BSB and TTA launch the School of Négo, the first European school dedicated to complex negotiation
_300.jpg)
Together with former RAID negotiator Laurent Combalbert, BSB is making negotiation a strategic skill for the managers and decision-makers of tomorrow.
BSB and TTA – The Trusted Agency have officially announced the launch of the School of Négo on October 12 in Paris, during the conference "NEGO 3.0: How will we negotiate in 2030?".
Alongside Laurent Combalbert, former RAID negotiator and co-founder of TTA – The Trusted Agency, and Stéphan Bourcieu, Director General of BSB, Laurence Tubiana, architect of the Paris Agreement and an international figure in climate diplomacy, shared her perspective on new forms of negotiation and the challenges of cooperation in an increasingly complex world.
With this new school, BSB and TTA – The Trusted Agency are driven by a strong conviction: in a professional world profoundly transformed by artificial intelligence, human skills such as dialogue, discernment, cooperation, and negotiation are becoming more strategic than ever.
Designed as a cross-disciplinary educational program, the School of Négo will gradually support students from the Bachelor’s to the Master in Management level, using an approach based on experience, ethics, and exposure to real-world situations.
Making negotiation a key management skill
Negotiation is no longer just for sales professionals or crisis management specialists.
Leading a transformation, managing an international project, resolving a conflict, uniting a team, convincing stakeholders, or building a partnership: managers negotiate every single day.
With the School of Négo, BSB aims to provide its students with the methods, instincts, and mindset necessary to thrive in increasingly complex environments.
This new initiative is a continuation of BSB’s educational project, following the creation of the LeaderSkills Institute in 2025, with a shared ambition: to train decision-makers capable of combining technical expertise with human skills.
"The ability to negotiate in all areas and at all levels of an organization is a more essential skill than ever. With the School of Négo, we are launching a new phase of our educational project, demonstrating our commitment to anticipating global shifts rather than just reacting to them", highlights Stéphan Bourcieu, Dean of BSB.
Real-world expertise at the heart of the curriculum
The School of Négo was born from the meeting of the academic excellence of a top-tier management school and the operational expertise of Laurent Combalbert and the teams at TTA – The Trusted Agency.
A former RAID negotiator and graduate of the FBI National Academy, Laurent Combalbert has spent over twenty years advising leaders and organizations facing high-stakes negotiations.
He is joined by a collective of experts from the fields of crisis negotiation, intelligence, diplomacy, neuroscience, leadership, and the corporate world, who will work directly with students.
At the core of the curriculum: HERMIONE®, the complex negotiation protocol developed by Laurent Combalbert and TTA, adapted in collaboration with BSB’s faculty.
Simulations, filmed role-playing exercises, debriefings, and real-world case studies will allow students to learn by doing. This approach also places ethics at the center of negotiation, in accordance with the principles of the Nego4Good®.
"For years, I have seen leaders forced to negotiate without ever having been prepared for it. Negotiation is neither a matter of intuition nor talent. It is a skill that can be learned, developed, and passed on. This conviction is the foundation of the School of Négo," explains Laurent Combalbert, co-founder of TTA – The Trusted Agency.
A progressive curriculum from Bachelor to Master
The School of Négo is not designed as a simple specialization. Negotiation will be progressively integrated into the students' curriculum, with a steady increase in skills year after year.
Students will benefit from:
- a progressive curriculum from Bachelor to Master, from the fundamentals to the most complex negotiations;
- of work-study specializations in the third year of the Bachelor's program and in the second year of the Master's program;
- the Pressoir, the School of Négo's signature immersive bootcamp, during which students must negotiate and make decisions under pressure in real-world scenarios.
In the second year of the Master's program, they may be confronted with scenarios involving corporate restructuring, cyber crises, international negotiations, or conflicts between various stakeholders.
Preparing for emerging negotiation professions
This new school also aims to anticipate the evolution of organizations and the emergence of new strategic roles.
Among them: the Chief Negotiation Officer (CNO®), responsible for supporting management in their most sensitive negotiations and helping to build a genuine culture of negotiation within organizations.
Through the School of Négo, BSB and TTA are making negotiation a foundational skill for the management of tomorrow, driving performance, trust, and the creation of sustainable agreements.
→ Download the School of Négo press kit
→ Watch the video: "Why do companies need a Chief Negotiation Officer®?"
Photos: Rozenn Krebel
6_200.jpg)
_EN_200.jpg)
