Have you ever sat in awe watching a local flock of birds as they make quick, abrupt changes of direction and the flock follows them? By looking at local bird flocks, you can immediately see that they are very different from migratory bird flocks as migratory birds fly in a straight line. It is difficult to say why the birds fly together in formation in local flocks and seem to challenge each other over who will lead the formation, but it appears that is what they are doing. With long-haul migrations, they obviously do it for the aerodynamic advantage.

Now, I would like to take this analogy and propose a thought to you. I’d like you to sit down and think about it for a moment as I compare this to the innovations and changes in any given industry, as industry leaders compete to position themselves with new innovations, research and development, and other companies follow. Occasionally, the industry has a pretty good idea of ​​where it is going in the future, but it doesn’t know exactly how to get there, or the exact intended destination, only that it will eventually get there.

Let’s take a look at Apple and its latest iPod, iPhone and iPad; You will have to admit that this is a great innovation for a single company in no time. It seems that when you think that there can be no new innovations, Apple presents something new. They are definitely innovators in the industry of personal technology, personal computers, and who knows what else in the future? Every time they innovate, the herd follows them. Some of the other companies or birds follow them very closely and try to imitate them almost exactly.

Other companies are left behind, taking it easy without trying to fight for pole position or keep up with them. Rather, when the flock makes a sharp turn to the right, they may just slightly adjust their trajectory vector to catch up. In essence, the following companies, copycats and those who copy their innovations, patents and intellectual property use much less energy, although one could freely say that they are still part of the herd (industry).

Older or weaker birds do this more often, especially if they can’t keep up with younger, stronger birds, which may show off to potential mates or compete for pecking order. One might wonder what the best strategy is. Flying after the leader and thus in his wake as Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, or hanging far back on the “Peloton” and flying less distance each time the flock turns in a different direction, it keeps hitting indie. destination with the rest of the birds.

If we look at Apple and its market capitalization, or a company like Google, or even Microsoft in the past, we see innovators that if they can keep innovating they tend to win the game. In a flock of birds, the lead birds probably mate with the other birds of their choice and remain at the top of the pecking order. Because of all that graceful flight and hard work, they’re probably stronger, more physically fit birds too, and that’s a benefit too.

There will always be leaders in any industry or field, and there will always be leeches that will band together for the journey. Some would say that the best strategy is to be the leader, or to leverage as often as possible using the “first-to-market theory” and yet I would suggest to you in this age of rapid prototyping, fierce personal technology, brand deployments, and marketing, that being first to market may not be wise or even safe. Okay, but we notice that many of the pioneers of new technology enjoy some advantage, but not always.

For every Apple, Google or Microsoft there are tens of thousands of companies, startups, venture capital-funded innovative companies that are no longer with us. They were also the first in their market, they spent a lot of money on branding and marketing, establishing distribution channels, only to have the oldest birds, copy their methods, innovations and imitate their prototypes, thus capturing most of the market share. in the market. end.

After all, they too landed at the destination, albeit less tired, with less money spent, and they had a lot of energy to share in the profits, worms or food available at the destination in the market.

Lately, we have been seeing a lot of lawsuits between Apple and other competing companies that they mimic. Many of these companies have been abroad and have stolen proprietary information, stolen patents, or directly copied Apple products.

In China, most consumers believe that it is crazy to pay full price for American products, when you can buy an exact replica or imitation for a tenth of the price. In fact, it would be considered reckless, stupid and unwise if you decided to do the right thing and buy the original instead of the fake copy.

This means that if you are working in a company and you buy a legitimate Microsoft program or an Apple product, you would be considered stupid, and perhaps not a very good manager with money and therefore you would not be promoted in your company; other employees would actually laugh at you for your reckless decision to do the right thing. There is an inherent problem in the cultural differences between Americans and Chinese in that regard.

When we get into the pharmaceutical discussions, we see the same thing. In the United States it costs a huge amount of money to buy certain types of drugs, but in places like Africa they buy imitations of other places where they have broken patents, produce the same chemical compound and use them instead, in fact in Africa they demand the same. free drugs. This means that the company that spent research and development, invested in patents, went through the onerous FDA process, and in the meantime spent hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases, loses.

The copy company is rewarded for cheating, stealing, and defrauding intellectual property. However, if we take this to the “bird flock analogy”, we can see that this is very common in nature. Therefore, one might reason that mimicking is a perfectly natural thing to happen. And even if we have patent and intellectual property laws in the United States, those companies, business owners, and other cultures don’t understand what we’re talking about.

Of course, as soon as we start borrowing their technologies, it’s amazing how quickly they rediscover why patents and intellectual property rights are important. In many cases, if you can innovate and constantly stay on the cutting edge of technology and keep moving fast, you can lead the flock and become the winner. Yes, it takes a lot of energy to do it, and it is pretty much the American way of doing it, but we will find that in the end the rest of the flock also reached the rewards, even though it was only some of the most innovative and strong birds that got them there. .

If we want stronger birds (eagles) we will have to reward successful innovation, not to the point that they become lazy, but to the point that they can benefit from research and development, without attracting a giant flock of followers. If we don’t, we will find fewer companies innovating and slow the progression of technology. If you are against technology, you can favor that concept, but if you are in favor of the advancement of humanity, you can see why this is so important.

I would tell them that the next time they see a flock of birds flying locally as they twist and turn, they could think about the dynamics of innovation in the marketplace, all the challenges we face in our world, and what we need to do. to make sure the game is fair to all concerned. We must reward the leaders of the Flock if we are to continue racing against the innovation clock. Consider all of this.