Understanding the Innovation Process

This assignment delves into the complexities of the innovation process. It requires an in-depth understanding of the five distinct stages involved, from idea generation to commercialization. Students are tasked with analyzing the critical factors that influence the success of each stage and evaluating diverse case studies to illustrate real-world applications of the innovation process.

INNOVATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK-1............................................................................................................................................1
P1- Importance of innovation and its comparison with invention..............................................1
P2- Affect of mission, vision, leadership, culture and team work in shaping the innovation.....2
TASK-2............................................................................................................................................3
P3- 4Ps and use of innovation funnel in determining innovative ideas for Austin Fraser. .......3
P4. Development in frugal innovation........................................................................................4
TASK-3............................................................................................................................................5
P5. Significance of commercial funnel and application of new product development...............5
P6. Innovation business case.......................................................................................................7
TASK-4............................................................................................................................................8
P7. Tools that can protect organisational intellectual property...................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
.......................................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Innovation can be defined as introducing any new method or idea. In context of market,
this concept can be clearly seen as way of implementing new techniques into the product and
services that are being offered to the customer for the purpose of providing full customer
satisfaction and company can also avail the benefit of profit. This can be represented as a form of
developing new features within a product as per customer need and wants (Krishnan, 2010). This
method can be better understood as providing best solution to the current market demand. As far
as this report is concern about then Austin Fraser is one of the world's leading organisation
though comes under small business. This is a recruitment a consultancy firm. They are meant to
be advice and support people. For each clients and candidates , they provide best recruitment
services (Bruns and et. al., 2010). This report will enable to understand the basic difference
between invention and innovation. Vision, mission, leadership, culture and team work helps in
shaping the innovation and commercialisation.
TASK-1
P1- Importance of innovation and its comparison with invention.
Innovation can be considered as the most important task of any organisation. This is
because market is changing day by day. This leads to change in customer taste and preferences.
There is also cut throat competition in the market. Therefore, companies need to develop those
ideas and plans which will support them to sustain in the market. In context of Austin Fraser,
there has always been some scope of product innovation. As this company is a recruitment
constancy firm, they have to work upon the part of their quality of services that are being offered
to the candidates or clients (Rothwell, 2010). Creativity should be there in order to get suitability
in the market. There can be many reason of introducing and adopting innovation in the cited
company.
1. It helps in improving existing product and services and thus this can attract a number
of customer. As this company is solely comes under the head of small organisation, therefore
they need to focus in customer satisfaction in order to get a marginal growth in the market.
2. Chances of getting higher profit increases and this will automatically provide a
position of suitability to the company.
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3. By adopting several methods and techniques of innovation, cited company can actually
present a product differentiation into the market. This is important in order to attract most of the
customer attention towards any specific product and services.
Innovation and invention can not be considered as a same thing. They are different from
each other and holds a totally different concept (Tushman, 2012). Differences between these two
terms are given below.
Innovation Invention
1. This concept holds the idea of introducing
modification in any product or services. This
step comes after invention. Any innovation
have been made with the help of some specific
ideas.
1. This is actually an idea of introducing any
new product or services into the market for the
first time. This concept comes before
innovation and therefore, invention have to be
done with specific measures that is efficient
and effective in nature.
2. As in the presented case study, bringing new
ideas in the existing product and services will
be termed as innovation. Modification in the
features of iPhone will be a great example.
Therefore, company need to work upon this
innovation part as a means of attracting more
customer.
2. In this section, if apple is planning to
introduce a totally new product then this will
be considered as an invention. This can be
done with the help of new device and
technology.
P2- Affect of mission, vision, leadership, culture and team work in shaping the innovation.
There are many factors within the organisation that directly affects the level and quality
of innovation in any product or services. In context of this report, Austin Fraser is a small
organisation which needs to work upon their innovation part. Factors like, vision, mission,
leadership, team work can actually affects any innovation.
Vision- Vision of the cited company can be defined as the future perspective of it. They
are trying to capture maximum market in order to increase their stability. It is important for them
to make a clear vision so that this can be attainable (Mahr, Lievens and Blazevic, 2014). If vision
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of a company is accurate then only company can focus towards building up of new innovative
ideas.
Mission- They have a mission to provide quality of consultancy services to their potential
clients or candidates. They make sure that these mission should be clear to each and every
member of the organisation. So that their purpose of working can be solved. In context of above
mentioned company, it is necessary for them to clearly define their mission statement so that
when time comes, they would be able to adopt many techniques of innovation. This will be very
beneficial in the growth of the company.
