Managing Innovation in Businesses: A Case Study of Morrison's

This report focuses on the innovative practices adopted by Morrison's in the retail industry. It discusses the future of the industry, the organisation's innovation requirements, and the development of future innovation capabilities. The report also includes an innovation roadmap for Morrison's and an analysis of the company's organisational culture in relation to innovation.

Managing innovation in
Businesses

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report highlights the innovative practices that are undertaken by Morrison's for
building their future development process efficient. It also illustrates the understanding of
innovative practices that are adopted by companies operating in retail industry. It also enlightens
the knowledge in relation to innovative capabilities of Morrison’s. It also delves into varied
framework which can be used to gain insights regarding innovative practices in Morrison’s. The
report also described the various factors that will be required to achieve future growth for the
company with the help of an innovation roadmap which includes various avenues to pursue
future growth such as building automated warehouses, smart AI systems, use of augmented
reality and creating new and fast delivery channels. The report also included various aspects of
the company in relation to innovative capacity building such as organizational culture and cross
functional cooperation.

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
The Future of the Industry 2022 and Beyond.........................................................................4
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2022 and Beyond...........................................5
Development of future innovations capabilities of chosen organisation.............................12
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................15
REFRENCES...............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Innovation management encompasses a process whereby innovative procedures of an
organisation is managed starting from initial phase till successful implementation (Batac and
Maymo, 2019). It essentially consists of varied decisions, processes and practices which are
devised and analysed for developing strategies to make an innovation strategy. It is considered as
a key for transforming ideas into deliverables action. Innovation management is beneficial for
organisations as it aids them in discovering new products, reducing cost and enhancing
development practices in a significant manner. It is important for any organisation to capture
differential ideas from their employees in order to make them feel valued and satisfied. It should
be analysed properly in order to facilitate progress. For better understanding of innovative
practices, Morrison's have been taken into consideration. Morrison's is an UK based supermarket
chain which was established in 1899 and has its headquarters at Bradford, United Kingdom.
This report is based on the aim of developing an innovation road map which outlines the
preparation of innovative practices in an organisation. This report highlights the understanding of
retail industry regarding its future plans. This project report also demonstrates the significance of
knowledge and cross-functional operations in an organisation setting. This project report also
delves into capabilities of chosen organisation for building it innovative in nature.
MAIN BODY
The Future of the Industry 2022 and Beyond
Retail industry of UK is mature with two primary kinds of merchandise, namely, durable
and soft goods. In this, durable products include sporting equipment, appliances and electronics,
while, soft products are household items, paper products, clothing and cosmetics. UK has most
vibrant along with dynamic retail sector across the globe. It accounts for 5% of overall economy
with contribution to £98.4bn GVA and employment of more than three million people that other
industries (A Vision for The UK Retail Industry, 2022). With technological advancements in
retail products, there are ample products related to retail that are gone high-tech. In retail sector,
incremental innovation is category of innovation which is taking place. In this, retailers make
investment in new technologies, comprising, machine learning, automation along with Internet of

Things so to ensure to enhance values of customers, profits remains low on average and
productivity continues to outpace rest of economy.
Morrison’s is popular establishment in Retail Industry. Consumer demands and choices are
becoming unique in the fast paced world towards technologically advanced commodities (Deslée
and Dahan, 2018). Business concerns across the globe in retail industry are chasing similar
metrics so to stand out in competitive marketplace. From the coursework one, it is analysed that
retail industry forms huge share of GDP resulting in existence of high level of competition
among players in market. Morrison’s being largest retail and grocery corporate, has sped its
technological together with innovative advancements in operations. For the company, some
sources of innovation ate users as innovation, opening different possibilities and recombinant
innovations. Mentioned below are certain factors which drive innovation in retail industry for
2022 and beyond:
Augmented reality: In retail industry, augmented reality experience is becoming new
norm for 2022 and beyond. With virtual fitting rooms, improves in-store augmented reality
navigation and so on, retailers without these characteristics are falling behind. In case with any
retailer, useful application of virtual reality helps digital consumers in retail sector include try
prior devising purchase decision (Fitzmaurice, 2018). For Morrison’s, augmented reality is a
factor that foster innovation to help shoppers in looking distinct types of products before
purchasing.
Cashier less stores: It is new retail trend wherein customers visit physical shop, select
what they want, make purchase themselves and walk out of store. As with huge number of retail
decisions, primary reason for cashier less stores come with profit. For Morrison’s, building
cashier less store in future will help in reducing friction during process of checkout, permit in
generating more sales per unit of time. Against backdrop of increasing shortage of workforce,
cashier less stores can offer array of benefits such as speedy shopping, eliminating cashier
personnel and so on. The novel trend will also decline staffing costs to company and assist stores
to keep more of sales that they will make in future of 2022 and beyond.
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2022 and Beyond
In order to emphasis towards strengthening core foundation, organisation, such as
Morrison’s needs to emphasis on advanced requirements for bringing innovation. With the

