One of the best lessons I learned through my corporate training and experience working as a manager with Disney, Gap and Apple was the concept of respecting our channel partners and competition. Whether it was Universal Studios (Disney), Abercrombie (Gap), or Microsoft (Apple), our training and dialogue with others always was respectful of both competitors and strategic partners alike.
Not everyone I run into subscribes to this M.O. Many companies or individuals within companies have no problem running down their competitor or their strategic partners. These choices are unfortunate; they do nothing but bring down morale and create an atmosphere of distrust.
The next time you have a chance to say something negative about a competitor or partner, think again; you’ll always look like the bad guy.
