How do you recover 80,000 euros when everything separates you – an eight-hour time difference, thousands of kilometers and a disagreement over the application of the contract – while maintaining the quality of the business relationship? Olivier Nosal, Chairman and CEO of Filtral France, describes the balancing act.
Olivier Nosal: It was complex. Apart from the purely factual constraints of the language and time difference, my customer had a dispute with me over the application of the contract. However, legal action was out of the question, as the costs of a lawyer in Japan are prohibitive, and above all I wanted to preserve our commercial relationship.
After several attempts, I decided to entrust the case to Cabinet ARC. I needed a legal approach, a company that could look at the substance of contracts. I also knew that the involvement of a business consultancy would have a much greater psychological impact.
O. N.: The case was assigned to a specialist in international collections. It was necessary to have a contact person with knowledge of Japan’s legal and cultural environment. You have to be diplomatic and conciliatory, while at the same time being firm. The negotiations were long and delicate. The firm monitored the situation on an almost daily basis. I could access a progress report on my customer extranet.
O. N.: Cabinet ARC played a real intermediary role between us. He negotiated the terms of our transaction, an exercise that usually ends up in court in cases of this type. In the end, I was able to recover almost the entire sum by negotiating a reasonable payment schedule. Above all, we have maintained our business relationships.
“You have to be diplomatic and conciliatory, but at the same time you have to be firm.
