Avecto Limited: Innovation, Commercialisation, and Business Strategy

This report, prepared for Avecto Limited, examines strategies for innovation and commercialization within the tech sector. It begins by defining innovation and contrasting it with invention, highlighting its importance to Avecto's employees through case studies of companies like Apple and Virgin Group. The report then explores how organizational vision, leadership, culture, and teamwork shape innovation and commercialization. It delves into different types of innovation, including the 4Ps of the innovation funnel (product, process, position, and paradigm), and explains how Avecto can develop frugal innovation. Furthermore, the report discusses the commercialization process, emphasizing the importance of the commercial funnel and New Product Development (NPD) processing, including building an innovation business case and accessing funding. Finally, it evaluates methods for protecting ideas and intellectual property, providing tools for knowledge development, retention, and protection.

Unit 8. INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALISATION
Table of Contents
1

Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Task 1:........................................................................................................................................4
LO1: Explaining the context for innovation and determining the difference between invention
and innovation:...........................................................................................................................4
P1: Explain innovation and its importance to employees of Avecto, with examples from the
given case study in comparison with invention:........................................................................4
P2: Explain to employees of Avecto how organisational vision, leadership, culture and
teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation, with supporting references from the
given case study:........................................................................................................................4
Task 2:........................................................................................................................................6
LO2: Explain the different types of innovation to employees of Avecto:.................................6
P3: Explaining the 4Ps of innovation funnel to examine and shaping innovative ideas to
employees of Avecto:................................................................................................................6
P4: Explaining how Avecto can develop frugal innovation:.....................................................6
Task 3:........................................................................................................................................8
LO3: Discussing the process required to commercialise innovation in Avecto in market with
practical examples:.....................................................................................................................8
P5: Explaining the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product
Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation to employees of Avecto:....................8
P6. Building an Innovation Business Case including ways to access funding..........................8
Task 4:......................................................................................................................................10
LO4: Evaluating the range of methods for protecting ideas and understanding their
advantages and disadvantages:.................................................................................................10
P7: Evaluating the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property:.......................................................................................10
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................11
Reference List:.........................................................................................................................12
Appendices...............................................................................................................................13
Appendix 1:..............................................................................................................................13
2

Introduction:
A market is ever changing because the customers’ needs change with time. A
company, which wants to retain the customer base and wants to attract more customers,
should always try to evolve with time. That evolution should take place on the plane of the
products or services as well as in the attitude of the company. The changing needs of the
market forces a company to develop products that can outshine the competitors in the market.
It is better to offer such products, which do not have any substitute in the market. To do this a
company should take the path of innovation and commercialisation. An innovation is an
entirely new idea, which was not conceived before, and nobody ever tried to do that.
Innovations change the vision of the world and every innovation requires a successful
commercialisation process through which the new product can reach to its prospective
customer base. As the newly appointed CEO of Avecto Limited, I will discuss the methods
through which it should try to innovate new products and the ways to commercialise them.
The ideas should be relevant to the current tech-scenario of the world. The farm is
maintaining its value in securing databases and computers from threats of malware and
spyware since 2009 and has been recognised as one of the fastest growing tech farms of UK
(Avecto.com, 2016). I will try to explain the methods through which the company can
prosper more. In this context, I will study the case of Apple Inc. and Virgin Group who are
quite well known for their innovative ideas.
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Task 1:
LO1: Explaining the context for innovation and determining the difference between
invention and innovation:
P1: Explain innovation and its importance to employees of Avecto, with examples from
the given case study in comparison with invention:
The process of transforming ideas into reality is innovation (Drucker, 2014). Reality
here indicates products or services. The innovation of products and services is the result of
the increasing demand of the customers for introducing something new in the market.
Innovation is always directed towards customer satisfaction. The innovation should serve
some economical purpose too like a great innovation can increase the profit of the company.
