Business Case Report for Commercialisation: Innovation and Commercialization

This report highlights the practices of innovation and commercialization via the UK start up company “The Small Robot Company”. It includes the importance of commercial funnel, new product development funnel, ways to access funding, and tools to develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property.

INNOVATION AND
COMMERCIALIOZATION
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Importance of commercial funnel and the application of new product development (NPD)
processing for commercialisation of innovation....................................................................1
Build an Innovation Business Case for an organisation, including ways to access funding..2
Evaluate the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
References:.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
In the contemporary business world there is extensive competition, uncertainty,
ambiguity and most importantly is dynamic (Reyes and et. al., 2021). To face the neck to neck
competition in the market the organisation must focus on the innovation. Innovation in engine of
the economic growth for the business to gain success. In simple terms innovation is the process
of change to deliver something unique and new to meet the expectation of the customers.
Commercialisation in the business is to maximize the return on investment done on the
innovation. This report highlights the practices of innovation and commercialization via the UK
start up company “The Small Robot Company”. The brand was founded in 2017 and is
headquartered in Salisbury, England. The company is the UK robotics start up that serve farmers
and planters with automated machines to yield their cropping. The report will develop a business
case for the new innovation of the business by using the advanced artificial technology in their
automated machines. The report will revolve around the nature of innovation and
commercialisation and new product development funnel. This also includes the different
methods of funding. Further report will throw light on advantages and disadvantages of tools to
protect knowledge of innovation.
MAIN BODY
Importance of commercial funnel and the application of new product development (NPD)
processing for commercialisation of innovation
A commercial funnel is the procedure that helps the businesses in gaining the potential
customers. A commercial funnel is the technique that provides the organisations with the
potential consumers near to the buying process in order to influence their buying decision
through different marketing actions. For the organisations to sell high range products there is tool
called commercial funnel used that has three categories sales, marketing and services. In case of
Small Robots Company commercial funnel is used to demonstrate visual customer journey that
will present the consumers sales process that starts awareness of the product among farmers to
their final decision of purchase (Sutopo, Astuti and Suryandari, 2019). The importance of
commercial funnel in case of Small Robots Company is discussed below:
1

 Commercial funnel is significant for the Small Robots Company to select the best and
suitable marketing strategy.
 This technique is useful to Small Robots Company to understand the farmer needs and how
to relate with the farmers. Therefore, company has service in which farmers design their
own robots.
 Through this technique the company is able to receive the valuable feedback from the
customers regarding the functioning of robots this also help in gaining new ideas.
In order to attain the optimal success of the innovation of new product the company must
undergo structural roadmap of the new Product, this roadmap is process called new product
development. This is the cycle of 8 stages to develop and commercialize the new product as per
the market and customer demand. Companies like Small Robots Company invest into NDP not
just for sake of profit but also for their market survival in the dynamic competitive environment.
New product development process of the Small Robot Company is discussed below:
Idea generation: it is the first and initial stage where using the frugal innovation technique all
the problem statements and different possible information is collected. This stage defines the
problems of the farmers of the Small Robot Company, their requirements in order to process the
idea generation for innovation of new product.
Idea screening: a stage where the different idea generated are sorted and filtered from the
bundle in order to drop weak and poor ideas. This stage is used by Small Robots Company to
sort the valuable and worth making ideas.
Concept development and tasting: third stage of NDP is all about the practical designing and
engineering of a suitable Idea selected from the stage 2 of idea screening by the engineering
department of the Small Robot Company. When the new machine is developed by the engineers
of the Small Robots Company they are provided to farmers for their testing of suitability and
compatibility as per the requirements of the Farmers (Li and et. al., 2019).
Build an Innovation Business Case for an organisation, including ways to access funding.
Business case
Development of the business case is the toughest task for the entrepreneur as it requires a
crafting of innovation into report format that must contain essential data and should be precise. A
2

good business case of Small Robot Company to discuss their innovation approach is highlighted
below:
Executive summary: A business case is the systematic and brief analysis of the business angles
which defines the growth and success rate of new innovative product or service in market. For
the growth of business a business plan must show clarity of information in every business
direction such as finance, marketing and much more (Zhou and et. al., 2019). For the investors to
decide whether to invest in a business or not it is very essential to have business case that must
demonstrate that business is adopting innovative and sustainable approach.
Company overview: a Small Robot Company is the private owned start-up company with small
number of employees. The company was established in 2017 as a developer of robotics farming
system with intention of reducing the impact of environment on farmer's crops and to increase
farms output globally. The company is the Agri-tech company that simply has new innovative
idea in field of agriculture that is small robots not big tractors.
Vision of the company: the company has vision of transforming the food production into
sustainable food production through advanced robotics technology to make farming profitable
and environmental friendly.
Problem statement: from the situation analysis it is observed that farmers have to face the issue
of damaged crops due to the environmental causes and wildlife (Campi and Dueñas, 2019). Also
it was observed that big tractors where issue to many farmers as they need huge space to store,
where not environmental friendly as well.
Innovative approach
With the advancement of technology many small entrepreneurs and engineers are bringing
new ideas and innovation to the existing products or are coming up with entire new innovative
products and services. Innovation has become the key practice to strengthen the business
sustainability and financial performance. In relation of Small Robot Company the company has
come up with the innovation in agriculture to ease the work and input of farmers and to
maximize the results (Tiedemann, Johansson and Gosling, 2020). With the NDP the Small Robot
Company has come up with application new technology artificial intelligence in its robots and
other machines. The new technology machines and robots are highly advanced in monitoring
crops and soil till roots without need of cutting the crops. The new machines also has feature to
weed the crops in order to reduce chemical usage. The artificial intelligence machines are small
3