adoption of certain concepts and frameworks of innovation, Morrison’s is able to achieve
success. In this context, managers of Morrison’s require Simple model of innovation that is a
process view diagram. Below are phases of the innovation model and operations required by
managers of Morrison’s in 2022 and beyond?
Figure 1: Simplified model of innovation process. 2021
(Source: Simplified model of innovation process. 2021)
Search: At the stage of search, retailers carry out practices to search ways so to turn
ideas into reality (Simplified model of innovation process, 2021). In case with Morrison’s,
required search options are research and development, market signals, regulations and behaviour
of competition.
Select: In this, managers of company require to select effective method for conversion of
ideas into reality (Götz, Hohler and Benz, 2018). Herein, management of Morrison’s selects
competitive differentiation to turn ideas in real globe. It is claimed by Morrison’s that products
of the company are technologically advanced and have spent huge resources in research and
development. Organisational ideas are differentiated as per price, designs, benefits and customer
services.

Implement: The stage is related to putting words into real actions. It is requirement of
managers of Morrison’s to transmit ideas into reality for the purpose of becoming leaders and
attaining a sustainable competitive position in retail industry. It is desirable for managers of
Morrison's to implement innovative practices regarding digital platform and use of digital
technology for enhancing their productivity as well as securing competitive advantage.
Capture Value: It is last stage of the innovation process wherein organisation require to
capture values for offering through organising certain events (Griesar, Bessant and
Bernschneider‐Reif, 2018). For Morrison’s, values for products are captured by hosting
campaigns in which potential and prospective target audiences are provided opportunities for
trying new products for self before purchasing products. It gives the company power for selling
points for retail products in portfolio, rather than depending on practices of marketers.
Another major model which can be used to assess the innovation requirements of
Morrison’s to pursue the future growth in the retail sector is the simplified process of innovation
which details the exact way in which companies like Morrison’s can take inventive approaches
regarding new market avenues (Oeij, and et.al., 2019).
Figure 2 Innovation process model

Conception
In this stage of the innovation process, companies like Morrison’s focuses on finding
areas in which it can innovate further and this stage majorly involves the generation and
evaluation of multiple ideas. According to the research done in the CW1 project and analysing
the future trends in the retail and grocery sector, the company bases its future innovation
requirements around ideas relating to augmented reality and smart system integration (Kakatkar,
Bilgram and Füller, 2020).
Figure 3 Morrison's cashier free shopping experience

Figure 4 Automated warehouse packaging lines at Morrison's
Implementation
This stage of the innovation process involves the company testing its capabilities for
undertaking innovative procedures and also does a complete evaluation of the products and
services that it intends to launch or streamline. Morrison’s capabilities are vast which can be
used to partner with better brands and services to provide a much more agile delivery network
that won’t get disrupted easily in the future.
Marketing
This stage is concerned with the way firms market their products and the strategies they
use to effectively position their new and innovative products or services in the market.
Morrison’s uses emotional appeals in its advertisement which can go along great with its planned
focus on automation and smart AI systems as people are looking for safer ways to shop in the
pandemic and have suffered for a long time (He, Aggarwal and Nof, 2018).
According to the above model’s application, the CW1 project analysis of the capabilities
of the company and the future trends and requirements of the retail and grocery industry, the

following innovation roadmap for the company has been developed below in the form of a Gantt
chart which is a tool used to quantify the time required to achieve particular tasks.
Activities Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Opening new
online and
offline fast
delivery
channels
Developing
augmented
reality based
supermarket
shopping
system
Integrating
new AI
systems in the
firm’s supply
chain
functions
Making the
warehouses
fully
automated
The above designed innovation roadmap will help the firm in establishing dominance
over the retail industry in the coming years by using cutting edge technological solutions which
are proven to be effective as the market size of AI solutions in global retail has been booming for
a while and practices such as automated warehouses are also showing promising future growth
prospects which Morrison’s could effectively cash in on.

