techUK award winner, Fayola-Maria Jack, talks about finding the positives in conflict
As the founder of a business that provides an AI-powered system for managing conflict, Fayola-Maria Jack (Fay) is an expert in solving disputes – in fact, her business is called Resolutiion. Based on a specialist AI model called ‘Octavia’, built specifically for suppliers, vendors, and subcontractors, Resolutiion addresses one of the biggest challenges facing one in six commercial relationships; regular, serious disagreements that disrupt operations, consume valuable time, and incur material costs.
Fay joined Manufacturing Today to explain why efficient and effective conflict and dispute management solutions offer transformational benefits in the B2B space.
She begins with some background on how she became a specialist in this segment. “I started off leading legal teams and supporting larger enterprises with conflict and disputes within all kinds of contractual relationships,” she says. “I then moved into government from the private sector and led a series of key initiatives, including Brexit commercial assurance for the Cabinet Office.
“Over time my focus homed in on dispute resolution, and looking at how we deal with conflicts between big businesses. I also started considering where the smaller suppliers were in that chain, and how we can protect those relationships.”
Drawing on her years working with multinationals and government, as well as academic achievements including an MBA from UCL and doctoral research in dispute resolution and behavioral science, Fay founded Resolutiion. “Not only did I love this work, but I could see there was a big need for solutions in this space,” she continues. “I studied AI and machine learning at post grad level, understood the technology and the opportunities, and moved into building what is now Resolutiion. We focus on a few core industries, manufacturing being one, but our real lens is on how we support businesses with their commercial relationships, whether it is a supplier with a big customer or the other way around. Both parties need that relationship to work as global markets and dynamics shift.”
Having helped clients for the past 18 months, Fay can now see the impact of dispute resolution on businesses, in an area she describes as ‘often forgotten’. “I think most businesses have traditionally relied on law firms when things go wrong. But the focus should be on protecting relationships, and working out those tensions, rather than on how best to fight.”
Fay believes that conflict, disagreements and disputes can be a catalyst for positive outcomes and an opportunity for learning, understanding and improvement. “If we reframe the way we look at a conflict, to remove the assumption that it is difficult, tedious or stressful, and instead treat it as a way to find improvements that can help us across the board with our operations and commercial relationships, then out of that comes competitive advantage, stronger relationships, and a stronger position in the market.”
This new mindset, based around dialogue and collaboration, helps build both internal and business resilience. By reducing workforce churn and the dependency on external legal advisors, resources can be allocated to other areas of the business, increasing investments and keeping revenue within the economy.
Focusing on manufacturing, Fay uses the recent tariff changes as an illustration of an issue causing conflict. “Adding a change like tariff increases into supply chains with lots of moving parts brought a whole new level of difficulty to supplier, contract and delivery managers.
“Essentially, the changes mean things are getting more expensive. Organizations must look for alternative supply routes, and new ways to find materials. There’s not just a pricing issue; there’s a logistical issue. Within organizations, business leaders are looking at the procurement and supplier teams and expecting a quick fix, but there’s no real magic wand, and that can cause conflict. These different dynamics mean businesses must be adaptive, and taking a different approach to conflict allows them to better navigate these storms when they happen.”
The tariff changes also revealed weaknesses within businesses. “Manufacturers realized the extent of their interdependence, from the global level all the way down to companies within their supply chains,” explains Fay. “It exposed the fragility of margins. While manufacturers already knew their margins were tight, this really tested them. A lot of the conflict that has flowed out of the tariff situation has been due to businesses trying to stay profitable in an environment where everything is much more expensive – not even marginally more, but significantly more.”
For businesses that lacked agility, these challenges fed into more conflict. “Some businesses found they were in conflict within their supply chain, because they were trying to get their suppliers to do more for them, but the suppliers just didn’t have anything else to give. It’s not easy to find alternative routes for sourcing overnight or look at how you must reimagine trade compliance. All of that has fed into conflict and really tested manufacturers specifically.”
Fay and the Resolutiion team are available to help manufacturers struggling with these challenges. “I would divide what we do into three categories,” says Fay. “One is support with the specific relationship and identifying conflict triggers. If you get these elements right, you minimize your conflict.
“Then there’s resolution – if things have gone wrong, we provide tools to support you to resolve issues. Finally, there is continuous improvement, which is very much focused on analytics. This shows what are you learning from your environment and how are you actively improving and that should be a daily live feed of data and activity.”
Supporting all these activities is the Resolutiion ‘Octavia’ platform, which is powered by AI and seamlessly integrates into commercial functions. Being AI-native is critical to its success. “Our platform is the perfect co-pilot for complexity, and we have tools for various stages. It can help with, for example, complex contracts that include lots of obligations, multiple stakeholders and parties. It manages all of that for you autonomously and we have tools that make sure the contracts continue to be correct as goals and objectives shift. It’s like always having eyes on the contract.
“The solution can be used at any stage right through to resolution, where we’ve built AI alternatives to mediation and expert evaluation to get quick outcomes and avoid the need for costly consultants, lawyers or litigation. It is much more commercially sensible to try and fix an issue rapidly and make the relationship work rather than look for a replacement supplier.
“Traditionally people have seen conflict as failure. Staff feel like they aren’t managing the relationship properly and feel at fault, but I don’t agree with that. There are some industries where relationships can just be tricky to navigate. Conflict is a signal in the relationship that something needs to be worked on. Use this opportunity to strengthen the relationship, make changes and overall gain competitive advantage, and reduce the emotional and financial toll of disputes as well.”
Having started its strategy with large enterprises with sizeable supplier bases, Resolutiion has already worked with several household names, not just in manufacturing but across various industries. “We’re now moving down to mid-market manufacturing companies and smaller manufacturing companies. I think we often forget that SMEs are working with bigger manufacturers as suppliers and need the most support in this area.”
While still fairly new in the market, Resolutiion is already making an impact, and this was recently acknowledged when Fay was revealed as the winner of a techUK President’s Award, in the Economy category. techUK praised the solution for its transformative effect – noting its ability to dramatically reduce time-to-resolution from weeks or months to days. This speed not only reduces costs but also maintains momentum. This protects business continuity, even when disagreements occur.
While Octavia is the heart of Resolutiion, the people side of conflict must also be factored in. “In terms of human behavior, conflict and disagreements cause stress, and when human beings are under strain, they can behave in very different ways, depending on who they are as individuals,” says Fay. “Our platform takes that into account, so it’s not just about commercial business reality, it’s best practice. Particularly with the resolution tools, it is attuned to human behavior.
“What people often need is some support in those stressful times and finding quick outcomes when facing complex scenarios reduces stress levels. Our platform is like having a co-pilot. We’re not replacing people; we’re supporting them and empowering them.”
From speaking to Fay, her passion for the business and the sector is evident. She believes that drive has been an essential factor in Resolutiion’s success. “We are all passionate about what we do and that means we bring our best selves to work,” she says. “The culture we have created stems from everyone’s belief in the benefits of dispute resolution and around how we can support businesses throughout the process.
“I also believe in being bold,” she continues. “Look for the gaps, understand where true value can be delivered and don’t be afraid to deliver innovation. This is the kind of approach that manufacturing really needs. As we move forward in time, manufacturing businesses need to modernize, move on from pen and paper, and adopt and harness the brilliant tools like AI that are out there.
“We have built a brilliant use case for conflict and disputes as to how manufacturing organizations can harness AI in a valuable way. That saves a lot in terms of money, time and risk, which are three critical areas.
“But this philosophy extends out from conflict resolution and applies to any solution that’s out there. Embrace things that will add value to your whole organization, think about a technology stack and what you’re using. Where are the pain points? Where is the value erosion? Where is the risk and what can technology do to plug in and support? Am I under resourced and can technology help solve that?
“Solutions are not as expensive as people think they are, which is often a barrier. When you investigate solutions, there’s often a real financial benefit driving the investment, which makes the effort of the research worthwhile. My call to action for manufacturing business leaders is to think about how technology can help support the people within the businesses with all the difficult parts. The market is still shifting; the tariffs have created a very difficult space and finding anything that can assist people and businesses should be a top priority,” she concludes.