GMAT Essays (AWA)

Analysis of Issue
The best way to make a company profitable is to encourage cooperation and collaboration rather than promote employee competition.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

The author argues that the best way to make a company profitable is to encourage cooperation and collaboration rather than promote employee competition. In my opinion, both teamwork and employee competition have their own merits and focusing only on teamwork is not the best way to make a company profitable.

The chief reason for my view is that both teamwork and employee competition are essential for a company to make corporate profits. Promoting cooperation and collaboration among employees helps build camaraderie and enables a company to set a common goal or strategy to make profits.On the other hand, promoting employee competition allows a company to set aggressive goals for its employees to keep up with the competition outside. For example, a company can have multiple sales teams selling the same product and can promote competition among the various teams to increase sales and thereby profits. This is evident in big companies like Apple and Microsoft who promote both teamwork and employee competition to be able to keep up with competition outside and make profits.

Another reason for my view is that promoting only teamwork over employee competition can result in a passive work culture where the company will struggle to identify high performers and motivate employees to perform better. While promoting team work can help build employee morale, promoting employee competition can help a company create a meritocratic work culture and provide incentives to motivate and retain its employees. However, promoting only employee competition can create unrest in workplace and cause a company to struggle to execute a common sets of goals.

In sum, encouraging cooperation and collaboration is essential for a company to be profitable. However, it is not the best way to make a company profitable. A company should promote both teamwork and employee competition to be able to make and sustain profits.