---
id: "contrarian-fewer-issues"
type: "contrarian-insight"
source_timestamps: ["§ Don't Negotiate Every Material Issue"]
tags: ["negotiation-strategy", "scale"]
related: ["concept-market-standard-default", "prereq-zero-sum-vs-value-creation", "action-audit-contract-history"]
challenges: "The foundational negotiation theory that maximizing the number of issues on the table maximizes the potential for value-creating trade-offs."
confidence: "medium"
sources: ["ecosystem"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-ecosystem"
originDay: 11
articleStem: "hbr-nm-103-big-companies-negotiate-deals"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/why-big-companies-struggle-to-negotiate-great-deals"
sourceTitle: "Why Big Companies Struggle to Negotiate Great Deals"
---
# Fewer negotiated issues are better at enterprise scale

**Contrarian insight:** Negotiation orthodoxy holds that putting *more* issues on the table gives negotiators more room for creativity and valuable trade-offs (see [[prereq-zero-sum-vs-value-creation]]). Ertel argues that in large enterprises wrestling with [[concept-agency-problem|agency]] and [[concept-alignment-problem|alignment]] challenges this principle breaks down: because every change consumes massive internal time and energy, negotiating well at scale actually requires being highly selective and defaulting to market standards for the vast majority of issues ([[concept-market-standard-default]]).

**Challenges:** the foundational theory that maximizing issues on the table maximizes value-creating trade-offs.

**Operationalized by:** [[action-audit-contract-history]] (find low-variance issues; manage risk at portfolio level).

**Confidence / counter-perspective (enrichment):** medium — well supported by standard-form-contract practice (ISDA, LMA/LSTA, Eurobond docs), but context-dependent. In strategic deals (JVs, multi-year alliances) adding issues like IP, marketing rights, or shared investment can unlock large creative value that dwarfs internal coordination costs. The right design is often *selective expansion* of high-potential issues, not a blanket reduction.