April 1 When Do Competitors Collaborate?

Take a minute and think of some respected companies. Is being in business about the pursuit of competing in the marketplace or is it about the pursuit of delivering value? Delivering value does not mean that you do not compete, but the mindset of a company makes a difference to customers and clients.

If a business is focused only on competing, the energy might get geared towards costs instead of value. That could result in manufacturing with substandard materials, skip processes, or hiring non-qualified people.

If competition is the goal, profitability might be the focus without concern for loyalty of customers or reputation of the company as a societal contributor. These seem like tenuous issues for a business if you do not want to be a commodity. If our focus is on value, the viewpoint must be different.

Profits and costs are still evaluated but they are not the top or only focus. Our focus could be more about delivering an adequate product, through a great delivery model and with a conscious effort of how to continuously improve.

This type of attitude is what some businesses do and why they might wind up shaping industries. It requires them to be accountable to their value construct. Their product and delivery systems become the model for others to follow. But the need to be first is not the focus.

It very well might be the result. What is your company going to do this week to be focused on value? What is the one thing you can do in the next seven days to improve the value to your customers and employees?

As a people of faith, we can sometimes get askew in our relationship with Christ because of worldly competitive focus. We can get narrowed into a point of view of facts and figures. A viewpoint can be concentrated on what can I have or what is in it for me.

But these viewpoints are limiting and competitive instead of loving and valuable based on Christ as our Savior. The parable of the good Samaritan teaches this well. Find the parable in Luke 10:30 NLT. Samaritans were despised by the Jews. That sounds like a competitive viewpoint to me.

But the parable teaches that the Jewish victim of the robbery is helped not by his fellow Jewish people but the Samaritan. Where is the competition and where is the love and compassion in the story?

It appears that the competition was between the religious Jewish leaders while the Samaritan was more focused on value for others. I know that I have been in a competitive focus at times and you probably have too.

Where might our competitive focus be keeping us from delivering value to our family, friends and walk of faith? It seems that collaborating brings us closer than competition might. What is one area that you can see to improve in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Jesus, you walked and talked about the value of a life lived with you. You showed us why to live this way, how to live this way and what to do. Help us we pray, to put our competitive nature into the secondary concerns.

May our first concerns of this world be about how to be of value to your kingdom. Send your Holy Spirit to be with us and remove the temptations. I do not want to be concerned with counting the lashes on a robber so that the limit of forty is not broken.

I want more to be in a relationship with Christ and my neighbor. Eliminate the need to rob others. Walk with us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,