Who Saw The Cat First? – Is Innovation just Imitation?

Do you still feel like “Innovation” is a word which instantly makes of think of big scientists, corporates and silicon valley dreamers? Well, even I cannot sometimes comprehend – things have changed so much.

Today this word (innovation) is used so casually, it could practically show up in a Pizza Ad – “Now with Innovative Crust Technology”

But here’s the truth most people avoid: innovation rarely starts from scratch.
It starts from somewhere already scratched.

Every revolutionary product you see today — from your iPhone to your Gmail tab — didn’t appear from a void. They’re built on iterations, improvements, and yes… a healthy dose of imitation.

In a world obsessed with “originality,” maybe we forgot something — evolution often wears the costume of imitation.

Is Zoho Just Another Imitation?

Recently, I came across a spicy debate took over social media. Someone accused Zoho of being a “copycat company” — a firm that takes existing software ideas, rebrands them, and calls it innovation.

A reply shut the room down. It read:

“Microsoft didn’t invent Office tools, Apple took the GUI idea from Xerox, Google wasn’t the first search engine, and Facebook literally bought WhatsApp and Instagram. Innovation isn’t always about creating something from scratch — it’s about improving, integrating, and scaling what others couldn’t.”

That’s it. That’s the truth most people miss.

Zoho didn’t invent CRM or email hosting — but they democratized it. I really liked the way the person replied.
They made premium business software accessible, localized, and affordable for Indian SMBs.

That’s not imitation — that’s reinvention for a market that was previously ignored.

Big Brands with Big Cats

If “copying” is a sin, then the tech world is basically a confessional booth. Let’s see who peeked at each other’s paper:-

Apple v/s Xerox

• In the late 1970s, Xerox PARC developed the first graphical user interface (GUI).
• Steve Jobs visited their lab, saw the idea, and the rest was Apple’s legend.

Xerox’s innovation team was so ahead of its time that its own board didn’t understand what they had built.

Apple didn’t copy Xerox — it commercialized an idea the world wasn’t ready to pay attention to.

Microsoft – DOSing the Dominance

• Microsoft’s Windows OS was heavily inspired by Apple’s GUI.
• But it became the global standard, thanks to smart licensing and affordability.

Bill Gates didn’t chase originality — he chased distribution.
And that made all the difference.

The Beast: Google

• Before Google, there were Yahoo!, AltaVista, and Lycos.
• Google didn’t invent “search” — it invented relevance.
  Its PageRank algorithm turned the web from chaos to clarity.

Sometimes, imitation finds its value not in what it copies, but in what it improves.

Transcending Faces: Facebook

• Facebook wasn’t the first social media platform (Hi5 and MySpace say hello).
• It didn’t invent messaging — it bought WhatsApp.
• It didn’t invent visual sharing — it bought Instagram.

Mark Zuckerberg didn’t reinvent the wheel — he built the highway.

Then Who Has Seen The Real Cat?

Maybe no one.
Maybe everyone.

The truth is, innovation isn’t about being first — it’s about being better. It’s about refining what exists until it feels fresh again.

My Take

Innovation and imitation aren’t rivals; they’re chapters in the same story.

The first innovator creates possibility. The imitator — the improver — creates accessibility.

So, whether it’s Zoho challenging global SaaS norms or a startup learning from giants — the game isn’t about copying ideas; it’s about executing them with clarity, context, and courage.

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Sombrata Mukherjee

Digital Marketer | MBA | BAJMC | Author