Our roots
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come”
– Victor Hugo
The Negotiation Advisory Group was born with a bottle of red wine. And big ideas.
René Schumann, at that time a procurement manager for a large German car manufacturer, and his colleague Stefan Oswald, a game theorist of conviction, got to know each other through a joint project. They parted ways when one went into industry and the other into consulting. But as the saying goes: You always meet twice in life. A few years later, they both met for dinner. After a few glasses of wine, the two agreed: game theory applied in negotiation was still far too unknown in most industries! The idea of founding a consultancy for negotiation management was born. René brought in his perspective and experience as an industrial buyer and Stefan the negotiation expertise and method of game theory. And so NAG was born – and within a very short time, the company and its negotiation experts would become the leading negotiation consultancy in Europe.
Our creed
Better negotiation management means more efficient cooperation. Only successful partnerships, in which both sides achieve their goals by using an unforeseen scope for solutions, are partnerships at eye level with a lasting positive impact.
Methodology
To rethink negotiation, we use a systematic, scientific foundation. The approaches of our negotiation experts are based on the latest scientific findings from game theory, behavioural economics, psychology and data science. We use this foundation for both our negotiation strategy and our negotiation training.
Game theory, as the science of strategic interaction, provides optimal incentives and allows us to anticipate negotiation reactions of the other side.
Behavioural economics and psychology combine this rationale with the ’human factor’ and help us to use human deviations from rationality and to optimally adjust to our counterpart. This allows us to further refine our negotiation strategy.
Data Science allows us to transform data into information in a systematic and scalable way in order to always maintain information sovereignty during negotiations.
This combination of interdisciplinary teams, passion, eye-to-eye collaboration, and innovation makes us the leading negotiation consultancy in Europe. We are committed to excellence in every project and in every negotiation.