Who would have thought that the new movie, Straight Outta Compton, in addition to its great story and great music, would also contain some great lessons about negotiation? The main lesson being about the dangers of creating a partnership deal that is not fair to all of the participants. According to the movie’s version of events, the leader of the group NWA, Eazy-E, and the manager Jerry Heller, presented the other members with a deal giving them a much smaller share of the profits than Eazy-E was taking. Followers of the school of aggressive negotiation can justify this hard bargain because it was originally Eazy-E’s company and he put up the money to get the band’s first record made, and also because the ethics of that school of negotiation support taking whatever you can get, and letting those on the other side of the table look out for themselves.
The results of driving such a hard bargain in this case were disastrous. The group’s talented lyricist, Ice Cube, refused to sign and left the group. Eventually, the brilliant composer Dr. Dre also left the group. Both these talented musicians went on to have spectacular solo careers, while Eazy-E is shown losing almost everything. Experts on negotiation stress the importance of leaving something on the table, and making the deal fair to other parties, particularly when one has to work with those partners in the future. And particularly when those partners create so much of the value for the group. (For example in Michael Wheeler’s book The Art of Negotiation, discussed in a previous post, the author provides many examples of aggressive negotiators blowing deals by demanding too much, or gaining deals that cost them in the long run.) Because Jerry Heller and Eazy-E failed to observe those rules, they ended up much worse off than if they had treated their partners fairly.
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But just in case anyone thinks that this film about a bunch of tough guys only illustrates the value of “nice guy” negotiating, the movie also contains some examples showing that taking a “tough guy” approach can also be effective. At one point, Ice Cube is shown smashing up his record producer’s office with a baseball bat to convey his displeasure at the size of his royalty payments. It’s not a tactic I can recommend, but it sure seemed to make the guy a lot more pliable the next time they met. Dre’s partner Suge Knight is also shown employing violent tactics to make a deal, methods that lead to some short term success but long term failure. So there is also a place in negotiation for standing up and demanding what you are entitled to. To a large extent, that is what NWA stood for.
Highly recommended.
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