9 reasons to imitate - The late mover advantage

"A first-mover advantage is the position held by a firm for being first in a market or first to use a particular strategy," says Mundi. "A late-mover advantage is the position earned by firms that are late in entering a market, usually following the first movers and innovators."

I completely agree with the core idea of this statement taken from this article on INC.com, this is what I actually do all the time. It is never too late to replicate a working business model if it does not exist yet in a market. Being late nowadays often means being first. The article makes 9 points in favour of replicating existing business models and why you should actually do it. Here they are, and even if they do not all apply to all models, they are fairly well taken. I made some comments to give my point of view since it is an overly optimistic article...and you know I am a bean-counter:

1. Refining is easier - yep, obvious isn't it?

2. Benchmark your progress - think about the bizplan and the useful data for reference. Good point.

3. Spend you money better - so true, cut out non-value adding processes or activities!

4. Learn from their mistakes - same as point three for me...but true!

5. Remain nimble - depends...

6. Reserach better - depending on the hints you have you might, if you are transferring a service from one market to another you should never take things as researched by someone else.

7. Make yours better - yes, but I'd even say: If its worth it and more profitable, make it strip it to the core...

8. Learn marketing tips - yes absolutely, adds a lot of value and shortens the learning curve. But beware of the cultural differences in markets.

9. Get funded - yes definitively easier!

Related to this there are some good articles that are worth a read, I took them from the same magazine, Inc.com:

Does it pay to be late?

Should you be a copycat?

You see, there is another reason why I chose to operate in this way. You have to be an innovator or inventor in specific field to be successful and to hit the jackpot. I am an all-rounder and enjoy analysis of existing management organisms for replication in other markets, which requires a hell of a lot of marketing skills. That is a totally different type of entrepreneurship. No better not worse, just different. Cheers...