Some prefer an adversarial approach to doing business. They think they’ll do better if they have more room to maneuver at arms length; more opportunity to a present favorable message if they withhold information; more opportunity to attack and defend. Sometimes both sides in the same trading relationship say they want to go down this line.
They can hardly both be right.
I have some experience of commercial mediation… In almost every case, both litigating parties have been told by their advisers they have a 75% chance of winning in court. From the third party position, this looks a little ridiculous.
As Winston Churchill said with his usual ironical humor, “when making plans for war, it is sometimes necessary to take into account the actions of the enemy.”
Taking a more adversarial line may not be the pushover one might hope.