Leadership- This is the basis of guidelines by the top management. Any company can
not get success in the market until and unless they have a good instructor. Leaders are
responsible for shaping the entire organisation (Katzy and et. al., 2013). Therefore they need to
be more dedicated from their part. Cited company should follow those leadership approaches
with which they can introduce many innovation into their product and services.
Culture- Every organisation vary from each other in terms of their culture. This can be
due to their vision, mission and objective. As the cited company have interactive culture within
the organisation. This is actually very helpful in creating a transparent working environment.
Employees can feel motivated and this will directly help the company to achieve their target in
the most effective manner (Keskin, Diehl and Molenaar, 2013). Culture should not be rigid in
context of mentioned company. This is because innovation can only be presented in a flexible
environment.
Teamwork- It is very important of the cited company to develop the idea of work. This
will definitely improve the efficiently of each and every single employee of the organisation.
Therefore, management need to develop the idea of team work into the organisation. Above
mentioned company should focus towards team work approach, so that importance of innovation
can be fully understood by the company as well as by their employees.
TASK-2
P3- 4Ps and use of innovation funnel in determining innovative ideas for Austin Fraser.
4Ps is the very basic method of marketing. This concept have to be taken into
consideration by every organisation. 4Ps stands for product, price, people and promotion. In
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order to introduce any innovation in the company, it is necessary to first understand the concept
of 4Ps.
Product- It means that product or kind of services that are being offered by any company
should be as per the demand of target customer or consumer.
Price- Setting price is again a very crucial task of any organisation. Price should not be
set as too high and it also not be too low.
People- These are the foundation of any organisation. Human resource is one of the
major element of any organisation. Therefore, company have to think for their well- being. They
need to be take care by the organisation.
Promotion- Any product or service can not be recognised by the customer until and
unless it is fully promoted with the help of several social media platform. This is so far the most
important part of product that can be be accepted by the customer in the market.
Innovation funnel can be defined as a tool that indicates all the steps involved in the
process of product development (Hoeber and Hoeber, 2012). Main purpose of introducing any
innovation into the market is to meet customer requirements. Innovation funnel is made up of
three major steps. Idea of first step is to increase company's knowledge. This is considered as
collecting more number of ideas. This is important because if ideas can be collected then only it
can be forwarded. Second step is related with matching the presented idea in step 1 with required
plan of the organisation. Third stage can be said as the narrow segment of the funnel. This is
because in this final step company focuses towards ensuring selecting idea that meet company's
objective.
P4. Development in frugal innovation
In present scenario, most of companies wants to expand their business in market place, It
can be done if they use invention strategies. Frugal innovation plays an important role in every
business enterprise. It is use to develop individual preferences and make them first priority of
emerging markets. Basically it is a procedure by which company minimises cost of products and
services. Its main work is to take off unnecessary characteristic from durable products and It is
also called as frugal engineering (Bosch‐Sijtsema and Bosch, 2015). It is a problem oriented
process or appropriate concept to solve different problems. In other words, troubles in
developing individual needs are get solve by frugal innovation. It is a trust which combines
existing knowledge and technologies from past experience instead of dedicated, substantive,
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research and development investments. Generally it makes relationship betwixt potential
consumers and originator or local and multinational firms.
Furthermore, from a normal view it is encouraged to boost social and economical
outcomes. To increase social and economical sustainability, it improves accession of goods and
services also improve efficiency of available resources or materials. Some times it become
catalytic inventions to make positive transmutation of social and economical factors. There are
very effective and systematic ways to develop frugal products which are following as under :
 Reduction in production cost : This is the most efficient method of developing frugal
innovation. In this business enterprises minimise the cost of production operations, it can
be done if company starts buying raw materials at lower cost and then sell manufactured
goods at low prices (Winkler and Bouncken, 2011). Through this company can produce
extra products and easily satisfied their customers because consumer mostly prefer low
cost goods and services.
 Produce reasonable and durable commodity : With the help of this technique Austin
Fraser can provide sensible and long lasting goods. Mostly people purchase those
products which have long life period and they do not have to buy them again. These kind
of goods are very economical in nature. Through this company can evolve its frugal
inventions.
