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AROUND THE REGION nwflbusinessclimate.com | Business Climate | 49
ELECTRIC CITY IN AN ELECTRIC CITY, RELIABILITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.
THROUGH THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGY, OLD-SCHOOL METHODS, AND THE LARGEST GRID RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN COMPANY HISTORY, GULF POWER NEVER STOPS WORKING TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON.
BY JOSH NEWBY
When a vehicle crashes into an electrical pole, or a tree falls on a power line, or a cable simply wears out, who you gonna call? Well, you may very well not have to call anyone, because chances are your power didn’t even blink, and if it did, energy will likely be quickly restored in a matter of seconds or minutes. This is a far cry from the days when a simple lightning strike would render an entire grid useless for hours or days, but how do electrical companies like Gulf Power keep the lights on while keeping costs low? Gulf Power is the largest 5050| Business | BusinessClimate Climate| nwflbusinessclimate.com | nwflbusinessclimate.com 50 | Business Climate | nwflbusinessclimate.com
investor-owned utility company in the area, serving more than 430,000 customers and spanning Northwest Florida. The company is the largest single taxpayer in the region, employs nearly 1,500 people, boasts 1,587 miles of transmission line, with 137 substations, and 7,721 miles of distribution line, a quarter of which is underground. Gulf Power also has invested more than $1 billion in clean-air projects since 2005 and has reduced emissions by more than 85 percent since 1992. The
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The Devilliers substation rebuild
company reaches beyond its energy sector to support chambers of commerce, economic development organizations and charitable operations to the tune of $2.4 million. Now, Gulf Power wants to do even more for this area and improve reliability, which is why it is in the middle of one of the biggest projects in its history: a massive, $750 million investment in the renovation and update of its expansive power grid to ensure more reliable and economic energy for its users. The current renovation project, which began in 2013 and will likely conclude this year, deals with the distribution of power, not the generation of it. But to understand how this enormous undertaking works and how it will benefit the organization, its stakeholders and customers, it is important to first understand the generation side of it all. As electrical energy is generated, 60 percent by natural gas and 40 percent by coal in Gulf Power’s case, it is transformed and transported instantaneously through a network of wires, substations and transformers to the customer, according to Natalie Smith, a communications specialist with the company. Much of this power comes
from the three generation plants Gulf Power owns and a co-generation facility located in our region. Gulf Power also owns interests in two other facilities located outside the state. Electricity is generated at a relatively low voltage and has to therefore be increased to as high as 765,000 volts in order to traverse great distances. This is where transformers come in, which are located near the power point. The transmission lines that carry the electricity can range from 69,000 to 765,000 volts. After the electricity gets closer to its destination, transmission substations
divide the power into secondary transmission lines, which allow the energy to continue on to distribution substations, generally located in major use areas, where the voltage is reduced to distribution system levels. These distribution lines then connect to service transformers located near homes or business, where the voltage is reduced even further to a more manageable capacity. “From the generating station to the final destination, the energy from generated electricity undergoes numerous changes in voltage and direction,” said Smith. “Each change requires expert design and handling to provide the consumer with the least expensive, most reliable energy they can buy.” As you might expect, all these moving pieces that handle hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity require frequent maintenance and upkeep. “We have systems in place to monitor usage and make repairs as necessary,” said Josh Rogers, a senior engineer with Gulf Power. It is because of that
maintenance that Gulf Power has a history of reliability. In 2014, there were just 8,997 total outages. That is down In the US, from 10,950 energy just two years production is before and comprised of: indicates a • 30% downward natural trend of gas almost 40 per• 24% coal cent. The Gulf • 24% Power team is petroleum always look• 11% ing to assess renewable what caused energy outages and • 10% prevent them nuclear as much as possible. “Outages can be caused by lightning, animals, vegetation, cars hitting poles and weather such as wind,” said Smith. To make the system even more reliable is the goal of this reliability-focused undertaking. Major investments are being made to maintain the electric system, strengthen the existing infrastructure and add new transmission lines. Some of the projects included in this renovation include improving or building 27 substations to maintain
