Introduction
Contracts enable the parties that are willing to cooperate to agree on and set a list of rules that will guide their collaboration. Written contracts may consist of different sections, including the preamble, definitions of terms, the words of agreement, and the duties that each side promises to fulfill. More than that, contracts may include a range of sections that specify the way of how a contract will be managed and assurances proving that the facts critical for contract execution are true.
Negotiation contracts help the parties to reach a compromise on contract terms and, therefore, prepare to engage in business relationships. Concerning their importance, contracts can be regarded as the tools that help the parties to ensure the effectiveness of further collaboration. Contracts are indispensable since they protect parties that are willing to build fruitful business relationships and facilitate decision-making in case of conflicts and further disagreements on particular aspects of collaboration.
Specific Circumstances
The scenario created for this assignment refers to the collaboration between the event planning agency and two individuals that are going to marry in November of 2020. The individuals, George Brown and Changchang Zhao would like the Fete Group to plan their wedding day, including the ceremony and the following celebration with relatives. The Fete Group is an event planning business that serves its clients in Rochester, New York. The Fete Group is a youthful company that is willing to expand and needs promotion and interesting projects to stand out among other event planning businesses in the state. The clients mentioned above have a variety of specific needs since they are going to have an interracial marriage and wish their families’ traditions to be observed and respected during the planned celebration.
The basic problem is that not all specialists in the area have enough experience with couples that wish to combine the traditions of different races to please their guests. Moreover, it can be challenging for agencies to find high-quality traditional dresses for the bride and her bridesmaids and meet other expectations of the couple. Despite that, the agency’s representatives have agreed to help with the ceremony but also mentioned extra costs and difficulties related to planning the American-Chinese celebration. Having analyzed the couple’s preferences, the agency concluded that the required services would cost at least $4,800.
George Brown owns an online dating site that is used by thousands of people in the State of New York. He also operates a popular blog in which he shares his thoughts on intercultural relationships and the culture of Asia. Apart from paying for the agency’s services, he considers advertising the agency on his website in gratitude for the Fete Group’s assistance with the project. He also considers creating a series of blog posts devoted to the wedding and those who have helped to organize it.
In return for that, George asks the company to give them a discount. Having learned about the groom’s readiness to advertise the Fete Group, the company agrees to offer its prospective customers a discount to avoid losing a helpful opportunity. This offer acts as an additional motivator for the Fete Group, and the company expresses the readiness to do its best to organize the celebration. On that note, the parties agree to discuss their needs and expectations in a profound manner and prepare for drafting a contract.
Importance of Addressing Other’s Needs
Prior to drafting and discussing contracts, parties that are willing to collaborate are expected to clearly formulate their own needs and be ready to give consideration to each other’s expectations and requirements. Customer satisfaction is often cited as the first priority of modern businesses (Stevenson, 2018). Businesses’ ability to address their clients’ basic and sophisticated needs can be regarded as a prerequisite to achieving success and building a good reputation among prospective customers.
Despite the critique of traditional wedding rituals, such as white dresses, many brides associate them with positive emotions for the entire family (Froschauer & Durrheim, 2019). For event planners, being aware of such trends in prospective clients’ attitudes toward weddings is of critical importance. It is because service providers will not be able to meet their clients’ needs to a full extent without understanding the meaning that they attach to the planned events.
Being able to address others’ needs is also of great importance since it enables the collaborating parties to gain new experiences that will be helpful in the future. As an event planning business, the Fete Group needs to recognize and address the couple’s specific needs in order to gain experience dealing with difficult and unusual projects, such as intercultural weddings. The understanding of multicultural communication belongs to the critical skills and competencies that wedding planners should demonstrate (Huang, Hou, & Hong, 2017). Due to the specifics of their work, individual specialists and businesses in the event planning industry should be ready to adapt to different circumstances and clients.
Being the party that is expected to provide high-quality services, the Fete Group still has a variety of needs that the prospective customers are supposed to fulfill. To begin with, after signing a contract with George Brown, the team responsible for event planning will have to find and order everything necessary for the ceremony. Apart from choosing and purchasing relatively affordable items, including felt lanterns and other decoration supplies, the team will need to help the couple with making quite expensive purchases. Among them is a qipao dress for the bride, outfits for her bridesmaids, a wedding tuxedo, and so on.
Because of the characteristics of the planned ceremony and the large number of guests that the couple is going to invite, the company’s team will need to complete more tasks than it usually does. For instance, the specialists will need to hire two teams of chefs to have both Chinese and European foods prepared for guests. In a similar manner, extra efforts will be required to provide decorations in two different styles and implement entertainment ideas that will please all guests.
