Kamya Jaiswal, ET Bureau Oct 9, 2011, 07.00am IST
Steve Jobs himself said it: it's smart to take an existing idea and enhance it beautifully. Apple did it. So have some of the most successful brands worldwide. The same story can even apply to selling washing powders. ET on Sunday analyses brands, companies and countries that have imitated their way to innovation.
Each time he came on the stage, he promised the world something "new", "magical" or "awesome". Each time he delivered: the Mac, iPod, iPhone, iTunes and the iPad, products we craved to touch, own and experience, until he told us it was time for something 'newer'. Yet, nothing that Steve Jobs (and therefore Apple) unveiled was a first. IBM gave the world the computer, Sanyo a portable MP3 player, BlackBerry invented the smartphone and Microsoft came up with the tablet. That was before Jobs prefixed them all with an 'i'.
Apple has almost always imitated its way to the top. Starting from the days of Macintosh, when it adopted Xerox's graphical user interface as its own. Jobs never denied the charge. In fact, he revelled in it: "It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then trying to bring those things in to what you are doing. Picasso had a saying...good artists copy, great artists steal...we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
Whether Picasso said it in the same vein is debatable. But Jobs' interpretation makes great business sense: for some fleeting moments in August, Apple's gadgets were worth more than Exxon's oil. Last checked, the company was valued at $350 billion.
But how can an imitator best an innovator? At home and in s
chool, we have been taught to abhor copying. Be original - all the generations living today have been told. How can something wrong give better results than the good?
Ask companies like American Express, Walmart and McDonald's. Diners Card was the one which came up with credit cards but threw away the first-mover advantage to American Express. McDonald's copied White Castle and Walmart followed Korvette. We don't remember the innovators because they didn't turn their ideas into successes. The imitators did. How?
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Picasso had a saying...good artists copy, great artists steal...we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
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