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Imitation vs. Innovation
May 4, 2010
If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.
-Katharine Hepburn
-Katharine Hepburn
"It's true — copying others' ideas is good business. Sometimes its great business.... Good imitators ... don't just copy an idea, they come up with a cheaper or better — increasingly it's cheaper and better — mousetrap....
"If you take the leading player in many sectors, you'll be surprised to see that it's not the pioneer, but the able and creative innovator [that we celebrate]. Think McDonald's, which imitated a system pioneered by White Caste; think Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, which all borrowed from the efforts of Diner's Club to introduce the plastic card to a then-skeptical audience of consumers and merchants....
"[Imitation] is not simple. Many imitators are attracted to the visible elements of an innovation and fail to copy what makes it successful, the 'supporting beams.' Sometimes they wrongly assume that what worked in Peoria will work in New York. Others are so glued to the original that they fail to make adjustments that will make an innovation better. To improve their odds, imitators need to understand 'true' imitation, develop the capabilities that enable its effective use, and learn to deploy imitation strategies."
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Comments (1)
Displaying 1 CommentEaton Intermediate School District
Charlotte, MI, United States
As a former K-12 art educator, I've always believed creativity to be a higher form of human expression although might the author, Shenkar, be overlooking the idea that imitation the way he is describing it, borders on creativity. The question is when is imitation innovative enough to fall into the realm of creativity.....or creative enough to be innovative? Given what we read in the article, could we think of creativity on a continuum on which imitation comes at the lower end, creativity is on the higher end and innovation is when creativity breaks through to something entirely new?
Thanks for the opportunity to think deeply about one of my favorite subjects.
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