SolBridge BBA students Busye Uysal (Dasha) and Houymean Lim represented SolBridge at the 2019 Baylor Business Negotiation Competition on the 12th April 2019 in Texas, USA. The competition was an opportunity for participants to gain valuable business negotiation and conflict resolution skills and receive feedback from business professionals with negotiation experience.

In this article, Dasha shares with us her experience at this year’s Baylor Business Negotiation Competition.

“On the 12th of April, I had the incredible opportunity to represent SolBridge during the Baylor Business Negotiation Competition an annual competition held by Baylor University.  This year, the competition attracted 14 teams with SolBridge being the only international team.

My partner, Houymean Lim, and I competed in a realistic business negotiation role-play against two other teams from the United States in two different rounds. Before the competition, we were provided with two confidential cases, in which we represent two parties, one for each round. Since we were not allowed to add any information to the case, the tight limitations required us to focus on our strategy and colloquial language.

The day before the competition, we were invited by Baylor University to join other teams at the reception dinner at the famous McLane Stadium in the Presidential Suite, which boasts a stunning panoramic view of the Brazos River and Waco. We got to interact with other competitors, coaches and judges and learned about their link to negotiation. As a way to make the environment more business-like, we were told to refrain from mentioning our school name or country that we represented, so we had to step out of our comfort zone and were incredibly creative during our interactions.  We also had the pleasure to listen to two sponsors of the competition, ‘MedLine‘ and ‘Group 1 Automotive’, present about their companies and the outstanding opportunities they provide for graduating students.

The competition started with lunch and a special lecture from one of the speakers from ‘Group 1 Automotive’. He shared his transition from a politician to the corporate world and how negotiation relates to both fields.  After the first round, teams received feedback from the judges identifying participants’ strongpoints and areas that needed improvement. My partner and I used the feedback to develop our strategy for the second round.  Later, we participated in an email negotiation activity on the principle of hacking and online security. This activity enabled us to step out of our known territory and negotiate with someone we have never met.

Baylor Business Negotiation Competition was a splendid opportunity and significant leverage for improving my communication skills. The cases accentuated the realness of the negotiation world and the feedback provided comments based on the real business world.”