You may be my enemy here, on this field of play, but I never know when we may be on the same team, so let’s keep it civil.

In a prior corporate life one of my products was competing head to head with the entrenched 800lb gorilla of the industry.  Our revenue line existed because of two distinct groups of people:

(1) people really liked us – they had bought into our “tribe” and (2) people that were glad we were not the 800lb gorilla.

Not in it for coopetition

What both groups either did not realize or suppressed was that our product was a rebranding of the 800lb gorilla’s product.  Same back end, same specifications and standards.  The only things that were different were the back end service and support, and the name that showed up on the customers’ credit card bills.

Why then did the 800lb gorilla work with us at all?  Weren’t we the enemy?

No, through the magic of coopetition, we were their partner and without us they would be without a lot of revenue!

Our two companies worked together behind the scenes to bring a product to our respective customer bases.  We worked against each other in the marketplace to gain customers, but we were not the only two businesses going after that product category.  We each had a 3rd competitor that didn’t work with us and was the mortal enemy of our “partner”.

Even though “Gorilla Inc” would get more money by keeping the customer rather than let our company “Tribe Marketing” get it, they really didn’t want “Arch Nemesis Inc” grab those customers.  Now, some marketing manager at “Gorilla Inc” got the idea that they could keep all of the customers for themselves and locked “Tribe Marketing” out of a few geographic areas.  The result – they did not get as much revenue or profit as they did in similar sized markets where they let “Tribe Marketing” play with them.

Any business can use the same ideas.  Look out at your marketplace.  Who are your “enemies” on the playing field?  Now, which ones are aligned with your view of the marketplace?  Those are the companies that can make good targets for cooperative partnerships.

Sure, you’ll still be working against each other to grab customers or sell product in about 90% of what you do, but you’ll also be able to leverage your collective strengths in that other 10% and use that to steal marketshare from a 3rd entity that isn’t aligned with what you do.

Coopetition is a funny little thing, because it turns the whole idea of a “zero sum game” on its head.  When you work closely with your competition in strategic areas, you both can come out way ahead.

What do you think?  What are some ways you’ve used coopetition to help out your business?