Quitting social media isn't easy because as long as you are connected to the internet, the internet will find a way to ensnare you in some form or another.Okay, there are 30,000 hours of newly uploaded content per hour on YouTube. That’s almost 3½ years worth of video added to the bottomless internet pit every hour. This literally means that you will never, ever, catch up with how much content there is out there. And that’s just YouTube alone.

Can't Let Go Of Social Media

The trick here is not to squeeze in more in the hours of the day (it’s not possible anyway), but to work with “what I want”.We can’t change the number of hours in the day, nobody can. The only thing we can change is how much time we sleep, and other things we do on a daily basis. So we need to really ask ourselves, are we willing to give up sleep, work, and connecting with people, to consume that much more content to catch up with all this stuff that is put out into the world? Probably not. So the only thing that we can change is choosing what we want to consume.

Making Peace with Infinity

The first step is to acknowledge that you can never finish watching every video, TV show, or movie you want in the world. You can never finish reading every book you want. You can never finish scrolling through every page on Reddit. There’s just too much and you have to accept that there are just some things in this world that you are going to miss out on.And that’s okay.

Step 1: Give up Wanting It All

The second step is to have priorities to what you consume. This is to be conscious of what you really want to consume, and not just because it’s there. It’s very tempting to let the YouTube recommended videos or autoplay decide for you what to watch next. But if what’s there is not the priority of what you want to consume, don’t do it.

Step 2: Discern the Priorities

<ul><li>The pages of Instagram and Facebook are an endless scroll, they are always there, and there is always more.</li><li>You have to set self-imposed content and time limits. Decide that you will watch just one episode, or will scroll for only 10 minutes.</li><li>Even if you exceed these guidelines occasionally, it is good to have them.</li></ul>

Step 3: Setting up limits

We can’t expect ourselves to be able to resist triggers if we don’t train our nervous system to handle these triggers.These triggers could just be as simple as the tempting infinite scroll, or the eye-catching thumbnail of a YouTube video. The ones that trigger your dopamine response to want to consume and satisfy the curiosity that has been planted in you.Meditation at the start of your day can help inject some calm throughout your day and make you less jittery.

Step 4: Training Your Nervous System

Like it or not, “content” is here to stay. As long as we progress technologically in this information age, where content is king, we have to live with it. Even this stash, it's content.So our duty to ourselves is to find the content that energizes us, content that we choose to consume, so we don’t fall into the infinity of the internet. We have to make peace with how we will never experience all that is out there, and that’s okay.

Content Is Here To Stay

You will always miss out on social media. Relax.

Over the course of the months, I have been anxious, distracted, and cluttered with a megaton of brainfog. You know, the feeling where you feel like you are moving through life with a thick veil that…

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Marketing & Sales

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Leadership & Management

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Society, Arts & Culture

In many life situations, including in the workplace, feelings of frustration and anger can surface. The desire to avoid confrontation and stifle these emotions is a common response. However, when those strong feelings are left unaddressed, they can manifest as passive-aggressive communication. These subtle but snide comments can slip through inadvertently and, over time, create more animosity within teams and professional relationships.

Being Passive-Aggressive

Passive-aggressive behaviour surfaces in different ways. It is sometimes used with the intent of secretly getting back at the person or group on the receiving end; other times, the passive aggression is not deliberate. It might present through body language, like eye-rolling, exaggerated sighs, or through written remarks. A person’s tone while making a passive-aggressive comment verbally can amplify a passive-aggressive statement, and in writing it can be difficult for the person on the receiving end to know the tone that’s being used, leaving it up to interpretation.

Passive-Aggressive Communication

There are <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/passive-aggressive-diaries/201403/7-reasons-why-people-use-passive-aggressive-behavior">many reasons</a> people communicate passive-aggressively. This type of behaviour can arise when someone doesn’t feel comfortable or capable of expressing their feelings in an open, honest, straightforward manner. Some people struggle to communicate clearly and directly or don’t feel equipped to articulate their feelings—or equipped to articulate them without blowing up.

