Copy Cat

Copy cat from Ballarat, went to school and got the strap….

This limerick is well known in grade school locally, not sure if it transcends geography.

We’re taught from a very young age that copying lacks virtue and deserves some form of punishment. You could say it is viewed as some form of stealing. A start up or business for that matter is a complex set of interacting ideas and actions. Some of which may be original (your widget), some of which may be copied (your accounting methodology). These are simplified examples to make the point. Is anything truly original anyway? Every idea has been built upon something. Civilization is built upon man adding value to the ideas of others

Learning is copying. From breathing to eating, to building houses to modern transport, everything is learned. And if everything is learned, we’re simply imitating and adding at different locations on the copy scale.

If you don’t have an idea, maybe copying someone else isn’t so bad. Here are three ways to be a copy cat.

  • Do the same thing in the same market

  • Do a new version in the same market

  • Do the same thing in a new market

If it’s the same thing in a new market, it’s a new thing to the people who haven’t seen it. You might just be rewarded by copying in a new geography or copying then adding.  

 

The Ipod wasn’t the first MP3 player (new version – simplified)

– Windows wasn’t the first Graphical User Interface. (new geography – PC’s)

– Redbull wasn’t the first energy drink (new geography – western world)

A website worth checking out is springwise They espouse the virtues of the copy cat. You’ll be amazed at what you can copy from this idea pod. Some new start ups are literally asking for copy cats. (otherwise known as distributors)

I’m not doubting that a more original concept (relatively speaking) has a higher propensity for success, the big win. However it also works in reverse.

A copy cat may not make a billion, but it may get you out of your cubicle.

Isn’t success an internal and relative concept anyway?

2 thoughts on “Copy Cat

  1. Precisely. Look at the Italians for instance. Marco Polo saw a good thing in noodles from the Chinese and expanded it to a new geography – pasta in Italy. Chinese noodles still reign supreme, but the Italians had a red hot go with spaghetti and its myriad variations on size and form.

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