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reliable service; building 134 decrease the number of outages, miles of new transmission lines; as well as the time customers are and replacing aged and obsolete without energy when an outage equipment and facilities does occur. In that are beyond their many cases, these Power outages life cycle, including a smart, self-healaffect about 50-mile, 70-year-old ing devices can be 500,000 line from Panama City to programmed to people daily, Marianna, pole replacemake decisions on resulting in ments and storm hardentheir own based about $119 ing for transmission and on the state of the billion in lost distribution, replacesystem. productivity ment of substations “They also and power power transformers, and communicate restoration replacement of aging back to us so we measures. generation equipment. know the nature But the grid reconof what’s hapstruction is not the only pening and can way the company improves factor that in in the future,” said reliability; there are other day- Rogers. “These devices can also to-day methods that Gulf Power communicate with each other employs. Much of the equipment when a fault occurs on the sysused today to keep the lights tem. Power will be rerouted from on use processors much like a a different source without an outcomputer to reroute and manage age occurring.” power quickly and efficiently. All “For example, if a customer is these systems, including hard- on a primary source that experiware and software, work in tan- ences a fault, the fault is regisdem to provide customers with tered, the devices communicate, cheap, reliable energy. and the customer is transferred “In the past, most devices to a different feeder within a fracon the distribution system were tion of a second,” added Smith. mechanical devices with limited Many surges and outages are functionality,” said Smith. “The not surprisingly caused by lightmajority of new smart devices ning strikes. These strikes can are processor based which allows carry millions of volts of electricthe device to be programmed.” ity that can wreak real havoc on These systems are proven to a grid. Luckily, Gulf Power uses
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lightning arrestors, which are placed on the system to protect equipment from strikes. The arrestors give the lightning a path to the ground and therefore sacrifice themselves to save the larger grid. This helps the grid— and customers—avoid widespread damage and a lengthy outage. Finally, there are reclosers, which function like large-scale, smart circuit breakers. Circuit
breakers essentially break a circuit when there is a wiring fault of some sort. Once the problem is corrected, homeowners can go back to their electrical panel, usually in the garage or laundry room, and reset the breaker. When these larger reclosers sense a fault, they open for a short time to break the circuit and allow the fault to clear. It will check again in a few minutes and few minutes after that to see if the problem
Business Climate SPECIAL SECTION
has corrected itself. If it has not, the recloser will lock out until a crew can find and repair what is obviously a serious fault. These reclosers benefit customers and the grid as a whole by limiting the outages that would have otherwise occurred because of weather. Also as a result, temporary blinks occur when a full outage may have otherwise happened. To help keep the power on in new, environmentally friendly ways, the leadership at Gulf Power is currently looking to buy wind energy from Oklahoma as part of an energy purchase agreement. “We’re always looking for diverse sources of power generation,” said Smith. “But we’re not set up to bring in power from just anywhere. We have to be strategic and know what our infrastructure can handle. It’s all part of making and delivering reliable, affordable, environmentally friendly energy.” “Upgrading and improving our infrastructure is making our power grid stronger and more robust,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power’s corporate communications manager, “and will help maintain high reliability today and into the future.”
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Business Climate SPECIAL SECTION
THE MIDDLE-CLASS SQUEEZE S tagnant and often decreasing wages, coupled with the increasing costs of education, healthcare and
retirement, is creating a middle class squeeze unlike
anything America has ever seen. The number of those who identify with being in the lower class is almost greater than those who identify with being in the middle class. Economic mobility and fortune is reserved for the rich, while the rest of us just count ourselves lucky if we can keep our jobs. This inequality has led to a financial crisis that President Obama recently called the defining issue of our time. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a think tank created by Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, recently published a report called “The Middle Class Squeeze,” in which these hardships are documented using statistical data and recommendations are made. Jennifer Erickson, the CAP’s director of competitiveness and economic growth, recently sat down with Business Climate to discuss the report’s findings.
