A popular 1990s business magazine ad shows a businessperson holding a sign declaring, "Collaborate or Die," a message that seems at odds with the free market and virtues of competition. As the great American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, put it: “While the law [of competition] may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few, and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race.”
In saying that competition ensures the survival of the fittest and the future progress of the race, Carnegie was superimposing Charles Darwin's theory of evolution on economic development. But what if Darwin got it wrong or only partially right? Harvard biology and mathematics professor, Martin Nowak, created quite a stir in 2010 when he presented research showing that the survival of a species depends on its members’ ability to cooperate. Writing about Nowak's theory in Discovery Magazine, Kristin Ohlson wrote, "In Nowark's reframing of Darwin's theory, altruism emerged simply because it gave some individuals an edge in the struggle to survive."
If human tendency to collaborate is as strong as the tendency to compete, then the internet may be a channel for collaborative business relationships. In Makers, author Chris Anderson described how an entrepreneur with a design for a desktop jellyfish tank found money and a community for his idea by pitching it on Kickstarter, a website allowing people with common interests or passions to connect.
Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sources allow different forms of transactions. They help entrepreneurs raise money by turning contributors into future customers. In the process, they create a community where the entrepreneur provides regular progress reports and engages members in designing the product. "This encourages a sense of participation in the project and turns backers into word-of-mouth evangelists, which helps the projects go viral."
