Innovation and Commercialization in British Airways: A Report

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes British Airways' innovation strategies.

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Innovation and Commercialisation

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
Company Background of British Airways....................................................................3
Difference between Invention and Innovation.............................................................4
Value of Innovation to the Organization......................................................................4
Importune of Innovation.............................................................................................. 5
Ways in which innovation can be embedded to the organizational leadership and
culture......................................................................................................................... 6
Different forms of innovation.......................................................................................7
4P of Innovation with its support to the management of innovation............................8
Type of innovation in which the organization should involve in...................................8
Approaches taken by the innovation manager to process innovative ideas................9
Steps taken by innovation manager or deriving a new and innovative product.........10
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 14
Reference List...........................................................................................................15

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Introduction
The modern day market is evaluating at a great pace in the global sphere.
Innumerable numbers of companies are being started both by new age business
persons and well established enterprises in order to capture the existing market
share. Due to the cut-throat competition in every sphere, the factor of innovation has
gained momentum in the business world. According to the opinions of ( ), innovation
is defined as the way new ideas and products are being developed in the market.
Due to the concept of innovation, more customers are being attracted towards the
companies for the new products which are being launched. According to the opinions
stated by ( ), innovation attracts a whole new segment of customers which helps the
company to have more sales and thereby more profit in the longer run. Therefore,
the concept of innovation has been pivotal in the market. The market in the United
Kingdom is one of the most attracting markets for the companies to come up with
their innovative ideas. United Kingdom is a developed nation and the market for
goods and services is also very strong. There is a great demand for goods in the
market which make the companies motivated towards innovating products and
present it to their customers. Moreover, due to the innovation of new products by the
competing companies, the need for innovation becomes supreme for the concerned
organization (Whyte and Lohmann. 2016). The following report gives a detailed
analysis on the aspect of innovation in The British Airways. The following paragraphs
have assessed the difference between invention and innovation, value and
importance of innovation in an organization, ways the process of innovation can be
done, forms of innovation, four directions of change in an organization, 4P of
innovation, types of innovation, approaches of innovation and steps taken for the
innovation of a product.
Company Background of British Airways
British Airways is the second largest airline service in the United Kingdom
established on 31 March 1974 under the parent company International Airlines
Group. The flag carrier carries one of the largest numbers of passengers in the
country just behind Easy Jet and has one of the largest fleet sizes. The airline is
based in Waterside near the main hub at London Heathrow airport. The airline has a
fleet size of 275 planes and covers more than 183 destinations all over the world.
The tagline of the airline is To Fly; To Serve. The headquarters of the airline is locate
at Waterside in United Kingdom and has hubs at the Heathrow Airport and Gatwick
Airport. The current chairman and CEO of the company is Alex Cruz while the CFO
and director of the company are Stephen William and Lawrence Gunning. The
company has been listed in the London stock exchange among the FTSE 100 Index.
The company in January 2011 collaborate with International Airlines Group which is
a holding company registered in Madrid, Spain. The company has the United
Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence which helps the company
to manage the flights with 20 or more seats. In the fiscal year 2018, the company
made 13 billion British pounds or about 16.6 billion USD in the matters of revenue
(Statista, 2019a). According to the reports published in Statista, (2019b), the British
Airways carried more than 42.6 million passengers in 2017, just after 68 million by
Easy Jet, the prime competition of British Airlines. However, in spite of the success