By Josh Newby JENNIFER ERICKSON
The decoupling of employee compensation and productivity Cumulative change in compensation and productivity per hour 300% Real output per hour 200%
100% Real compensation per hour 0 1947 1952 1957 1962 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007 2012 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Real Output per Hour", available at http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/OPHPBS, (last accessed July 2014); and Bureau of Labor Statistics "Real Compensation per Hour," available at http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/COMPRNFB (last accessed July 2014)
This material was created by the Center for American Progress (www.americanprogress.org) nwflbusinessclimate.com nwflbusinessclimate.com||Business BusinessClimate Climate||55 55
Tell me about the report. Well, I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone to hear that the middle class in America is suffering. We used to have the wealthiest middle class in the world and now we don’t. There’s been a lot of talk about the income side of that; people have seen incomes flat or in some cases decline. What we want to do is understand the other side, or what that income can actually buy you. And people will say, “Well inflation is low,” or, “I can afford big-screen TVs now.” But that’s not really what it’s about. Middle class in America isn’t about stuff; it’s about security. So we wanted to look at the costs of key pillars of middle class security. We defined five: childcare, higher education, healthcare, housing and retirement. We found that for a typical middle-income family of four, from 2000 to 2012, that family’s income stayed flat, but the cost of those five things increased by $10,000. How did you go about making recommendations to solve these problems? We have a lot of experts at CAP. We have people who have been in government at both the state and federal level. What we really wanted to do is come up with solutions that were really practical. We need to address both sides of it. We need to bring in policies that’ll raise people’s wages, and also policies that’ll help contain some of these costs. We tried to be as actionable and straightforward as we could. The reason we care about the middle class is because what is happening to them is damaging for our whole economy. The middle class is hurting, and that absolutely hurts our economy, whether you’re in the middle class or not. In fact, Morgan Stanley warned its investors about this recently. We did a report looking at the hundred top retailers in the country. Two out of three said that flat wages were a threat to their stock price. So even if you’re on Wall Street, you’re worried about what’s happening on Main Street. You want to know that people will show up and can buy what you’re selling. You mention in the report the Earned Income Tax Credit, Pell Grant expansion, and other subsidy-type initiatives. How do we pay for those things? There’s a lot we can do in terms of tax fairness in the United States. There’s no secret that there are a lot of loopholes and inefficiencies. Some of the US’s biggest corporations pay nothing in tax. Clearly that is a problem. We need to make sure our tax code is fair, too. I mean apart from politics, it hit people the wrong way that Mitt Romney paid a lower tax rate than they did. Bringing about basic fairness and closing some of those loopholes that frankly do nothing to help our economy: that is in large measure how we will pay for the things we need to do in order to strengthen and grow the middle class. We need to be thinking about this in terms of return on investment. Take for example the interstate system. It’s one of the things that President Eisenhower was proudest of when he was in office. I recently added up how much it cost us and converted it to today’s dollars. It cost $500 billion to build the interstate highway system. No one talks about Eisenhower as this big spending liberal. It was a smart investment to make in the country. It connected the continental 48 states, it was a key defense measure. A third of our productivity in the middle of century came from that investment. It also
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put a tremendous amount of people to work. The GI Bill is another example. It cost us billions of dollars to educate millions of people, and then those millions of people built the strongest economy the world had ever seen. We got that money back many times over in terms of higher economic growth and higher tax receipts. Both parties agree that we need to make smart, sensible investments. How do you incentivize private companies to take more responsibility for their role in income inequality? When workers aren’t paid a living wage, it’s the American people, through food stamps and such, that subsidize that company not paying a higher wage. It gets paid for one way or another. That’s why we need to make sure we have strong and reasonable standards at the state and federal levels. Do I hope that every CEO and corporate board realizes that it’s in their own best interest to pay their workers a good wage? Absolutely I do. But we also know there’s a reason why we set those rules. You can look at the federal minimum wage, which in real terms is lower now than it was in the 1960s. When it’s on ballots in red and blue states in 2014, states are taking the initiative to raise that wage above the federal floor. You’re seeing cities and states move toward workers’ rights like paid sick days. You don’t want people in the restaurant business showing up to work sick. It’s not good business or public policy. Plus, there are some businesses realizing this, like Gap and Costco. Henry Ford paid his workers a good wage, even when he didn’t have to, because he wanted his employees to be able to afford his cars. Some businesses do realize it and increasingly more of them are. On the other hand, there’s a reason why we need to come together and advocate for a system that’s fair. If we don’t do that, we’re going to end up paying for it anyway.
