The Role of Employees in Generating Business Innovations

The report delves into the application of the 'Innovation Funnel' concept by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), highlighting its utility as a framework for managing new product development and innovation processes. It outlines how commercialisation strategies are vital post-innovation, emphasizing methods like product lifecycle management. The significance of intellectual property protection in fostering innovation through patents, trademarks, and copyrights is underscored, along with the challenges posed by data protection. The report also stresses the importance of cultivating a culture where employees can freely contribute innovative ideas, underscoring their critical role in an organization’s success.

UNIT 8
INNOVATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Concept of innovation and its significance to workforce.................................................1
P2. Shaping of innovation and commercialisation by organisational vision, leadership, culture
and teamwork.........................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3. 4 P's of innovation and innovation funnel in order for evaluating Dearman...................5
P4. Developing frugal innovation...........................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5. Analysis of significance of commercial funnel and implementation of process new
product development..............................................................................................................7
P6. Innovation Business Case for Dearman...........................................................................8
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P7. Developing, retaining and protecting knowledge & intellectual property by various tools
..............................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The process of innovation is a very complex one which inculcates a wide scope
diversified activities as well as results. It is the pathway towards development & implementation
of new idea by accordingly generating the services as well as products. The nation is able to
enhance its valuable economy by aid of advance knowledge (Drucker, 2014). Adding the term of
commercialisation with innovation means to properly manage the overall process of innovative
products & services in a business with the motive of gaining financial gain.
There are ample SME's in UK who always thrive in the field of innovation techniques for
benefiting a large audience. This way they are increasingly enhancing their revenues. One such
SME is Dearman which effectively meets out all the challenges enforced by environment thereby
benefiting majority of their customers. It is a fully technical based company that has been
efficiently delivering cold & power which is purely clean. Liquid nitrogen is harnessed by them
in unique way for delivering power & cooling that too at zero emission.
So the current report enraptures various aspects of innovation in context with Dearman.
Furthermore, it also emphasises the role of process that will commercialise the innovation. The
case study of Apple & Virgin group has also been referred in the report to support the various
concepts involved.
TASK 1
P1. Concept of innovation and its significance to workforce.
Innovation is considered as implementation of new things, ideas and adding value in
accomplishing a specific task or team work (Johnston and Marshall, 2016). It is considered as
most significant quality through which an individual should achieve success at workplace. It
involves generation of new ideas through continuous research and assumptions. In this context,
analysis of Dearman is taken in to consideration in order to determine the need and significance
of innovation among the employees to innovate the products that satisfy the needs of consumers.
It is considered as highly beneficial for every company and not just commercialisation
holds accountability as its only benefit. Basically innovation could be introduced in many
processes of a particular organisation whether it is in product/service, procedures, marketing as
well as organisation as whole. So, the entire innovation principle assists in developing strong and
highly efficient company environment ready to face all the coming challenges.
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Same is the case with the employees of Dearman wherein the employees get equal
opportunities for to give innovative ideas. The importance of innovation is in correlation with the
employees. The ideas that enhance the corporate-growth & profits as well do not get generated in
the labs at late-night. Such ideas in ample come from those individuals who daily serve the
organisation thereby satisfying diversified customers through their efficient duty. These are
employees who effectively assist in making the organisation to lead the competition in the
market thereby generating ample opportunities for exploration of newer markets. As per the
current scenario, companies have readily adopted innovation as a necessary element of their
strategies for harnessing the existing energy (Union, 2014). This also includes harnessing of the
employee's inner strengths across diversified functions as well as rank accordingly.
However, the seed of innovation is usually implanted by the members of senior
management. This is because they hold the accountability whenever a new product or service is
to be brought up in market. The employees are then assigned the duty of utilising their skills in
order top work upon that idea. This way, the inner skills of an employee emerges out which is
effectively harnessed at the time of implementing those ideas in real.
With reference to the case study of Apple and Virgin Group, employees have been given
ample of opportunities to develop their skill base. They are allowed to give their ideas
accordingly and those which are found to be reliable as well as realistic to be implemented are
funded by the authorities. This way both the companies have successfully established themselves
in market thereby entertaining themselves with huge profits.
