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Shanty is a simulation in which students inhabit the role of either a traditional home buyer or an iBuyer, both bidding on the same condo. The traditional home buyer has access to a "comp sheet" of similar properties that have recently sold, and has done a walkthrough. The iBuyer has access to an automated valuation model powered by real, large-scale market transaction data, but has not seen the property in person. The simulation provides students with an opportunity for experiential learning around the use of data and algorithms to inform market decisions. This role is the confidential information for Homebuyer 2, and is one of eight role documents to be assigned to students in the simulation.

Shanty is a simulation in which students inhabit the role of either a traditional home buyer or an iBuyer, both bidding on the same condo. The traditional home buyer has access to a "comp sheet" of similar properties that have recently sold, and has done a walkthrough. The iBuyer has access to an automated valuation model powered by real, large-scale market transaction data, but has not seen the property in person. The simulation provides students with an opportunity for experiential learning around the use of data and algorithms to inform market decisions. This role is the confidential information for Homebuyer 1, and is one of eight role documents to be assigned to students in the simulation.

This note provides an overview of real estate iBuying, or instant buying, a business model that involves buying homes and then reselling them at a profit. Introduced in the mid-2010s, iBuying streamlined the process of selling a home by offering instant, all-cash offers to sellers. This note includes context on the traditional home buying and selling processes, the impact of property technology (PropTech), the iBuying process and unit economics, and the iBuying market landscape (e.g., top players and geographic markets).

Supplement to case 920051.

A young HBS graduate purchases a publisher of specialty magazines that advertises second hand cars, boats, trucks, etc. The magazines carry photographs and a brief description of each article for sale. The company faces the problem of deciding on how many magazines to drop off at each distribution point. Teaching objectives: relevant costs which are not always obvious, simple forecasting, and shortcomings of critical fractile analysis.

Through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, LKQ Corp. became the leading aftermarket auto parts distributor in the U.S. by the early 2000s. Beginning in 2012, the company began similarly consolidating the European marketplace. However, by 2017, the company still lacked a meaningful presence in Germany, which was the largest automotive market in Europe. Stahlgruber AG, the largest German distributor, became available as an acquisition opportunity. Senior LKQ management had to decide whether to participate in the sale process, and if so, how high to bid. Bain Capital, which was also making aggressive moves into the European marketplace, was likely to be the other significant bidder. On one hand, "Project Jigsaw" (named as such because Stahlgruber would be the jigsaw piece in the center of the European puzzle) represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for LKQ. On the other hand, the competitive bidding process would force LKQ to stretch financially. The case presents the challenges and opportunities presented by the Stahlgruber acquisition.

For decades, negotiators have been working out agreements by focusing on interests, not positions. But the messy problem of how to share the gains created by deals has remained unresolved--until now. The answer, argue Yale's Nalebuff and NYU's Brandenburger, lies in accurately identifying and sizing the negotiation "pie," which they define as the additional value produced by an agreement to work together. It's the value over and above the sum of the two sides' best alternatives to a negotiated agreement, or BATNAs. The pie most people have in their heads, however, is the total value available to be split. Because of this, they argue over the wrong numbers and issues, taking positions that they think are reasonable but that are in fact self-interested. Once the pie is properly understood, the allocation rule is simple: The parties in a negotiation have an equal claim on the pie, so it should be divided evenly. This is true regardless of what they can accomplish on their own, because both are equally needed to create the gains. This principle can be applied in a variety of increasingly complicated real-world scenarios, which the authors walk readers through in this article.

In February 2003, P&G hosted two meetings-one with its largest woman- and minority-owned suppliers and one with its largest non-minority-owned suppliers. Attendees in each meeting heard the same message: P&G was keen to grow its commitment to inclusive supply chains, but felt hamstrung by the limited scale and scope of its existing woman- and minority-owned suppliers. It was up to the attendees to determine how to work together to meet P&G's needs. Otherwise, the consumer packaged goods giant would be forced to look outside its home city of Cincinnati, Ohio, for diverse suppliers at scale. This case tells the story of how Carl Satterwhite, president and co-owner of Infinity Services, a minority-owned furniture installation business, and J. Scott Robertson, president and owner of Globe Business Interiors (GBI), a non-minority-owned office furniture company, responded to P&G's call.

This (B) case accompanies the (A) case of the same title.

When Desirée ("Des") Stolar's wool sweater shrank two sizes, the Harvard Business School student worked with classmates to develop a solution that both fixed her problem and launched Unshrinkit, a successful consumer goods company with a widely-available product for reversing wool shrinkage. Stolar's path to success would eventually include an appearance on the hit television show Shark Tank and an investment offer from billionaire Mark Cuban. But along the way she encountered several challenging negotiations-over equity allocations, supplier and manufacturer terms, with skeptical potential investors, business and legal deal teams, etc.-that threatened to derail her efforts. Unshrinkit (A) tells the story of Unshrinkit while stopping at six crucial "negotiation challenges" that call for students to articulate how they would approach each challenge. Unshrinkit (B) reveals the strategies, tactics, and mindsets by which Stolar approached these challenges. This provides instructors and students with opportunities to compare their proposed advice with what Stolar actually did-as well as to draw broader lessons from her saga.

