Introduction
Innovation in a business organisation is aimed at adding worth to its offerings. The agenda of introducing innovation is to make their services and products more useful for customers in the market. The following report is based on Netflix, Inc.; an entertainment industry company headquartered in Los Gatos, California. It is the extension of the previous report which introduced a specific innovation in the organisation. The purpose of the report is to establish this innovation in the organisation successfully. To achieve this, future of entertainment industry in 2020 and beyond is briefly discussed, along with innovation requirements of Netflix in 2020 and in the future. The report also focuses on building future innovation capabilities of the company by development of a road map which would describe the overall process of their innovation. This road map would determine each stage which would help Netflix implement innovation in their firm to ensure its future growth and sustainability. This case study report has been brought to you by Assignment Prime.
Task 1
Future of Entertainment Industry in 2020 and Beyond
As one of the biggest industries, Entertainment industry is subjected to a lot of innovations in recent years. With various companies like Amazon, Hulu and recently HBO, the streaming video on-demand facet of this industry has taken a huge leap lately. With advanced technologies used in Visual Effects (VFX) and animations, the content developed by these companies focus on spectacular visuals and compelling stories that engage more viewers towards their content. Entertainment Industry is currently ruling in terms of revenue and is likely to do so in future. The Over-The-Top streaming services of the U.S. are likely to enhance its business and grow up to $30.6 billion till 2022, almost $25 billion of which is likely to be generated by Streaming Video on Demand (SVoD) segments of the entertainment industry (…). With impressive internet facilities and high-quality streaming, the industry is likely to stay on the top of the mountain in 2020 and beyond.
Technology also plays a vital role in enhancing the importance of this industry. With rise in access to smartphones and smart televisions, content development has reached to a new benchmark where it enhances the visual and audio experience of their viewers worldwide. Automation and Artificial Intelligence is continuously penetrating the industry and its operations which help the companies create technologically advanced and innovative contents.
There are various companies in this sector which are bringing new concepts and innovative ideas to the market and consistently enhancing customer experience. HULU is one of the most biggest companies in this market and is quite consistent when it comes to innovation. The year 2020 would witness quite a few impressive innovations coming from this company. For instance, the firm is planning to shift its content on to Virtual Reality where the subscribers would be able to view channels like National Geographic. Where HBO is concerned, the the firm is planning to engage its viewers by focusing more on developing original content. The firm, through this innovation in its content is planning to wider its market in the world and undertake more segments in its business. Another innovation in the process that the firm is making is the cannibalisation of WarnerMedia. The firm is likely to acquire access of all the best works of Warner Bros., near 2020 which would allow users to view their best works in high definition. With new and enhanced television devices Amazon too is planning to up its game in the coming future. With its recent experiment of Amazon X Ray, which allows the users to access bios of actors and background information, the firm is planning to partner with more entities like Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in the near future to give more innovative content to the customers along with the standard.
All these innovation have a wide impact on the industry. This is because with enhanced services and added facilities, the agenda for increasing sales in near future is more or less based on advanced technology or personalised services. More customers would engage with these companies in order to experience visually advanced content and additional services. With innovations in these companies, more firms with creative processes and services would be able to enter the marketplace with ease.
As far as Netflix is concerned, the innovations happening around in the industry would help the firm in modifying processes and give more over-the-top services to its customers. Moreover, with such intense competition and threat of new companies, Netflix must will have to focus more on proper utilisation of technology in its products and processes for successfully sustain in the market for long run.
Task 2
Netflix's Innovation Requirements in 2020 and Beyond
As one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, Netflix is bound to focus and accomplish its innovation requirements to stay ahead on the curve. The firm, with its content is successful in gaining a wide attention of customers worldwide who appreciates and follow each of its new services.
