Editor's Note

It's true: We live in a business world that increasingly worships innovation. Why? Because it is essential to sustaining long-term growth and profits.

But before all our energies and imaginations are too one-sidedly directed at the creation of innovations, it is useful to look at the realities of business life.

Harvard's Ted Levitt, Peter F. Drucker, Tom Peters and countless others have continually pointed out "in spite of the extraordinary outpouring of new products and new ways of doing things we are witnessing today, the greatest flow of newness is not innovation at all."

Rather, it is creative/innovative imitation or creative swiping.

Distinguishing Between Innovation and Creative Imitation

Generally speaking, innovation may be viewed from at least two vantage points–namely: (1) newness in the sense that something is never been done before and; (1) newness in the sense that something has not been done before by the industry or by the company now doing it.

Strictly speaking, innovation occurs only when something is entirely new, having never been done before. True innovation is rare.

A modest relaxation of this definition, noted Ted Levitt, may be allowed by suggesting that innovation also exists when something that may have been done elsewhere is done for the first time in a given industry.

Take–for example–an application by Khan Academy to patent its online education platform, which primarily focuses on K-12 education and test preparation. According to an article published in Insidehighered.com:

"(Khan Academy) applied for a patent for 'systems and methods for split testing educational videos'–in other words, the method of showing students two different clips in determining which one is more effective at teaching a certain topic…"

A/B testing has been done for more than a century in many industries including direct advertising. Everything from headlines to advertising layouts are subject to split testing experimentation. Why Khan Academy believes this is a patentable system is beyond our comprehension.

In the vocabulary of Tom Peters, Khan Academy's A/B testing would seem to be a prime example of "creative swiping" not "innovation."

Innovation is creating something entirely new and different. Something that has never been done before.

The Role of Creative Imitation in Continuous Improvement

Drucker, Tom Peters and Ted Levitt constantly reminded us, before all our R&D energies and imaginations are too one sided directed at the creation of innovations, it is equally important to closely monitor competitor/non-competitor activity.

In short, they observed the greatest flow of newness that occurs in most organizations is not really innovation. It is either copycat imitation or innovative imitation. It's important to render this explicit.

Today some call this benchmarking the competition and best-in-class non-competitors. Tom Peters probably said it best years ago in his book Thriving On Chaos:

Peters goes on to explain why the best have the following attitude: “Somebody, somewhere, big or small, near or far, has introduced a service, technology, product, best practice, distributive channel and the like we could copy with enhancements–today!”

What's Peters saying? "Put NIH behind you and learn to copy with unique adaptation/enhancement from the best...

Do so by aggressively seeking out the knowledge of competitors (small and overseas, not just tired old foes) and interesting non-competitors."

If an organization practices "creative swiping" it will improve quality, service responsiveness and all the rest. In short, innovative imitation is a worthy continuous improvement strategy. Make it an organized practice.

In Part II, we'll discuss a common failing of many established organizations of all kinds and sizes. By ignoring emerging new niches, many market leaders provide a market entry strategy for newcomers and former second raters.

READ NEXT: Using "Creative Imitation" to Gain Market Position in a Growing Market: Part II