Coopetition

#gutsy #mayorrey #coopetition

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar

During the Asian Economic Crisis in the late 1990s, I asked my dad for tips on how I can help my nationwide automative dealers. He introduced me to a concept called Coopetition.

He said I should develop programs that will transform my current dealer network who heavily competes with each other into one large nationwide collaborative organization. He said once your auto dealers stop fighting and competing with one another is the only time that all of them will survive the economic crisis and remain open.

As part of the Spare Parts Department.. we implemented special incentives when our dealers share medium moving parts and other resources to each other. We implemented the Buy-Back Program wherein the distributor got all the slow and non moving parts across the dealer network to help them sell it to each other.

Result: None of our nationwide dealers closed shop and all were profitable.

Fast forward to today, this concept of coopetition has evolved in the internet of things (IoT). Different electronic gadgets, home appliances and tools and other technology from varying and competing brands decide to allow their products to connect and sync up with products of the other brands. There is also varying models and platforms where sharing is the secret to success like sharing of office spaces, sharing of games, and even the old concept of holiday time-sharing of resorts & apartments units. If you think of it, food parks are successful because there are multiple food vendors with varying food options available in one place.

Even at work, competitive leaders who follow the old model of “I am better than you” fail because they always strive to be better than their peers. They love grandstanding and talking about how great they are. When these kind of arrogant leaders run into trouble, others will not help them because they do not want to be helped.

On the other hand, collaborative leaders always win together. They help each other even before the other person asks for help. They recognize and celebrate each other’s unique strengths and are interdependent on each other. They passionately talk about the strengths and contributions of the other person especially in public. They constantly give credit to their peers and genuinely say it is a “Team effort”.

*About the photo

During the pandemic, me and my peer Gutsy along with our HR leader we fondly call Mayor Rey constantly help and collaborate with each other daily. No matter what the challenges were, our first nature is to help, give and share. ALL our leaders felt great and inspired to be part of a collaborative leadership Team. We had 100% employment throughout the pandemic and we even doubled our headcount.

This photo was during the height of the pandemic wherein Gutsy gave me access to the high-grade face mask that was very difficult to find during that time.