However, with growing times and more access to technology, there are various innovation requirements for the firm that must be addressed within due time to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors in the future. Moreover, their innovations would enable customers to build a strong bond and commitment towards this company. The innovation requirements of Netflix in 2020 and beyond are as follows:
- Effective Filtration of Viewing Content: Netflix is one of the most creative firms when it comes to presenting new contents for viewers. However, recently the company has faced criticism from some of its viewers of their shows like “13 Reasons Why” and “Black Mirror” for their disturbing contents. This really had a bad impression on their content and people even started to dislike their television shows and movies. It is a serious requirement for the firm to modify its process to be able to freely feature their content with assurance of no negative feedbacks. They must introduce a feature right from the beginning which blocks and flags disturbing content for young audience in a way that they could not access the same even through other websites or applications. This would require the firm to develop effective safety systems that eliminates the possibility of their leak and illegal downloads on other websites using ineffective tools and methods. Moreover, there must a completely different section that helps the firm in segregating this content from that which is available. This way, it could ensure create more innovative content and present it to the right audience and appropriate target market.
- Interactive Content: In recent times, with such enhancement in technology and content viewing, one of the most innovative manner in which customers could be engaged is providing something which they have never experienced before. As discussed in previous report, Netflix is planning to introduce a service by the name of “Netflix U” which allows the customers to mould their content in various different options that are mentioned on their screens. This is one of the major innovations that would also increase their viewership all over the world. This is because viewers would stream the same content all over again to peek into other options as well that would provide them more services than standard. In addition to this, interactive content could be a viable long-term strategy for the firm to stay on the top of the market for a fair share of time.
- Language Modulator: This new feature could allow Netflix to change the language of their content in real time as per the language of viewer's region which would allow them to hear the content as per their regional language. Another add on feature could be to allow the customer to tap a certain word on the subtitles and get its meaning instantly. All these features would allow the firm to penetrate deeper markets effectively till 2020 and after that. With rise in Artificial Intelligence, this innovation would help the firm remove the language boundaries for its customers in case their first language is not English. Moreover, in this manner, the firm could produce its content in various other languages and on more geographical locations which would be beneficial for its long term growth in the market.
Task 3
Future Innovation Capabilities of Netflix
It is crucial for Netflix to innovate its content, services and processes to ensure that it sustains in the market and increases the level of services for the customers. With increase in competition, it is imperative that Netflix Inc. keep innovating its services to provide better customer experience and ensure their long term commitment towards the firm and its offerings. As for Netflix, a road map would help the firm in clearly estimate its innovation capabilities effectively. Netflix's road map is briefly discussed below which would help the firm in implementing this change in their organisation:
- Suggestion: Change is imperative and inevitable for future growth of a company. Out of the mentioned innovations, the one which truly convey Netflix's innovation capabilities would be Language Modulator.
- Reason: The reason behind opting this change would be that such feature would help the firm in gaining customer attraction and their experiences could be enhanced more effectively. Moreover, this change would allow the firm to utilise technology in a more advanced and useful manner which would be better for the company in long run.
- Impact: Every change, whether its small or big, affects the organisation and its operations. Language Modulator too would affect the company's working in various departments and aspects which are discussed as under:
- R&D: The major impact of any change is experienced on the R&D department of any organisation. Netflix's R&D, for this innovation, will have to perform extensive research of various regional and national languages that are immensely used and followed by large number of individuals. Moreover, they are also required to search the resources, technology and methods by which this feature could be developed and implemented in a successful manner.
- Technical Skills: To develop any feature, it is essential that effective technical skills be possessed by organisation's employees. To develop a feature like Language Modulator which requires real-time interface, the employees that the firm would hire for the project must possess effective knowledge about software like espeak, which is an effective speech synthesizer software used to convert languages (…). Along with this, the employees must be well affiliated with Artificial Intelligence and other management and scientific skills too.
- Resources: Where standard production is concerned, there is limited or no effect on the resources. However, during change in the organisation, the material and resources that are required have a wide impact of the innovation. For Language Modulator, the firm must have complete access to multiple languages along with various technologies like AI that could effectively govern the process and correct interpretation of the languages by the modulator.
