BATNA for Internal Politics
- Rahul Kulkarni
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Your authority is limited. Your alternatives decide your leverage
One new problem shows up … especially in Indian MSMEs: You realise your authority is not as strong as your designation. And this is where many leaders get emotionally confused. They think, “I’m the leader. Why is this not happening?”
Simple answer: because in legacy MSMEs, hierarchy is only one power source. Informal power is often stronger: old relationships, ownership proximity, “I’ve been here 20 years,” vendor networks, customer control, even family dynamics.
So, you need a different power lens, one that works without shouting. That’s where BATNA comes in.
Which Seat?
Inherited seat: You may have authority, but you’re still negotiating with legacy power … sometimes inside your own family.
Hired seat: You have the title, but you may not have the “last word”. People will test it.
Promoted seat: You may have trust, but you’re negotiating with peers who remember when you were “one of us”.
Different seats. Same reality: you will negotiate more than you will command.
Job Offers Metaphor
You’ve seen the difference in a person’s tone when they have options. Someone with one job offer is careful, anxious, overly accommodating. Someone with two job offers is calm, direct, not rude … just clear. Nothing about their IQ changed.
Only one thing changed: Their alternatives. That’s leverage.
BATNA is just a formal word for this. It comes from negotiation theory (Fisher and Ury popularised it in Getting to Yes). It stands for: Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.
In human language: If this negotiation fails, what do I do next? If your answer is “nothing”, you have no leverage. And in internal politics, if you have no leverage, you end up doing one of two things:
you beg, or
you explode.
Both are bad leadership looks.
Why BATNA Matters
People think negotiation is for vendors and customers. Wrong. In MSMEs, the hardest negotiations are internal:
“Give me the data on time.”
“Stop bypassing the process.”
“Follow the dispatch sequence.”
“Don’t promise impossible delivery dates.”
“Raise issues early, not at the last moment.”
These are negotiations because the other side has ways to resist:
delay
forget
“network” around you
create exceptions
act helpless
escalate to someone above you
So the question becomes: what happens if they don’t agree? If nothing happens, your rule becomes optional.
Uncomfortable Truth
This is where people misunderstand BATNA. They imagine dramatic options: “I’ll fire him.” “I’ll resign.” “I’ll replace the whole team.” That’s not a BATNA. That’s fantasy. In an MSME, your alternatives are usually not dramatic. They’re structural. A real BATNA often looks like:
changing the route, not changing the person
building a bypass, not winning an argument
shifting the decision to a different forum
narrowing scope: “Fine, we’ll run the pilot without you”
making a gate: “If you don’t update, you won’t get approval”
using coalition support (Week 9, we’ll come to that)
BATNA is not about ego. It’s about options you can actually execute.
Internal BATNA
Let’s say a senior person refuses to share numbers.
No BATNA approach: “Please share… please share… why aren’t you sharing… I told you…”
BATNA approach: “Okay. This week, we’ll review only what is on the scoreboard. Anything not on it won’t get discussed or approved.”
Or a team keeps bypassing the new PO flow.
No BATNA: “Stop doing this. I’ve told you.”
BATNA: “Any PO without the standard details won’t be processed. Emergency exceptions only through me, and we’ll log them publicly.”
Or a salesperson keeps overpromising delivery.
No BATNA: Argue repeatedly.
BATNA: “Quotations will carry a standard lead time unless production confirms. If you want exception lead times, you must bring confirmation in writing.”
Notice: no shouting. No moral lecture.
Just a shift in the rules of the game.
That’s leverage.
(The writer is a co-founder at PPS Consulting. He is a business transformation consultant. He could be reached at rahul@ppsconsulting.biz.)
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