Innovation and Commercialisation in F-Drone

This report discusses the importance of innovation and commercialisation in the context of F-Drone, a company building transition drones for aerial deliveries. It covers the difference between invention and innovation, sources and types of innovation, and the process of commercialising innovation. The report also explores the four P's of innovation and the innovation funnel applied to F-Drone. Additionally, it discusses frugal innovation and its usage in F-Drone's products and services.

Innovation And
Commercialisation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Importance of innovation and the difference between invention and innovation...................3
2. Innovation and its importance to F-Drone..............................................................................4
3. How Innovation and Commercialisation can be shaped according to the organisation.........4
4.Different sources of innovation................................................................................................5
5. Different types of innovation..................................................................................................6
6. The four P's of innovation.......................................................................................................6
7. Innovation Funnel and Stages applied to F-Drone..................................................................7
8. Frugal innovation and its usage in F-Drone............................................................................8
9. Process required to commercialise innovation........................................................................9
10. Importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product Development...9
11.New Product Development..................................................................................................10
12. Innovation business case of F-Drone, including ways to access funding...........................11
13. Different tools F-Drone would use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and
intellectual property..................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is creating something entirely new. It is seen as a change in the complex
system. While commercialisation is the introduction of the new product or method in the system
of exchange from which profit can be earn. The companies put their resources for the purpose of
innovation which helps the companies to develop and introduce new products and services into
the market (Ridley, 2020). In this report the importance of innovation and commercialisation is
outlined in the context of the the company F-Drones. The company is building a transition drone
to enable aerial deliveries to ships and offshore platforms. In this report, discussed the difference
between invention and innovation, importance of innovation, the effect of vision, culture and
leadership on innovation and commercialisation. Further, 4p's of the innovation and the
innovation funnel is explained. The developments in the frugal innovation with examples with
the process of commercialise innovation and application of new product development is
presented.
MAIN BODY
1. Importance of innovation and the difference between invention and innovation
The word invention and innovation sometimes used interchangeably which is a mistake.
Innovation defines the usage of the idea or technique and invention is creation of something new
(Godin, 2017). The company F-Drones is a part of technology industry. Innovation and invention
is the core element of the process of the company. The company are building aviation grade
drones that provide high safety and reliability standards. The company's aim is to be the leader of
heavy payload drone logistics in five years.
Difference between Innovation and Invention
Innovation Invention
Existing products and service get improved. Creating and introducing a new product or
services.
It is done to increase the productivity of the
company.
It is done to discover entirely new for the
company.
It consider the practical implementations of the
products and services.
It consider scientific implementations.

A requirement of improvement is observed in
the existing products or services.
An unique idea is generated to discover
something new.
2. Innovation and its importance to F-Drone
Though Invention is a revolutionary process but Innovation is important for the organisation as it
provide a competitive advantage and helps the organisation i.e. F-Drones to solve critical
problems (The Importance of Innovation, 2021). Survival in the industry is challenging and with
the new and emerging technologies the ways of operations of the companies are becoming more
effective and fast. Innovation helps the F-Drone in the accessibility and adoption of the latest
technologies which helps in achieving sustainability. Innovation helps the F-Drones to increase
Return on Investment (ROI) as it increase the performance of the organisation. It also brings in
positivity within the organisation as innovation helps in reducing the hassle which is lagging the
production activities. Overall innovation is good for the companies as it brings new change to the
companies that helps them to grow more.
Embedding the innovation consist of process of developing innovative environment and
business culture that apprehend the need of every person within the organisation. The
development of the innovation is made by keep on check the external and internal environment
of the company and the demand of the customers discovered in the market.
3. How Innovation and Commercialisation can be shaped according to the organisation
Innovation is an important element of the organisation to improve the productivity of the
organisation and to make financial gains from the new developed products and services is the
commercialisation. These can be influence by the various aspects of the organisation that are
mentioned below:
Vision
Companies have vision that describes the intent of the company. The company F-Drones
have the vision of building aviation-grade drones. It stated what types of products and services
the company is going to innovate. It indicate the company's growth that helps in the
commercialisation of the innovative products and services (Gailly, 2018).
Leadership