- Legal Compliance: There are various legislations for a project that must be considered by Netflix to develop Language Modulator. For instance, the firm must comply with the Employment Legislations which would allow it to retain and fully utilise the human resources for this project without violating their rights. Another legal aspects during this process must be to protect the intellectual property. The best way to achieve that is to acquire a patent and copyright of this feature which would allow it to protect its real-time Language Modulator from any sort of online theft or infringement.
- Cost: Any change in the organisation is subjected to some sort of changes in cost and budget which fulfils the financial requirement of the innovation. Language modulator too would impact the cost that is required to be generated by the company. This is described below:
Expenses |
Amount |
Research & Development |
15500 |
Materials |
336000 |
Marketing |
19000 |
Advertising |
23000 |
Human Resources |
27000 |
Total |
420500 |
As per the above estimate, US$420,500 would be required by Netflix to develop, market and implement Language Modulator in the market. The investment made by Netflix on this project would undertake all the major aspects where the main focus would be on the materials required to develop this modulator. A total cost of US$336,000 includes the equipments, technology and various software which would be purchased by Netflix to effectively complete this project within due period. Moreover, standard methods of marketing and advertising would be used which would cost the firm approximately US$19,000 and US$23,000 respectively.
- Feasibility: After Netflix determines the cost of the project, the next step would require the firm to analyse how feasible Language Modulator is for the firm. It is a necessary step of the road map which helps the firm in determining the overall impact of the change in the organisation as well as estimation of its return. Feasibility of Language Modulator in Netflix would be judged on three factors mentioned below:
- Technological: One of the most important factors upon which the firm would determine the feasibility of this project is how technologically feasible it is to the firm. Artificial Intelligence along with software for language synthesising would be used which could effectively be developed as well as purchased by the firm. As per the customers are concerned, real time technologically would provide them
- Operational
- Economical
- Approval:- Once all the factors has been analysed and information collected, next step is to take approval from the board of directors in order to implement the plan. As they are the key person of organisation and decision are taken by mutual concern. Therefore for taking approval Netflix is required to arrange formal meeting for board of directors in order to present this innovational plan of “Language Modulator” in front of them and taking their approval regarding further process. In addition to this, after taking approval from board of directors Netflix have to take approval from government also. As it is planning to add a new feature of multi language modulator which requires the acceptance of government before working over this project and commercialising it.
- Application:- After getting the plan approved from board of directors and government as well, next task is to step ahead and implement the plan into action. For this Netflix should arrange all the required resources that are being identified in previous steps which includes hiring the technical staff, purchasing of equipments and software. So the innovational plan can be implemented effectively.
- Review of Change:- After innovational plan has been processed the next step in road map is to review the outcome of work done under this plan. This is most essential factor as it evaluate the final outcome of plan to determine whether the new innovation will be successful after commercialisation or not. For reviewing this innovational plan a mock test will be conducted by the technical expertise team where the final software assessed. This help in determine that whether the innovational implementation is successful or require some modification before final launch. This test also help in identifying the reliability and sustainability of project when it went for final launch.
Conclusion
From the above given information it can be summarized that innovation plays a significant role within the success or sustainability of a company at marketplace. As by bringing regular innovation in current product will help company in maintaining its market share and loyal customers which in turn will help them in achieving competitive advantage over rivals. Entertainment industry is a growing industry which regularly experience new innovation done by key market player for improving the current services and experience of customers. Hence the competition is relatively higher which requires companies belong to entertainment industry regular innovate their process or services for maintaining their market share. The future of this sector is very bright as it is growing continuously and various other innovations are expected to be experiences in near by future. These are …
But in order to implement these innovational effectively companies must use road map which provide the step by step execution of innovational plan which provide the positive outcome when being commercialised at marketplace. Road map help in selecting the valid option for implementing innovation then determining the changes required to implement in organisation for performing the operations toward implement of innovation.