Reinvent the Wheel

Whosoever popularized the phrase "do not reinvent the wheel" obviously failed to anticipate the fierce competition and market dynamics of 21^st century that are causing wear and tear to the famous old wheel. Today, if a product needs to stay competent it not only needs to build on the existing services and product offerings but reinvent them all together. Hitherto, the phrase is so deeply imbibed in corporate language that one fails to properly think through it.

This article talks about 2 scenarios where it makes more sense in the long run to go for reinvention/redesign of the product or service. It also introduces the concept of ‘Reinvention Trap’ and how to avoid the same

Let us look at product examples from not only IT but other sectors to help conclude that the deriving conditions will hold good for all types of products, irrespective of the industry

First example is from Pharmaceutical industry, of a chronic disease of‘Asthma’. There are several drugs available in the market that treats it, so does it make business sense to develop another one? Well, yes as the existing Asthma drugs causes a lot of side effects like swelling on face, abdominal pain, increased blood pressure, etc. and if the new drug has less side effects and is more or even equally effective, then definitely yes. A management analogy from this will give us the first condition

Condition 1: If your product/process/service achieves its desired output but consumes resources (time, money, manpower, machinery etc.) superfluously, there is a need for reinvention

As second example, take a look at what Apple is being doing for a while. All the fantastic products of its portfolio were being reinvented whether it is i-pod or i-phone. Neither an mp3 player nor a touch screen phone was a new concept. What Apple cashed on is their reinvented design clubbed with latest technology. This allowed Apple to build proprietary products and scope to charge licensing fee.

Now come to – Auto industry for third example, Tire segment where ‘reinventing the wheel’ makes most literal sense. When the basic auto tire was invented it fulfilled only the current need of transportation but ignored the latent need of users – elucidation of flat tire. So in 1846 - Robert William Thomson invented pneumatic vehicle tire or run-flat tire design and eventually over centuries it has evolved with science. So the second condition for reinventing the wheel is

Condition 2: When the existing product fails to account for latent needs of users

One should be careful of the ‘Reinvention Trap’, where at the abstract level you might think that reinvention is good approach though the problem lies somewhere else. The actual problem will be downed in system in a subtle way that on first scan it may go undetected. For example - Information asymmetry could create such impression. Here process re-engineering would be a more effective approach