Innovation

This assignment aims at the concept of innovation, its importance as compare to invention, types and 4Ps of innovation with its uses etc. Process required to commercialise innovation and evaluation of range of methods for protecting ideas and their advantages and disadvantages have also been covered under this report.

TASK 1

P1 Innovation and its importance to organisation as compare to invention

Overview of the organisation: Airdri Ltd. is a manufacturing company which is currently operating its business in UK and manufactures hand dryers. The organisation was established in year 1974 by Mr Peter Philipps with a fellow engineer Peter Allen. All the operational, marketing, supply chain and other activities are appropriately managed by the organisation.

Innovation: It can be defined as an idea that helps the organisations to make modifications in existing products according to customer's requirements. It is very beneficial for business enterprises because it results in the attraction of large number of individuals who are willing to buy innovative products.

Invention: The process of creating a new idea which have not yet been introduced by any other company is known as invention. It helps the organisations to launch a product in the market for the first time. Customers will get attracted towards the products that are new and also creates an urge for them to try a new item (Bain and Kleinknecht, 2016).

Innovation and invention both are very important for the Airdri Ltd. as it can help to achieve organisation goals such as profit maximisation and customer satisfaction. Both of them are also important for the employees. It can be understood from below comparison:

P2 The way in which organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation

Innovation is a process that guides organisations to make changes in their current products so that customer's expectations can be met in order to successfully operate the business. While launching innovative products in the market top executives of Airdri Ltd. needs to focus of following points as it can help to shape innovation and commercialisation:

Vision: While planning for an innovation the managers needs to communicate organisation's vision to the employees in order to enhance their work quality by giving importance to them. Vision of Airdri Ltd. is to offer good products to the customers so that their satisfaction level can be enhanced and large market area can be captured. If the work force is having appropriate information of future objectives then they will work with more involvement and also contribute in shaping of innovation and commercialisation (DiMasi, Grabowski and Hansen, 2016).

Leadership: Leaders of Airdri Ltd. are responsible to motivate all the subordinates in order to enhance their work quality and engagement in job responsibilities. If they take advice from the employees, then workers will get motivated and also work more effectively in order to achieve all the goals that are set by the organisation. Democratic leadership style is followed in Airdri Ltd. that helps to increase employee's involvement so that innovation and commercialisation can be launched successfully.

Culture: In Airdri Ltd. task culture is followed in which teams are formulated to find solutions for organisation's problems. It helps to shape innovation and commercialisation because the skilled employees will find appropriate ways to launch new product in effective manner.

Teamwork: This element is also very important for Airdri Ltd. to successfully launch innovative products in the market because if the employees are working in teams and supporting each other then it will result in attainment of business objectives. It will also help to shape innovation and commercialisation of the company (Dodgson, 2018).

All the above described elements needed to be focused by the managers and other executives of Airdri Ltd. because all of them can help to shape innovation and commercialisation.

M1 Different sources of innovation used by Airdri Ltd.

There are various sources of innovation that can help to find best way to launch an innovative product. All the sources that can be adopted by managers of Airdri Ltd. are described below:

New knowledge: Time changes and with it technology also get modified and the companies like Airdri are required to launch innovative products to meet technological knowledge of customers. When it enhances the demand and expectations of individuals get increased and they search for new innovations that may satisfy them (Sources of innovation, 2012).

Changes in perception and demand of customers: When customer's preferences and needs changes then companies plan for innovation because it can help to retain them. When one demand of consumers is fulfilled then another take place hence companies are required to modify their products according to customer's perception.

D1 Analysis of the way in which innovation is developed, embedded and measured in the organisation

In Airdri Ltd. innovation is developed, embedded and measured in appropriate manner. The managers always try to analyse the market changes so that modifications in existing products can be made. In Airdri Ltd top executives always try to find best ways to launch innovative products in the market so that it can achieve all the future objectives that are customer satisfaction, sales and profit maximisation. When needs and demands of individuals changes with time the company conduct appropriate research so that actual requirements of them can be identified. After all these steps Airdri make changes in its products and launch new items in market that customers are willing to buy.

