Copy Cat with a Twist – Improve Rather than Innovate

Be A Copy Cat

Originality is a sure fire way to achieve success.

Problem is it can be tough to be original; inventing a new product or idea.

It’s far easier to improve an existing product or idea.

In fact, most success is nothing more than a twist on something already in the marketplace.

Its so obvious, yet we always spend time trying to create something new when the answer is the natural progression of improvement.

Even Entire Nations Do It.

Taking the idea of tweaking an existing product to new level are some national economies who have used this principle to raise their standards of living.

In the early 1970’s Japan began to send their electronic products and autos to the USA.  They were not very good at the time and we tended to call it Jap Crap!

But they kept at it, working to tweak products and the cost structure to produce them and their focus was rewarded quickly.

Japan become an economic power house by improving products already in the market place.  They did not truly innovate, just improved products and processes of manufacture, even focusing on the supply chain to shorten times and inventory levels to get an edge.

As their success grew, they did begin to invest in innovation but the bulk of their success is clearly not creative.

Pure Copy Cat

China at this point has been a copy cat, as most developing nations tend to be. They use their low labor costs to copy and manufacture products others have created or designed.

They have not done much improvement, with most of the engineering and design work is still done in the USA.  At some point soon they will need to create improvement ideas and add some level of innovation as their cost benefits erode.

IPAD IPOD

Apple created two smashing successes with digital music players and tablet computers. But they didn’t create the categories!

They created elegant, user friendly devices that became must haves by vastly improving the existing players and tablets in the marketplace.

You don’t have to go as far as Apple has to get a leg up!