Sharing | Collaboration vs. Competition in Business Today

Just a quick thought - about sharing. The activity we have been encouraged to participate in since kindergarten, even earlier if you have a little sister or brother!

But in business, sharing is hardly encouraged. Sharing puts us in danger of losing our competitive advantage and falling behind after we have worked so hard to be a leader in our product/market/industry.

Yet, in light of new movements towards green solutions and sustainability, we see a shift. These "tree-hugging" goals seem to be by nature more collaborative, but there also seems to be real business reasons for erring on the side of sharing over hording information when it comes to making sustainable changes in the world.

One of the coolest examples is Tesla. On June 12 2014, Tesla Motors‘ CEO, Elon Musk, wrote a blog stating that "the company would not initiate lawsuits against anyone who wishes to use their technology in good faith." While this does not mean for free, Tesla basically announced openness to license its unique technologies. This move actually grows the market for Tesla by helping other car companies produce electric vehicles. Here, Tesla saw beyond the immediate goal of "winning" in the car space and made strategic decisions based on growing the electric car market to initiate a complete change of which technology people use for transportation through sharing information.

Toyota has just followed suit. In this case, Toyota is giving other car makers free access to over 5,000 fuel cell patents through 2020. This action that may shortsightedly seem like an over share of confidential information is again dramatically growing the market and Toyota will benefit.

While sharing your one-of-a-kind Grandma's own recipe that brings everyone to your restaurant over all other dining options in town may not be the best idea for business, telling your competitors that you found a great new water-less dishwasher technology that saves you $200 a month on your water bill might be. If you are only concerned about your revenues and profits for the next month being better than theirs, then go ahead and pocket that $200. If you care about the environment, water use, and the sustainable future of your community, start considering what you can share to make a lasting difference.