Underlying Reasons for Passive-Aggressive Communication

Passive-aggressive behaviour can be intensely frustrating for the targeted person or people because it’s hard to identify, difficult to prove, and may even be unintentional. Passive aggression can lead to more conflict and mistrust because it prevents people from having a direct and honest conversation about the problem at hand.

The Effect On Others

Some passive-aggressive comments are so subtle that you might not realize they can be received as passive-aggression. Below are a few widely used passive-aggressive communication examples, including ways to reword to avoid misunderstanding.Per my last emailUse this instead: I’m following up on my previous email regarding . . .This phrasing is effective if you’ve sent the recipient a message asking for something, but they haven’t given a timely response. The alternative statement names specifically what you’re referring to without forcing the recipient to guess.

Five Common Phrases That Sound Passive-Aggressive: 'Per My Last Email'

Use this instead: What do you think about trying XYZ instead?“For future reference . . .” assumes that the recipient is a) aware of the reference you’re making and b) that your approach or insight is the only correct course of action. Asking for their thoughts about different ways to approach a situation in the future softens an accusatory, passive-aggressive tone.

'For Future Reference'

Use this instead: I don’t feel good about this. Can we talk about it in person?These words are contradictory, indicating that it’s both OK and that you’re dismissing it at the same time. A statement that’s both assertive (“I don’t feel . . . ”) and emotionally honest reduces the friction in a difficult workplace conversation. Additionally, speaking face-to-face can minimize misunderstandings about tone and illuminate other communication cues, like body language.

'Fine. Whatever.'

Use this instead: I’m excited to work together to find the best solution.Bringing in a manager should not be the first resort for working out conflict. This alternative signals that you’re willing to problem-solve with your coworker, and it promotes team cooperation. It’s also a nondefensive option that avoids bringing in leadership to referee an issue.

I’ve Copied [Boss] On This Email

Use this instead: I can clarify. Which part is confusing?Although a report or situation might be clear for you, not everyone will comprehend it the way you do. This alternative statement is effective because it doesn’t undermine the other person’s intelligence; instead, it communicates a willingness to understand where they’re getting stuck.

'It’s Not That Complicated'

While the above section highlights common instances of passive-aggressive communication, catching passive-aggressive language in all of your emails or internal memos can be challenging. One way to vet your communication is by asking yourself two questions: “How would I feel if I were on the receiving end of this message?” And, “Is this message helpful?” If the answers are “bad, hurt, or annoyed” and “no or not really,” then consider reframing your communication with more neutral language or offering guidance instead of a criticism or a brush-off.

How to Soften Passive-Aggressive Communication

Leaning on passive-aggressive language in professional communication might feel like a safe way to circumvent potential conflict with a coworker. However, hiding feelings of anger and frustration can grow into bigger conflicts in the workplace. Consider giving your messages a close read to make sure you’re being professional and helpful.

The Bottom Line

Each word you say or write provides a glimpse of what you think and feel.

Passive-aggressive communication can show up at work and affect your relationships with colleagues. Learn how to stop it and reframe it constructively.

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Personal Development

communication

Communication

How to Reframe Passive-Aggressive Communication

Social scientists are finding users are not just editing settings on social media. Users, especially women, are editing their bodies and faces. And this practice has led to a new standard of beauty.Problematically, social scientists say this standard of beauty is nearly impossible to obtain. Some people have turned to cosmetic surgery to get the results they want. Others are grappling with anxiety or eating disorders. Researchers say it’s a growing issue impacting young people worldwide.

Fake Famous

"Slim thick" is the new body ideal. Celebrities Kim Kardashian and Nikki Minaj represent this standard — slender face and arms, large breasts, flat stomach, ample hips and a "beach-ball" butt.Only a small percentage of women’s bodies are going to be able to achieve this with the targeted workouts. In the absence of being able to achieve this, women all over the world are getting plastic surgery.

Women's 2022 Body Shape Goal

Social media now provides users with a steady stream of images that are edited to fit with the new slim thick ideal. We’re constantly staring at our phones and looking at these images and it creates a normalizing effect. It’s constant comparison, mostly of the bad kind.There are multiple types of comparison. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X20300464">Upward comparison</a> occurs when a person looks at images of a person they perceive as being better than themselves. Not surprisingly, studies have found that engaging in upward comparison has a negative impact on a person’s well-being.

