Why Competing AND Cooperating are More Important Than Ever

Businesses compete. It’s a basic assumption most of us make. And the idea of businesses cooperating usually stems from a direct self-interest of the cooperating organizations.

However, always being in a competitive, me-versus-them mindset is riddled with short-term thinking and inherent flaws. The reality is that even in the best of times taking a competition-and-cooperation mindset is usually better and healthier.

But these aren’t the best of times. And we don’t know how long we’ll be facing an uphill battle so to speak. Many forecasters are saying at the least we’re in for a major recession (2-5 years) and some have even predicted a decade long trek to get back to better times.

This is why putting some good in the world is so important. Even for businesses. 

It’s why we encouraged the #FeelGoodFriday Challenge. Because everyone could use some uplifting right now.

We need to truly be in this together. Let’s make sure we’re doing everything in our power to connect those who’ve lost jobs to new opportunities. Let’s make sure we refer potential clients we can’t work with to our strongest competitors.

It’s not an eat-or-be-eaten world right now. That approach is short-sighted. It’s a compete-and-cooperate world. Today one agency may lose a key client, but tomorrow or a year from now we’ll be in the same place.

It’s not if we’ll face adversity, but when and how hard. And to make it through these unprecedented times we need to work really hard and work with each other.

We need to root for our competitors. We need to root for our industry peers. We need to use all of our resources to get through this. 

And one day, even though it’s not the reason we should be doing these things, there will be a payback. 

Putting good into the world has an incredible ROI. It comes with increased employee loyalty. It comes with increased referrals. It comes with improved brand perception. It comes with more talented people wanting to work at your organization.

But most importantly it comes with being able to look into the mirror and saying we made the world better.

And that’s infinitely better than any short-term “win” we may have otherwise received.