It’s called coopetition – or in other words, cooperating with your competition. And it takes buying local to a whole new level.
The idea of coopetition has been around for a long time, with variations of the term occurring as early as 1913, according to Wikipedia. In many aspects of life, we accomplish more by cooperation than we do through competition.
What about in the business world?
Coopetition, a current best-selling book by Adam Bradenburger and Barry Nalebuff, describes some of the roles and terms that might be helpful in understanding your company’s position as you interact with your competitors and other players like suppliers and customers.
Cooperation among business competitors isn’t new. Real estate multiple listing services and broker agreements that have been around for many decades demonstrate the best of coopetition. Competing brokers, clients and service providers all benefit from the cooperation of competing brokers.
How can you truly embrace this idea?
First, you need to challenge the notion that your success must come at the other’s expense. This might be a shift in your thinking, but it might be a shift worth considering. Realize that the easiest form of cooperation is often with a complementary business, taking many forms including shared marketing, cross-referrals of your customer and shared email lists.
The success of many area businesses is helped with buy local concepts. In many respects, our local economy is the “us” against the national and multi-national “them.” On a local level, we’re all competing with the global market, in one form or another. Take our local farmers for example. They’re competing with global food suppliers as much as or more than they are with each other. Our tech companies, too, have a very definite global arena they’re competing in.
Perhaps it’s time to consider working with your local competitor and adopt an “us against them” attitude. It might help you see the benefits of cooperation.
To read Lynn Krogseng’s column in its entirety, be sure to check out our Buy Local focus section in the upcoming June 10th edition of the Vancouver Business Journal.
