Synopses & Reviews
Competition has run amok. Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest, is crudely understood as justifying a winner-takes-all culture. If you want get into the best school, land the right job, buy the cool dress, find the perfect partner, be made for life, you have tread underfoot any and all your rivals. Competition has become a simplistic zero-sum game, played without any enjoyment at all.
In this book, Margaret Heffernan dispels this myth. Leading readers on a wide-ranging tour of competition across leading global organizations and industries, she exposes how desperately business, finance and education needs a curriculum that nurtures, develops and enlarges our collaborative talents.
Theres no denying that human beings are competitive, but we are not only competitive. Heffernan reveals how more often than not individual pursuit of self-interest proves to be collectively defeating and incurs high costs: When schools celebrate the top of the class, they demotivate the rest. When the rich win tax cuts, inequality grows. As sports become fiercer and richer, careers shorten and injuries abound. When executives are encouraged to compete for bonuses and promotions, it costs them friendships and creativity. When food producers aim to dominate their markets with low prices, it costs us all in environmental and social degradation. And when the pressure to win exacerbates cheating and corruption, it costs us the legitimacy of our institutions and our moral credibility. So how do we rein in competition, retaining its power to spur us on but denying it the destructive dimension that it acquires when it is made a uniquely canonical virtue?
In business, education, sports, and innovation, drawing from the long-time success stories of companies such as Ocean Spray, Gore, and Boston Scientific among others, Heffernan uncovers how social structures that reinforce interdependency produce excellent results and consistent leaders in their fields. These institutions create a truly collaborative ethos, which reinforces the sense of mission and purpose, and leads to self-motivated, driven individuals who none the less feel no need to claim their successes at the expense of their colleagues. Leaders of these companies have learned that collaboratively-arrived-at-solutions are far more durable and often simply better than those imposed by external authorities or managing agents. Most importantly, these organizations become robust, and able to survive the vicissitudes of political, social, and economic change.
Review
Heffernan systematically deconstructs the social myths associated with hypercompetitiveness while providing a formidable case about how counterproductive, and even perverse, it can be
[She] considers the effects of hypercompetitiveness in the realms of family, education, sports, scientific research, and business and corporate leadership
.The step-by-step accumulation of argument and evidence is overwhelming in its thoroughness and attention to detail.”
Kirkus, STARRED reviewReview
and#147;Heffernan systematically deconstructs the social myths associated with hypercompetitiveness while providing a formidable case about how counterproductive, and even perverse, it can beand#133;[She] considers the effects of hypercompetitiveness in the realms of family, education, sports, scientific research, and business and corporate leadershipand#133;.The step-by-step accumulation of argument and evidence is overwhelming in its thoroughness and attention to detail.and#8221;and#151;
Kirkus, STARRED review"In this bold sociology of organizations, Heffernan sets her sights on an issue that cuts across industries, nations, and individuals: Why is our obsession with winning not only failing to deliver the benefits we expect, but leaving us ill equipped to solve the problems competition creates?..."A Bigger Prize" is an important call to build more collaborative, trustworthy and enduring institutions." and#151;New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
Co-winner of the 2015 Salon London Transmission PrizeGet into the best schools. Land your next big promotion. Dress for success. Run faster. Play tougher. Work harder. Keep score. And whatever you doand#151;make sure you win.
Competition runs through every aspect of our lives today. From the cubicle to the race track, in business and love, religion and science, what matters now is to be the biggest, fastest, meanest, toughest, richest.
The upshot of all these contests? As Margaret Heffernan shows in this eye-opening book, competition regularly backfires, producing an explosion of cheating, corruption, inequality, and risk. The demolition derby of modern life has damaged our ability to work together.
But it doesnand#8217;t have to be this way. CEOs, scientists, engineers, investors, and inventors around the world are pioneering better ways to create great products, build enduring businesses, and grow relationships. Their secret? Generosity. Trust. Time. Theater. From the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts to the classrooms of Singapore and Finland, from tiny start-ups to global engineering firms and beloved American organizationsand#151;like Ocean Spray, Eileen Fisher, Gore, and Boston Scientificand#151;Heffernan discovers ways of living and working that foster creativity, spark innovation, reinforce our social fabric, and feel so much better than winning.
About the Author
Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, chief executive and author of
Willful Blindness, which was shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book award. She was born in Texas, raised in Holland and educated at Cambridge University. She was a producer for BBC Radio, ran the trade association IPPA, which represented the interests of independent film and television producers and was once described by the Financial Times as "the most formidable lobbying organization in England," and developed interactive multimedia products with The Learning Company in the United States. She ran, bought and sold leading Internet businesses for CMGI, served as CEO for InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation. She was named one of the Internet's Top 100 by
Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999, one of the Top 25 by
Streaming Media magazine and one of the Top 100 Media Executives by
The Hollywood Reporter. Her "Tear Down the Wall" campaign against AOL won the 2001 Silver SABRE award for public relations.
Heffernan is now Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston and Executive in Residence at Babson College. She is a Trustee of the London Library and sits on the Council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the UK as well as on the boards of several private companies. Margaret blogs for the Huffington Post in the US and the UK, for CBSMoneywatch and for Inc.com.