Business Climate SPECIAL SECTION How do you respond to the free market argument against government taking a role in private commerce? There was a free market and private commerce that had four-year-olds working in the coalmines holding lanterns for other workers. We have to set rules that are good for the people and good for the companies. It’s really easy to disparage regulations in the abstract, but who here wants to roll back the Clean Air Act or see the return of child labor? I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that that market that was less regulated was also more effective. Have some of these policies already been enacted on a micro level somewhere? Take something like paid family leave and paid sick days. The United States is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have a national paid sick day standard. You can still lose your job if you don’t show up to work because you or your kid is sick. We’re the only country that doesn’t have paid maternity leave. The United States used to have the richest middle class in the world. We don’t anymore; Canada does. Canada has paid sick days and we don’t. You can absolutely point to places where this has worked and has led to better standards for workers and a more dynamic and sustainable economy. States and cities go forward on this even if the federal government won’t. Seattle has passed a $15 minimum wage. If Washington won’t move, cities and states will, but there is absolutely a cost when Washington doesn’t move. What are some recent policies that you think are positive steps? The minimum wage increase is one. I think 20 different states and localities raised their minimum wage last year. States are moving
toward more opportunities for middle childhood education. That’s a huge cost to America’s middle class. If you’re investing in your future, it makes sense to invest in education. United States is around 25th in the world when it comes to preschool enrollment. Other countries are lapping us. We’re seeing more states and localities move on that, but it’s time for Washington to move on that. Tell me about education and the decreasing value of degrees. There’s a huge amount of education debt, $1.3 trillion worth. Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt in this country. For a lot of people, the jobs haven’t been there on the other side. Right now, you have 18-year-olds across the country making incredibly important and impactful decisions for themselves and their families on very little information. It would be helpful to have a college scorecard and see how many are employed in the field they studied, how much debt they have, how much they make. Let’s take engineering. A lot of people drop out of engineering because engineering is hard. Engineers tend to get lower grades than other people. Imagine if there were a central place they could go and see how much an engineering graduate of this school makes as compared to another major. I’m not saying we should force people to study one thing or another or go to one school or another. But it’s important to at least have the information before taking on five and six figures’ worth of debt. How does housing play into the middle class squeeze? Mortgage rates are still at pretty historic lows, but if we look at underwater housing loans, Florida is second in the country. How does that affect the middle class? Well, it keeps many of
them from investing and being entrepreneurial. Often people will get the seed funding for their businesses from the equity in their house. If it’s upside-down, you don’t have that equity. For homeowners, that’s one part of the problem. Then for renters, there’s another problem. Rents have skyrocketed in many parts of the country. Pew Research just put out a study that said 39 percent of Floridians are paying 30 percent or more of their income on housing. That’s huge. Thirty percent is the threshold where we really start to feel the financial pain. If that’s happening in housing, obviously that cascades down to what you can afford for childcare, what you can afford for higher education, and we haven’t even touched on retirement. No wonder we’re walking into a retirement crisis. We can’t save up for that. One out of every three households has no retirement savings. How can people translate all this information into voting for the right initiatives at the polls? It certainly varies issue by issue. All politicians are at least talking about the middle class, but it’s important to focus on what they’re doing about it. What are they prepared to vote for? People need to decide what issues are most important to them and then figure out where their representative lands on that issue. If it’s minimum wage, it’s very easy to see whether politicians are in support of that or not. I think the vast majority of Americans are, and poll after poll tells us that. Now more than ever, we are required as voters to tell our representatives what we want to happen. It’s not enough to talk about the middle class squeeze; we have to implement laws that will tangibly help. Ultimately, speeches aren’t going to help anybody.
Photo by John Benson
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Even in this age of instant access and crowd sourced information, unbiased, credible journalism is still our connection to conflicts worlds away and foreign issues right here at home. Sebastian Junger, an award-winning reporter who has written books including The Perfect Storm and directed acclaimed documentaries about war and its impacts, is the best of the bunch, and routinely takes his readers from the comforts of their home to the front lines of history. Business Climate sat down with Junger to hear his thoughts on war, veterans affairs, social issues, and the journalism industry on the eve of his visit to Pensacola as part of the University of West Florida’s lecture series.
