I like this viewpoint of "cooperate to compete". It's what we've been doing on a global scale as ~all nations have agreed to property rights, international trade, and abiding by laws they've written down. And in fact some would say that at the largest business scale, there is this cooperation--witness the collusion between AAPL/GOOG/etc not to poach each others' employees. But there doesn't seem to be the same respect for "smaller" businesses, as they are viewed as prey instead of weaker hunters.