Next time you think that that nice person you just met is being a pushover, think again. He may be slyer than you think.

Turns out that being nice is actually a strategy. For individuals, it is a survival strategy: by being nice, a nice person accumulates less enemies and even ends up with a larger pool of allies whom he can count on over the long term. He doesn’t get into fights in school, and he ends up with a lot of friends with whom he can share lunch with.

The same thing goes for businesses. “Nice” companies, characterized by CEOs who make it a point to minimize conflicts with other agencies, suppliers, partners and even with the competiton, end up having larger networks that they can count on. Thus, if the organization finds that it lacks in certain essential resources, it becomes viable to forge strategic alliances with partners who can provide these.

Not only that, but “nice” companies end up with less enemies, which means that they don’t have to waste precious resources in fighting off competition and opposition. Imagine for a moment the bloody price wars that used to happen between Coke and Pepsi–such fights were expensive. Now imagine Coke and Pepsi being friendly competitors–not only do they need no longer fight each other tooth and nail, but they might even end up sharing industry tips and coordinating their pricing strategies.

Of course, the idea of seeing competing companies being too chummy is also uncomfortable because this brings up visions of oligopolies or cartel-like behavior. But from the companies’ perspective, such behavior actually makes more economic sense than to fight one another. At least from the perspective of preserving precious resources rather than wasting them on war-like behavior.

So your grandmother was right after all. Being nice does have its rewards!