Hyper Comparison

Another type of comparison occurs when the social media user compares their online, edited self to their real-life body. Online editing software has evolved beyond removing red-eye or whitening teeth. Users can now make their bodies look thinner, plump lips, or remove acne.The editing tools are limitless and allow you to morph your features in any way you want.Social media has changed both expectations for the ideal body type and which facial features are now considered ideal. This new ideal includes slanted, cat-like eyes, slender noses, high cheekbones and full lips.

Our Real Self Vs The Online Image

The face we show online is the pulling of features for the exoticization of beauty.Social media users can use editing tools to achieve the look in pictures. The person might be satisfied with the photo, but that sense of self-contentedness doesn’t continue when they look in the mirror.

That Online Face You Create Does Not Exist In Real Life

Studies are seeing a connection between the editing tools and plastic surgery, a trend practitioners call “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8823563/">Snapchat dysmorphia.”</a> One study of plastic surgery patients found social media users who edit their photos were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8485851/">more likely to seek cosmetic enhancement</a>. Similarly, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/asj/article/41/3/NP101/5802785?login=true">in a 2020 study</a> in Aesthetic Surgery Journal, one-third of surveyed cosmetic enhancement patients said they used editing tools. Half of the respondents said social media influenced their decision to seek cosmetic surgery or fillers.

Snapchat Dysmorphia

Beauty standards have always been set out of reach of the average person.The problem is that editing software now gives people a new vision of themselves at a time when beauty standards have morphed into an impossible idea.

Impossible Beauty Standards

Studies are seeing connections between social media editing tools and plastic surgery.  

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

How Is Social Media Morphing Our Self-Image?

For a company created in 2017, ClickUp has enjoyed remarkable success in the project management space — one of the most competitive software markets in the world.Let’s look at the numbers.<ul><li>Over 4 million users</li><li>85K paying customers</li><li>$4B valuation for a private company</li><li>$20M ARR within two years while bootstrapped</li></ul>How did ClickUp achieve this? By following these strategies:<ul><li>Achieves natural product fit.</li><li>Executes a product-lead content strategy.</li><li>Drives brand awareness through social media and videos.</li><li>Uses feedback to create a better product.</li><li>Handles shipping new features and bug fixes.</li></ul>

ClickUp: The Numbers

The first step to achieving product-market fit is to find out who you want to serve with your product. ClickUp seems to have found its ideal target customer early on, considering that the tool was created in the first place to help the founder’s team internally manage their responsibilities and projects.So ClickUp’s target customer was really anyone who wanted to be more productive or efficient at managing their project — literally anyone.

Finding Natural Product-Market Fit: Determine Your Target Customer

After identifying your target customer, the next step is to uncover the unmet or unsatisfied needs of said customer.In 2017, the project management space was already overflowing with tools, but most of them did only one thing really well, making people have to use different tools for their needs.ClickUp was created to eliminate the pain of managing different tools and save even more time.

Identify Customer Needs that Current Products Don’t Satisfy

How do you make your audience see that you offer a new solution in the market? First, create and define your value proposition.Your value proposition is expected to set you apart from your competitors and highlight your product’s benefits.For ClickUp, their value proposition was simple — one app to replace them all and help you save one day every week. Simple, yet efficient.

Define Your Value Proposition

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the barest or most basic version of a new product used to test the market and gain the attention of potential customers.The idea at this stage is to collect enough feedback from your target audience to understand your product’s strengths and weaknesses to improve it or double down on what works.

Specify Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Feature Set

Once you’ve decided on your MVP’s feature set, it’s now time to create a prototype. The prototype helps you picture how you expect people to use the features you just created. And it is primarily used to access design flaws in your product’s usability.It is also what brings the MVP feature set to life and presents a way for people to test your product.

Develop Your MVP Prototype

The final step to achieving product-market fit is to test your MVP with real customers. These customers typically leave feedback concerning the user experience, messaging, and functionality of the tool.But how did ClickUp find its first customers to help complete the final step to achieving a natural product-market fit?The answer: Through organic content and word of mouth.

