The Importance of Innovation in Unicorn Grocery

Innovation

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is defined as the process that is used by most of the firms in form of
converting an idea into concept or product which satisfy needs of customers or for which they
are willing to pay. The main reason behind bringing innovation within organisation is to satisfy
different needs of potential customers in an effective and better way (Aarikka-Stenroos and
Sandberg, 2012). It generally refers to the procedure of developing effective processes,
workflows, ideas and products. By implementing innovation, firm can gain competitive edge in
market. This report is based on Unicorn Grocery which is a cooperative grocery store of
England, United Kingdom. It includes innovation and its importance along with its comparison
to invention. Apart from this, the process required for commercializing innovation and range of
techniques for protecting intellectual properties are includes in it. This project also discusses
about process of new product development, frugal innovation, 4p's of innovation and importance
of commercial funnel. Besides this, an innovative business case is developed for firm.
TASK 1
P1 Explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in comparison with
invention
Innovation includes the process in which firm added a new feature, value or characteristic
to product or service which completely satisfy diverse requirements and needs of customers. It is
basically the process of transforming an idea into product or concept. For a successful
innovation, a good idea is required because without it, no innovation can takes place. So, a good
or unique idea is very crucial for establishing a successful venture or goods or services which
meets needs of target audience. It is the key to growth and long term success of any business
organisation. Innovation administer competitive edge to company over its rivals in market place.
It acts like catalyst for business enterprise as it administers competitiveness to firm and assists in
its high growth.
Innovation and invention are not similar, they both are different from each other
(Difference Between Invention and Innovation. 2016). Introducing innovation in products or
service does not mean that it is invention. It is a change process and firms are require to adapt
themselves according to the transformations that takes place in business surroundings. Offering
such goods & services which helps in satisfying changing needs of customers can only be
possible with bringing innovation. Firms are require to develop an innovative culture at

workplace and provides an opportunity to employees to show their skills and creativity. This will
make organisation more competitive and employees become more capable to resolve issues or
problems with effectiveness and efficiency. Innovation helps the company in maintaining their
strong position at market place for longer period of time. A creative and unique idea is one of the
success key of enterprise (Bagchi-Sen, 2010).
(Source: Innovation, 2017)
Unicorn Grocery is one of the cooperative grocery store of England in which 70
employees are working and carrying out its operations. Significant profits are yield by company
but due to availability of many competitors in market which deals in similar products, a big
threat is there for firm of loosing its position. So, in order to maintain it and gaining advantage at
market place, referred company is require to make themselves distinctive by doing something
new. In this regard, management of firm takes decision of introducing an application that makes
it easy for customers to access their products. Use of mobile application also assists in reducing
time as well as efforts of both firm and its potential customers. Some advantages that firm gain
by introducing innovation are as follows:
 For creating unique selling proposition of particular product or process, the greatest
means is effective innovation (Ettlie and Rosenthal, 2012).
 By innovation, firm enable to yield high sales and profit.
Illustration 1: Innovation

 It increases motivation of manpower, helps in building flexible recruitment and retain
workforce within firm.
 Supports in building good image of brand in market.
 One of the best way to gain high competitive advantage & capturing large market share is
innovation.
 Performance and productivity of company is improve and assists in reducing cost. Helps in satisfying more number of customers.
Comparison between Invention & Innovation:
Innovation Invention
Innovation takes place when significant
enhancements are made in goods and services
which are already available or exist.
Invention is discrete creative act where a
completely new product of service is developed
which never exist before.
It is defined as modern idea which can be
applicable to existent situation.
It is practical aspect which can be assessed by
individuals.
Innovation is about make the product
marketable or reach to final customers.
It is a conversion of novel notion to substantial
idea.
It involves integration of different processes
or product.
Its main concern is single process or product.
P2 Explain how organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation
and commercialisation
Unicorn Grocery is one of the small cooperative UK based grocery store which is
managed and controlled democratically by its members. Firm deals in providing food and drink
products which are processed, fresh and dried and are producing from organic ingredients.
General grocery items are also offered by company includes household & body care products
(Gambardella and McGahan, 2010). For coping up with competition, firm has decided to
innovate something in form of introducing own mobile application. By this, their sales will
enhance and enable to maintain large consumer base. Prime reason of firm behind doing
innovation is dynamic business environment in which customers now a days are prefer to buy
products online.