 Additional characteristics of existing products : By providing extra features in current
product organisation can make its goods more valuable than its competitors which will
directly effect the innovation funnel.
 Emergence of advanced devices : With the help of innovative inclinations enterprises
can enhance high quality and standard of its various products and services which results
in higher growth.
TASK-3
P5. Significance of commercial funnel and application of new product development
Commercial funnel plays significance role in innovation and commercialization. It is a
marketing model which is highly focused on consumer's purchasing behaviour towards products
and services (Alam, 2011). This model involves four steps which are awareness, interest, desire
and action. According to this first of all, customer should be aware about particular goods or
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services then he should have interest in that specific product, after that he should have desire to
have that product and at last he should take action to achieve that good or service. Apart from
this, commercial funnel means change current strategies to modify existing goods and services so
that company can attract new potential customers. It have various significant roles in growth of
Austin Fraser which are following as under :
 Profit maximisation : Through modified products and services organisation can attract
new customers which will results in high organisational growth.
 Cost minimisation : By modify strategies enterprise can produce goods and services in a
effective and systematic way through which extra cost will be minimised.
 Eliminates losses : With the help of commercial funnel company can get rid of various
losses such as financial crises and reduction in market share (Rosing, Rosenbusch and
Frese, 2010). It helps in removing wastage and utilize resources very well.
 Build corporate image : Well performed commercial funnel function can create strong
goodwill and organisational image in the mind of customers.
 Enhance profitability : Innovative strategies help company in producing more goods
and services which results in high financial profit.
 Increase productivity : Efficient functioning of commercial funnel can produce products
in a very organized manner through which enterprise can improve its production system
and manufacture extra goods and services.
 Quality enhancement : Well designed mercantile funnel can increase the quality of
production as well by which company can accomplish its desired results.
Moreover, usage of new development process can also improve the quality of existing
products or services (Hoegl, Lichtenthaler and Muethel, 2011). Fundamentally, it is a procedure
which is applies in organisations to enhance the superiority of current products and modified
them in a effective manner so that they can be very much unique from competitor's goods and
services. There are many steps of commodity development procedure by which Austin Fraser
can improve its products, those are following as under :
 Emergence of new ideas : Before producing any good or service it is required to
generate great idea by business mangers and it can be done if company have investigated
market research. In other words, in first step of development process individuals have to
bring new and innovative ideas and designs to improve products.
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 Screening of ideas : After generating content or opinions, the next step is to screen or
evaluate them in a effective way so that company can make unique products which are
not available in market place. It can be done through analysing various competitors in
same industry.
 Testing and development :After emerging and screening ideas, in this step business
mangers use various methods to investigate that if there is any concealed obstacles or not
(Cardillo, A and et. al., 2011). If any problem occurred the he take corrective action to
remove them.
 Business analysis : In fifth step, mangers analyse the whole business to know what will
be the advantages and disadvantage of product development process.
 Product development : This is last stage of NPD, after analysing whole organisation
manger take decision of product development to consider all positive and negative
outcomes of NPD procedure.
Hence, these are the different stages of new product development which can increase
organisational growth.
P6. Innovation business case
Commercial enterprises use various innovation plans to enhance its existing performance
in market place. With the help of innovational programs company can its operating system and
also increase its effectiveness in term of money. Through the help of different techniques of
innovative management enterprise can get various benefits such as sustainable competitive
advantage and also make dynamic organisational structure so that firm can cooperate with
continuous environmental changes. Following points are the innovation business case of Austin
Fraser which are following as under :
 Executive summary : Austin Fraser is a staffing and recruiting consultancy, it is a small
business organisation based in united kingdom (Alam, I., 2011). It provides various
recruiting services in IT, engineering and in other departments as well. It is famous for
its smooth functioning in consultancy sector.
 The requirement : Every enterprise is established to fulfil its objectives just like that
Austin Fraser have many objectives such as providing better recruitment services in all
over the worlds along with this, other goals are high sales volume, high productivity,
customer satisfaction, employee retention and so on.
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 Solution : This company is providing better services to fulfil different needs and
demands of its customers. Also its various innovative strategies and plans are enhancing
its performance.
 Why product/services is innovative : Products or services of this company are very
unique and creative due to continuous efforts its high skilled staff members.
 Customer research : This innovation business case will help in market research of
different needs, demands and preferences of their potential customers and also help in
identifying new customers.
 Design and development programs : With the help of this plan customers can easily
analyse that all product and services of this company are highly developed and designed
in effective way.
