Saturday, December 29, 2012

WM #20 Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Do you ever wonder what happens to those great ideas that you think of but never do anything about?  They get acted on by those who have the incentive and initiative to do something about it (and likely the revenue). I had come up with this great idea of a sock of the month club a few months ago (I wrote about it on this blog under Brilliant Ideas) and someone has already done it. Two guys from Austin Texas did it but their model needs some serious improvements! See their site Sock of the Month club. For $11 you can get a single pair of stripped, Italian, polka dotted, and mustachioed pair of socks. It's brilliant that they came up with this idea for those guys who bravely wear socks with their sandals or to compliment a cool seersucker suit and loafers. Yet, what is really needed is a good pair of socks for us gals to accommodate our obsession with shoes (and our inability to keep a paired set of socks longer than six months). I don't know about you but I need socks tailored (long, short, thin, thick, vibrant, seasonal, etc.) to my shoe variety (ridding boots, ballet shoes, clogs, tennis shoes). Now that would be a sock of the month club I could get in to. 

Now what does this have to do with management? Sometimes we have to make things better in management. While others blaze a path of industry and innovation, sometimes it is up to others to bravely jump onto those tracks then veer off breaking new ground into new territory unknown by their predecessors. Technology companies are constantly adapting and mimicing each other in hopes to improve upon a good idea (e.g., Google maps, Wikipedia, Netflix). Customers always want choices and improvements upon the products and services that they love. So watch out Sock of the Month guys, while your idea is good it misses a whole demographic!