Fordway's Innovation and Commercialisation Strategy: A Detailed Report

This report, prepared for FORDWAY, a SME providing technological solutions, delves into the critical aspects of innovation and commercialisation. It begins by defining innovation and its importance within an organization, contrasting it with invention, and emphasizing the impact of organizational vision, leadership, culture, and teamwork. The report explores different types of innovation, including the 4Ps of the innovation funnel and frugal innovation processes. It further discusses commercialization strategies, including the commercial funnel and New Product Development (NPD), and the creation of an innovation business case, including funding options. Finally, it examines methods for protecting ideas, including knowledge and intellectual property management. The report provides practical examples and case studies, such as the impact of Apple's iPod, to illustrate key concepts and strategies. The report aims to provide insights into how FORDWAY can leverage innovation to enhance performance and gain a competitive edge in the market.

UNIT 8. INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALISATION
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Table of contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Task 1: ...................................................................................................................................................4
LO1: Explaining the context for innovation and determining the difference between invention and
innovation..............................................................................................................................................4
P1: Importance of innovation in an organisation...................................................................................4
P2: Explaining the effect of organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork on innovation
and commercialisation to employees of FORDWAY .............................................................................5
Task 2: ..................................................................................................................................................7
LO2: Types of innovation to employees of Fordway..............................................................................7
P3: Explaining the 4Ps of innovation funnel to examine and shaping innovative ideas to employees of
FORDWAY..............................................................................................................................................7
P4: Explaining the process of developing frugal innovation in Fordway ...............................................8
Task 3: .................................................................................................................................................10
LO3: Process of commercialising innovation in Fordway in market with practical examples: ............10
P5: Discussing the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product
Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation to employees of Fordway .............................10
P6. Building an Innovation Business Case including ways to access funding.......................................11
Task 4: .................................................................................................................................................11
LO4: Analysing the range of methods for protecting ideas and understanding their advantages and
disadvantages......................................................................................................................................11
P7: Evaluating the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property...................................................................................................11
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................13
Appendix 1: Innovation Funnel ..........................................................................................................16
Appendix 2: Commercial Funnel .........................................................................................................16
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Introduction
The contemporary complex global scenario demands that the organisations follow the
policy of innovation based on the demands and the changing demands of the customers. The
organisation must design the product line and the organisational process in a manner that will
allow them to gain competitive advantages against the other organisations working in the
market. The process of innovation is highly important for the SME`S which do not have a
huge organisational process. The organisation needs to be more appropriate in their product
line and deal the customer demands in an innovated manner that reduces the chance of being
repetitive in their products.
The process of innovation however needs to be conceptualised by the organisation
after properly analysing the market and the demands and preferences of the customers. The
proper commercialisation of the innovation process determines how successful the innovation
of the organisation is. As the CEO of FORDWAY a SME dealing with the process of
providing the technological solutions to other organisations it is important to follow the
policy of innovation in the services and the products. The assignment aims at defining the
ways in which FORDWAY can use the policy of innovation in gaining the utmost quality
performance from the employees.
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Task 1:
LO1: Explaining the context for innovation and determining the difference between
invention and innovation
P1: Importance of innovation in an organisation
The process of evolving new processes and ideas in meeting the demands and the
designs of the customers can be defined as innovation. The main aim of the process of
innovation is to as mentioned by van Hemert et al. (2013, p.440) the process of innovation
includes the process of utilising specific ideas, information and imaginations practically and
designing new products that can meet the actual demands of the customers.
Innovation is often confused with invention. The case study reveals how Apple Inc.
brought revolution in mp3 player business with the introduction of iPod. The market already
had mp3 players, but Apple re-sized it and increased the storage. This was a simple idea that
helped differentiating their music player from the other music players in the market. Music
player was an invention that was made long back.
