The Cleveland Indians Baseball Company L.P. (Cleveland Indians) acquires players through a number of sources, including the amateur draft, free agency, trades and international markets.

To recruit players from each of these sources, the club must abide by varying rules, bidding processes, and norms in order to successfully acquire new players.  Each process presents different negotiation challenges for the organization.  In this project, the Cleveland Indians asked HNMCP to help it better understand these varying negotiation processes, and to help develop a more structured negotiation strategy to acquire the best players, given the club’s limited margin for maneuver and finite resources.

Our work

Step 1:  Background research into the specific procedural constraints related to each potential source of new baseball players, and an investigation into the current negotiation strategy employed by the Cleveland Indians.

Step 2:  Analysis of the principal strengths and weaknesses of the Cleveland Indians’ various negotiation strategies.

Step 3:  Brainstorming about possible changes to the current negotiation strategies that might increase the effectiveness of the Cleveland Indians’ overall negotiations.

Final Product

Comprehensive report of findings, followed by a recommended negotiation strategy for the Cleveland Indians to follow with regard to potential players from each category of potential new players.