Figure 5 AI integration in retail sector over the years
Figure 6 Global warehouse automation outlook

Development of future innovations capabilities of chosen organisation
Innovation capabilities can be described as an ability of an organisation of identifying
new ideas and transform them in modified products or processes which aid them to gain
competitive advantage (Guerra, de Gómez and Rivas, 2019). It can be developed through
creating or renewing shared visions as well as committed leadership in order to bring innovative
practices. It is a significant aspect for organisations to bring innovative ideas as well as analysing
disruptive aspects in business processes. It is imperative for organisations to adopt innovative
practices in their business operations which led them to grow and become a profitable avenue.
Managers of Morrison's have introduced varied innovative practices in order to enhance
their operations in an effective manner. From last few months, Morrison's are revamping their
online delivery practices through their online website as well as collaborations with delivery
partners such as Amazon and Deliveroo. They have introduced food boxes as well as doorstep
delivery service in order to attract numerous customers towards their brand. In their collaboration
with Deliveroo, Morrison's have opened up dark kitchen whereby food is delivered at doorstep of
people in an easy manner (Roggers C., 2020). Morrison's have make huge investment in machine
learning as well as artificial learning for optimizing products and convenience stores.
Engagement with varied stakeholders
Varied stakeholders of Morrison's are their employees, customers, community and many
more. In order to capable to bring innovative practices, it is imperative for managers of
Morrison's to handle them in a precise manner. For managing their stakeholders, they have
underpinned their core purpose of providing food through the use of sustainable practices
(Havins, 2020). They are ambitious in developing their brand as leading corporate which has
adopted innovative sustainable practices through adding the principle of recycle, reuse and
reduce in their operations. In order to be capable for adopting innovative practices, managers of
Morrison's have to satisfy their stakeholders. Use of automated processes in their business
processes aid them to reduce cost and maintain their stock levels in a significant manner which
further help them to provide a better experience to customers.

Digital transformation of business operations at Morrison's
Digital transformation of business operations in relevance with Morrison's with the help
of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Strategic partnership of Morrison's and Blue
Yonder has turned successful by gaining a leverage of 2.6% by increasing their shelf availability
(Morrison'sI mproves On-shelf Availability by 30% with Blue Yonder Demand. 2022).
Managers of Morrison's are willing to introduce advanced planning solutions in order to
streamline with complicated infrastructure regarding information technology. Blue Yonder has
provided Morrison's automated ordering system for their every store which led them to check
their availability status of products as well as save time of their employees in stock checking.
Analysing of organisational culture in relevance with innovative capabilities
Organisational culture can be described as underlying beliefs, values and principles of
employees which essentially governs their behaviour while working in an organisation (Jiang,
Ye and Lin, 2021). Organisational culture is considered as deeply rooted in old attitudes and
perceptions as well as traditional business processes. It is imperative for organisational managers
to ensure that culture which they have adopted in their organisation should be growth-oriented as
well as innovative in their approach. Every employee is connected with their workplace on a
personal level in order to create a collaborative environment at workplace. Managers of
Morrison's have developed their organisational culture in order to adopt innovative practices. In
order to evaluate their organisational culture for making it more innovative and appreciable for
managing changes, Handy's culture model can be adopted.
Handy's culture model is a framework which is developed on the principle if unspoken
rituals as well as tacit rules at a workplace (Kavadias and Hutchison-Krupat, 2020). Under this,
organisational culture is identified on the basis of centralised as well as decentralised manner.
Varied types of cultural practices undertaken in Handy's culture model in accordance with
Morrison's are mentioned below:
Role culture- This type of culture is concerned with establishments whereby a high
degree of centralisation as well as bureaucracy for stabling the business processes in an effective
manner (Miettinen and Sarantou, eds., 2019). Under this type of organisational culture, formal
rules as well as clearly stated strict procedures are enforced on employees. This type of culture
led an organisations to not adapt any dynamics of changing environment. In relevance with

