The vast majority of people in the world conceive of business as a game. A competitive game. A game like baseball where there is a winner and a loser. Some even conceive of business as a war where one business lives and the other dies. They want to conquer, kill, and destroy their competitors. This is why the ancient Chinese book, The Art of War, is a best seller today on the business shelves of bookstores.
I disagree. I do not think it helps you, as a business person, to be in a constant competitive mode. Always spying and learning about your competitors. Always looking for ways to destroy your competitors. You would be a lot better off if you did not concentrate on your competitors but on your customers. Instead of being extremely competitive with competitors, find ways to cooperate with customers.
Zero-Sum Games
The common view is that business is a zero-sum game, like poker. If you and I have a game of poker, and you win $10, it means that I lost $10. If we add the two together, +$10 and -$10, we get a sum of 0. This makes poker a zero-sum game. Any game where there is a winner and a loser is a zero-sum game. In this category you have baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, tennis and almost all other athletic games.
Is business a game? You may think of it this way. But is it a zero-sum game that you must win as you play it against other business people? Are you trying to prove you are better than other people? Or are you eager to do your best? The two are not the same. In the first instance you are worrying about what your competitor is doing. In the second instance you are worrying about how to please your customer.
Social Darwinism
Those in favor of extreme competition often claim they are following the Theory of Evolution promulgated by Charles Darwin. They are merely applying his ideas to the social realm, they say. Darwin believed in "survival of the fittest" species, and they believe in "survival of the fittest" people in our society.
According to them, there is a constant battle for survival - competition. Those who make it, the winners, survive. Those who don't should be discarded as unfit.
Social Darwinism maligns Charles Darwin. Darwin never spoke of the "survival of the winner," but of the "survival of the fittest." It is the extreme competitors who interpret "fittest" to be those who compete and "win." You can build a case, at least for human beings, that the fittest are those who know how to cooperate. Cooperation with friends enabled man to kill preying animals. Cooperation with family members made the family strong. Cooperation within the military made the country strong.
Cooperation with your customers, and sometimes even with your competitors, will bring your business extraordinarily positive results.
Non-Zero-Sum Games
The other type of game, the type all of us participate in as we go about our daily activities, is the non-zero-sum game. The sum of participant outputs does not equal zero. Both may win. This is often called a win-win game.
The noted writer, Robert Wright, wrote a book called Non-Zero, in which he shows that human culture has been evolving from tribes in barbaric competition to larger groups in civilized cooperation. According to him, in 1500 B.C. there were 600,000 autonomous political entities in the world, and in the year 2000 there were only 195.
Wright points out that in early societies individuals, groups, tribes, chiefdoms and states were constantly involved in zero-sum games. Nobody trusted anybody. Everybody assumed the worst about others. Fighting, treachery, slaughters and wars were common.
He shows, that though they started with zero-sum games, they eventually learned the value of cooperation. Here is what he says about early hunter-gatherers, the Shoshone, sharing food:
"You give someone food when his cupboard is bare and yours is overflowing, he reciprocates down the road when your cupboard is bare, and you both profit, because food is more valuable when you're hungry than when you're full."
Since then technology, especially that concerned with information, has increased the number of non-zero-sum games. It may not be obvious at times, but over the long run, Wright feels that people around the world are becoming more cooperative.
Why not business?
The Competition/Cooperation Dilemma
Relationships among 2 people have 2 components: competition and cooperation. It is difficult for you to have a completely competitive or completely cooperative relationship with another person. In the first instance, you are completely self-centered and wrapped up in yourself. In the second instance, you are altruistic and are concerned with the other person more than for yourself.
Most of us use a mixture of competition and cooperation in our dealings with other people. Even Republicans and Democrats in Congress cannot compete about legislation before they cooperate in setting up rules of debate.
Why not bring a little more cooperation into business? We have been so brainwashed about the value of competition that it is difficult for the thought of cooperation to even enter our minds.
The prominent professional speaker, Bob Burg, wrote Winning Without Intimidation, a powerful book about the value of cooperation. It demonstrates that a cooperative attitude in your dealings with other people will produce better results than a competitive one. He says:
"In Winning Without Intimidation in your selling career, you'll find that the more you're willing to give to others without expecting anything in return, the more you'll actually get in return."
Business is a Cooperative Enterprise
Business should be thought of in more cooperative terms. Sure, every business has competitors. But devoting too much time to this competition takes you away from your prime responsibility of making your customers happy. Thinking of business as a zero-sum game thwarts you in doing your best. Remember, the real players are the customers. Make it a non-zero-sum win-win game.
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