It is the process of motivating the employees of the organisation. The leader influence
and inspire the workforce to shape entirely new products and services that helps the company F-
Drones to perform strategic developments.
Culture
It consists of the company's experiences, expectations, beliefs, workings and behaviour of
the personnel. It determine how the product and services are going to be innovate and
commercialised within the market.
Teamwork
Is the joint effort of each and every employees effort to complete an activity in the
effective way. Innovation is an activity to improve the existing products and services and the
team involved in the process with the team effort will achieve the task effectively. With
teamwork the process of commercialisation can be done easily (Stanton and et.al, 2018).
4.Different sources of innovation
Unexpected
It is the simple source of innovation. Unexpected occurrence of the events leads to the
ideas of the innovation. It helps encourage the organisation to understand new perspective of the
organisation. Sudden change in the organisation's environment and the industry leads to the need
of the innovation. It helps F-Drone to adjust in the unexpected scenarios.
Incongruities
It means the things did not match with the things as expected and at that time new vision
is been generated. Companies analyse what are the perception of the consumer and what are the
actually expected by the consumer. It will generate new possibilities for the innovation for the
Company F-Drones (Searching for innovative opportunities? These 7 sources will boost your
creativity, 2019.).
Process Needs
The processes, systems and work process that are inefficient leads to the need for the
innovation. Some procedure started to become a lag in the whole operations process that requires
a change to cope-up with the continuous changing market conditions. So innovation is being
introduced to pace up the process.
Industry and Market Changes

Significant changes in the industries transform the existing environment and the
companies has to reshape them to fit in the changed environment. This transformation leads to
the need of the innovation of the old practices within the organisation.
Demographic Changes
Change the taste, preferences, income, status, etc. provide an opportunity to make
innovation in the products and services. Demographics are important as the customers are
humans and company produce their products for specific target human groups.
Changes in Perception
People's mind are uncertain and changes frequently and with it their perception. This change
decide how they identify the products and services which affects the industries and companies as
well (Stéphan and et.al, 2019).
New Knowledge
Generation of new ideas and thoughts are constant and added to the existing knowledge
from time to time. It brings improvement in the ways and processes that are already in work.
With new knowledge innovation is also made accordingly.
5. Different types of innovation
Incremental innovation
It is the cycle of tiny improvements made to the company's products and services. These
improvements cost is generally low that helps the F-Drones to improve its products and services
and helps to gain advantage over its competitors within the industry.
Disruptive innovation
It is type of innovation practice that use new technology or processes to the companies
existing market. It is also known as stealthy in nature as the cost of newer technology is higher
and can be inferior to the existing technologies.
Architectural innovation
It is the practice in which existing skills, lessons and technologies and applying these to
the entirely distinct market. The risk in this type of innovation is low as existing and reliable
technologies and skills are applied within the market. It has to constantly adjust itself to meet-up
the requirements of the new market.
Radical innovation

It takes the use of new revolutionary technologies. It is a rare practice as it gives rise to
the new technology. It is for long-term and create a high market impact.
6. The four P's of innovation
Product
It is the process in which the companies decide how the products can be change and make
improvements by using technologies, methods, techniques (Ratten and et.al, 2019). Companies
make decisions what should they offers to the people. Innovations are done to the products and
services of the companies to create differentiation in the market.
Process
In this the companies do analysis to understand what are process of the companies.
Which process creating productivity and brings value to the company. The companies tries to
find out how they implement and bring innovation to these processes. Innovation leads to the
improvement of the processes.
Position
It refers to the targeted segment of the companies. Companies create and produce
products and services according to the targeted population. Companies strategically position their
products and services to lure that segment that helps in the generation of profits. Methods are
created to search for the potential customers that are interested to acquire the companies products
and services.
Paradigm
It is the set of concepts, beliefs, theories ad thought processes. The evaluates why, how
and which types of products are used. Various models are used by the companies to understand
the paradigm shift and its influences over the market.
7. Innovation Funnel and Stages applied to F-Drone

Stage1: It express the procedures of developing a product or services. In ideation stage F-Drone
increase its knowledge and generate ideas.
Stage2: The ideas and research are evaluated and defined by F-Drone before it is put into use.
Stage3: In this process the F-Drone establish action plans, measures and methods.
Stage4: Every projects are analysed and clarified; those ideas that generate values are remained
and the remaining are put to rest.
Stage5: Implementation of the ideas.
Stage6: F-Drone will monitor and control the performance.
It increases the viability of the projects and of the companies. Innovation Funnel has various
stages viz. Opportunity assessment, Insights based ideation, conceptualisation, Evaluation and
benchmarking, Plough on or cut loose and Launching stage (Yun, J.J., 2017).
8. Frugal innovation and its usage in F-Drone
Frugal innovation means the cutting of cost and the production processes that used to
produce valuable goods in order to maximize profit. The frugal innovation does not restricted to
certain customers but includes wide range of customers with low resources. It helps F-Drone to
achieve optimum revenue with low resources to attain sustainable growth. The frugal approach
provide more resilience to the products and services of the company that helps to acquire number
of customers with limited resources. F-Drone may use this innovation technique to provide
satisfactorily results to its customers. In case of F-Drone the company provides the features that
reduces the cost and complex procedures that are as follows: The company is building drones

