Mobile users negotiationIn my upcoming book for Random House, “The Yes Book” I write about how rapid growth in technology is changing the way that we negotiate:

* Technology makes the world go faster – so we need to negotiate with business partners who can help us act more quickly. If we act on our own we may move too slowly and be outflanked by competitors.

* Technology globalises business – so we need to negotiate with business partners who can capture the overseas potential from operating in an increasingly inter-connected world.

Some current stats which illustrate the phenomenal growth in technology…

  • The World Wide Web was introduced in 1992
  • By 1995, only 16 million people worldwide, less than a half percent of the world’s population, were online
  • However, by 2000 that percentage grew to 5% (304 million)
  • By 2005 the number of users worldwide passed 1 billion, or more than 15% of the population
  • By 2012 it was over 2.4 billion according to internetworldstats.com
  • Of these, 167 million were in Africa – representing growth of over 3,000 percent since the turn of the century
  • Internet usage in the Middle East has risen from 3 million to 90 million in the same period. There are also now over 500 million Internet users in China


    • The trajectory is equally startling with respect to mobile and other devices…

    People on smartphones negotiation

  • By 2016 Cisco forecasts there will be 10 billion connected devices worldwide
  • People are spending more time than ever on their mobile phones. According to smartinsights.com, by 2014, mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage
  • On average Americans spend 2.7 hrs per day socialising on their mobile device (over twice the amount of time they spend eating and over a third of the time they spend sleeping!)
  • Mobile internet usage grew by 162% globally between 2011 and 2012 – and by 192% in Asia
  • 200 million YouTube views occur on mobile devices every day.



    • According to a new report by ZenithOptimedia…

  • On average (across all 19 markets), smartphone ownership is forecast to double from its present levels by 2015 reaching 71.7% and 93% in technologically well developed countries such as Sweden.
  • Tablet ownership is expected to surge 177% in the same period.
  • IDC reported late last year that a record 136 million Android units shipped in the 3rdquarter, giving the mobile operating system a 75% market share, up from 57.5% the previous quarter. Overall 427.7 million mobile phones were shipped in that quarter.



    • It’s not just that technology develops fast. Major services can come and go in the blink of an eye. Facebook went from 20 million users to 900 million users in five years from April 2007. MySpace launched in August 2003. By December 2008 it had 75 million monthly unique visitors. By June 2012 only one third of those were left as MySpace was overtaken by Facebook. The previous year it had been sold for US$35 million, having been bought by Newscorp only 6 years earlier for US$850 million.

    Geocities closes NegotiationAnyone remember GeoCities? Founded in 1994 it was a web directory that let users place their own pages in virtual ‘cities’, corresponding to their subject matter. Community elements such as chat were added, and adverts were first placed on people’s pages in 1997. Later that year, GeoCities got its millionth user. In 1998 the company went public, and the following year it was the third-most-visited site on the internet. GeoCities was taken over in 1999 by Yahoo for $3.57bn. Yahoo introduced new terms of service, asserting ownership over all content put on GeoCities pages. Users deserted the service in millions and it was shut by Yahoo in 2009.

    That blur of statistics just illustrates the pace of technological change. What does it mean for negotiating? All of that connectivity and speed of action simply wasn’t available even 20 years ago. If you want to trade with people in today’s world you have to:

    1) Be able to create deals and execute strategies at pace.
    2) Use partners with whom you have negotiated flexible arrangements which are mutually rewarding.
    3) Have partners who can help you access new connected audiences in many countries.

    Even if you are large you are not immune from the effect of technology change, and it’s a mistake to assume that you don’t need anybody else. There has never been a time when effective negotiating was a more crucial skill set.

    Why not see how I could help you increase your deal-revenue by taking a look at my wide range of negotiation packages…