Faculty & Research
Deepak Malhotra

Deepak Malhotra

Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration

Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
+1 (617) 496-1020
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Deepak Malhotra
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(617) 496-1020
Featured Work Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors

Deepak Malhotra's teaching, research and advisory work is focused on negotiation, deal-making and conflict resolution. In 2020, Deepak was named MBA Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants. He has won numerous awards for his teaching & research, including the HBS Faculty Award, and has been twice selected by Harvard MBA students to give the end-of-year speech to the graduating class. In 2014, Deepak was listed as one of the "world's best business school professors" under the age of 40.

Deepak's latest book (and debut novel), The Peacemaker's Code, will be published in February 2021.

His previous books include... 

  • Negotiating the Impossible:  
    • #1 Business Book of 2016 (KnowSquare), Outstanding Book Award (International Association for Conflict Management), Top 10 Business Books of 2016 (The Globe & Mail). 
  • Negotiation Genius:  
    • 2008 Outstanding Book Award (International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution)
  • I Moved Your Cheese:  
    • Wall Street Journal Best-Seller


Deepak's research has been published in top journals in the fields of management, psychology, conflict resolution, and foreign policy.

Outside HBS, Deepak is a trainer, consultant, and advisor to firms & CEOs across the globe, and an advisor to governments that are trying to negotiate an end to protracted & intractable armed conflicts.

In 2020, Deepak created a series of 40 short videos w/ free advice on topics related to negotiation, deal-making, sales, conflict resolution & diplomacy. You can find the Negotiation Insights Series here.

You can follow Deepak on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Prof_Malhotra

Featured Work
Negotiating the Impossible
How to Break Deadlocks and Resolve Ugly Conflicts (without Money or Muscle)
An ideal read for your most difficult negotiations, disputes & relationships.
Awards:
"Outstanding Book Award" (International Association for Conflict Management)
"Best Business Book of 2016" (KnowSquare)
"Top 10 Business Books of 2016" (The Globe and Mail) 
"Business Bestseller List" (800CEORead)
Negotiation Genius
Whether you've “seen it all” or are just starting out, Negotiation Genius will dramatically improve your negotiating skills and confidence. Drawing on decades of behavioral research plus the experience of thousands of business clients, the authors take the mystery out of preparing for and executing negotiations—whether they involve multimillion-dollar deals or improving your next salary offer.
I Moved Your Cheese
For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze

Now a Wall Street Journal Best-seller! Over a decade ago, the best-selling business fable Who Moved My Cheese? offered its answer to the question: accept that change is inevitable and beyond your control, don't waste your time wondering why things are the way they are, keep your head down, and start looking for the cheese. I Moved Your Cheese takes a different point of view. This stand-alone book tells the inspiring story of a new generation of mice who begin to reexamine what others have taken for granted and to ask the important questions. This book is motivated by a simple observation: Leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, business growth—and even personal development—almost always depend on the ability to challenge accepted notions, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules...

How to Negotiate with VCs

VC-entrepreneur partnership agreements often contain flaws that become highly damaging as the parties come up against issues of power, trust, and much more. Yet many of the flaws are systematic and predictable—and hence preventable. The author, a longtime consultant to the VC industry, outlines four recommendations for entrepreneurs sitting down at the table with prospective funders: understand your leverage; maximize trust; focus on value; strive for understanding. Above all, when you're negotiating with a VC, think not only about what will look good in a press release today but also about what will help you create and capture value over the long run.

Books
Journal Articles
Book Chapters
Cases and Teaching Materials
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Other Publications and Materials
  • Malhotra, Deepak. "Negotiating in the Shadow of Terrorism: How Violent Extremism Makes Peace Negotiations Possible and Improbable." View Details
Research Summary
Negotiation
A large part of my work focuses on negotiation, dealmaking and conflict resolution. My latest book is Negotiating the Impossible: How to Break Deadlocks & Resolve Ugly Conflicts (without Money or Muscle).  Negotiating the Impossible has earned numerous distinctions (including the Best Business Book of 2016 by KnowSquare). My previous book on negotiation (with Max Bazerman) is titled Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond.  The book was awarded the 2008 Outstanding Book Award by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. 

