Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Imitation vs. Innovation
It is easier to imitate new products, innovative production methods, and marketing, but is this sustainable? Will it give you advantage over time? I think that the key to sustainability is innovation not imitation. Innovation can come from getting access to key resources or customers and achieving size advantage in market. This is where strategy formulation is key to overcoming the challenge of sustainability.
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I agree that innovation is more likely to create sustainability, but that does not mean imitation does not have its place. First of all it takes a very specific type of person or company to be able to pull of an innovative venture. Being innovative can be very risky and expensive. If the innovator is not equipped to deal with the risk and expenses they will most surly fail.
ReplyDeleteImitation can very easily be done with little risk or expense. You you imitate someone you copy what you like best and can be relatively assured of the results because it has been done before. This coping of other best attributes may just make you the best you could be without the risk of being innovative.