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of the company, innovation is one of the prime issues that are there in the company
as in order to remain in the market, innovation process should be supreme. The
British Airways should be upfront with the process of innovation so that the level of
competition can be adjusted in the UK market (Whyte and Lohmann. 2016).
Moreover, due to immense competition, the company should make sure that the
services are innovated and new aspects of the services are created which will attract
the customers towards the flight.
Difference between Invention and Innovation
Invention and innovation are treated as somewhat similar in the modern world;
however, there is a whole difference amongst the two. One of the prime differences
between invention and innovation lies in the fact that invention concerns with the
introduction of a product or service for the very first time in the market while the
innovation of a product is to make improvements in the existing product for the
market.
According to the opinions of (Gemici and Alpkan. 2015), invention is defined as the
creation or curation of a new product which the market has not seen in the present
times. The products or services are introduced for the very first time and there is a
considerable amount of customer base for the products. However, in the case of
innovation, the matters are not related to the creation of a product but to the
development of an existing line of product in the market. According to the opinions of
( ), the development of a kind of product which has been already there in the market
has been named under innovation of a product.
In the modern world, there are a number of products which need modification in
order to be compatible with the modern day world. The process of innovation needs
to be framed in such a way that the product or services which are present can be
modified to suit the new levels of demands of the consumers. Invention on the other
hand is the completely new concept where the product is developed from the scratch
and there is no evidence of the existence of that product in the previous times.
In the British Airways, the company needs to implement innovation upon their
existing services in order to cope up with the rising competition in the airlines
industry. The market in UK is competitive to the core which means that a large
number of flights and companies are trying to innovate their services in order to
attract more amounts of customers in the base (Whyte and Lohmann. 2016).
However, if British airlines does innovate their services by coming up with newer
quality of flight services, then it will be able to attract the customers in the province
which will give new edge to the company in terms of profit.
Value of Innovation to the Organization
Innovation can be defined as the way in which the ideas in an organization can be
modified. Innovation makes sure that there are different types of models and
changes that can be made to the product and services. Innovation also makes sure
that there is power in the creative process. It also involves the act of inventing and
making new and improved process the importance of innovation in the organization
is as follows:

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One of the prime importances of innovation is to have competing edge in the
company. If a company implies the process of innovation, then the company has
cutting edge in the market which can lead the company to better opportunities in the
future time. Innovation depicts the vitality of using the same platform through which
any market operates and deals with its consumers. The aspect is oriented with the
fact that there is a requirement for doing the same thing in different ways. Invention
looks forward towards creating new ways that were not yet discovered in the past
whereas innovation deals with what was prevailing in the past and making that
differently available to the consumers in the present but in a benefitting way (Ortiz-
Villajos. 2017). Thus as it is been seen that invention add value to creating new
assets in the same way, innovation also provides a value proposition to maximizing
the interviewer that was already existing in the market. On a precise note it can be
incorporated that is British Airways focus is much more or innovation rather than
invention only that it will be able to optimise the usage of which available resources
in an effective manner as well as will be able to create value for its existing and
acquired customers.
Importune of Innovation
For British Airways it is important that they should delve into the aspect of customer
requirement. Anticipating customer needs as well as serving them accordingly is one
of the prime objectives that a company should execute in order to enhance their
business performance. In order to execute so it is essential that British Airways
should on that competitive advantage by understanding consumer needs, the query
that the consumer demand as well as providing them with the essential services that
will fulfil the consumer necessities. This only can be done if rather than inventing
new technique the company focuses upon innovating the existing technique of
serving the consumers in a better way. The aspect of innovation is important in this
respect this will create an impression in the consumer mind regarding the fact that
the company sincere about understanding the needs of their customers and
channelizing their business towards of optimizing customer demand and supplying
the services in accordance with it (Dodgson and Gann. 2018). The services that are
being deployed by British Airways in terms of booking of tickets, providing customers
with proper Ambience in the halt stations, as well as supplying food beverages and
other immunities to the consumers in an appropriate manner, etc. are of crucial
importance from the consumer perspective. All of these factors should be identified
effectively and proper way of managerial operations should be incorporated in order
to monitor the activities efficiently. The purpose to incorporate effective innovation
requires the understanding of the consumer needs and serving them through
anticipating the demand that exists from the consumer side as well as monitoring the
problems faced by the consumers while enjoying the services provided by British
Airways. The innovation also gets maximized when the company keeps under focus
the amenities that then consumers demand while consuming the services from
British Airways. This is due to the fact that the consumers compares the problems
they face while travelling in other airlines services too and chooses to consume the
services of those airlines where they realize that they have to face less constraint
regarding their confronted problems (Andreini and Bettinelli. 2017). Moreover,
innovation comes under consideration when the consumer understands that the
company is aware about the troubles faced by them and tries to resolve them as fast