Culture & Team Work: Unicorn Grocery is encouraging positive workplace as the firm
is completely controlled and overseen by its individuals. This shows every one of its individuals
contribute similarly towards accomplishing business objectives and goals in a successful and
effective way. Workers perform as indicated by the individual roles which are allotted to them.
As it is a small business firm, it have faith in achieving tasks with collaborations or team efforts
as opposed to doing it individually.
Vision: Vision statement of referred firm is “ To have strong customer and market base
by administering such services or products to potential consumers which creates some value for
them”. This statement shows that Unicorn Grocery is carrying out its operations accordingly. It
has been determined by members of company that today, consumers are more preferring to buy
goods online so, they decided to launch their own online application (Godin, 2012).
Leadership: In Unicorn Grocery, participative style of leadership is followed by leaders
under which they encourage their team members to take active participation in activities of
company and involved in process of decision making. This will assists leaders in creating high
sense of satisfaction & recognition among workforce. Freedom is also provided to manpower
which inspires them to think out of the box and generating unique ideas.
TASK 2
P3 Explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and
shape innovative ideas
Joe Beasant and Joe Tidd are the individuals who was given Innovation Mix concept
according to which, it is complicated to carry out research. Individuals who perform this gets
confused and sometimes may choose wrong platform for carrying it out in structured manner
(Huizingh, 2011). For making the process of innovation more simple, 4p's of innovation are
applied by firm which includes process, product, paradigm and position which are defined
below:
Product: It is required by business firm to develop such services or products which
attracts large group of customers without doing more promotion or advertising. Firms are
required to implement innovation on regular basis in order to maintain their strong position at
market place. For instance: Sales of organic vegetables and fruits can also started by Unicorn
Grocery.

Process: It is related with transforming the process of manufacturing and delivery of
goods to end user. It administers similar benefits to both customers as well as firm. As company
decided to bring innovation in their process of delivering goods to customers, they launch their
online mobile application.
Position: It is related to repositioning of existing services or product. For effectively
attain business objectives and goals, firm usually done rebranding of its product. It is needed by
company to launch their goods among customers of different segments at various places so that
strong position can be hold by firm and large market share can be capture (Kim and et.al., 2011).
Paradigm: Views of society needs to be ignored by company sometimes so that those
goods can be produced which are different. Innovation embedded by Unicorn Grocery in terms
of launching mobile application. They do this by keeping in view the imagination & thoughts of
individuals.
(Source: Innovation Funnel, 2017)
Illustration 2: Innovation funnel

P4 Explain developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is used in an
organisational context
In order to minimize cost of goods sold and reduce complexity from production process,
frugal innovation concept is utilized by firm. As per this concept, resources are considered as an
opportunity by inventor instead of liability. Frugal Innovation is the concept deals with finding
new plan of action, redesign product and reconfigure value chain of business that faces
exceptional limitations in a maintainable and versatile way (Rafinejad, 2010). This sort of
development is predominantly utilized by the organizations so to lessens the likelihood of goods
and process complexities looked by end-client. It help the firm in diminishing general cost of
production & cost of item. Services and products delivered under this development ends up
being more helpful and viable. Such kinds of items are framed with ideal use of accessible assets
and are condition inviting. These are quicker, preferred and less expensive over different assets
produced under standard advancement. In any case, certain sort of risk is related with this
advancement yet relatively every other organization is utilizing it in their business activity.

(Source: Frugal Innovation, 2016)
Principle of frugal innovation: Find opportunity in adversity: It is the principle that deals with rephrasing problems or
issues. Managers are require to take up something which appears like threat or adversity
& converting it into opportunity that is advantageous for firm and customers. Do more with less: Organizations are require to search creative way for developing best
solution to issue inspite of asking for more. Here, company requires to rethink their way. Think and act flexibly: Improvisational is better instead being rigid. Keep it simple: A condition of ambiguity is created sometimes when there are many
choices. Thus, it is suggested to posses less choices that are best rather than having
number of choices (Schoonmaker and Carayannis, 2010). Include the margin: It is needed by Unicorn Grocery to include their target audience and
take proper feedbacks from them for making improvements. They simply ask about
expectations and needs regarding products.
 Follow your heart: Be motivated and passionate and keep creating new ideas.
Illustration 3: Frugal Innovation

TASK 3
P5 Explain the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product
Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation
Innovation Funnel:
It recognized as a savvy procedure by which firm endeavour to decide proper sources
which helps the organization in conveying creative merchandise to potential clients in precise
and organized way. It is the obligation or duty of supervisor to choose appropriate circulation
divert which bolsters in returning high benefits and incomes (Innovation Funnel. 2016). As
Unicorn Grocery has chosen to present their versatile application and for which they experience
the procedure of new item advancement. It encourages them in successfully meeting
prerequisites of clients.

(Source: Commercial Funnel, 2017)
Different advances are associated with this procedure which are characterized beneath: Idea generation: This is the stage in which ideas are produced. There are different
sources through which these can be produced. Idea screening: There are different ideas however just few of them are great and can be
used. In this stage, chiefs check the possibility of thought. From every one of the
thoughts, best thoughts are chosen and remaining are wiped out. Before choosing the
thought, different elements are considered by administrator, for example, moderateness,
clients needs, qualities and shortcomings of firm and so forth. Concept testing and development: This progression incorporates testing in which chose
thought is tried. It is a blue print of thought which is changed over into idea at this stage.
A model of thought is created to test. The idea is tried on chosen gathering of clients and
data getting from those clients are utilized for checking attainability of it.
Recommendations or input from clients assumes urgent part in deciding if to proceed
onward with the idea or not (Snow and et.al., 2011).
Illustration 4: Commercial funnel

