Aston Martin's Innovation Strategy

This assignment examines Aston Martin's approach to innovation, exploring how the company implements new ideas, manages the process, and leverages innovation for growth. It analyzes the relationship between innovation and a firm's success, drawing upon various sources such as academic research and industry publications.

INNOVATION AND RISK
MANAGEMENT

Innovation comprises of an organization’s response towards the trends and competition.
It is the ability of a firm to make most out of what they possess. As per the views of Chesbrough
(2013), innovation is a method that transforms an idea into product and service. It is a procedure
of translating an idea into element that creates value. It is essential to consider innovation
because it helps in the accomplishment of objectives. It also provides a better opportunity to
organization and enhances customer satisfaction level as well (Chesbrough, 2013). This essay is
mainly focused on the innovation and risk management of Aston Martin Car which is a highly
innovative firm.
For this aspect, Aston Martin has to do risk management in an appropriate manner so that
company would reduce the risk of failure and will attain growth in automobile industry. In a
similar manner, firm should make appropriate and credible process design which would aid to
mitigate the risk of failure (Drucker, 2014). Further, this firm is adopting good leadership
support in order to reduce the employee resistance and also, to implement the actions effectually.
But, along with that, organization must ensure that there are sufficient and efficient resources
that are available to them while doing innovation (Huizingh, 2011). Furthermore, Chesbrough,
(2013) has also contended that company’s management must define roles and responsibilities to
every employee to avoid ambiguity at the time of implementation. Most importantly, Aston
martin is also focusing on Strategic Implementation Approach which helps in making strategic
planning (Chesbrough, 2013). Lastly, communication process is also effective so that every
employee would remain aware about the changes being made and that also facilitates in
reduction of resistance.
As per the structured study, it has been identified that business organization is
overcoming with number of issues by effective focus on seven dimensions of innovation.
Beverland (2005) has asserted that the model is considered beneficial to manage risk in
appropriate manner and leads business at impressive level of success. Company has focused on
seven dimensions of innovation in an appropriate manner to accomplish goals and objectives in a
desired form. Management of Aston Martin has ensured that their innovation process is well
managed and thereby, they are addressing the first dimension of innovation. In traditional
approach, organization was focused on innovation which was guided by its vision, mission and
goals. Similarly, in non-traditional approach, innovation has been considered as a critical factor
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(Beverland, 2005). For example, future visioning techniques are used by Aston Martin which
constitute the non-traditional approach to business strategy. In this regard, the company carries
out consumer insight research to find out their preferences. However, it can be critically analysed
that in order to adopt this non-traditional approach to innovation, exhaustive research needs to be
carried out by Aston Martin. Also, the data gathered should be reliable (Verganti, 2013). It is
only then that innovation could be brought about within the organization. Another example of
implementation of this dimension of innovation is that Aston Martin has industry foresight. It
identifies the trends in the industry and understands them. It launched the model DB11 with a
bold exterior that was the current trend in the industry (Discover DB11, 2016). In this respect,
business firm has established a common strategy that covers traditional as well as non-traditional
approach. It has provided an ability to work in the most suitable manner in order to accomplish
goals (Camisón, 2012).
As per the views of Gupta and Malhotra (2013), management also needs to focus on correct
alignment of strategic aspects so that better support can be provided to innovation activities.
With an improved alignment of activities according to key business needs, the management of
Aston martin is easily avoiding risk during development of innovative products and services
(Gupta and Malhotra, 2013). In respect to industry foresight, it has been referred that the
determination of emerging trends is also essential. In other aspect, Drucker, (2014) has stated
that the management of Aston Martin must have real information about the key trends of auto
mobile sector. It assists in the development of innovative products and emerging trends
(Tadajewski, 2012). For example, many new emerging trends of auto-mobile industry is that
consumer demand is shifting more towards the SUV. Thus, Aston Martin has planned to adopt
this trend (Chesbrough, 2013). This suggests the necessity for the company to have deep
knowledge about the industry trends.
Tadajewski (2012) has also contended that the customer insight is also one of significant factor
that leads business to impressive level of success and provides effective development of
innovative products (IForsman, 2011). With an improved analysis of customer needs, business
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organization is focused towards the development of innovative products in an optimistic manner
(Verganti, 2013).
