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dEPloyIng CAPAbIlITIEs In THE mARKET 265
Kroc, who took McDonald’s to worldwide success, copied White Castle – inventor of
the fast-food burger joint. And Ireland’s Ryanair imitated the business model originally
developed in the USA by Southwest Airlines.
Shenkar identifies three ‘strategic types’ of imitators :
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1 The pioneer importer – an imitator that is the pioneer in another place (another
country, industry, or product market). This is what Ryanair did in Europe when it
imported the Southwest model. Pioneer importer imitators may actually be able
to move relatively slowly, especially if the original innovator, or other imitators, is
unlikely to compete directly in the same market.
2 The fast second – a rapid mover arriving quickly after an innovator or pioneer, but
before they have had an opportunity to establish an unassailable lead, and before
other potentially rival imitators take a large share of the market. This strategy basi-
cally lets the pioneer take much of the risk of innovation in the hope that the fol-
lower can learn from the pioneer’s experience.
3 The come from behind – a late entrant or adopter that has deliberately delayed adopt-
ing a new idea, maybe because of legal reasons, or because they want to be more
certain that the idea will be acceptable. When they do adopt the idea, they may rely
on differentiating themselves from the original pioneers. Samsung did this with its
chip-making business, by using its manufacturing capability and knowledge to halve
the time it takes to build a semiconductor plant. It then established a lead over com-
petitors by exploiting its strengths in key technical, production and quality skills.

example learning from formula one 20

As driving jobs go, there could be no bigger difference than between a Formula One racing
driver weaving their way through some of the fastest competitors in the world and a super-
market truck driver quietly delivering beans, beer and bacon to distribution centres and stores.
But they have more in common than one would suspect. Both Formula One and truck drivers
want to save fuel, either to reduce pit-stops (Formula One) or keep delivery costs down (heavy
goods vehicles). And although grocery deliveries in the suburbs do not seem as thrilling as
racing round the track at Monza, the computer-assisted simulation programs developed by
the Williams Formula One team are being deployed to help the drivers for Sainsbury’s (a Brit-
ish supermarket group) develop the driving skills that could potentially cut their fuel bill by
up to 30 per cent. The simulator technology, which allows realistic advanced training to be
conducted in a controlled environment, was developed originally for the advanced training
of Formula One drivers and was developed and extended at the Williams Technology Centre
in Qatar. It can now train drivers to a high level of professional driving skills and road safety
applications.
Williams chief executive, Alex Burns, commented:
‘Formula One is well recognised as an excellent technology incubator. It makes perfect sense to
embrace some of the new and emerging technologies that the Williams Technology Centre in Qatar
is developing from this incubator to help Sainsbury’s mission to reduce its energy consumption and
enhance the skills and safety of those supporting its crucial logistics operation.’

Sainsbury’s energy-related improvement programmes tackle energy supply (e.g. wind, solar
and geothermal energy) as well as energy consumption (e.g. switching to LED lighting, CO
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