InsideWork » Killing the Competition: Would praising our competitors hurt our business?

People have asked me, “Is competition in business biblical?” I received a new thought on this from my brother, Dave, an astute observer of the business world and the business of sports. In our “dog eat dog, winner take all, no holds barred” world of competition, he muses what would happen if we really honored our competitors rather than trashing them.

Here’s his note to me.

While reading the post on Contempt - Sometimes You Can Just See It Coming - it brought to mind a website I looked at recently. If you look at the official Dallas Mavericks NBA website, they have a section where they have an animated graphic that shows some of the key offensive plays of their opponents. For example, on the Philadelphia 76′ers, they show how Philly runs their pick and roll with Iverson and Webber … and extols the abilities of the opposition and how hard it is to stop them.

Your article refers to Proverbs 18.3 - "When wickedness comes, so does contempt, and with shame comes disgrace" and mentions "What we say about colleagues, customers, clients and competitors may or may not predict success. But contempt for anyone foreshadows disgrace."

With all the talk in the media from competitors bashing each other - airlines, fast foods, soft drinks, beer, home loan vendors, brokerage firms - it’s interesting to see a company outlining, publicly, its opponent’s strategies and noting what a worthy competitor they are.

Now granted everyone that follows the NBA (National Basketball Association) already knows that an Iverson/Webber pick and roll is virtually impossible to stop, but it’s just interesting to see an NBA team publicly stating it on their website … and not worrying that building up/praising their opposition will hurt their own marketing/sales.

The fact that every NBA franchise has an exclusive geographic niche carved out and belongs to a unified league, might explain the willingness to compliment competitors in distant cities. But it is fun to think what would happen if other business sectors, operated in this fashion.

Progressive Insurance comes to mind. They advertise that they will compare their rates to some other major insurance companies and will tell you if you can get a better deal elsewhere. How about airlines telling customers they can get a better deal with their competitor?

This past weekend I went to Lowe’s and the salesmen mentioned,

We don’t have a large selection of this particular item … but I know they have a large selection of this item at Home Depot, so you may want to check out our orange competitor.

I don’t know if that’s company policy at Lowe’s (they have referred me to their competitors once or twice before) - but I like the fact that the Lowe’s employee was looking out for my (customer’s) best interests. They might lose a $30 sale for the referral, but how much is the goodwill worth in terms of future purchases?

Just interesting to think about.