Innovation and Commercialisation in Burberry

This report discusses the importance of innovation and commercialisation in Burberry, a UK-based luxury fashion retailer. It explores how vision, leadership, and culture shape innovation in the organization. The report also examines the P's of innovation and the use of the innovation funnel to shape innovative ideas. Additionally, it discusses developments in frugal innovation and the application of new product development. Finally, it highlights the importance of the commercial funnel in commercialising innovation.

Innovation
and
Commercialisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 : Innovation and its importance for the organisation in comparison to invention.............3
P2 : Explanation to how vision, leadership and culture of organisation can shape innovation. .4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 : P's of innovation and use of innovation funnel to examine and shape innovative idea. .5
P4 : Developments in frugal innovation in organisational context........................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 : Importance of Commercial funnel and application of New product development ........8
P6 : Detailed Innovation Business case for the organisation.................................................9
TASK 3 .........................................................................................................................................11
P7 : Tools that can be used by the company to develop, protect, retain knowledge and
intellectual rights..................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Organisation modernise their activities and processes with the aim to get competitive
advantage. For this they keep on innovating their products, processes, serves etc. By this the
organisation means to implement better solutions so that they can meet up with the requirements
and augmented needs of the customers. The businesses thus commercialize the new products,
services or methods by making them available in the existing marketplace. An innovation is
commercialised by the organisation by going through various steps. For this report the
organisation that is taken into consideration is Burberry, which is a UK based luxury fashion
retailer. In this report various innovation undertaken by Burberry and the impact of vision,
leadership and culture on innovation is discussed. Also innovation funnel is used in the report to
examine the innovation idea along with that commercial funnel, business case are prepared for
commercialising the innovation.
TASK 1
P1 : Innovation and its importance for the organisation in comparison to invention
Overview of the organisation : Burberry is a British fashion house which offers ready to wear
outwear, fashion accessories, fragrances etc. and have been operating worldwide. They are
highly customer focused for which they destroy their unsold products in order to protect their
brand and goods from being stolen. As this stolen goods can be sold at cheaper rates which can
adversely affect the image of the company.
Innovation is the process of replicating an idea or invention on the goods, services or processes,
which will increase the benefits and value to the customers for which they pay. While Invention
is introducing any idea, product or service for the first time.
Difference between the two is given below :
Basis Innovation Invention
Concept Innovation is implementing any idea
at an economic cost.
Invention is such an idea which is to
be proven as feasible.
Skills required For innovation, marketing and
strategic skills are required as it is
concerned with implementation in
For invention a set of scientific and
technical skills are required.

existing strategies.
Concerned with Innovation is concerned with
aggregation of various activities and
products.
Invention is specific towards any
product or service.
Importance of innovation : Burberry is one such company that keep on introducing innovation
in their business as it is very important for the organisation. Innovation helps the organisation to
solve the problems easily, increases productivity, in taking competitive advantage. The Burberry
brings innovation in their business by using Big Data and Artificial Intelligence which helps their
employees to target their customers easily. This facilitates them to increase sales and satisfy their
customer. Also their marketing initiatives such as Burberry Kisses, customisation in the trench
coats, digital presence are all innovations that are implemented by Burberry helped them to boost
their sales and to best their competitors (Datta, Ailawadi and Van Heerde, 2017).
Sources of innovation : There are various sources that compels the organisation to adapt the
innovation. Such sources are unexpected changes, structure of the market, changes in
demographics and in perception of the target market etc. which affects the choice of customers.
To make their business effective the Burberry need to keep an eye on such sources that leads to
innovation.
P2 : Explanation to how vision, leadership and culture of organisation can shape innovation
For the company to be successful it is important to set the vision on the basis of
objectives they want to achieve. Managing employees is a difficult task when their is diversity in
the organisation as it has influence on culture of the organisation and this can be well managed
by the leaders. Innovation and commercialisation is such a process which involve the entire
organisation thus it can be shaped by vision, leadership and culture.
 Vision : Vision are determined on the basis of goals of the organisation, this helps the
individuals to set targets for them. Organisation integrates their operations to achieve the
goals due to which the organisation need to introduce innovation. For e.g. employees who
has to achieve their targets of sales determines various sources from where they can
attract customers. Such as employees of marketing team of Burberry suggested content to
be used while advertising which attracted a large number of customers (De Mooij, 2018.).
Vision of the company helps the employees to develop a mindset in which they are