that can save 80% cost, manpower, time and carbon emission in marine and offshore logistics.
The drones can carry and deliver 100Kilogram of logistics up to 100kilometers. It has no carbon
emission as the drone is fully electric and autonomous. The services delivered by the F-Drone
requires the appropriate reach of the logistics of the customers to its destination place. The
company has to make sure that the distribution of the services are appropriate and accessible to
the customers. The company offers affordable aviation-grade logistics services with zero carbon
emission at affordable output costs. As the company's project is in development and in pilot
stage the company is effectively adapted to the industry requirements. The company is newly
established and developing its cutting-edge aviation technology the performance of the
company's product and services is not yet measured properly. The company F-Drone strive to
become a leader in the heavy payload logistics industry in next five years. The company by
implementing every factor of the frugal innovation process might reduce complex process in the
innovation task with the usage of little resources (Chen and et.al, 2019). The company with the
innovation process will be able to achieve its objectives in the near future as the logistics
industry is vast and the zero carbon emission is the new trend as people around the world is more
tend to reduce carbon footprints. It will provide the company an upper-hand if the company F-
Drone is able to meet its deadline.
9. Process required to commercialise innovation
The F-Drone has to go for the various process of the product development then a final
product is prepared that becomes ready. Before commercialisation the product has to go from
various stages and have to pass tests and licensing processes. To commercialise the innovation
process there are several steps. Some of them are as follows:
 Understanding the noise in the system
 Run a divergent innovation session
 Hold a convergent innovation session
 Build a works-like prototype
 Develop a looks-like prototype
 Combine into a full prototype
 Start scaling
 Conduct a soft launch

The process of commercialisation is not completed within a week. It requires constant efforts of
research, data analysis and feedback from the customers is critical. If the end process goes well,
then the company goes for the full scale production process.
10. Importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product Development
Commercial funnel is the visual representation of the clients sales action for Company F-
Drone which started from the awareness of the products and services to the move for the
purchasing of the product or services. It depicts the funnel that represent the thoughts of the
customers at the starting of the sale of the products and services when the customer's are in large
groups and with the duration of the time the proportion began to reduce (Harmsen, J., 2019). The
importance of the commercial funnel is to recognise the issues of the customers and their
awareness. The solutions and techniques are devised that resolve the issues of the customers and
increase interaction of the customer's with the company; in this case the F-Drone.
The method helps the company F-Drone to wider their customers base with the innovation of the
new product.

11.New Product Development
The application of New Product Development (NPD) processing have eight steps that
helps the F-Drone for commercialisation of innovation. These steps are as viz. Generating the
product, Screening the ideas from collected bunch, Testing of selected ideas with company
concept, Business analysis, Beta testing of the launched product, Product developed by using all
the techniques, Product development by various measures, Commercialization of the product is
done here, Pricing and proving the innovation (Lechevalier, S., 2019). Thus, the new product
development process helps the F-Drone to achieve maximum sales that will result in revenue
generation. The new product must be commercialised and awareness of it must be spread into the
customers as without the known of the customers about the products the new product
development and the innovation is futile.
The new product development with the customer driven approach leads the market to expand and
also helps F-Drone to grow along-with it.

