Technology Commercialization Strategies

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of technology commercialization strategies. It examines various case studies that highlight successful approaches to bringing innovative technologies to market. Students will analyze key practices employed by companies to achieve market leadership through effective commercialization. The focus is on understanding the complexities involved in translating technological advancements into profitable ventures.

INNOVATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Importance of innovation to an organisation in comparison with invention.........................1
P2 Organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and
commercialisation.......................................................................................................................2
TASK 2 ..........................................................................................................................................3
P3 4Ps of innovation and use of the innovation funnel to examine and shape innovative ideas.
.....................................................................................................................................................3
P4 Development of frugal innovation in 4Com..........................................................................4
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................5
P5 Importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product Development....5
P6 Innovation business case for 4com company.........................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P7 Tools used by an organisation to develop, retain and protect intellectual property and
knowledge...................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
.......................................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
In simple words, innovation means a new idea, gadget or procedure. It can be done in
business firms, government organisations or by any social group who do not work for money.
Large number of people believe that if this world want to move in positive direction than they
have to work on doing various types of innovation on continuous basis. 4com is a company who
operate in telecommunication industry. They also make business phone and similar type of other
devices with latest technology. They provide broadband and internet services, and they also work
in area of software and application development. Their mission is to innovate and sell modern
equipments relating to telecom services and serve best quality to their customer (Aarikka-
Stenroos and Sandberg, 2012). Their vision is to contribute something meaningful to the
community and create genuine difference.
TASK 1
P1 Concept of innovation and comparison with invention
Innovation is related to improvement or making a significant contribution in an existing
product or service. For example, music player were already in market but when Apple launch
their music player which is popular by the name of iPod, it made a huge impact on music device
industry. Size of iPod was very small compared to other music plays and its designing was also
very attractive. Although it can not store more than one thousand songs but still it capture more
than fifty percent of market in terms of revenue. iPod was a innovation because their were
similar types of products which was already popular among society but Apple offer small size
with attractive designing (Bagchi-Sen, 2010). Their are various sources by source by which
innovation can be done like, incongruities, change in industry, change in perception or new
knowledge.
Incongruities is related to thinking in a different way, this difference in thoughts urges a
person or company to make something new and convert their idea into a reality. If there are
major modification in complete industry than organisation has to accept the change and work in
direction of innovation. This concept is popular in mobile and food industry because taste and
preference of customers on continuous basis. Perception of people vary and it changes on regular
basis because of different type of experience that they have in their life. For example sometime
age public do not know disadvantage of tobacco but nowadays they know that it can do serious
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damage to their health. So now tobacco manufacturing firms are innovating new type of tobacco
which would not do any harm to its consumers. New knowledge can be both scientific and non
scientific (Bogers and West, 2010). When a company or an individual found something new that
is not popular in market than they work in order to develop a product or method which can
generate more revenue and solve major problem.
4Com is doing innovation in business phone, application development and in some other
areas. They understand that need and perception of various industry are changing so they are
making products according to their desire. They are also working in area of invention but new
discovery take time and in this fast moving world innovation has more importance than invention
because in normal cases upgrading a product take less time if it is compared to making a new
products. 4Com is operating in a industry whose major work is related to technology. This is a
filed where doing innovation on continuous basis is necessary because it gives an extra edge to a
company over its competitors. Innovation and Invention look similar but their is major difference
between them. Earlier one is related to up-gradation in existing product or making a new items
with different idea but similar field. Invention is making something which this world has never
seen.
P2 Organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and
commercialisation.
Vision, culture leadership style and team work at cited company is disscussed in the following
text. 4Com has as sight where they want to make some genuine change in society an doing
meaningful contribution. Long term goals of an organisation is made according to their vision
because it depicts the direction where company is want to go. 4Com is a small and medium
enterprise and most of their competitors are big firms who have presence across the globe. This
organisation is doing different types of innovation in various filed but the real challenge is to
commercialise it. Commercialisation need money, 4com has limited resources so at initial stage
they are giving new updated product to their employee so they can get correct review about that
item (Bogers and West, 2012). This will assist in removing various mistakes that can happen
between the process of innovation and commercialisation. This company believe in
synchronising all the activities that they do, one of the major advantage of this strategy is that
marketing department give ground knowledge and information to research and development
department so they can identify the need of customers and develop products according to it.