Organization is considering the dimension of strategic alignment as a critical aspect for
effective management of innovation. In order to provide better support to innovation, business
entity focuses on various activities that enhance performance ability. Company provides training
to employees so that innovative ideas can be generated more effectively at the time of rendering
services. In this way, Aston Martin brings about internal alignment. This helps in ensuring that
the internal team of organization will bring forward innovation initiative. For example, a cross-
functional core team is formulated at Aston Martin. This comprises of energetic change agents,
future leader5s and visionary members of the workforce (Tadajewski, 2012). Brain storming
activities have boosted the skills of workforce and motivate them to present innovative ideas in
an appropriate manner (Gupta and Malhotra, 2013). On the contrary, while taking the brain
storming session, it is not necessary that employees could come with the innovative ideas and it
also does not guarantee that employees will get motivated or not.
In order to meet the dimensions of “standards of industry foresight” and “customer
insight”, business firm has focused on number of activities that effectively analyze the market as
well as customer needs (Chan, 2011). Investment on market research activities has increased in
order to understand the market trends and customer expectations. Various online surveys have
organized by the organization to communicate with customers and identify key issues that
impact their perception in a negative manner. Various industrial conferences have been attended
by the top level managers to determine key trends and accomplish goals effectively. It can be
critically analyzed that, for carrying out surveys and industrial conferences, Aston Martin has to
incur heavy cost for this. This in turn would not give monetary returns to the company.
Therefore, organization's profitability may decline (Chesbrough, 2013).
Core technologies and competencies are also critical aspect for the organization and it
may influence the operational activities in diverse manner. It is all about levering and extending
corporate assets so that goals can be accomplished in desired time period. Verganti (2013) has
also critically said that every business organization is focusing on activities which ensure that
their professional and competency factors are continuously improving. In addition to this,
management of Aston Martin needs to focus on continuous development of various technological
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tools. Moreover, organization is also focusing on various technological up-gradations so that
core technologies and competency standards can be maintained. Such process corresponds to the
dimension of “technologies and core competencies”. In this respect, management of Aston
Martin has invested more on robotic technology because it helps in enhancing its competencies.
With an assistance of robotic technology, organization has increased its productivity and
accomplished goal of innovation in a desired form (Drucker, 2014). In addition to this,
management has also started collaborative working with different suppliers that can increase its
organizational readiness. Innovation activities require high availability of financial sources so
that implementation can be taken placed in an appropriate manner. Various strategic alliances
with British Nationalized Banks have provided financial support and enhanced ability to take
action. Direct recruitment process has also been introduced by the management of company to
ensure that they have skilled workforce in order to achieve organizational goals effectively.
According to Forsman (2011), it is considered as an ability to take actions that leads
business to impressive level of success. With an appropriate designing of activities, the
management of Aston Martin is also considering the development of diverse products and
services which provide benefits to the firm (Forsman, 2011).
Gunday (2011) has critically said that all members must have correct information about
the vision, mission and other factors that help in product development. Auto-mobile sector trends
are changing rapidly and it impacts the development of product in a negative manner. In other
aspect, the unrelated information about the industrial trends may create a barrier for the firm
(Camisón, 2012). For example, the organization has decided to bring SUV car in the market but
the current trend in the market is small cars but with technological upgrades. In this situation,
unseemly consideration of customer needs and industrial aspects may lead business to failure
issues (Gunday, 2011).
According to Rivera (2009), management of Aston Martin also understands various
factors that may influence the implementation of action plan. In this respect, operational,
political, cultural and financial factors are significant because it influences overall development.
For example, the management is looking forward to bring innovation in terms of fuel efficiency
(Rivera, 2009). It requires high level of investment on research and development program. But
due to irrelevant sources of finance impacts the activities implementation. In this situation, it is
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significant for the management to focus on effective identification of sources that provides
finance in order to accomplish the goals and to lead business to improved level of success
(Drucker, 2014). Dimension of “implementation of activities” requires effective monitoring
system. In this respect, management of Aston Martin has focused on effective establishment of
monitoring process. Aston martin has adopted various technological processes (Forsman, 2011).
