When there are no perfect answers, try a bit of mediation

» WHEN problems arise in a business or close relationship, reaching a compromise while preserving goodwill is no simple task.

Resolutions are possible without court action and, far from being the soft option, mediation can be a lifeline for family businesses in conflict.

Anything that wastes time leeches away profits and for a business where the margins may be tight, that could be disastrous.

So when a problem arises with a supplier, a customer, a neighbour or an associate, the time needed to resolve any issue is like money down the drain.

A relationship that has taken time to nurture is at risk and conflict resolution in family businesses can be particularly tricky, given the emotional ties involved.

Efforts to smooth things over, especially where the two parties are in roughly similar situations, can result in a good old-fashioned compromise, designed by the parties themselves.

But what if these efforts fail? Do you walk away – not easy when the other party is a family member – or threaten the big stick of court action?

One could mean a big dent in profits or loss of a contact, the other could involve expense, risk and end up damaging a family relationship or losing out an existing business relationship.

There is another way. Perhaps taking a lead from employer-employee relations, where conciliation and mediation has long been a compulsory part of employment disputes, various bodies realised there were positive benefits of involving a third party.

And so the concept of a professional mediator was born.

Isn’t mediation just a soft option, you may ask?

Not to the three parties who took part in a mediation I was involved in some years ago.

Beginning at 8.30am the binding three-way deal was signed off at 2am the next morning, resolving so much more than the issues in dispute.

As have many mediations in which I have been involved.

In almost half the parties have shaken hands at the end, and sometimes even hugged. Relationships can be maintained and acceptable, inventive solutions found,.

Perhaps most importantly in the commercial sense, the parties can set their own timetable and waste little time in setting up the meeting. And wasted time is never recovered. Nick Cox Partner at Willans, sponsors of Family Business of the Year at the Gloucestershire Business Awards