12. Innovation business case of F-Drone, including ways to access funding.
F-Drone Mission: To become the leader of heavy payload drone logistics across industries in 5
years.
Objectives: The F-Drone is the technology driven group that tends to offers heavy payload
drone logistics services to its customers. The company is known for its innovation in the aviation
technologies. The company has esteemed names in their team portfolio in the field of technology
that provide the company a great reputation (Ratten and et.al, 2019).
Need for Innovation: The company is Singapore based. Drone technology is new to and the
successful usage of this technology in heavy payload logistics in unscaled. The market is niche
and the entry of the new technology in the industry is hard.
Market Research and Benefits of Innovation: The company Gathering investments from large
shipping enterprises namely, GAC group, Hafnia group, etc. As per the company's management
the innovative solutions the drone technology provides makes the process more effective and
change the operations of the Industries. The restrictions of the regulatory system in the country is
a challenge for any company. But the government of the Singapore is supportive and the unique
geography helps the company to perform tests to bring innovation to the technology.
13. Different tools F-Drone would use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual
property.
To safeguard the knowledge and technologies of the company is an important task.
Imitation of the knowledge and ideas is a quick and easy thing for the other companies to take
advantage of (Harmsen, J., 2019). There are various tools that the F-Drone could use to
safeguard the knowledge and intellectual property that are as follows:
Patents
It helps the company F-Drone to protect its new and innovative products of being
copying by the other companies.
Advantages
It provides legal protection and helps the business to provide a competitive edge in the
industry.
Disadvantages
Applying for the patents are complex and expensive process.
Trademarks

It helps in differentiation of the products of F-Drones from that of its competitors. The
company make use of logos, symbols and designs as to provide different identity to its products.
Advantages
It helps the F-Drone to link with their customers and provide unique identity to its
products.
Disadvantages
It applies to the protection of the trading rights and not the product.
Copyrights
It helps in safe guarding the intellectual properties of the company. It create a restriction
over the production of the products that legally none have the right to copy the products.
Advantages
It provides a legal protection to published work and prevent unauthorized use of work.
Disadvantages
It only protects the expression of the main idea not the idea itself.
F-Drone can use patent method as it is a technological company and use of drone for
logistics is still in its developing stage. As the mission of the company is to create a fully
functional heavy payload drone and become a leader in the industry. For achievement of that
goal the company needs to develop new technologies and innovation must be done. So,
patenting will safe guard the new technology and provide competitive advantage.
CONCLUSION
Innovation and commercialisation is important for the companies as it provide new ways
to look upon the existing methods and operations and provides a scope of improvement. For F-
Drone to do that is require significant amount of funds and efforts. Companies try to maintain a
culture for the innovation to be adopted that will help to grow the company. Commercialisation
of the new product is equally important task as without the awareness of the customers the
innovation is fruitless (Hawkins and et.al, 2017). For the company F-Drone the segment of the
market is niche as not many established major competitors are there and the regulations they are
operating in is also supportive. It provide the advantage to the F-Drone. The company can do
more tests over its products and innovate more to meet up the requirements of the investors.
Although the drone technology the company F-Drone wants to deliver is a future prospect as the
product is in its development and testing stage. But the company strive to become the market

leader in heavy payload drone logistics. With the break-through in the technologies and
continuous innovation of the new methods and techniques the company will be able to achieve
its objectives.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ridley, M., 2020. How innovation works: And why it flourishes in freedom. New York: Harper.
Godin, B., 2017. Models of innovation: the history of an idea. MIT Press.
Gailly, B., 2018. Navigating Innovation: How to Identify, Prioritize and Capture Opportunities
for Strategic Success. Springer.
Stanton and et.al, 2018. Systems thinking in practice: applications of the event analysis of
systemic teamwork method. CRC Press.
Stéphan and et.al, 2019. Educational Research and Innovation Measuring Innovation in
Education 2019 What Has Changed in the Classroom?: What Has Changed in the
Classroom?. OECD Publishing.
Ratten and et.al, 2019. Managing sustainable innovation. Routledge.
Yun, J.J., 2017. Business Model Design Compass: Open Innovation Funnel to Schumpeterian
New Combination Business Model Developing Circle. Springer.
Chen and et.al, 2019. The Routledge companion to innovation management. Routledge.
Harmsen, J., 2019. Industrial process scale-up: a practical innovation guide from idea to
commercial implementation. Elsevier.
Lechevalier, S., 2019. Innovation Beyond Technology. Science for society and interdisciplinary.
Hawkins and et.al, 2017. Handbook of Innovation and Standards. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Al-Jayyousi, O.R., 2017. Integral innovation: New worldviews. Taylor & Francis.
King, K.P., 2017. Technology and innovation in adult learning. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
The Importance of Innovation, 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.viima.com/blog/importance-of-innovation>
Searching for innovative opportunities? These 7 sources will boost your creativity, 2019.
[Online]. Available through: <https://innovationcloud.com/blog/searching-for-innovative-
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