The Importance of Innovation for Arcadia Group

This report delves into the significance of innovation for Arcadia Group, highlighting its importance in achieving success. It explains the concept of innovation, differentiates it from invention, and emphasizes the role of leadership, culture, and teamwork in shaping innovation and commercialization. Additionally, it discusses the 4Ps of innovation, frugal innovation, and intellectual property protection tools such as trademarks, patents, and copyrights.

INNOVATION
&
COMMERCIALISATION

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INTRODUCTION
Innovation is the process of inventing or translating an idea or invention into a goods and
services that creates value or for which customers will pay. Innovation is very important for
each and every organisation exist in this world as well as it is one of the most significant concern
of all companies (Union, 2014). Commercialisation is the procedure to bring all the inventions as
well as innovation together to make the new product in the market. In this present world, it has
now become more obvious to all companies. It assists companies to increase their sales and
profit of company. This present report is context to Arcadia Group. This is private retail
company of United kingdom. This report will focus on Innovation and its importance to Arcadia
Group in comparison with invention. Furthermore, this report also includes organisational vision,
culture, leadership and teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation. In addition to
this, process required to commercialise innovation will also discuss in this assignment.
1.Overview of Arcadia Group.
Arcadia Group is the British multinational private retail company in United Kingdom. It
is formerly known as Arcadia plc and Burton Group Plc. Its headquarters are located in London,
W1 United Kingdom. The main product of this company is clothing, accessories and shoes.
Taveta is the owner of this company. It has 2500 outlets across UK. Arcadia Group owns the
high street clothing retailers Burton Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Wallis, Topshop, Miss Selfridge,
Topman and out-of-town chain outfit that sells lines from the other group of chains. Arcadia
Group has 100 franchises in other countries. There are 22000 employees are employed in the
company.
2. Innovation and its importance to employees of Arcadia group in comparison with invention
and different sources of innovation.
Innovation is the procedure of creating as well as implementing new ideas. Innovation is
very important for all business in order to achieve the great heights and success in the
competitive world. Innovation is the process of acquiring useful ideas as well as converting them
into useful products or services. The ideas which are useful for making the new product or
changing the features of product is the result of creativity and ideas. It is very easy to copy but it
is very complex task to create a new idea. It assists business in changing the existing procedures
as well as goods or services for customers.
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Importance of Innovation in comparison to invention in case of Arcadia Group
Innovation is the procedure of creating as well as implementing new ideas while
invention means the creation of the products and services for first time. Innovation is very
important for the all companies as well as for Arcadia Group and it much more essential as
compare to invention. Arcadia Groups is the retail company in United Kingdom and retail
company faces the toughest competition compare to other industries. There are fast changes in
fashion and trends which changes the behaviour of consumers. Thus, in order to achieve the
success and beat the competition in the market, Arcadia Group has to come up with new and
innovative concept in the market (Drucker, 2014). Both invention and innovation is very good
for the businesses but still innovation is much better than invention because Arcadia Groups is
dealing in clothing and shoes which needs new ideas and innovation frequently, so invention is
not possible for them to achieve the success in the market. Innovation proves more successful for
Arcadia Group. Innovation not only increases the profit and sales of company but it makes the
customers attached towards the company for long time. Innovation also increase the
differentiation and uniqueness in the products, it also satisfies the needs and demands of
customers on regular basis. It also increases the standard of living of people which also raise the
sales and profit of customers.
There are some main sources of innovation opportunity that can be used by Arcadia
Group which are as follows-
Unexpected- Innovation is the thing that take place unexpectedly. Market is the beautiful
place that provide ample of opportunities to the companies operating in the environment. It is the
duty of the marketing manager that they should perpetually study the market. Manager should
analyse the demand of particular product, what is the way to achieve the unexpected success etc.
Incongruity- It is fact that innovation takes birth when the requirement is incongruent
with the supply. In order to resolve the old incongruenties, people may innovate. For instance,
there is high shortage of car parking with the increasing number of cars in the market, thus in
order to overcome this problem of shortage of parking, a new concept of smart car took birth
which can able to fit in small spaces. Arcadia Groups can also use this source by overlooking any
problem in the market and try to solve by a new and innovative idea.
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Structure of market- Innovation can also take place by an existing structure in the
market. Arcadia Group is also used this source for innovation when the existing structure of
market in not effective and one has to come-up with a new idea.