Per Bicen and Johnson (2015, p.280) an innovation always stands up for serving particular
purpose, which is to introduce a new product in the market that can change the way people
looked at similar type of products. There is also the point that an innovation is not something
new in the product line but its approach is revolutionary. Imagination calls for the capacity to
think out of the box and gathering ideas from different sources. The importance of innovation
is enormous as innovation can build up a company’s image and it can boost a company’s
credibility and quality in the market. An innovation also helps to increase the profits for a
company and helps to achieve its organisational goals.
As a tech-based SME, Avecto has already gathered much fame in the past few years
for providing better and securer digital work environment for the enterprises. Even the
public-sector organisations have contacted Avecto to make their systems more secure
(Avecto.com, 2016). However, Avecto should not stop innovating. Rather it should take clue
from Apple Inc.’s path to find out how they have never stopped their innovation process and
that’s why the company is now the world’s one of the most premium companies. Innovation
needs creativity and apple has been creative throughout the journey. Apple iPhone is not the
first phone, which boasts a touch screen display, but it was the first phone that showed the
world how touch screen phones were going to change the world Smartphone market within
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few years. It showed the world how innovatively a Smartphone could handle multitasking
(Apple.com, 2016). Prior to that, the multitasking system in Nokia’s Symbian OS or
BlackBerry’s proprietary BlackBerry OS was not so effective. The multitasking was never a
new idea that Apple invented. It just overhauled the entire concept of multitasking, which let
the users switch between running applications effortlessly and more efficiently.
P2: Explain to employees of Avecto how organisational vision, leadership, culture and
teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation, with supporting references
from the given case study:
Organisation vision statement gives the direction and explains what the business
owner and management wants the organisation to meet the requirements in future.
Organisational vision is one of the key factors behind successful innovations. This vision let
the company see through the clouds of uncertain future. The transformation from vision to
reality requires the strong and uncompromising guidance of a visionary leader, as commented
by Kaiser (2001, p.98). This way the team can feel motivated towards achieving certain goals
set by the company. The role of teamwork is much important here because all the members of
a team contribute to the outcome of the product in the market. There are nine types of
members in a team. They are resource investigator, team-worker, coordinator, plant, monitor
or evaluator, specialist, shaper, implementer, and completer or finisher (Morgeson et al.
2009). These nine members’ contribution gives birth to a new product. This team’s hard work
make an innovation happen. Then it is the work of the marketing team to properly
commercialise a product. It is very important for maintaining a proper work culture in the
team as well as in the organisation. The innovation of a product is a thorough creative work
and there should not be any unnecessary restriction, which can negatively affect the working
spree in the employees, noted Okpara (2007, p.15). Apple Inc maintains a perfect
combination of restriction free work culture and teams which are dedicated to innovate
products that can revolutionise the product market.
A relevant example is the introduction of Apple iPod in the market, which changes
the way people, used to carry music with them or listen to music on the go. iPod is a portable
music player which can store a number of songs (Apple.com, 2016). Steve Jobs, the founder
and former CEO of the company noticed that there were no compact and portable music
player in the market which has a large storage, lightweight and portable. The media players
available then were big and useless. The portable players were there but they lacked
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functions. To solve this, issue the company tried to make a music player, which can address
all the above issues. Final product they came up with changed the whole idea of portable
music players in the world and that is why iPod is still the world’s largest selling music
player.
Task 2:
LO2: Explain the different types of innovation to employees of Avecto:
P3: Explaining the 4Ps of innovation funnel to examine and shaping innovative ideas to
employees of Avecto:
Figure 1: 4Ps of innovation funnel
(Source: Model of 4Ps of innovation funnel, 2017)
An innovation funnel is a model, which is used to describe the different steps of
development process of an innovation, as observed by Pellikka and Pellikka (2011, p.229).
Every innovation starts with a greater and broader idea and when the final stage of an
innovation is reached then it can be seen that the unnecessary components have been
removed to make the product more precise and useful. An innovation funnel generally
consists of 4 Ps which are product, process, position and paradigm. The first step of an
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innovation funnel is paradigm or paradigm Shift. This is the stage when an idea is generated.
