role-playing and learning Chamoun's four types of negotiation mindset exercises.

He explained that participants would learn tools such as profiling potential businesses, and importantly, their own competitors and will stress that being selective will allow them to concentrate their efforts on the most promising clients.

All attendees will have an opportunity to evaluate themselves using Chamoun's proven techniques that promote a mindset for business development. This will allow attendees to determine if their skills and knowledge base are sufficient enough to add value to the process. They will learn about Chamoun's "Four Types of Negotiation Mindset" that he developed that are customizable to suit most areas of business negotiation.

Dr Habib stresses the importance of developing skills in "business across borders" and will discuss the wide range of different mindsets between Mexico and the USA and the significance of understanding how different cultures view things differently. The differences in attitudes and business behavior, the pace of negotiation and even verbal and non verbal communication are all factors that have direct effects on negotiation proceedings and the fruits they bear.

He added that he will reveal to participants entirely new concepts of vigorous negotiation methods and how to continually develop them by using their own initiative. They will acquire the crucial ability to develop winning proposals that are capable of satisfying both parties in bicultural business affairs.

Dr Chamoun, who is a native of Mexico and author of the book Desarrollo De Negocios, examines business development from a traditional Mexican perspective and a USA business approach. It has enhanced the ability of thousands of Mexican business executives and helped them better understand business practices that are prevalent in the United States and how to incorporate them into their negotiating skills. The book, which is in its third edition, is scheduled to be released next year in an English version that will explore business negotiations from an American view point.

The workshop is the fruit of a combined effort by the South Texas Minority Business Opportunity Committee (MBOC) and the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce.