Stage III – Bargaining

“Surely we can just source an alternative… right?”

Cue the PowerPoint parade. Crisp animations, bold declarations, very expensive fonts. “Yes,” it says, in triumphant Arial Black, “we can absolutely replace this risky, suboptimal, geopolitically questionable component with a domestically sourced, sovereignty-friendly alternative.” Procurement reads this and immediately bursts into laughter. Compliance, meanwhile, emits that classic shrug best translated as “Not my circus, not my audit.”