These include active monitoring with the help of electronic records. For example, the
information related to various aspects of the organization is saved in electronic form. Monitoring
is carried out by referring to these electronic records. Quality team and innovation check team
have been created by the management to ensure about the success of implementation process.
Every innovation in organization needs to go through various standards of quality team so that
goals can be accomplished in an appropriate manner. For example, Innovation check team is
formed which comprises of new as well as senior members of the organization. This team also
has the employees who have expertise in automobile sector. The innovation check teams have
the responsibility of monitoring the innovation in the products and identifying areas where
further innovation can be brought about (Westney, 2013). In contrast with the given statement,
company has to incur huge cost while upgrading the technology. However, this will benefit the
company but in a very long term. Therefore, at initial stage Aston Martin has to bear heavy loss
which may reduce the corporate image and also the innovation may not be entertained by them
(Huizingh, 2011). For example, if the company plans to upgrade the technology for car
manufacturing, then it will be an expensive option. Hence, this innovation in the terms of
manufacturing technology cannot be undertaken by the company. As the company is at a risk of
suffering loss if it adopted new technology for manufacturing, it can hamper the image in the
industry (Huizingh, 2011). Aston Martin is considered as a one of leading car manufacturing
firm in the global market. As per the view of Marsh (2011), the management of Aston Martin has
focused on seven dimensions of innovation as critical aspect during innovation in its products.
Company has wide range of portfolio and it provides number of benefits to the firm. As per the
views of Gupta, and Malhotra (2013), in order to meet the customer satisfaction level,
management of Aston Martin is considering customer delivered value theory. There are some
other benefits and values as well which person can have by having purchase or use of Aston
Martin Vantage Range (Vantage, 2015). Furthermore, with every innovation sales of company
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have rose immensely. In March 2013, company had sales of 141 cars, after that company
introduce its new innovative car which had sales of 199 cars in March 2014. Moreover, with the
introduction of its Vantage GT12 in 2015, sales increased to 212 units. Thus, it can be inferred
that with every innovation in its car range, company's sales got increased because the firm
produced and modified its product as per the preference of customers (Gupta and Malhotra,
2013). Along with that, profit of company has also increased after the successful implementation
of innovation. In 2013, company completed their 100 years but they celebrated their big growth.
They sold 4200 cars worldwide which was their big victory. The profit of company increased
with 11% and they generated the profit of £84.8 million in the year 2013 (Aston Martin
Announces 2013 Financial Results, Confirms New Platform, 2014).
In support of this, Löfsten (2012) has said that one of the key benefits of accessing Aston
Martin Vantage Range is that it assists in day to day commutation which makes life easy.
Organization also focuses on continuous improvement of skills through training and
development program. Improvement in skills allows management to present better ideas among
management and leads business to impressive level of success (Löfsten, 2012). Organization is
also improving its market share and brand image by extending corporate assets. Moreover,
Westney (2013) has concluded that Aston Martin is also providing higher values to its target
market. Aston Martin is delivering number of modifications in its Vantage Range so that
designing of product can be reinforced and best combination of innovative technology can be
provided to customers. As per the views of Marsh (2011), the management of Aston Martin is
attaining various benefits through various developments in its product range and improved focus
on market needs.
As per the seven dimension of innovation, Aston Martin is doing great innovation. The
firm is following this model in order to innovate in a successful manner. Further, this has
produced little range of products but it is doing innovation in each range. This is how the
company has brought up highly innovative cars in a market (Gupta and Malhotra, 2013). The
firm follows the managed innovation process in order to reduce the risk factor which gets
included while bringing innovation in the market. This is the way in which company has
successfully implemented the innovation in order to achieve growth in an automobile industry.
Further, Westney, (2013) has said that company takes care about the needs and preferences of
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customers and according to that, firm modifies their products. This organization possesses core
technologies and core competencies through which firm has bought innovation in their existing
products and modified them to cater the needs of customers (Tadajewski, 2012).
