Competition was significant in the following.
Evolution -- humans exist because of competition
Health -- long life and a healthier life
Connections -- I can call my mom who lives 3000 miles away, or my friend
who lives 8000 miles away.
Security -- house and heat (no small matter in Maine)
Nutrition -- Inexpensive and plentiful food
Convenience -- I can be in California or Hong Kong today if I want to be.
The list could actually be much longer, but this is enough to start with.
Let me hasten to add that obviously other factors were at play, notably
technology and interestingly, collaboration. Also, I know there are
negative sides to some of these, and we can all name many negative
outcomes from competition. I am in total agreement about competition
having negative consequences. This is not intended as a defense of
competition, only as a thought-provoking process.
I began to think that competition had a role in progress, albeit not a
clearly and uniformly positive one.
This led me to remember what I learned about competition when I lived in
Africa. It was interesting and very insightful to view myself and my
concepts through other lenses.
In the Ivory Coast, where I lived there were 70 some odd distinct tribes.
The levels of conflict and competition were very finely defined. When a
friend would introduce me to another person, part of the introduction was
a description of their relationship. For example, someone might say this
is my brother Tika, same mother-same father. Or Tika, same mother. Or
Tika, same village.
The whole hierarchy looked like this.
Same mother-same father
Same mother
Same father
Same village
Same ethnic group
The person being introduced was always a brother, but the level of
brotherhood was clearly classified and understood.
In Africa brotherhood was a very strong bond, much more so than here.
Competition divided out along the lines above, so that two people could be
competitors in one context -- same village, but dealing with a third
person who was same father of one of them, or collaborators in another
context -- same village dealing with a third person from another village.
The power of brotherhood within this classification was absolute. A
brother could never turn down his brother in a time of need. An older
brother was particularly honor-bound to care for a younger brother.
This made me think that perhaps competition and collaboration play
synergistic roles. Competition can speed the development of new and
valuable 'wealth' becaause there is a creative tension in competition. On
the other hand collaboration speeds the development of 'wealth' because it
allows us to multiply our power of accomplishment. The resolution in the
paradox is in finding the right balance between the two forces.
For example, it is destructive for me and a peer to compete for favoritism
from our boss. On the other hand, competition between LL Bean and Lands
End on good quality, reasonably priced turtle necks is probably a good
thing. At least the consumer benefits. From another perspective,
collaboration between Bean and a fabric supplier on creation of a better
fabric is also good, but might have never happened if we were not
competing with Lands End. Competition spawned the creative tension that
in turn led to collaboration.
How and when does competition become a positive force? This would be an
interesting project for someone. The computer wars are a dramatic example
of great added value from competition. Apple has a funny bumper sticker
the illustrates the point. It says, "Windows 95 = MacIntosh 89". I have
no desire to participate in that 'religious war', but clearly the consumer
has benefited from the companies competing for market share.
We may say that consumer benefit is not always a positive, and I would
agree. However, few would argue that personal computers have not been
beneficial in some ways. Here we are, for example, having this discussion.
When we take competition to the international arena, things start to get
very complex. International competition brought us the Volkswagen, the
Toyota, and a host electronic wizardry that we mostly appreciate. On the
one hand we finally got fuel-efficient cars. On the other hand,
international competition created a very large balance of payment deficit
that most people are uncomfortable with, and it cost the loss of jobs to
lower-cost providers. Sure, it also woke up our slumbering industries,
but some workers ended up without jobs which they had before the
competition heated up.
International competition on the whole has been beneficial in my opinion,
but it has also been painful to some.
After this review, I am of the opinion that competition has a place, but
it also must be managed. I am still unclear where it is a positive
influence, and where it is negative. I also am unclear how competition
and collaboration interact, but they clearly do interact in a synergistic
way.
It is tempting to say that local collaboration and distant competition is
a good rule of thumb. In other words, use the same model as African
villagers. Same mother-same father takes precedence over all in the
hierarchy of competition- collaboration.
-- Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com