Innovation and Strategy: People Solutions

This report focuses on the challenges and issues faced by People’s Solutions, a psychological development consultancy. It includes how the company is making efforts to overcome the challenges by revising its business model and value proposition. The report includes an external analysis using Porter’s Five Forces and PEST analysis, as well as an internal analysis using SWOT analysis and core competencies. The report suggests that the company can use Resource Based business model to overcome the challenges related to its services and operations. The collaboration and IPR protection strategies are suggested so that company can address the problems behind its organizational challenge.

Running Head: INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 1
Innovation and Strategy: People
Solutions

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 2
Executive Summary
People Solutions is a psychological consultancy which analyzes the human behavior of
organizations and individuals and determines their context for maintaining the work. In an
organization, it is very important to develop work-life balance for overall development and
growth in the most cost-effective manner. The major objective of this report is to analyze
existing business model of People Solutions and it studies the reasons why the company is not
able to attain its objectives. The analysis is done based on the design thinking techniques. It
includes the potential IP protection and collaboration strategies so that it can overcome its
organizational challenges. It explains the new challenges and value proposition which are
derived from design thinking techniques. In the below strategic innovation report, it is stated that
company can use Resource Based business model to overcome the challenges related to its
services and operations. The collaboration and IPR protection strategies are suggested so that
company can address the problems behind its organizational challenge. People Solutions will be
protecting its intellectual properties so that competing firms cannot imitate them. Moreover, the
report illustrates that People Solutions can collaborate with different firms to enhance the service
quality.

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 3
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Background and Discussion on Organizational Challenge and Value Proposition.......................................4
Existing Business Model...........................................................................................................................5
External Analysis..........................................................................................................................................6
Strategic Analysis (Porter’s Five Forces Analysis)....................................................................................6
PEST Analysis...........................................................................................................................................7
Internal Analysis..........................................................................................................................................9
SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................................................................9
Core Competencies.................................................................................................................................9
Strategies...................................................................................................................................................11
Intellectual Property Protection............................................................................................................11
Collaboration Strategy...........................................................................................................................11
Decision Making Techniques.....................................................................................................................12
New Value Proposition and Organizational Challenge...........................................................................14
Business Model..........................................................................................................................................14
New Business Model.............................................................................................................................14
Conclusion and Recommendations...........................................................................................................17
References.................................................................................................................................................18

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 4
Introduction
During past few decades, the companies are adopting different innovations and strategies so that
they can deal with the challenges which they face in their operations and processes. These
innovations can be applied by revising the business model and value proposition. Moreover,
firms use different decision-making techniques to make a decision regarding new value
proposition and strategies.
The major purpose of this report is to focus on the challenges and issues which are faced by
People’s Solutions. These challenges are discussed in the previous assessment in the context of
this organization. People’s solutions in a psychological development consultancy which offers
coaching, solutions, and support to the human resources, teams, individuals, departments and
even whole organization. The director of the company is Amy Cooper. This report includes the
organizational challenges which People’s Solutions is facing today. It includes how the company
is making efforts to overcome the challenges by revising its business model and value
proposition. The new business model is derived by adopting design thinking process, strategic
analysis, and IP protection and collaboration strategies.
Background and Discussion on Organizational Challenge and Value
Proposition
People’s Solutions is a human development consultancy which offers training, assistance and
solutions to the people, teams, individuals and organizational divisions and organization as a
whole. By using the company’s expertise in the different field among psychology and via
collaborations with the employees and workforce, business leaders and experts, this consultancy
assists its lighthouse customers to resolve their staff’s possibly accessing, determining and
evolving the potential of people (Drucker, 2014). Thus, the chosen organization provides
different products and services which can be divided into different categories like attraction &
selection, development & retention, safety solutions and transition and outplacement.
In its business and operations, People’s Solutions is facing some specific challenges which can
affect the organizational growth. The major organizational challenge of the company is that it
wants that their existing products and services deal with the mental health of the staff and human

