Cooperation

Working with others, even competitors, to achieve a goal.

"Working with others. Sounds easy, actually it's not."

• Simon Wardley

This strategy is about forming partnerships, joint ventures, or industry collaborations where mutual benefit can be found.

🚦 Cooperation Strategy Assessment Tool

Quickly assess how ready you are to apply the Cooperation strategy. Explore signals in your map and organisation that suggest a good fit, and check your readiness to execute effectively.

🤔 Explanation

What is Cooperation

Cooperation in this context is a broad strategy involving collaboration between entities to achieve mutual goals. It encompasses a range of practices, from informal knowledge sharing to formal alliances and joint ventures. See Alliances for a more structured, formal subset of cooperation.

Cooperation in Wardley's framework refers to deliberate collaboration between entities (including competitors) to achieve mutual benefits that would be difficult or impossible to achieve independently. Unlike general collaboration, strategic cooperation in Wardley Mapping is specifically focused on accelerating component evolution or creating new market spaces through combined capabilities, shared risk, or unified standards.

Why is Cooperation a valuable leadership strategy?

Cooperation becomes a critical strategy when facing challenges beyond a single entity's capabilities or when the cost of going alone outweighs potential competitive advantage.

It creates value by:

• Pooling complementary capabilities to fill gaps
• Distributing risk across multiple parties
• Accelerating component evolution through shared learning
• Creating standards that expand total market opportunity
• Enabling focus on core competencies while leveraging partners for others

How?

The origin is basic: two heads (or companies) can be better than one when tackling large challenges (market creation, standards, expensive R&D). The purpose is to achieve something you couldn't alone (or not as efficiently). Key principles: alignment of interests, clear governance, and trust. Cooperation can range from loose (co-marketing agreements, sharing research) to formal (joint venture company, standards consortium). It can accelerate evolution by pooling resources and knowledge: an "accelerator" in that sense. However, culturally it requires stepping out of pure competitive mindset, which is tricky.

Cooperation can range from loose (co-marketing agreements, shared research, open source contributions) to formal (joint ventures, standards consortia, strategic alliances). It can accelerate evolution by pooling resources and knowledge. However, cooperation requires a shift from zero-sum thinking to ecosystem thinking, which can be culturally difficult.

Types of Cooperation

Cooperation strategies can take many forms, depending on the level of commitment, formality and strategic alignment:

• Informal knowledge sharing – e.g. open research, shared tooling, ecosystem meetups
• Co-marketing or distribution partnerships – sharing reach or branding
• Shared infrastructure – joint investments in platforms or networks (e.g. telecom towers, charging networks)
• Co-development or R&D partnerships – collaborating on new products or components
• Standards consortia – forming a body to define or promote an industry standard. See also Standards Game
• Joint ventures – creating a new entity to pursue a shared opportunity
• Alliances – formalised, often long-term collaboration with shared branding or governance

Each form carries different risks and strategic benefits. Choosing the right type depends on the goal, the evolution stage of the component, and trust between parties.

🗺️ Real-World Examples

The Sony-Ericsson partnership (early 2000s)

Sony had consumer electronics expertise, Ericsson had telecom infrastructure and phone tech. They cooperated to create Sony-Ericsson mobile phones, each filling gaps in the other's capabilities. This cooperation allowed them to compete in mobile phones against larger rivals (Nokia, etc.) with a combined strength neither had alone.

The Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group)

An industry cooperation of many companies (Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Intel, etc.) to develop the Bluetooth standard. Instead of fighting over wireless peripheral connectivity solutions, they cooperated to establish one standard. This expanded the market for everyone's interoperable devices and accelerated Bluetooth's evolution.

Hypothetical examples

Two mid-sized pharmaceutical firms co-develop a drug for a rare disease. Each firm had a candidate compound; instead of running two costly parallel trials, they form a cooperative agreement to test a combined therapy and share data. By cooperating, they cut R&D time and cost, and if successful, both share the market (perhaps each selling in different regions). They achieved faster evolution of a treatment than either could alone.

🚦 When to Use / When to Avoid

🚦 Cooperation Strategy Self-Assessment Tool

Find out the strategic fit and organisational readiness by marking each statement as Yes/Maybe/No based on your context. Strategy Assessment Guide.

Landscape and Climate

How well does the strategy fit your context?

• We’re addressing a component in the Genesis or Custom stage that is too large, risky, or slow to develop alone.
• Our competitors or peers face similar challenges and could benefit from a shared approach.
• There is an emerging opportunity that would benefit from ecosystem expansion or standardisation.
• Success in this area depends on interoperability, platform effects, or shared infrastructure.
• Our current value chain includes adjacent players with complementary capabilities.
• Market formation is more important than short-term control or differentiation.
• There is strategic ambiguity that makes solo investment unattractive but joint exploration viable.

Organisational Readiness (Doctrine)

How capable is your organisation to execute the strategy?

• We have mechanisms to build and maintain trust with external partners (e.g., transparent reporting, aligned incentives).
• We are comfortable with shared governance and joint decision-making.
• We have experience with partnerships or alliances, even informal ones.
• We are capable of negotiating and managing co-created intellectual property or standards.
• Our culture supports ecosystem thinking rather than zero-sum competition.
• We can articulate clear value to prospective partners and are willing to share gains.
• We have planned for exit scenarios and can manage partner divergence without destabilising our core business.

Assessment and Recommendation

Strategic Fit: Weak. Ability to Execute: Weak.

RECOMMENDATION
Consider alternative strategies or address significant gaps before proceeding.

