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Why Big Companies Struggle to Negotiate Great Deals

Ryan Snook

Complex negotiations in large organizations often fail—not because the negotiators are inexperienced or unskilled but because they’re constrained by two structural challenges, agency and alignment, and by the ways organizations manage those challenges. These problems consume scarce resources, drain value from promising deals, and leave even the most skilled dealmakers looking ineffective.

A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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