Business & Strategy
Section 1
Core Idea
Every choice is made against alternatives — the other options you could take. Thinking in alternatives forces explicit comparison: what you give up, what you gain, and what the next-best option is. In strategy and negotiation, "alternatives" often means BATNA: the best you can do if the current path fails.
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Section 2
How to See It
Strategy
You're seeing Alternatives when a decision doc or discussion explicitly lists options A, B, C and compares them (or names the next-best alternative) instead of defending a single path.
Negotiation
You're seeing Alternatives when a party anchors or walks based on a clear "best alternative" — e.g. another buyer, building in-house, or walking away — rather than on hope or attachment to the current deal.
Section 3
How to Use It
Before committing, name the next-best alternative and compare. In negotiation, improve your BATNA or reduce the other side's so the zone of possible agreement tilts your way.
Decision filter
"What is my best alternative to saying yes here? If I can't state it, I'm deciding in the dark. If I can, I know when to walk and when to close."
As a founder
Use alternatives in hiring (vs. other candidates, vs. delay), in partnerships (vs. build vs. another partner), and in fundraising (vs. other terms, vs. extending runway). Write down the next-best alternative before signing.
Section 5
Founders & Leaders
Herb CohenNegotiator; author, You Can Negotiate Anything
Cohen stressed knowing your walk-away and your best alternative before any negotiation. "It's all negotiable" only works when you know what you're comparing the deal to. Founders can apply this to term sheets, partnerships, and key hires by always clarifying their best alternative.
Section 7
Connected Models
Reinforces
BATNA
BATNA is your best alternative to a negotiated agreement. "Alternatives" is the broader frame — all options; BATNA is the specific benchmark that defines your walk-away point and leverage.
Tension
Opportunity Cost
Opportunity cost is the value of the best forgone alternative. Thinking in alternatives surfaces it; the tension is that we often ignore opportunity cost until we name the alternative explicitly.
Leads-to
Trade-offs
Comparing alternatives forces trade-offs: more of X means less of Y. The Alternatives lens leads directly to "what are we trading off?" and makes the cost of the chosen path visible.
Section 8
One Key Quote
— Roger Fisher & William Ury, Getting to Yes (1981)"Your BATNA is the only standard that can protect you from both accepting a deal you should reject and rejecting a deal you should accept."
Section 11
Summary & Further Reading
Alternatives are the other options against which you choose. Name them, especially your best one (BATNA), so you know when to say yes and when to walk.
01
Book
Introduces BATNA and interest-based negotiation; the standard reference for alternatives in deal-making.
02
Book
Tactical negotiation with emphasis on leverage and alternatives from a former FBI negotiator.
03
Book
How we underweight alternatives and opportunity cost; supports deliberate alternative-thinking.