TASK 2

P3 4Ps of innovation and the use of innovation funnel to examine and shape ideas

4Ps of innovation: It is also known as innovation mix which is a combination of four different types of elements. These are process, position, paradigm and product (4Ps of Innovation, 2015). It helps to identify the ways in which appropriate ideas can be made in order to improve innovation process. A description of all these components is as follows:

• Product: It is the first element of innovation mix that guides the companies to make innovations in the products. Airdri Ltd. can launch a new product in the market by making modification in its existing products so that large number of customers can be attracted toward the company.
• Process: This component helps to modify the process in which products are manufactured by the company. It is the procedure of changing the method which is used to create the hand dryers by Airdri Ltd. This type of innovation is can help the organisation to enhance sales by using innovative techniques in manufacturing process.
• Position: When a new product is launch by a company like Airdri Ltd. Then it is also very important to use a new method of promotion. It will help to target large number of customers so that they may get aware of the innovative product. Position innovation guides the companies to make modification in the method of marketing and promotions for new products (Drucker, 2014).
• Paradigm: It is the last element of innovation mix that guides the companies to make innovation in basic activities that are performed by them. Airdri Ltd. may also use this components while launching a new innovative product in the market. It includes the way in which products are sold, services are delivered etc.

Innovation funnel: It is the process of making innovation in an appropriate manner. It can be used by Airdri Ltd. to launch new products in the market (Innovation funnel, 2016). There are three different steps of this funnel all of them are as follows:

• Investigations: In this step a research is conducted by Airdri Ltd. and customer's needs are identified. It helps to analyse the ways that may guide to make appropriate changes in existing products of the organisation.
• Development: When appropriate data in being collected than changes are made in the products. Airdri manufactures new items that customers are willing to buy in order to meet their expectations (Fang, Tian and Tice, 2014).
• Shipping products:This is the last step of the funnel in which products are shipped to the market for sale.

P4 Developments in frugal innovation and examples of its uses

Frugal innovation: It can be defined as the process of removing and decreasing complexities and cost of production of existing products so that large number of customers can be attracted towards the company. It can be adopted by Airdri Ltd as it can help to reduce the cost and increase the profits by attracting large number of individuals. For example, Airdri Ltd can use it launch new supersonic hand dryers by reducing cost of producing and removing some old unessential features in existing dryers. It will help to capture large market area and increment in profits. There are six different principles of frugal innovation all of them are as follows:

Find opportunity in adversity: It directs the organisations to find best in worst situation so that marvellous opportunities can be identified (Principles of frugal innovation,2015).

Do more with less: According to this principle the companies should use limited resources and then find good ways to launch innovative products at low price.

Think and act flexibly: It guides companies to remove rigidity and be improvisational so that complexities in manufacturing process can be removed.

Keep it simple: Organisations should use easy methods for innovation because complexities may cause issues like reduction in customer interest.

Include the customers in decisions: It guides the business entities to include customers in decision making process so that a good image can be set in their minds.

Follow your heart: According to this principles the enterprises should be passionate about their goals and also follow the same (Lee, Kao and Yang, 2014).

M2 Analysis and application of innovation funnel in an organisational context

Innovation funnel is the combination of three different elements that are investigation, development and shipping. All of them are used by Airdri Ltd. in order to launch new innovative products in the market. First of all, a market research is conducted to gather market data and information of customer's taste. After this step changes are made accordingly and at last products are shipped to the market for sale.

M3 Evaluation of the role of frugal innovation in an organisational context

Frugal innovation is very beneficial for Airdri Ltd. and other companies because it helps to reduce complexities and cost of production. When the company is manufacturing products with less cost than price of such products will also be low. It will result positively for the company because customers will get attracted toward such products that are new and have less price. It will be very beneficial for the company and also increase its profits and sales for future.

TASK 3

P5. The importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation.

Commercial funnel: it refers to the buying process that company leads to the customers through when purchasing products or services. A sales funnel can be described through following steps:

Attentiveness phases: it create more awareness for existence of a solution. .

Interest phase: It create more interest by conducting product research.

Evaluation phase: Examine the competitive situation.

Decision phase: Final decision is taken toward research.

Purchase phase: Purchase is made.

Repurchase phase: Purchase is made again by the consumers.

