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Competition vs Creation.
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Competition vs Creation.

Richard Merrick's avatar
Richard Merrick
Dec 15, 2016
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Competition vs Creation.
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Image: Huffington Post

There's a line in Joi Ito's book "Whiplash" that resonates for me:

"Competition just isn't interesting anymore"

I think he's right. At a time when we can create unique offerings that resonate with our uniqueness, regarding ourselves as being in competition means we're trying to persuade somebody to buy our version of a product or service already in existence. or in other words, on the route to being a commodity.

When we have high levels of fixed assets, or legacy technology, or shareholders to support,  we often have little choice other than to have a competitive mindset, but when product and service lifecycles are vanishingly short at the same time as creation has never been easier, it's an increasingly risky place to be. And a choice (albeit a tough one)

Whether or not we believe the hype around intelligent machines, it seems pretty certain they will have a significant impact on those jobs based on process and repetition, and if that's what we do for a living, ther…

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