Test your MVP with Customers

Every month, over 767K people find ClickUp through organic search. A significant percentage comes from specific long-tail terms people are looking for. And these long-tail keywords usually get thousands of searches every month.ClickUp has other articles that target and rank for long-tail keywords like:<ul><li>Free management software</li><li>Free Gantt chart</li><li>Project management tools</li><li>How to create a timesheet in Excel</li><li>Agile project management certification</li><li>And many others closely related to project management.</li></ul>

How ClickUp Attracts Users Through Long-tail Keywords

Since the landing page is tailored to a Team Manager's specific needs, they’ll immediately feel like ClickUp is the tool for them. That’s the power use-case-driven content holds.Although the template page and landing pages aren’t performing so well in terms of organic traffic (yet), they still target long-tail keywords that ClickUp knows its audience would be searching online. And it’s only a matter of time before they start attracting a lot more potential users.

Tailored For Team Management Projects

Product-led content isn’t just another buzzword that founders and marketers throw around to make themselves sound smart. On the contrary, it’s a proven method to create content that quickly differentiates you from the competition and highlights your unique value to existing and potential customers.If you’re not already familiar with the term, product-led content is any piece of content created to address the pain points of an audience while showing how a product (typically your product) solves the audience’s problems.

Solving Audience Problems Through Product-Led Content

We’ve already established that ClickUp is in a tough industry with many competitors fighting for some share in the same market. People want to know how ClickUp and other project management tools compare to each other.It’s evident that the people performing these searches are way past the awareness stage of their buyers’ journey. Instead, they’re at the consideration or decision stage, and that’s why they’re searching with a commercial or investigation intent.To match their audience’s search intent, ClickUp created comparison pages.

Building Competitor Comparison Pages

Now that ClickUp had achieved a natural product-market fit thanks to its organic users, it was only a matter of time before they started advertising the living daylights out of their tool. After all, they’re in a competitive landscape.Aside from the search engine ads we just covered, ClickUp also uses social media to reach a wider audience.

Driving Growth Through Paid Efforts and Social Media

<ul><li>They create behind-the-scenes content around how business is done at ClickUp. This, in a way, helps the company become more relatable to its audience.</li><li>They show off their employees. Doing so helps people see ClickUp as a company that values its employees and helps them take a peek at the company’s culture.</li><li>They share inspirational content. People love to be inspired, and who better to inspire people than a company that makes productivity tools?</li></ul>

How ClickUp Utilizes Instagram

Ears that do not listen to advice accompany the head when it is chopped off.

ClickUp undoubtedly had some ground to cover considering when they entered the market, and they covered said ground by shipping new features and fixing bugs as fast as possible.In fact, for more than two years now, ClickUp has shipped a new product release every Friday. As expected, these launches are not always perfect, but as Zeb puts it, “what matters most is progress over perfection.”

First-Movers Advantage and Why You Should Ship as Fast as Possible

For ClickUp, the product-market fit was what mattered the most. Achieving this first allowed them to knock every other thing they did out of the park.And it’s safe to say that their method works, considering how far they’ve come in a really tough space.

For a company created in 2017, ClickUp has enjoyed remarkable success in the project management space — one of the most competitive software markets in the world. Let’s look at the numbers. Over 4 million users 85K paying customers $4B valuation for a private company $20M ARR within two years while bootstrapped Here’s what ClickUp’s

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Business

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Startups

An Inside Look Into How ClickUp Went From $0-$20M ARR in Two Years

Lenny Rachitsky, a popular PdM on Twitter, asked 25 VCs for growth rates. His findings: <ul><li>In the early stages, investors don’t care about month-over-month growth. MoM starts to matter when revenue nears $1M ARR.</li><li>Good revenue growth is 15-25% MoM</li><li>For B2B it is considered good to get to $500k in ARR 6mo after going live.</li><li>Revenue can be overlooked if there is strong retention or engagement.</li><li>Consumer businesses have to show retention more than revenue. "Over 50% DAU/MAU or 50% D30 retention is excellent."</li></ul>

