When to go “public” in a negotiation

The BBC, it seems, has entered a new age of realism when it comes to the rewards that it offers “talent”. It was only relatively recently that Jonathan Ross’s agent was able to secure an annual remuneration package rumoured to be in excess of £6m. How times have changed! Christine Bleakley, one of the presenters on the popular tea-time magazine programme, The One Show, has had her offer of £450,000 summarily withdrawn by the corporation. It was felt that she had dragged out negotiations to push up their offer.

Was the BBC right in announcing the withdrawal so publicly? The answer, I suppose, is that it depends what their objective had become at the time of the withdrawal. Two possible scenarios to ponder:
• The corporation wanted to force Bleakley’s hand and have her accept their offer. I cannot believe that this was the case, but the risk in so doing becomes immediately evident. She has accepted a much higher bid (rumoured to be £1.5m per year) and has flown to the opposition, in this case, ITV, where she will become a presenter on breakfast time TV with her erstwhile One Show co-presenter, Adrian Chiles.
• The corporation had genuinely gone as far as it was prepared to go with Bleakley and was anxious to send out a message to other presenters that there was no bottomless pit and that, if necessary, it was prepared to lose talent rather than be held to ransom. I believe this second option to be the truth of the matter.

There are a couple of lessons from this that negotiators might like to ponder.
• Know your limits and do not be scared to walk from a potential deal if these have been breached.
• If you have identified something as a point of principle or a point beyond which you will not go (but be careful to test that position first), then make it clear to the other side that you will not move – and don’t move!
• Only go public in a negotiation if you feel that by so doing you will help structure people’s expectations – either the other side’s or, as in this case, people or organisations with whom you may need to negotiate in the future.

One other point worth making: note that the BBC got its retaliation in first and was responsible for making the story public. They were able to put their side of the story, to control the release of the news and show themselves in a good light.