innovation
In his latest book, Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge,Prof Oded Shenkar dispels some of the taboos around imitation, and argues that it can be as important as innovation in creating business growth. He spoke to Ann O’Dea
IMITATION-DISPELLING TABOOS
Whilemany will privately acknowledge that creative imi- tation can be an important part of business strategy, few shout it from the rooftops. In his latest book, Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge, Oded Shenkar, professor at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, tackles the subject head-on. In Copycats, Shenkar goes as far as to say imitation can
be more important than innovation when it comes to business growth, so I ask him to elaborate on this when we meet. “Part of the idea with the book was that we have all
this talk about innovation, innovation, innovation,” he tells me. “We are really flooded with attempts to remind us that we need to innovate, and how to innovate and so forth. The reality of it is that imitation is at least as important if not more important at times. And I think it has always been true. If you look at human civilisation, if you look at our history, at how we have developed throughout the ages it was always through imitation.” Of course, despite the book’s title, the reader quickly
understands that Shenkar is not talking about straight ‘copying’ or ‘stealing’ ideas. He is talking rather of imita- tion linked with creativity.
Tackling the taboo One can’t help admiring Shenkar for tackling such a taboo subject as copying. “Absolutely, there is a taboo,” he agrees. “There is a very strong stigma associated with copying but, by the way, this is more inWestern societies than in some other societies, and even in Western soci- eties this is only the product of the last century because there was a period in time where we valued imitation. I hope that we will learn to do it again.” Shenkar has done many years’ research into China,
and has penned such highly regarded books as The Chinese Century. He believes that we in the West may
have lessons to learn from the Chinese in this area. “It’s kind of ironic, China was one of the impetuses
for me doing the book,” he says. “If you look at the Chinese they are also very focused on innovation. So it sounds almost funny to them that we mention imita- tion. Yet if you look on the ground they are tremendous imitators and I believe this is one reason for their suc- cess. Part of the lesson we can learn is that innovation is not enough, you also have to know how to imitate.”
The imovators Shenkar calls corporations that carry out excellent imitation ‘imovators’. “I call these companies imovators because they do imitation and innovation very well, and indeed part of the argument in the book is that the two capabilities are rather complementary – certainly they are not contradictory.” He points to the iconic Apple. “It’s ironic because every-
one thinks of Apple as the ultimate innovator but act- ually Apple did not and does not invent new technologies. “You might argue that they innovate in the business
model, they embed the innovation in, but they rely very much on imitating existing technology.” Ryanair is also an imovator, argues Shenkar. “Ryanair
is a classic example that I used in the book and there are many others. Those companies know how to do both activities well – both imitation and innovation. My argu- ment is if you want to be successful you really need to be able to do both. “When Ryanair started it was really about to fail.
Basically it came up with the idea of being the discount airline here, and was going to compete with Aer Lingus and the other players. There was only one problem. It didn’t really have the business model to support it. Then when the current CEO was appointed, the boss basically said: ‘Let’s go to Texas’ and they went and visited
46 Irish Director Spring 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84