How Did Rockefeller Turn Competitors Into Partners?

David Senra says Rockefeller turned competitors into partners by aligning interests, because men have not made a success of a concern they were forced or driven into, and a winning cooperation only comes from willing partners.

As president of the refiner's association, Rockefeller learned the inside of every member's operation: the books, the operating costs, how much each firm was refining, and how much it needed to ship. A competent operator was someone to buy out and make a partner in Standard Oil. A weaker rival was already finished, so Rockefeller would make him sweat and then eliminate him. To the operators he wanted, the approach was to look at the facts together, take time, and open the books. People who looked came away astonished at the high profits in hard times. The choice was to own a part of the best oil company in the world or keep competing. Partners received autonomy and authority. Policy was set by the home office, but division leaders kept considerable authority, the divisions were largely semi-autonomous, and each key man in a local refining area had a voice in company policy. One leader sat in Pittsburgh, one in Philadelphia, one in New York, and one in the oil regions, running the divisions and then sitting in on strategy at the home office. When the offer was presented in that light, independent founders found it hard to refuse, and none did.

Rockefeller was building a company of founders. Founders would not work for him without authority and autonomy, so local leaders kept a real voice while the home office set policy.