Is your competitor also your best complement?

There are very businesses that have their greatest competitor as their complement as well. One can see this more pronounced in the Enterprise software segment that I looked at. Let us look at some interesting successful organizations that are both competitor and complement:

1.Windows-Oracle
a. The largest market share for Oracle database is on Windows platform, but Oracle competes aggressively with Microsoft in the database segment MSSQL Vs Oracle.
b. Oracle Accelerate solution competes with Microsoft NetDynamics, Axatpa, & their insignificant other acquisitions
2. Windows-SAP: They sing a duet with SAP enterprise software running on Windows, but they compete as well Microsoft NetDynamics, Axatpa, & their insignificant other acquisitions and SAP Business One.

Seeing the above some interesting question arose:

1. How can you uncover the complement in your competitor?
2. How do you nurture such relationships for economic value while fighting in the market place?

To answer the first question maybe it helps to look at the ecosystem and value networks in which these organizations operate.

For the second question, it is about execution of well strategized Go-to-Market initiatives (as we popularly call them in the Partners & Alliances world).

Any thoughts/experiences you want to share on this….