What are the specificities of the business mediations?
The commercial mediator has to cope with some issues that are indeed specific to the business environment. First of all, business conflicts that involve large organizations can have an impact beyond the parties and have collateral effects on the shareholders or workers, thus creating an increased responsibility for all parties – and for the mediator. Second of all, bargaining is the most common model of negotiation in the business world. To be able to bring parties in a mediation to substitute this model with interest-based negotiation is especially challenging for the mediator, who has to be able to keep those parties focused on the true issues and to be savvy enough to help them to get out of impasses. Last of all – and without prejudice to his impartiality – the mediator has to stimulate the parties to reach a settlement that will reestablish and reinforce the business relationships between them.
