Memetics and innovation: profit through balanced meme management

One of the major driving forces behind a firm’s success can be attributed to its meme management. Memes, analogous to the biological gene, are self‐replicating. They represent the knowledge, views, perceptions, and beliefs communicated from person to person. In a business context, memes can be used to manage market perceptions as well as managing the views a firm has of itself. If a firm focuses too persistently on replicating a specific product meme, and by its singularly unyielding focus fails to innovate, a competitor may obliterate it with a disruptive leap in product development. The former firm has failed because of its lack of flexibility and its inability to adapt to a product or market’s ongoing evolutionary process. Discusses the example of Rip Curl, the Australian surf‐wear giant, and how it has developed and managed three memes that are central to Rip Curl’s product success as well as the company’s innovative operations.