Archive for: March, 2010

Make recombination part of your business strategy

in Creativity, Strategy

jordan 2010

 

“Everything we create is just a product of recombination.”

What’s the inspiration behind the ?

The ability to see through your opponents and keep your intentions hidden. Just like in the world of design, in the world of Air Jordan’s the word . It’s safe to say that every single new Air Jordan has a distinct feature that borrowed from previous models to create the new one, and that is a key to their business strategy:

They’ve mastered the art of recombination.

Not only do they do it with the newer models but also with all the other extensions they’ve build around the Air Jordan’s such as the retro’s, TEAM and individual player models. I think the is to the sneakers industry what Apple is to the tech industry mainly because both companies set out to reinvent whatever they do. Jordan’s reinvent the basketball shoe and Apple reinvents mmm well everything it comes into contact with.

Jordan’s are also about performance and with every new model there’s some innovation in that department but this focus on recombination has made . If you don’t believe me check out the and you’ll see what I mean, a lot of transformational inspiration.

If there’s one thing you can learn from Air Jordan is they from themselves and from other sources and then combine them to come up with something entirely new all while maintaining a focus on style and performance.

Ask yourself: How can I make recombination part of my business strategy? Who can I borrow ideas from that can help me reach x objective?

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The imitate to benefit syndrome gets you nowhere

in competition, Strategy

Every once in awhile, I get an email that asks me to give out ideas (strategy) that previous clients used to achieve a particular goal. I’ve attached part of an email conversation below. It only explains part of the story, but let’s just say that I’m being asked for a secret recipe that they can plug-and-play and voila!

I can give you this information, but it’s no use to you because if all you want is to try to copy their success, let’s just say you’re going nowhere.

Best practices that worked for someone else don’t necessarily mean they’ll work for you. You shape your business based on your own strategy that works to your unique mix of strengths and weaknesses.…

Must read innovation posts of the week: Don’t innovate. Just be better

in Must reads of the week

. I agree with this statement. You don’t really say ‘there’s a more innovative way’, you say ‘there’s always a better way’. As :

 

Instead of asking "How can we be innovative?", a toothless and vague question with mostly useless answers, we should be asking "How can we make great things?"