This is a small case written by me to understand and appreciate the concepts of Strategic Negotiation and Conflict Management. The case is followed by my own Written Analysis of the Case (WAC) to help appreciate some of the points to be considered in this case analysis.

1. SNCM Case: The Mumbai Job
It was a cloudy day in Bangalore when I got the email. The weather was cool and
pleasant and I had just finished my lunch. The email changed the complacence and deep
satisfaction in my mind. The mail was sent via the most popular online professional network
which had become the most used website by headhunters and job hunters. September 2010 was
not exactly the peak hiring season as the global economy was still showing no signs of recovery
from the recession; and I was not actively looking for a job. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see
an email from a big firm in India which sought to talk to me about an open position they had in
Mumbai. Little did I know how much that one email would change the next few years of my life!
I thought for a while about the invite and decided to “give it a try”. After all, I had
nothing to lose if I didn’t make it through the first round of interviews. But secretly, I knew I
would go all the way to the final round because I was an expert in a proprietary technology
which was used in just 3 companies across India and I was the best trainer in that field. This was
cemented by a line in the job description which required “training experience is a must”. So, at
the back of the mind, I was just curious to know “what am I worth in the market today?” Thus,
began my story which ended with the first salary negotiation of my life.
About the Company
L&T Infotech is a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which is the largest
Engineering and Construction Company in India. L&T has a dominant presence in India's
infrastructure, power, hydrocarbon, machinery and railway related projects. It was featured 4
times in the Forbes Fab-50 list as one of the best public companies in the Asia Pacific region. In
recent years, L&T has expanded its global presence and international projects contributed 9% of
its overall order book for the 2010–11 period.
Originally founded as L&T Information Technology Ltd, as a wholly owned subsidiary of
L&T, the firm was renamed to L&T Infotech and run like an independent company. It is a global
IT services and solutions provider based in Mumbai, India, and is ranked #8 in Indian IT
companies in 2011-2012, NASSCOM. The company has 39 registered offices in 22 countries.
This is what I found out during my initial research about the recruiting company.
Naturally, I prided on receiving an impromptu offer from such a big and reputed firm which was
admired internationally. So, my positive response to the email was a natural outcome.
The Job Application Process: the first step
My affirmative response to the email fetched quick response mails from the company
recruiter. Subir, the Recruiting HR, wanted me to submit the latest copy of CV for review.
Since I had not been searching for a job, I did not have a ready copy my CV. So, I sat down to
create a new one that captured my 5 years of experience at Infosys. I took four hours to put
together my CV with all the relevant project details and acquired competencies. Then I sent it to
Subir and waited for the response.
Within few hours I got another email from Subir requesting me to fill up an online job
application form. I was thrilled as this meant that my profile was shortlisted for further
processing and that someone had already reviewed it. The dance had just begun!
Author: Madhuranath R

2. SNCM Case: The Mumbai Job
The Job Application Process: the second step
The first telephone call from Subir was the second step of my job application process. He
sounded very friendly and warm over the phone and I guess that is something all HRs are
expected to be at any time of the day or night. However, he seemed more genuine in his talk. He
wanted to get some basic information and clarifications about the online form that I had
submitted on their website. During the discussion I mentioned that my permanent residence was
in Bangalore and that I had worked for the same company since the time I graduated with a B.E.
in Computer Science and Engineering. At that point, he asked me the reason I was progressing
with this job application. After all, I had not switched job in 5 years which was unusually long
for an average employee in the IT industry. Also, he was concerned whether I was open to
relocating to Mumbai from Bangalore; Bangalore was considered the best location for IT
professionals and the weather in the city was the best across the country. In essence, my logic in
processing this job application was not clear to him.
I could clearly understand his concerns. Probably, I would have asked the same questions
if I had been in his place. So, I assured him that I was making this change in job after sufficient
thought. I was cocooned in a safe job where I had made a good name since the initial years. So, I
wanted to break out of this comfort zone and explore what I am really worth in an unbiased
environment. Also, relocating would put me further out of my comfort zone and I was not even
conversant in the language spoken in Mumbai. So, it would be another kind of learning
experience which would challenge me both professionally and personally. Subir seemed to like
what I said and he frankly expressed his happiness to continue with my job application process.
The Job Application Process: the third step
The second call from my prospective employer was also the first call from my future
manager. The appointment for this call had been fixed over an email conversation with Subir and
I had moved myself to a conference room in my office to ensure I would not be disturbed. The
caller introduced himself as Pradeep and he began the interview with questions pertaining to
what I had written in my resume. The call ended half an hour later with off-line chatter for
another 15 minutes as we had just discovered we had several common friends between us. The
conversation ended on a positive note and Pradeep expressed his satisfaction with my profile
directly; quite unusual in a typical job application process.
The second interview call was scheduled for the next day and this was supposed to be a
video call. The second round of interview had a panel on a Skype video call. Pradeep, his
manager Hitesh and Hitesh’s manager Mukesh were present in the call. Hitesh opened the call
with cursory introduction and the interview went on for 45 minutes. The interview from the
senior managers began with Broad Based Open Ended questions like the following –
- Tell me something about yourself
- Why did you choose to do a B.E. despite scoring very high marks in Medical Entrance?
- What was your motivation to join Infosys?
- What do you expect from this job at L&T Infotech?
- What do you think of your performance in your career till now?
Author: Madhuranath R

