Conflict exists in business. It exists everywhere, but in business, it exists the most. It could occur between business partners, neighbouring businesses, vendors, employees and customers. We are living in litigant times, but litigation mostly disadvantages all parties involved. Small businesses might not have the resources to mobilise public relation pursuits or legally trained human resource departments to solve internal conflicts. They are also likely to suffer more in cases of litigation compared to large corporations. However, they are not handicapped by bureaucratic processes and have the largest capacity to do business negotiations. In fact, small business relies on business mediation to survive. So what exactly is business mediation?

What Ideal Mediators Would Say
Any business mediator would assert that the world, commercial or social, is not complicated. Different people want the same things while the same people want different things. That’s just it! But is it? Yes, as long as any negotiation would feature inclusive consideration for what all conflicting interests want, the conflict could be resolved amicably. If it takes the indulgence of a business mediator to quell any dispute, then, any business should always be open minded enough to embrace that. In fact, it is required of all litigants to partake outside court negotiations before appearing in courts.

Business mediation is a process of a flexible and open-minded discussion held privately and in neutral grounds by two conflicting parties but facilitated by a third neutral party that is agreeable by the conflicting parties. Business Mediation, simply put is a negation process facilitated by an independent third party held to resolve any conflicts of a commercial nature.
The major reasons why businesses may be urged to submit into mediation may all be attributed to the ugly nature involved in litigation. It may be true that certain parties may always be reluctant to acknowledge any wrongdoing thus leading to an escalation of the conflict. Many factors could lead to the collapse of negotiations such as arrogance by aggrieved parties or offending parties, outrageous demands by either parties or vendetta between the negotiating parties. Such factors are commonly mitigated, my mediators. For that reason, where negotiation fails, mediators have the capacity to facilitate objective discussions that had earlier been hindered by subjectivity previously in the same discussion by the conflicting parties.
Again, the main reason mediation works best is that conflicting parties understand the rigours that litigation imposes on conflict resolution. Sometimes, litigation punishes both parties for being petty or malicious.Litigants are also often exposed to public scrutiny and ridicule as litigation makes all conflict public and may at times expose private or secret intricate details of either one or both businesses entangled in conflict and has sometimes lead to further prosecution outside the conflict resolution.

The benefits of preferring business mediation to litigation include but are not limited to:
• Faster and flexible resolution
• Decisions reached are not legally binding and does not attract fines or prosecution
• It is cheaper as there are no legal charges by … Read More