However, Apple’s idea of actual innovation refers at creating differences or
implementing the invention differently. The planned small-scale industry is suggested to
focus more in innovation rather than invention. As far as business point of view is concerned,
any small-scale industry needs to do something new with their products and services. The
employees play an important role in this context. It is suggested after this research that every
employee needs to be listened by the organisation. The reason backing this suggestion is that
any idea can fuel the business of an organisation. More the ideas more are the chances of
improvement.
The innovation will directly affect the lives of the people working in such an
organisation because the more the company profits, more turns the hike in the careers of the
respective employees. The success of the innovation process further depends of the initiative
of the employees to implement the new innovative ideas. The employees of the organisation
need to be aware of the process and the possible effect it has on the customers.
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Invention is introducing a brand-new product in the market that has never been
spotted previously. Mobile phone was an invention. Once mobiles came in market, different
organisations started their ventures to add something different in their phones. History
witnessed mobiles progressing from feature phones to QWERTY phones, then to touch
screen phones and pocket computers. Today we have Smartphone without which our lives are
dark. All these years, different small companies came, and then they innovated and today are
the giants in Smartphone business. QWERTY keypad was an innovation, which made typing
as convenient as in computers. Touch screen took the mobiles to another level of user
experience.
The employees work on these ideas. The organisation is solely dependent on how well
the innovative ideas are carried out and implemented by its workgroups. Invention is also
playing a great role. If an organisation is not exploring different areas, it is difficult to grow.
Innovations on a single technology turns stagnant so, there is utter need for inventing and
introducing newer technologies.
The success of innovation depends on many factors. The addition must not be too
expensive, lest customers of economical class should not reject it. The innovation must be
affordable as well as it should speed up the business. The innovation must act as a catalyst
because the market advances at a huge speed. It is suggested that the innovation should be a
needful one and must match up the technology standard of the market. The obsolete ideas if
added to the product will hardly be taken well by masses.
P2: Explaining the effect of organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork on
innovation and commercialisation to employees of FORDWAY
The innovation within an organisation needs to be based on the long-term goal of the
organisation. The more the organisation can relate the organisational needs with the demands
of the customers the more are the chances of the success of the innovation process of the
organisation. To achieve the planned goals of the organisation it is important for the leaders
of the organisation to motivate and guide the employees in an appropriate manner. The ability
of the leaders to judge the long-term goals in the organisation as pointed out by Parida (2012,
p.290) is the most important criteria that guides the employees of the organisation in
achieving the desired goals.
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The leaders of the organisation must combine the expertise and the capabilities of the
employees and work towards the achievement of the goals of the organisation as a team. A
team has different members that work at different levels performing some specific task. The
success of the team depends on the ability of leaders to judge the expertise of different team
members and utilising the talents in an appropriate manner. The products that are designed by
the organisation as defined by Brunswicker and van de Vrande (2014, p.140) needs to have
an equal contribution of all the members to assure the acceptance of the products.
FORDWAY aims at enhancing the existing technologies of the organisations. This can be
achieved if the organisation follows the policy of a detailed analysis of the process of the
organisation.
The FORDWAY needs to utilise the expertise of all its employees in an optimised
manner (Fordway.com, 2016). Here we can consider the case of apple. Apple has utilised a
detailed plan where all the members of the organisation were actively involved in the
development of the product that was far better from the products that were already present the
market. The development of the ipod has described the importance of the active involvement
of all the employees in the development of the products.
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Task 2:
LO2: Types of innovation to employees of Fordway
P3: Explaining the 4Ps of innovation funnel to examine and shaping innovative ideas to
employees of FORDWAY
The aim of the innovation funnel is to describe the process of innovation that starts
from conceiving the idea to the final execution of the innovation plan. The innovation funnel
as mentioned by Hang Do (2014, p.200) described the process of transforming the innovation
plan in to reality by taking all the related aspects in to consideration. The innovation funnel
utilises a four-p model to describe the innovation process
Paradigm –The organisation aiming the innovation has to design the innovation process after
taking in to account all the related aspects and the possible outcome that can be achieved
from the process. The first step of the innovation process as opined by Freel and Robson
(2016, p.300) collects all the resources and utilises them in achieving the long term goals of
the organisation. FORDWAY has to conduct an extensive survey on the demands of the
customer organisation that will allow it to formulate the exact innovation plan.
