Co-Opetition

What Hacker News says

1. DanRosanovaApr 2022
   Understanding Michael Porter by Joan Magretta and Co-opetition by Barry Nalebuff and Adam M. Brandenburger are the two best books I've ever read about business and strategy in my life... and 20+ years in tech tells me these are relevant in any industry - even fast moving ones. The five tests of a good strategy in particular, from Margretta's book, are amazing and are about building sustainable competitive advantage in positive sum competition.

   Porter has written a lot and five forces was originally in a very different context, but the real thrust of Competitive Strategy (the giant book) was about taking the time to do the homework. And that hasn't changed. You still need to do the homework. Porter was never, in any of my reading of his work, about destroying the competition... at was all about creating and capturing value.

   And these books aren't easy "how to's" they're mental models for approaching things. Like von Clausewitz or Sun Tzu your mileage will vary with the creativity you apply in the comprehension and then application. There is a lot more creativity in competition and strategy than most people realize.

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2. mathattackSep 2013
   I like the original title Political Strategy Master Session in 6 Minutes better than this one, but so be it.

   Deeply understanding prisoner's dilemma helps explain a lot of office politics. Why are people at software firms more willing to ruffle feathers than at insurance companies? Because their prisoners dilemma games are shorter. How do you make sure that someone doesn't reneg on a deal? Make sure they see the game is longer than just 1.

   It's not the be-all end all of strategy, but it's very interesting.

   Further reading on coopetition:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coopetition

   http://www.amazon.com/Co-Opetition-Adam-M-Brandenburger/dp/0...

   I hate the word co-opetition, because it's a much deeper topic than "Why can't we all get along?" or "Why can't we manipulate each other into not competing?" That said, it's worth understanding.

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3. BRadminDec 2012
   Expanding the pie is more about:

   1. calculating the total combined value all involved parties receive from making a deal 2. trying to increase this value above and beyond their BATNAs 3. then carving up and sharing this excess

   So it's about focusing on specialized synergies and value creation. For a more in-depth read I'd recommend Co-Opetition by Brandenburger and Nalebuff (whose class on Negotiations I just completed): http://www.amazon.com/Co-Opetition-Revolution-Combines-Compe...

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4. colortoneNov 2008
   I read non-fiction related to business strategy, sociology, economics, and technology constantly. In fact I went down the the LA public library and picked up 10 stellar titles just this weekend, I highly recommend all of these:

   - Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software [MIT] - Prisoner's Dilemma [William Poundstone] - Thinking Strategically [Nalebuff] - Co-opetition [Nalebuff] - Cluetrain Manifesto [Searls] - Open Sources 2.0 [O'Reilly] - Innovator's Dilemma [Christensen] - Net Worth [Hagel] - Democratizing Innovation [von Hippel] - Fooled by Randomness [Taleb]

   Other books I always keep around are "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" (a history of DJ's and electronic music), The Singularity is Near, and some Calvin and Hobbes ;-)

   All the reading is most definitely worth it, if you don't feel that way you're not reading the right stuff.

   The best book I've ever read is probably Anna Karenina (Magarshack translation, not the Oprah version, which is ironically much drier). Other very influential books on me include The Wealth of Networks, Shaping Things, and Free Culture. In fact, all 3 of those were given to me at different times in my life by the smartest person I know (a family friend of my parents)

   Maybe the key to the non-fiction reading is having an agenda. I always feel like I'm downloading knowledge that is going to help me make bank and/or help people so that keeps me riveted (beyond the intellectual stimulation, which I'm a total whore for, too ;-)

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