Compete or Collaborate?

Competition is in our nature. We compete against other teams or individuals in sports, we compete with siblings for our parents’ attention, we compete with our peers for the best jobs, we compete with coworkers for a raise or promotion. Competition starts even before we are born; its competition amongst X & Y chromosomes of male cells to reach first with the Y chromosomes of female cells to avoid the futility. But the same scenario gets you the best instance of collaboration to accept X or Y chromosomes of male cells to form a baby. In a way, competition & collaboration lies on the same playground with the importance of each based on the situation they are perceived.

Let's try & understand the definition of each & their importance to get the best outcome for the business and their consumers.

#Compete

Compete, contend, contest mean to strive to outdo or excel. Compete implies having a sense of rivalry and of striving to do one's best as well as to outdo another: to compete for a prize. Contend suggests opposition or disputing as well as rivalry: to contend with an opponent, against obstacles. Competition delivers the following key advantages for its end consumers:

• Low prices for all: In a competitive market, prices are pushed down. Not only is this good for consumers - when more people can afford to buy products, but it also encourages businesses to produce and boosts the economy in general.
• Better quality: Competition also encourages businesses to improve the quality of goods and services they sell – to attract more customers and expand market share. Quality can mean various things: products that last longer or work better, better after-sales or technical support or friendlier and better service.
• More choice: In a competitive market, businesses will try to make their products different from the rest. This results in a wider choice – so consumers can select the product that offers the right balance between price and quality.
• Innovation: To deliver this choice, and produce better products, businesses need to be innovative – in their product concepts, design, production techniques, services, etc.

To conclude on the need for competition, Apple would have never created their iPod, Microsoft would have never created Windows, and Google would probably be non-existent. Competition is essential because it leads to one very important thing, innovation.

#Collaborate

Collaboration is the process of two or more people or organizations working together to achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most collaboration requires thorough leadership skills with the ability to drive resources in the delivery of the common objective/goal. Teams that work collaboratively often access greater resources, recognition, and rewards when facing competition for finite resources.

Structured methods of collaboration encourage introspection of behavior and communication. Such methods aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem-solving. Collaboration is present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this is not a common use of the term. In its applied sense, "collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate to accomplish a shared outcome." Few quick benefits & advantages of collaborative working:

• Improved Flexibility of the Organization: Enables horizontal spread of offerings for the organization with faster reach on delivering innovative business needs of not only the existing customer but also enables in acquiring new logos.
• Engaged Employees: With clear communication across hierarchies, employees & partner ecosystem remains engaged & committed for their contributions & deliverables. It helps to improve everyone’s wellness, then creates a values-based culture. It also provides a competitive advantage when attracting top talent with an increase in employee retention ratio. This also enables cross-pollination of talents between entities to make sure they are retained, engaged, nurtured & elevated timely and appropriately.
• Accelerated Business Velocity: Teamwork and communication speed up the entire process and make it easier to bring products to the market faster.
• Innovative Ideas: Fosters trust delivering incubation of new ideas which may serve as disruptive but enabling accelerated growth for an organization.
• Increased Profitability: And then, of course, there's the bottom line. Collaboration improves it. Sounds too simplistic? Perhaps. But when Google For Work and Raconteur asked what changes would have the greatest impact on their organization’s overall profitability, 56% of respondents ranked a collaboration-related measure as the #1 factor.

To conclude on the need for collaboration, I have a couple of strong case reference:

#Reference-1:

Apple would have never survived from its cash crunch in 1997 if Microsoft would not have pumped $150 million investment. The collaboration was to bring in mutual benefits for Microsoft & Apple; Microsoft promised to support Microsoft Office for the Mac for 5 years while Apple agreed to make Internet Explorer the default web browser on the Mac. The deal of collaboration between the two companies was mutually beneficial from every angle. Apple got some much-needed cash while Microsoft was able to keep a weakened competitor afloat, thereby alleviating concerns about the company's monopolistic power.

#Reference-2:

Consider the collaborative venture between Rover, the Indian automaker (after the acquisition in 2008), and Honda. Some 55 years ago, Rover’s forerunners were world leaders in small car design. Honda had not even entered the automobile business. But in the mid-1970s, after failing to penetrate foreign markets, Rover turned to Honda for technology and product development support. Rover has used the alliance to avoid investments to design and build new cars. Honda has cultivated skills in European styling and marketing as well as multinational manufacturing. There is little doubt which company will emerge stronger over the long term.

There’s a certain paradox here. When both partners are equally intent on internalizing the other’s skills, distrust and conflict may spoil the alliance and threaten its very survival. That’s one reason collaboration between Korean and Japanese companies have been few and tempestuous. Neither side wants to “open the kimono.”

To summarize my point of view on deciding on competing or collaborating with your competition, I would like to leverage a famous quote from Sir R Tata

“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.”

This leads to the decision completely based on your business strategies in place; take judicial call whichever is right for you in your business.