There are three segments of funnel. First one is marketing funnel, second is sales funnel, and last one is customer funnel (Reij and Waters-Bayer, 2014). The detail explanation of these segments are as follows:

Marketing funnel segment: Airdri Ltd. use that segment by the help of its marketing team to converting prospects into leads. It is very helpful to force them into sales funnel.

Sales funnel segment: It is the segment which is totally hold by the sales staff. These staffs are responsible for the closing of business operations. The main motive of that segment is to encourage people to make a purchase.

Customer funnel segment: It is totally managed by the service and support staffs. These staffs working for retaining the customers. And managing the repeating orders (Union, 2014).

Importance of commercial funnel:

Sales funnel or commercial funnel is important for attracting new customers and to convert them. Without a proper guidance and a directive path consumer can't be converted. A massive opportunity will be missing out without a proper tracking. There are also various benefits to reviewing the sales funnel on quarterly basis such as focus on enquiries, adjustment requirement, analysing new business opportunities. Airdri Ltd. Used the sales funnel process very effectively to promote its businesses activities.

Application of new product development process: New product development follows some specific steps. It means to develop a new innovation with an advance characteristic than the existing product. Airdri Ltd. Launches its new innovation in market as supersonic hand dryer. The features of that dryer distinct from the existing products of company. The process is as follows :

Idea generation: Ideas may be in various forms and comes from different ways. Airdri Ltd. Use the following steps to generate new ideas.

• Internal sources: The company get innovative ideas from their internal employees then it is called as from internal sources.
• Swot analysis: Analysing the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats .

Market research, competition and customers are also included in that stage. These factors are also very helpful at that phase/step (Urabe, Child and Kagono, 2018).

Idea screening: Ideas generated in large numbers but only few from these are good. So that stages involves the finding of feasible idea for launching new type of hand dryer.

Concept developing and testing: it is a detailed strategies and developed phase of idea. Airdri Ltd. Also use that concept for better development of its new product. It introduces its supersonic hand dryer to some of selected customer. After testing the results get feedbacks for further development.

Business strategy analysis & Development: After finalizing the concept it develops the marketing branding and some other strategies. Such as competition of the product,cost included, pricing points, break even stages.

Product development: All the branded and pricing strategies are applied at this stage to promote the product in market scenario.

Further test marketing and commercialization is also performed by the company for its new product development.

P6. An innovation business case for Airdri Ltd.

The following steps are followed to build an innovation business case for the Airdri Ltd.

Summary: The company wants to launch its new product so it has to follow some specific steps. By launching its new supersonic hand dryer, it want to increase its market share and brand value. The Airdri Ltd. is a dryer manufacturer company.

For succeeding in prospective field it adopts various strategies and a specific process of new product development.

Objectives: Airdri Ltd. sets its objective to achieve the market share by 20% and maximizes its profit by 50% than existing profit level with the help of introducing new product.

Solutions: The company faces many problems in existing products. The hand dryers introduced by the co. previously in the market was not much effective. The customer’s complaint about the service rendered by the product and quality of the product. So by introducing new supersonic hand dryer it wants to rebuilt its brand name and try to remove complains of customers.

Innovation in product: It means developing a new product. By the help of various phases of new product development, the Airdri Ltd. innovate a new supersonic hand dryer with better features than the existing product (Vermesan, O. and Friess, P. eds., 2014).

Research: This includes the market research which help in developing new product. By conducting the market research requirement and customer’s preferences can be measured. The market situation also be analysed with the help of marketing research strategies.

Funding: It includes the various sources of funds which will be require to full fill the demand of funds during whole operations. Airdri Ltd requires following funds for new product development (Voorberg, Bekkers and Tummers, 2015).

Source of funds: Above mentioned funds are required to produce the 1000 units of supersonic hand dryer. The company can acquire a loan from bank to fulfil the requirement. It may sell its oldest assets which is not useful now in the business operations. It may use the personal finance for funding. And some other modes also available to source the funding in business operations. Venture capital also be used as source of funds. Angels investors are also a big factor for funding in companies. Business incubators also plays a vital role in developing new businesses. These invites future businesses to share their premises. And most important factor is Govt.

it provides various grants and subsidies for new innovations and business development. The Canada businesses network website provides a list of various Govt. programmes. Customers and suppliers also plays a vital role in funding the new product development activity. Leasing and crowdfunding also helps in financing small size business activities (Wolin, 2016).