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 5
capital in the busy working environment rather than only being utilized as a device to remove
them from recruitment and selection process. From the previous assessment, it can be stated that
current value proposition of People’s Solutions is very general and it does not clearly provide the
competitive advantage in the marketplace. Moreover, the value proposition of company has the
lack of ability that will make it very complex to grab the attention of its potential clients (Needle,
2010).
The existing value proposition of company is that it delivers globally identified, measurable
outcomes offers excellent service quality, operates with the professionalism, integrity and
authenticity and provides an exclusive and developing set of products. To attain its
organizational objectives and mission, People’s Solutions has adopted many effective strategies.
The director of the company, Amy Cooper provides the opportunities to new and fresh
psychologists by collaborating with different universities in WA (People Solutions, 2018). By
connecting with the students, she generates new and creative ideas so that they can meet the
needs and requirements of their valuable clients. In addition to this, the consultancy protects its
intellectual property rights by complying with related laws and regulations applied to the
business. These existing strategies assist People Solutions to gain a competitive edge against its
competing brands.
Existing Business Model
As mentioned above, People Solutions is an independent group of specialist recruitment
businesses. It is focused to provide temporary, flexible and permanent training and recruitment
solutions to commercial, industrial and driving employee market via different brands. It has
grown very slowly and now it is thriving the business families made up of firms which have
specialization in key sectors. With different branches in diverse locations, the teams of People
Solutions have the domestic market expertise and specialist knowledge of different sectors in
which they operate in allowing them to provide a higher level of services with a focus on the
national level. The existing business model of People's Solutions is focused only on recruitment
process (Lindberg, Gumienny, Jobst, and Meinel, 2010, 2010). It just uses its products and
resources for recruitment process and it does not focus on the development and training of
human resources.

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 6
The current business model of People Solution is not very impactful as the company failed to
enhance its services and fulfill the needs of its clients. The major stakeholders of the company
are clients, organizations, universities, media, candidates, government agencies, competitors,
employees and employee support programs. Through its current business model and very generic
value proposition, People Solutions failed to create trust and satisfaction among different
stakeholders. This consultancy confronts various issues and threats as its existing business model
do not fulfill any criteria which are required to develop the organization in employment and job
consultancy industry. The workshop conducted in the assessment 1 show that stakeholders of
People's Solutions have no trust and confidence in its processes and strategies. The quality of
human development and growth services is poor in comparison to other consultancies and it does
not have any effective pricing strategy. Additionally, the current business model of the company
shows that it failed to provide and grow the employment in the marketplace. There are different
people who are approaching People's Solutions with different needs like attraction & selection,
development & retention, safety solutions and transition and outplacement. But the existing
business model of People Solution is not able to fulfill all the needs as the system is very slow
and it is not technologically advanced (Sengupta, 2014). It takes more time to fulfill the needs of
organizations and individual clients. It does not have more partners and communications so it is
unable to enhance its brand image. It indicates that current business model of People Solutions is
not effective for its services and operations. It is the major reason that company faces different
organizational challenges.
External Analysis
Strategic Analysis (Porter’s Five Forces Analysis)
Industry Rivalry
The major competitors of People’s Solutions will be similar consultancy firms which provide
different products and services like recruitment, selection, safety and development and career
transition (People Solutions, 2018). For this organization, it is very important to implement the
above strategies and revised business model so that it can deal with the competition in the
industry. Additionally, People's Solutions need to focus on its pricing strategies like it needs to

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 7
become cost-effective and provide its services at reasonable rates. The major competitors are
Chandler Macleod and Hudson, Sentis and Directioneering.
Potential New Entrants
People Solutions may face the threat of new entrants in this industry as it is very easy to set up a
new business of consultancy. These new entrants can be with the modern and updated
technology, better support services and easier recruitment and coaching process than People
Solutions. Under this business, the start-up costs are very low so new players can enter easily.
Threat of Substitutes
Threat of substitutes is moderate for People Solutions Organization as people can take assistance
from offline job consultancies. Additionally, universities directly contact the companies which
remove the interference of consultancies (Sara, Beckman and Barry, 2007).
Bargaining power of Suppliers
Suppliers’ bargaining power for People’s Solutions is low as there are various suppliers who
supply the required materials for consultancy. Agents also work as suppliers as they supply
candidates for recruitment and coaching (Wisdom et al, 2014, 485).
Stakeholders
The major stakeholders of the company are clients, organizations, universities, media,
candidates, government agencies, competitors, employees and employee support programs. After
adopting collaboration strategies, the company can develop its stakeholders like advertising
agencies, colleges, government bodies etc. Advertising agencies will assist the organization to
increase its presence among lighthouse customers (Sutter and Kieser, 2015). By generating
lighthouse customers, the company will be able to increase its customer base.
PEST Analysis
Furthermore, the external analysis of People Solution is conducted by using PEST analysis. The
PEST analysis of the company is given in the below table:
Factors Impact on Business

