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Competitiveness vs. Sustainability

By Julio Cesar Bin

15 January, 2007

Article published in O Estado de São Paulo - 15/10/06, reprinted with permission.

After all, what has competitiveness got to do with sustainability?

Actually, you already know the answer, but let's think these two concepts over before jumping to conclusions. Competitiveness is certainly part of our daily lives. It means a contest, between two or more individuals in simultaneous pursuit of an advantage, a victory, a prize, success. As such, competitiveness is found not only at school, at work and in our careers, but also in the traffic, sports , love, family; in fact, in the most trivial of life's activities. Competition has been a vital human survival instinct from the very beginning and is genetically part of human nature.

Whether in the big city or a small quiet village, competition inevitably crops up in the vocabulary of every community and is often disguised as other nouns with a weaker or more forceful connotation. To be competitive is a natural state that varies only in degree of intensity and form.

What we have seen, in our so-called modern society, is a frantic and often exaggerated race to reach the top. Globalization has also led to an evolution of the concept of competing, in which, on the human side, we see individuals trying at any price to gain an advantage for themselves even if it means trampling on so many others. There is even a popular Brazilian term for this personal gain at the cost of the common good: A lei de Gerson (Gerson's law).

For those who are too young to remember, or non Brazilian, Gerson was a character in a cigarette advertising campaign in the 1970's who always wanted to come out on top and take advantage of everything and everyone; after all, he was a smart guy, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, today we have millions of "Gersons" all over the country, turning politically incorrect attitudes into a national culture. This is an example of personal competitiveness taken to a dangerous extreme, strong enough to become a way of life.

As for organizations, competitiveness would be defined otherwise were it not for the fact that they are managed by people. The competitive edge of a company depends on the features of their products and services and on the economic climate, but it also depends on the management model laid down by the people who run the business. This is where sustainability comes in.

Personal or economic development cannot be linked to predatory and unethical conduct; otherwise, it will raise "competition" to undesirable levels. This implies, as the physicist Fritjof Capra puts it, a mutation point for the planet, where a new view of reality is required to transform the forces that are creating a new standard into a positive movement towards social renewal.

The basic difference between sustainability and competitiveness is in the attitude of the individual. It is necessary to believe in the change of what seems to be a paradigm, and to do so, each one of us must understand the important role he or she plays in the transformation of a society.

Daily, we are reminded of what not to do. We already know what constructs and what destructs. We understand the principles of right and wrong and we need to practice sustainable competitiveness, which, although it seems complicated, is much simpler than we imagine. Within the smallest of daily tasks, we must practice what is right and serve as an example, if only to ourselves. Analogically speaking, it is necessary to think about what makes us, and let others, tear holes in our own boat, even though we know we are in a storm on the open sea.

Constant self-criticism is required to focus on what we can improve in our attitudes. The fact that great ethical and moral offences are committed in our society, does not justify our "harmless" day to day slip-ups. We are fooling ourselves by forgetting that the whole is made up of small parts. Our children learn from social interaction, from citizenship and mirror themselves on their parents, just as the community is a reflection of its leaders.

It will be small positive individual actions that will lead to a necessary mobilization towards the awareness of the power we have to adapt to this new reality - a reality that can and must be competitive, but can not be predatory and destructive. After all, there's not much point in finishing a competition as a winner if there are no other competitors and no crowd to applaud it.

About the Authors

Born in Brazil , Globonder Julio Bin is a specialist in Responsible Marketing and processes focusing on sustainability. Founder of Gecko ( www.gecko.com.br ) he is also a consultant for The World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development.

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