Introduction
Innovation simply refers to the new idea, imagination and creative thoughts in the form of method or device. It includes deliberate application of initiative, information and imagination in deriving assorted value from resources and involves all processes through which new ideas are created and transformed into new products. In the present assignment, chosen organisation is Food and Grocery Store which offers grocery items to customers that they require in their daily life (Clayton, Feldman and Lowe, 2017). This assignment covers innovation and its importance to firms as compared to invention. It also defines the way vision, leadership, teamwork and culture can shape innovation and commercialization. Apart from this, 4P's of innovation, development in frugal innovation, significance of commercial funnel and application of new product development is defined. At last, innovative business case and different intellectual property tools are discussed in this project.
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P1. Innovation and its importance to organisation in comparison with invention
Innovation refers to the act or process of introducing a new and unique idea, method or device which support a company to provide its services in a more efficient manner for maximum customer satisfaction (INNOVATION, 2018). It is very essential for a company to include innovational approaches in its operations which encourage employees to perform their work in a efficient and most effective manner (Dutta and Hora, 2017). By implementing innovational practices Food & Grocery Mart will be able to enhance the productivity of its employees working within the organisation. This further support Food & Grocery Mart to maximize their profitability and return over investment.
CASE:-
Food & Grocery Mart is a UK based company which belongs to retail sector and provide products like eatable, beverages, books and grocery items through their stores. But the increasing demand of customers for online purchases leads to decrease in its customer base due to busy life schedule people doesn't get much time to purchase their stuff by visiting physical store. So, in order to solve this issue Food & Grocery Mart had decided to provide an home delivery option to its customer by providing them an online access to store services. For this company is bringing a mobile based application in which customers can login and order to product of their demand which will be then deliver to their address. The progress of this idea will be measured by the profitability which is earned by Food & Grocery Mart.
Innovation is born out from some unique ideas which support a company to grow expand its operation and perform well in market to achieve a competitive advantage. There are many sources through which an innovation can be generated. It includes,
- Necessity:- Requirement is consider as a mother of invention because necessity always lead a person to think and identify a new way of doing work that provide more reliable and effective outcome (Gaddy and et. al., 2017). After determining the trend of online shopping among people has encourage Food & Grocery Mart to innovate new method of service access that support them in maintaining their market share.
- Demographics:- Lifestyle which people follows can also be a medium of innovation. The busy schedule that nowadays community is living leads the generation of demnd of quick service access. This leads Food & Grocery Mart to innovate their way of services by bringing their online mobile application.
- Market structure:- The structure as well as procedure to which a market give more preference also encourage companies to bring innovation in order to cope up with other players in market. By assessing the interest of retailers toward regular up-gradation in their services for attracting customers leads Food & Grocery Mart to think more creative and bring a new innovation approach of online services.
These all are the sources through which the idea of innovation can be born out that contribute toward improving the organisational operations. Hence it is very essentials for Food & Grocery Mart to explain the importance of innovation to its employees. This will motivate employees to share their innovative ideas and create up a constructive conflict that help in identifying the new methods of brining innovation in current processes (Goble, Bercovitz and Feldman, 2017). This will not only provide benefit to company but also support employees in enhancing their critical thinking skill that contribute toward their career enhancement. Apart from this it also support employees in enhancing their performance which provide them new height in their career life. Innovation is sometime wrongly interpreted as invention, but both the terms are different from one another which can be better understood using following table:
Innovation |
Invention |
·Innovation happens when someone make a significant modification to existing product or services for making it more better. ·Innovation spreads across the whole organisation. ·It is generally occurred when an organisation felt need for improvement in its current product. |
·It refers to the creation of a commodity or introducing of a procedure for the first while. ·Invention is only remains limited to research & development department. ·It occurs when a new idea strikes in the mind of scientist. |
P2. How organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation
Innovational practices are one of the crucial factor within an organisation which support them in providing quality services to its customers and achieving a competitive edge within the marketplace (Henttonen and et. al., 2017). On the other hand commercialisation refers to the aggregation of innovation, marketing and communication activities which focuses on launching of a product to market. There are certain factors present in a company which support in bringing innovation and these factors are explained below:
- Vision:- It is a ability to plan or think about future with wisdom, experience and imagination. This provide a direction on which an organisation has to work for accomplishing the vision. Therefore, vision of Food & Grocery Mart contribute to a large extend for bringing innovation to the current procedure for providing more personalised and better services. The vision of company is to achieve stronger position in marketplace by keeping customer satisfied with services. This vision always foster company to think more innovative and bring new or unique method of improvising the services.
- Leadership:- It refers to the set of actions that are performed by leaders ibn order to motivate and guide group of people toward the accomplishment of set goals and objectives (Khan and et. al., 2017). By maintaining effective leadership Food & Grocery Mart will be able to motivate its employees to bring up innovative ideas and accept the innovational approach which are bring by company.
- Culture:- Organisational culture refers to the norm, value and rules that employees generally follow for performing their work. Culture plays a major role in brining innovation within the organisational procedure. So, it is very essential for Food & Grocery Mart to develop a culture which easily accept changes and also involve employees in decision making process (Lim and et. al., 2017). This support company in encouraging staff members to share their unique ideas which further help in identifying an innovating approach that have an ability to improve its performance at marketplace.
