Lessons to be learnt by Alok Kejriwal

Recently came across an article in Times of India by Alok Kejriwal, regarding the Apple vs Samsung Battle and lessons learned.  It was quite a fascinating read, can be found  here

Below is the summary of the 5 lessons Alok talks about:

> Inspiration not imitation

 
Lesson: Inspiration is what creates value. Imitation is what reduces value. Inspire yourself in your business and the world will respond!

This is quite an interesting point, considering I am recently reading a book called CopyCats  by Oded Shenkar which talks about imovators which includes immitate+innovate, but he does make a point, that not all initial innovators are successful. He also talks about some research, which shows as much as 97.8% of the value of the innovation goes to immitators, since they save not only on R&D costs but also on marketing and advertising investments made by first movers. And they avoid costly errors by observing and learning from other's trials.  Maybe the way to go forward is imovate, imitate the best of something, but also innovate to make it excellent!!

 

>Delight leads to design; not the other way around!

Lesson: Focus on delighting your customer in new, meaningful ways. Design will come naturally and easily; almost as if guided by nature.

Build and they will come…

>There was only one Charlie Chaplin

  

Lesson: Don't mimic business DNA. It's unique for each company and should stay that way. Build on your DNA. Don't transplant it.

>Following Pied Piper

Lesson: Track business competitors and market leaders but don't blindly follow them. They will either take you to hell or to the courts — neither of which is the beach you were looking forward to retiring to.

>Saying sorry is what they forgot to teach you at IIM Ahmedabad

Lesson: We all do wrong stuff. But if you get noticed and warned, be smart. Abandon and vamoose.
As the world around us changes, it is going to be increasingly important to imitate through innovating??