Kaiser (2001, p.67) commented that A visionary idea, which can change the approach of that
thing for which the product is being made. This idea is often so great that it can shift the
paradigm to great level. In this stage, many possibilities are thought of and resources are
gathered. The next step, which is positioning helps the company to determine how to place
the product in their current product line-up. For example, iPod was placed in Apple’s
personal digital products. In that time a camera, camcorder or a PDA were more popular as
personal digital products but Apple choose to work with portable media players and the
invention stirred everyone. This positioning is often out of the box and unconventional
because that makes the products innovative.
When all the resources are gathered and the company has planned for the process for
making the product, then the process of development starts. This stage is the most crucial part
of the whole process because this stage decides the fate of the product (Costello, G.J., 2015).
For iPod Steve Jobs rejected the design of iPod many times because he did not find them
innovative. The development of the product leads to the final product or its prototype, which
will be commercialised. The whole process from the paradigm shift of the ideas to the release
of the product gradually narrows down just like a funnel. The narrowing down only suggests
that the product is being more and more precise and effective in its domain. Narrowing down
of any product process is very important because it pinpoints the product’s purposes and the
area, which it will serve.
P4: Explaining how Avecto can develop frugal innovation:
Frugal engineering or frugal innovation is the method through which a company tries
to decrease the amount of complexity in the process of the development of the product. Here,
complexity refers to the steps in the process and how difficult is to perform them. Reduction
in the complexity means the wages for the product development is also reduced and the
company can earn more profit.
While developing the frugal innovation, Avecto needs to consider the cost as the main
factor though it helps in reducing the complexity in the product development. Although
frugal main emphasis on reducing the cost of good and its production, the cost is reduce in
the way as it eliminates the non essential characteristics of product. As a result the cost of the
product would be reduced.
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Avecto, which mainly provides digital, and internet security in collaboration with
Mcafee, can apply the frugal engineering method in reducing their wages (Avecto.com,
2016). The foremost task to do is creating a malware a database for their own use. That
database can track the potential threats in any computer or any system. The currently uses the
database of Mcafee which is costly as well as Mcafee never gives the full access to their
database and that causes some difficulties for the company is fighting against malware threats
worldwide. Apart from that the company can create a common platform for every company it
is giving service. In that common platform, the executives of Avecto will be available
anytime to assist the customers. Currently Avecto is maintaining several offices in other
continents. Implementing this common platform will omit the need of setting offices in every
country. This will also help the company to reduce its costs and the company can manage all
the operations from one centralised unit.
Avecto currently uses third party analyst companies to analyse the data they collect
from the virus and malware infected computers to make strong antivirus against the threats.
This makes the process of developing the software lengthy and difficult. If the company can
set up a data analysis unit then it will not depend on the third-party companies and can do the
work more efficiently. Setting up a data analysis is a costly job but this one-time investment
can save the future wages of the company. Cloud computing and their security can be a very
good option for the company to extend their business agendas because cloud computing is
slowly replacing the physical computer system.
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Task 3:
LO3: Discussing the process required to commercialise innovation in Avecto in market
with practical examples:
P5: Explaining the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New
Product Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation to employees of Avecto:
Per Annacchino (2007, p.895) purchasing funnel or commercial funnel indicates to a
marketing style, which is customer oriented and sketches a process from the marketing of the
product from the purchase action of the customer. This theory talks about how a purchase is
made by the customer. When a company launches a new product in the market, it tries to
market in such a way that the customers will feel interested for the product. Once a customer
feels attracted to the product, he or she tends to make a purchase. After the purchase if the
product can please the customer with its service and quality, then the customer generally
repeats the purchasing behaviour. He or she can buy the same product again or can buy
another product from the same company. Similar with the case of Avecto, if the company can
market their products (here, service of digital security) more efficiently then the customers
will be attracted to their services and they will try to avail their service. The company should
introduce bundle packages for their service. Avecto mainly provides enterprise security
solutions. They should approach BlackBerry for collaborating with them as BlackBerry is
one of world’s largest enterprise security solution company and they have an experience of
almost 25 years. (Refer to Appendix 1)
New product development or NPD is a crucial process, which helps the company to
withstand the market trends. A company must know the demands the customers and should
update their product line as per the current market trend and the expectation of the customers.