Benefits: The new hand dryers will be very beneficial for the company because it will result in enhanced customers interest.

M4. A detailed Innovation Business Case which includes how to measure its overall effectiveness using appropriate techniques available to test, iterate and improve.

The Airdri Ltd uses various tools and techniques to new product development. Its main objective of new innovation is to build its brand image and to expand its market share and maximize the profit level. For that it introduced a supersonic hand dryer which have distinct feature than the existing product. It have to attract more and more customers. Company faces a lot of problems / hurdles but it overcome from those with the help of various techniques. It achieve its setted objective with its new innovation in product.

TASK 4

P7.Different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property.

It refers to the trademarks, copyright and patents which assign the right to a person for a specific period to use over a product as monopoly. There are various tools and techniques to protect the intellectual property. The key IP tools are as follows:

Copyrights: it refers to a legal right which grants the exclusive rights to creator of original work. It also provides the conditions under which that work may be used by the others and for what extent of time. This is normally provided for a limited time period. Airdri Ltd can use that right by acquiring the copyright against its new supersonic hand dryer.

Trademarks: It is a particular sign or expression which recognize the product differentially from others. Airdri use that tool for built its unique identification for the product supersonic hand dryer.

Design rights: It refers to the rights which are assigned exclusively for a specific visual appearance. Or a specific design layout. Airdri Ltd use that type of protection tool by registering its design of new product supersonic hand dryer.

Patents: it refers to the right of excluding others from creating, selling, using and importing the same product. Airdri can use it for protecting its new invented product supersonic hand dryer.

Above described are the various tools of protecting intellectual property . These also clarify that how these important for the company.

M5.Evaluation of these different tools in the context of the wider business environment.

The above described various tools to protect intellectual property are only useful according to environmental situations. If these are adopted in wider environment then these will not work so before adapting that the Airdri Ltd make sure the area of potential environment. And apart from that, make sure that what type of tool be acquired and what suits the structure of organization perfectly. Because wider environment have large problems. These techniques are not much useful for the large size business firms.

D2 The nature of innovation and the context in which it is developed

The Airdri group was first founded in UK. These later decided to innovate a new product which involve various features more than the existing one. Its main motive to build its brand image and removal of customer complaints. It follows the various phases of a new product development. Its main objective is to obtain market shares and maximizes its profit than existing level. Then it uses various ways to protect its process of new product invented. It faces lot of problems but it achieve its objective at last in a wider sense and create the brand position and name too.

Conclusion

From the above project report it can be concluded that the innovation refers to the generation and adoption of a new idea. These ideas are used to remove the errors of existing product by developing new product with advanced features. New product development is possible only with the specific process. And apart from that, it faces various challenges and problems. The risk regarding intellectual property rights also associated with the innovation. Every organization must consider the protection of intellectual property right while innovating a new product. And with the passing of time the innovation become essential for surviving in market.

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References

• Anderson, N., Potočnik, K. and Zhou, J., 2014. Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework.Journal of management. 40(5). pp.1297-1333.
• Bain, D. and Kleinknecht, A. eds., 2016.New concepts in innovation output measurement. Springer.
• DiMasi, J. A., Grabowski, H. G. and Hansen, R. W., 2016. Innovation in the pharmaceutical industry: new estimates of R&D costs.Journal of health economics. 47. pp.20-33.
• Dodgson, M., 2018.Technological collaboration in industry: strategy, policy and internationalization in innovation. Routledge.
• Drucker, P., 2014.Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
• Fang, V. W., Tian, X. and Tice, S., 2014. Does stock liquidity enhance or impede firm innovation?.The Journal of Finance. 69(5). pp.2085-2125.
• Lee, J., Kao, H. A. and Yang, S., 2014. Service innovation and smart analytics for industry 4.0 and big data environment.Procedia Cirp. 16. pp.3-8.
• Reij, C. and Waters-Bayer, A., 2014.Farmer innovation in Africa: a source of inspiration for agricultural development. Routledge.
• Union, I., 2014.Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels.

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