Phil Lauterjung

Over the years I have read and heard much about competing and collaborating.  I’m sure that most of you have too.

Today, Charles Green posted a very compelling article regarding these two words.  I found it to be very thought provoking and he has apparently tweaked the Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs at Harvard Business School.  I have to admit that I just love a good rowdy debate.

Some of you might be thinking that the two words, compete and collaborate, don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  After all, can’t you be both collaborative and competitive?  Well, Green’s premise is based on the fundamental underpinnings of what gets taught in the major business schools in the U.S., and implemented in many businesses.  It’s really about what most companies practice as their core strategy, which of course drives everything they do from a tactical standpoint.  Including (especially?) sales and marketing!

Green suggests that most businesses today, particularly those run by B-school grads, default to Competition as their core strategy and Collaboration as a tactic in support of that strategy.  He suggests that it’s time to reevaluate that thinking and change how it’s taught by B-schools.

He states that it is time to -

Stop thinking about ‘winning,’ with its zero-sum implications and paranoid overtones.  Instead, start thinking about succeeding, something that is best achieved in concert with others, like our customers and suppliers.  We need to think more about commerce, less about competition.  The critical nexus is between sellers and buyers, not sellers and their competitors.

I think he’s on to something here.  If you follow any of the social media luminaries, they have been saying much the same thing for quite some time.  Green goes on to acknowledge some of those contributions to the debate.

For now, leadership is coming from the newly emerging world of blogs and social networking—for example, from people like Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of Trust Agents.  (Other key thought leaders in this area include Robert Scoble, Philip Evans of BCG, Dov Seidman of LRN, and the young-at-heart Tom Peters).

I was glad to see Green include Tom Peters in his list.  I still remember when I read “In Search of Excellence” so many years ago.  I had a really hard time trying to get my boss at that time (the VP of Sales at a Fortune 500 company) on board with the thinking behind that book.  Peters has espoused the benefits of collaboration for a very long time.

Green wraps up his post with a challenge to openly debate the topic at the The Customer Collective, where his post is located -

Collaboration as a Strategy, Not a Tactic

I would encourage all of you to enter into the dialog; or, at the very least, be an interested observer.  I think you will find it to be very educational; but, even more importantly, beneficial to your business.  I’ll see you there!

Photo Credit: © Akhilesh Sharma – Fotolia.com

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