To compete or collaborate? (U2S6P75)

Today I have been...

Reading Section 6.

Why?

Required

So What?

How can you interact with other organisations in your industry?

Well you can choose to compete or co-operate.

Competition: zero-sum game
Collaboration: non-zero-sum game

And zero-sum game? A game where one player can only benefit at the expense of another player. Like chess! Or Poker!

Strategies for competition include

• suprise - moving quickly and unexpectedly, sending out mixed messages to confuse competitors, acquire control of resources (eg Tesco buying up land).
• Timing
• Maximum use of resources (see p76)
• Vigour and skill

But co-operation....?

Joint ventures, outsourcing, product/brand licencing, joint resarch. "Collaboration is Competition in a different form" - paraphrased from Doz & Prahalad.

Hamel and Prahalad suggested that competition between coalitions will become more common. p77

Advantages of coalitions:-

They are a way to share risks
They can help assuage and assure polititians and regulatory bodies.
They give access to economies of scale and resources that one company alone could not manage.

Other properties of coalitions:-
They are not static. Early partnership will often turn into competitorship during the later stages of the product/market lifecycle.




How will I use it?