in size, cheaper in price and also are solar charging as well to make it profitable, efficient and
environmental friendly for all the farmers across the globe. Hence, this innovative approach of
the Small Robot Company in the market of agriculture has huge potential as the farmers ease and
sustainable and productive farming is the priority of the government of UK. Also to make
feeding free of chemicals and profitable for farmers keeping the environment safe is motto of
this innovation by the Small Robots Company.
Cash Flow Statement:
Ways to access funding
In order to start the business and to gather the resources to implement innovation there is
requirement of significant fiscal investment. For this every business person needs the way to
access the source of funding for the successful start of their innovation. In context of the Small
Robots company the different source of funding are:
Crowdfunding: This is the common form of funding where the owner company can invest in the
new business innovation with it own personal saving amount (Cadeddu and et. al., 2019). The
Small Robots company can really invest in commercialisation of its innovation from crowd
funding.
Venture capitalists: The venture capitalist is considered as the most suitable source of funding as
they are meant for investing in business development and start-ups. The Small Robots company
arightly approach for the venture capitalist for their funding for the production and
commercialization of innovation of the new artificial intelligence agriculture machine.
Bank loans: Bank loans are the most popular and most adaptable source of funding by small and
large organisation at low interest rate. The Small Robots company can easily apply for the bank
4

loan for its production of new product as bank are always willing to invest in new business plan
and innovation.
Evaluate the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect knowledge
and intellectual property.
It is proposed by the business entrepreneurs that organisations use varieties of tools to
retain and protect their product and process innovation. For the organisations to have successful
innovation it is very essential to protect their product new idea from theft by the competitors.
Intellectual property rights is all about the protection of what is designed, investment of
knowledge and retain the product rights by taking legal steps (Bagheri, Chitsazan and Ebrahimi,
2019). The intellectual property rights are introduced to protect the innovators and their
innovation from stealing or copying by the other people in the same industry. These are rights
that are protected by the law that enable the person to gain fiscal benefit and brand recognition.
In context of the innovation of artificial intelligence automated devices by the Small Robot
company the intellectual property rights sets the business away from competitors and also
promotes the innovation. The company has effectively protected its innovation with these rights
which is important for the revenue system and also through this company can pursue promoting
and marketing of its products. Some key intellectual property rights are:
Trademark
Trademark is the intellectual property right that protects the name, symbol, word, design,
slogan and any other unique identity of the product or service that make it identified or
recognisable are legalized by this right. As the Small Robots is the robotics company therefore,
company protect its name and product design as the every machine or vehicles of the company is
registered under the trademark law (Wang and et. al., 2018)).
 Advantages: the trademark is a unique symbol that helps the company to differentiate its
products, innovation from the other competitors. This is beneficial for the company for
future to deal with legal issues regarding the theft of design.
 Disadvantages: the trademark does not help in protecting the whole process of
development or production.
Copyright
5

This intellectual property right is to legally protect the innovative work of the organisation.
Through this right the Small Robots Company can give others a freedom to distribute their
products at the store, reproduce the items and also make it public. For the allowance of copyright
the work must be fixed, creative and new.
Advantages: The copyright of the product can protect Small Robot Company products to be sold
in market with their brand name and also helps them in times of damages or any governmental
law barriers with availability of full attorney fees by the court (Mody, 2019).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that for the organisations to foster their growth and to
sustain in the competitive market it is very important to craft innovation. For the effective sales
and marketing of the business and its new innovation the business has effective technique of
commercial funnel. For the successful conduct of innovation the companies must undergo the
process of NPD (New Product Development) cycle. This also helps the business to
commercialize it product under right target customer segment. Thus, a business case is
mandatory to be draft so that new business product and its innovative approach can be proposed
to the investors to acquire their interest to invest in business or to gain access to their way of
funding. Thus, to protect the innovation from stealing the intellectual property rights are the best
legal assistance a business can get.
References:
Books and Journals
Bagheri, A., Chitsazan, H. and Ebrahimi, A., 2019. Crowdfunding motivations: A focus on
donors' perspectives. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146, pp.218-232.
Cadeddu, S.B and et. al., 2019. Frugal innovation and the new product development process:
insights from Indonesia. Routledge.
6

Campi, M. and Dueñas, M., 2019. Intellectual property rights, trade agreements, and
international trade. Research Policy, 48(3), pp.531-545.
Li, C and et. al., 2019. Reducing saturation‐current density to realize high‐efficiency low‐
bandgap mixed tin–lead halide perovskite solar cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 9(3),
p.1803135.
Mody, A., 2019. New international environment for intellectual property rights. In Intellectual
property rights in science, technology, and economic performance (pp. 203-239).
Routledge.
Reyes, D.R and et. al., 2021. Accelerating innovation and commercialization through
standardization of microfluidic-based medical devices. Lab on a Chip, 21(1), pp.9-21.
Sutopo, W., Astuti, R.W. and Suryandari, R.T., 2019. Accelerating a technology
commercialization; with a discussion on the relation between technology transfer
efficiency and open innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and
Complexity, 5(4), p.95.
Tiedemann, F., Johansson, E. and Gosling, J., 2020. Structuring a new product development
process portfolio using decoupling thinking. Production Planning & Control, 31(1),
pp.38-59.
Wang, N and et. al., 2018. Understanding the importance of interaction between creators and
backers in crowdfunding success. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 27,
pp.106-117.
Zhou, X and et. al., 2019. Tracing the system transformations and innovation pathways of an
emerging technology: Solid lipid nanoparticles. Technological Forecasting and Social
Change, 146, pp.785-794.
7