Co-Ompetition, not Competition

Entrepreneurs are always looking for ways to be different.

Many times, experienced entrepreneurs foster cooperation with their competitors. While they are competing on the one hand, they collaborate on the other. Hence the term, Co-ompetition.

The idea here is that while you want to compete in a fair and nice way, at the same time you need to find ways to collaborate because there will be projects on which you will need their assistance or insights, or work together to create standards that will allow your industry to grow.

In our experience, aspiring entrepreneurs sometimes see competition as “the enemy.”

In reality, your competition is on your side. Having competition creates a marketplace. Without a market you can only compete with yourself. On rare occasions, owning the market can be a blessing, but most of the time people want to see different brands or businesses.

As a matter of fact, many of the big players create their own competition by creating different brands for their own products or services, sometimes even under different names.

Before you start stating that your competition IS good, bad, or ugly, just remember that whatever you say about your competitor could be said about you, or seen as relating to your industry as a whole.

BEFORE YOU GO

We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.

1. What ways can you find to collaborate with your competitors?

2. What can you do to enhance your industry brand?

3. What associations do you join to stay informed about your competition?

#competition, #coompetition, #FarisAlami

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Faris Alami is Founder and CEO of International Strategic Management, Inc. (ISM). He works internationally, presenting Exploring Entrepreneurship Workshops and other entrepreneurial ecosystem — related ventures.