by Josh Newby
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Tell me a little about your recent projects. I’ve been a war reporter since the early 90s. I’ve written a couple books. My first book was called The Perfect Storm. I also wrote a book called War, about the experience of a platoon in combat in Eastern Afghanistan in an outpost called Restrepo. I also made a documentary film with my colleague Tim Hetherington called Restrepo that was nominated for an Oscar. Tim was killed in combat in Libya right after we were at the Oscars in 2011, so I stopped combat reporting. I made a film about him, his life and his work and his death. I went on to make a couple other films. I’m a contributing editor for Vanity Fair. I just turned in an article for them on PTSD. I’m not sure what I’m doing next. What inspired you to start writing detailed, long-form non-fiction? Well I grew up reading master storytellers in non-fiction, and I just became enamored with that. I’ve done some front line news reports also when I was in Bosnia in the early 90s. I was filing for radio networks on the war. For me, the most satisfying is book or long-form magazine journalism. It seems to combine the best of both worlds. You’ve written a lot about war. How do you feel about the effectiveness of war at navigating international conflicts? My first war was Bosnia, which was brought to an end by NATO intervention. It effectively brought a genocide to an end. Every war I’ve ever been to has been ended or reduced by Western military action. I know there’s limits to what diplomacy can do. At some point, clearly, diplomacy wasn’t going to get the Nazis to end World War II. I think there are times when war is the answer, to contradict that common slogan. But I also think
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it’s terribly misused as well. I was personally against the Iraq war. Not Afghanistan though. I’d been going to Afghanistan since the mid-90s. It was a country I knew really well. I thought that NATO forces there could do a lot of good to end civil wars that had been going on for over a decade. I was completely against the Iraq war. For me, that was a misuse of our resources. It’s hard to generalize about war in that sense. Obviously it’s a very political topic. Most documentaries about war are overly celebrating soldiers or overtly critiquing the moral and political basis for the war. Very few works are neutral. What impact of war have you seen first hand? I grew up in a very small suburb. I went to Bosnia in 1993. I ended up going to wars in Africa, and then finally at the end of my career with US forces
in Afghanistan. It changes you tremendously. It’s very traumatizing, but it’s also sort of very maturing. I think that’s true for soldiers as well. What are your thoughts on this country’s current actions toward soldiers’ reintegration into civilian life? Obviously the public this time around, in contrast to Vietnam, is extremely venerating of soldiers, almost reflexively so, which I’m not sure is psychologically healthy for them either. The opposite is not great for them either, though. The VA was a huge bureaucratic mess that is slowly being cleaned up. The treatment for PTSD is actually pretty effective. I think more generally we have a very alienating fragment in society, and you can see that in the civilian rate of suicide, depression, insomnia,
“I think the reason we feel flawed in some ways is that evolutionary programming seems to be at odds with the modern world as we’ve created it.”
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child abuse, etc. So you can see the trouble we all have living in society. So to me it’s not surprising that we have soldiers coming back from a very tightly bounded group experience in war and really struggle to fit in. How has seeing these issues first hand impacted your perspective of war, politics, conflict, etc.? I grew up during Vietnam and completely understand the anti-war perspective. But I also understand that it was a complete travesty that no one intervened in Rwanda at a point when the genocide could’ve been stopped. Action in Bosnia and Liberia: all those actions saved human life and consequently I was for them. I think you have to experience war and intervention to understand the dynamics there and understand that there are reasonable, ethical situations where states can intervene, when a country is
sinking into anarchy and civil war. You’ve written about race and the justice system here in America. What are your opinions on recent events? Labor laws, suffrage laws, civil rights laws: all came to this country first. We really are groundbreakers against child labor. We really are groundbreakers in the world in social justice. There’s enormous gaps and human society is really complicated and people make mistakes. People have their biases. If you look at people like Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, he’s American. That kind of thinking happened in this country first and was implemented legally in this country first. That’s something to be very proud of. I think, however, that there’s an enormous problem with institutional racism in police departments. I think even African-American police
officers can be affected by that. I still think our legal system, on a national level, is quite fair. I’m against the death penalty, though. I don’t think the death penalty is applied fairly; I don’t think it should be applied at all. But I’ve traveled the whole world. You get to compare countries, and it’s pretty remarkable what we’ve done for a country in terms of social justice. So are you optimistic or cynical about the current state of affairs? We’re primates, and we’re designed to survive. The principles of evolution don’t ask for anything else. I think a lot of our behavior is a function of very ancient survival programming and Darwinian evolution and process. I think the reason we feel flawed in some ways is that evolutionary programming seems to be at odds with the modern world as we’ve created it. But as a species, we’re enormously successful; there’s 7 million of us. Whatever we are, it’s working. As a journalist, what do you see for the future of the field? The Internet has changed everything, not just in journalism. People will always need unbiased information and only journalists are trained to provide that. There will always be a role for them. I think the industry’s going to have to figure out a different way to compensate people for their work, because the old paradigm before the Internet is done. How do you get fairly paid for your work in a war zone if you’re selling things for $50 to an online news community and it can get reposted indefinitely? For people to continue in the work of journalism, the industry’s going to have to figure that out. There’s a huge societal problem in journalism there.
