Sam Walton once said that he believed he was K-Mart’s best customer.

He visited the K-Mart stores throughout the country every chance he had. On one particular visit, Walton discovered a massive innovation that K-Mart had brought about. Instead of departmental checkout registers, they had centralized their checkouts at the store’s exit. Now all shoppers could fill up their shopping carts and check out in one simple step. Walmart did the same.

Walmart’s innovations didn’t come from the inside alone. In fact, many of the innovations were made by replicating the best of what others did.

How often are you visiting your competition?