Being a Copy Cat Can Pay Off Big When Partners Show the Way to Success


Companies in North America are often proud of their capacity for innovation and the creation of exciting new products and services of great value for all. But these innovations are often the Achilles heel, for example, a design, reduce unnecessary costs to maintain or product or service delivery.

The engineering department, a wonderful challenge for the provision of these innovations can be exciting is not responsible for the production of a good or service and can not totally on these issues. Patents can aggravate the problem, they suggest that the benefits are going to have to improve in a short time, if competitors are excluded. On the other hand, reduce costs and improve efficiency during this period considerably expanded and helping the market to discourage competitors, if the patent has not expired.

According to reports in the media business, this situation occurred with Xerox in the 1960, 70 and 80 years. Produced the first Xerox copier paper, which is an enormous improvement over the existing wet photocopiers. If patents expire copiers Xerox began in 1980, Xerox was surprised that Japanese competitors were sold in small PPCs in the United States at prices below the cost of Xerox machines similar.

How is this possible? I have interviewed a number of former officials at Xerox. According to Xerox, the leaders of the United States flew to Japan to visit the Fuji Xerox, a joint venture with a Japanese company.

While the leaders to learn that the joint venture as profitable to sell small Xerox copiers at much reduced prices in the United States the cost of production. Given that the leaders of detection, the projects of Japan had far fewer parts, fewer suppliers are needed, and the machines are less expensive to install and requires less maintenance.

Quick access to these lessons noting, Xerox has successfully launched an improvement in the quality and cost of project management copiers also emphasizes that innovation, the low cost of production, reliability and ease of use. Without the experience of Fuji Xerox, Xerox, it could have many more years to learn how to design the most effective way to create new products for most of the success of the organization.

If a company in the territory has, during the term of patent protection, the addition of partners (from different countries, along with other technologies, alternative systems of distribution and other resources), which can prove that they have imported, “friendly” competition from other modes of thought, there may For an excellent opportunity to prepare for the inevitable day, unbridled competition, which arrives. Otherwise, innovation needs to be summarily rejected as not in keeping with the spirit of the best of the best innovators.

Those who deals only with the prospect of a team of designers to find a place increasingly vulnerable to all kinds of irresistible forces: changing customer needs, foreign exchange fluctuations, the pressure of competition for more details ‘efficiency, and new ways of delivering products and services customers.



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