The negotiation process in mass consumption companies in Colombia in VUCA environments, COVID-19 case* El proceso de negociación en compañías de consumo masivo en Colombia en entornos VUCA, caso COVID-19*

Abstract

Mass consumption companies in Colombia must carry out negotiations constantly, however, the negotiation process should not be conceived as a standard that is executed countless times. On the contrary, it is essential to take into account the context. In this sense, this article aims to propose an effective negotiation methodology, applicable in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments in Colombia - COVID-19 case. To this end, existing negotiation methodologies and the effects caused by the pandemic were consulted in various bibliographic sources to determine an optimal negotiation process, identifying the effects that could have the most relevant impacts on the results of the negotiation. Thus, an instrument composed of 61 items was developed, validated by three experts. This was implemented in 37 reporting units, belonging to the Chamber of the Food Industry and the Chamber of the Beverage Industry of ANDI. A coefficient of 0.887 was obtained, reflecting an acceptable level of reliability. When identifying effects generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the negotiation process of mass consumption companies in Colombia, three types of impacts were found: effects on communication, effects on the economy and effects on consumer variables. The mean of the items of this variable was 3.86 and the median was 4, representing a very positive validation trend. These results allowed us to design a methodology that implements effective negotiation techniques in times of uncertainty, identifying the impacts that COVID-19 had on supply and sales negotiation, as well as the way in which processes should be adjusted and transformed to different situations.