Innovation Without Imitation Is A Waste Of Time

January 27, 2010 Author Guest Author In Inspiration

Guest Post By Dayne Shuda of Hunting Business Marketing (follow him on Twitter)

“Innovation without imitation is a complete waste of time.” Mike Rowe – Dirty Jobs

In December 2008, Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs took the stage at TED to talk about his outlook on the state of work in the United States.  He discussed his experiences working in over 200 jobs that most people find gross, despicable and downright inhumane. It’s an entertaining and enlightening lecture, but the point I want to focus on is where Mike states that “Innovation without imitation is a complete waste of time.”

This statement made my ears perk up because as someone that has lived their entire life with an entrepreneurial spirit, I’m used to focusing almost entirely on innovation.  And isn’t just me:  a majority of the books, speeches and blog posts that discuss entrepreneurship focus solely on the innovation part of success.

In the lecture, Mike uses the example of an iPhone – something most Web savvy folks have these days. It took a genius or a group of geniuses to design the wonderfully simple, appealing and useful iPhone that fans would covet and want almost more than their own wallet.

But the innovation of the iPhone, the hard work that went into the design and functionality would be a complete waste without the imitation process and the individuals willing to work, doing the same thing over and over (running the repetitive manufacturing processes) to actually produce the iPhone.

So let’s take a closer look at a lost art in entrepreneurship – imitation…

Imitation (aka repetition)

It’s an obvious, but often overlooked concept:  successful businesses are built on a balance of innovation and imitation.

Whether it’s one of the jobs that Mike Rowe participates in on Dirty Jobs or your own job where you innovate and pass on the process for someone to imitate for the next ten years – imitation is the equally important side of business that makes innovation successful (and ultimately, profitable).

Even musicians we admire have to balance the innovation of crafting a song with the imitation of playing it over and over in front of crowds to earn a living. Listeners need to continually play the songs over and over for the song to spread.  Even songs themselves are built on structures of repetition.

At some point, every entrepreneur must turn their innovation into imitation in order for profit and success to be achieved. This acknowledgment means that an entrepreneur must repeat a process over and over again or create a workforce that can profitably do so.

Innovation without imitation is a waste of time – and without respect and understanding of those who are willing to imitate, the path to success becomes more difficult.

Imitation and Continuing Innovation

Another intriguing lecture I watched recently is a presentation from Jeffrey Tucker of the Mises Institute. At the end of the talk, Jeffrey tells the group of high school students in attendance to “look for successful behaviors in the market. Emulate them, copy them, and improve them just slightly. That’s how people make money in a market economy.”

Basically what Tucker is stating is it’s not only important for entrepreneurs to innovate and imitate their own processes, but that it’s important to imitate, innovate slightly, and then imitate once again to find success.

The continual process of imitation and innovation and the freedom to do so is what leads to long-term prosperity for individuals and businesses.

Summary

Mike Rowe points out that in the United States today we often ignore the part of work – imitation –  that allows genius innovation to become successful.

Building on that observation, Jeffrey Tucker encourages entrepreneurs to not focus on creating something entirely new, but to focus on copying the best innovations in the world today while adding innovations to make it slightly better.

Our lives are full of mini breakthroughs that build on top of each other to create long-term success. It’s a collective effort as innovators and imitators work together, borrowing each others ideas while adding a little more innovation for the benefit of their consumers.

What areas of your life or business that involve imitation do you see possibilities for innovation?