One of my favorite classes at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was Negotiations. Beyond learning concepts like Anchoring and BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement), I learned that there’s more to it than ultimatums and pounding the table. Preparation, analysis, listening, and creativity were skills I could use. Later, in my career in the alcoholic beverage industry, I landed in a role in Distributor Strategy, leading complex, high-stakes negotiations with intimidating people — billionaire business owners and C-suite leaders with decades more experience than I had. But it turns out I was incredibly successful, creating hundreds of millions of dollars in value for the companies I worked for, while building strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with those on the other side of the table.

As I’ve been immersing myself in the operations and business plans of my clients at Leitrim Hill Creamery, I noticed that cheesemaking is a lot like my preferred approach to negotiation: thorough preparation, clear intention setting, listening and observing, and a willingness to be flexible in the process to achieve your vision.

Soft round cheeses on a wooden board with grape leaves and herbs

I’ve also learned there are many different techniques, and one that my clients use regularly is very similar to sourdough: a traditional, natural fermentation using a live, microbial culture to continually create new batches of soft cheese. In this evolving environment, a lot can go wrong and there are limits to what you can control. But, like a successful negotiation, a skilled artisan can create the right conditions to achieve, and even surpass, expectations. Case in point: Leitrim Hill Creamery recently won the Supreme Championship at the CAIS Irish Cheese Awards for 2026, despite it being only their second time entering the competition. In other words, they literally have the best cheese in all of Ireland.

Five Components of Award-Winning Cheese — and Stellar Negotiations

The key components to crafting award-winning cheese and negotiating a stellar business outcome are surprisingly similar:

1. Preparation & Intention Setting — It is critical to know not only your ideal outcomes, but to consider alternative paths and different levers that can get to a similar result. Researching backgrounds and playing game theory to anticipate what’s coming at you — and the potential solutions the other side might consider — is just as important.
2. Read the Room — Cheesemakers can tell the instant they enter the creamery how the fermentation is going by the feel of the air, the smell, the temperature, and more. Walking into a negotiation is the same: everyone in the room brings a specific ecosystem of intentions, pressures, and emotions. A strong negotiator takes all of this into consideration and shifts style and tone accordingly.
3. Enhance Value — How can the cheesemaker take their ingredients to create the best possible product? That is the right question to ask in a negotiation: how can this partnership create the greatest value for both sides?
4. Follow Your Vision – Flex the How — No artisan or business leader should lose sight of their vision and the quality of their work. But it does pay to be creative and flexible around how you get there.
5. Document Decisions & Results — Brilliant cheesemakers are constantly documenting every variable in the process and evaluating the final products. Negotiators should not underestimate the power of clear, thorough documentation of decisions and outstanding items. Even when it feels like everyone in the room agrees, seeing it on paper afterward can unearth misaligned takeaways. AI notetaking is a great start, but a human who was in the room needs to thoroughly vet every point and nuance.

Is your team approaching every negotiation with the preparation, mindset, creativity, and diligence

to create value for both sides that exceeds expectations?

Blade Advisory coaches leadership teams and can support all stages of a critical negotiation, from strategy and brainstorming to delivering game-changing value.