My articles on negotiatin include: a paper that looks at how the degree and type of contract complexity shapes inter-firm dispute resolution when conflict arises; an article entitled "How to Negotiate with VCs"; an article on "How to Negotiate Your Job Offer"; and an article titled "A Definitive Guide to the Brexit Negotiations".  I have also contributed often to the Negotiation Newsletter, writing on topics such as: negotiating from a position of weakness, managing distrust, dealing with a seemingly irrational counterpart, using psychological influence tactics, making concessions strategically, and finding smart alternatives to lying in negotiation.  My current focus is on strategies for dealing with complex, ugly disputes.
International & Ethno-political Conflict
A second stream of research looks at issues related to conflict resolution in the context of international and ethno-political conflict, and in particular, at the role of negotiation in ending armed conflicts.  I am currently working on case studies regarding peace negotiations in Colombia, the Philippines, El Salvador, Nigeria, Spain, and Northern Ireland.  An article, published in Foreign Affairs, examines whether and when countries should set preconditions to negotiating with their 'enemies'. In another project, a colleague and I study Israeli attitudes towards a two-state solution.  We find that concerns regarding successful implementation of a negotiated agreement can lead parties to prefer "balanced" over advantageous deals.  Another project, conducted in Sri Lanka, demonstrates the kind of long-term impact that 'peace camps' can (and cannot) have on attitudes and behaviors of ethnic disputants.  My current work in this area is looking at how peace processes can be designed more effectively.
Gun Violence in the United States
My colleagues and I are studying gun violence from two perspectives.  First, how do events like mass shootings impact gun policy?  Do they have any effect?  We find that they do, but not in the way most people would expect. Second, we are studying which types of gun laws might actually lead to fewer gun deaths.  In a recent paper, entitled "Handgun Waiting Periods Reduce Gun Deaths", which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, we find that when states enact "waiting period" laws, this leads to a significant reduction in gun homocides (~17%) and gun suicides (~5-10%).  In addition to examining every change in such policies across all 50 states over 45 years, we also leverage a natural experiment that replicates our results and speaks to the causal relationship between waiting periods and gun deaths.
Negotiating in the Shadow of Cancer
I am working with collaborators at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to develop interventions that will help surgeons communicate more effectively with cancer patients, with the goal of helping patients make better decisions regarding their health.
Trust
My research on trust falls into two broad categories.  First, I study barriers to trust development, and focus on mechanisms that might help to overcome these barriers.  One recent project analyzes over 150,000 pages of documents concerning 102-interfirm disputes to examine whether and when contracts facilitate vs. undermine inter-party trust and collaboration.  In other work, I have used laboratory and field experiments to examine the psychological barriers that inhibit trust development among otherwise well-intentioned parties, and how parties might facilitate trust and reciprocity.  Second, I study stakeholder trust in organizations.  One recent project examines how organizations build trust with multiple stakeholder groups when the very nature of trust differs across groups.  Another project looks at whether we need to rethink the nature of "trust in business" in light of the recent financial crisis (i.e., in the "post-bailout" economy).
Competitive Arousal
A fourth stream of research examines a phenomenon that my co-authors and I have termed Competitive Arousal. We find that some features of competitive contexts (e.g., time pressure, perceptions of rivalry, and the presence of an audience) can heighten physiological arousal and lead to a win-at-any-cost mindset.  For example, as perceptions of rivalry and time pressure are heightened, competitor motivation seems to shift away from the initial goal of making the best decision and towards a new goal of winning at any cost. My work on this topic looks at when any why competitive arousal is likely to derail otherwise sound strategy, and how decision makers in a variety of contexts (e.g., negotiations, bidding wars, disputes, etc.) might avoid its ill effects.  My most recent publication on the topic incorporates a field study, a field experiment, and a laboratory experiment to examine the effects of rivalry and time pressure on competitive motivation and behavior.
Awards & Honors
Honored as MBA Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants, in 2020.
Winner of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM) for Negotiating the Impossible: How to Break Deadlocks and Resolve Ugly Conflicts (without Money or Muscle) (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2016).
Included as one of “40 Best Business School Professors Under 40” by Poets & Quants in 2014.
Won the 2013 Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Chosen by students in both 2011 and 2012 to give the Harvard Business School "Best of EC Year" speech to graduating MBA students.
Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author in 2012 for I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011).
Won the 2011 Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Won the 2008 International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution Outstanding Book Award with Max Bazerman for Negotiation Genius (Bantam Books, 2007).
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