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ASIM BORAL

SongSoptok | 12/10/2014 |





EGO A TOOL TO NEGOTIATE AND COMMUNICATE 

I am 64 years old, worked in a PSU steel company having 36 years of steel marketing experience, meeting thousands of customers throughout India where ever I was posted and virtually contacted so many different kinds of people with different social economical environment with distinctly different viability, food cultural habit.

Today in changing time and pressure people are prone to fall on one of the most debated psychological fact called EGO. And how this EGO makes a great change in mind of people has never been analysed.  At present I am settled in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state of India, the land of management school, land of most vibrant people and business atmosphere in India, land of investment. Total 75% of investments in stock market coming from Gujarat Roads in Gujarat are well connected with every village where you can commute up to 400 km within 5 hrs and do your business and can come back the same day without any trouble. Land of ancient Harappa civilization (5000 years old), land of 65 million years old fossil of Dionossurous available at a village called Raoli 90 Km from Ahmedabad. My writing on such a complex subject EGO is totally based on my 36 years of experience of handling different kind of people and so many times I tried to attempt to write on such complex word EGO but every time I tried and every time I failed on such a Unique word EGO till suddenly my knowledge of Management studies sometimes back in 1981 had helped me to write something new kind of things perhaps during 90’s. A new kind of formula I named it Formula on EGO.

What I am writing is purely from my personal experience. The subject is purely one of the marketing tools and if the same helps you dealing people management then I will be the happiest person to share an unique knowledge with you. Actually I made this formula during 1987-88 for using myself only except sharing of my mathematical formula to few seminars I attended. I had seen that my formula was not accepted by the elite marketing professionals and the B Management school in India and abroad who genuinely depend on the bookish knowledge of EGO mentioned in communication and negotiation subject . Moreover my formula was little bit lengthy initially which might be a constrained for anybody to accept. Then after 2 years  I  made it simple formula for all to understand  to judge a person which level of EGO posses and believe me I only started practicing the formula along with some of my colleagues. Later my friends discarded the same saying that it’s not required at all for them as they are more success full than me in terms of being more successful Marketing person. Like that 5  years passed and the economic liberalization came to India in 1991 initiated by Dr Manmohan Singh the then Finance Minister of India under Late PM of India P.V.Narsimha Rao. Immediately after 1991 liberalization The competitions amongst companies including Govt and Pvt sectors increased and suddenly Companies felt the hit of competition because Indian economy clearly coming out control economy to market economy which makes all the Managers under control economy made the life harder. Even products like monopoly steels were harder to sell in the market due to competitions from import of steels to Indian steels. And the so called Egoistic nature of the managers felt it harder to understand the liberalization. As a result my friends (who was comfortable and egoistic , successful  marketing personnel in a controlled economy existed at that time in India) who discarded my formula became slowly and steadily redundant and one day I find they either left the company or some of my friend shifted to other less important department but it was not the case to me as practicing of EGO formula paid me heavily and my importance to my company soared and slowly and steadily I became a most important marketing personal in my company till my retirement in 2005. (You should understand the marketing in control economy and marketing in liberalized economy is far more different) .Now imagine  there was no marketing activities in India till 1991 by any companies including few Private Companies existed during control economy period. After 1991 last 15 years endless Private Companies have spurred. Marketing activities flourished. Lots of Business schools came up. Now India is the business destination hub in the world. Imagine  a small but big policy took during 1991 by Manmohan Singh and Late P.V. Narsimha Rao changed the entire business scenario of India within 15 years) Since then I could not pass my expertise to anybody and kept it within myself only. Suddenly I found and attended a seminar on "How to develop Managing skills and I made an lecture on my formula there and believe me it was just a Tsunami of huge people interacted with my formula. and I have got so many positive response of my pet subject EGO that I could not believe of so much response. So I feel   to share my secrets to all who can be benefited. While analyzing my success as a marketing personal from 1987 when I conceived the idea, I found that this was not actually required from 1987 to 1992 as Indian economy was in control situation and actual efforts in terms of my sophisticated system was not required, but without knowing the implications, I continued with my idea as a result I found this system is very effective where more competitions are there. So during liberalized market with more competitions, I found EGO is the main engine of marketing where you need to communicate and negotiate several times with your endless different nature customers. I am sure if you can calculate properly of a customer's profile with my formula; you will be successful to negotiate with any tough customers.

