Clinical Development Negotiation: How Can A Notebook, Chronodex, And Compendium Help Enhance Partnerships?
By Larry Ajuwon, RHIEOS-Ventures and Dealligence
Developing new medicines in the clinical trial industry relies on the coming together of many organizations. But what can three tools — a notebook, a chronodex, and a compendium — teach us about the essential aspects of successful negotiation and collaboration? Though these tools are seemingly ordinary and perhaps often overlooked, they encapsulate the principles of preparation, planning, and knowledge — all crucial in any negotiation.
Successful negotiation is not just a means to an end; it’s a complex, nuanced interaction. Herein, discover the significance of these three objects and experience the story of Eleanor, a seasoned negotiator who used them to her advantage.
The Notebook: Prepare And Imagine
For clinical development negotiation, the notebook symbolizes the importance of preparation. It is vital to prepare before entering into any negotiation by gathering relevant information, clearly setting out your objectives, anticipating and imagining the other parties’ needs.
Writing in a notebook encourages negotiators to organize their thoughts and strategies clearly. It’s a practical tool for noting important points, potential concessions, and strategic moves. Effective negotiation requires understanding the personal and professional backgrounds of the opposing party, tailoring communication styles to fit the situation, and building rapport. A negotiator's ability to personalize interactions based on the insights gathered in their preparatory phase can significantly influence a positive outcome.
The Chronodex: Design, Schedule, And Progress
A chronodex is a circular chart originally developed by Patrick Ng as a visual planning system, in this case, representing the timed phases of the negotiation-collaboration process. It’s divided into sections to help plan and prioritize tasks more efficiently. Effective negotiators can choose the right moment to present ideas and offers, provide concessions, or push for a close. The chronodex represents the working strategy, scheduling, and progress in the negotiation interactions in real time.
The chronodex reminds us of the importance of the nonlinear nature of progress in human affairs. Being mindful of each phase or aspect is essential to gaining an exhaustive understanding of the context and goals to design the right solutions.
The Compendium: Knowledge, Practices, And Insights
A compendium is a collection of detailed information about a particular subject that underpins the role of comprehensive knowledge in any negotiation. Knowledge empowers the parties involved in negotiations and you need a solid understanding of norms, practices, tactics, frameworks, cultural nuances, and economic conditions that are relevant to the people you are negotiating with.
Having a compendium-like knowledge base enables you to argue more persuasively, anticipate counterarguments, and offer creative solutions that are informed and effective.
Synergizing These Three Crucial Tools
Let’s take the fictionalized but based-in-fact experience of Eleanor, a seasoned clinical program manager and negotiator who approaches every collaboration with her tattered notebook — a repository of strategic blueprints and personal reflections on her adversaries and partners. In this notebook, she records everything she’s learned from past negotiations to preparations for upcoming contract amendment discussions with CRO partners.
As Eleanor faced the corporate executives from their co-development partner across the meeting table, her notebook lay open, a note from her previous meeting reminding her of the CEO’s penchant for cutting meetings short. This insight was her cue to press her demands early in the discussion, exploiting the CEO’s impatience to her team’s advantage.
The Tyranny Of Time
For Eleanor, the clock in the negotiation room was no less oppressive, its ticking hands a constant reminder of the urgency of her task. She knew that timing her requests was as crucial as the requests themselves. A glance at her chronodex showed the Relations quadrant was blank at Q2. This meant a key action in her negotiation strategy, which comprises 8 elements, is to initiate or conduct a relationship-building activity by the second quarter of the year.
As the negotiations drew on, Eleanor sensed a shift in the room as the lunch hour approached, a strategic moment she had been waiting for. With a glance at the clock, she decided it was time to introduce her final and most significant demand. The hungry and impatient executives were amenable to the offer of lunch at Madam Jo’s, a Spanish restaurant known for its healthy tapas. Her forward-thinking enabled this element of the negotiation to go in her favor.
The Power Of Knowledge
A compendium of good practices, past agreements, relationships, useful tools, and learnings sat heavily on Eleanor’s side of the table. She had armed herself with facts and figures, each more telling than the last.
In one pivotal moment, Eleanor recited a little-known story about a situation from another program and explained how the issue of unplanned scope changes was addressed. The executives looked surprised, as they hadn’t considered using her approach. Her use of the compendium shifted the balance of power in her favor.
The manuscript carried by Eleanor’s team was no ordinary collection of notes. It did not simply guide the negotiations; it revealed the moral and existential implications of their potential therapy.
Eternal Struggle In Negotiations/Collaborations
Eleanor's story serves as a profound lesson in the interplay of preparation, timing, and knowledge, as embodied by the notebook, the chronodex, and the compendium. These elements, though dramatized through a clinical development lens, reveal negotiation as not just a means to an end but a complex display of connections and interactions.
Integrating these concepts and tools into one's negotiation strategy can lead to more successful and mutually beneficial outcomes, illustrating that the art of negotiation is not just about what is negotiated but how it is approached. In any successful negotiation, each department must negotiate agreements while balancing its goals, interests, and risks to achieve the desired outcome.
While no one can guarantee success in any clinical trial venture, we can implement processes to improve the chances of a positive outcome for all by adopting simple tools and human-centric and strategic approaches to negotiations in clinical development.
About The Author:
Larry Ajuwon is the director of RHIEOS Ventures Ltd. and managing partner at Dealligence. Larry has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, and he works with organizations and sponsors to embed good negotiation practices and competencies to enable successful partnerships.