Business Innovation and Commercialization: A Comprehensive Guide

This comprehensive guide explores the concepts of innovation and commercialization, examining their importance in today's competitive business landscape. It delves into the 4Ps of innovation, the innovation funnel, and frugal innovation, providing practical examples and insights. The guide also discusses the commercial funnel, new product development (NPD) processes, and the importance of protecting intellectual property. It concludes with a step-by-step approach to building an innovative business case and securing funding.

Business Innovation and Commercialization

Table of Content

Introduction
Innovation is the process where one person needs to translate their knowledge into
growth to the company that includes creativity, ideas, practical process etc. It includes a
series of organizational, technological, financial, scientific and commercial activities. It
also includes the process where new and improved ideas are developed and take into
marketplace for the growth of the company. The most important thing is the successful
implementation of the ideas in a way that it will benefit the company.
When it comes to commercialization, it is the process where new product or service has
been introduced in the market with full force so that the product or service will be a
successful one. The process of commercialization is starts from initial introduction of the
product and ends in adoption and mass production. After that, it will make the further
production, marketing, distribution, sales and customer support that is necessary for
commercial success.
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LO 1
P 1: Explain innovation and determine its importance to organization in
comparison with invention (460 words)
Every business in today’s scenario is aimed at gaining profits. The market is becoming
very competitive with every passing day. Innovation and invention are vital points in
which a business can be expanded. Organizations can belong to different domains such
as technological, humanitarian, goods, services and research. The attitude of every
business should be to be involved in innovation and invention (Molnar, 2018).The focus
of every organization should be in the minds of the customers. The business
organization should have a clear idea of what the demands of the customers are.
Innovation, invention and creativity are three different aspects. Every organization
needs to grow with the help of innovation and invention (Wonglimpiyarat, 2016)
Innovation
Everything in business is held together with innovation. Business is nothing but the
ways in which successful ideas are exploited in a business domain. Innovation can be
defined as the ways in which invention are altered so that it can be used in large-scale
and commercialized. Innovation involves creation of bold ideas, which should be
properly developed. All the innovations done should catch the attention of the public so
that it gets promotion. The products developed should benefit the public (Dutta and
Folta, 2016). Invention includes widespread marketing plans and business plans. Mr.
Green who is the owner of the company named ‘Healthy Juice’ should use expansion
plans to increase his business. He should venture into the smoothie sector as the
market demands to do so. The juices produced by his company can be milk based. In
this way, he can incorporate the juice factor, which will have the milk component as
well.
Invention
The physical invention of a new concept or idea is known as invention. An invention is
something without verifications (Hausman and Johnston, 2014) Inventions are not

verified or tested. These are just ideas. Inventions include business models, product
designs and business models that work. The ideas created in the creativity sector gets
used in the invention stage. Mr. Green in this company should concentrate on the
innovation phase rather than the invention phase. All the juices he has in his company
needs innovation so that the demands of the market can be reached (Singh, 2017). The
company of Mr. Green is into manufacturing of juices, which are water based. However,
the need of the market is to have drinks, which are milk based. Mr. Green wants to
expand his business. Healthy Drinks organization use innovation their juices in such a
way that the drinks manufactured by them are milk-based juices.
The company intends to produce different flavours in their new milk-based juice so the
target gets a variety and choose as per their choices. When one customer drinks one
flavour, he or she has the tendency to try the other flavours as well. This increases the
sales, which in turn increases the profit margin for the company. The market share also
is increased in this way.
P 2: Explain how organizational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can
shape innovation and commercialization
Every organization is set on some visions. All the visions are set so that the target can
be reached and the customers get satisfaction. Some factors shape the
commercialization and innovation of the organization. Organizational vision, teamwork,
culture and leadership shape commercialization and innovation. All the employees in a
company have to be guided with some rules and regulations so that the target can be
reached easily (Hossain, 2015) Teamwork is very important. All the members in a team
have to work hand in hand so that no one faces a problem, and the outcome of that
team is positive and fruitful. The factor that shapes the commercialization and
innovation are given below:
Organizational Vision
All the organization from its initial days has some kinds of vision to follow. All the rules
and regulations followed in the company are jotted down according to the vision. The
products that are produced from a certain organization are also derived from that vision

