Global Competition vs Cooperation — Power, Strategy and Communications aspects
by Radu Magdin
In the strategic competition era, cooperation is not a lost asset. Whether we are talking about alliance building and management, or simply the periodic need to breath a less competitive environment and “agree on some basics”, cooperation is here to stay. At the same time, we need to look more closely into some power, strategy and communications aspects around the contrast in the making: “global competition vs (global) cooperation”. We seem to be heading back to temporary friendships and permanent interests; though, we should be so lucky to have a stable set of interests. And if you are told you need to organise your activities like an intelligence service, you may hit the ground running. So here is what you probably need to hear:
Power is like a ball atop a stick — don’t expect it to be stable or to stay in your court all the time. You might drop it every now and then, and it is ok. Sure, the markets might think otherwise — because they were designed to function on predictability and linearly. But life is not like that. What will define you as a powerful player will be your capacity to always resurface (operation periodic comeback), steal some wins, know when to duck and, generally, to keep growing. A combination of knowing when to act stealth and when and how to resurface on the public radar.
Strategy — what’s coming is probably a good era for complex management boards; and it will probably be a revival for the humanities and social sciences. Because engineering, law or business will no longer cut it. Everyone will be trying to squeeze out every single bit of performance, information, insight. Corporations, particularly, are good at squeezing resources. Politicians, increasingly populist, are good at squeezing emotions. But humans, in general, are not so good at putting things together from numerous sources and from all levels of the organisation and networks. And then turning that into insights … you better hire a geopolitics consultant, as a full time risk manager.
Communication — the power of not caring what everyone else thinks or says is formidable. It’s also a luxury a global player can’t afford. Comms is no longer about being politically correct; it is more about ethics and respect and dignity — this should be an easy recipe. However, it is increasingly also about being genuine, about showing you are a true believer, about refusing to remain untouched by what others are doing. Corporate platitudes should no longer be spewed by your social media feed, and if you ever had a friend that has no idea what comes out of their mouth but usually stirs the room, now it’s a good time to call them for a lesson in emotion management, to which you can add with your team sense and simplicity.
Bottom line, the old rule book is out. The new way combines a craft from the past with some very progressive thinking that are all centred on human dignity and respect, and have little to do with capitalism, market economy, democracy or secularism. Flexibility is the new golden currency.
Despite opposing competition and cooperation in the title of this episode, watch out for an interesting mix “Cooperative Competition” — a trend that has been growing timidly since the beginning of the 2010s but is probably one of the best ways to gain strategy insights. It is similar to “frenemies”, in a sense, with sportsmanship, with the notion that you may cooperate with a competitor for the betterment of both. This may actually save us, as people, organisations, and the wider world, in the years to come. Static “co-existence” no longer does the trick: in the end, if you are not interested in competition, competition is interested in you.
And no, despite defining an era (“strategic competition” times) after being officially adopted via the US National Security Strategy, competition is not cool, and there will be a millennial and post millennial growing mismatch in the years to come. Competition is cold and pragmatic, it’s the language of capitalists, it is coming from an era when people did not think resources are limited and that the planet is too small. Now you have a planet where people get upset about your lack of efforts about climate change, even though they are at the opposite side of the globe, when over population will probably kill us before nuclear war, and where cooperation in good or bad faith is still preferred, at a human level, to good old healthy competition. Religious leaders will also have a word to say in case strategic competition goes too far on the global arena. If this is more of a strategy or of a communication insight, this is entirely up to you.
Finally, pretty much everyone is born global these days. Whether because of operating through global platforms marketplaces, or because some chambers of commerce are more entrepreneurial, or because machine-augmented business is becoming ubiquitous, whichever the reason, you can compete on day 1 with anyone in the world. So, indeed, you need to think global all the time. If you are a small fish in a big pond, then it makes sense to cooperate further away; if you are a mid-range fish, you need to look at growth partnerships that may turn into actual long-term partnerships. If you are a big fish, then make sure those closer to you are your partners, because few are those going across the globe to find partners against those who are their neighbours. Continue the conversation online with two dedicated hashtags:
#managecompetition #empowerleaders