Invention is considered as development of new products and services which are considered as
unique and satisfy the needs of consumers in market (Bloom, Draca and Van-Reenen, 2016). It is
also described as a application of new, innovative ideas and technical skills for the development
of products through which firm can attract and increase its market share. However, in the case
study it has been determined that Apple I pod was considered as best example of innovation of
small music player in the year 2011. It was not an invention as it not began with specific
technology but it was modification of existing music players which has resulted in increase in
profit and apple has increased the profit and brand image of apple.
Difference between innovation and invention.
Invention Innovation
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It is described as developing new products with
new and innovative ideas and technology
which is not currently in existence.
Generating new idea or putting an invention in
order to modify an existing product of
organization in to market.
Invention can be considered as both
autonomous and induced
Innovation can only be considered as induced
It involves creation of new things through
experimentation and practice.
It involves application invention and ideas for
the development of existing goods and
services.
Significance of innovation.
In this context, innovation has a great importance as it helps the organization to introduce same
products with changes in technology or functions which satisfy the demands of customers. It is
also considered as significant for employees to achieve the key position in the organization.
Innovative and creative employees should be recognised by management for the development of
motivation and retention of workforce. For example: Apple I phone is the most suitable example
of innovation as the company is focusing towards sustaining brand image as compared to rivals.
Continuous changes in phones is done by apple through introduction of new technology.
P2. Creation of innovation as well as commercialisation through business vision, leadership,
and culture
Commercialisation accounts to further take the innovation process to new levels with the
motive of gaining ample profits. So, in order to commercialise a service innovation plays a key
role. So, in order for shaping the entire process of innovation & commercialisation, an
organisation needs to imply the importance of their vision, leadership, teamwork as well as
culture. Vision : Having a statement regarding vision aids an organisation to develop futuristic
approaches for developments which will assist in gaining and maintaining ample profits.
It includes the elements which will act as a guide to initiate the planned activities for
developments in the future. Dearman also has vision of making consistent efforts for
reducing the costs of operating, fuel-usage & emissions as well so that environmental
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challenges are assessed accordingly. This has enabled them to utilise various proprietary-
technology and accordingly modify their services & products. As observed in the case of
Apple, the innovative product of iPod was not started by the chip design. It rather
generated from the idea in order to develop something which incorporates many songs
like MP3-player but is also compact (Dearman is a technology company delivering clean
‘cold and power’, 2017). So, at that time, this became the vision as result of which
company earned no. 1 position in the market of MP3 player. Leadership : In order for motivating the employees to work upon particular idea for the
motive of generating higher revenues, often a leader is required. In any organisation, the
managers of employees often have to act as leader to motivate them to work upon the
particular idea. If employees are consistently motivated to perform their duties
accordingly then, they will efficiently emerge out their skills to work on that task. This
will also develop their potential. So, the manager at Dearman in order to make the
employees work upon particular idea have to motivate them to emerge their hidden
potentials. The managers at Virgin Group often provide equal opportunities to their
employees and motivate them to give innovative ideas and reliable ones are accordingly
chosen. Culture : The role of organizational culture plays an effective role in maintaining the
working environment for employees as well as managers to formulate new ideas. Adding
more to this, maintaining a positive work culture motivates the employees to efficiently
work as per the idea which has to be implemented. This way the innovation process of
implementing efficient ideas is made successful thereby enabling commercialisation
more effective. The maintenance of healthy and positive work environment at Apple and
Virgin Group has effectively contributed in enhancing the innovative measures to aid
customer satisfaction as well.
 Teamwork : In order to work upon an innovative idea, team work is essential so that it
could be implemented in the organisation. This idea is often generated by the managers.
Also, the employees need to be provided opportunity to give their idea so that the entire
team could work upon that idea for getting fast and effective results. So this is effectively
given importance at Dearman as a result of which they have enabled new technologies
such as Transport refrigeration and Heat Hybrid. Contextualising upon Apple and Virgin
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group, with the effective efforts of both managers and employees, the companies have
earned ample profits because of their innovative products thereby aiding
commercialisation as well.
