International Business Negotiation
In the mid-ninety's, I was involved in an international business negotiation between an American telecom company and a larger Dutch conglomerate. Our negotiating team consisted of a member of the Board of Directors, the senior vice president and CEO, another senior vice president who headed the largest division of the company and a simple director - me. At that time I ran the mergers and acquisitions department of the American company.
The potential transaction was the sale of the American company to the Dutch.
Derailed Negotiation Strategy
After days making presentations to varying levels of the Dutch company's management, and traveling across Holland in a car that was too small, our tired team was presenting to the Dutch senior management. After an hour or more the CFO of our company and the ranking person on the other side began what could have deteriorated into a serious argument.
The Dutch manager made the comment that our company's inventory turns were far too low. ( Inventory turns is a measure of how fast inventory “turns over” during the course of a year. 
More turnovers means the inventory is not overstocked and that it is selling quickly. It is a key measure of the health of the company and of good management.)
Our CFO was widely recognized for increasing the inventory turns during the his tenure. He stated that our inventory turns were excellent, especially for a telecom company. The Dutch representative, escalated the situation by stating that the turns were so bad that some of our equipment must be faulty – we could not sell it so the inventory turns went down. He made it clear that such a situation could be a deal killer.
By this time our CFO was red in the face and the Dutch lead was close behind. The other members of our team had joined in, as well as the Dutch, and chaos was the result.
Win Win Negotiation Saved
As the lowest ranking member of the team I was, of course, turning the slides for the presentation. (Note: I also had done all of the financial analysis and written most of the slides, but I knew my place.) Because my only task was so simple, I was free just to listen. I happened to hear one member of the Dutch team talking to one of his compatriots and I caught the term “revenue.”
At that point I yelled “stop”, and a shocked silence followed. I asked the head of the Dutch team how they measured inventory turns. He said the calculation involved inventory and revenue. I informed him that, in the U.S., we calculate inventory turns on cost of goods sold, not revenue. In order to make our inventory turns comparable to those calculated using the the Dutch method, they had to be doubled!
The reaction was, as you might expect, a brief pause followed by the resumption of the presentation as if nothing had happened.
In fact, no transaction was completed with the Dutch company, which was not a big surprise. However, discussions did continue for some time, only because I had been free just to listen.