(Lehtimäki, 2017) Organizational vision shapes the innovation that the company is
pondering upon. Mr. Green had the vision that he is going to produce juices from his
company ‘Health Drinks’. As the market demanded smoothies, the company has to
cater to the new needs. Mr. Green does not want to compromise on his vision. He can
come up with juices, which are milk based. The commercialization aspect can be
reached by manufacturing milk-based juices of different flavours.
Teamwork
Innovations can be shaped by successful teamwork. All the employees should give in
their individual set of ideas so that innovation can be done easily. The employees
working in a particular team should give in their ideas so that the best ideas can be
collected and worked upon. The team members can give in ideas regarding how to
commercialize a certain product. Different ideas of promotion can be tried to maximise
promotion. Successful promotion means the product is grabbing the attention of the
customers in large-scale.
Mr. Green should involve all the employees of his organization so that he can get more
ideas on how to make his juices different in the market. Some employees can give in
different ideas so that drinks from ‘Healthy Drink’ catches the attention of the customers.
Culture
Every organization is set on some cultures. The cultural values of the company are set
before hand. Some specified products are manufactured by a single organization. After
some time, the company might come up with different ideas and innovation. The core
idea and culture of the company remains constant.
The organization ‘Healthy Drinks’ has the culture of manufacturing juices which are
water based. Companies do not want to shift from their culture. An innovation, which
can be achieved by Mr. Green, is that he can manufacture juices, which are milk based.
In this way, he can grab the opportunities that are prevailing in the market.

Leadership
In every organization, leadership is very vital to commercialization and innovation. All
the innovations made should be guided in the right direction. When the innovations
made, are not guided in the right direction, they do not bear any positive results. The
management has to shape the innovations made in the organization. After the
management approves the innovations, they can be commercialized.
In the organization, Healthy Drink, Mr. Green should have a vital role to play in the
innovation part. When the company is set for some kinds of innovation and
commercialization, the leadership has to come from the management. Mr. Green has to
approve the innovations suggested so that it is surfaced in reality. Mr. Green should
head the innovation of having a milk-based juice.

LO 2
P3 Explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to
examine and shape innovative ideas.
John Bessant and Joe Tidd developed the 4P's of innovation, also known as the
innovation mix to understand how the process of innovation can benefit business. The
4P's namely refer to 'product', 'process', 'position' and 'paradigm'.
 Product : A small change in the final product or service that is offered to the
customers ,or can have a huge impact on the business (Hausman, et al,2014). Taking
into account Mr. Green's company, which deals with health juices, improvement of the
nutritional content of the juice, or work on increasing its shelf life or improving its
packaging material which will have a huge positive impact on his business.
 Process : This involves alterations in ways in which products are manufactured or
delivered. In context of the above case mentioned, Mr. Green might device a
manufacturing process that involves a lower cost or a higher speed of production. Also
cutting down on the number of labours which would further cut down the total cost of
production.
 Position :Position is more of a psychological concept, and mainly involves the
customers perception about the company (Hora, M., 2016). Taking into account the
business scenario in the recent times, position is one of the most important factors which
determines the success or profits of a company. Advertising the health juices, a
decreased price along with improved quality of the finished products will leave Mr.
Green with satisfied customers and a much elevated position in the market.
 Paradigm : This mainly involves alteration in ways certain tasks are being done in the
company. For example Mr. Green might think of selling the health juices on-line instead
of just selling them off from the counter. This will not only be more profitable, but will
also allow him to reach the global market.

