Cooeptition is a Mindsets a Well as a Strategy
If you are a dolphin you see the ocean as a friendly and fun place to be, where collaboration is a norm and violence is rare. That does mean there are no sharks about, but you assume that they mean you no harm. If you are a shark, you assume that everything is food or foe and that mindset results in that being your reality.
In business, your mindset produces your behavior. If you think, “I’m going to beat the competition”, you will most likely indulge in predatory behavior and think nothing of killing competitors if it gives you a bigger bite of the market. On the other hand, if you think, “I’m going to create new opportunities”, chances are that you will find opportunities to collaborate and expand your collective market.
Such a coopetition minset will bring you think about how you can work with others rather than against them. It is not unrelated to the idea of ‘shared value’, a term given new impetus by the strategy guru, Michael Porter.