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Conflict in the business world
 
MEDIATION: Cooperative conflict resolution
 
Steps in the mediation process
 
Advantages to mediation
 
Cost containment through mediation
 
Examples of successful mediation cases
 
Pursuing disputes in court
 
FAQs

concrete examples in detail

As a manufacturer of consumer goods you perform very conscientious quality control. Nevertheless, an annoyed customer comes to you and claims there are flaws in your product....

Your company dependent upon deliveries by a producer-supplier further upstream. Delays in delivery have already started to lose you customers. In response to demands for immediate delivery the supplier counters with the claim that he is missing data that you are supposed to supply....

You are managing director of a family business. Your fellow partners are increasingly coming to distrust you and impeding your work with constant arguments at the shareholders' meeting....

You are on the board of directors of a company where cooperation with the works council is becoming increasingly difficult due to a variety of disputes. Negotiations on an important shop agreement have stalled....

You work as a consultant. Your clients' appreciation of your work is of the utmost importance to you. One of your clients informs you that he has suffered financial damages from poor advice by one of your employees....

Do examples of this type sound familiar to you? How have you dealt with them before?

Since the EUCON Institute (the former GWMK) was founded, numerous conflicts in important business fields have been settled successfully and with a high rate of consensus by business mediation. One of the significant advantages of business mediation is that such cases need not be publicly aired in a courtroom.

The adversaries are generally highly interested in keeping their involvement and the course and outcome of the mediation process secret. In view of such confidentiality, we provide you with examples of mediation cases successfully conducted with our assistance, if requested, in anonymous form.

concrete examples in detail

Mediation in the construction industry

AGIV AG of Frankfurt had announced that on 10 November 2000 the mediation process was successfully completed between it and Hollandse Beton Groep nv. Considerable differences of opinion had ensued when Hollandsche Beton acquired Wayss & Freytag AG from AGIV with the result that Hollandsche Beton brought suit against AGIV for damage compensation in Frankfurt Regional Court. After conciliation negotiations failed, the parties agreed on mediation conducted by a member of the advisory board of the then GWMK (the present EUCON Institute) and brought it to a conclusion that was mutually satisfactory for both sides with confidentiality agreed as well.

mediation in a trademark licence dispute

Two companies had a trademark licence agreement that was cancelled with immediate effect by both of them over purported breaches of the agreement by the other party. The licensor went to court to claim damages which the licensee disputed by asserting its own compensation claims. The parties were able to agree on a two-day mediation session where with the assistance of a mediator appointed by EUCON (then still known as GWMK) they succeeded in reaching consensus where all outstanding points in dispute were clarified. The mutually agreed termination of their business relationship spared the parties protracted and cost-intensive court litigation.

mediation of a dispute over obligations
under a master contract

An engineering firm and the manufacturer of high-performance engines had agreed on the provision of development services in a master contract which failed to unambiguously regulate the scope of the development work to be performed annually by the engineering firm.

Due to tensions of a personal nature the manufacturer of the high-performance engine reduced the sales volume, poached employees from the engineering firm and ultimately suspended ongoing payments for services already rendered. This put the engineering firm on the verge of bankruptcy.

It then sued for damages. The parties ultimately agreed on mediation in the course of which both sides manifested their interest in further cooperation.
The mediation process could be successfully ended after three meetings. The parties signed a mediation agreement where they reached consensus about future annual sales and the manufacturer obligated itself not to engage in poaching. In that way, mediation secured a continuation of the business relationship, something that would hardly have been possible with litigation in court.

mediation of a dispute under a
consultancy contract

An IT consultancy firm and a textile factory signed a consultancy contract under which the firm was supposed to carry out a project.

However problems soon ensued thanks to which the project's original schedule could not be kept. The two sides blamed each other until the textile factory some time after the schedule ran out declared the rest of the project's completion to have failed. The consultancy firm pressed payment claims.
In mediation the mediator sought to uncover the parties' interests, in which context financial agreement turned out to be particularly difficult.

Nevertheless, with the mediator's support the parties succeeded here too in finding a solution that was satisfactory for both sides.

mediation in the energy sector

A dispute developed between two companies, a so-called operator and an energy user, over the ramifications of deregulation on contracting agreements for a so-called district heating power station. The operator of the station had signed long-term contracts for the purchase of gas and long-term contracts for the supply of power and heat from the station.

In dispute between the parties was the setting of the future price of electricity and the applicability of profitability clauses in the electricity and heat supply contracts. In addition, the validity of these contracts was also in doubt.

In June 2001 the parties signed a mediation agreement using our rules of procedure. In three mediation sessions where besides the managing directors and their staffs and attorneys representatives of engineering firms were present an agreement running up through October 2003 was reached. In addition, the parties agreed on a price setting procedure for after October 2003 and on the criteria for setting prices. The wording of the contract was then completed by exchanging draft texts and was then signed by the parties in November and subsequently approved by their supervisory boards.

The parties succeeded, despite the tightest possible schedule, in reaching agreement and securing it with long-term contracts. Added to that were the enormous savings; high transaction costs were averted and process costs were lowered by 82%. The feedback on mediation was positive.
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