The Power of Cooperation

One of the great things that happens when partners get past the fear of competition is that true partnering can happen. A couple of our HTG partners, Erik Thorsell at SCC and Lyf Wildenberg from MyTech, did a very unique event cooperatively to drive business. These two companies compete in the Minneapolis market. Both are in HTG - SCC in HTG3, and MyTech in HTG2. As is the case for most - the fear of competition is really based on lack of understanding and relationship. These two companies have worked over the past year to learn about each other, understand where the strengths and weaknesses are in both companies and become true go-givers with each other. They have done an exchange day where staff spent time in the other business to see how they run their business. They are doing joint telephone cold calls together through an IBM campaign - did you catch that - their sales teams sitting together in the same room. Their success has been based on open sharing - but between competitors in the world's view.

Most would say the culture of HTG is crazy - to open up a business completely to 11 other companies. And in this case - to be transparent even to another company right in the same market. The world would say "bad decision". But these guys have proven the power of peers. They have recently held a joint marketing event. Each invited their own customers plus they marketed to drive prospects to the event. In prior years each had done their own pretty successful event. But this time, by working together, they hit a home run. They had more people than either would have drawn on their own, much more vendor participation, and most importantly, both companies are energized and growing. Of course a lot of the success comes from the top - leaders who get what it means to be go-givers. They communicated clearly and set expectations. It didn't just happen, but it was a powerful example of what can be when people live out the power of peers in community.

Stuart Crawford recently did a blogtalk radio show with these two. I encourage you to take time to listen and see how the culture of HTG and the power of peers can make a huge difference. Check it out at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2008/09/05/The-Art-of-Coopetition.