Overview
With the proliferation of innovative, highly successful but replicated online business models and the march of globalisation, copycat businesses are on the rise. As early as Shakespeare, the word ‘primate’ was used to mean both ape and to imitate.
Even further back in history, Aristotle remarked that ‘man differs from other animals because of his greater aptitude for imitation’. Imitation is how languages are learned, how culture diffuses and (how sociologists would describe as) the functioning of modern society through a process of isomorphism. But what does it mean for business? Is imitation an effective and sustainable strategy for entrepreneurs? And is it good or bad for society?
What is the use of the term ‘copycat’, in terms of its novelty and relevance, is it simply another way of describing the innovation diffusion process and fast-follower strategies or can imitation be analysed in a new light using the perspective of business models?
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2011, Ralph Lauren explained that his success was due to his ability to crack this code, effectively copying and spiking emergent trends in the fashion industry season after season. This is similar to the approach adopted by the high street fashion business, Zara – the success of which boils down to its ability to pick the most commercially inspired designs featured on the catwalks of the latest fashion shows and to iterate and re-iterate them at speed.
Copycats represent a low-risk, low-cost option for both entrepreneurs and investors, however, is this a good thing for innovation or an effective strategy for entrepreneurs?
Register online via Eventbrite (external link)
Hear our panel’s views and offer your own. A reception of wine and canapes will follow the event.
About the panel
Chris Corbishley, PhD Candidate
Imperial College Business School & London Stock Exchange ELITE Associate
Chris Corbishley is a PhD candidate and ESRC scholar at Imperial College Business School. His research focuses on business models and organisation design in low-cost markets, specifically the delivery of healthcare and energy services in less developed countries. Since 2014, he has worked closely on the London Stock Exchange ELITE programme, which provides the founders, CEOs and executive teams of the UK’s fastest growing companies with a tailored portfolio of business support tools and education services. As part of working with high-growth ventures, he has led business transformation efforts across a number of UK e-commerce businesses and a mobile gaming company based in Hong-Kong. He has also carried out consulting work on the emergence of economic clusters, co-authoring a study which has informed the development strategy behind Imperial West, a new campus that includes a £150m cross-disciplinary, academia-industry research and translation hub. Chris is also developing business transformation at Swoon Editions.
Chris’ teaching experience includes the Global MBA launch, which was based on a case study on the UK Green Investment Bank exploring the challenge of measuring risk and return in public-private investment partnerships; the Full-Time MBA Innovation Challenge (IIC) 2014, which was a one-week course drawing from research on a multi-institutional project related to socially and economically sustainable business models for rural electrification in East Africa and the IIC 2015, covering disruptive trends in financial services technology.
As a Visiting Researcher at Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Hong Kong University’s Faculty of Business & Economics, Chris has also carried out research on copycat business models, recently presenting a case study on innovation and imitation in business model design alongside the co-founder of Rocket Internet Asia.
Guy Mucklow, President
PCA Predict
Guy is the co-founder and President of PCA Predict, a SaaS business whose address autofill service is used by over 11,000 leading eCommerce brands to improve customer experience and maintain data quality. Before founding PCA Predict, Guy was a Finance Director for the family property firm A&J Mucklow Group Plc. He is also currently board member of techUK, and an advocate of technological innovation.
Over the last 16 years, Guy and his team have taken PCA Predict (formerly Postcode Anywhere) from a standing start to a £12 million plus turnover with over 10,000 customers and a dominant share of the online data validation market. The launch of a new service, Triggar is a major recent event for the team. This is a system which monitors the customer journey event streams to predict and react to changes in online behaviour, and thereby provide better online experiences. Guy has recently been presented with a Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion and has also completed the ELITE programme for growth businesses.
Lucian Schoenefelder, Director
KKR
Lucian is Director at KKR, he is focused on private equity and growth equity in vestments in the European media & technology sector. Since joining KKR in 2007, Lucian has been involved with KKR’s investments in amongst other things, Trainline, GetYourGuide (number 1 online marketplace for travel activities), Optimal+ (big data analytics software for the semiconductor and electronics industry), Fotolia (number 1 European marketplace for digital images, now sold to Adobe), and Duales System Deutschland (leading recycling company in Germany, sold to HIG). Lucian also spent a year with KKR Capstone working on various assignments within ProSiebenSat.1.
Before joining KKRT, Lucian worked in the M&A department at JP Morgan in London. He holds a Master of Science in Business Administration as well as a PhD (summa cum laude) from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
About this series
This event is part of the Best Practice 8-part series. The series is organised by The Entrepreneurship Hub at Imperial College Business School and is supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).