Collaborative Advantage - Genuine Collaboration - By: PC Teoh

In my article on the title "Collaborative Advantage", I have suggested a new thinking (or not so new to some of you) that may contradict and general perception about Competitive Advantage. However, I would like to make in clear that this is not about "Collaborative Advantage" vs. "Competitive Advantage". If you think of it this way, then you are using your competitive mindset. When this happens, we are looking at who will win, and who will be beaten, and then genuine collaboration will not be possible.
Being competitive is a second nature to living beings. Every child going to school for science classes will be able to recognize that. It is a part of our instinct for survival. However, we also know that sometime we need to collaborate with others in order to beat common enemies out there. This type of collaborative behaviour is not permanent. Sometime, our friends become foes, and foes turn to be our friend, depending on the situation. What advantage we can get out of that situation? Short term advantage, probably yes, but when you are going to have peace in your mind? You will be busy worrying about when your friends are going to turn against you, and you cold be losing what you have won. So, this is not the type of collaboration I am talking about. I am talking about collaboration that will bring long lasting peace in our minds.
Imagine that whenever you meet a potential competitor, i.e. a person who is doing the same thing as you are doing, and probably does it better than you, and instead of figuring out how to beat him or her, why don¡¯t you work together to do even better? This applies to individuals as well as organizations. In collaborative mode, we are trying to build long-term relationships through genuine collaborative attitude. It is when you collaborate to bring values to yourself and others without sacrificing anybody else, and then you know you are in a real collaborative mode.
At this moment, I am not going to drill into the business theories about competitive advantage, comparative advantage and so on, not that I have much knowledge about them. All I am saying is that competitions are hurting our efforts to bring progress to the world, let¡¯s try to do something about it, and I am suggesting that we try to be collaborative.
However, we need to beware of our own competitive nature, which will turn our collaborative efforts into a competition. A genuine collaborative mode will cultivate long-term relationships and bring peace in our minds. That is that benefit of collaboration that all of us should look forward to.

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