Innovate or Die

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continued from: Why Innovation?

Willem P Burgers (Burgers), Professor of strategy and Marketing, China Europe International Business School, (CEIBS) Sanghai, China, too feels the same. He says, "The pace of change has accelerated enormously. Thus the right approach is to attack and destroy yourself before somebody else does. While attacking yourself may not bring success to you always i.e., you may have to sacrifice your short-term profits but it will benefit the company in the long run by giving stability and prosperity". The only thing companies should remember here is that they should have the courage in them to attack themselves repeatedly and not to be afraid of small failures, because these failures will be the pillars of success for them in the long run. Professor Burgers adds, "Self-attack means a constant re-innovation and re-examination of your products and processes. It is important not to be afraid of making these attacks and spending money to make these dramatic and incremental changes."


In "Marketing Warfare," Trout and Ries state that this type of self attacking and innovative strategies are well suited for the market leaders only and are not suitable for small players or firms. But most experts in marketing that we have interviewed for this article think otherwise. According to them, there is no such restriction or limitation as such in using a particular strategy in business. According to professor Kindra "it is not restricted to market leaders it is just that market leaders have an edge, deeper pockets on this strategy, because of the amount of research and money which goes into this".

Professor Burgers feels that "this type of reinvention and self attack strategies are very essential for the small players to survive, as innovations create new segments and according to him the best way to become the market leader is to create a new segment. He cites the example of Dell Computers (DC) here; how it conquered the PC industry, not by inventing a better computer, but by inventing a better way of marketing and servicing computers." So it is clear that strategies are not restricted to any particular company. Self-attack to Greenburg has both the external meaning of proactively approaching the business world and the internal meaning of fearlessly transforming business culture, model and processes. Greenburg sums it up by saying, "there is no restriction in strategies any one who cares to adopt it can, irrespective of its size. It's a matter of how well you execute it and how bold and creative you dare to be". The story of dell proves this.

Companies which are masters in this game of self-attack and innovation have been able to achieve and retain their position year after year irrespective of changed circumstances. The first name in innovation and self-attack is of Gillettea $9 bn global producer of personal care and grooming products. Gillette firmly believes in continuous product innovation. It has always stuck to its corporate mantra of "innovation is Gillette".

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