Good to Great Growth Rates

What great growth looks like in the eyes of the VCs

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Product & Design

Lenny Rachitsky on Good/Great Growth

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Brand names influence all aspects of culture, society and daily life.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Branding has local and global power.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Personalities, products and services are branded.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Personal and social identities are shaped by consumerism.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">In branding, the values of the brand are attached to the product.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">A brand encompasses all of the associations the name has for consumers.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Brand value is established over time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Brand value depends upon successful nurturing of the relationship between the brand’s producer and consumer via investment, advertising and marketing.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">People now live in a brandscape, surrounded by images of brands.</li></ul>

Brandscape! - Key Takeaways

Brand names consume your visual world and affect your daily life with an undeniable power to influence tastes, preferences, ideas and behaviour. Provocative debates continue regarding the global power of the proliferation of branding, including the branding of personalities.How are brand identities constructed? How are goods designed to reflect or reinforce their brand message? How do different cultures and communities respond to so-called global brands such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola?

Branding

Critics, historians, sociologists, designers and businesspeople weigh in with studies, observations, reports and commentary that show the pervasive influence branding - and consumer reaction to it - has on your personal, social, cultural and political landscape.Corporations are now more than ever involved in the manipulation and control of image, over and above the production of ’real’ things.

Influence Through Image Control

Branding is the process of attaching a name and a reputation to something or someone, like a person.The most recognizable feature of a brand is a name, logo, symbol or trademark that denotes a product’s origin. A person, corporation or institution will own the rights to a brand name that is used as a way of distinguishing one product or service from all others. In branding, the values of the brand are attached to the product, both physically and by suggestion.

In Goods We Trust

But a brand is far more than a name or product. The brand also encompasses all of the associations that the name has for consumers. The brand image or brand value results from the so-called dialogue that takes place between producer or brand owner and the consumer or user.A brand’s strength rests upon a close correlation between the image the brand creates and the consumer’s reception of that message.For example, a brand that promotes itself as being inexpensive might be interpreted as being of poor quality instead, if the message is mismanaged.

The Nature Of Image Creation

A brand can be the name of a company or product owner and of a particular product or product range. A family of branded products, owned by the same company, may share certain features of their brand image, while each product still has a distinct market character. Yet, despite that individual character, each brand depends upon the image of the parent brand.

All In The Family

<ul><li>Brands are like chess pieces - the moves we make with them are an indication of our relationship with others.</li><li>The single most important role for brands within an organization is their ability to spawn loyalty; this is akin to a long-term relationship between brand and consumer.</li><li>The most recognizable brands tend to maintain their position by establishing loyalty and ubiquity, by becoming the market standard.</li></ul>

Becoming The Market Standard By Ubiquity

Brand value is established over time and is the product of a company’s successful nurturing of its relationship with the brand’s consumers. Branding requires investment, marketing and corporate tending. The most recognizable brands maintain their positions by establishing loyalty and by becoming the market standard.

The Value Of The Brand

Brands and their histories are often intertwined and mythologized to create a brand image.<ul><li>For example, Coca-Cola and Levi’s both exemplify the ideal of American individualism.</li><li>Levi’s has successfully used the image of the American cowboy or rock’n’roll hero in generations of advertising and marketing.</li></ul>However successful a brand image might be, significant social and even political shifts can result in a loss of popularity. For brands that trade on heritage or national identity, for example, attempts to reposition them can be dangerous.

The Fragility

Among all the promises that brands make to consumers, the ’signature’ of the designer is seen as a particular mark of distinction.A number of familiar companies have promoted themselves as "the brands that built America." The mid-20th century growth of national networks for distributing U.S. goods and the increasing regulation of products combined to create the climate in which brands could flourish. In an increasingly mobile society, the familiarity of branded goods quickly became an important selling point.

The Power Of Identity

Brands are now so much a part of the environment that they can go almost unnoticed. Because of their proliferation, you rarely question their nature and function. They are simply present, a part of life. This is a powerful testament to the power and prevalence of branding. If you want more evidence of branding’s power, consider the fact that every kind of individual and group imaginable adopted the methods and language of brands to describe themselves and their activities.