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Strong leadership is needed to keep the firm in right direction because 4com can get confused by
strategies and innovation of big multinational corporations. Most of the companies work in area
of improving their management system but 4Com believe that strong leadership is equally
important because leader provide right direction at the time of execution of various plans. If
leader has a vision in which he/she thinks that in order to growth at a high rate they need
innovation on continuous basis than company will perform better compared to other player in the
industry. Investing in innovation is the main reason that this company is fighting with some of
the most powerful companies who work is related to technology.
TASK 2
P3 4Ps of innovation and use of the innovation funnel to examine and shape
innovative ideas.
4Ps of innovation are made so an organisation can focus on particular
areas in terms of research and development. 4Ps stand for product, process,
position, paradigm.
Product innovation – 4Com should focus on developing new
technology products with attractive designing because in recent times
impressive design, size and shape is becoming a key factor in
commercialising an item.
Process innovation – It is related to delivering goods and providing
various service in way that which is beneficial for both, organisation and
customers (Ettlie and Rosenthal, 2012). Automatic packing is a good example of
this concept because it make packing and delivering process efficient and
effective.
Position innovation – In this idea, not a single change is made in
product or its delivery, the only modification that is done is in terms of
repositioning an item by changing perception of customers toward that
product or service. This will money of company because they do not need to
invest money in research and development but their sale will increase by
using innovative marketing techniques.
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Paradigm innovation – This is completely different type of innovation
because it is related to mental models. For e.g. once Henry ford said they “if
I would have asked people what they want, they would have asked for a
horse who has five leg.” Their are some things which people can not image
but there are some innovators who can think about it and they can convert
their idea into a reality.
Innovation funnel works in area where idea about a product or project
is converted into reality by fulfilling market need. In general case their are
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three steps involved in this method. In first step, 4Com has to ask their
employees to abut different ideas that they have in their mind. If more
thoughts are gathered than it would be better for organisation because they
can make greater number of items. In order to take rapid decisions, firm
need to be very clear about their objectives (Gambardella and McGahan, 2010). In
next step, they need to do through screening of all the selected ideas so
risks and return can be assessed. 4Com has limited resources so they have
to be very careful at the time of investing different resources. Most
important thing that should be kept in mind at time of executing this step, is
to check the connection of idea with the organisational goals. In last step,
company will choose appropriate idea, they will start developing products
and provides services according to the pre-planned strategy. Virgin group
has adopted similar type of concept which is the main reason that they have
presence in many industries and there are flag bearer in area of doing
innovation on regular basis.
P4 Development of frugal innovation in 4Com.
Frugal innovation focus on minimising the unnecessary work and
development new business model or product. Normally up-gradation is
related to adding something in an item but this type of innovation has a
different area of work. 4Com can eliminate unessential features that are
present in their various product, like in business phone they have to many
ringtones, they can remove some of them which is not used in office. This
will reduce their cost of production and they can save their scare resources.
Normally management is related to optimum utilisation of available
resources, but frugal innovation is a step ahead in relating to this theory.
Doing more with less resources is the motto of this type of innovation (Godin,
2012). Apple has adopted simpler kind of concept, they remove many
unnecessary feature from their iPod and reduce its production cost.
Normally music player which was available at that time in market had more
capacity of storage compared to iPod but Apple invested in designing and
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reduce the size of their music which become key element in capturing more
than fifty percent market, in term of profit, in a very short period of time.
Their manufacturing cost was less but their profit margin was high. This is a
perfect example of frugal innovation because they eliminate unnecessary
feature from their product and made a new business model where cost of
production goes down and sale of item enhances.
TASK 3
P5 Importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product
Development.
