CEO's Coach International Negotiation

Both Dean Merritt, Founder and CEO of Merritt.Dicconso.Morris, and David Smithstein, founder and CEO of Lean & Mean Business Systems, have extensive international business experience and regularly negotiate multi-million dollar business deals. Their coaching with the class started before the special negotiation session took place. Each team consulted with their own assigned coach for their negotiation planning.

This coaching allowed students to observe how experienced negotiators plan, strategize and negotiate a deal. Students were intrigued by how Dean and David focused on creating value for both parties during the whole process. This was the highlight of the entire course where undergraduate students were able to work with experienced industry coaches in developing negotiation strategies and applying cross-cultural negotiation concepts to a negotiation simulation. The industry guests brought the real world to the USF classroom where learning was fun, engaging and experiential.