Innovation and Commercialization: Strategies and Implementation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation and commercialization within organizations, emphasizing the importance of innovation compared to invention. It explores how organizational vision, leadership, culture, and teamwork shape innovation and commercialization processes. The report delves into the 4Ps of innovation, utilizes the innovation funnel to refine ideas, and examines frugal innovation with practical examples. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of the commercial funnel and New Product Development (NPD) for commercializing innovation, including building an innovation business case and accessing funding. The report also evaluates various tools for developing, retaining, and protecting knowledge and intellectual property, specifically in the context of 3V Organic Goods, a company specializing in natural and organic food and drink products. The overall focus is on innovating new organic and natural drinks while prioritizing customer health.

Innovation and
Commercialization

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................2
P1 Explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in comparison with
invention......................................................................................................................................2
P2 Explain how organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation
and commercialisation.................................................................................................................5
LO2..................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and
shape innovative ideas.................................................................................................................7
P4 Explain developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is used in an
organisational context................................................................................................................10
LO3................................................................................................................................................11
P5 Explain the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product
Development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation.....................................11
P6 Build an Innovation Business Case for an organization, including ways to access funding.
...................................................................................................................................................14
LO4................................................................................................................................................16
P7 Evaluate the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property..........................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Innovation........................................................................................................................2
Figure 2: Difference between invention and innovation.................................................................4
Figure 3: 4Ps of innovation..............................................................................................................7
Figure 4: Phases of innovation funnel.............................................................................................9
Figure 5: Sales Funnel...................................................................................................................11
Figure 6: Intellectual Property Tools.............................................................................................16

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Innovation Funnel Stages..................................................................................................9
Table 2: New Product Development Process................................................................................12