Commercial funnel mainly focus on ideas which can generate profits
by investing in new business, process, or product (Wonglimpiyarat, 2010). Their
are some steps which are needed to be followed in order to find right idea
which can be adopted and implemented by company. In first step all the
thoughts of employees are taken which are related to making money. After
this, those thoughts which matches objective of company are selected and
in last part they are implemented so they can deliver results according to
the need of firm. 4Com can use this concept because it can give them
surprising results. They can develop new products by using this concept
which will generate more profit in long run (Huizingh, 2011). Another
advantage of this funnel is that, the idea that is going to convert in reality
would be according to the mission and vision of company. Apple was known
for making mobile phone, their main business and industry was mobile. But
Steve Jobs find the scope in investing their resources in a sector where he
feel that Apple can become table topper. He enter in music player industry
where iPod gained lot of popularity and earned enormous amount of money.
Product development on continuous basis is necessary to maintain
and increase growth of an organisation. HiHi is the best example of new
product development because it is made by new technology and fulfil most
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of the need of its customers. Following are the steps included in product
development process:
1. Idea generation – New product can not be developed if someone
do not get an idea in his/her mind. Market research has to be
done in order to find demand and need of society.
2. Idea screening – Affordability of idea will be checked because if
company can not convert a thought in reality than it would be a
mistake to develop new product (Kim and et.al., 2011). Its market
potential should also be checked.
3. Testing and developing – When product is ready to use than first
it will be tested by experts. Item can be given to employees so it
can be checked at a large level. It development will only start
when its user get complete satisfaction form the amount they
are paying. In this step only some samples are made.
4. Product development – Mass production of selected product will
start in this part of process. 4Com has to take decisions
regarding design of product and methods that company will be
using in manufacturing process (Lindič and et.al., 2011).
5. Commercialisation – Development of a product does not mean
that will buy it when it is available in market. 4Com need to
convince consumers by doing effective marketing so they can
get attracted towards new item.
6. Launch – This is the last step in which organisation launch their
product in market so customers can buy them and use them.
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P6 New product of 4com
4Com company work in telecommunication industry, they make
various product but their main product is business phone which is getting
very popular in business industry because it help them in enhancing
efficiency or employees so they can do their work in more effective way.
Following are some of the steps which are included in innovation business
case:
Executive summary – 4Com company target all the customers of
telecommunication services in UK (Rafinejad, 2010). They want to use
innovations in order to attract potential customers, this will also enhance
their reputation in market and their image in industry will also get better.
Need – Their main aim is to convince corporate client because most of
the product of company is made for corporate world. They can effectively
use goods like, business phone system, broadband and different application
for business system.
Solution – Products should be made in way that they are easy to
operate so everyone can understand its features. It should focus on fulfilling
the needs of customers so they can do optimum utilisation the product that
company is offering.
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Why product is innovative – At the time of selling an item, 4Com need
to tell what is the new innovation that they are offering. HiHi is the latest
innovation, this business phone can be used to video calls.
Customer researcher – This part of the process will assist this
organisation in finding the exact need of potential customers (Schoonmaker and
Carayannis, 2010). 4Com mainly target corporate clients, they are considered
as main target of company because they order phone in bulk and they get
ready to pay more price because they understand importance of business
phone. Customer research should be done on a regular basis because
demand of corporate client changes on continuous basis.
Design and development plan – Attractive designing play crucial role
in convincing potential customers. Size and colour also considered as an
important factor in terms of increasing sale and convincing more customers.
Funding – 4Com is not a big firm, they have very limited resources so
they have to find a source of funding because innovation and product
development can not happen without proper availability of financial
resources. Bank loan is one of the easiest option that is available to
company in order to get some investment for various business activity. But
there is a big disadvantage attached to it, firm has to pay interest on
regular basis, and burden of loan will also increase. Trading equity is
another option but this will also diminish their power of decision making
(Snow and et.al., 2011). Taking funds from local angels or investor group is
another option which is getting very popular in industries which are related
to technology and innovation.
Expected benefits – In this step, 4Com will analyse different
advantages that company can get in forthcoming time. Although it is not
easy to predict, how people will give response on particular product or
service but a rough estimation can be done by using past data and
information or taking opinion of some experts of that field (Teece, 2010).
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TASK 4
P7 Tools used by an organisation to develop, retain and protect intellectual
property and knowledge.
