From Tough Choices<\/em> (FYI: written in 2006, well before HRC\u2019s Hard Choices<\/em>), chronicling an experience as a rising manager at AT&T in her early 30s. \u00a0It\u2019s a long excerpt (and from the library copy, not just copy\/pasted from an electronic version) but interesting as a tidbit about Fiorina and for its own sake.<\/p>\n Our relationship with Italtel [a joint venture partner in Italy] and their parent, STET, had reached an impasse. \u00a0We were trying to negotiate a change in our respective ownership positions, and we were deadlocked. \u00a0Our day-to-day operating relationships were becoming frayed as a result, hurting our collective efforts in the marketplace. \u00a0I was asked to take over the negotiations. \u00a0I had lived in Italy and spoke Italian; what had been a lark then became an important asset.<\/p>\n I knew that Italians, like many people, place high value on protocol. \u00a0I was more junior than the executives I would be negotiating with, both in title and in age. \u00a0Although I certainly could have demanded that they travel to the United States, given our ownership position, it would have been disrespectful. \u00a0I would go to them, and they would set the agenda for how we would proceed through negotiations. \u00a0I asked them to send me their proposed agenda in advance of my trip so that I could be adequately prepared.<\/p>\n The agenda I received was meticulous in its allocation of time. \u00a0When we would start, when we would take a break and when we would conclude our discussions were all alid out for each of two days. \u00a0The food at each break and meal was detailed in a complete menu. \u00a0I knew in advance what we would be having at each coffee break, the wine we would be drinking at lunch and the sauce that would accompany the pasta. \u00a0Left out completely was the substance of what we would discuss \u00a0This same pattern would be repeated for six months. \u00a0I would ask for an agenda in advance, and I would receive a timetable and a complete menu \u2014 and nothing more. \u00a0At first \u00a0I thought Id failed to communicate. \u00a0Later I thought it was a negotiating tactic. \u00a0Finally, I came to understand that for these Italians, productive discussions required personal relationships. \u00a0Personal relationships took time to develop and were built while eating and drinking around a table together. \u00a0After quite a lot of time together, and a great deal of fabulous Italian food and wine, we had made substantial progress and had agreed upon a change in our ownership positions.<\/p>\n STET was the government entity that owned the Italian telephone companies as well as Italtel. \u00a0As such, our negotiations encompassed network services and systems issues. \u00a0From my perspective, this meant that both AT&T Long Lines and Network Systems had interests in these discussions, so I was representing both of them. \u00a0When I wasn\u2019t negotiating in Italy, I was negotiating in New Jersey, trying to find a solution that would satisfy all parties. \u00a0We had achieved this accord, but now an executive vice president from Long Lines decided to come to Rome to solidify his part of the deal we\u2019d reached.<\/p>\n His first mistake was to pick a date that was convenient for him because it occurred in the middle of an already planned visit to Europe \u00a0Unfortunately, it coincided with one of the many national holidays in Italy. \u00a0When our STET counterparts objected to the date, the EVP\u2019s staff sent word back that this was a crucial meeting and the only time possible. \u00a0The Italians canceled their holiday out of respect for this executive vice president \u2014 whom they had never met. \u00a0When he arrived, he brought with him some staff memebers he hadn\u2019t warned them about. \u00a0This was his second mistake.<\/p>\n We sat at a square table in a conference room. \u00a0The AT&T executive sat opposite the Italians. \u00a0He said STET was an important partner, and he appreciated the meeting. \u00a0I believe he sincerely meant it, but from the Italians\u2019 point of view, everything he did contradicted those words. \u00a0He read from a set of notes. \u00a0He rarely made eye contact. \u00a0He didn\u2019t engage in social chitchat. \u00a0He talked a great deal about the purpose of his broader trip and the relationships he was crafting with other partners. \u00a0When an hour had passed, he indicated that the meeting was over. \u00a0He said he had no time to join his STET counterpart out on the terrace to enjoy the view of Rome and the Vatican along with a glass of wine. \u00a0And this last mistake only added to the disastrous nature of the meeting he had just conducted. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t the substance of what he\u2019d said that was the problem. \u00a0It was how he\u2019d said it, how he\u2019d behaved, and how he\u2019d treated them.<\/p>\n When the executive and his entourage had departed, the Italians exploded. \u00a0I had never seen them angry like this before. \u00a0I tried in vain to calm them down and focus them on the substance of his words, but they were insulted in the extreme. \u00a0All the progress we had worked so hard to achieve vanished. \u00a0They declared that they could not do business with a company that behaved int his way, and they would have to \u201creconsider\u201d our agreements. \u00a0We spent many more months trying to regain lost ground; but it was never the same again, and the agreement we\u2019d had eluded us. \u00a0The agreement we eventually achieved was less advantageous to AT&T, and we\u2019d lost a lot of time. \u00a0(p. 94 \u2013 95)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, I\u2019ve read before that in Asia (e.g., Japan, Korea) personal relationships are key, but when I shared this story with my husband, he said that in his experience (and he\u2019s gaining a lot of experience lately in global business) it\u2019s the U.S. that\u2019s the outlier, not Asia.<\/p>\n What do you think?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Tough Choices (FYI: written in 2006, well before HRC\u2019s Hard Choices), chronicling an experience as a rising manager at AT&T in her early 30s. \u00a0It\u2019s a long excerpt (and from the library copy, not just copy\/pasted from an electronic version) but interesting as a tidbit about Fiorina and for its own sake. Our relationship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n