Use when

The task is too large, risky, or slow to do alone, and partners have complementary strengths. Also when establishing a new standard or platform where ecosystem is more valuable than solo control (e.g., to beat a common enemy or to grow a pie that's currently small). Cooperation is key in early market formation (fighting too early can stall everyone).

Avoid when

Your goals and potential partners' goals fundamentally clash. Forced cooperation can implode (e.g., if co-development means you later directly compete with the jointly created product, tensions arise). Also avoid if cooperating would give a weaker competitor undue advantage that they can then use against you. If you have the means to win outright, cooperation might unnecessarily share the spoils.

🎯 Leadership

Core challenge

A leader must balance control and openness. Cooperation can accelerate innovation but also risks creating dependencies or eroding unique advantages. Effective leadership in cooperation means structuring agreements that align interests while maintaining strategic flexibility.

Key leadership skills required

fostering trust, managing alliances, setting governance rules

Ethical considerations

📋 How to Execute

1. Assess alignment and goals
   • alignment: Incentive structuring: Revenue-sharing models, IP-sharing agreements, performance-based milestones
2. Define governance
   • consortium vs. joint venture vs. strategic partnership
3. Set trust mechanisms
   • build trust early: Pilot projects, transparency mechanisms, pre-agreed dispute resolution
4. Establish exit strategies

📈 Measuring Success

• Speed metrics: Reduction in time-to-market or development cycles compared to solo efforts
• Cost efficiency: Reduced R&D or market-entry costs versus going alone
• Market creation: Growth in total addressable market (especially for standards-based cooperation)
• Knowledge transfer: New capabilities developed within each organization
• Strategic positioning: Improved position on the value chain for core business
• Governance efficiency: Time taken to make joint decisions versus escalations/disputes
• Partner satisfaction: Regular assessment of all parties' perceived value from the arrangement
• Innovation rate: Number of new features, products, or methods developed through the partnership

⚠️ Common Pitfalls and Warning Signs

Alignment issues

Cooperation can fail due to misaligned incentives (one party might freeride or diverge later). Clear agreements and exit strategies are crucial.

Slower decisions

Partnerships mean committees: things can move slower than a single, decisive entity. This can hamper agility.

Breaking trust

If one side unilaterally exploits the partnership (e.g., learns from cooperation then goes solo), it can lead to sour relations or even legal battles.

🧠 Strategic Insights

Evolution and Cooperation

Cooperation strategies differ dramatically based on component evolution stage:

• Genesis/Custom: Cooperation focuses on risk-sharing, pooling scarce expertise amd informal knowledge sharing
• Product/Commodity: Cooperation typically centers on standards creation and market expansion

Value Chain Positioning

Cooperation allows organizations to:

• Focus on high-value activities while partnering for commoditizing components
• Create "force multipliers" by connecting complementary positions in the value chain
• Defend against disruption by forming collaborative barriers to entry

Expanding the Pie vs. Fighting for Slices

Wardley's perspective emphasizes that premature competition in emerging markets often stunts overall growth.

Cooperation can:

• Create common platforms that enable innovation at higher levels
• Establish standards that accelerate adoption and market formation
• Allow competitors to focus on differentiation in areas that matter to users while collaborating on underlying infrastructure

Strategic Leverage Points

Successful cooperation often targets specific leverage points:

• Inertia points: Where industry resistance requires collective pressure
• Constraint removal: Where a shared bottleneck limits all players
• Network effects: Where combined user bases create exponentially more value

Relationship to Alliances

Alliances are a specific, formalised form of cooperation. Where cooperation might involve shared research or loose collaboration, an alliance typically includes:

• formal agreements and governance structures
• pooled resources or infrastructure
• joint branding or market-facing identity
• coordinated action toward shaping a market or standard

Use alliances when the goal is ecosystem-level impact or when formality helps secure trust and alignment.

❓ Key Questions to Ask

• Value alignment: What specific value does each party bring and extract? Are these balanced and sustainable?
• Evolution stage: Where on the evolution curve are the components we're collaborating on? (Genesis, Custom, Product, Commodity)
• Power dynamics: Will this cooperation create dependencies we can't easily escape? Who ultimately controls critical interfaces?
• Competitive exposure: What knowledge or capabilities are we sharing that could later be used against us?
• Decision rights: How will we make decisions when interests inevitably diverge?
• Market impact: Will this cooperation accelerate or inhibit market formation?
• Exit scenarios: Under what conditions should we

🔀 Related Strategies

• Alliances - a formalized group of cooperating entities, essentially the same domain

• Co-creation - a form of cooperation with users

• Circling and Probing - is opposite: testing a competitor rather than working with them.

• Standards Game - cooperation often aims to establish common standards and reduce friction.

• Market Enablement - cooperation can help build and scale ecosystems by aligning stakeholders to enable and grow the market.

• Playing Both Sides - leverages relationships with multiple parties to create competitive tension and strategic advantage through collaborative positioning.

⛅ Relevant Climatic Patterns

• Components can co-evolve – influence: collaboration shapes how capabilities mature together.
• Economy has cycles – trigger: shifts from peace to war often spur new partnerships.

📚 Further Reading & References

• On 61 different forms of gameplay on Simon Wardley's Blog. "Cooperation: Working with others... not easy." . Underscores that while straightforward in concept, the execution of cooperation is challenging.
• HBR Article "Simple Rules for Making Alliances Work" - details best practices and pitfalls in strategic cooperations (e.g., the necessity of aligned incentives and trust-building measures).