Polish students come second in negotiations
18.04.2024
Students of the Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Silesia came second in the World Negotiation Championship, which took place in the Netherlands in early April. They even defeated Harvard representatives in the competition! The best negotiators included: Aleksander Łabuć, Dominik Zdebik, Paweł Urzenitzok and Bartosz Dominikowski. For the first time in a decade, a team from Poland was among the runners up of this competition.
Polish students among the best young negotiators in the world
The World Negotiation Championship was held on 5th and 6th April in the Netherlands. This is one of the most prestigious competitions of this type with a long tradition. Each edition attracts thousands of young people who can test their negotiation skills in practice by confronting the best strategists from around the world.
The Polish team was represented by: Paweł Urzenitzok and Dominik Zdebik from the University of Silesia, as well as Aleksander Łabuć from SGH Warsaw School of Economics. The competitors were prepared by Bartosz Dominikowski, a graduate of SGH Warsaw School of Economics.
Poles defeated teams from best universities in the world
Polish students qualified for the finals after several rounds. During the competition, they negotiated with teams from Georgetown University and Eindhoven University of Technology among others. Representatives of 66 best universities from around the world qualified for the final. They included Harvard Business School, Columbia Law School, Princeton University, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and HEC Paris.
Participants had to demonstrate above-average ability to conduct strategic talks. Their skills were assessed in terms of the conditions of negotiated contracts, the impact of negotiations on the relationship with negotiating partners and experts' opinions on the manner of conducting negotiations. The jury's assessment included an analysis of negotiation techniques used and the effectiveness of their use by the teams.
Competition subjects
The finalists conducted negotiations on exporting a Swiss product to new markets and optimising its production costs. They also discussed the details of conducting promotional campaigns to increase the effectiveness of a product sold in a Dutch store chain. In the final round, they faced a task involving analysis of key stages of artificial intelligence development.
As part of the event, Polish students also had a unique opportunity to participate in specialised workshops on negotiation techniques and in training conducted by Gary Noesner, head of crisis negotiations at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Polish representatives proud of their victory
The world vice-champions do not hide their pride at winning. “Hard work, many hours of training and countless number of negotiation books read paid off. It was a great pride for me as a Pole, to win the statuette of the World Vice Champions of Negotiations. All this brought results. Our journey in negotiations began a few years ago. I hope that our success will also be an inspiration for others,” said Paweł Urzenitzok from the University of Silesia.
“The whole tournament provided excellent experience. I hope that we will constantly deepen this knowledge and contribute to the development of negotiation skills among students and professionals in Poland,” added Aleksander Łabuć from SGH Warsaw School of Economics.
Motivation and perseverance are the way to success
We hope that the success of the young Poles will encourage all students to regularly discover personal potential, enhance their strengths and develop scientific interests. We are convinced that developing talents will bring everyone a lot of satisfaction.
We congratulate the entire Polish team on their success and wish them motivation to take up new challenges and successfully achieve their goals.