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as possible. Thus will only get possible when British Airways will not only focus on
inventing new technologies or services rather will try to improvise the prevailing
services in such a manner that when the consumers compares their services with
other airlines services then they will prefer to choose the quality of services provided
by British Airways and not the service of the other similar companies. The
consumers will become convinced with the fact that the company has focused in
improving their existing services rather than going forward in creating new invention
in the segment of service deliverance or managing their operations. The positive
impression that will get drawn in the consumer mind will provide benefit to the
company bin the long run in terms of more number of consumer acquisition as a well
as revenue generation and hence obtainment of more profit margin.
Ways in which innovation can be embedded to the organizational leadership
and culture
The aspect of innovation is related to the cultural practices that are being executed
within an organization. To lead the organizational practices towards implementation
of successful innovation it is important that there should be prevalence of power for a
transformative mechanism (Wahyono. 2018). This is nothing but the approach for
building a culture with quality and safety that renders effective Customer services
and commits towards leadership management. There are various ways to embed
innovation within the organisational leadership as well as within its culture. The
necessary steps can be incorporated in this regard as follows:
Developing an innovative ambition
This is the foundation stone of innovation based culture and organisational practices
where the elements of approaching in the way of effective organizational principles
related to managerial leadership are nurtured. This helps to quantify the strong
culture that contributes into the business performance of an organization. Where do
not exist any robust approach for Innovation and progression of the business ideas,
however, the objective remains to support the progress of the activities that are been
initiated by the organisation for ensuring better business performance. On this
regard, it is rather necessary that the measures that are being undertaken for
organisational leadership should be accompanied with a support mechanism that
helps to utilise its resources and encourage in consistent business functionality. This
mechanism is nothing but the innovation and practices that is implemented coupled
with knowledge and experience for betterment write a name of the cultural display
practices of any organization.
In order to drive the organisation with innovative endeavours, it is essential that a
significant number of activities should progress over time and ensure value
generation. It is important to understand on this regard that innovation is embedded
within the performance management system. In the case of British Airways, it is
required that the organisations should focus upon restructuring the innovative culture
since it is the key elements for ensuring innovation based framework of
organisational practices that implement change.
Diagnosing the existing status -

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Every innovative ambition and the framework of innovative culture are the key
components for measuring the flexibility with which quality products and services are
being delivered in the marketplace for the target consumer base. Hence, it is
essential to synchronize the mechanism of innovation with an upfront measurement
phase that redefines highly impacting intervention. Analysing the performance
metrics as well as benchmarking the best practices helps in the generation of ideas
and creating prototypes accordingly. Opportunities better being missed milk become
the root cause of the company’s failure and hence these aspects should be
significantly handled with care.
Designing and testing -
This is the phase which uses the initial findings in order to design as well as pilot the
new approach towards innovation and strategizing organizational outcomes and
focuses upon addressing issues that are uncovered and requires diagnosis.
Different forms of innovation
Notably, there are four types of innovation namely, architectural innovation, radical
innovation, disruptive Innovation and incremental innovation. Architectural innovation
comprises of existing technology that penetrates into a new market. However, radical
innovation considers new technology and takes place in a new market place
simultaneously. Incremental innovation, on the other hand, takes under
consideration both the existing technology and the prevailing market place in which
the innovation is been implemented (Andreini and Bettinelli. 2017). Noteworthy,
respect of disruptive innovation consider the implementation of new technology but
in the existing Marketplace. The various forms of innovation that can be used in case
of enhancing the business performance can be reflected as follows in a
diagrammatic manner:

