In The Republic, Plato famously wrote, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” What the esteemed Greek philosopher failed to mention is that reinvention is the way to build the mother of all companies.
Innovation is the current buzzword, but in many ways, it’s become an overused term that means all things to all people. Anything can be “innovative,” regardless if it’s more of the same, or a revolutionary product that doesn’t make things better. (Did the Segway really change your life?) A reinvention, however, is specific: It involves taking something that already exists, improving it, and making it the industry standard. A reinvention has the added benefit that somebody else has already done some of the legwork of getting established in the marketplace.
“When somebody invents something, it usually means there’s a high level of consumer education,” says Eric Ryan, co-founder of San Francisco-based Method, a company specializing in green cleaning products with sleek designs. “The most successful things find a new way to differentiate on top of a set of established behaviors. We didn’t invent home cleaning, we just found a new way to do it.”
It may sound less sexy than “invention” and less futuristic than “innovation,” but throughout the history of American business, reinvention has been the backbone of entrepreneurial success.
Continue Reading: “The Mother of Reinvention”
Photo by Norman Rockwell.