3. SNCM Case: The Mumbai Job
There were many more such questions but the interview ended with the typical one:
- Do you have any questions about the job / role / company?
As the interview progressed more specific and pointed questions were asked based on my
resume as well as my responses to the broad-based open ended questions. I was totally candid
throughout the interview and even cracked a joke a couple of times about the weather in Mumbai
and the pathetic traffic conditions. The 45 minutes just rushed by and I had not even realized. By
the end of the call we were all laughing and talking like old colleagues. So, the video call ended
with a positive note for all concerned and Mahesh even appreciated me openly.
The Job Application Process: the last step
I had parried and danced with the recruiting company for almost 10 days by now and this
was the final moment of truth for me – the HR interview round. Subir called me on my mobile
phone and began the discussion very professionally. He was trying to curb his own friendly
banter by constantly refocusing on the “typical HR” questions that every recruiter asks. He re-
stressed the points of relocation and job change and if I was really up to the task.
My answers must have sounded convincing because he immediately pushed open the
envelope and asked me to name my expected salary. I was totally unprepared for this question at
that point. I had not even considered being given an option to name my price. I was not so sure
about what would be a likely “fair number” to quote. So, I just started fishing and asked him the
normal range of salary for the position for which I had been interviewed. He replied that the
number was fairly flexible for lateral hires and that I should quote my expected number frankly
as it would go through a deliberation process internally at L&T Infotech.
Again I was clueless what to do. I just made some back of the hand calculations to
compute 3-4 numbers based on different percentage hike over my current salary. The percentage
hikes I considered for this calculation were influenced by “my idea of fairness”. I did not know
what was the industry standard for a lateral hired for a similar position. I had not asked any
friend who had shifted jobs recently. I was not even sure if there was a benchmark for this kind
of a role because it was such a niche expertise sector that there was not much talent available to
fill this position. So, I used a rough estimate of 50% and quoted that is my minimum expectation.
To my surprise, the HR showed no surprise or shock. He just said that he will discuss this
number with his higher ups and the recruiting division before responding.
The Job Application Process: the final call for boarding
It was almost 15 days after my last call with HR that he called me back. It was on a
Sunday and I already had a weird feeling. The HR was in his usual chatty mood and started
asking about my family, about my job in Bangalore and what I was planning to do in Mumbai. At
that point I knew I had bagged the job! I was very excited and I continued the conversation. Then
he revealed that my offer had gone through with the senior management and that I would be
receiving the offer letter on Monday. He also mentioned that they had offered 10% more than
what I had quoted as my expected salary. He then congratulated me and welcomed me on board;
more as a personal friend rather than a professional HR recruiter.
Author: Madhuranath R