The Fete Group has two basic needs in the given scenario. To start from, given that celebration organization is going to be quite a difficult and time-consuming task, the company should avoid promising a discount that will be too large. At the same time, offering no discount at all can make the prospective clients interested in collaborating with a different agency, and the Fete Group will lose this valuable opportunity for promotion.
To continue, it is in the Fete Group’s best interests to proceed with the couple’s unconventional project in order to improve the portfolio and differentiate themselves from other local businesses that never organize multicultural weddings. Also, as a relatively new company, the Fete Group actually needs to be advertised, and the company wants the blog posts about its services to be seen by as many people as possible. Therefore, the agency would like George Brown to write at least five posts about their collaboration and keep them at the top of his blog for two months.
George Brown and his bride also hope to engage in mutually advantageous cooperation with the agency to satisfy a range of needs. To begin with, the bride and the groom are too busy with their jobs and studies to organize the celebration themselves, which is the reason why they need a qualified full-service wedding planner. Apart from that, Changchang’s relatives insist on observing Chinese traditions since a wedding with traditional American or European aesthetics would, as they believe, disconnect the young woman from her native culture.
At the same time, George’s parents and guests would also like to experience something familiar when it comes to decoration, food, and entertainment, which is why a fully Chinese wedding cannot be regarded as a viable option. With that in mind, the couple needs a true professional to combine the attributes of the two cultures in an elegant and respectful way. A specialist or a team to work with the couple should understand the basics of intercultural communication and demonstrate management skills and a good aesthetic taste to create an atmosphere appealing to all guests.
Aside from the need for high-quality event planning services and full-time assistance with all wedding organization tasks, the couple would like to cut the expenses as much as possible. The bride and groom’s budget is not very tight, but they understand that the implementation of their ideas will not cost as much as typical wedding celebrations. The prospective customers know that event planning agencies that are not new in the market have higher costs of services, and such packages of services would be too expensive for them.
After comparing different agencies’ price lists, they have concluded that the Fete Group would be the best option in terms of the price-quality relationship, but it would still be perfect for them to get a discount. The couple would not be able to spend more than $4,300 on wedding planning services, whereas the price for organizing this type of wedding mentioned by the Fete Group is at least $4,800. Therefore, George Brown is interested in getting at least a 10% discount in exchange for his advertising services.
Preconditions
As for the basic prerequisites for developing contracts and engaging in business relationships, they include the legal capacity of all parties. To be capable of making legally valid agreements, all parties should be of lawful age and have the mental capacity to make high-impact decisions and analyze different situations (“Contract,” 2018). Mental capacity involves the absence of both chronics (mental health disorders) and temporary (intoxication) barriers to proper decision-making. Legal adulthood and no impairments to mental capacity will be among the basic prerequisites for making a contract in the case of the Fete Group and George Brown.
Apart from confirming the parties’ legal capacity, it is critical to make sure that the parties make decisions on their own. An important prerequisite that must be followed to make a valid contract is the presence of free consent to take on some duties and responsibilities (“Contract,” 2018). In other words, it is of utmost importance that the Fete Group and George make crossing offers to each other by choice and are not urged to do it by threats or force.
The degree to which the parties are sincere when it comes to their intentions, the resources that they possess, and the ability to deliver on all promises made is another precondition that must be considered. To proceed with the development of a valid contract, it is pivotal to make sure that neither of the parties tries to commit acts of fraud or pursues any illegal goals (“Contract,” 2018). As for the subject matter, the futures contract is to be centered on the provision of professional wedding planning services at a discount and services related to advertising an event planning agency. Neither of the offers has to deal with illegal activities, which makes it possible to come to a valid agreement in the future.
Additionally, to confirm the ability to fulfill the mentioned promises without fraud, the parties may be required to provide some documentation to each other. The agency may need to prove that the couple is going to work with a certified employee that holds a degree in hospitality management and has some experience and positive reviews from customers (Whitney, 2016). In return, George Brown will have to confirm that he is the only owner of the dating and blog websites mentioned by him and that both resources work properly. To inform the agency’s decision-making concerning the size of the discount, he will also need to provide visitor flow reports containing accurate and up-to-date information about both of his online resources.
Contract
The negotiation contract is to be jointly built by the Fete Group and George Brown and specify the obligations that both parties are ready to accept. It will be essential to specify the terms of cooperation in a mutual services agreement. The details and sections that could be included in the document are presented below.