Photo: Michael Kamber
What is your favorite or most impactful project that you’ve worked on? War and Restrepo were the most recent ones and affected me the most deeply. Are there any upcoming subjects that you want to cover in more depth? All the stuff that I talk about in some form has to do with courage. Courage is a funny topic in terms of evolution. Courageous behavior gets people killed and that should be selected out. Brave 20-yearolds don’t get to have children because they throw themselves on a hand grenade. You’d think those genes would be weeded out of the population. We’re the only animal where an individual male will sacrifice itself for a same-sex peer. Even chimpanzees won’t do that. So genetically how does that work? I talk about courage in those terms and reconciling it with evolutionary theory. Tell me about your interest in biology. I studied anthropology in college, not journalism, so I tend to see things through that prism. Anything else you’d like to add? I’d like to mention that after Tim was killed in Libya, none of the journalists around him knew what to do. He was hit in the leg and he bled out; it didn’t have to be mortal. He just bled out. No one knew what to do. So I started a non-profit group called RISC, Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues. Probably 90 percent of front line reporting is done by freelancers and they don’t get any medical training of any sort. So I started this non-profit to train experienced war reporters in first-responder battlefield medical techniques of the sort that might’ve saved Tim’s life and may save other lives.
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The art of negotiation JUST SAY THE WORD “NEGOTIATE,” AND MOST PEOPLE CONJURE UP IMAGES OF AWKWARD CONFRONTATION AND AN UNBALANCED WAR OF WORDS. NOT SO, SAYS SCHOLAR ELDONNA LEWIS-FERNANDEZ, AUTHOR OF THINK LIKE A NEGOTIATOR. SO HOW DOES MAXIMIZE THEIR BARGAINING PROWESS IN BUSINESS AND LIFE? BY FOLLOWING THESE SEVEN CRITICAL STRATEGIES.
F
irst, project confidence through preparedness. Many people think they need to show a certain kind of confidence, like being loud, bold or brazen, to successfully negotiate a deal. Others think that a lot of experience is required to be a good negotiator. Most of the time it merely takes tenac-
more amenable to your stipulations. Projecting a notable level of confidence, and backing that up with solid, well-researched information, will help ensure you prevail.
However, even rules are negotiable! They can be modified if you simply propose an ethical, viable and mutually beneficial alternative solution. Powerful negotiators are rule breakers!
Everything is negotiable
Relationships are key
Understand that everything is negotiable. When you think like
Create a strong foundation by building relationships first. This
Photo by Sebastian ter Burg
Find out something about them and their lives. Get personal. Much useful information can be gleaned during casual conversation, including what they value in life, what motivates them, what annoys them, their ethics, etc. Find out something about them, personally, and not just their business. You might be surprised how well you can leverage what you learn through a genuine conversation with someone.
Be crystal clear
ity and good old preparation to ensure you are aptly equipped to assert mutually desirable terms, anticipate objections, and discern what motivators or “hot buttons” will resonate with your opponent. Projecting confidence also means having heart, which is endearing to others whether or not you have years of negotiation experience. This can also result in the opposition having a less defensive stance, making them
a negotiator, everything is negotiable! It’s a mindset you have to operate from in order to become not just a good negotiator, but a great one. When you decide that the terms for anything can be changed in your favor, a world of opportunity presents itself. Of course, as with most things in life, there will be rules to adhere to with each deal on the table, which are needed to evade chaos and keep discussions on track.
is probably one of the most important things an individual can do in regards to negotiation and in business in general. Perhaps you have attended the standard “networking” event where you give dozens of cards out without having a real conversation with anyone. It’s time to slow down and start making real connections with people— particularly those you might be involved in a deal with later on.
