Imitation ought to be as respectable as Innovation !!! Coz it is a lot more efficient. Infact, Innovation can build on Imitation.

• Imitation is being masked by being called as "Open Innovation"! It is the same :)
• Reverse Engineering = Imitation
• New term ---> Creative Imitation
• New Term ---> Copycat Innovation
• Imitation should NOT have a stigma associated with it and Innovation should not have too much respectability attached to it at all times.

To sum up, Innovation is cool. But Innovation is expensive. Imitation is cool. But imitation by itself may not offer competitive advantages. The solution lies in building Innovation over Imitation. Perhaps it can be this:

Step 1 ---> Imitate.

Step 2 ---> Innovate based upon what you have already imitated.

Steve jobs himself once said "Good artists copy. Great artists steal!".

Imitation and innovation equal imovation w/ Copycats author Oded Shenkar

Why 88% of Ideas Fail to Make it to Market

How to gain trust as a CEO - Roger Martin

Word of Mouth and the Internet

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

The Super Success Story of "Super 30" in India. From poverty into IIT schools.

About Super 30:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_30

Wharton School of Management, University of Pennsylvania article:
Link: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4575

The Method Behind the 'Math-ness'

Anand Kumar believes Super 30 works primarily because of the absence of alternatives. He says it teaches that education is students' best and only way out of economic and caste discrimination, especially in a state that has historically attracted less industrial investment than others and one where floods routinely play havoc. "We tell them to take up education as a weapon. We give them garam bhashan ("intense lectures") and they forget about their poverty," Kumar says. 

Adequately fired up, Super 30's students study from 14 to 16 hours a day. A community-living format helps. 

Contrary to popular perception, the students do not learn by rote; they are taught to approach problems multi-dimensionally, Kumar says.

A popular Super 30 module delivered through multimedia projectors features two teens, "B" and "R". "R", a rich kid, rides a bike and indulges in pizzas and burgers. "B", who represents a Super 30 student, is a poor kid in a kurta (light cotton shirt) and slippers who rides a cheap bicycle. But when grappling with a question, "B" responds creatively with five to eight solutions; "R" uses traditional methods of thinking. "In a geometry problem, "B" uses algebra or calculus to solve it creatively," Kumar says. 

The two takeaways from the above exercise: 

• Poor kids can solve problems too
• "Math and Science can be very interesting."

Witness - Super 30 - The First Step - 13 July 08 - Part 1

Evan Williams on what's behind Twitter's explosive growth

US Twitter Adoption

What Kids Should Know About Money At 9, 13, 18 and 23.

From the link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2018865,00.html

Financial Education (Click on the links below for details)

• Kids Financial Lessons
• Nine years old
• Thirteen years old
• Eighteen years old
• Twenty-three years old

10 Smarter Ways to Reach Your Retirement Goals.

From the link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1968812,00.html

Stocks aren't sizzling and bonds are boring again. But with good ideas and savvy tactics, you can still achieve your retirement goals. Here are 10 ways to rethink, restore and even recharge your retirement dreams. 

Retirement Planning: (Click on the links for details)

• Rethink — and Restore — Your Retirement Dreams
• Get Serious About How Long You'll Live
• Get an Olympian Grip on Spending
• Load Up on Life Insurance
• Create a New Three-Legged Retirement Stool
• Consider a Flexible Retirement Job
• Establish Wealth Checkpoints — and Make Adjustments
• Be Stingy with Your Forecasts
• Bite the Bullet: Get Independent Advice
• To Be Truly Safe, Know Your Risks
• No More Secrets Between Spouses

The 25 Best Financial Blogs

From the link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2057116,00.html 

Finance Blogs (The links below are live. Happy clicking & reading :)

• Business Insider
• Grasping Reality with a Sharp Beak
• Econbrowser
• Rortybomb
• Dealbreaker
• Paul Kedrosky
• The Wealth Report
• WalletPop
• Naked Capitalism
• Real Time Economics
• Megan McArdle
• DealBook
• Street Sweep
• Free Exchange
• Economix
• The Big Picture
• Zero Hedge
• Planet Money
• Ezra Klein
• The Consumerist
• Freakonomics
• Calculated Risk
• Marginal Revolution
• Felix Salmon
• The Conscience of a Liberal

Check out OYC.YALE.EDU/ECONOMICS for Open Yale free online goodies

Economics stuff can be found at http://oyc.yale.edu/economics . This link is relevant to MBA students. However, there are no other lectures related to Business, unfortunately :( . This is some very good and commendable work. I salute you guys at Yale!!! But sorry, folks at Yale, this ain't nothing compared to what Sal Khan has done at www.KhanAcademy.org 

