The True Copy-Paste-Innovate that the MiddleEast got Wrong

There are some wrongly used concepts that we come across every now and then, we do not necessarily have to correct each one of them because we can understand the meaning from the context. Same for the term "Copy-Paste-Innovate," The first time I came across this term the speaker was referring to Careem as an example of successful innovation in the region. The speaker meant that Careem was a successful example of a regional startup and they didn't copy Uber, they were different. No problem, I get it. Careem is not exactly Uber.

Then, I found that this is slowly becoming the narrative among VCs, Investors, and Entrepreneurs, and on more than one occasion I found that copying a successful global business model locally was named Innovation.

While I can't argue that Careem was a successful venture, what motivated me to write this article, nonetheless, is if we can't tell the difference between innovation that creates economic development and prosperity, and the concept is distinguished from "Copycats," we are less likely to reduce the gap with the developed world even if it seems like we are making progress.

In this article, I will explain how you can innovate by copying and other types of innovation that have a bigger impact on economic development.

" The predominant attributes of successful innovation are novelty and impact. The bigger the impact, the greater the innovation "

• Copy. Paste. Innovate.

I am not introducing any new method here, Copy-Paste-Innovate is been used by entrepreneurs for as long as entrepreneurship has existed. In most of the cases, Innovation is borrowed and improved upon, because if you are creating something entirely new that will be called an Invention. Copy-Paste-Innovate stimulates a way of thinking that when faced with a problem that doesn't seem to have an intuitive solution, start looking for a source of inspiration outside the organization or your field of work.

This is how it works:

1. Identify the problem. Specify what your product is missing, or what customer experience you want to create.
2. Determine possible solutions. For example: -a solution could be your product needs to be faster or more powerful or lighter or environment friendly, easy to you, etc...
3. Search for inspiration in something that has the same characteristics ( fast enough, powerful enough, etc.) And works efficiently outside your field of work in an entirely different system or maybe for an entirely different purpose too.
4. Inspect the idea behind this inspiration, find out what makes it works, and understand its inner workings.
5. Apply what you learned in the new solution design, make some tweaks to fit the specific case in hand.
6. Test the solution. If it works and you have something that didn't exist before, Then you are being innovative

• There is always a room for improvement

Ford had been trying to increase his factories’ productivity for years. He made many improvements to the manufacturing process but one enhancement, in particular, made a great difference, the assembly line. Inspired by an idea from a meat-packing factory Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile in 1913. Not only his innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes, but also made a car for every American possible.

• Sometimes it starts with the inspiration

George de Mestral was a Swiss engineer. He went for a walk with his dog in the Alps in 1941. On his return, he noticed that many plant burrs adhered strongly to his clothes and his dog’s fur. He wondered if he could turn it to something useful. He studied the burrs under a microscope and saw that they worked with little hooks. After nearly eight years of research, de Mestral successfully reproduced the natural attachment with two strips of fabric (Velcro), one with thousands of tiny hooks and another with thousands of tiny loops — which is now used as a fastener all over the world.

• Invention, Innovation, and Differentiation, How do they work together to create value?

If we take the electric motor as an example, it is an invention, generating power from the electricity and magnetic fields. An invention is not yet useful until it's put into use or, in other words, packed into a product. Here comes the job of entrepreneurs and innovators, they make products from inventions and create markets that did not exist.

Elon Musk, the entrepreneur, makes enhancements on the power output of the electric motor and creates Tesla Model X, all-electric SUV, that's innovation. To further differentiate his product, Elon copied the idea of falcon-wings doors which are often used in supercars, Mercedes SLS mostly, to define its superiority. I once saw a mother carrying her baby and stepping into Model X car without any help, the doors are very practical for a family car or maybe Musk used it to define superiority too.

Elon Musk is disrupting the entire automobile industry with a range of electric cars and creating a new market and value networks proving everyone wrong about electric cars. Tesla is now the most valuable automobile maker in the world and Model X can lose its wings with no effect whatsoever on Tesla's market value.

That's simply the contribution of the invention, innovation, and differentiation in value creation. Notice here that the value that Product Differentiation adds to the final product is minimal compared to what Innovation has created, if BMW X5 gets falcon wings doors, it's less likely to create a new market, or reach to a different segment of customers, or have a significant effect on BMW's bottom-line.

Sometimes the inventor and the innovator are one person as in the case of Velcro. However, what all great innovations have in common that they create new markets for underserved or unserved consumers, which is called "Disruptive Innovation".

• Why Careem and Souq.com are not the best examples of innovation?

When Careem offers passengers to pay in cash, even if they did it before Uber, it's called Differentiation. Accepting payment from the business point of view is an additional service, the core business offering is booking a taxi, or what is called now ride-hailing. Therefore, accepting cash payments is Service Differentiation.

When Careem employs female taxi drivers, that's localization — to adapt to the local culture. That can be called Copy-Paste-Localize if you want to give that model a name.

The same applies to Souq.com, I guess you got the idea.

Differentiation is sometimes called "Incremental Innovation" or "Sustaining Innovation," but I would rather leave the word "innovate" out of it when the novelty is questionable and the impact is minimal.

• No Shame in copying

There is no one business like the other. Eventually, all businesses will have to differentiate and explore new market opportunities through product portfolio to keep a green bottom line, so there is no shame in copying, we do not have to reinvent the wheel, as long as we respect intellectual properties.

Additionally, there are many market gaps in e-commerce, marketplaces, real estate, healthcare, and education in our region that can be addressed with copying, localization, and differentiation. Some markets are large enough to accommodate all businesses and create healthy competition in the interest of the consumer.

• Is it a safe bet?

Copy-localize sounds like a safe bet, copying what's been proved to be working somewhere else has a higher chance of succeeding. Careem's and Souq.com's exits are examples.

However, What's wrong with this strategy is the assumption that the next copycat will have an exit higher than Careem, and betting on the idea that global competitors are always interested in an acquisition or are losing advantage because they can't easily adapt to the local culture and business conducts.

And what's worse, is having an entire generation of entrepreneurs who don't believe that they can truly innovate and the best they can do is find something to copy.

• Market-Creating (Disruptive) Innovation

Self-descriptive, It disrupts by creating new markets.

How?

By creating new products that replace existing complicated, expensive, and less convenient ones and make it more accessible, affordable, and convenient to more people using innovative business models and technologies.

Think of Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, and one regional startup I admire, SWVL, how they were all able to leverage technology and innovative business models to create new markets and products that are more convenient, affordable, and far-reaching.

I like to quote Iqbal Quadir of MIT when he commented on market-creating innovation:

"As entrepreneurs make products simpler and more affordable, more and more people in society not only buy and use them, but also are employed in their creation. This process leads to a more vibrant and prosperous economy".

Conclusion

The pandemic has intensified the competition for online orders, discount apps are now food delivery apps, food delivery apps are now doing logistics and grocery, and e-commerce are doing food delivery and grocery, soon everyone will be bleeding from this lack of innovation, so instead of looking for the next Uber to copy, why do not we just copy the innovation behind Uber and create new markets that propel the economy forward.

I guess I just gave you the recipe.

Sources

Institute for New Economic Thinking

Christensen, C.M., Ojomo, E., and Dillon, K. (2019). The Prosperity Paradox.

Christensen, C.M. (2015). The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.

Amir Hegazi (2019). Startup Arabia.

Kotler and Keller (2012) Marketing Management