TASK 2
P3. Analysis of innovations constraints and its funnel for evolution of dearman
4 P's of Innovation:-
This model developed by John Bessant allows the organisation to introduce
improvements in their innovation process and accordingly modify the business to adhere those
changes (Johnston and Marshall, 2016). It basically involves the following 4 parameters in
context with Dearman :
1.) Paradigm : It is regarded as the method of modifying the ways of doing business which
could even turn out to be radical. Imagination and creativity plays an important role here
so that employees as well as managers of Dearman are able to bring forward effective
ideas for leveraging the involved profits. This was the parameter which enabled the
Apple and Virgin group to modify their ways of doing business. A simple MP3 player
was modified and instead iPods were developed by Apple. This enabled them to entirely
change their business practices.
2.) Product : In this parameter, ways of modifying the existing products are included. This
way the Dearman consistently introduce modifications in their products thereby
developing new methods of benefiting the environment.
3.) Process : Within this parameter of innovation, all the steps involved in preparing a
particular product or service will be improved or assessed accordingly so as to maximise
the profits earned. This way, Dearman often introduces changes in its Refrigeration
systems to make it face all the challenges of environment thereby making no
compromises according to costs.
4.) Position : The framing of products or service is done according to particular context.
This includes the way in which the various associated individuals such as employees,
consumers see the company in market. The position of company gets enhanced if it
consistently makes efforts in implying innovative measures to enhance their position in
eyes of employees & customers as well. This has been effectively understood by
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Dearman authorities for establishing themselves as a successful entity in from of their
associated stakeholders (Bain and Kleinknecht, 2016).
Innovation Funnel:-
The main motive involved in the development process of any particular product or
service is to make it as per the market needs. A diversified range of inputs are provided which
are refined in order for selecting the best option. Within a funnel various types of inputs enter at
for investigation, but among them only a few get selected for the stage of development where the
chosen input is developed at a full fledged stage. So, following this ample of ideas are entered at
the funnel for investigation stage at Dearman and the ones which are found reliable enough get
selected for the development stage. However, in the procedure of managing the funnel, few
challenges have to be assessed. The 1st one states that funnel's mouth should be widened. This
means that organisation needs to expand the base of its knowledge and ways of accessing
information. This will enable enhancement of new ideas regarding process as well as product.
Other challenge is the narrowing of the funnel neck. This means that the consistently generated
ideas should be screened at every stage and the gathered resources must lay their focus upon the
most attractable opportunity. The last challenge involved is to make sure that the chosen ideas
and products are able to meet the objectives formulated at the time of initially approving them.
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Illustr
ation 1: Innovation Funnel
(Source : Innovation Funnel, 2016)

P4. Developing frugal innovation
The process of frugal innovation is defined as the methodology involved in reduction of
complex-nature in costings as well as production process of particular company (Bloom, Draca
and Van-Reenen, 2016). Usually this method is regarded as the procedure removing the extra or
waste materials from durable-products. This process if managed effectively then, could assist in
making durable products and accordingly sell them in the market. Dearman should also strictly
imply the frugal innovation concept in each of their activities and consistently make efforts in
order for reducing the waste materials in their technologies, products or services. This will also
enable them to become very much competitive since extra costs will be reduced to a much
greater extent.
Referring to the Virgin Group, the team efforts of both management as well as employees
leads to generation of innovative ideas which are further utilised for developing their products.
With team efforts, they are able to reduce all the unnecessary costs involved thereby making
their processes cost-effective. This effectively makes them sustain the current competition in
market thereby enabling the innovation.
Basically the six principles that underpins the frugal innovation are as follows:
 Opportunities for adversity: In order to apply the innovation in organization like Apple.
It is important for the firm to analyse the problems which arise in these innovation
practices (6 Principles of “Frugal Innovation, 2017). They have to reframe the issues and
have to take something which is threat or looks like threats that ultimately turns in to
opportunity
 Doing more with less: It is also most significant principle that clearly describes that the
individual or should apply the innovation practices through application less resources.
 Thinking and acting flexibly: In order to innovate products and services it is important for
firm to be improvisational rather than being so rigid.
 Always keep it simple: complexity in innovation practices causes problems therefore it is
essential for firm to analyse all the information through market and research easy
measures that provides success rather than causes issues.
 Include margin: It is also significant for the firm to identify its customers and it should
include them in the solving the problems by taking their views and feedbacks to make
changes in existing products and services. For example: Apple always makes innovation
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in their product by analysing the needs of customers taking there feedback on existing
products.
