Competition - good or bad?

Recently, I was engaged in some lengthy negotiations with a former colleague about joining our team at MonitorEDU.   During that process, I laid out my business plan, strategy, and recent successes. However, the former colleague made the decision to pursue another opportunity which better fit his near-term goals.

After I found out that we hadn’t been able to close the deal, my wife asked me if I was worried about having told him so much, and my response was a simple “no”.

During my career, I have learned many things about building relationships and growing an industry.   I have always believed in transparency and open discussion. By seeking out other industry leaders and having frank conversations about our products, customers, services, and trends - we get the chance to work together to grow each of our businesses.  A rising tide lifts all boats. Over the years I have enjoyed my conversations with other industry leaders including Doug Winneg, Rob Toof, Tim Dutta, Adel Lelo and Paul Creed- and recently guys like Mike Olsen, Adam Roth, and Daniel Haven. Through these conversations, I believe we have helped each other understand the market and encouraged each other to compete by being better (sorry Steve Lesser, "It's not ALL about the price").

The reason that I’m confident in having open conversations is that I believe strongly that each of us has a different model and plan and are competing in a rapidly expanding market.   There are plenty of opportunities to grow. In order for each of us to succeed, we need to “sell out” and execute on our own plans. However, to a certain extent, each of us gains success as the competition succeeds - if we are all telling similar stories - we are all helping each other sell.    When Doug & I competed for business, we told similar stories that helped convince the client that our representative services could solve their problem. Having multiple bidders allow clients to have confidence in the solution and then choose the one that best fits their needs. In the end, it is a 1+1= 3    Doug won deals, I won deals, but in the end, the market won because the aggregate deals were more than if there was only one provider (monopolies restrict markets). The market wins when we all compete.

So I’m not worried about my former colleague knowing what I’m doing…..I’m just glad he stayed in the market because it helps us all! And I can't wait to compete :)