Some people argue that doing innovation is an easy task if it is
compared from retaining and protecting that new idea or product. Their are
various tools that can assist in retaining and protecting intellectual property
and knowledge:
Professional help – In order to develop a product, 4Com company can
take assistance from a professional firm or individual of particular area. In
case of retaining and protecting various intellectual property and
knowledge, firm can hire a professional lawyer or legal advisor (Thore, 2012).
Customer knowledge – If an organisation want to retain customer for
long time they need to find their preferences and so in future they can
develop products according to their demand.
Supplier and employees – They are considered as an important part of
developing and selling items that is made by 4Com company. But they
should not be allowed to know some crucial information which can leak
important information of development of product.
Something companies put lot of effort in retaining and protecting
knowledge and intellectual property but competitors copy their goods. This
happen in case of Apple, some other player s of mobile industry copy their
design and features. In order to minimise these incident they filed many
legal cases because of which cases of imitation of items go down (Walsh,
2012).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that innovation is
necessary in order to achieve constant growth and survive in business
world. It has various advantages like, it give an extra edge over other
players of same industry. Given study enhanced the knowledge of user
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about the difference in between the concept of invention with alteration as
they are entirely different terms. An important thing that has to be watched
at the time of converting new idea into relativity is that it should match with
the objectives of organisation. Commercialising innovation is main target of
most of the companies because once they have invested so much amount in
research and development they need to recover it by selling innovative
products that they are making.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aarikka-Stenroos, L. and Sandberg, B., 2012. From new-product development to
commercialization through networks. Journal of Business Research. 65(2). pp.198-206.
Bagchi-Sen, S., 2010. Strategic considerations for innovation and commercialization in the US
biotechnology sector. European Planning Studies. 15(6). pp.753-766.
Bogers, M. and West, J., 2010. Contrasting innovation creation and commercialization within
open, user and cumulative innovation.
Bogers, M. and West, J., 2012. Managing distributed innovation: Strategic utilization of open
and user innovation. Creativity and innovation management. 21(1). pp.61-75.
Ettlie, J.E. and Rosenthal, S.R., 2012. Service innovation in manufacturing. Journal of Service
Management. 23(3). pp.440-454.
Gambardella, A. and McGahan, A.M., 2010. Business-model innovation: General purpose
technologies and their implications for industry structure. Long range planning. 43(2).
pp.262-271.
Godin, B., 2012. “Innovation Studies”: The Invention of a Specialty. Minerva, 50(4). pp.397-
421.
Huizingh, E.K., 2011. Open innovation: State of the art and future perspectives. Technovation.
31(1). pp.2-9.
Kim, S.K. And et.al., 2011. The effect of R&D, technology commercialization capabilities and
innovation performance. Technological and Economic Development of Economy. (4).
pp.563-578.
Lindič, J., and et.al., 2011. Deploying information technologies for organizational innovation:
Lessons from case studies. International Journal of Information Management. 31(2).
pp.183-188.
Rafinejad, D., 2010. Innovation, product development and commercialization: Case studies and
key practices for market leadership. J. Ross Publishing.
Schoonmaker, M.G. and Carayannis, E.G., 2010. Assessing the value of regional innovation
networks. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. 1(1). pp.48-66.
Snow, C.C. And et.al., 2011. Organizing continuous product development and
commercialization: the collaborative community of firms model. Journal of Product
Innovation Management. 28(1). pp.3-16.
Teece, D.J., 2010. Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long range planning.
43(2). pp.172-194.
Thore, S.A. ed., 2012. Technology commercialization: DEA and related analytical methods for
evaluating the use and implementation of technical innovation. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Walsh, P.R., 2012. Innovation nirvana or innovation wasteland? Identifying commercialization
strategies for small and medium renewable energy enterprises. Technovation. 32(1).
pp.32-42.
Wonglimpiyarat, J., 2010. Commercialization strategies of technology: lessons from Silicon
Valley. The Journal of Technology Transfer. 35(2). pp.225-236.
Online
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Difference Between Invention and Innovation. 2016. [online]. Available
through:<http://keydifferences.com/difference-between-invention-and-
innovation.html>. [Accessed on 16th May 2017].
Innovation Funnel. 2016. [online]. Available through:
<https://www.cleverism.com/lexicon/innovation-funnel-definition/>. [Accessed on 16th
May 2017].
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