prepared to adopt the changes which the business has to introduce in the organisation to
ensure their survival and to be focussed towards the vision of the company. This shapes
innovation as the employees integrates their vision with that of the company.
 Leadership : Leaders influences the people of the organisation to be target focussed by
motivating and training the employees. Leaders encourages the participation of the
people by taking their opinions and suggestions which shapes innovation. In Burberry,
the innovation that shaped due to leadership is that their teams are unified by way of
trainings and motivation, which helps them to give them an edge over other companies.
 Organisational culture : The culture in the organisation refers to the beliefs and the
values that an organisation posses. Leaders in the organisation always tries to manage the
control the culture to maintain peace and positivity among all the employees. Friendly
and positive culture of Burberry motivated people in the organisation to satisfy the
customers and gather data from them. Such data can be used by them to update the
customers regarding their offers and make them feel special, which improves the level of
satisfaction. The culture of the organisation motivates the employees to provides their
suggestions as they interact to the customers. On the basis of such suggestions the
company innovate their processes and products that shapes innovation in the
organisation.
This help an organisation to develop an environment of innovation as their vision are well
defined which helps them to determine the individual targets. Also the employees are encouraged
to participate in the organisation by giving their opinion which brings innovative ideas. This
helps the organisation to achieve their goals (Dincer, 2017).
TASK 2
P3 : P's of innovation and use of innovation funnel to examine and shape innovative idea
The innovation mix is a model that helps to improve the process of innovation that the
organisation wants to bring in. This create an understanding of where the organisation is and how
can they innovate their product, process, position and paradigm. The The 4 P's of innovation
are :
 Paradigm : This is concerned with the change in the process of something that is done in
the organisation or the mental modes. Such changes can be radical and it may not always

be profitable for the organisation but they need to be implemented in such a manner that
they can be made positive. This will facilitate Burberry in analysing their processes and
identifying the requirement in which the innovation can be made.
 Product : This is concerned with introducing the changes in the products and services
that are provided by the company. Innovation in the product helps the company to attract
more of customers as it will be efficient enough with the emerging trends and changes.
The Burberry can bring innovation in the designs of the products that they offer also they
can introduce new products on the basis of changing taste and preference of the
customers.
 Process : Innovation in process is considered with the alteration in the delivery and the
procedure that is being followed by the company. The Burberry brings innovation in their
process by going online and by offering deliveries to their customers (Micheli , 2012).
Improvement in the process of the company will help them to reduce the cost of the
company which will facilitate them to introduce innovation.
 Position : Position is concerned with placing the product in the market. The products so
offered by the Burberry should be available at all the stores. As they are operating
worldwide so they need to ensure availability of all their products at every geographical
locations (Innovation Space 4P’s. 2018).
Innovation Funnel to examine the idea :
Innovation funnel is the mechanism that helps in describe the steps that can be
undertaken to develop a product or process by the organisation. Also this helps to analyse the
viability of such innovation. By using this the business can develop the strategies to launch a
product which will help them to increase their market share and even to satisfy their existing
customers. Burberry can use this innovation funnel to meet the market needs by refining various
ideas through the stages of innovation funnel. The informations are collected regarding the ideas,
their screening are done and then the final option is selected. This helps the Burberry to identify
the most suitable and viable idea of innovation.
Various stages of innovation funnel that will help the Burberry in develop the products are :
Idea generation: In this step the idea is being developed by the Burberry which depends upon
their market research of the internal and external business environment. .