Morrison's, this type of culture is not followed as they are flexible as well as adaptable enough as
they have implemented digital technology for enhancing their business practices. This culture
also curb innovative capabilities of an organisation as employees only have to follow orders of
their immediate bosses for following typical hierarchal structure.
Task culture- This type of culture are characterised as higher centralisation of decision-
making process but less formalised techniques are adopted (Mousavi, Bossink and van Vliet,
2018). This is generally based on project initiation as well as completion. These are flexible in
nature as well as provide accurate results. Under this type of culture, employees should be highly
communicative as well as collaborative in order to respond to dynamic and fast-pacing
environment.
It is imperative to maintain team dynamics while working in this environment as it has
result in overall success of an organisation (Sukoco, Tanjung and Ishadi, 2020). It is not
considered as an ideal cultural environment for those organisations who are willing to work by
following procedures and rules. In relevance with Morrison's, managers have implemented this
culture at their workplace by bifurcating varied tasks in differential teams which led employees
to enhance their cohesiveness. Working in a team has significant impact on building a culture
whereby innovative practices can be adopted in a strategic manner.
Power culture – This type of culture is essentially concerned with an organisations which
has high degree of formalisation but low degree of centralised power (Olimov, 2021). Under this
culture, managers are consider as charismatic who believes in make direct communications to
their team members. Organisations adopted this type of culture in their business operations often
operates in turbulent environment. Power culture is considered as beneficial for organisations for
those organisations who wants quick as well as responsive results. However, it is
disadvantageous for those people who are highly opinion-oriented in their approach and cannot
perform in an environment where people are slow in their workings. In relevance with
Morrison’s, managers have adopted this type of culture as through this they can get clear as well
as accurate results in some time. There are clear lines of hierarchy in Morrison's for making their
decision-making process effective. However, this can be adopted by Morrison's in making their
innovative practices successful.
Person culture- Under this type of culture, employees feel that they are most significant
person in organisation. Here, employees are only concerned with their vested interests in

organisation such as salary and compensation benefits (Sofiu, 2018). They are not loyal towards
organisational values but only want to fulfil their personal interests. In context to Morrison's, this
type of culture is not appreciable as this never support innovative practices. In order to become
innovative, it is imperative for managers of Morrison's to adapt that environment whereby
employee’s values for organisation and work for attaining objectives.
Organisational culture of Morrison's has loosely depends on their seven priorities which
they undertake for strengthening their brand as well as introduce innovative practices. Their
priorities principally encompasses being competitive, serve customers as well as society in an
effective manner, increment of local integration, adopt digital practices and speeding up their
progress parameters. In order to be more innovative as well as productive, managers of
Morrison's have introduced scan and go app in their free trial shops as well as practice of 'More'
card holder (Morrison's, 2022). They have also provided headsets to their employees for ensuring
improved communication as well as reduce the stock loss.
Cross functional cooperation
This is also a major factor which will be responsible for building the required capabilities
for Morrison’s to pursue the activities and actions listed in its innovation roadmap which has
been developed in earlier sections of the report. Cross functional cooperation refers to the
organization practice within which smart and effective teams are formed in which employees
from diverse backgrounds and domain specialization are brought together to work towards a
common objective (Bendig, and et.al., 2018). This helps the company become much more agile
and versatile as the teams so formed are capable of competing a diverse amount of work.
Knowledge transfer is also a key aspect of cross functional cooperation and a driver of
innovation as through this practice, employees get to obtain surface level knowledge of various
fields of business which makes them extremely productive and it will help Morrison’s build a
robust innovative climate and framework of channelling knowledge management (Nguyen, and
et.al., 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above presented information, it has been concluded that innovation
management is considered as a significant aspect for making the business a successful venture.

Adoption of innovative practices has made the establishment more competitive and also aid them
in developing a differentiated information. Digitalisation is a broader term whereby an
organisation can transform their operations by using digital means. It is considered as significant
aspect for brining innovative practices by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Automated system has assists companies in enhancing their productivity as well as performance.
This also help them to reduce their cost and provide a flexible working environment to their
employees. It is imperative for organisational managers to bring constant innovative practices in
order to tackle with their competitors. Organisational culture can be understood as framework
whereby underlying beliefs, values and principles of employees which are assessed for bringing
innovative practices. Handy culture model is refers to a framework which assess varied cultural
practices of differential organisations. It is imperative for organisations to assess their cultures
for introduction of innovative practices. Simple innovation model is a framework which consists
of varied phases including search, select, implement and capture value. It is imperative for
organisational managers to implement innovation models which is used by them to evaluate their
innovative practices. It is desirable for organisations to plan their innovative practices in a
strategic manner which help them in securing competitive advantage. Innovations aids them to
reduce their operational cost which they can use for other functions. It is important for
organisations to understand the use of digital transformation for making their business operations
effective and productive. Innovative practices are helpful for organisations to enhance their
productivity and performance level. Innovations should be introduced in a constant basis for
making their brand viable.

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