With time the expectations of the customers changes considerably and they look for new
features. .If the organisation fails to meet the customer expectation; there are chances that the
customers would lose interest in the product of the organisation.
Both the companies in case study, Apple Inc. and Virgin Group have successfully
followed the notion of NPD to sustain in the market. While Apple Inc is adding features that
the current market demands into their range of iPhones, Virgin Records are constantly
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upgrading their recording technology. Previously they used DOLBY digital BNR pro music
technology but now they use DOLBY ATMOS music and surround sound technology to
produce their records (Virgin Records, 2016). Their zeal to follow the NPD theory has
resulted only in their increasing revenue. Avecto should follow their footsteps to find out the
new market trends to commercialise their products in a more effective way.
P6. Building an Innovation Business Case including ways to access funding
Avecto in recent times has secured a successful place in providing digital security and
malware protection. The companyis trying hard to make a mark in the market and it has
gained its results (Chesbrough, H., 2013). It has already won some prestigious awards for
their proactive endpoint security software. Their business strategy is well equipped with their
uncompromising quality check. The company, however, can make more revenue by
launching other services like cloud computing services that will be highly secured with end-
to-end encryption. Security threats are the biggest threat to business enterprises nowadays.
They are suffering from problems like hacking, malware, spyware, phishing, and data
leakage. The company is providing quality security solutions for the threats but it should
launch a cloud based security scanning and repairing software that can effectively search and
omit the security threats directly from the cloud and in that case the client companies do not
even install the software in their computers. They will just need an internet connection to
rectify all issues regarding security (Dixon et.al. 2014). This will help the client companies to
scan and repair any machine that can connect to internet. Not only computers but also smart
phones and Tablet PCs can also be scanned effectively with the help of that cloud software.
Funding is a big issue in setting up such a big project. Surely, the name, which Avecto
has gained through their service, can help them get investors. The company can directly
propose the government to help them in making that system. For this the organisation needs
to make a presentation to the government about the benefits of the project. The government
offer grants to Avecto in case the government feels that the project is worth investment. In
such a case the government can get the system free of cost to the government. Government
can also provide Avecto loans from the government banks. The funds can be provided at a
low interest rate.
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The company can also collaborate with other cloud and enterprise security providers
like BlackBerry. Together they can set up such a system easily because BlackBerry has an
experience of providing enterprise security solutions for many years (Us.blackberry.com,
2016). This way the company can plan for a bigger picture where it can expand its business
even through cloud computing. The plan is relevant because cloud based systems are very
popular now and the files that are stored in cloud storage are vulnerable to any kind of
malware.
Task 4:
LO4: Evaluating 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:
Intellectual property is important for any company because through the intellectual
properties it secures its place in the innovation scenario. Intellectual properties simply refer to
the collected amount of intellect, which the employees of a company have. Intellectual
properties cannot be stored easily as they are not physical assets that can be rebuilt. Intellect
cannot be reproduced or omitted. Securing the intellectual properties is important and they
are secured under the intellectual property rights. Personnel and information management
system of a company generally handles the issues with intellectual property. This
management group should work in the company both internally and externally to find out the
ways which will help the company to retain the intellectual properties of the employees as
well as the company, as opined by Peloso (2013, p.84). The management performs another
important function of finding the prospective domains in which a company can apply
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innovation. They document the areas and send the reports to the higher committee who then
decides the domains where innovation should take place.
The managers should maintain strategy to employ people with good intellect. He
should also retain and store the knowledge and should use the employee’s intellect,
experience, expertise, concepts and ideas in product development. This way a manager can
use an employee’s intellect in a better way. In Neophytou’s (2014, p.616) words, the
managers often take help of a tool called Intellectual Property Management System, which
keeps an eye of the inventories of the intellectual property and analyses the way through
which a company’s intellectual properties can be increased. This tool also helps in the proper
channelization of the intellectual properties throughout the company.
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