In business, competition is superior to cooperation.

In business, competition is superior to cooperation.

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In today’s world of Capitalism the bottom line for most businesses and companies is that of profit incentive as well as growth. Many businesses seek to out compete rivals in the same field of manufacturing in hopes to gain more consumers resulting in more profit, hence cooperation between companies is viewed as harmful to earning a profit. However are specific times when competition is necessary and other times when cooperation is necessary.

First consider a situation in which competition is superior than cooperation in the business world. When humanity is flourishing and more pocket money is available, competition is a good method to allow companies to give alternative options and choices for the consumer. In the case of any business, for example, automobile manufacturers believe it is very important to compete against other companies to make themselves appeal to customers, take more control of the market share and gain more profit than competitors. In the case of Toyota and Honda, they are control the car market because they offer cars with high fuel mileage at reasonable prices compared to American companies. The major benefit of competition though, companies are forced to stay abreast of the latest technologies and put a lot into research and development of new products which ultimately benefits the   consumer. There is a lot of choice for the consumer when competition is utilized and monopolies are not in place which means the price of goods  remains low. Another example, is in today’s economic situation where many businesses are being hit hard by the recession. In the 1990s many people invested in their homes in hopes to get higher profit margin but when the housing bubble burst in 2007, people were panicked and had little or no savings left to spend for economic growth. Due to the recession, many companies suffered and tried to offer alternative options for consumers to meet their needs in tough times. For example, electronics are a must in any household, the price is a determining factor. Recently, Best Buy had announced closure of several 100 stores nation wide because no merchandise was being sold most likely due to high prices. Whereas, stores like Walmart and Staples have experienced company expansion because of tailoring to customer needs at affordable low prices. In the end , competition is a must because it offers more options to the customers at different price ranges meeting the needs of consumers.

In contrast there are times when cooperation is superior to competition in the business world. When humanity is under stress and suffering from a natural disaster or a disease outbreak it is best for businesses to cooperate which each other for the betterment of society. For example, in the recent outbreak of Swine and Avian flu in 2009, pharmaceutical companies were under pressure to find a drug that would curb and lower the incidences of H1N1 flu. In most case pharmaceutical companies are most concerned with patenting drugs and making a large profit off the patent but in the case of disease outbreaks, competition should be set aside. Suppose Merck Institute generate an antiviral drug that targets viral cell walls and Pfizer devised a drug that targeted progeny of viruses as well reverse transcriptase then it seems reasonable for both companies to put their innovations together as one product and cooperate for the good of humanity. Thus when diseases break out, it is best for medical companies to cooperate rather than compete for the betterment of human kind. If drug companies competed instead of cooperating they would harm themselves because, if consumers died from disease then they would have no customers left to get profit from.

All in all it is circumstantial as to when businesses cooperate or compete. When humankind is suffering from a disease outbreak or times of natural disaster companies should cooperate with each other to alleviate the problems faced by consumers rather than competing. In contrast, when humankind is flourishing or has some economic strain, then companies need to tailor to the needs of the consumer by offering more choices at different prices in order to make a profit. Also competition lowers prices of the same good and prevents monopoly of the product or industry.