Negotiations

Case Study –CHARLOTE SOLEIL

P Ó S -MBA EM N EGOCIAÇÃO E M P R E S A R I A L -
Party 2 F–U NCharlote Executive
D A Ç Ã O G ETÚLIO VA R G A S Agent
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Confidential Instructions for Charlote Soleil’s Executive Agent

You have recently become a partner of a company that manages and promotes celebrities. Charlote
Soleil certainly isn’t your biggest client, but you do want to do a good job on this first assignment as
partner, especially because you are interested in expending your business into the theater segment.
This is your first time dealing with Mrs. Solei’s account.

You met with Mrs. Soleil last week. She is an older dancer and still has a good performance,
especially considering her age. Throughout your conversations with her you’ve gather the following
information:

Over the last two years, while she has gotten several supporting roles, she hasn’t had any lead roles.
Her popularity has declined over the last few years. The Colker Theater, with which Charlote has
performed several times in the last few years, is scheduled to open the show, “The Claire Ballet
Show”, three weeks from now. The challenging lead role is considered a great honor for younger
dancers. When the Colker Theater announced this season’s schedule a year ago, Renata Torres was
selected for the lead role of “The Claire Ballet Show”. Mrs. Torres is generally considered a high-level
dancer, although she doesn’t have the popularity that Charlote once had at the peak of her career. Four
weeks ago, Mrs. Torres was suddenly taken from the announcements for the ballet show, and there are
rumors that she either became sick, or had a misunderstanding with the artistic director. Charlote
contacted the director to ask if the lead role was open. Charlote knows the music and the choreography
and has already performed it several times. Yesterday, Charlote was informed by the theater that they
want her to dance the lead role, Claire. A meeting was scheduled for today between you and the
business manager of the Colker theater to discuss the situation.

The CT is an institution established in a large metropolitan area in Paris. As many other companies, it
is a non-profit organization, financed by a combination of ticket sales, donations from foundations and
corporations. They normally go beyond their breakeven point each year, with a comfortable capacity
of 1000 seats in its theater. The ticket prices vary from €45 to €100, with €55 being a reasonable
average for accounting purposes.

Charlote desperately wants the part. It could mean an opportunity for a real comeback and could
possibly result in her getting an opportunity to act in the lead role on a special TV program about the
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ballet show. The TV program would pay €55,000 for Charlote’s services, and could mean various
other proposals to dance elsewhere. Charlote is flattered by the possibility of the CT being interested
in her. Charlote confessed that dancing in the play is her first priority, and that the salary is secondary.
She also said that, frankly, she would dance for free in the piece, but given the implications of her
professional stature, her reputation, the impact on possible future proposals, naturally, the higher the
salary, the better.

Charlote’s salaries, over the last couple years, in supporting roles, varied between €20,000 and
€36,000. Five years ago, when she was at the apex of her career, she received €44,000 for acting in the
lead role of “ The Claire Ballet Show” at the theater. Since then, due to inflation and the popularity of
the piece, the compensation for the piece has almost doubled. Charlote understands that she’s not
going to deliver the same sold-out performances that she gave in the past.

Last year, it was said that an inexperience young woman who danced the part of Claire Ballet,
received €48,000 for her performance. The last time Charlote danced in the theater was last year, a
supporting role, also in Claire Ballet, for which she received €25,000, receiving many compliments on
her performance. While difficult to generalize, dancers playing lead roles such as this receive double
the payment of supporting dancers.

Charlote believes that her experience and maturity has turned her into an especially adept dancer for
this role. She believes that, in this phase of her life, the main role would be perfect. In fact, she
believes that she was too young and inexperienced in the past when she played this role, and now
believes she could do it even better.

One of the matters that worries the theater is the size of the audience that Charlote might attract. The
theater has, on average, 85% occupancy during the year, and sometimes is almost full. A weak
showing would ruin the annual budget. While her performance remains strong, she has had,
occasionally, a mediocre performance, which never would have been the case four years ago. You
believe that this is one of the reasons for the recent lack of invitations for Charlote to work. If
Charlote’s performance results in 50-60% occupancy, this will certainly be her last time in a lead role.
In fact, anything less than 80% would likely finish her career. Charlote is confident, and it would be
extremely unlikely that an occupancy rate as low as 50-60% would be a consequence of Charlote’s
performance.

Prepare for your meeting with the business manager of the theater.