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Web posted
I was thinking about these ideas while riding in a Russian truck traveling down an icy road at -50 degrees Celsius late one night in Siberia in the late 1990s. In order to avoid mulling over the consequences of a flat tire and getting stuck in the middle of the Russian wilderness in November, I reflected on the successful completion of a due diligence program on the largest undeveloped gold deposit in Asia. Due to the announcement of a potential tender by the Russian government, two major international mining companies had conducted work on the deposit at the same time. I had managed the project for one of the companies. The inherent potential for conflict existed because the two companies were in direct competition for the acquisition of data to gain an advantage in order to bid on the project. At some points, the drilling rigs of the companies were only a few hundred meters apart. In contrast, however, the companies also collaborated and shared costs on projects by rehabilitation of the underground workings and road plowing. Through this partnering each company cut operating costs. The remoteness of the project combined with language difficulties, cultural differences and the crash of the Russian ruble led to great challenges, and at the same time great opportunities. The limited resources required that these competitors work together. The deposit still remains to be tendered (possibly in 2004), however, we did have a technical success. The success was due in no small part to teamwork and the fact that all involved were working toward a common goal. My experience working in the Russian Far East and other parts of Asia is immediately relevant to the Alaska business environment.
We need to add a sixth "P": partnership. The fun at work comes from integrating passion with a team that works well together and leads to success. The successes I've experienced working in Asia were in large part due to trust and good working relationships between partners. Contracts are fine; we must go through the motions to develop them, yet if things go askew, contracts are worthless in many parts of the world and at best the legal fees will mount even if you "win." In order to have a good working relationship one must find partners of integrity, and the deal must be win-win. You must ask, what is in the deal for the other partner? It may not be financial factors alone. Determining what the other individual or company desires takes time, a key aspect of the Asian business approach. How can individual and group goals and desires be integrated for success and the creation of wealth? Perhaps the term "co-opetition" coined in a book by Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff best explains this notion. Co-opetition is an approach we in Alaska would benefit from. The general concept is of a value net which has customers, suppliers, competitors and complementors. All of these elements are necessary for any business and help to grow the "pie" larger, hence the term, value-added. This is an approach the oil industry takes to share the risk in frontier field exploration. The authors define value-added as the size of the pie when you are in the game minus the size of the pie when you are out of the game. It is difficult to get more of the pie than your added value. Working together, we can grow the pie larger for everyone in the game by leveraging each other's "added value." Co-opetition combines the five "P's" of personal achievement with the sixth "P" of partnership to form a successful approach to wealth creation. My lessons learned from the road in Asia are directly applicable to Alaska. At JEDC we know that once wealth is created good jobs will follow and that to create wealth we must partner with the people who make our programs successful at the local, regional and statewide levels. Lance Miller is the executive director of the Juneau Economic Development Council. He can be reached at lmiller@jedc.org.
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