Mark Cuban: Master Negotiator

In our country there have been a lot of successful business owners and negotiators. When reviewing the project specifications of the assignment and choosing a negotiator in my industry, there was immediately one person who came to mind. That individual, Mark Cuban.  Initially, I thought maybe Drew Rosenhaus, one of my favorite businessman and negotiators of all time. After more thought, I realized that Mark Cuban has expanded his negotiations outside of sports whereas Rosenhaus is a staple primarily in the sports industry. Mark Cuban himself has stretched his negotiating style across more than one industry and has quite a successful track record in them all.

He is well known as being the energetic, outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks. You can catch him courtside of almost every Mavericks game, laid back, in a t-shirt and jeans cheering his franchise on. What makes him stand out is the love that the players and fans have for him, more importantly his players. When speaking about his negotiation style with his players, Cuban’s reputation is that he treats players extremely well. This leads to successful contractual negotiations with premier basketball players in the NBA joining his team. Outside of basketball, Cuban’s negotiation expertise is widely regarded on the hit TV show “Shark Tank”.

Of the Questions I would ask Mark Cuban are 1.) Would he consider his negotiation style as aggressive, passive, passive aggressive? I would ask that question because he seems to have a way to exhibit different personalities at different times. 2.) I would also ask him if he changes his negotiation strategy when it comes to different industries? The reason for asking this question is because he has been extremely successful across many different industries. Lastly, 3.) His motives. I would want to know what his motives are or if there are ever any underlying motives (besides the negotiation going in his favor) that he seeks to successfully win a negotiation. This is more of a question to see if he has a keen sense of when or how he knows he has control of a negotiation.

As I stated before, I chose Mark Cuban because he has stretched his negotiating style across more than one industry and has quite a successful track record in them all. Except for the Deandre Jordan deal of course.