However, as per the view points of Camisón (2012), Aston Martin is facing various
issues after the implementation of seven dimension model. Further, when company does strategic
alignment, at that time, they face several issues due to lack of proper communication. It becomes
difficult to implement the strategic alignment in an appropriate manner. Moreover, Westney
(2013) has asserted that during identification of customer insight, issues are being faced as it is
not an easy task to identify the needs effectually. In addition to this, it is quite difficult to make
all employees ready at the time of implementing innovation (Verganti, 2013). Thus,
organizational readiness also creates problem as well. Along with that, Aston Martin has to keep
a good track over the changing industry trends in order to successfully adopt the dimension of
Industry Foresight (Westney, 2013). Therefore, it is not possible every time as for this aspect,
they require heavy cost to be incurred. Thus, the issue arises at this stage as well.
Thus, after the application of the model, it can be inferred that implementation of
innovation in Aston Martin Company has proved to be positive. According to Tadajewski,
(2012), innovations have impacted positively in this company because the firm has got immense
success after bringing great innovations (Verganti, 2013).
From the essay, it can be concluded that the seven dimensions of innovation are
significant for the organization because it provides an ability to deal with various issues. Seven
dimensions help in mitigating the risk which arises at the time of implementation of innovative
ideas. The company has managed its risk in an excellent manner. Innovation has benefited the
company in a positive manner. Through this dimension it has been assessed that company has
carried out innovation in an appropriate manner. Further, through the innovation, firm has
increased its sales from 2013 to 2015.
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REFERENCES
Journal and Books
Beverland, M. B., 2005. Managing the Design Innovation–Brand Marketing Interface: Resolving
the Tension between Artistic Creation and Commercial Imperatives. Journal of Product
Innovation Management. 22(2). pp. 193-207.
Camisón, C., 2012. Measuring innovation in automobile from the Schumpeterian and the
dynamic-capabilities perspectives. automobile management. 33(4). pp.776-789.
Chan, D.Y., 2011. Innovation and practice of continuous auditing. International Journal of
Accounting Information Systems. 12(2). pp.152-160.
Chesbrough, H., 2013. Open business models: How to thrive in the new innovation landscape.
Harvard Business Press.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Forsman, H., 2011. Innovation capacity and innovation development in small enterprises. A
comparison between the manufacturing and service sectors. Research Policy. 40(5).
pp.739-750.
Gassmann, O., Enkel, E. and Chesbrough, H., 2010. The future of open innovation. R&d
Management. 40(3). pp.213-221.
Gunday, G., 2011. Effects of innovation types on firm performance. International Journal of
production economics. 133(2). pp.662-676.
Gupta, S. and Malhotra, N. 2013. Marketing innovation: a resource-based view of international
and local firms. Marketing Intelligence & Planning. 31(2). pp. 111-126.
Huizingh, E. K., 2011. Open innovation: State of the art and future perspectives. Technovation.
31(1). pp.2-9.
Lin, R. J., 2010. Customer relationship management and innovation capability: an empirical
study. Industrial Management & Data Systems. 110(1). pp.111-133.
Löfsten, H., 2012. Capabilities for innovation in small firms–a study of 131 high-tech firms and
their relation to performance. International Journal of Business Innovation and Research.
6(2). pp.149-176.
Marsh, G., 2011. Carbon composite car body panels gain traction with Gurit Automotive.
Reinforced Plastics. 55(5). pp.24-27.
Rivera, O., 2009. Knowledge sharing and innovation performance: A comparison between high-
tech and low-tech companies. Journal of Intellectual Capital. 10(1). pp.22-36.
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Tadajewski, M., 2012. History and critical marketing studies. Journal of Historical Research in
Marketing. 4(3). pp. 440–452.
Verganti, R., 2013. Design driven innovation: changing the rules of competition by radically
innovating what things mean. Harvard Business Press.
Westney, D. E., 2013. Imitation and innovation. Harvard University Press.
Online
Vantage. 2015. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.astonmartin.com/cars/the-vantage-
range>. [Accessed on 18th March 2016].
Aston Martin Announces 2013 Financial Results, Confirms New Platform. 2014. [Online].
Available through: <http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1091765_aston-martin-
announces-2013-financial-results-confirms-new-platform>. [Accessed on 22nd March
2016].
