Smart copying

Can imitation be considered one of the most successful strategies in business? My answer is " yes ". It appears that this topic is getting more and more attention nowadays. It is well known that Apple's success can be attributed to taking existing ideas and repackaging them with excellent design. However, no one can readily blame Steven Jobs for lacking originality. Even if the ideas for his compa-ny's products did not originate with him, he was able to produce a final product that the originator of the idea couldn't have even imagined. It was by his talent that various brilliant ideas were turned into practical products. He was able to succeed in his business with his talent of organizing ideas rather than creating them from scratch. Is imitation easy for all? My answer is " No ". It is not difficult to see that most of the companies that have tried to copy others' brilliant ideas, even ones that had been successfully implemented, have failed. As we know, Southwest Airlines succeeded with the idea of low price, short point-to-point flights. However, after the Southwest Airlines' success, other companies set up copycat airlines that quickly failed. This is because copying the superficial aspects of another business strategy without understanding its underlying strengths usually ends up in failure. IBM failed at copying Mi-crosoft years ago. Microsoft also failed at copying Google.