- Teamwork:- Innovation can be only be implemented within the organisation using teamwork. As it is consider as a group of people having their expertise in different field which when work in a collaborative manner bring up positive outcome. So for implementing innovation Food & Grocery Mart must promote team work which support them in aligning the performance of employees toward pre-specified goals. Hence, team work help in brining innovation and achieving success in commercialisation of product.
TASK 2
P3. The use of innovation funnel in examining and shaping the innovative ideas
Innovation refers to the process of brining new ideas for improving the good or services that create value to customers. But before implementing innovation it is very essential for Food & Grocery Mart to analyse the various factors and formulate strategies that support in achieving the positive result out of innovation. For this innovation mix can be use that consist of four basic elements which support Food & Grocery Mart in exploring the possible enhancement within each area of business.
These elements are explained below:
Product:- This element includes the analysis of product or services that are offered by company in order to determine various ways through which it can be improve the current offering that add more value to customers. By analysing the demand of customer for quick service access due to lack of time, Food & Grocery Mart has decided to offer a mobile based application of their company (Mamo and et. al., 2017). This provide a benefit to customers that they buy their required product without visiting the stores physically and can get their purchased stuff at home.
Process:- It refers to the way through which product or services are being offers to customers which is one of the most crucial factor for company. Because in case when delivery process is long or complicated it reduces the chance of success. So for implementing its new innovation Food & Grocery Mart must ensure an effective delivery process which is easier to use. Company can display their advertisements over social media site along with the link to download the application. It can also make application installed in the mobile of customers when they visit their stores. After downloading the application, customers can login it with their social media site or through mobile number and then place order as per their requirement.
Position:- This includes the process of commercialising the innovation in marketplace through marketing and other communicational medium. For this Food & Grocery Mart can target the work class people and communicate them when they visit the store about the benefit of purchasing online stuff which saves their time (Perry and et. al., 2017). Apart from this company can also place advertisement over social media sites or can mail their regular customer about their new services which they offer.
Paradigm:- It refers to the process of analysing the overall procedure of development and implementation of innovation. For achieving the success in innovation process it is very essential for Food & Grocery Mart to analyse the various factor to identify the viability and soundness of idea. Through this process company can identify whether the innovation will be accepted by customer or does company have adequate resources or skill through which it can implement the innovation.
Innovation funnel:-
It is a framework which help a company by describing about the step that must be followed during the development or innovation of product or process. Food & Grocery Mart must use this model while implementing innovation as it help in determining the way through which positive result can be generate. The first step includes the collection of information to determine that the innovation i.e. 'online service through mobile application', will be accepted by market or not. This includes the analysis of various ideas that support in identifying the best idea which suits the market demand. Further it also help in determining the way through which the commercialisation of that innovation can be performed.
P4. Frugal innovation and how it used
Frugal innovation refers to the process through which a company can create high quality product with the limited resources available to them. It focuses in reducing the cost of good and complexity involve in production process, hence it support in shaping up effective innovation process (Schmitz and et. al., 2017). By using this approach Food & Grocery Mart, will be able to develop a innovational plan from brining their mobile based services in a most effective manner. Further it also support company to minimize its wastage which in turn will reduce the cost of production.
Frugal innovation approach will support in developing a plan according to the political, social and environmental factor so that when the innovation get commercialised in market place, it remain unaffected from these external forces. Therefore, Food & Grocery Mart must use this approach for brining innovation as it focuses on performing a research in order to develop a plan that create a win-win situation. This will help Food & Grocery Mart in keeping the cost of its mobile application production and implementation lower that support them in achieving maximum benefit at minimum cost. Further it also support in achieving the higher Return over investment from this innovation.
TASK 3
P5. Importance of commercial funnel and application of New Product Development process for commercialisation
Commercial funnel refers to the graphical representation of different purchasing stages through which a customer move while buying a product or services. It is one of the most essential practice that will help Food & Grocery Mart in achieving the maximum benefit from the commercialisation of its mobile based services. Since the company has decided to offer its mobile application for making online purchases (Sheep, Fairhurst and Khazanchi, 2017). So commercial funnel will support Food & Grocery Mart in focuses on only those customers which will definitely use this new service after commercialisation i.e. working class people.
For commercialisation of its mobile application Food & Grocery Mart have to go through New Product Development Process which is explained below:
- Idea generation & screening:- This step consist of germination of idea and then its screening through brain storming process. By analysing the demand of customers related to lack of time, Food & Grocery Mart has selected online purchasing and home delivery of product.
- Concept development & testing:- After selecting an innovation idea to fulfil the demand of customers next step to develop the concept of implementing it. Under this Food & Grocery Mart has decided to develop a mobile application for providing online services to customers.
- Marketing strategy development:- After concept development next step followed by Food & Grocery Mart is to formulate strategies for promotion and positioning of this service.
