中英双语｜把握与竞争对手合作的时间点

面临市场规模小或价值主张受到抵制的企业，可以通过与竞争对手合作来提升人们对其行业或产品品类的认识，从中获益。澳大利亚葡萄园主和牛油果种植户的经验就是一例启发。    

为什么澳大利亚人不怎么喝威士忌？他们可不是以饮酒有度著称。部分答案是他们倾向于喝啤酒和葡萄酒。但另一个原因是，威士忌品牌并没有同心协力来让澳大利亚人真正品尝威士忌。也许他们应该这样做，因为澳大利亚人过去一直被诱导改变他们的饮酒习惯。

Why don’t Australians drink much whiskey? They’re hardly known for being abstemious. Part of the answer is that they tend to drink beer and wine. But another part of the answer is that whiskey brands haven’t made a concerted effort to get them to really try whiskey. Perhaps they should, because Australians have been lured into changing their drinking habits in the past.

时间倒回至20世纪60年代，澳大利亚的葡萄酒消费量远远低于今天的水平。于是，葡萄酒生产商联合起来，教公众鉴别优质葡萄酒的细微差别。现在，澳大利亚人的葡萄酒消费量是1961年的四倍，按人均计算，是世界上葡萄酒的最大消费群体之一。

Rewind to the 1960s and Australian wine consumption was way down on today’s level. So, wine producers got together and educated the public on the nuances of fine wine. Now Australians are drinking four times the amount of wine they drank in 1961 and are among the largest consumers of wine in the world on a per capita basis.

这并非绝无仅有的事。1998年的时候，“大丈夫”是不吃牛油果的。那时的澳大利亚人均每年吃牛油果不到1公斤。在行业发起了一系列活动之后，这一消费现在增长到了3.88公斤，高于美国的数字。

This is not a one-off. Back in 1998 real men didn’t eat avocados. At that time Australians were eating less than 1kg of avocados per capita per year. After a series of industry-sponsored campaigns, this has now grown to 3.88kg and is above the figure for the U.S.

在一个又一个行当中，你会发现许多企业如今的处境与当年葡萄酒和牛油果生产商的首席执行官们(CEOs)及营销经理们所处的境遇相同。

In business after business you find companies in the same position today that the CEOs and marketing managers of wine and avocado producers were in back in the day.

纳塔莉(Natalie)是美国波旁威士忌一个著名品牌的营销经理。她和她的销售经理在烈性酒类领域面临着诸多竞争，因为有各种各样的烈性酒在相互竞争——杜松子酒、伏特加、朗姆酒等。在威士忌这一品类内部，有苏格兰威士忌、爱尔兰威士忌和波旁威士忌可供选择。查看波旁威士忌在烈酒类饮料里的市场份额就好比是在用显微镜观察。

Natalie is the marketing manager of a well-known brand of American bourbon whiskey. She and her sales manager face a lot of competition within the spirits category as there’s a wide range of competing spirit drinks — gin, vodka, rum, and so on. And within the whiskey category there’s Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, and bourbon to choose from. Looking at bourbon’s market share of the liquor category is like peering down a microscope.

当我问纳塔莉，她的公司对非顾客人士（甚至从未考虑过试用产品的人）有何举措时，她的回答很简练：“我们只面向‘烈酒’类买家。我们对非威士忌买家的态度没有区别。”她形容该公司的态度是“短期思维”。

When I asked Natalie what her company was doing about noncustomers (people who have never even considered trying the product) her reply was terse: “We only target ‘spirit’ category buyers. There’s no difference in our approach to non-whiskey buyers.” She described the company’s approach as “short-termism.”

澳大利亚天然药物领域一家领先企业的CEO希拉里(Hilary)也有许多非顾客。许多澳大利亚人不愿触碰天然药物，因为他们害怕这些产品没有疗效，甚至可能有害。希拉里向我承认：“在提高天然药物的可信度、引起本行业的非消费者注意方面尚有工作要做。”

Hilary, CEO of one of Australia’s leading businesses in natural medicines, also has a lot of noncustomers. Many Australians won’t touch natural medicines because they’re afraid that the products don’t work and could even be harmful. Hilary admitted to me: “There’s a job yet to be done just with raising the credibility of natural medicine to reach the industry’s nonconsumers.”

