Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain Strategic Edge

In the business world, imitation gets a bad rap. We see imitating firms as “me too” players forced to copy because they have nothing original to offer. In Copycats, Oded Shenkar challenges this viewpoint. He reveals how imitation—the exact or broad-brushed copying of an innovation—is as critical to prosperity as innovation.

Shenkar shows how savvy imitators generate huge profits and how they avoid costly errors by observing and learning from other’s trials. He will present suggestions for making imitation a core element in your competitive strategy and pairing it powerfully with innovation.

Strengthening the Economy by Expanding Housing Demand Equitably and Efficiently

Battered home prices and weak demand for owner-occupied housing continue to act as a major drag on the U.S. economy. Job and output losses have been concentrated in the construction industry; depressed home prices continue to expose banks and taxpayers to massive obligations; and healthy recoveries have nearly always involved an expanding housing sector. In this talk, I propose a plan to create 1 million homeownership vouchers patterned after the section 8 rent voucher program. I explain and justify why this approach can significantly expand the demand for owner-occupied housing in ways far more equitable and far less costly than recent policies. In the discussion, we can consider various program design options as well as the likely positive feedback on the economy.

Entrepreneurship and the Great Recession

For 20 years since 1982, the US economy created millions and millions of jobs. During this time we had limited theory and little data to guide us, but good policy. Today the economy is in a deep recession and we are creating almost no new net jobs. We have no better theory but much better data to understand the role of firm but not very good policy.

The lunch will take place in February.

Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge

What is more critical for economic prosperity: innovation or imitation? Most would assume that innovation is much more important than imitation, but Professor Shenkar challenges this view and argues that imitation is as important to prosperity as innovation. He will illustrate how talented imitators generate large profits by saving on R&D, marketing and advertising costs, and avoiding costly errors by observing and learning from other’s trials. He will present suggestions for making imitation a core element of competitive strategy and how to pair it with innovation. These suggestions cover how to select the right model to imitate, how to avoid oversimplification of a model, which imitation strategy to use, and how to prepare and execute an implementation plan.

Title: Short Term Pessimist, Long Term Optimist: Trade Protection on the Road to the Seoul Summit

What is the extent of protectionism since the onset of the Great Recession? What are the prospects for trade policy and trade growth in the medium term? Dr. Hufbauer will review empirical evidence on change in protectionist measures in the recent past and the outlook for globalization over the next decade.

Our Energy Future – The Intersect of Science, Economics, and Politics

Dr. Apple will begin with a discussion of the ecological footprints of economic activity, including Earth’s million-year history of emitting Carbon into the air and why it has created a greenhouse warming effect. He will also examine the growing impact of the current rise in atmospheric CO2 on climate instability. Using informative graphs, Dr. Apple will then present the full picture of energy in the United States – where it comes from, how it is captured and used, and how it is lost. He will explain that there are only four pathways forward that we have, and argue for what our best strategy would be. Under his proposed strategy we would be able to pay for the transition to achieve GHG-free energy by the year 2030. He will conclude with a broader discussion of the “intersect of science and politics,” and present an evidence-based roadmap for how we can lead large scale change.
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The District through the Recession
A look at some District economic indicators over the period of the recession.
Download the presentation: The District through the Recession

Social Security: A Fresh Look at Policy Alternatives
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Household Leveraging and Deleveraging
Presentation: Household Leveraging and Deleveraging
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Haiti Food Security: Post Earthquake Update