Ask for what you want. There is one key truth in negotiations: you must ask for what you want. Sounds simple enough, but in practice it can often be daunting. People naturally fear rejection or were taught not to be “greedy” as children, so we instinctually refrain from asking for things in life. However, in business, rejection is never personal—it’s merely a reflection that you did not present a viable argument substantiating why you should get what you want. If you hear “no,” it’s the offer that is being rejected, not you, so keep emotions in check and re-calibrate your approach. “No” often just reflects a need for more information, and take heart in knowing that people say no an average of three times before they say “yes.” It is important to understand that if you don’t ask you don’t get and the only way to master the art of rejection is to get rejected and keep asking. When negotiating, make it a priority to ask for exactly what you want. Most of the time you will either receive what you want or an acceptable alternative. nwflbusinessclimate.com nwflbusinessclimate.com || Business Business Climate Climate || 63 63
Silence is gold Use the power of silence. Talking too much is a sure-fire way to kill a deal. Have you ever been offered a product or service, and the salesperson kept talking until he or she talked you right out of the purchase? If they would have simply asked for the sale and stopped talking, their chance for success would have increased significantly. Never underestimate the power of silence. There’s an old adage that says “he or she who speaks next loses.” When discussing a deal, if you simply stop talking and get comfortable with the awkwardness of silence, your ability to win your argument, sell the product, or a get concession in the negotiation increases significantly.
Have a paper trail Document everything. The importance of getting the final
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agreement in writing cannot be stressed enough. Even better, consult with a contracts attorney to review contractual documents or any that require a signature. The purpose of a written agreement or contract is to provide protection for both sides and alleviate any ambiguity of terms. A myriad of problems can occur when the terms of a deal are not put in writing because what you “think” the other party said and what they “think” you said can be two different things. Documenting the agreement eliminates such “perception” problems and protects the interests of all parties involved.
Don’t just sign and drive Understand exactly what you are signing. Before you sign on the dotted line, it is imperative you read what you are signing— no matter how large of a packet it entails. Modern life is fast-paced
and people are usually engaged in multiple things at once, making it difficult to focus and causing some to sign legal documents without reading them first. The result can be nothing short of disastrous. Make sure you read any agreement or contract in full, to ensure you are not confirming terms you will regret and cannot undo, which can cause copious problems for your future. “While even the word ‘negotiation’ can evoke fear, stress and anxiety for many, the intent is quite simple: to discuss and ultimately agree on a deal,” says Eldonna. “Whether it’s a multimillion dollar contract or just deciding where to meet for lunch, life is rife with negotiations. And, the negotiation process is a lot like a chess game where strategy reigns supreme—one thoughtfully considered move at a time. Make a careless, short-sighted, ill-conceived move and suffer the
perilous consequences. “Whether you are a seasoned negotiator or avoid wheeling and dealing with people altogether, you will vastly improve your results and be motivated to “get in the game” by knowing how to avoid these prime pitfalls. Whether seeking to gain advantages in your business or personal life, the art of “thinking like a negotiator” will profoundly impact your ability to actualize your desired outcome.”
Business Climate SPECIAL SECTION
The Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart to redesign lobby A redesign of the lobby at The Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart will soon mean a peaceful and more welcoming arrival to the hospital for sick children, pregnant women and their loved ones. Open in its current location since 1996, The Children’s Hospital lobby will receive a complete facelift of gently colored walls, floor patterns, ceiling decorations and furniture. The information desk will move so that guest liaisons can be closer to and facing the entrance doors. This makes staff more visible and accessible to patients and guests, in addition to enhancing security for all. The new lobby will also include a gift shop, staffed by hospital volunteers and completely devoted to merchandise to comfort pediatric and women’s services patients. Construction began on March 9 and will take about three months to complete. During that time, the current Children’s Hospital lobby will be closed. Outdoor signage will direct patients, visitors and associates to an alternative entrance – a double door to the right of the current entrance, behind parking spaces for the hospital’s fleet of pediatric and neonatal transport vehicles. The alternative entrance leads into a hallway, through which guests can access the main hospital or take the elevators to the second or third floors of The Children’s Hospital. First floor services of The Children’s Hospital – including The Nesting Place Women’s Boutique and the Regional Perinatal Center for High-Risk Pregnancy – will remain in their current locations and can be accessed through the temporary entrance. A hospital volunteer or security guard will be stationed at the temporary entrance at all times to answer questions and provide directions.
