The word competitor derives from the latin term competere which means "to strive in common" or "striving together". It is the combination of com "together" + petere "to strive, to seek".
The term competere "coincide, agree" is also the root of the term ‘competent’ as competence is the basis of an agreed set of standards of professionalism.
Since the industrial revolution, the term competition has became synonymous with trying to beat others in a furious race to acquire and accumulate the most finite resources. Turning a blind eye to the old adage "even if you could own everything in the world, where would you put it?"
Competing has nothing to do with stealing or taking advantage of others for our own selfish benefit. Competition is not a zero sum or short term game.
To vie for, challenge, contend and strive to be the best creator of value for the people we serve has more to do with how and why we apply resources than how or why we accumlate them.
The accumulation of wealth is a natural outcome of the value we create for others. One follows the other. When we focus on accumulation over application we confuse cause and effect; short cuts and corruption soon follow upon our heels (performance enhancement drugs, cooking the books, burying the truth).
Competing is about applying limited resources more wisely than anyone else in order to create more resources in the form of new value, than anyone else. Value begets value.
A common way of growing market share, leveraging economies of scale and reducing overhead is to acquire a competitor. Knitting resources together is not enough. To be successful the new entity needs to strive in common. Some mergers and acquisitions realise this, many more do not.
An individual, an organisation or a nation state that consumes and accumulates the most resources cannot compete with an individual, organisation or national economy that applies resources wisely in order to create the most value.
Competing is a question of character, striving in common requires mutual respect, self awareness, humility and grace. Meekness does not mean giving in it means rising up above personal pettiness and seeing the bigger picture, a perspective that is bigger than all of us combined. Winning the respect of competitor’s means changing the rules of the game/industry in which we compete.
To compete we must continuously innovate new forms of value for customers/ society that our competitors cannot imagine or repeat. As professionals we must protect what we create (through legal means) but we also need to strive to continuously raise the bar on excellence lest we are protecting nothing.
Competitive standards are determined by the fulfillment of met, unmet, unarticulated and often the unimagined needs of the people our organisation serves. If our competitors strive to do better than us and inspire us in the process, then we are all the better for it.
"Trifles light as air are to the jealous
confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ"
Othello: Act III, Scene 3
Comments