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Writer's pictureChang Liu

Innovation is business, and business is not fairness

Updated: Aug 22, 2021

Innovation is to make old things new. It is business, not ideas. It is an act, not ideas.

 

Business:


Business has no vacuum.

Business is not fair.


 

Innovation:

Innovation is not guess, not try, but to act;

Innovation is business, not dreaming or wish or efforts;

Business is business. Business is not fair. It is a game to win the top prize - getting paid solving problems.
 

Startup is not dreaming

Startup is vision. In a vision you walk towards a mountain. In a dream the mountain walks to you.

Startup is not idea, it is the business of an idea.

Startup is professional dreaming.
 

Research and discovery


Research is not innovation. Research is hobby, innovation is business. Innovation is to make a product, research is to make a prototype.


 

Business is generosity and empathetic to people and provide value.

Business is honesty, providing value and quality to compete.

Business is dog eat dog fight. It is about feeding the mouth of employees and engineers.

Business is doing great things and solving problems and make life enjoyable and easy.

Business is also bags of magic and tricks and unfair advantages to compete with incumbents and copycats.

 

After a business discovered value proposition acceptance, it will maximize own profit margin. For example, mam companies use dubious product standard to lower cost.


The government is a business. It collects tax to make its revenue contractual and regular.


A company who is incumbents will grad the best quality business - stores, phone service, business advertising. Stores like Macy's file for bankruptcy, but Amazon keeps on growing. Not because Amazon is a better company , but because the Amazon business is a better business.


Business is a flow of cash along the nodes. If you do regular hard work, you get certain money flow through you (revenue) and you can claim to keep a portion (profit). If you don't have unfair advantage, every business is a "work for cash" organization. You are buttressed by the upstream and downstream, must be approved by consumers and the business supply chain.


Most companies, even Google, will have to promise to itself "don't do evil" when it grows - it becomes the company culture and beacon. The "evil" Google warned against itself is the unfair practice to maximize earning and margin. The "good" and right thing to do it to grow the business organically, innovate (with strong talented work force, which takes money to hire and keep).


There are high and low competitors. Low competitors cheat, cut throat, and do anything to make a dollar. Even if you are a completely honest business, you have to be prepared for dirty competitors.


Business can not be completely honest. For example, you can not tell your real cost to competitors and customers. Business is often based on in-balance of information. For example, Coca-cola would not advise its customers not to take their products because of its health effect - it relies on the customers to make their own judgement. For that reason, no one will tell the competitor what is the best practice and customer/supplier information although these would not be bad idea for the consumer.


To light fire of a business takes a lot of tricks. When you are a new player, how to get the first customer, first endorsement, first positive review, first sales is critical.


Business is unfair. You don't need to be unfair, but you need to have unfair advantage.
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