A concept that is used to describe the various steps involved in the development
of a process or product is referred to as an 'innovation funnel'. Similar to a real
life funnel ,the innovation funnel also has the shape of an inverted pyramid.
There are three major steps involved in the development of an innovation funnel.
 The first step involves focusing on the wide mouth of the funnel: The main
of the company at this stage is to do a lot of background reasearch, gather a lot

of information and ideas and thus increase its knowledge and design it
propaganda
 The second step involves focusing on the narrowing segment of the funnel
: Screening of the ideas and propagandas are the key in this step. This involves
the matching of the propagandas designed with the ultimate goals of the
company (Chun, D. et al, 2015).
 The third step involves the narrow segment of the funnel : At this stage the
company finally ensures that the ideas framed are able to have a positive impact
on the company. At this stage the new product is ready to be marketed.
P 4: Explain developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is
used in an organisational context
Frugal innovations involve the reciprocation of businesses to various constraints such
as financial, institutional ,raw material or man power. In today's rapidly growing market,
frugal innovation is the need of the century. The high levels of financial and
environmental limitations in both developed and developing companies calls for the
development of frugal innovations.
Development of frugal innovations take place in 4 major steps:
 Frugal innovations identification : This involves a thorough investigation and
documentation of the frugal innovations that are found in the various websites and
journals.
 Identification of the problems : This includes identification, investigation and
documentation of the various problems related due to frugal innovation in industrialised
countries (Freeman, R.H., 2014).
 Inferring of patterns : This involves the development of solutions to the identified
problems and thereby creating a pattern catalogue based on the identified problems and
the corresponding solutions

 Inferring the pattern system: This correlates the frugal innovation patterns with the
problems and solutions which results in a multiple domain matrix (Dutta, S. and Folta,
T.B., 2016)
Taking into account the above case study, Mr. Green might be having a lot of existing
compettitors which might act as his constraints and result in the need of a frugal
innovation. So with the identification of this problem, the company should manufacture
juices of different flavours varying nutritional contents to compete successfully in the
global market and make its mark in the global economy.
LO 3
P 5: Explain the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of new
product development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation.
A commercial funnel as the name suggests is a visual metaphor, which is a concept
used to explain the course taken by a potential customer to become an actual customer
(Molnar, A., 2018). Just like a real life funnel, a commercial funnel also has the shape of
a inverted pyramid, where the top of the funnel denotes the top of the funnel denotes
potential customers and the bottom denotes the actual customers.
The commercial funnel has three main steps
 Phase of investigation : This phase is a representation of the wide mouth of the funnel,
where the companies design the propagandas and ideas that might be beneficial for the
company (Kolychev et al, 2015). On completion of this step, the employees proceed to
explore the different innovational processes, such as improving nutritional quality of the
juice,taste and shelf life of the juice.
 Phase of development : In this phase the innovative ideas that match the goals of the
company are extracted and brought down to paper (Singh, B.K., 2017). At this stage if
the innovators find that the idea of having different kinds of juices with varying nutritional
contents is feasible, this might proceed with this idea.
 Phase of skipping : This phase is represented by the narrow end of the funnel and it is
the final phase where the feasible ideas are implemented which will actually bring about
a positive impact on the company

LO3: Discuss the process required to commercialize innovation.
P6: Build an innovation business case for an organization, including ways to
access funding.
When a business is not running smoothly then the main thing a founder should do is to
build an innovative Business case, which is very tough aspect in Innovation because
much of the information is not perfect so identifying new innovation can really be hard
for a founder.
Mr. Green have really a tough task to reduce many uncertainties as business case have
clear methodical process and it begins with the argument in a structured process. As
many cases are based on emotion but one should also look the perspective that it will
work in a field or not. Actually good business ideas are killed only because Business
case was not that much innovative. So what a founder is need to build a good and
innovative business case by doing clear discussion but also try to make sure that the
case should qualify and quantify as best as it can (Lehtimaki, 2017)
While working on Innovation the founder should also remember that for this Business
case he can gather funding through stakeholders and investors in a large amount which
will further help him to invest in the team and in the research and development
activities.
Actually, the founder has different works to do and he can also miss the main and vital
steps and can forget the core part, which all stakeholders suggested to do. So a founder