When Desirée ("Des") Stolar's wool sweater shrank two sizes, the Harvard Business School student worked with classmates to develop a solution that both fixed her problem and launched Unshrinkit, a successful consumer goods company with a widely-available product for reversing wool shrinkage. Stolar's path to success would eventually include an appearance on the hit television show Shark Tank and an investment offer from billionaire Mark Cuban. But along the way she encountered several challenging negotiations-over equity allocations, supplier and manufacturer terms, with skeptical potential investors, business and legal deal teams, etc.-that threatened to derail her efforts. Unshrinkit (A) tells the story of Unshrinkit while stopping at six crucial "negotiation challenges" that call for students to articulate how they would approach each challenge. Unshrinkit (B) reveals the strategies, tactics, and mindsets by which Stolar approached these challenges. This provides instructors and students with opportunities to compare their proposed advice with what Stolar actually did-as well as to draw broader lessons from her saga.

Francoise Brougher was a high-powered technology executive in Silicon Valley. After successful stints at Google (where she rose to lead a $16 billion ad sales business) and Square (which she helped take public), she joined Pinterest as its first Chief Operating Officer in March 2018. As COO, Brougher increased the advertiser base eight-fold, expanded operations to 20 countries, and more than doubled Pinterest's revenue to $1.1 billion in less than two years. These achievements, among others, set Pinterest up for its successful IPO in April 2019. In the year after the IPO, however, Brougher was increasingly cut out of meetings with other leaders in the company and given little voice in critical decisions. When Pinterest's CEO and founder, Ben Silbermann, asked Brougher if they could connect, Brougher was ready to share her latest thoughts on the actions Pinterest could take to further grow and optimize its business. Ten minutes into their video call, however, Brougher realized she was being fired. Brougher pondered how her status as an outsider-a French woman-played into her treatment in the firm. Silbermann offered a severance package of six months' salary, suggested she tell her team she had decided to leave the company, and asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. What could Brougher do in response?

Amazon's failed bid for a second headquarters location ("HQ2") in Long Island City, New York offers many lessons for negotiators looking to avoid similar high-profile defeats in strategically important deals. The company's project - which promised to bring billions of dollars in net new tax revenue and thousands of jobs to the city - initially enjoyed widespread support on the ground, alongside vocal advocacy from political elites at the state and local level. But after the proposal was announced, a relatively small cohort of passionate opponents organized to pressure a key set of lawmakers into opposing the deal, ultimately leading the company to withdraw its offer. Amazon's HQ2 derailment at the hands of these well-organized activists, and its failure to mobilize its broad base of support in useful ways, mark a striking example of the potential pitfalls dealmakers face when negotiating large-scale projects in the public eye.

As founders of the software company Basecamp, Jason Fried and David H. Hansson were used to being the subjects of social media attention. Both maintained active and dedicated Twitter followings for their unique perspectives on management and life. But on April 26, 2021, Fried and Hansson found themselves in the spotlight for a very different reason: they had just publicly announced a new policy that would curtail the discussion of politics at work. The co-founders argued that this policy would prevent distractions and polarizing political differences that Basecamp employees could not hope to resolve amicably or productively. But just one day later, a number of their employees reached out to a journalist to report that Fried and Hansson were simply using their new policy to chill dissent about problematic practices within the company. The subsequent exposé yielded public outcry, and the co-founders were firmly in the crosshairs. In response, Fried held an all-hands meeting at the company to address the events, but tensions quickly escalated. Two hours into the meeting, one of his employees challenged Fried to publicly denounce another employee who had voiced an opinion on matters of racial bias and white supremacy that some viewed as deeply troubling. Basecamp, Fried had argued, could not afford to get distracted by talking politics at work. But could it afford not to?

Supplement to the (A) case.

Negotiation abilities are difficult to assess, and negotiation outcomes are difficult to predict. This leads to possible deficiencies in resource allocation for negotiation tasks. In this article, we discuss the merits of a data-based approach for the allocation of negotiators to negotiation tasks. We provide a framework for negotiation allocation management that includes a method for assessing negotiator strength. The negotiator strength measure compares observable negotiation outcomes relative to similar outcomes in similar situations. We provide examples for using our framework and show evidence for its appeal when using industry data. We discuss implications for managers and provide key takeaways.

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a product used by her own division, things turn out to be much more complex, revealing the benefits and drawbacks of using the tool to reduce prices, maintain supplier relationship and garner savings for the company.

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a product used by her own division, things turn out to be much more complex, revealing the benefits and drawbacks of using the tool to reduce prices, maintain supplier relationship and garner savings for the company.