Collaboration Vs Competition

There is too much emphasis placed on Competition as a way to succeed in life and in business. So what I'd like to discuss here is the less often discussed way of 'collaboration' as a way to succeed.

Collaboration has always existed in all of Life's history. And there will always be need for collaboration. Much of the success of the human race and indeed that for many many a species on our planet has been the result of collaboration.

Collaborating is perhaps the only way to find enduring solutions. As societies and businesses evolves and become more complex and interdependent collaboration perhaps is the only way to find solutions that don't run into other people's interests and end up in exhausting conflicts.

Collaboration is the only way to do bigger things - the joint stock company, the Public-Private Partnership, the supply chain, the value networks, the wiki, the projects, the standards, open source software etc. are all examples of collaboration.

Indeed any human enterprise is collaboration at work.