Concept investigation: Once the idea is generated, it is evaluated so that its viability is
identified. This can be done by taking the reviews from the customers about the idea.
Feasibility study: At this stage the profitability of idea so identified will be analysed also its
economic and technical feasibility will be analysed.
Development stage: At this stage of innovation Funnel the idea is put into action and is
converted into innovative product or service.
Post release phase: Once the product is developed then the feedbacks will be collected from the
customers on the basis of which the improvements can be made.
P4 : Developments in frugal innovation in organisational context
Frugal innovation is a concept that helps to reduce the cost of the goods produced by
reducing the complexity in the business which can be done by reducing the non essential features
from the goods. As Burberry is into business of fashion, it is important for them to provide the
products only as per the trends to maintain their customers base. Frugal innovation helps in
minimising the cost by eliminating some products or features.
For examples: The Burberry can use the frugal innovation with which they can remove their
goods which are not performing well and instead of those goods they can add on new products
which can attract customers such as wedding gowns.
Frugal innovation can be used by the Burberry which can be created with the use of
processes such as circular and sharing economies where they need to communicate with all the
departments regarding the innovation that can take place by allowing open innovation in their
organisation. Further they can allow to take actions regarding suggested change and thus
implement it (Mohannak and Samtani, 2014). This Frugal innovation will help the company in :
 Reducing the needs of the funds as the cost will be reduce which will reduce the debts of
the company.
 Open innovation will allow them to adapt new technologies which will help them to
make their business more innovative thus it help them to attract more customers.
Various principles on which the company has to focus upon are to find opportunity in adverse
situation, keeping things simple which will help the employees to accept the innovation, to
maximise the use of the resources that they have with them. All these principle will help the
Burberry to make the implementation of innovation easy and effective.

Role of Frugal innovation in organisation : The frugal innovation is essential for every
business who are planning for innovation as they helps them to develop their products from
initial stage which reduces their cost and improves the quality of the products. For Burberry it is
important to maintain the quality of the products offered by them to maintain the strong brand
image.
For example : The woven fabric was invented by Burberry that was tough, waterproof and
breathable. But it was so costly that affordability was at stake. In such a case the frugal
innovation helps in reducing the cost by adapting the latest technology. With social media
advertising which is comparatively economic, they can create awareness which will help them
them save the cost of advertising from other sources.
TASK 3
P5 : Importance of Commercial funnel and application of New product development
Commercialisation of innovation is the process that helps to implement the viable idea
or research on the product and production system, so that the manufacturers can attain their
objectives of cost reduction without compromising the quality of the goods.
Commercial Funnel is a process of purchasing the products by the customers which is
lead by the companies . The steps of the commercial funnel varies in different sales model but
the basic steps that are part of it are companies finds the customers, qualifies them and sell their
products to them (Pellikka and Malinen,2014).
Importance of commercial funnel : For the employees of the organisation, to
understand the importance of commercial funnels is crucial as :
 It will help the employees of the Burberry to develop the marketing strategy by focus on
the customers who are in the decision making section of the funnel.
 The understanding for the customers will be increased this will help the Burberry to
increase their sales.
 As it is known to all the companies that no business model is perfect, this model will help
them to get the feedbacks from the customers. Thus it will help the employees of
Burberry to modify the changes to get the desired results.

New Product Development : This is the process which helps in introducing the new
products in the marketplace. The Burberry for launching a new product in their product range
need to undertake the process of product development which includes various stages :
 Idea Generation : In this step of product development various ideas are determined by
the management and information regarding such ideas are gathered. Burberry will ask
their employees to suggest various ideas for introducing a new product. As they are into
fashion industry, on the basis of trend their employees can suggest a lot of ideas .
 Idea Screening : In this step the need to be analysed on the basis of information gathered
in previous step. Burberry will analyse all the ideas and will select one which is viable
and can be undertaken by the company. They will determine the specifications of the
product identified in this stage which is wedding gowns.
 Testing Concepts : In this stage the research department of Burberry will develop the
product on the basis of needs and wants of the customers and will provide it to some of
their employees which is part of concept testing. They will suggest the features which
should further be added to the products which will help them to attract more and more
customers thus will increase their level of satisfaction.
 Analysing the need of product development : In this step of product development, all
the strategies will be formulated by the marketing department of the Burberry regarding
the prices, advertising of their wedding gowns. Also they will identify the target market
in which they will initially launch their product (Stead and Hastings, 2018).
 Commercialisation : This is the last step of the process of product development where
the Burberry will launch their product in the market with the aim to position their product
i.e., wedding gowns which is entirely different then their existing product range. As the
company went for the detailed analysis of each and every factor this will ensure success
to the Burberry regarding the launch of this new product.
The new development process will help the Burberry in commercialising their idea as it
helps them to identify the financial projections, various accounting and reporting framework.
Also it will help them to make their innovation successful as it will remove all the unnecessary
steps and to maintain the quality, cost effectiveness etc. This will make determine various
advertising means which can increase their prompt sales.

