One of these days you are going to come to Ashridge and I am going to teach you economics by making you play Monopoly. My family once told me that, apart from the salary increase, they could tell I’d done an MBA because I suddenly started winning at Monopoly. But did you ever really stop to think about what sort of economics it is teaching you? Read More
If one applies market thinking to capitalism, it becomes apparent that capitalism is in danger of becoming a monopoly. This movement towards supremacy appears to lie at the heart of much of its current shortcomings – being the only game in town means that capitalism owns the rules, with the old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. What should capitalism do to save itself from the torpor of monopoly? It should cherish its rivals, realising that without them to keep it honest, it will fail. Rather than fighting them, capitalism should take a lesson from Axelrod’s Prisoner’s Dilemma competition and strive to win against itself, rather than by competing head-to-head. And might co-opetition – with apologies to Nash, Axelrod, Nalebuff and Brandenburger, increase the total set of outcomes?
