One of the most dangerous occurrences in any relationship, including a B2B outsourcing services contract, is when the parties have fundamental differences in the way they see the same situation. Given adequate understanding, discernment and communication, that doesn’t have to happen. But in the world of business, it too often does.

Let’s sketch this out as we go deeper into the service lifecycle. In the diagram that follows, first sketched on the back of a napkin in 1998, the X-axis represents “Time” while the Y-axis is High and Low.