Bill Elliot's #9 Dodge NASCAR

This is difficult because each broker's compensation is largely determined by personal relationships, and merging two local offices frequently creates conflicts. So each broker will have to decide when to cooperate and when to compete. NASCAR may offer a model for resolving this "tension between cooperation and competition that is necessary for modern victory." That's Charlie Duhigg's message in his article Fortune 500, Meet Daytona 500: What NASCAR Can Teach Us About Business. " (Slate, Feb 17, 2003)

It turns out that at superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega, "drafting" allows cooperating cars to go faster, creating long lines of cars "drafting" behind the race leader. To challenge for the lead, you need to bring along at least one partner, but that "partner" might actually be able to pass you using a "slingshot" maneuver. This creates a complex set of pressures on each driver to make decisions very quickly (the cars are traveling at 190 MPH) about when to cooperate and when to compete.

According to Duhigg, "Cooperation can sustain a surprisingly high degree of competition, as long as the participants agree to some basic rules." These rules are developed by drivers using "social capital" to convince other drivers to trust them even though they may be rivals in the (near!) future. Creating social capital depends upon previous experience and perceived ethics. So it seems to me that your immediate challenge is to create an environment where your brokers can develop social capital as quickly as possible. In the vernacular of NASCAR, you want them to "race each other clean." Good luck!

Finally, I know that you would enjoy John Brandt's keynote presentation, Get Real: Execute Your Strategy, at the PikeNet Forum in Chicago on April 2. He's the publisher of Chief Executive magazine. Maybe you'll pick up a few more ideas. Hope that you can come.

--Peter Pike