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4P of Innovation with its support to the management of innovation
The 4Ps of innovation comprises of, paradigm, product, process and the position
respectively. Paradigm is the aspect of innovation that focuses upon the
improvement and the way to execute it. The change brought forward may not always
be positive and for this reason, all the possible changes should be directed towards
leveraging profit. In case of British Airways, this can be done by changing the
products and services and bringing versatility into those products and services that
are deployed by them into the market from print to online platforms. It is necessary
that the company should look after new aspect in their business where the same
thing has different perspectives and as it can take the company to a further the label
(Baker. 2016).
The second aspect is concerned with the product and services, which are being
offered by the company to its target consumer base. They should develop into the
expect that whether the production services that are deployed by them into the
market are able to bring forward incremental change accompanied by better
satisfaction as well as utility as compared to similar products and services that are
deployed to the market by their rivals.
The third aspect covers the importance of processing products and services
effectively. This may take place through maintaining efficient workflow mechanism
hiring people, supplying as well as facilitating effective training opportunities for the
people who need it. It is also important to observe whether the latest trains in the
airline industry carry out those processes or not (Dodgson and Gann. 2018). The
fourth step comprises of the position that is every company e obtained regarding that

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target consumer base. This is due to the fact that the production of goods and
services are dependent upon the existing demand for those goods and services to
the target consumers as well as whether the target consumers are able to
communicate with the organization in an effective way.
Type of innovation in which the organization should involve in
The types of innovation in which any company should get involved depend upon the
degree of innovation. This is a subjective consideration where the types of innovation
are thought in accordance with the organisation or in accordance with the industry or
market. In case of disruptive innovation, there is the importance of replacing the
older market and reshaping it towards a new market. Here originates the necessity of
combined interaction between different organizations along with the maturity of
technology and improvement in the products and services as it increases the
attraction of the mass towards the market and thus replaces the prevailing products
and services (Gemici and Alpkan. 2015). Here the presence of organisation and
environment is essential to delete the market orientation towards disruptive
innovation. Apart from this, sometimes a specific customer's request may originate a
changeover within a market and hence such innovation requires organizational
involvement for implementing the termed as market pull innovation in the long run
(Goffin and Mitchell. 2016). Moreover, sometimes Technology push innovation,
which results from the presence of new technologies with their optimised ability for
suitable application possibilities are highly beneficial and demands the engagement
of various organisations for managing the open as well as closed innovations.
Approaches taken by the innovation manager to process innovative ideas
The nature of approach of the managers to implement innovation for integrating
organizational culture with leadership practices and managerial effectiveness has
various approaches. The major aspects related with assessing the existing state of
the business followed by fixing bottlenecks and restructuring the organizational
framework in a synchronized way with the fluctuations in the market in terms of
demands of goods and services of the organization by the target consumer base
(Lancaster and Massingham. 2017).

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The key focus remains upon implementing innovation and preventing the challenges
that hinders the success of the organization. The salient feature of British Airways on
this regard is its ability to allocate resources and utilize them optimally (Marques.
2015). Instead of trying to find ideal combination the objective should be an entire
commercialization coupled with global business expansion. Misallocation of
resources, lack of opportunities and poor infrastructure leads to lower
implementation of the innovative measures (Ortiz-Villajos. 2017). Empowering
innovation is thus a resultant of growth –oriented organizational culture and
leadership oriented management practices that encourage innovation not only within
the organization but also within the target consumer base by cultivating them
towards getting attracted to innovative products and services for a long period of
time. A manager looks forward for the innovation that is specific, time-bund,
achievable, relevant as well as measurable (Parvez and Salama. 2015). The
innovator’s dilemma can be diagrammatically shown as follows:

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Steps taken by innovation manager or deriving a new and innovative product
From the managerial perspective, it is important to invigorate into innovation in a
different way. Innovation allows managers to at the same product but with a different
approach. The significance of Innovation thus lies in providing versatile prospective
to the managers regarding the deployed products and services where the same
products and services are channelized with different approach towards the target
consumer base (Wahyono. 2018). The managers keeps a not upon the direction of
movement of the market and prefers to accomplish innovation upon the deployed
products and services by the organizations accordingly.
Notably, innovation helps managers to think beyond the traditional world and
provide something more attractive or preferred towards the target consumer base
(Whyte and Lohmann. 2016). The main aspect of concern remains with balancing
between sustainability and innovation.

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The amount of innovation that the products and services of British Airways bring
forward should be coupled with the fact that they are sustainable, feasible and
credible to its target consumer base significantly (Whyte and Lohmann. 2016).
The product life cycle is thus a taken under consideration by the managers on this
regard.