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 8
1. Political factors
 Political stability in Australia
 People Solutions is planning to expand
the business based on political links
and influences.
 It has better relationships with
government bodies and public sector
firms.
 There are various norm and policies,
imposed on consultancy business.
 Expansion of business activities and process
 Focus on pricing strategy
 Business needs to focus on compliance of
norms and regulations.
2. Economic Factors
 Higher charges by People Solutions for
its employee training and coaching.
 The economy of this country is highly
dependent on information technology
and electronics.
 Decrease in unemployment rate
 Moderate disposable income of
candidates and employees.
 It can shift the customers from People’s
Solutions to competing firms.
 The need for training and development
program to train staff
 Decrease in unemployment rate increases
the candidates for People’s Solutions to get
training and coaching (Jandhyala, 2015,
286).
3. Social Factors
 Poor customer satisfaction
 There is a need for effective training in
organization's operations as there is
implementation of various
advancement, new processes and
models.
 The company is engaged in the
development of employees and teams.
 Adverse impact on company’s brand image.
 It will enable the staff to provide effective
training and coaching to employees and
team.
 It can attract more customers and spreads
positive publicity among population.
4. Technological Factors
 Implementation of new and updated
information technology
 Effectiveness in the business operations and
organizational development program

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 9
 Up-gradation in the technology of
country (Teece, 2013, 175).
 It can offer new opportunities to customers
to connect via e-service.
Internal Analysis
Furthermore, the internal analysis of People Solutions is conducted by using SWOT analysis and
core competencies of the organization. Internal analysis of People Solutions is given below:
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a framework to conduct internal analysis that includes four dimensions such as
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis of the chosen organization
is stated below:
Strengths Weaknesses
 Skilled and talented human resource
professionals and safety experts.
 Innovative and unique business idea
 Strategic collaboration with public, private
and non-profit sector organizations.
 It offers cost-effective organizational
development solutions.
 Lack of brand presence in the Australian
marketplace.
 Poor advertising and marketing skills
 Operations are not customer-centred.
 Unable to expand its business in other
emerging markets.
 Unclear value proposition (People Solutions,
2018)
Opportunities Threats
 Adoption of advanced and updated
technology to deliver development
solutions.
 Business expansion in other nations
 Implementation of effective marketing and
advertising strategy.
 Development of services
 Intense competition from other leading
brands like Chandler Macleod and Hudson,
Sentis and Directioneering.
 Increase in training and administration costs.
 Insufficiency in collaboration with partners.
 People are not clear about company’s
business.

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 10
Core Competencies
Core competencies of an organization are the abilities which are acquired by it over a period of
time. These core competencies can be in different forms like human resources, technology, skills
and abilities and intellectual property. These assist the organization to gain an effective
competitive edge over competing brands. Core Competencies of People’s Solutions are given
below:
Resources Core Competencies
 Skilled and talented workforce
 Development and maintenance of website
 E-platform for training and coaching
services.
 Technology resources
 Intellectual property rights like patents,
trademarks etc.
 Better brand image among Australian
working population.
 Effective relationships with partners,
government bodies, organizations and
trainees.
 Unique business idea
 Knowledge about different industries like oil
and gas, mining and education.
The above-mentioned core competencies of People Solutions are very significant to its value
proposition and business operations as they assist the organization to gain win-win situation. In
addition to this, the company is able to develop effective communication process with customers
and partners. The resources and core competencies of People Solutions are very unique than its
competing brands. By using these competencies, the company will be able to deliver its value
proposition and value of money to its customers. Competencies can assist the firm to improve
both recruitment and training process.
VRIN Rating:
From the above analysis, it can be expected that company will be able to generate long-term
revenues by pursuing these resources and core competencies. By developing an extensive
network with the partners and universities, the company will be able to increase the number of
customers and avail the organization growth in the future (Liedtka, King and Bennett 2013, 20-
25).

