I – I – I

No, no, no I am not egocentric! I am just referring to the 3I’s of growth.

I – Invent
I – Innovate
I – Imitate

I hate shopping, like most guys Need-it, Find-it, Get-it! That’s a rip off from a Hero Honda bike ad from my teenage days, Fill-it, Shut-it, Forget-it. Anyway… as much as I hate shopping whenever I am in there I love to check out the stuff on the shelf. Be it at a Wal-Mart, Target, Mejier’s, Staples, Home Depot, Lowe’s you name it. New stuff is always exciting, the reality is I find it exciting to compare them in light of their genesis.

In a world where most stuff is made in developing countries in the east and imported to the west world product development takes a whole new dimension. Without enough protection to limit duplicates, and a complex maze of demographic segments combined with continuous movement of people creates need for new products all the time.

Off hand imitation seems easier than anything else, but it has its own challenges. That include the need to differentiate, legal constraints to avoid patent infringement, aggressive marketing to address late market entry. These are after the operations management and supply economics have been addressed.

In a world where we move towards mass merchandising to create scale, innovation creates mass customization as we segment an already segmented market place. Similar to imitation innovation has its very own set of challenges associated with market entry, establishment of equity, generation of trial and repeats. Obviously after the operation management and supply economics have proved favorable.

Invention is certainly the toughest! It’s like blind date with a long wait at a really expensive bar where every drink is worth a gold nugget. But guess what ‘High Risk, High Reward’.