Quote

Author

Company

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower... More

Steve Jobs

Apple

Mediocre ones compete with others, Great innovators compete with themselves. They find new treasures, take as much as they want, and go further. Others follow and compete for whatever is left.

Vadim Kotelnikov

Innovarsity

What distinguishes the outstanding competitors from the rest? Two basic principles. First, they understand that constant innovation is the key to a company's survival. Being innovative some of the time, in one or two areas, just won't work. Second, they know that the most powerful changes they can make are those that create value for their customers and potential customers.

Andrall Pearson

Harvard Business School

Every day were saying, 'How can we keep this customer happy?' How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this, because if we don't, somebody else will.

Bill Gates

Microsoft

I have always loved the competitive forces in this business. I have meetings where I spur people on by saying, "Hey, we can do better than this. How come we are not out ahead on that?" That's what keeps my job one of the most interesting in the world.

Bill Gates

Microsoft

The challenge isn't to keep your eye on big competitors. It's to pay attention to the innovators.

Dave Duffield

PeopleSoft

Don't undershoot, or you will simply create an opportunity for competition

Peter Drucker

Our organization just has to outfox our larger competitors by really emphasizing our value proposition, which is really outstanding compared to them. The good news is we are a highly flexible organization. We have a national footprint, we have low costs, we're efficient, so we can compete at this point with almost anybody and do a great job for our clients.

Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab

Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who's forging a bullet with your company's name on it. You've got one option now – to shoot first. You've got to out-innovate the innovators.

Gary Hamel

Strategos

Never innovate to compete, innovate to change the rules of the game.

David O. Adeife

Companies miss out on all sorts of opportunities for innovation because they focus so closely on their competitors. If you map out the different types of innovation activity in a given industry, you'll almost always find that most organizations are concentrating on the same type – they're investing in the same thing just to keep up. There are may be a lot of activity in customer service innovation, for example, but nothing's happening in networking... You can actually spend less and make more money in innovation if you pay attention to those places your competitors have overlooked.

Larry Keeley

Doblin

The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.

Jack Welch

GE

Organizations today must not only out-gun and out-hustle competitors, they must also out-think them. Companies win with ideas.

Thomas Davenport,

Babson College

Organizations today must not only out-gun and out-hustle competitors, they must also out-think them. Companies win with ideas.

Thomas Davenport,

Babson College