Sachin Jain: Internal competition within companies is rarely discussed

Sachin Jain shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Internal competition within companies is rarely discussed.

And yet it is something I have experienced in almost every role I’ve held in some form or another.

Here’s the situation I’m referring to:

Two (or more) groups may be charged with the same mandate—deliberately or inadvertently. These groups may be competing for share of the same customer—or assigned a similar task.

A few observations:

1) Internally competing groups often forget that the real competition is external competition—and it is the job of leadership to constantly remind them of that. It is human nature to focus on competition that is most proximal, but that’s ultimately a myopic distraction from the bigger competition which is usually external.

2) Oftentimes, leaders fail to communicate the ‘why’ of internal competition. Sometimes there is no ‘why’ but there may also be a deliberate reason or architecture of internal competition and rules of play that should probably be made explicit (and repeated often).

3) Sometimes internal competition is a function of the failure of one group to achieve an objective. This should prompt reflection—’why was my mandate given to another group?’—but oftentimes it’s a function of a huge external shift and an inelegant desire to get more focus on something (without the time luxury of planful coordination).

4) In large organizations that lack strong central planning, internal competition may be altogether accidental. And it is always worth asking the question of whether anyone is aware of the potential channel conflict (i.e. building the same new product or chasing the same customer segment).

5) Inadvertant internal competition is undoubdetly an opportunity for collaboration—though it may sometimes lead to rationalization of headcount or budget. Better, of course, to lean in to it and shape it then have it happen to you—though this, too, may be inevitable.

Have you had to navigate internal competition? What lessons did you learn through the process?”

Source: Sachin Jain/LinkedIn

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Sachin H. Jain is the President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a Board Member at The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, an Academic Hospitalist (WOC) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and a Board Member at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). He is also a board member of Omada Health.