Michael Francis and Rich Schefren argue that sending customers to competitors creates win-win situations for businesses, customers, and vendors. Francis draws on his pizza franchise experience to show how cooperation beats trying to eliminate rivals.
Some people think they don't want the competition they want to be scared of. It's wrong.
When I design a business, my goal is to try and figure out a way that everybody wins. Everyone wants that business to win, that the customers feel like it's a business they want to do business with. The vendors want to do business with this business. Everyone's rooting for this business to win, as opposed to just the owner.
I have this pizza franchise. There's a store across the street from us, and about a week before we opened, I went in there. I walk in the door, and the guy sitting behind a counter looks at me like this, and he says, michael Francis, I'm looking at you on YouTube right now. I said, we're in the same community. Two blocks away. We serve a different kind of pizza. When anybody wants a round pizza, I'm going to send them to you. My partner wants to put him out of business. You can't do that. Look, you're not there to try to put somebody out of business. You want people to earn money. And I always found it a better way. That's just my way.
