Business 101 has always taught us that your primary goal is to "beat the competition" at any and all costs. With the current state of the economy, the pressure to sell work is greater than ever and having a competitive advantage has never been more critical.

As many of you know, I believe it is so important to be involved in your trade associations, but unfortunately when it comes to being a member there is an inherent conflict. Professional associations, by design, are created to help members benefit in a number of ways including: developing their skills; educating themselves; and obtaining preferred pricing and benefits through their association's buying power. They also provide a medium for socializing and learning from other members. All that being said, the reality is that when you really sit down and think about it, associations are also a group of competitors working together.

So…being a member of an association then you really have two choices: avoid participating because of the fact that you will always be surrounded by your competition; OR recognize the value that exists and learn that there is more to gain than there is to lose. That is why this "Trade Secret" is called Co-opetition where we discuss how to cooperate with your competition for mutual gain and benefits.

Not a new concept, the term was actually coined by Ray Noorda, the founder of Novell although Adam M. Brandenburger of the Harvard School of Business, Barry J. Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management popularized the term in 1996 after writing the bestselling book Co-opetiton (a blend of the terms cooperation and competition). In their book, they suggest that competing businesses can take advantages of synergies that exist between them by joining forces when there is mutual benefit while still being competitors in another arena.

The challenge is to stop viewing competition as a negative concept and realize that we can work side by side at times and other times act as competitors. Competition is inherent in all organizations and is a healthy thing. We see examples of this all of the time in sports. During a baseball game two opposing teams play, one wins, and one loses. Yet, after the game is over many of the players who have established friendships or played together over the years, cross team lines and congratulate each other.

I have seen many great examples of co-opetition and I would like to share one of these with you.

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