Initial Point in a Conflict

Initial point is the seminal point in a business relationship where a person is opportunistic, insensitive, rude, uncaring, not responding, or simply not listening. More important it is that moment in time when either the business person or the customer begins to cheat, overpower, or manipulate themselves to an economic advantage. This point is marked by what could be called "blowback."  Here aggression, lying, cunning and guile first meet with resistance. This may be an innocent argument but the client is not happy. If the client overreacts they can cause the business person to overreacts causing the conflict to spiral upward in intensity. The initial point reveals the tip of a wedge that forces more and more concessions on the businessperson as they begin to constructively extract more money from their clients. Complicating the discernment of initial points are situations not related to fraud that cause a deal to go out of control. For example, the naive shopper. Transacting business is complex and sometimes customary in the way it defines ethically. For example it is given among car dealers that when they buy a used car they are not expecting the seller to disclose every dent on the car they had repairs disclosed. But, when the dealer fixes a dent prior to sale it become a moral issue with the prospective buyer when an expert points out to patch to them. First time home buyers are confused and sometimes upset at the extras piled on top of the cost of the home but no one is really out to cheat them. The naive homeowner will hold up the completion of a construction project while they make numerous decisions concerning the appliances and drag their heals getting the appliances to the job site. This delay costs the contractor a lot of money forcing them to move onto another project. Once the appliances are delivered the contractor cannot return to finish the remodel for a couple of weeks causing the naive homeowner to get very angry, and yet they were the cause of conflict. Initial point of conflict can be initiated by either the businessperson or the client. Where there is a lot of money at stake one party or the other might be seeking unfair advantage over the other. Savvy business people recognize the early signs of misunderstanding and move early on to take care of customer complaints.

Notes:

IP, A human machine can be an initial point of conflict. Grand fathering rules

blowback

P&D Business people respond to IP's different than non-business people.

reserve, patience, venom pernicious provocation, personal power