We Live In Brandscapes

Celebrities from sports stars to opera singers are routinely packaged and managed as brands. Political parties and even politicians talk of being "re-branded." People even give brands to other people and to things in their daily personal lives. Consider a woman who chooses to date a man because she sees him as a real "Armani man," or a "Marlboro Man," or the man who would rather evoke the image of Armani or Marlboro than not.

People Are Brands

So strong is brand psychology that if Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive. But, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business, or would become just one more faceless competitor in a crowded field.

Forgetting Coke!

The primary reason why brands exist is economic. Brand names and other trademarks are still used to identify a supplier’s products or services, distinguishing them from those of its competitors. This, at the very least, makes life simpler and less risky for the consumer.

The Basic Utility Of Brands

Brand images can take many forms. McDonald’s main brand image is simply its restaurants and their food. A successful advertising campaign can add images to the brand’s image by featuring them in commercials and ads. The values of those images are then equated in the consumer’s mind with McDonald’s. In this way, global products cultivate specific local images designed to appeal to various demographic groups and cultures.

A Homely Image

Counterfeits are inferior products that illegally use another company’s well-established logo, packaging and reputation to try to fool consumers into believing their product is the real brand. Many people knowingly buy counterfeits, also called fakes or knock-offs.Supply and demand keep this market alive, but why do people buy counterfeits? Sometimes they believe the product is the real thing. But even when they know it’s a fake, people love to think that they’re getting a bargain - the status of having a brand name at a fraction of the price.

Counterfeits

Brands have an impact on people, but people can also have an impact on brands. When people chose not to buy a product, enter a store or read an ad, they are still responding to the marketing efforts of organizations, in this case, by rejecting them.People really have more than two choices - to consume or not to consume. People who want to try to "reverse the classic causality of consumption" can engage in consumer proactivity, which questions the traditional assumptions about consumption.

The Choice Is Yours

Consumer passivity is transforming into greater degrees of consumer proactivity, creating a new dynamic that companies are trying to figure out how to handle. In this way, consumers exert a power that has been dormant except in isolated instances of boycotting, which is only one tool in the arsenal of consumer proactivity. The power of this new message comes from the power of the brand and the ad’s transformation. While the ad was designed to have an impact on people, now a person has had an impact on the ad.

Busting The Ads: Consumer Proactivity

The influence of brands is all around us. This is an in-depth look at Brands and what they do.

Published to coincide with a major V&A exhibition, brand.new takes a challenging look at consumer culture and the proliferation of brand identities at the beginning of the 21st century. The idea of brand is central to contemporary society. Businesses, personalities, political parties and even nations 're-brand' themselves in order to influence public opinion. With the emergence of e-commerce, the status and value of well-established brands - many of which have been with us for a century or more - may well be challenged by a host of new brands. Today's brands promote themselves as more than just a logo, a slogan or a distinctive package, they promise to deliver a host of emotional benefits too. But what do we really think of the brands we buy? Ranging across fashion, design and media, brand.new sets out provocative and entertaining debates about branding and consuming habits. Essential reading for students, observers of modern culture, those with an interest in advertising, product design and fashion - and anyone who shops

books

Books

Published to coincide with a major V&A exhibition, brand.new takes a challenging look at consumer culture and the proliferation of brand identities at the beginning of the 21st century. The idea of brand is central to contemporary society. Businesses, personalities, political parties and even nations 're-brand' themselves in order to influence public opinion. With the emergence of e-commerce, the status and value of well-established brands - many of which have been with us for a century or more - may well be challenged by a host of new brands. Today's brands promote themselves as more than just a logo, a slogan or a distinctive package, they promise to deliver a host of emotional benefits too. But what do we really think of the brands we buy? Ranging across fashion, design and media, brand.new sets out provocative and entertaining debates about branding and consuming habits. Essential reading for students, observers of modern culture, those with an interest in advertising, product design and fashion - and anyone who shops