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 11
INSIGNIFICANT
PROFIT
LONG-TERM PROFIT
NO PROFIT SHORT-TERM PROFIT
Non-Core Core-Competencies
Strategies
As mentioned above, People Solutions Company needs to adopt more effective strategies that
will help the company to deal with the challenges and improve the performance of the company
in future (Jandhyala, 2015, 286). The recommended strategies for People’s Solutions are given
below:
Intellectual Property Protection
Intellectual property protection strategy is very important for the business of People Solutions
Company. Under this, the organization needs to make sure that its business model and policies
are protected at the beginning of application in process. Currently, Amy Cooper has not adopted
a right approach to protect its intellectual rights. It is not able to protect the IPR so other new
entrants are imitating the business model and ideas of People Solutions.
Additional IP Strategies
In order to protect IPRs, the company should use effective methods like trade secrets, patents,
trademarks, copyrights and agreements. Looking at the above issues and challenges of People’s
Solutions, the company needs to patent its business model and technology resources that it will
be using under its revised business model (Jolly, Anthony and Philip 2012). It will enable the
organization to limit the rivals to copy its resources and competencies. By effective management
of IPRs, People Solutions will be able to protect technologies and assist to maintain competitive
edge. If the company implements these strategies effectively, it will have various benefits.
Higher
Rating
Lower
Rating

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 12
Collaboration Strategy
Collaboration strategy is one of the most important strategies that should be practiced by
People’s Solutions to enhance its position. Generally, People Solutions believes in developing
partnerships and creating firms with higher quality human resources by complying with a
systematic approach. Currently, the company has collaborated with various public, private and
non-profit sector organizations. It has a licensing agreement with the City of Subiaco in Western
Australia. It has done some outsourcing arrangement to get the human resources. For this, it has
collaborated with safety experts, human resource professionals, business leaders.
Future Collaboration Strategies
In the future, People Solutions should buy the updated information technology sources by
partnering with IT consultancies. It will allow the firm to offer innovative solutions to challenges
confronted by company (Dodgson, 2018). It can collaborate with the universities from where it
can take the details about the students and candidates. In addition to this, they need to establish a
strategic alliance with advertising agencies so that they can enhance their brand presence. It
should collaborate with the local councils so that it can enhance the overall services which it
offers to current and lighthouse customers. Local councils will assist the organization to get
licensing for opening offices and contacting universities (Lin, Tsai and Wu, 2014, 1985).
Decision-Making Techniques
According to Liedtka, King and Bennett (2013), design thinking is the process of developing
creative strategies which can be used by the designers during the designing process. It has been
developed as a model to eliminate the issues outside the design practice as in social contexts and
business. It refers to the strategy that is followed by the makers to develop an innovative
approach so that they can resolve the complex issues in an organization (Liedtka, King and
Bennett 2013, 20-25). In this context, Plattner (2011) stated that design thinking is a human-
focused innovation procedure which focuses on quick learning and growth, collaboration,
observation, prototyping of concepts, visualization of ideas and opinions etc. The foundation of
design thinking is constituted by different factors like logic, ideas, creativity, thinking, analysis
etc. (Plattner, 2011).

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 13
By conducting a research on design thinking techniques, it is identified that design thinking
process primarily includes several steps such as empathizing, defining, ideate, examining and
prototyping.
To find out the new future challenges, a workshop is conducted in the previous assessment. The
workshop has identified new value proposition and organizational challenges. Some of the
stakeholders are identified to conduct this workshop. After that, People Solutions has distributed
cards to them and asked them to note down all the challenges and issues which they face. It has
designed a 3D model to take the stakeholders’ feedback.

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 14
This model illustrates that People Solutions do not want it to be exclusively used as a recruitment
tool which determines whether an individual is in or out, but rather than as a way to organize and
assist the employees (Wylant, 2008).
New Value Proposition and Organizational Challenge
The design thinking processes used by People Organization resulted in new challenges and value
proposition. Under this workshop, the challenge of the firm is changed considering the response
of customers. It has identified the issues that lighthouse customers are using these tools in the
wrong manner. People’s Solutions has been offering its consultancy services for more than 18
years. Though, the company is not sure that the tool for selecting people could be a failure in the
marketplace for employment. Thus, the new challenge for this company is to make sure that its
recruitment tool can avoid the hysteria which leads to productive and effective placement of right
person on right place (Miozzo, Desyllas, Lee and Miles, 2016, 1340). New value proposition of
People’s Solutions is to develop human capital and transform the human departments from cost
centers to profit centers via effective and strategic payroll techniques and consultancy solutions.
Moreover, it states that “consulting advice and psychometric evaluation from People Solutions’
professionals help in putting a person in the most appropriate position in the company.”
Business Model
New Business Model
Considering the different issues and challenges identified in the workshop, it can be stated that
People’s Solutions will revise its existing business model so that it can eliminate these challenges
and adopt new value proposition. To enhance its services and process and position, this
consultancy can adopt the resource-based business model. Resource-based business model is a
framework that is used to determine the strategic resources with the capacity to provide
competitive advantage to a company. Under this model, a firm exploits the resources and
competencies to attain sustainable comparative edge (Teece, 2013, 175). It emphasizes on the
enhancement of core resources and competencies for delivering significant value to the
customers. The focus on core resources and abilities will offer a comparative advantage and
emerge as an exclusive strength of People’s Solutions. As this consultancy offers the services
related to growth and training of employees so it needs to focus on developing the core