I made it very simple and easily understandable formula after reducing my long one during 94-96.

It is very common subject for any Management studies on EGO being three types which I think most of the people studying Management courses knows.. Parent Ego (A) , Adult Ego (B), and child Ego (C). When you negotiate or communicate to some persons you always come across above 3 types of Egos. I don’t want to give details about EGOs as most of the persons know who have studied MBAs and that was the reason initially I made very complicated long formula. After retirement from my service I felt this formula can be made simple and can be used by anybody and also can be used in any situation apart from marketing and a wonderful tool to communicate and negotiate.

Now there are various situations.

1. You have gone to a customer as a seller--Customer is very choosy, price conscious and almost stubborn not to negotiate with you (A - EGO), You have entered to customer to sell a good products with lot of enthuse and thorough knowledge of the products, price, competitions etc. With lot of expectations ( C-EGO ). One thing you should remember while negotiation you always hit the opponent when he or she is not accepting your idea. A small example .When you buy a shirt from a street seller you and the seller does lot of bargaining. When you ask seller about the price you are in C-EGO position and the seller is in A-EGO position .Then you have to come out from C position to B position. Then you ask to reduce it to Rs 25 /- from Rs70/- which the seller originally told to you (this is called hit back system).When the seller got hit, he immediately comedown to B-EGO position (willing to negotiate). He again hit back to you by reducing only Rs 15/-only as his actual selling price is Rs 50/- and no way he cannot go down below Rs 50. You as a buyer is now in A-EGO stage because you have won to bring that seller to B position. So you will not budge and sticking to your reduction of Rs 25 firmly. Now seller come up to A position again (hit back) saying that he will not reduce.  Now two situation either you buy or not to buy # Situation 1= If you want to buy then you have to accept his price by coming to your Ego position to B # Situation 2 =If you want further reduction of price then you have to hit him by remaining in A position. Seller wants to sell the shirt now to Rs 50 and he has accepted your price coming in B position. Now you have to come down to B position if at all you want that shirt at Rs 20 reduction only instead of Rs 25 (A position) # Situation 3 =Both are in A position, so deal could not materialize.

Now always give a number to any situation mathematically

On 10 point scale You have given A as 9 ,B as 7 ,C as 8 .then add all the numbers  and divide by 3, it become A + B + C =24 and 24 is divided by 3 is finally 8 (remember 8 to 10 in A EGO is very rare unless that person is highly orthodox, rigid quality, 5 to 7 is the level of B EGO ,and 1 to 3 is again high level of C EGO  which is rare unless the person is totally a child behaviour and similarly stubborn. So while negotiation, judge properly and judiciously. Nobody can teach this situation. One can achieve by continuously practicing the system. Now if buyer is say 9 and seller ego is 7 at the time of negotiations and communications then buyer will win and if seller is 8 and buyer is 6 then seller will win to finalize the deal...

The above is a very complicated thing and require one's commitment and honesty to practice on regular basis to master the formula which looks easy but not that much easy as you all may think. 

Remember all people have 3 levels of EGOs and you have to find out what level of EGO the person posses at the time of negotiations or communication including your level of EGO also. This can be learned when you try to judge a person by applying above formula and it is a continuous process. Initially try to note the process in a diary or scrap paper. Supposing in a similar situation you are negotiating certain things with a certain person and supposing you have won /failed / concluded the deal. You note down all the details in a paper including name of the person and yourself. Supposing you have sent somebody to negotiate with somebody. You always write down the name, details of discussion and the level of EGOs. If you regularly do this practice then after sometimes you need not write all the details and slowly and steadily one day you will be an expert on the field. It will take lot of time perhaps 2 to 3 years and I bet once you are master then you will find your importance to anywhere in any field where negotiations and communications are required and I find EGO is the main and most important thing in anybody’s life, any companies prosperity/failures of an individual’s /Companies /Units. EGO is completely a mind game which everyone needs to understand properly.
And finally I believe if any one master the art of understanding EGO then, I am sure he or she will be master of communications and negotiations and any one benefited with this theory will be a great joy to me.  

[ASIM BORAL]


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