Jane Pavitt

Brand.new

<ul><li>Use anchoring and your understanding of the zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) to decide when to make a first offer during a negotiation.</li><li>Auction, when you have a large number of potential buyers, the asset for sale is well specified, or speed and process transparency are important.</li><li>Negotiate when bidders are well known, when the potential for value creation is high, when the working relationship is important, or when the seller has a low-risk tolerance.</li><li>Use setup moves, rearranging moves, and shut-down moves to change the game to your advantage.</li></ul>

Dealmaking: Key Takeaways

<ul><li>Negotiauctions is a dealmaking situation in which competitive pressure is coming from both across-the-table competition and same-side-of-the-table competition.</li><li>Negotiauctions are common in complex dealmaking situations.</li><li>The difference between a negotiation, auction, and negotiauction is the source of competitive pressure.</li><li>You need to think multiple steps ahead.</li></ul>Remember that individuals negotiate deals. It’s critical to understand the incentives of the individuals who are doing the negotiating.

Negotiauctions

<ul><li>Several (but not too many) potential buyers. Usually between three and ten.</li><li>Asymmetric information. The seller typically knows more about the structure of the situation than the buyers.</li><li>Ambiguity around traditional process setter and process taker roles. The process itself is up for grabs. Roles are highly malleable and control over the deal process can shift over time.</li><li>One or more rounds of bidding and other forms of direct competition among potential buyers in ways that resemble auctions.</li></ul>

Common Features of Negotiauctions

<ul><li>Anchoring works by influencing your perceptions of where the zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) lies.</li><li>Anchoring is a reason for making the first offer, because you can potentially influence the other party.</li><li>But it only works when the other side is uncertain about where the ZOPA is.</li></ul>

Anchoring

Anchoring too aggressively. If you make a first offer way outside of the ZOPA, you may have to make large concessions to reach a deal or walk away even though a zone of possible agreement exists.Anchoring too conservatively. You unknowingly give away a big chunk of the ZOPA on your first move.Use the midpoint rule to your advantage in the first offer itself. Think about where you want to end up and start with a counteroffer that gets you to that number as a midpoint.

Risks of Making the First Offer

<ul><li>Consider making the first offer when you have a pretty good sense of where the ZOPA is in order to anchor the negotiation in your favour.</li><li>If you don’t know the ZOPA, hang back and let the other side make the first offer, or make a soft anchor, e.g. “We’re thinking about something in the ballpark of $30.”</li><li>When you don’t know the ZOPA, but your opponent does, resist their attempt to anchor you.</li><li>Default to a first offer that is more aggressive than your instincts might lead you to make.</li></ul> Ask: What is the highest number that I can justify?

First Offer Guidelines

Differences in expectations about the future often create value in negotiations.Contingency contracts have three major benefits:<ul><li>They align incentives.</li><li>They allow the parties to diagnose the honesty of the other side.</li><li>They enable the parties to share the risk.</li></ul>

Value-Creating Moves

An auction is a mechanism in which the seller is a passive participant after the process has been set, and the primary source of competitive pressure arises from competition among buyers.Negotiation is a mechanism in which the primary source of competitive pressure arises in across-the-table dynamics between buyer and seller.

When to Auction, When to Negotiate

Consider the following:<ul><li>The number of bidders.</li><li>Certainty about who the bidders are.</li><li>Buyers’ incentives to participate.</li><li>Distribution of valuations.</li></ul>

Factors To Consider: Profile of Potential Bidders

<ul><li>All else equal, the more you are able to specify what you want, the more likely it is that an auction will be a better option than a negotiation.</li><li>Buying commodities is a good example of an appropriate thing to auction.</li><li>Even clearly defined services can be auctioned like commodities effectively. But you risk losing out on potential win-wins that might have come up during a negotiation.</li></ul>

Factors To Consider: Asset Characteristics and Specifications

<ul><li>Auctions boil everything down to price.</li><li>Negotiations open things up for value-creation.</li><li>If there is a possibility for win-win moves, it is better to negotiate with one or more potential counterparties than to hold an auction.</li></ul>

Potential for Value Creation

<ul><li>Negotiations are best when relationships, service, and/or deal execution are important aspects of what is being bought or sold.</li><li>Negotiations leave room for a more favourable resolution of potential problems down the road.</li><li>Auctions signal that the buyer is indifferent among suppliers, other than the price received.</li></ul>

