This week was spent researching on the many competitors that are currently in the market space. It seems to us that all of the solutions currently offered are more or less the same, having little to no differentiation at all. Without knowing the source code or proprietary methods utilized by these incumbents, there would be no way that we could uncover the differences in all these solutions. Perhaps, a better way to find the market gap/unique solution would be to approach the potential customers instead, querying them as to why these solutions currently in the market are not utilized by them.
This week has also led me to think about the meaning of innovation. Does innovation have to be something new and novel, unexplored by the people of their time? Or is innovation mostly a process of “duplicate and improve upon”. I lean towards the latter, as is apparent throughout human history. Take for example Mcdonalds, where Ray Kroc copied this idea from car factories and applied it to his restaurant chain, McDonalds, to develop the fast food innovation. Or how about Henry Ford, who did not invent the concept of the assembly line. He saw it in use in a meat packing factory. He copied the idea and implemented it in his car assembly plant. This innovation transformed car manufacture and made cars affordable for a mass market. I guess, the most important lesson to be learnt is to be flexible in our thinking, maybe the best “innovations” come from the most mundane activities.