Necessity- It is called the mother of innovation as well as invention. There is situation
arises where there is need to change.
New Knowledge- This is also a source of innovation like Arcadia Groups has used
advance technology and start selling their product through online platform which also increases
the sales and profit of company at large extent (Berry and Berry, 2018).
Innovation Inventions
 Innovation implies the implementation
of idea of the product or process for the
very first time.
 Creation of new product.
 It is original idea.
 Invention needed technical skills to
bring the idea to life.
 Invention means the occurrence of idea
for the product or processes which has
never been made before.
 Adding value to something already
existing.
 Innovation requires technical skills as
well as marketing skills in order to
improvise something.
3. Describing and analysing of how Arcadia Group vision, leadership, culture and teamwork help
to shape innovation and commercialisation.
Innovation is very important for Arcadia Groups and all types of companies existing the
world. It is exploiting of new ideas leading to the creation of new good, services and process
within organisation. According to Forum, 92% of companies believes that innovation is first
priority of their company to achieve the heights of success. It is very essential for company and
their employees as well to understand the importance of innovation in this present competitive
world. Commercialisation is the procedure to bring all the inventions as well as innovation
together to make the new product in the market.
The vision, leadership, culture and teamwork of Arcadia Group will help to shape innovation as
well as commercialisation which are as follows-
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Mission- The mission of Arcadia Group is to provide optimum satisfaction to customer
by providing unique and quality of services and product to them. This mission can only be
achieve if company focus on bringing innovation in the products and services.
Team Work- Team working is the essence of company as none of the work of company
can be accomplished if there is no collaborating working within organisation. In the case of
Arcadia Group, they give more focus on team working instead of isolated working. Directors of
company believes that will get more effective result by team working. It is fact that, innovation is
only possible if employees work jointly and share ideas and experience to each other and to
higher authorities of company. Thus, team-working is very essential for Arcadia Group in order
to achieve the heights of success.
Culture- The culture of company is all about the values as well as norms of people
working in the organisation. It is system of shared values, assumptions, belief that governs
people how to behave in the campus of company. Arcadia Group has many its presence in many
countries they have variety of employees and variety of cultures as vary according to the
countries. All countries have its own culture (Hatch, 2014). Innovation and commercialisation is
greatly influenced by the cultural differences. For example, the trends and fashion in other
nations bring innovation in some other countries which is also called innovation. People living in
UK have different taste and preference which company can use in other countries and if it is
liked by those people than it is very profitable for company.
Leadership- Leadership is the heart of the company as without leadership it is not
possible for any organisation to achieve the desired goals and objectives of company. It is the
systematic process of arranging, aligning as well s organizing the organisational activities or
functions with goals and objectives of company. The leaders of Arcadia Group should adopt
democratic leadership style as this will prove the best style in the field of innovations. Innovation
is what, it is the sharing of ideas and experience to each other and in democratic leadership
leader involve each and every employees of company to take part in the decision making activity
of the company.
3. 4P's of innovation and use of innovation funnel in shaping innovative ideas.
This is the model which is also called as innovation mix or 4P's which was developed by
John Bessant and Hoe Tidd. There are four elements in the 4P's which are Paradigm, Product,
Position and Process. Here is explanation of 4P's which are as follows-
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Product- This is the very common and most important element of company. The entire,
sales, profit, market share is depended on the product of the organisation. Product is something
that add worth and values to organisation. Thus, it is very essential that the product which is
launch by company in the market should have some unique and special feature that bring great
satisfaction to the customers. The product of Arcadia group should have uniqueness in their
clothes, accessories and shoes so that customers are more attracted towards the product of
company.
Process- This element of innovation mix is more essential part of Arcadia Group because
company is dealing its product through online as well (Mowery and et.al., 2015). Thus, it is very
important that the delivery process of company should be very efficient and innovative so that
there will be no issues arise in the delivering the product to the customers. Thus, company should
focus on bringing advancement as well as creativity in there process so that company can
increase the sales and profit of company.
Position- This is fundamental gaol of all the companies operating in the business
environment to achieve the best position in the market place. In order to achieve the best position
in the market, company has to look over its all fundamental and operation giving major priority
to product, process as well as services.