我问一家IT招聘公司的负责人蒂姆(Tim)，他是否面对过非客户。“当然，”他表示，“对我们来说，非客户是指那些已经决定组建自己的人才团队、并坚信他们不会使用招聘公司的组织。他们希望亲力亲为，他们形成了一种内部思维。在过去，我们是把他们归入太倔的一类人里的。”再说一遍，这些非顾客已铁了心要与整个招聘行业作对。

I asked Tim, head of an IT recruitment company, if he faced noncustomers. “Sure do,” he said. “A noncustomer for us is an organization that has made a decision to build their own talent team and have come to a firm position that they will not use recruiters. They want to do it themselves. They develop an in-house mindset. In the past, we’ve put them in the too-hard basket.” Again, these noncustomers have set their minds against the whole recruitment industry.

那么葡萄酒和牛油果生产商是如何解决他们的问题的？

他们投资于“合作竞争”——与对手合作的同时又与他们竞争。

So how did the wine and avocado producers fix their problems?

They invested in “coopetition” — simultaneously collaborating and competing with rivals.

这要求他们在行业层面合作，以发展和提高这一行业，同时在企业层面争夺市场份额。澳大利亚葡萄酒管理局(Wine Australia)等机构的成立就是为了“促进澳大利亚葡萄酒在国际上和国内的销售与消费”，其中包括大型的葡萄酒展览会，展览中有生产商主持的葡萄酒品鉴会。

This required them to cooperate at the industry level to grow and improve the industry while at the same time compete at the firm level for market share. Organizations such as Wine Australia were formed to “promote the sale and consumption of Australian wine internationally and domestically,” which included large-scale wine exhibitions with producer-hosted wine tastings.

合作竞争需要着眼于长远。葡萄酒行业针对葡萄的品种、葡萄酒的类型、格调对消费者进行了全面教导。在20世纪60年代之前，澳大利亚的葡萄酒消费者相对而言还不成熟，习惯于更甜、质量更劣的葡萄酒。各生产商还率先针对产品质量和一致性进行了行业规范，并在提升澳大利亚葡萄酒消费者品味与提升澳大利亚葡萄酒质量之间建立了一种共生关系。

Coopetition requires taking a long-term view. The wine industry educated the consumer — fully — on grape varieties, wine types, and styles. Before the 1960s Australian wine consumers were relatively unsophisticated, having grown accustomed to sweeter, lower-quality wines. Producers also took the lead in introducing industry regulation on the quality and consistency of products and established a symbiotic relationship between the improving palate of Australian wine consumers and the improving quality of Australian wine.

澳大利亚牛油果行业做的事情大致相同。他们的成功有一部分要归功于一个现在名为“澳大利亚牛油果协会”(Avocados Australia)的行业机构，其角色是“为我们的成员及业内更广大的范围提供各种各样的服务，以促进增长和发展”。合作竞争很明确：“通过合作，我们力求不断提升种植者为所有消费者提供健康、盈利且安全的产品的能力。”

The Australian avocado industry did much the same. Part of their success is down to an industry body, now called Avocados Australia, whose role is to “provide a range of services to our members and the broader industry to foster growth and development.” Coopetition is clear: “By working together we seek to continually improve our growers’ ability to provide a healthy, profitable and safe product for all consumers.”

澳大利亚牛油果协会的活动是由种植者的税款资助的。正如一个种植者合作社的主席、本身也是牛油果种植户的雷(Ray)向我指出的那样：“行业领导者总是能够说服种植户支持用于研究和推广的征税。”

Avocados Australia’s activities are funded by grower levies. As Ray, the Chairman of a growers’ cooperative and himself an avocado grower, pointed out to me “industry leaders have always been able to persuade growers to support levies which go towards research and promotion.”

当然，在发达市场大规模合作竞争需要认真持续的努力。没有一家葡萄酒或牛油果生产商能独自实现非客户的转变——这需要组织工作和共同努力。因此，首先要评估机会。这是否值得争取？如果你的回答是肯定的，那么请与你的竞争对手及供应商等其他行业参与者取得联系，然后组织起来。合作竞争可以让每一位参与者受益。

Of course, coopetition at scale in a developed market requires requires serious and sustained effort. No wine or avocado producer achieved the noncustomer shift alone — it required organization and combined effort. So start by sizing up the opportunity. Is it worth chasing? If your answer is “yes” then reach out to your competitors and other industry participants, such as suppliers, and get organized. Coopetition could benefit everyone involved.

格雷厄姆·肯尼是StrategicFactors的CEO，也是战略及业绩评估领域公认的专家。他帮助私有、公共和非营利部门的经理、高管和董事会打造成功的企业。

Graham Kenny, CEO of KMS Education and Strategic Factors, is a recognized expert in strategy and performance measurement who helps managers, executives, and boards create successful organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.