Importance of Relationship

<ul><li>Auctions are a much faster process than negotiations.</li><li>If there is a specific window of opportunity to sell, or the asset is deteriorating as time passes, auctions are preferable.</li><li>Auctions are faster and riskier. They sometimes “bust,” in which nobody shows up; or, even worse, only one bidder shows up.</li><li>Negotiations are safer bets. They allow you to test the water as you make your way to a better outcome.</li></ul>

Factors To Consider: Seller Profile

<ul><li>Broad-based processes like auctions are difficult to keep secret.</li><li>Negotiations are much more private.</li><li>A frequent concern during M&A deals is to broaden the search process in the sale of a company for fear that the employees will find out, start looking for new jobs, and the value of the company drops.</li><li>Transparency: The appearance of a level playing field among bidders.</li><li>Auctions are a more transparent process than private negotiations.</li></ul>

Factors To Consider: Contextual Factors

Open outcry auction: Bidders know the high bid at all times, and have the option of beating it.Sealed bid auction: Bidders submit written bids and do not know what others bid, or (often) how many bidders there are before the winner is revealed.There are four factors to consider here:<ul><li>The number of potential bidders.</li><li>The degree to which bidders’ valuations are “affiliated”.</li><li>The degree of bidder risk aversion.</li><li>The need to deter collusion among bidders.</li></ul>

Open Outcry Vs Sealed Bid

<ul><li>The minimum number of initial bidders in an open-outcry auction is five or six</li><li>Less than five bidders and better to conduct a sealed auction where a lack of transparency means bidders may bid against themselves.</li><li>A sealed bid auction can create the perception of competition even when there isn’t.</li></ul>

Number of Potential Bidders

Winner’s curse: The feeling that you overpaid simply because you were the highest bidder.<ul><li>Reflect on all the costs and benefits of winning or losing the auction in calculating your reservation value.</li><li>Costs often include much more than price. Could be your reputation, or competitive advantage in the marketplace.</li><li>The only scenario that matters is the one where you win. Think to yourself, “Am I comfortable paying this price, even if it turns out that I over-paid?”</li></ul>

Playing The Game As Process Taker: The Winners Curse

<ul><li>The key is to bid high enough to win, but low enough that you preserve as much profit as possible from the deal.</li><li>Determine how your chances of winning increase with your bid.</li><li>Choose the bid that maximizes your expected profit = Probability x Profit</li></ul>

Bidding in Sealed Bid Situations

<ul><li>Continue bidding up to your full reservation value.</li><li>Whenever common value plays a role, bidders should rationally “update” their reservation value during the course of the bidding. E.g. the layman bidder taking cues from an expert with insider knowledge.</li></ul>Three factors fuel “competitive arousal:” intense rivalry among bidders, time pressure, and the presence of an audience.Avoid this by:<ul><li>Writing down your reservation value</li><li>Ask yourself, “What do I know now that I didn’t know at the beginning of the auction?” If you don’t know anything new, then you should drop out of the auction.</li></ul>

Bidding in Open-Outcry Situations

All about negotiauctiong: The crossover between negotiation and auctioning.

"Previous edition published under the title Negotiauctions: new dealmaking strategies for a competitive marketplace"--Title page verso.

“Packed with transformative insights, Dealmaking will help a new generation of business leaders get to yes.”—William Ury, coauthor of Getting to Yes Informed by meticulous research, field experience, and classroom-tested strategies, Dealmaking offers essential insights for anyone involved in buying or selling everything from cars to corporations. Leading business scholar Guhan Subramanian provides a lively tour of both negotiation and auction theory, then takes an in-depth look at his own hybrid theory, outlining three specific strategies readers can use in complex dealmaking situations. Along the way, he examines case studies as diverse as buying a house, haggling over the rights to a TV show, and participating in the auction of a multimillion-dollar company. Based on broad research and detailed case studies, Dealmaking brings together negotiation and auction strategies for the first time, providing the jargon-free, empirically sound advice professionals need to close the deal. Originally published in hardcover under the title Negotiauctions.

Guhan Subramanian

Dealmaking

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