Readers of this work—or other works by this author—might conclude that the Living Widgets models ignore competitive forces. Closer inspection reveals that several Living Widgets models, such as the Hertz/Avis Model, clearly acknowledge competitive relationships. However, cooperative forces are generally stronger than competitive forces. You can magnify either set of forces, but the cooperative forces are easier to magnify. Customers cringe at competitive moves, while warming to gestures of cooperation. Customers want to know that—deep down—what you care about most is their success and happiness.
To help vendors better understand these competitive and cooperative forces, Living Widgets allows its vendors to compute and track several coefficients. Using p for positive forces (cooperative) and n for negative forces (competitive), vendors can track the competitive and cooperative influences on their playing field.
The principle forces are:
- p1 – linear cooperative forces, which are magnified in a straight line: Double your efforts, and the effect of your cooperative force is doubled, for example from 100 to 200. This may be referred to also as direct cooperative forces.
- p2 – quadratic cooperative forces, which are magnified at an accelerated rate: Double your efforts, and the effect of your cooperative force is multiplied by 4, or 2 × 2, for example from 100 to 400. This may be referred to also as interactional cooperative forces.
- px – exponential cooperative forces, which are magnified to the extreme: Double your efforts, and the effect of your cooperative force is squared, for example from 100 to 10,000 (100 × 100). This may be referred to also as growth-based cooperative forces.
- n1 – linear competitive forces, which are magnified in a straight line: Double your efforts, and the effect of your competitive force is doubled, for example from 100 to 200. This may be referred to also as direct competitive forces.
- n2 – quadratic competitive forces, which are magnified at an accelerated rate: Double your efforts, and the effect of your competitive force is multiplied by 4, or 2 × 2, for example from 100 to 400. This may be referred to also as interactional competitive forces.
- nx – exponential competitive forces, which are magnified to the extreme: Double your efforts, and the effect of your competitive force is squared, for example from 100 to 10,000 (100 × 100). This may be referred to also as growth-based competitive forces.
In most environments, cooperative forces are stronger than competitive ones. They always have been, but this fact has been obscured by the plethora of companies deploying competitive models. However, with millennial tools like Living Widgets, the inherent strength of the cooperative forces becomes more obvious.
You can choose to magnify any and all of the above 6 forces, although it may not be easy to separate out individual forces. Effectively, the actions that you take can magnify these forces by different factors, which can be called your cooperative and competitive coefficients. There is a separate coefficient for each of the 6 forces, which we can label cp1, cp2, cpx, cn1, cn2, and cnx, respectively.