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 15
competencies and resources. This type of business model will be very complex to copy by its
competitors.
Key Partners
 City of Subiaco
 Safety experts,
Human resource
professionals
 Business
Leaders
 Local councils
 IT firms
 Universities and
private, public
and non-profit
organizations.
Key Activities
 Team Coaching
 Individual
Coaching
 Attraction &
selection,
 Development &
retention,
 Safety solutions
 Transition and
outplacement.
Value Proposition
 Consulting
advice
 Psychometric
evaluation
from People
Solutions
Customer
Relationships
Customer
friendly
Services
Development
training for
employees
After service
feedback
Customer
Segments
 Private ,
Public and
non-profit
sector
organizations
 New
candidates
 Already
recruited
employees
Key Resources
 Safety experts,
Human resource
professionals
 Brand image
 Assessment
Centres
 Testing Centres
Channels
 Official website
of People
Solutions
 Assessment
centres
 Testing centres
 Social media
sites
Cost Structure
 Administrative and marketing costs
 Salary to human resources and safety
experts
 Website development and maintenance
 Licensing and other agreements
Revenue Streams
 Training services
 Team Coaching and development service
 Cash payment
 Online payment

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 16
This business model will offer various benefits to People Solutions. The company will be able to
enhance its service delivery by using innovative resources like technology and other systems. It
will make the system faster than earlier. This business model will be more focused on the growth
of employees. It differentiates the model from previous business model as that is only focused on
recruitment of candidates. At People Solutions, this business model highlights the requirement
for a fit between marketplace in which it runs and its capabilities. It will be valuable for the
company and its stakeholders. If People Solutions will adopt this new business model in its
operations, it will be able to enhance its performance (Tidd and Bessant, 2014). According to the
previous analysis, it has been assessed that the company has to develop a business model that
requires assisting the connection between people management and usage of company’s
recruitment tool. So, it needs to implement modern and advanced technologies in its operations.
People Solution will be able to generate more positive results by using these resources. When
this company will implement the resource-based model in its process, it will be using a
systematic structure to recognize challenges and eliminate them. The below-process shows how
this organization can create value by developing its resources and capabilities.
There are some ways how the company can address the organizational challenge and deliver the
new value proposition. These ways are given below:

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 17
 By using resource-based business model, the company can manage its resources which
can be used for both recruitment process and growth of employees.
 As it provides services for recruitment and selection so it can develop its training
resources. This business model will enable the organization to establish evaluation
centres and assist the clients to select them successfully.
 The proposed business model will assist their experts to train the teams of client
organizations for managing selection processes in right and effective manner.
 Through this model, People Solutions will be able to make sure that its products and
services are not just used for recruitment purposes, but rather a tool to assist manage and
support the staff when they are recruited at work (Teece, 2013, 175).
 By adopting this business model, the company will be able to put the most appropriate
people for the right job. In this way, it will be able to deliver its value proposition.
Conclusion and Recommendations
In the limelight of above strategic innovation report, it can be concluded that design thinking
techniques are strong tools which assist in understanding and approaching the roots of
organizational challenges. It is a systematic manner of considering the perspective of each and
every stakeholder and evaluating the impacts of possible solutions. The above report found out
the effective solutions which will assist People Solution to deal with issues which the company is
facing. These solutions will lead the organization to future development and growth.
It is hereby recommended that People Solutions should focus on its strategic analysis so that it
can harvest maximum benefits from its future opportunities. It should protect its business models
and ideas in the beginning phase so that its competitors cannot copy them. In addition to this, the
company should enter into collaborative business so that corporations can work together and
attain collective objectives. It will offer various opportunities to emphasize on long-term
objectives rather than short-term only. Developing the cooperative intelligence will increase the
competitive advantage to People Solutions.

INNOVATION AND STRATEGY 18
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