4. SNCM Case: The Mumbai Job
Written Analysis of the Case
Situation Analysis
It is very clear from the case that the candidate was not at all prepared for this entire job
application process right from the beginning. Fortunate, as he was, to get a call out of the blue
from a large and reputed company, he must have taken some time off to think about the
probability of such an event occurring on a day-to-day basis to an average IT professional. The
Indian IT industry has a huge demand for IT professionals and the abundance of engineering
colleges assures a steadily increasing supply of hundreds of thousands of engineers every year.
Most of the graduates are not competent to start on a job immediately on entering the industry
and this necessitates extensive training and orientation programs in the top companies.
L&T Infotech was one such popular recruiter who conducted campus recruitment drives
in hundreds of engineering colleges across India and the graduate hires would undergo a 3-month
training and orientation program at company expense. Naturally, L&T Infotech wanted to
maximize the returns from this training program and ensure quick increase in productivity. So,
the position for which the candidate was being considered was a business critical role. If he had
understood this context early the process would have concluded with even better outcomes.
Understanding the BATNAs and interests
The entire job application process was an orchestrated dance of negotiation. The
negotiation started at the point of responding to the mail and writing the CV. Clearly, the
candidate wanted to convince the resume reviewers with a document that negotiated well and
was sweetened to meet their interests. In this case, the candidate seemed to have an innate
understanding of what recruiters in that industry expected as he had worked very long in that
industry by then. So, without having to think about his BATNAs and “interests” he was able to
cook up a convincing document; probably his experience negotiated better than his write up.
The BATNA for the candidate was really low; even zero. He had not been kicked out of
the company and he held a job in a reputed organization where he had made his name. So, even
if the candidate failed this job application process he had nothing to lose. However, the recruiter
had a higher BATNA; in fact, a very significantly high BATNA. As mentioned in the case, the
candidate was an expert in what he was doing and very few people in the entire country did what
he was doing. So, he was in a niche where talent was not common-place unlike the overall IT
industry. If the candidate appreciated this point about the company’s BATNA, he would have
realized that there was a lot of value to be captured from this negotiation. Instead, he opted to
look at it as a hit-and-miss game where he did not even realize the true “win” of the game.
Clearly the company’s interests were to improve productivity, maximize returns on fresh
recruits and setup a Center Of Excellence that would sustain this process in future. All these
carried tremendous monetary and long term value for the organization. These interests could not
be met easily by a cost equivalent to the annual salary being offered to the candidate. Not only
would it bring cost benefits, it would add to the topline by positioning the company as a better
solution partner in a niche technology (due to the setting up of the COE). So, we can see that the
company’s interests and BATNA were very high in this case and the candidate did not
understand these concepts of SNCM at that point in time.
Author: Madhuranath R

5. SNCM Case: The Mumbai Job
Evaluating the outcome of negotiation
The candidate was offered a salary hike of slightly more than 50% over his current salary.
A study of the salary hikes offered to lateral hires between 2002–2012 shows that the industry
average was slightly more than 100%. Obviously, the candidate had been short-changed. He had
not done enough research about the industry, company, or the job application process. Otherwise
he would have realized “where his heaven is”. In this particular case, maybe he could have asked
for an even higher salary because of the lack of quality talent in the niche knowledge sector.
The candidate was also not considering the relocation factor. He was shifting from a
permanent residence low expense city to a metropolitan with much higher cost of life.
Additionally, he did not negotiate upon the factors of compensation like joining bonus, relocation
expenses reimbursement, travel expenses and additional metropolitan allowances. He was just
fixated on one “position”, the salary number, and even there he was totally under-informed.
Naturally, the company was happy to hire him for a slightly better value on his “position” that
came across as a “generous” offer to the candidate. If only the candidate had had sufficient
knowledge about the negotiation process and the underlying need for researching well, he may
have been able to strike a much better deal that would be a true measure of his real value. Thus,
we can conclude that the outcome of this negotiation process was a “Lose to Win” for him.
Recommendation for a future Job Application Process
Based on the behavior cited in this case, it is clear that the candidate does not do much
research on the prospective recruiters and targeted companies. He needs to put down a roadmap
to each job interview process. The first step is to identify what is the industry and type of
company he wishes to work for. Then do a basic research on the company culture, go through
their website and also read comments/blogs by people who have worked there in the past.
Usually they provide insights into the organization behavior and culture better than a propaganda
tool like the company website or Wikipedia.
The second step is to research the average salary figures for similar roles and similar
skills. There are numerous websites such as www.payscale.com, www.glassdoor.com,
www.salarykhoj.com, etc. which collect voluntary information from both recruiters and
employees to generate statistical values of salaries for different positions, companies and skills.
This should give a clear idea about what to expect when asked to “name a salary figure”.
The third step is vital when the job application process has proceeded beyond the initial
rounds of screening. Try to contact someone in the company who is working currently in the
same role or division and ask for some information about the project requirements and culture.
Usually, these conversations will help the candidate to understand the real “interests” of the
company when they are negotiating to hire you. If these interests are understood clearly, it will
be easy to understand our approach and “position” during the negotiation.
Finally, remember that you have reached the final round because you are a compelling
candidate for the company. So, do not hesitate to capture value at this point. But, since this is
also a negotiation that results in a long-term association as the outcome, it is critical to not push
the limits too far while claiming the value; because the relationships matter as much as the
results of the outcome of this negotiation in the job application process.
Author: Madhuranath R