Changing our Course

An uncle once told me that the reason Filipinos cannot work together is that there is just too little lugao (rice soup) for all the monks. The pressure to have a bit of the perceived small bowl has contributed to a zero-sum game mentality – in other words – for me to win, you must lose. The corruption, distrust, suspicion, and non-cooperation we experience everyday point to desperation to get to the lugao pot first or to have a chance to have the largest share of it.

Perception has in our case become reality. As we wallow in a state of constant conflict, we have succeeded to make the bowl smaller with less for more to share. If, on the other hand, we decide to look at ourselves from a different angle, we could change the course, to create many pots of lugao and to foster healthy competition.

Professor John Nash whose life was portrayed in the movie, A Beautiful Mind, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his game theory which is called the "Nash Equilibrium" or the "positive sum game." Nash proved mathematically that it was possible for everyone to benefit which established that the best strategies are those that turn rivalries into mutual gain.

Co-opetition, a bestseller written by Brandenburg and Nalebuff, gives another model for "a revolutionary mindset that combines Competition and Cooperation." The authors argue that to succeed, businesses must compete and cooperate at the same time. By cooperation, businesses enlarge the pot which, through competition, is divided and shared.

One example of co-petition is being spearheaded by Secretary Cito Lorenzo who is working with the stakeholders of the corn-growing industry, to find ways to improve the cost of growing, and distributing corn to benefit the consumer. Today, corn growing is a fragmented industry, with traders and farmers supplying their respective markets without common standards. The recently formed Corn Advisory Board aims to find a new level of cooperation to reinvent how corn is traded; to give the farmer a greater share of profit; the trader, a larger volume for his business to compete with; the shipping company, new volumes that did not exist to compete for; the financier, more business to back; the seed supplier, new markets previously untapped; the government, more taxes from more trade; and the consumer, cheaper and better corn.

My sister Linda reminds me that co-opetition is a strategy that has been used for centuries. "Look at the Chinese medicine or noodle shops...anywhere around the world you see not one, but many next to each other, ...Or, in Hong Kong, we have an area called Lan Kwai Fong with a lot of restaurants, but the owners have collaborated to share a number of invisible services. They have a joint advertising and promotions fund, share home delivery services and beautification and maintenance expenses. The restaurant owners have added value to the common pot. As a result, the common effort has brought great success to the whole area as a ‘must visit’ destination bringing in many more customers than before they got together. However, they continue to compete fiercely for that customer to enter their doors."

We all know intuitively that this strategy works but applying it to our businesses, our politics, our families and in our daily life is something so easy to forget. Perhaps we need to reflect on why we bought the idea that there is too little lugao in the first place, throw the concept away, change course and instead focus on cooperating to create great abundance for all.

* * *

Thanks for your comments at dorisho@attglobal.net.