P6 : Detailed Innovation Business case for the organisation
Business case is a document that contains various methodologists approaches which can
be used by the company to solve the issues faced by them. It helps the company to effectively
execute their activities without getting much affected by the prevailing situation. The business
case for Burberry is given below :
Executive Summary : As the Burberry is a fashion house so they decide to launch a new
product in this segment but which is entirely different then their existing products. So they have
decided to launch wedding gowns, as the brides prefers to wear branded outfits on their wedding
which are little different then ordinary gowns. To introduce such product the company need to
undergo various analysis such as SWOT, PESTLE etc. which will help them to identify their
target market.
Vision: The vision of the company is to the first fully digital company and to become a
social enterprise.
Mission: The mission of the company is to maintain integrity and vitality of the brand
and to expand their business on consistent basis.
Objectives: The objective of the company is to increase their market share by catering
the customers for their weddings also.
Issues : Burberry is a renowned and a very old brand of this industry but they are facing
stiff competition from the other emerging brands which has affected their revenues. The
important issue is that they are losing their customer base when it comes to ethic segments.
Solution : After they will launch wedding gowns their customer will have a variety of all
type of clothings in their stores whether western wear or ethic. This will help the Burberry to
keep their customer intact with them as they are providing them everything better and unique
then their competitors.
Why it is innovative : Burberry is famous for their innovation designs of their outfits,
bags and shoes. Now when they are launch wedding gowns in their product range the designs of
their products are so unique as their other products which will attract customers. Also they uses
Artificial Intelligence and Big data to approach their customers, this will increase their market
size in terms of attracting the customers (Walsh, 2012).

Competitive edge : The company can easily take the competitive advantage from this
innovation as they have customer loyalty which will help them to cater more customers for their
wedding gowns.
Customer Research : When they are launching new product they need to do the market
analysis to understand the taste and preference of the employees which will help the Burberry to
design their gowns exactly as per their needs. Such research can be done by the company
through surveys.
Funding : The fund requirement need to be analysed by the Burberry before they plan for
innovation. For which they need to identified all the resources required by them such as
procurement of the labour, raw material, cost of research etc. This will help them to procure the
funds well in advance. For funding of the organisation they have to identify various sources form
where they can procure the funds. Some of such sources which can be used are loans from the
financial institution, retained earnings etc.
Target market and Promotional strategy : The target market of the company is the
young women who will going to get married soon. For this the promotional strategy which they
can use is advertisement through magazines and displaying the gowns at stores and on their
websites.
TASK 3
P7 : Tools that can be used by the company to develop, protect, retain knowledge and intellectual
rights
The intellectual rights are referred to as the legal protection that is being provided to the
owners of the intellectual capitals. These rights are intended to protect the ideas which are
generated by the companies (Xiao, Li and Liu, 2016). The tools that can be used by the
company to protect them, retain knowledge are given below :
Intellectual property are activities of mind which can be designs, any symbol, innovation
etc. to which protection need to be provided by the company so that it cannot be copied by
anyone. This helps the organisation to get the competitive advantage over others.
 Copyrights : Copyrights are the rights or powers which has been provided to the creator
for a creative work that aims to protect their original expression of an idea. These are
provided for a specific time period after which they need to be renewed. The rights that

are provided are to reproduce the work, to distribute their work, perform and display it
publicly. The advantages of copyrights is that it helps the companies to protect their work
from being copied by others as it gives the sole right to the people to use such work or to
reproduce it. Whereas it has disadvantage also which can be that it makes difficult for the
people to share their work which can provide solution to them for various solutions.
 Patents : Patent is a form of intellectual property right that gives the rights to the owner
to excludes other from making, using, selling and implementing any invention for a
limited period of time. The advantage of having the designs and the technology patented
is that it gives the protection from the risk of being stolen. While the organisation has
disadvantages of having patents which increases the cost for the company as they have to
procure the patents once it expires.
The Burberry can use copyrights to protect them their innovations as they will going to design
their wedding gowns with creativity which will ensure them that their competitors does not
imitate their designs.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from above report that innovation is important for every organisation to
make them competitive and to improve their efficiency. This helps the company to expand their
market share thus it increase their revenue. It is identifies in this report that business case helps
the company to successfully introduce and implement the innovation in the organisation. It is
also concluded from this report that various legal rights has been provided to protect the owners.

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