Hostage negotiators teach one principle. Never pay the ransom. The moment a captor learns the demand works, every future captive becomes leverage. Experienced captors time the demand to the moment refusal looks more expensive than capitulation. So did this QS….

The pattern is everywhere. Businesses seem to assign their least experienced commercial people to contracts where the other side fields their most experienced. The mismatch is invisible on the org chart. It's extremely painfully visible at final account.

Anywhere the QS's experience sits below the contract's complexity is a fight you're funding both sides of.

How many of those fights are running right now?