I often use the quote “Never innovate to compete, innovate to change the rules of the game” to express the mindset of a true innovator. You see, I detest copycats. I pay attention to maverick companies, not the ones that merely implement some framework to put themselves in a position to innovate.
Then, our culture likes to pit companies against each other because it’s the type of stuff that grabs headlines; unfortunately most can’t see beyond the bias.
And though competition breeds innovation, sometimes it does bring out the best in everyone, most of the supposed “innovation” that copycats bring to the table is nothing more than mere superficial increments. Or in the case of Mexico; a tropicalized version of the original product or service.
For me, innovation makes competition irrelevant. Anywhere. Period.
To understand why being a true innovator is so hard, it is wise to understand what true innovators do and what non-innovators do. There are is an endless list of books, blog posts, articles, whitepapers and talks about the distinction between innovation and competition. Futurist Daniel Burrus has thought long and hard about the difference between competers and innovators, here’s a comparison:…
How can we become better at making decisions? There is wide literature, blogs and books on the topic of decision making , and you wouldn’t go wrong reading most of them. How and why we make the decision we make is one topic I believe we would all do well know about more because it influences everything we do.