Discover DB11. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <http://db11.astonmartin.com/>. [Accessed
on 2 April 2016].
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APPENDIX
Aston Martin was founded by British manufacturer Lionel Martin in 1913. The sales of
the company have risen drastically. In 2013 the company had a sale of 141 while in 2015 it rose
to 215 units (Aston Martin Announces 2013 Financial Results, Confirms New Platform, 2014).
Further, discussion has been made about the critical analysis of seven dimension innovation
model which is used by the company to assess risk management while implementing innovation.
This model has been applied within a strategic innovation framework.
Company aims to innovate themselves in order to attain the set goals and also to create
competitive edge. Further, innovation is seems as a positive concept in a present era in order to
survive in the market and to attract large number of customers (Drucker, 2014). Furthermore,
Camisón (2012) has asserted that the innovation is all about change that adds value to the
product or services. On the other hand, invention is something new, novel and without precedent.
Thus, it is wrong to use both the terms interchangeably (Westney, 2013).
There are various significance of innovations which helps the company to grow in the
competitive market. Further, it also helps to sustain competitive advantage. In present era, this
has become the key reason to survive in the dynamic environment (Camisón, 2012).
Classification of seven dimensions can be as managed innovation process, strategic alignment,
industry foresight, consumer insight, core technologies and competencies, organizational
readiness and disciplined implementation (Beverland, 2005).
The classification of Aston Martin, Vantage Range can be as V12 Vantage S, V12
Vantage S Roadster, V8 Vantage s, V8 Vantage S Roadster, V8 Vantage, V8 Vantage Roadster,
Vantage N430, Vantage GT12 (Marsh, 2011). In addition to this, it can be said that the company
is focused towards providing better values to customers by bringing innovation according to
customer needs.
As per the views of Chan (2011), innovation helps in influencing strategic planning
through which company can achieve their goals in the most effective manner. However, there is
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a risk while having innovation in a product or service (Chan, 2011). It is because, some time the
innovation gets failed then there are high chances that firm could start declining.
These days it has become important to innovate the product to compete in a highly
competitive market (Gassmann, Enkel and Chesbrough, 2010). Moreover, if innovation is
successfully implemented in the company then firm could achieve high growth in an industry.
As per the views of Gunday (2011), management also makes sure that innovation process is well
managed to meet the goals. Company is building better relationship among external perceptive
and organizational capabilities to design activities. Complete support of stakeholders and other
factors is also required in order to meet the set goals. The enthusiastic internal support among
key stakeholders is required to meet objectives (Gunday, 2011).
Along with that, company has also managed their risk factor by adopting several
strategies. This has helped the firm to implement the innovation in a most effective manner.
Further, company has generated maximum revenue after appropriate implementation of
innovation and also it has achieved good growth in the industry by making it most demanding
car range (Chan, 2011).
Lin (2010) has contended that it is all about management of path from inspiration
to the business impact. In addition to this, the management of Aston Martin is focusing on
activities that ensures about coordination between traditional and non traditional aspects (Lin,
2010). For example, the management is looking forward to introduce innovation in its Vantage
car series. In this situation, the management must understand the previous developments in
products so that better activities can be designed to meet goals.
According to Beverland (2005), innovation is basically defined as the actions which are
required to create new ideas, processes or products and services. If these are implemented then it
results in positive effective change (Chesbrough, 2013). Further, innovation is slightly different
form invention. It is because; invention refers to as the creation of completely new ideas,
processes and products for the first time. However, innovation is one step ahead after the
invention of a product (Beverland, 2005). For instance, Karl Benz invented car for the first time
which was his invention. Innovation took place in every era and today Aston Martin has
developed the car with their innovation and took the product to completely different concept.
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As per the views of Gassmann, Enkel and Chesbrough (2010), effective and efficient
training and development are also provided to the employees so that their skills would get
enhanced and will lead business to impressive level of success (Gassmann, Enkel and
Chesbrough, 2010). In this support, it has been said that continuous improvement in core
competencies is also beneficial for better brand equity and improvement in strategic
relationships. Organizational readiness is also critical factor for the organization because it
provides strength to manage risk in appropriate manner.
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