Positioning – The success of the innovation process depends on the ability of the
organisation to ensure a proper positioning of the products. The products that are made by the
organisation are designed to cater the specific needs of the customers. FORDWAY is a
technical solution provider presently. However, the company has flexibility to focus on
certain areas more if the profit and customer satisfaction is achieved on a large scale from
these areas. FORDWAY has some plans that include re-positioning of the firm’s services to a
new dimension.
From the case study of Virgin Group, it is quite clear that the number of times they touched
different areas with a good team and proper research, they made good profit. Virgin has
developed several different products to cater the customers of different needs. Despite the
huge competition in the market the organisation has conducted a research and devised the
most appropriate plan that will attract the customers to the products.
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Process – Per process innovation, the manufacturing of the product needs to be optimized. In
this context, the way of production is modified in such a manner that more products could be
manufactured in the same time. It is also suggested that the process could be modified in a
way that the raw material consumption or the human labour consumption is optimised.
FORDWAY has to ensure that the innovation process provides the customer with the
products that are higher in quality and will be preferred by the organisations.
Products – This is perhaps the most important aspect of innovation. It is directly based on the
performance and ideas of all the strata of the organisation. Innovative product as pointed out
by Mazzarol (2014, p.25) is likely to be a success if it allows the organisation to gain
competitive advantage against others
The case study shows how Apple increased the storage as well as reduced the size of mp3
players to a more compact level. The product innovation made the iPods so popular that the
company is one of the Global giant.
FORDWAY being a service based company has plans to make their solutions different from
the others by implementing some solutions to the various real life problems in required fields.
The company has plans to set up a separate research team that will have highly qualified
people from the key areas that we usually provide service to. They will formulate ideas and
newer ways that will be implemented by our developing teams. Being the CEO, I am quite
sure about the idea of investing in a separate research team because most of the small
companies don’t take extra expenses of Research and Development. However, our
organisation is more focused in touching the hearts of our clients and has long term benifits
by getting a prominent name in the market.
P4: Explaining the process of developing frugal innovation in Fordway
The organisation must ensure that the innovation process of the organisation is based
on the budget of the customer organisation. As the organisation aiming at improving the
existing infrastructure of the organisation FORDWAY must make sure to maintain the budget
of the customer organisation in providing the innovations. The most common process as
mentioned by Bicen and Johnson (2015, p.280) of ensuring innovation in existing process is
by having a detailed knowledge of the process of the organisation. The more skilled and
knowledgeable the employees of the organisation are the more are the chances of the
innovation being within the budget of the organisation. Appointment of employees in
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FORDWAY who have a detailed knowledge of the advanced technologies and how the
technologies can be used to enhance the productivity of the organisation will result in the
satisfaction of the customers and reduce the chances of their paying an additional amount for
the services. Apple has used the expertise of the employees in the most optimised manner and
devised a product that is within the budget of the organisation and satisfies the customers as
well. Wynarczyk (2013, p.260) described that another way of developing frugal innovation
within the organisation is by conducting a detailed analysis of the customer feedbacks. The
employees of the FORDWAY analyse the solutions that they provide and results that the
solutions derive. This allows them to point out the loopholes in their solutions and an instant
mitigation of the complaints. This saves wastage of the additional amount on changing the
provided solutions.
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Task 3:
LO3: Process of commercialising innovation in Fordway in market with practical
examples:
P5: Discussing the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New
Product Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation to employees of
Fordway
Pellikka (2011, p.229) defined commercial funnel as the process of transformation of
the potential customers of the organisation to actual customers. New product development is
the process of launching a new product in a market. It utilizes the market conditions, the
demand of a certain commodity as an advantage. If a new company can provide the same
quality product at a lower cost, the product will be sold successfully. Thus for the design of
the product line as pointed out by Morgeson et al.(2009,p.35) a survey of the other available
products has to be made by the organisation.