Paradigm- It is a particular class of innovation that deals by way that something new has
been brought within organisation. It is very important that new change should be planned
systematically before brining it into actions. Arcadia Group has to design the dynamic situations
as well as to execute it companies has gone through many ups and downs. Such as challenges
will rise while planning the process and executing it.
Innovation Funnel of Arcadia Group
Innovation funnel is the procedure by which new ideas are developed which can meet the
needs and demand of market in a manufacture and economical form. The most important thing in
this process is to keep the demand and expectations of customers in mind before developing any
idea (Innovation Funnel, 2017). After the development of idea, it goes through the funnel where
idea put in the process. Arcadia Group also follows the innovation funnel step by step. First they
used to collect the information and ideas which is being tested that either it is feet in the needs of
market or not and if suit than it is selected to launch in the market. After the process of
screening, the best ideas will be selected among all ideas (Dodgson, 2018). In addition to this,
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with the help of this innovation funnel company will also identify the trouble which is faced by
company and it is accepted in the market or not. After the complete process final idea will be
selected and put in to action.
4. Developments in frugal innovation used in Arcadia Group.
Frugal innovation is the plan for the entire process of innovation where the goods and
services are being formulated by decreasing the cost of production as well as cost of goods. All
the ideas are collected together and after that the meaningless feature of the goods are removed
under the procedure in order to maintain the profit margin. It is very important to ensure that the
quality of product will not be affected. Arcadia Group does not stop its process in any situations
even in lack or less of resources (Tukker, 2017). There are many situations arise in the company
where sometimes profit margin is very low as it cannot able to cover the profit of company such
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Illustration 1: Innovation Funnel
(Source: Innovation Funnel, 2017 )

as financial crises, lack of materials and any other institutional issues. This is also fact that these
strains are turned in to a new ideas and are utilized for capturing the largest market. This frugal
innovation is utilized by many organisations to acquire market of lower level. Lower level of
market is those where people have less disposable income and less purchasing power. This frugal
innovation assist company to sell their products and services at low prices than usual.
In the case of Arcadia Group, if they plan to bring frugal innovation than it is very
essential that they should have to consider all the elements and should go through a critical
reasoning of the same. For Example, MI always come up with different mobile phones in for
their customers of India and United Kingdom. This is the procedure of frugal innovation where
the needs and expectations of customers are varied with the different countries. The strategy of
MI is that they apply features as per the standard of people and knowledge, In United Kingdom
they used to offer products with high feature and quality because the advancement in technology
is very fast in UK but in India MI launch the products of features as low compare to United
Kingdom. This is the reason MI has lunched simple smart phones with fewer features without
compromising on quality. With the help of these techniques, company can capture the largest
market share without doing any other additional things (Christensen, Raynor and McDonald,
2015). This frugal innovation is used by many organisation to acquire the largest market share of
lower level of people.
5.Importance of commercial funnel as well as the application of new product development.
Commercialization refers to the process of introducing the new products or services in
the market. Commercial funnel is also called as purchase funnel that defined the complete
journey of consumer towards the buying of product and services. There are five stages of
commercial funnel where the complete system of sales funnel operates which are lead, prospect,
qualified prospect, committed and transacted. Stages are also called as phases and it depends on
the volume as well as size of the products of company. Arcadia group is also using this funnel
system in order to bring more customers to the company (Wallace, 2017). Here is some
importance for Commercial Funnel which are as follows-
 Commercial funnel assists in bringing more customers to the buy the products of
company.
 There entire procedure of sales in which potential customers changes into the long
term customers of organisation.
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 This system of commercial funnel is very useful for Arcadia group as it raises the
sales and profit of company.
 It also helps company to earn high rate of return on investment.
New Product Development (NPD) – This is the process of that included the development of
product by conceptualization, design, marketing and development of newly or fresh created
goods and services (New Product Development, 2017). The main intention of this process of
NPD is to raise the share in market.
Arcadia Group also use this concept of NPD and make necessary changes in the product
as per the expectation of customers and market trends. For that Arcadia follows some steps for
new product development which are as follows-
Idea Generation- This is the first stage of NPD. There are many ideas which comes from
everywhere and can be any form. Arcadia Group will encourage its employees, conduct market
research, encourage customers to provide ideas and reviews to bring innovation or development
of new product in the market.