- Business analysis:- Once the strategies and concept have been decided, next step is to analysis the feasibility of Food & Grocery Mart regarding the adequate availability of finance, skilled workforce or other resources. s
- Product development and market testing:- After development of concept and analysis of feasibility, next step is to develop the mobile application by collecting all the resources. Once it has been developed, tested by technical expert for identifying and removing the issues.
- Commercialisation:- After the application has been developed and tested by the technical expertise. It has been commercialised in market as per the formulated marketing strategies.
P6. Innovation Business Case
Food & Grocery Mart has decide to innovate their service procedure by providing an online purchasing option to its customer by providing a personalised mobile application (Shi and et. al., 2017). By introducing this innovation company will be able to maintain its position in marketplace and achieving the higher return over investment. Following table describe about the business case of Food & Grocery Mart:
STEPS |
DESCRIPTION |
OVERVIEW |
Food & Grocery Mart is a retail company that offer food and grocery items in UK market by maintaining its range of physical outlets. |
AIM |
Main objective of Food & Grocery Mart is to increase their Return on Investment with 12 months. |
SOLUTION |
For accomplishing this Food & Grocery Mart has decided to provide an online purchasing and home delivery service. |
INNOVATION IN THE PRODUCT |
Food & Grocery Mart has decided to launch a personalised mobile application through which customer can assess the product offered in stores and make purchases. |
RESEARCH |
Food & Grocery Mart through its survey identify the demand of customer quick service access due to lack time and busy schedule through which the idea of providing online services has been generated. |
FUNDING |
The firm has decided to take loan from bank and use the existing fund available to them. |
BENEFITS |
By implementing this innovation Food & Grocery Mart will be able to maintain as well as increase its customer base which increase its profitability. Apart from this company will also get maximum Return Over Investment. |
TASK4
P7. Tools that organisations use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property.
Innovation is the techniques of developing and transforming ideas and knowledge so as to develop and innovate new product in the market place. Food and Grocery Mart company has taken into consideration different strategies so as to innovate some new features within the organization. Thus, it will help in accelerating the productivity level of an organization. In order to make their product specific in the market Food and Grocery Mart company uses different motivational techniques in order to make workforce to work harder in achieving target goal (Gaddy and et. al., 2017). Moreover company uses different tools so as to retain and protect intellectual property right and they are explained below:
Copyrights: This term refers to as the legal means through which the source can be kept safe. Food and Grocery Mart company has adopted the concept of copyright in order to protect their innovative ideas and knowledge so that other firm cannot copy their innovative ideas..
Patents: It is the form of intellectual property which the owner has the right to exclude other party from making, selling and importing their innovative ideas and knowledge usually for a limited period of time. This is the best technique which the Food and Grocery Mart company has adopted so as to stop someone else to uses and sell their invention.
Trademark: It is refer to as symbol or size which helps in identification or products in the market place (Shakeel, Takala and Zhu, 2017). Thus, the Food and Grocery Mart company in itself have their clear brand image in the market which helps in identifying the speciality in their products and services in the marketplace.
Thus, overall it can be concluded that the manager of the Food and Grocery Mart company should use the above mentioned techniques so as to protect their innovative ideas, skills and knowledge from getting being copied by second party.
Conclusion
Overall it can be concluded that innovation and commercialization plays a indispensable role in achieving the competitive edge in the marketplace. In addition to this it can also be concluded that the manager of the company should consider 4ps of innovation so as to develop and innovate new products in the market sector. Moreover the company should follow step by step procedure which start with generation of ideas and ends with commercialization of products in the marketplace. So the manager of the company should develop some training and development session for the workforce in order to develop the features of innovation in them which will help them in becoming specialize in developing and innovating new skills and techniques. Thus, it will result in achieving the increase in the level of profitability and productivity of an organization.
References
- Clayton, P., Feldman, M. and Lowe, N., 2017. Behind the Scenes: Intermediary organizations that facilitate science commercialization through entrepreneurship. The Academy of Management Perspectives. pp.amp-2016.
- Dutta, D. K. and Hora, M., 2017. From Invention Success to Commercialization Success: Technology Ventures and the Benefits of Upstream and Downstream SupplyChain Alliances. Journal of Small Business Management. 55(2). pp.216-235.
- Gaddy, B. E. and et. al., 2017. Venture Capital and Cleantech: The wrong model for energy innovation. Energy Policy. 102. pp.385-395.
- Goble, L., Bercovitz, J. and Feldman, M., 2017. Organizing for Innovation—Do TLO Characteristics Correlate with Technology Transfer Outcomes?. In THE WORLD SCIENTIFIC REFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Volume 4: Process Approach to Academic Entrepreneurship—Evidence from the Globe. pp. 105-135.
- Henttonen, K. and et. al., 2017. Open innovation in SMEs: Collaboration modes and strategies for commercialization in technology-intensive companies in forestry industry. European Journal of Innovation Management. 20(2). pp.329-347.
- Khan, S. and et. al., 2017. Ultrathin Colloidal PbS/CdS Core/Shell Nanosheets. MRS Advances. pp.1-6.
- Lim, J. S. and et. al., 2017. Market orientation, innovation commercialization capability and firm performance relationships: the moderating role of supply chain influence. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. 32(7). pp.913-924.