(via Threadless)
A conversation in office on an unrelated topic led me to ask this question on Twitter.
A conversation made me think – are we more ok with business ideas/models being aped compared to creative ideas? If so, why?
— manu prasad (@manuscrypts) April 15, 2013
..and @atulkarmakar gave me his perspectives
@atulkarmarkar exactly, why the different rules?
— manu prasad (@manuscrypts) April 15, 2013
@atulkarmarkar hmm, that does not apply to ads no?
— manu prasad (@manuscrypts) April 15, 2013
@atulkarmarkar in fact ads is what made me think of it in the first place 🙂
— manu prasad (@manuscrypts) April 15, 2013
Just like Atul mentioned, I had first considered whether it was because creative ideas were considered more personal and a business idea/model an impersonal, corporate entity. But my starting point had been advertising, to which this does not really apply. Compare the reactions of Company A replicating Company B’s business model/idea versus them being ‘inspired’ by their advertising. In the case of advertising, both agencies might get paid and both clients might benefit. But in the case of a business, the second player could benefit from the mistakes (strategy/execution) of the pioneer and build a more successful business. That would be really unfair to the first guy whose business idea might have been a really creative solution to some need. And yet, it’s more likely that the aping of ads would spark a larger debate and the business cloning would be ignored. Am I missing something? Any perspectives you want to share?
until next time, game of clones
Maybe one answer is it’s easier to copy something creative — an ad, a story. You can duplicate it without a lot of effort. Good artists of course, can take an idea from somewhere and built something original out of it, but that’s different.
But with a business, just the idea doesn’t mean much. You still have to execute it, and there’s no cheatsheet for that.
Hmm, you do have some sort of a point there, though I would argue about the importance of execution in a creative idea and on the flip side, the importance of an idea in business. 🙂
Hmm…that is food for thought. But maybe the difference also has to do with the materials available for each. Business models have many more variables that can be tweaked with to create a significant effect versus novels, for example.
Yes, there is merit in that argument.