Parties
- Name: The Fete Group
- Address: 5 Abbott St., Rochester, NY
- Contact: Jane Doe
- E-mail/phone number: info@thefeteagency.com, +1585555
- Name: George Brown
- Address: 7 New York St., Rochester, NY
- E-mail/phone number: georgebrown@hotmail.com, +1585666
Agreement
According to the present mutual services agreement, the Fete Group will offer George Brown its all-inclusive wedding package at an exclusive price of $4,080 instead of the regular price ($4,800). Changes to the price are not to be followed by any alterations regarding the scope and quality of services, as well as the schedule of meetings with the couple/vendors. In his turn, George Brown agrees to create five posts with photos (at least 300 words each) and publish them in his blog (georgebrownsblog.com) within two weeks of receipt of the wedding planning services.
Each post prepared by George Brown will be his own work devoted to the celebration organized by the Fete Group and contain at least two explicit positive mentions of the agency. Each post will include only accurate and non-confidential information pertaining to the Fete Group, its employees, and its activities. Each post will be available on the main page of the resource for eight weeks after the posting date. George Brown will place a banner advertisement selected and approved by the Fete Group at the top of the main page of his dating service website (nydating.com) within a week after the day of the wedding ceremony. The web banner will be removed no earlier than two weeks after the date of placement.
Relationship
The Fete Group agrees to provide the services listed in the agreement to George Brown at the stated price, and George Brown agrees to provide the specified advertising services to the Fete Group. Neither of the parties will be authorized to act on behalf of the other party or enforce additional obligations not specified in this and subsequent agreements with the other party.
Agreement Period
The present agreement will commence after the signing of the Wedding Planner Contract between the parties. The agreement will be in force for ten weeks after the date of George Brown’s wedding ceremony and will not renew automatically.
Obligations and Duties
During the term, both parties agree to perform all obligations stated in the agreement, provide all services with skill and in a timely manner and demonstrate compliance with all relevant laws.
George Brown will provide advertising services to the other party subject to conditions specified in the agreement and ensure that he has the equipment to perform all obligations under the agreement.
The Fete Group will provide full-time wedding planning services (the all-inclusive package) to the other party at the specified price and make sure that it has the necessary equipment, personnel, and facilities to provide all obligations.
Payment
The price for the Fete Group’s all-inclusive service package ($4,080) is the final negotiated price that is not subject to change. After signing the wedding planner contract, the client will make a payment under terms that will be mutually agreed upon by the parties. No payments will be provided for George Brown’s web advertising services specified in the present agreement.
Confidentiality
When gaining access to the other party’s confidential information, both parties agree to treat it with confidence and avoid disclosing details about the other party without its explicit consent. Also, the parties promise not to use information about the other party for purposes that are not specified in this agreement.
Dispute Resolution
The parties take on the obligation to make efforts to resolve any conflict arising between them. The Fete Group, if dissatisfied with George Brown’s performance, will be able to refer to the present agreement that specifies his actions after receiving services. George Brown will be able to refer to the agreement if asked to pay extra after making the full payment to the Fete Group ($4,080). If dissatisfied with the scope or quality of the provided services, George Brown will refer to the wedding planner contract with the agency.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
The Fete Group and George Brown agree that the present agreement shall be governed by New York law.
Conclusion
To sum up, agreements between people can take a variety of forms, ranging from informal verbal discussions of cooperation to well-structured documents that specify the terms and conditions of business between at least two parties. By presenting the duties of both sides and specifying actions that should follow conflicts, such documents are aimed at preventing adverse consequences for the collaborating parties and minimizing opportunities for fraud in different businesses.
In the scenario involving the agency and its prospective client, a negotiation contract would help to transform a verbal agreement between the parties into a written document that would have power in case of conflicts. Therefore, it will enable the parties to collaborate and gain benefits with the minimized risks of adverse consequences and the partner’s poor performance.
References
Contract. (2018). In Funk & Wagnall’s new world encyclopedia. Web.
Froschauer, U., & Durrheim, K. (2019). “It’s the bride’s day”: The paradox of women’s emancipation. Feminism & Psychology, 29(1), 58–75.
Huang, H. C., Hou, C. I., & Hong, Y. S. (2017). Analysis of importance of the professional abilities required by personnel in wedding planner services. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 9(4), 157–170.
Stevenson, W. J. (2018). Operations management (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Whitney, P. A. (2016). Multiple case study of event management curricula and industry professionals’ expectations of new graduates (Doctoral dissertation). Web.