Introduction
Innovation and commercialisation can be defined as the approach of transforming knowledge
and ideas into practicality. The report will focus on explaining the importance of innovation by
comparing it with methods of innovation. There are various factors such as leadership, vision,
teamwork, culture, etc that shape the process of innovation which are analysed in the report. The
report will highlight the types of innovation with an emphasis on 4Ps of innovation with the help
of innovation funnel as well as frugal innovation.
The report will also discuss the process required to commercialise innovation with the
application of new product development as well as building of innovation business case to access
the ways of funding. Last task of the report will focus on evaluating tools to develop and retain
the knowledge and intellectual property in context to 3V Organic Goods which specialises in
providing natural and organic food and flavoured drink products. The report will focus on
innovating new organic and natural drinks by considering the health of customers
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LO1
P1 Explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in comparison with
invention
Overview of innovation
Innovation can be defined as new ideas or processes to the existing ones for the growth of small
and medium business enterprises. It is also referred to as application of enhanced solutions so as
to fulfil the new requirements as well as existing needs of market (Innovation Management,
2018). It has been identified that innovation is one of the important factors for increasing the
wealth of business organizations. However, efficiency is important for business growth but
innovation at the same time support business sustain the growth for long term.
Figure 1: Innovation
(Source: Andrew Woodward, 2013)
Innovation in SME ‘3V Natural Foods’
Innovation in ‘Small and Medium Business Enterprises’ not only support it to gain growth and
development in business but also support them to sustain for longer term in the competitive
market (De Massis et.al.2016). 3V Natural Foods specialises in providing organic food and drink
products. An organization has developed at a rapid speed in terms of business growth but its
sales dropped down in past few years and therefore as per the case study it is important to embed
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innovation to escalate its sales. An organization will launch new drinks with new flavours to
extend its market segment which will reflect some impacts on its growth.
Importance of innovation in ‘3V Natural Foods’
New flavoured drinks that are highly natural will help ‘3V Natural Foods’ to form new customer
base as well as support it to establish new relationship with other medium and large
organizations to gain new opportunities in the market. Along with innovation in its drink
products, it must focus also focus on implementing new technology to enhance their accounting
and marketing processes (Mazzei et.al.2016).
Drinks with natural flavours will attract large number of customers which can be further utilised
as the marketing strategy as many of the satisfied customers will recommend their known ones to
try the innovative products. Many of the large organization dealing with beverages
manufacturing and distribution may be benefited with the new and innovate products developed
by ‘3V Natural Foods’. Therefore it can be concluded that innovation in business will help it to
form subtle relationship with emerging business to accomplish goals in terms of profitability.
Innovation VS invention
By assuming the case study of ‘3V Natural Foods’, innovation can be defined as introduction of
new natural flavours to the existing drinks and beverages. Innovation is bringing changes to
current products offered by business. This is the process that is introduced because of market
forces which in turn will help to achieve products as well as to improve the customer experience.
Innovation in marketing of new natural drinks will help to attract more customers. It is important
for an organization to make people aware about new products by using advanced marketing
technologies.
Invention on the other hand is defined as introduction of new products or services to compete
with competitors irrespective of bringing changes in existing products. Invention in ‘3V Natural
Foods’ will bring new beverages and food products that shows further creativity with respect to
innovation (De Massis et.al.2016).
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Figure 2: Difference between invention and innovation
(Source: Process of Invention & Innovation, 2018)
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P2 Explain how organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation
and commercialisation
Innovation and relevant ideas are necessary to relate vision, leadership with process involved in
innovation. There exists wide range of internal as well as external factors that are necessary to be
considered in order to undertake decision making process. Innovation as discussed earlier
support business entity to gain financial growth which is further referred to as commercialisation.
With reference to current case study of ‘3V Natural Food’, it is important to consider the
elements such as vision, leadership, teamwork as well as culture to shape the commercialisation,
and innovation (Annunziata, 2015).
Vision: Vision plays an important role in achieving long term goals within a business entity.
Appropriate strategies are developed and communicated amongst the employees of ‘3V Natural
Food’ to accomplish a defined objective which is referred to as its vision. 3V Natural Foods is
based on providing organic food and drink products to the retailers as per their demand. Due to
lack in fresh essence in its drink products, it is essential for an organization to focus on natural
essence of the products to form strong customer base. Vision of an organization is therefore to
bring innovation in drink products with new natural flavours that will depict the higher quality of
product in the market. Therefore it can be said that innovation is necessary to drive the step
toward in achieving vision.
Leadership: Leadership depicts the quality of an employee to develop trust among the
employees and encourage them to work together toward the goals of bringing creativity in the
existing products to attract more number of customers as compared to competitors. 3V Natural
Foods for bringing innovation in drink products need skilled and qualified leaders that not only
focus on product development but support team members to maintain relationship to work
together (González-Benito et.al.2016). Leaders are responsible for making discussions with team
members so as to enhance the innovative ideas which will bring encouragement among team
members as well as increases the overall productivity.
Culture: Employees are one in an organization who are responsible for bringing innovation with
the help of their skill sets. Therefore, it is important to focus on motivating employees to
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encourage them to work hard to achieve desired goal of an organization. Working together as a
team to bring innovation is essential and for this motivation is one of the most important factor.
Teamwork: 3V Natural Foods develop wide range of food and drink products which are
impossible without utilising the skill sets of employees. It is not possible to bring innovation and
creativity in existing products with the support of individual. End goals of an organization can
only be achieved with the combined skills of more number of employees. Each employee in an
organization is assigned varied roles and responsibilities as per their capability to contribute to
achieve the goal. Therefore, team work is required to solve the issues that act as barrier in
innovation.
As per the above discussed factors and elements, it can be said that innovation can only be
achieved by combined effects of the above explained factors.
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LO2
P3 Explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and
shape innovative ideas.
3V Natural Foods has high focus on enhancing the sales volume of its products and to achieve
this an organization must implement some techniques and strategies (Bali et.al.2016). 4Ps of
innovation referred to as innovation mix can be implemented to improve the innovation process.
The process will help an organization to identify the areas need innovation. 4Ps of innovation are
explained as:
Figure 3: 4Ps of innovation
(Source: Innovation Management, 2018)
Product: It plays an important role in fulfilling the needs of customers. An organization must
ensure that product to be developed is unique in terms of its features so as to gain competitive
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advantage in the market. 3V Natural Foods offer unique food products and beverages and with
the help of innovation in its beverages it supports meeting the customer satisfaction.
Process: The process undertaken by an organization that brings changes in the products and
services to be delivered. For an instance, 3V Natural Foods bring changes in its marketing
processes to make customers aware about its new natural drink products. Their production
processes must be modified to manufacture the natural drinks in spite of artificial flavoured
products.
Position: It is important for 3V Natural Foods to focus on positioning of product in the
competitive market. Marketing Strategy can be made stronger by using social media and this
strategy is undertaken on the basis of target segment to fulfil the needs of customers (Akgun
et.al.2017).
Paradigm: This deals with humanitarian sector such as behaviour and its impact on local
ownership, responsibility, leadership, etc. 3V Natural Foods make customers aware about the
importance of natural drinks over flavoured drinks and why are they expensive as compared to
other products to modify the mindset of customers with respect to its prices.
Utility of Innovation Funnel
Innovation funnel is used to explain the process involved in development of new product. 3V
Natural Foods can utilise innovation funnel to transform ideas into development of innovation in
the product. Stages involved in it are as follows:
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