g-f(2)78 HBR, A better understanding of co-opetition will help businesses, managers, and countries find a better way to work and succeed together

Extra-condensed knowledge

• There is a name for the mix of competition and cooperation: co-opetition.
• There are many reasons for competitors to cooperate.
• Cooperation is an overall win-win, but splitting the gains is a zero-sum game. The solution is relatively straightforward when there’s an even trade but harder if the trade is uneven.
• People tend to think in either/or terms, as in either compete or cooperate, rather than compete and cooperate. Doing both at once requires mental flexibility; it doesn’t come naturally.
• Today the opportunities for countries to cooperate are even larger—from tackling Covid-19 and climate change to resolving trade wars. 

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image

Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age

[genioux fact produced, deduced or extracted from HBR]

Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Deduced and Extracted Knowledge (EDEK).

Type of validity of the "genioux fact". 

• Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts.

Authors of the genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

The Rules of Co-opetition, Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff, From the Magazine (January–February 2021), Harvard Business Review.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Adam Brandenburger is the J.P. Valles Professor at the Stern School of Business, a distinguished professor at the Tandon School of Engineering, and the faculty director of the Program on Creativity and Innovation at NYU Shanghai, all at New York University. 

Barry Nalebuff is the Milton Steinbach Professor of Management at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches negotiation, innovation, strategy, and game theory.