FORDWAY has planned to branch into newer areas by doing an extensive survey of
the market demands. The organisation has plans to grip the market by providing services at a
lower cost than the competitors provide. The research team has devised some change in
operation that will reduce the development expense. This extra amount has been planned to
be deployed in the new area to reduce the service charges. It can maintain the policy of New
Product Development (NPD) where apart from giving infrastructural assistance to the
organisation FORDWAY also provides additional services of data management and storage
consolidation etc.
The 4P’s of innovation funnel has really served greatly in favour of FORDWAY.
Firstly, the process management has made the entire process of working faster. Now, the
company deals with the project deadlines easily. Secondly, the product innovation has caused
the company’s name grow in market because the same thing is done more intuitively now.
These 2-Ps have significantly helped the company to grow and the rest two P’s are the part of
FORDWAY’s future mission.
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P6. Building an Innovation Business Case including ways to access funding
The innovation of the technological infrastructure of the organisation is an important
aspect of the modern technological based organisations. As a small company, Bank loans
funded the organization initially. However, that was not enough. As an alternative, the
company took advance from few partner companies and clients. FORDWAY has also started
an online crowd funding campaign to raise funds. The finance team is always focused to
locate potential investors and many such individuals and organisations have invested on us
after reading our mission.
The changes that are suggested by FORDWAY are based on the experience and
knowledge of the employees. The organisation had a survey and found out loopholes. The
finance team has formulated some schemes that tighten funding in some departments which
were over-funded and increase the budgets in the departments that really needed more.
FORDWAY allows the customer organisations to enhance their revenue by providing them
efficient way to reduce their expenditures that the organisation incurs through the application
of the different IT applications. FORDWAY has maintained a partnership with other
advanced IT professional organisations that can assist it in its task of enhancing the systems
of the organisation.
There are multiple ways of to grow the funds through innovation. They can use their own
funds or can tap into external funding.
If the company can relinquish some control to the external investors then they can use equity
finance. Can get funds from two sources – Business Angels or Venture Capital firms.
 Business Angels are known personalities with a lot of wealth to invest in companies.
They can invest from GBP 15,000 upto GBP 5,00,000. These people invest in the
growing private companies to earn good profits.
 Venture capital firms usually provide higher levels of investment in return of shares to
the private owner.
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Task 4:
LO4: Analysing the range of methods for protecting ideas and understanding their
advantages and disadvantages
P7: Evaluating the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and
protect knowledge and intellectual property
FORDWAY as an organisation dealing with the information technologies must
maintain a stand to secure the intellect and the talents of its employees. The organisation must
ensure that intellect within the organisation is retained and additional talent is acquired by the
hiring the most talented employees of the organisation. Apple Inc. can be stated as a good
example in this context.
The famous retina display of apple gadgets are manufactured by Samsung. However,
Apple has legally brought the technology in such a policy, that Samsung cannot deploy the
Retina Display in any other Smartphone or tablet, not even in Samsung phones.
As mentioned by Hang Do (2014, p.195) the intellectual properties of the organisation
are the talent and the intellect that is within the organisation. The intellectual property allows
an organisation to gain competitive advantages against other contemporary organisations.
There are several legislations that have been put forward to secure the intellectual properties
of the organisation. FORDWAY must manage the talent within the organisation by
maintaining a copyright policy on the process and the suggestions that are provided by the
employees of the organisation. Moreover, FORDWAY deals with the internal processes and
the policies of different customer organisations. Thus, the employees of the organisation must
take additional care in retaining the internal information of the organisation in an optimised
manner.
The skill of the employees in providing the exact solutions to the customers is in high
demand in the contemporary world. Thus, to retain the employees in the organisation it is
important on the part of the organisation to be efficient in realising the demands of the
customers and provide them the scope to develop their personal skills. Another way of
maintain the intellectual property of the organisation as defined by Mazzarol (2014, p.28) is
by securing the services that the organisation has already provided to the customers. The
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