 Need for capital : For this plan company can take government assistance and also can
arrange capital from various financial sources for its appropriate funding.
 Expected benefits : Through this innovation business case organisation can provide
various benefits to its customers and also can enhance existing performance of
organisation in market place.
Furthermore, with the help of above mentioned innovation business case Austin Fraser
can achieve higher growth. Unique creation programs of a company can easily accomplish its
goals and objectives in effective and systematic manner.
TASK-4
P7. Tools that can protect organisational intellectual property
Intellectual property creates legal ownership of creations of mind, inventions, artistic
works and literacy (Keskin, Diehl and Molenaar, 2013). Through this company and individuals
can gain financial profit . In simple words, it provides a environment where creativity and
innovations can grow. There are many ways to protect intellectual property which are following
as under :
 Copyright : It defines the right of Makers for their some unique and artistic work. Things
which can covered by copyright are music, books, novels, computer programs computer
software and creative drawings.
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 Patents : This type of protection is given for extraordinary inventions, it gives right to
owner that how and where his creativity can be utilised.
 Trademarks : It includes designs which can distinguish product and services of one
company to others.
 Industrial designs : It involves decorative articles and it can consist of different features,
pattern and shape of article.
 Geographical indications : It is used to know the geographical legal proceeding and
indications of products. It is mentioned on goods which shows its different qualities and
characteristics.
Hence, these are some ways by which intellectual properties can be protected.
CONCLUSION
This report is all about knowing the importance of innovation into the selected SME that
is Austin Fraser. Innovation and invention are different from each other. There are many factors
that affects the type and level of innovation produced in a company. These factors can be
leadership, mission, vision, culture and team- work. Concept of 4Ps is important in any
organisation and in the mean time “innovation funnel” helps to shape the innovative ideas for the
cited company. Process of new product development plays a vital role in deciding the
effectiveness of the product.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Krishnan, R.T., 2010. From jugaad to systematic innovation: The challenge for India.
Bangalore: Utpreraka Foundation.
Bruns, E and et. al., 2010. Renewable energies in Germany’s electricity market: a biography of
the innovation process. Springer Science & Business Media.
Rothwell, R., 2010. Towards the fifth-generation innovation process. International marketing
review, 11(1). pp. 7-31.
Tushman, M.L., 2012. Special boundary roles in the innovation process. Administrative science
quarterly, pp. 587-605.
Mahr, D., Lievens, A. and Blazevic, V., 2014. The value of customer cocreated knowledge
during the innovation process. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(3). pp.
599-615.
Katzy, B and et. al., 2013. Innovation intermediaries: a process view on open innovation
coordination. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 25(3). pp. 295-309.
Keskin, D., Diehl, J.C. and Molenaar, N., 2013. Innovation process of new ventures driven by
sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 45. pp. 50-60.
Hoeber, L. and Hoeber, O., 2012. Determinants of an innovation process: A case study of
technological innovation in a community sport organization. Journal of Sport
Management, 26(3). pp. 213-223.
Bosch‐Sijtsema, P. and Bosch, J., 2015. User Involvement throughout the Innovation Process in
High‐Tech Industries. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(5). pp. 793-807.
Winkler, V.A. and Bouncken, R.B., 2011. How does cultural diversity in global innovation
teams affect the innovation process?. Engineering Management Journal, 23(4). pp. 24-
35.
Alam, I., 2011. Exploring cross-national differences in service innovation process and strategy in
developing and developed nations. Journal of Service Management, 22(5). pp. 586-606.
Rosing, K., Rosenbusch, N. and Frese, M., 2010. Ambidextrous leadership in the innovation
process. In Innovation and international corporate growth (pp. 191-204). Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
Hoegl, M., Lichtenthaler, U. and Muethel, M., 2011. Is your company ready for open
innovation?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(1). p. 45.
Cardillo, A and et. al., 2011. Computer-aided embodiment design through the hybridization of
mono objective optimizations for efficient innovation process. Computers in Industry,
62(4). pp. 84-397.
Online
Innovation management. 2013. [online]. Available
through<http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2013/08/08/how-to-innovate-the-
innovation-process>. [Accessed on 4th July 2017].
5 stages of innovation process. 2017. [online]. Available through<https://online.rivier.edu/5-
stages-of-the-innovation-process/>. [Accessed on 4th July 2017].
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