Pen Air Federal Credit Union earns 5-star sustained superiority distinction Pen Air Federal Credit Union has earned BauerFinancial Inc.’s 5-Star Superior Rating for strength and security for the 97th consecutive quarter which ranks the credit union in an elite status from other financial institutions as a “Sustained Superiority Credit Union. This is proof positive that a financial institution can provide quality service and maintain excellent standards at the same time. “We are deeply honored to earn this distinction among our peers. A 5-Star Superior rating reinforces the reputation Pen Air Federal Credit Union strives for and is a tribute to our team’s efforts,” comments Stu Ramsey, Pen Air FCU president and CEO. BaurerFinancial Inc, of Coral Gables, Florida, the nation’s credit union and bank rating firm, has been evaluating and rating credit unions since 1983. A 5-Star Superior rating is only given to those financial institutions that demonstrate financial strength in areas such as capital and loan quality. In fact, Pen Air FCU has earned the highest rating for over 97 consecutive quarters. Only 5 percent of the nation’s credit unions have earned and maintained Bauer’s top rating.
around the region
AFCEA scholarships now available for college-bound STEM students Local high school students pursuing advanced education in a STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) are now eligible for new funding in the form of AFCEA scholarships. The AFCEA Blue Angels Pensacola Chapter is making $10,000 in college funds available to local graduates as a result of the recently successful CyberThon event that gave high school students a chance to test their cyber-security skills against real-time cyber attacks. CyberThon garnered widespread support across the Pensacola region, and sponsor donations are now being put to work to continue the effort of supporting STEM students. Any high school senior bound for college in a science, technology, engineering or math track is eligible to apply. Upon reviewing applicants, the AFCEA Board of Directors will award up to ten scholarships of $1,000 each, or higher amounts should fewer students apply. Additional information, application documents and submission instructions are available at afceapensacola.org scholarships. The deadline for application submission is April 27, with awards announced by May 31, 2015.
UWF Trustees vote to extend President Bense’s contract On March 25, the University of West Florida Board of Trustees voted to keep Dr. Judith Bense as the President of the University of West Florida until Dec. 31, 2016. The extended term, together with changes to the provisions of her contract relating to her return to faculty after Dec. 31, 2016, are set forth in an Addendum to President’s Employment Agreement approved by the Board. The Addendum increases by 10 percent the amount that Bense will be paid during the one year sabbatical leave that will be extended following the end of her term as President and during the three years following her return to faculty. In the faculty appointment following the end of her presidency, Bense will report to the Provost in the same manner as other tenured faculty and will be subject to the University’s personnel policies and will not be considered executive service. She will be required to teach at least one course per year and will be provided with office space, administrative support coverage and a full time graduate student assistant for research. The terms of this appointment will extend for a period of three years, renewable thereafter on mutual agreement upon mutually agreeable terms. 850.429.0002 | info@nwfl.bbb.org nwflbusinessclimate.com | Business Climate | 65 nwflbusinessclimate.com | Business Climate | 65
WSRE PRESENTS
WSRE’s new Public Square Speakers Series brings personalities, who have achieved renown for their contributions to education, the arts, sciences or media, to the Jean & Paul Amos Performance Studio for public conversations on noteworthy topics and important issues. WSRE’s Public Square speaking engagements are open to the public. Admission is free!
MAY 19, 2015 7 P.M. (DOORS OPEN AT 6:30 P.M.)
WSRE JEAN & PAUL AMOS PERFORMANCE STUDIO Photo credit: Lyndie Benson
RORY KENNEDY
ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED AND EMMY AWARD-WINNING PRODUCER; PRODUCER/DIRECTOR OF THE ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED DOCUMENTARY, “LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM”
66 4780-0315 | Business Climate | nwflbusinessclimate.com WSRE PM-BC April FP ad.indd 1
PENSACOLA STATE COLLEGE 1000 COLLEGE BOULEVARD PENSACOLA free admission RSVP requested; not required wsre.org/speakers
PBS for the Gulf Coast
Directions: WSRE is located on the campus of Pensacola State College at 1000 College Blvd. in Pensacola. The station sits at the corner of 12th Ave. and College Blvd. Parking for the Amos Studio is located at the west end of the station, off College Blvd. near the PSC Hartsell Arena and pool.
3/16/15 4:24 PM