Port Authority LiveCase: Bringing Multi-Stakeholder Negotiation to Life

Negotiation is rarely as simple as two people sitting across a table trying to reach an agreement.

Today's business leaders negotiate across organisations, industries, and communities. They work with multiple stakeholders who each bring different priorities, incentives, constraints, and expectations. Success depends not only on persuasion, but on listening, adapting, building trust, and creating value that benefits everyone involved.

These are difficult skills to teach through lectures alone.

The Port Authority LiveCase was created to give learners the opportunity to experience these challenges first-hand.

Written by the LiveCase Studio and Professor Sameh Abadir, Professor of Leadership and Negotiation at HEC and previously IMD, this immersive simulation places participants inside a high-pressure negotiation involving a modern Port Authority. Learners must balance commercial objectives with stakeholder relationships while responding to changing circumstances that demand strategic thinking and sound judgement.

Designed for undergraduate, MBA, and executive education, the experience transforms negotiation from a theoretical subject into an active learning experience.

A Negotiation That Feels Real

The simulation begins inside a busy Port Authority where multiple negotiations are taking place simultaneously.

No single stakeholder has complete control.

Each group has legitimate priorities, competing objectives, and different ideas about what success looks like.

Participants quickly realise that progress depends on understanding these different perspectives rather than simply defending their own position.

Throughout the experience, learners negotiate around issues including:

• Compensation structures
• Infrastructure investment
• Collaborative partnerships
• Technology adoption, including AI
• Long-term operational priorities
• Sustainable organisational outcomes

As negotiations unfold, new information emerges, stakeholder priorities shift, and unexpected challenges force participants to reconsider their assumptions.

The result is a negotiation environment that closely reflects the complexity of modern organisations.

Learning by Negotiating, Not Observing

Traditional negotiation teaching often relies on classroom discussion or short role-play exercises.

These approaches introduce important concepts, but learners still know they are participating in an exercise.

Port Authority LiveCase creates something different.

Participants step directly into the negotiation.

They must ask questions to uncover information.

They must decide when to share information strategically.

They must determine which compromises create value and which weaken their position.

Every conversation influences the next.

Rather than analysing negotiation afterwards, learners experience the uncertainty as it happens.

This decision-driven approach encourages deeper engagement because students become responsible for the outcomes they create.

Understanding Every Stakeholder

One of the strengths of Port Authority LiveCase is its focus on multi-stakeholder negotiation.

Real negotiations rarely involve only two parties.

Successful agreements often require balancing the needs of employees, management, suppliers, regulators, technology partners, customers, and the wider community.

Throughout the simulation, participants discover that every stakeholder brings different motivations.

Some prioritise operational efficiency.

Others focus on financial performance.

Some seek innovation while others are primarily concerned with long-term stability or risk management.

Learning to identify these interests is often more valuable than simply preparing stronger arguments.

BATNA Becomes Practical

Most negotiation courses introduce learners to the concept of the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, or BATNA.

Understanding BATNA is essential.

Applying it effectively is far more challenging.

Port Authority LiveCase allows participants to experience how BATNA evolves throughout a negotiation.

As discussions develop, new opportunities emerge.

Relationships change.

Information becomes available.

Negotiating positions strengthen or weaken.

Rather than treating BATNA as a fixed concept, learners begin to understand how it influences confidence, flexibility, timing, and decision-making throughout an entire negotiation process.

Creating Value Instead of Fighting Over It

One of the most important lessons in negotiation is that the best agreements often create value rather than simply divide existing resources.

This idea sits at the heart of Port Authority LiveCase.

Participants are encouraged to explore opportunities that benefit multiple stakeholders instead of viewing every discussion as a win-or-lose contest.

That means asking better questions.

Looking beyond immediate demands.

Finding common interests.

Exploring creative alternatives.

The simulation encourages learners to expand the negotiation rather than narrow it, reflecting the collaborative approach increasingly required in business today.

Building Communication and Leadership Skills

Strong negotiators are also strong communicators.

Throughout the simulation, participants practise:

• Active listening
• Strategic questioning
• Building trust
• Managing disagreement
• Communicating under pressure
• Responding to changing information

These skills extend well beyond negotiation.

They are equally valuable in leadership, consulting, operations, procurement, project management, entrepreneurship, and executive decision-making.

Because learners experience these conversations within a realistic business setting, the learning feels immediately relevant and transferable.

Immersive AI LiveCase Supports Better Learning

Technology should enhance learning rather than distract from it.

That philosophy shapes every Immersive AI LiveCase experience.

Instead of providing answers, AI supports meaningful interaction by helping create realistic stakeholder conversations and dynamic negotiation environments.

Learners still make every important decision themselves.

They must interpret information, evaluate trade-offs, and decide how best to move negotiations forward.

This creates an AI-supported learning environment where critical thinking remains at the centre of the experience.

Rather than replacing judgement, AI encourages learners to develop it.

Designed for Modern Business Education

Port Authority LiveCase has been designed to fit naturally into a wide variety of teaching environments.

The simulation is suitable for:

• Undergraduate business programmes
• MBA courses
• Executive education
• Leadership development
• Negotiation modules
• Strategy courses
• Corporate learning

It can also be delivered in person, online, or through blended learning, giving educators flexibility without compromising the quality of the learning experience.

Because the experience is highly interactive, it works equally well with smaller seminars and larger cohorts where active participation can otherwise be difficult to achieve.

An Experience That Continues Beyond the Simulation

Some of the richest learning happens during the debrief.

Every participant arrives having made different decisions, built different relationships, and experienced different negotiation outcomes.

This creates far more engaging classroom discussions than hypothetical examples alone.

Educators can explore why learners approached negotiations differently, compare strategies, analyse decision-making, and connect practical experience back to established negotiation theory.

Rather than discussing what someone else did, students reflect on decisions they made themselves.

That ownership creates deeper learning and more memorable classroom conversations.

If you're looking to bring more experiential learning into your negotiation or leadership courses, explore the growing range of simulations in the Catalogue.

If you have your own negotiation exercise or case study, you can transform it into an immersive experience using Create Your Own LiveCase.

For educators who would prefer expert support, our instructional designers can help build custom simulations through Studio Services.

You can also learn more about how LiveCase supports experiential learning across higher education on the LiveCase homepage.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who wrote Port Authority LiveCase?

Port Authority LiveCase was written by the LiveCase Studio under the supervision of Professor Sameh Abadir, Professor of Leadership and Negotiation at IMD.

2. Who is Port Authority LiveCase designed for?

The simulation is designed for undergraduate, MBA, executive education, and corporate learning programmes focused on negotiation, leadership, and business strategy.

3. What skills do learners develop?

Participants strengthen negotiation strategy, stakeholder management, communication, active listening, BATNA application, trust building, and collaborative problem-solving.

4. How long does the simulation take?

Port Authority LiveCase typically runs for around three hours, depending on how educators structure the learning activities and debrief.

5. Can the simulation be delivered online?

Yes. The simulation supports face-to-face, online, blended, synchronous, and asynchronous teaching.

6. What makes Port Authority LiveCase different from a traditional negotiation case?

Instead of analysing negotiations after they happen, learners actively participate in realistic, evolving negotiations where their decisions shape stakeholder relationships and influence the outcome.