Introduction to Bonds

Bonds vs. Stocks

Basic Cash Flow Statement

Balance Sheet and Income Statement Relationship

Banking 1

Banking 2: A bank's income statement

Harvard's Michael Porter on long-term strategy in a downturn

Check out Harvard Business Review on a regular basis (www.HBR.org)

So what, if you can not attend HBS?
You can still learn from HBS :)

Log in to www.HBR.org on a regular basis, enrich your knowledge and sharpen your thinking :) I thoroughly enjoy the articles on the site. What is interesting is also the comments left on the site, not just the original articles themselves. The comments (written by intelligent people) are as interesting as the articles.

If you had $100 billion to give away, how would you spend it?

Some of the best stats you may have ever seen - by Han Rosling.

What is BigThink all about? A copycat / me-too of TED conference? Or a whole new species? (Do check out www.BigThink.com)

From the link: http://bigthink.com/about

I love www.BigThink.com.
It is a thinker's site. It is a dreamer's site. It is a Wanna-be's site. It is MY site (as a loyal patron)!

Big Think is a knowledge forum.

In our digital age, we’re drowning in information. The web offers us infinite data points—news stories, tweets, wikis, status updates, etc—but very little to connect the dots or illuminate the larger patterns linking them together. Here at Big Think, we believe that success in the future is about knowing the ideas that allow you to manage and master this universe of information. Therefore, we aim to help you move above and beyond random information, toward real knowledge, offering big ideas from fields outside your own that you can apply toward the questions and challenges in your own life. Every idea on Big Think comes from our ever-growing network of 2,000 Big Think fellows and guest speakers, who comprise the top thinkers and doers from around the globe. Our editorial team regularly sources ideas from these experts, asking them about the most important ideas in their respective fields. Our editors then sift through the submitted ideas and determine which qualify to appear on Big Think, subjecting each to our simple, three-pronged standard geared to your interests:

a) Significance: How will this idea change the world and impact your life?

b) Relevance: What groups and individuals does this idea most affect?

c) Application: How can this idea change the way you think or act?

Big Think's editorial team then packages and presents these ideas to you, our users, using the range of multimedia tools the Internet makes possible, with the aim of distilling each idea to its essence. We think of it as optimizing the "speed of knowledge," conveying ideas' value as efficiently and effectively as possible, so you have the time to explore, and absorb, more of them. Because as we move from the information age to the knowledge era, the more ideas you command, the more you will be able to guide the course of your own life and positively impact the lives of those around you. That's our big idea.

There's Enough Math in Finance Already. What's Missing is Imagination.

TED = Technology Entertainment and Design. Do check out www.TED.com

Source: Wikipedia. 

TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event and the conference was held annually from 1990 in Monterey, California. TED's early emphasis was largely technology and design, consistent with a Silicon Valley center of gravity. The events are now held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S. and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners. TED's current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson.

From 2005 to 2009, three $100,000 TED Prizes were awarded annually to help its winners realize a chosen wish to change the world. From 2010, in a changed selection process, a single winner is chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its efforts in achieving the winner's wish. Each winner unveils their wish at the main annual conference. Since June 2006, the talks have been offered for free viewing online, under a Creative Commons license, through TED.com. As of November 2011, over 1,050 talks are available free online. By January 2009 they had been viewed 50 million times. In June 2011, the viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, reflecting a still growing global audience.

TED: Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia

ORNGE recently spent $600,000 on MBA degrees for 7 top executives. Excellent investment, folks :)

From the link:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1108186--star-investigation-ornge-spends-600-000-on-degrees-for-top-executives?bn=1

Quote: 

The ORNGE air ambulance service has recently spent more than $600,000 on university business degrees for top executives. In the last year, at least seven ORNGE officials have received or are enrolled in an executive MBA from a top Canadian business school. An ORNGE spokesman defended the practice, saying the executives are “high performers” and funding the business degrees helps ORNGE “attract and retain top quality talent.” ORNGE, which employs 400 people, receives $150 million in public funding each year.

The business schools include:

Schulich School of Business

Ivey School of Business

Business School in Brussels

What I understand ----> MBAs are valuable and well respected in the Healthcare Management Industry. I guess $600,000 is a bit steep (and the media shall make a noise about it), but an MBA is certainly worth it. If the knowledge is applied properly, it can bring about great return on investment!