Charm Offensive
The Oxford English Dictionary defines charm as ‘the power or quality of delighting, attracting, or fascinating others’. It is a word which has been much used recently about the newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in particular in connection with the speech he made to the United Nations General Assembly on September 24th. It is difficult to know how much the world’s perception of his charm is actually a reflection on the lack of this same quality in his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But whatever the cause, the result is that Western politicians who have for so long been skeptical about the official Iranian line that their nuclear development program is entirely peaceable, and who firmly believe that Iranian support of the Assad regime is the pivotal reason that the regime survives, now appear to be prepared to take more seriously President Rouhani’s platitudes on these issues (you can read a transcript of his speech here ). As a result, negotiations on both issues which were stalled for years have now restarted, with the Iranian influence significantly upgraded as a result of Mr Rouhani’s charm offensive.
My point is neither to condemn nor condone President Rouhani, but to ask a more general question about charm – do ‘charming’ people have more success as negotiators? In commercial circles the arguments appear polarized – sales people believe that their ability to form relationships with their customers is a major factor in winning business, growing business and preventing business being lost to competitors. On the other side many buyers adopt tactics to deter these relationships from evolving, so enabling commerce to be conducted in an environment devoid of personality. The ultimate expression of this dilemma is the increasing use of RFPs, e-auctions, and other similar mechanical buy