Screening of Idea- There are many ideas but useful and good ideas are few. It can be
screening using some factors which are strength and weaknesses of company, needs of
customers, ROI etc.
Concept Development and Testing- The third step of the new product development
includes concept development and testing. A concept is a detailed strategy or blueprint version of
the idea. Basically, when an idea is developed in every aspect to make it presentable, it is called
a concept. Arcadia Group will also make the product presentable.
Analysis of Business Strategy and Development- It is also very important that product
should be tested in the market by using some analysis tool which are Porter's five force (product
competition), cost involves, strategies of pricing etc.
Product Development-After the approval of all strategies, then product will move to the
actual tangible product.
Test Marketing. This is also an important step in new product development where the
company introduce the product for some days and if it is liked by customers than it is accepted if
not than product will be eliminated from the market.
Commercialisation- This is last and final decision of company where product is
ultimately launched in the market.
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6. Innovation business case for Arcadia Group including ways to access funding.
Innovation is very important for company to raise the sales of Arcadia Group. For that
company has to bring new ideas that assist company to achieve its targeted sales. Arcadia Group
is going to improve its delivery of products to customers. They are planning to deliver the
products within in 24 hours in any manner. For that they are also planning to open branches in
some more cities of United Kingdom so that products are delivered within in 24 hours. This is
process which is planned by Arcadia Group (Wooten and Ulrich, 2017).
These ideas of innovation will be tested in the innovation funnel and after the process of
screening the best idea among all is selected. The idea which is more profitable for company will
be chosen to introduce in the market that raise the market share as well as give high profit to the
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Illustration 2: New Product Development
(Source: New Product Development, 2017)

company. In addition to this, Arcadia Group has to use many promotional techniques so that
customers are aware of the product and services launched by the company.
There are some ways where Arcadia can access fund for launching new product or services in the
market which are-
 Bootstrapping- By use of its own financial resources like money, property,
deposits etc.
 Friends & family
 Angel Investors
 Bank Loan
Estimated Budget of Arcadia in launching of new services
Expenses Amount
Advertising $1000
Marketing $1500
Labour $1300
Operation expenditure $800
Management $1250
Total $5850
Return on investment (ROI)- Return on investment is a ratio between the net profit and
cost of investment resulting from an investment of some resources. A high ROI means the
investment's gains favourably to its cost. The above innovation leads to increase the sales of
Arcadia and it will automatically raise the return on investment which company has done in
innovation. For example, the rate of interest on investment will be raised by 15% after
implmentimg 24 hour delvery systsme within organisation.
Acess to funding- Funding is the act of providing financial resources usually in the form
of mone or other values such as resources. Arcadia will acess to fund form various sources for
sucessful implementation of innovation. Arcadia will take laon form bank, sell his share of
property and etc.
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7. Different tools that that organisation can use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and
intellectual property
There are some basic tools that is used by organisation in order to protect the knowledge
as well as intellectual property rights. Here are different tools describe as below-
Trademark- It is a tool that is used to protect the name, device or symbol that are used to
trade in the business. It is not only to give rights but it allows the owner to protect others form
using a same mark that may be confusing for public (Bason, 2018). Arcadia Group also used
this tool in order to protect the organisation from any activities related to fraud as well as not to
copy the logo of company. The owner of trademark can sue the party which copied in the count
and can take compensation.
Patents- It is tool that is made for the protection of invention developed by the company.
The right of patent can be used by the owner for the period of 20 years. It provides the authority
to owner that it can exclude to all the other people from producing, selling and using the
invention. Arcadia Group can also use this rights on bringing invention. The owner of patent can
sue the party which copied in the count and can take compensation.
Copy Right- It is the tool the give the rights or authority to owner to copy which is given
to real owner in order to copy their content or work (Bain and Kleinknecht, 2016). The work or
content can only be copied with the permission of owner. The owner of copyright can sue the
party which copied in the count and can take compensation.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it was identified that innovation is very important for each and
very company ton achieve the heights of success. This report also explains the actual concept of
innovation as well as the importance of innovation in comparison with invention. Further, this
report also included importance of leadership, culture and teamwork to shape innovation and
commercialisation. In addition to this, 4P's of innovation was also included in this assignment.
Importance and developments in frugal innovation used in the company was also summarized in
this report. Copyright, Patent and Trademark tool was also understood in this report which can
be used by company to protect their product and services.
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