 Market development and strategy: After idea testing, if comes about are attractive then
compelling business techniques are created by supervisor. Different components are
thought about in this stage, for example, marking procedures are produced, benefit is
foreseen and promoting blend are connected. Evaluating methodologies are likewise
detailed by organization in this stage. Business and financial examination: Actual offers of positive attitude look at by
supervisor at this stage and measure it by deals goals which are built up already.
Feasibility of item is check in this stage.
 Commercialization: It is the last stage in which firm dispatches their item in showcase.
P6 Build an Innovation Business Case for an organisation, including ways to access funding
Unicorn Grocery prepare business case for measuring the amount of risk connected with
investing in innovation process. Like, the company and its members has decided to launch its
own mobile application so as to connect strongly with customers (Teece, 2010). But before
launching its app, their members needs to analyse the risk so that they can frame appropriate
strategies and plans for the same. Series of steps included in building an innovative case which
are discussed below: The Need: This the first stage where need for embedding innovation is calculated. This
can only be possible if management of respective firm is already aware about existing
issue of the company. In case of Unicorn Grocery, their members observed decline in
sales because people has started purchasing products via online channel as they feel it is
more convenient as compared to going to its outlet and then purchase it. After identifying
the need, next step is to find solution for its problem. Your Solution: Keeping in mind the of innovation, best possible solution formulated by
administrators of respective association is in the form of launching its own mobile
application. Why it is innovative: The solution created by company must be innovative in all sense.
As Unicorn Grocery become the first one among other small-medium sized enterprises to
launch its own mobile application. This help in making their market and customer base
more stronger.

 Customer Research: Before introducing final product in the market, it is better to first
conduct a mini-research through which business entity can effectively figure out what are
the current likes and dislikes of customer (Walsh, 2012). Investment Requirement: Huge investment required for carrying out innovation in a
proper manner. Mainly there are two sources of funding one is Internal and other is
External. In case of Internal source, adequate funds are arranged within the company only
such as using profits again, selling long term assets that are no longer in use etc. External
source of funding means arranging sufficient amount of funds through various outside
sources such as creditors, angel investors, bank, individual organization etc. Expected Benefit: At this significance of innovation on customer, environment and
society is calculated.
 The Ask: In this, valuable opinion and suggestion of customer is collected after
implementing innovation.
TASK 4
P7 Evaluate the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property
Intellectual properties are the rights that guide in empowering advancement inside
business undertaking (Wonglimpiyarat, 2010). Regularly a firm manages a lot of ideas that help
them in their development and advancement yet anyway it isn't feasible for organization to
change over each and ever thought into the real world. Dread is connected with all thoughts in
regards to being stolen by any of their rival. In this manner organizations are require to ensure
their thoughts by utilizing different kinds of instruments that assumes vital part in increasing
higher aggressive edge are characterized beneath:
Patent: Such kind of right is regularly utilized by the organizations when they delivered
or acquire any new item the market. It is for the most part done at the season of item innovation.
In basic words, selective privileges of that specific item has been given to innovator or
organizations when they deliver new item. With the assistance of this, designer of such item
official turn into the maker or producer of that specific item. Day and age assigned for patent is
greatest 20 years. In spite of the fact that it can be broadened additionally rely on the creator
decision.
Advantage:

 Exclusive right
 Effective tool against imitators Protection up to 20 years.
Disadvantages:
 Costs for registration is high Invention must be revealed in application.
Trademark: Different signs are apportioned to various item based on which these are
items and administrations are recognized. Every item is having their own particular extraordinary
style which influences them to recognize from others. It might be as signs, images, outline or
blend of all.
Advantages:
 No statutory limitations for life of trademarks Registration of trademark is relatively easy and inexpensive
Disadvantages:
 Popular trademarks are at risk for genericide.
Copyrights: These are frequently utilized by individual for their masterful work and
writing. It is for the most part utilized for film, ballad, verse, photos and so on. Essentially it is a
lawful right that has been given to originator for a settled or particular number of year. It is for
the most part made law of the nation (Bagchi-Sen, 2010).
Advantages:
 Significantly longer statutory life Relatively simple to register and inexpensive
Disadvantages: Protect idea expression, not the idea itself.
Trade secrets: It has been trusted that all thoughts or items can't be protected. Along
these lines it is smarter to think of some as thoughts as competitive advantage that will be
licensed yet for later stage.
Advantages:

 Protection not limited in time
 No registration costs No disclosure required
Disadvantages:
 Not easily enforceable
 Limited remedies available
 Can be patented by others
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that innovation is vital for
company's growth and success. It is often viewed as likelihood for succeeding of business. It
provide long term sustainability to association that provide them high competitive edge in the
market. With the help of business case, proportion of risk factors can be easily figure out. In
addition, different intellectual property tools like patent, trademark has been discussed in the
above report that play key role in protecting owner's discoveries and invention.

REFERENCES
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Online
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 10th
July 2017].