Our story

The European Negotiation Centre has been developing its expertise since 1984 with the ambition of offering an innovative alternative to conventional negotiation methods based on compromise and power relations.

The meeting of Michel GHAZALthe founder, with Roger FISHER and William URYprofessors at the Harvard Negotiation Project and inventors of the "Reasoned Negotiationwill be decisive. It will give rise to a long and fruitful collaboration which will materialize in particular through the introduction and launch in France of this innovative approach to negotiation and the translation into French of their reference books, including the world best-seller "Getting to yes". (How to succeed in a negotiation).

Michel Ghazal has trained thousands of managers and professional negotiators from all types of public and private companies and organisations.

He has given hundreds of talks on successful negotiation. He has advised dozens of executives in their business, divestiture and acquisition, commercial, hierarchical and social negotiations.

He is the author of the first doctoral thesis in France on negotiation and of several books. "Mange ta soupe et... tais toi" (Eat your soup and shut up!) for negotiating with children; "Circulez y a rien à négocier" (Move along, there's nothing to negotiate) for negotiating with social partners; "Si c'était à refaire" (If I had to do it over again) for negotiating with myself; "Nous deux c'est fini" (The two of us are finished) for negotiating divorce without tearing each other apart.

And driven by the human values he developed at the European Negotiation Centre, Michel Ghazal embarked on a philanthropic approach by creating the " Ghazal Foundation for Education, Research and Peace in Lebanon ". Once a year, it awards the "Prize for Conflict Prevention and Peace in Lebanon" to a Lebanese NGO working on the ground to facilitate coexistence between communities. It also provides scholarships to bright Lebanese students who are facing financial difficulties.

Thanks to the privileged relationship with the Harvard team, our consultants and clients have benefited first-hand from the latest research and innovation in negotiation and conflict management.

By pioneering the dissemination of this powerful approach and adapting it to French and European management models and cultural contexts, the European Negotiation Centre experienced considerable growth in the 1990s, making it a market leader.

Our team was able to respond concretely to multiple needs in all sectors of activity: knowing how to conduct negotiations effectively with a client, a supplier, a distribution network, trade unions and internally with one's hierarchy or transversally with other entities of the organisation.

This development will lead to the establishment of international partnerships to disseminate in several languages and adapt our methods to local cultures. In this way, the request of our multinational clients to have their teams benefit from homogeneous negotiation tools and practices has been met.