need to make a team of young officials who have bunch of ideas and start the project
taking different approaches with clear systematic model that the team should go
through. And the most important thing is transparency by which the Business case will
have an approach. So it gives everyone in the team to justify and rectify the business
case. So by this step by step process we need to build a comprehensive business case
building technique and this technique will help in creating and maintaining a innovative
business case that provides all the investors the information with more consistency and
transparency (Chun et al., 2015).
Some important criteria a Business case should include in its proposals:
 All the team members have different creativity tools but they should make a
structure and also should follow that. Actually at the beginning everyone should
focus on new ideas and think about innovation. So in the early stage there will be
full of open questions which a founder need to work hard and try to answer as
best as it can.
 Then the team should move to build the case preparation in which they should
analyze the cost and benefit analysis where we can address and they should
also clarify the opportunity for the customers’ needs which is still unmet as of
now and clarify where the problem is happening.
 The next factor is to look the competitors and their model of business and their
policies on which they are working to attract customers.
 Finally select the best available factors from the team to make the best selling
proposition and the resources which is needed in future to capture the market.
So moving from this and complete the process is simply one of the hardest process
which include a high amount of risk that the case will succeed or not but making the
best case in a well maintain process will give full opportunity for realization and
identification that some changes should me made or not.
LO4 Evaluate the range of methods for protecting ideas and understand their
advantages and disadvantages.

P7: Evaluate the different tools that Mr. Green can use to develop, retain and
protect knowledge and intellectual property.
At first we need to understand what is exactly Intellectual Property and how to protect
it, and about the tools through which Mr. Green can protect the IP are patent, copy
right, trademarks etc.
When a company is working very hard to make an innovative business case and then
apply it in the business then their should be two things which should happen either the
business case may fail or it can boom the market. So we need to protect it if it is very
useful otherwise other competitors can take your idea and make their model. So what a
company need to do is to protect Intellectual Property which is the exclusive right from
which our own creations, ideas can be secured. Here we can give our owner rights so
that it will create intellectual property. So that business can be benefitted from the
invention and will do, more invest in research and development. Intellectual property
rights(IPR) helps in the progress of new works which is running on the technology and
culture. And it can also protect the new creation which encourages the commitment of
resources which is more needed to innovate further. The IPR also helps in maintaining
a balance between the innovators and the interests of public which can provide an
environment to invent further which can benefit to all (Hora, 2015). So after looking all
the importance Mr. Green should use different tools which help him further to develop
protect and retain the IPR are:
 Patent: A patent is the right that granted an invention of a product or a process in
which a new invention is being made or it can offers an new technical solution of
a problem. IT can provide a protection for generally 20 years after their invention.
So Mr. Green should protect all his inventions through patent right as it cannot be
sold distributed and used without the patent owner’s permission. After patent
right Mr. green have the right to decide that who can use or cannot use the
invention as main license holder is the owner. So the inventions, which have
practical use in existence, can be protected (Freeman, 2015).
 Copy right: When a company is making a business model or making an
innovative case which a company wants to publish in a book or in a magazine

then he should make a copyright of that so that nobody can steal our information.
When logos have been made it should also have to copy right as it is main tool of
the company from which it is visible. One should go to European Copyright Office
for completing the copyright process. So before publishing any main document or
main article of the company it is very important to do copyright.
 Trademark: A trademark is the sign or identification of any certain goods or
services produced by a company. As we all know Mr. Green has a beverage
product which has definitely a sign and a name so he should have to trademark it
under registration and protection act. So this system helps everyone including
the consumers to identify the product with its specific quality and characteristics.
Mr. Green should follow some unique trademark so that it will be visible to all and
meet their needs. Trademark ensures that the exclusive right of the owner is
protected and can be identified by his loso and name. It also gives authority to
the company to go legally in the court as some other company is using is
trademark and can win the battle easily with the amount recovery form the
company who steal the drawings, symbols or signs like the packaging, shape
and collective marks (Hossain, 2015).

Conclusion:
People around the world is now asking for high quality and high performance product
which the companies are manufacturing but the customer needs have been diversified
and personalised. While some consumers want the innovative product but expect in a
less price and those who want product in a less price cannot get the innovative product.
So whether consumer want expensive or cheapest one it is very important for the
company to meet the consumers individual preferences. They need to be more
innovative and need to invest more in research and development because the way
generation is moving and everything is changing rapidly over time so a company needs
to pay attention to this to meet customer needs and satisfaction.

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