 Follow your concept: in the process of frugal innovation, it has been considered
significant for the cited firm to utilize it owns research practices and information for the
creation of various innovation in products and services.
TASK 3
P5. Analysis of significance of commercial funnel and implementation of process new product
development.
The importance of commercial funnel lies with the fact that it effectively assists in
launching innovative products in market so that the market needs are also assessed effectively.
New products are provided a proper platform for being launched in the market. With the help of
funnel only the reliable idea gets selected and is accordingly implemented. This implemented
idea leads towards formulation of new products so that the current market needs are assessed. If
effective and innovative products are launched in market which are able to satisfy the needs of
customers as well as market-needs also then, they account to generate high revenues thereby
enabling the commercialisation. This commercial funnel was effectively utilised by Apple and
Virgin Group both to launch their products in the market. This way they were able to influence a
majority of individuals with their qualified product.
→ Adopting the New-Product-Development plan
Dearman should make effective utilisation of the NPD task for introducing their products
within the current market-place. This generally happens because the market needs keep on
changing as per the demands of client & consumers both (Goldberg, 2013). Namely, it has an
inclusion of 7 stages. Dearman needs to assess each of the stage properly which have been
mentioned in brief below :
1) Generating ideas : This involves the method of doing a systematic-search in order to
gather information regarding new-idea generation. Dearman should generate ample of
ideas so that variety of choice is there and only the most suitable one gets selected. Ideas
could be taken from customers as well.
2) Screening the idea : From the generated pool of ideas, the most promising one gets to be
chosen at this stage. Dearman can take help of product reviewing committee for
researching the market in formal way.
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3) Development & Testing concept : Dearman needs to develop a very attractable idea
which is reliable enough to be converted into full fledged product-concept. Afterwards
these developed product concepts have to be tested accordingly along with consumers to
test their durability and reliability.
4) Developing Marketing-Strategy : In order for positioning their products Dearman
should adopt a particular market strategy for launching their innovative products to
enhance the sales & profits associated to their products. Furthermore, this adopted
strategy should assist in meeting the set objectives by company.
5) Development of product : In this stage, the Research-&-Development department
formulates the concept of product into a physical-product. This will enable to know
whether idea is able to be converted into fully-fledged product or not.
6) Marketing-test : The associated marketing-program along with the product as well gets
an introduction into realistic settings of market. Dearman should take help of marketing-
mix before launching their products in market.
7) Commercialisation : Here the product will get finally introduced in market because of
which, costs of manufacturing, promoting and advertisements will be high (Huberman
and Miles, 2013). This stage will depict the risk bearing capacity of Dearman and its
effective reach towards associated distribution network.
P6. Development of business case of innovation.
While referring to the case of Virgin Group, earlier they were a simple venture of
publishing in the early 1970's. However, since then, with aid of effective and innovative
techniques they have diversified their business categories into Virgin-Atlantic, Virgin-Rail,
Virgin-Money and many more. This innovativeness and diversity lifted up the commercialisation
process by aid of Mr Branson's enhanced entrepreneurial skills as well. The business model
followed at Virgin Group involved effective participation of managers and employees were also
given platform to present their ideas regarding the business-venture. On coming towards the case
of Apple, the idea generated by higher staff was the base over which entire team worked to
develop innovative product of iPod in MP3 world. Apple I pod is considered as innovation as it
was not a specific invention but it music player consist of large space in a small device in year
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2001. So, these two cases gives an effective learning to the Dearman which will assist them in
formulating their further business to launch innovative products.
As per the analysis of case of Virgin group and apple , a case is also designed to provide
information about the innovation which has been implemented by the cited organization
dearman. It is global international which was founded peter dearman which was a well known
inventor of liquid air engine. This company has its business operations in development of
engines that exerts less carbon emission. The major innovation which was done by the peter dear
man was the development of ZERO's emission transport system which was innovative products
made with new research and application of various innovation. It has made the cited organization
more popular between its competitors. It has also provided major economic benefits recognition
of people that requires emission free transport refrigeration system that work as cool lent for the
engines of transport vehicles. This type innovation was major contribution in securing the people
nad environment from the carbon emission. It was based on its previous existing engine which
was was powered by liquid nitrogen to deliver highly efficient and cost effective zero emission
power and cooling.
There various resources which are required by the organization to implement research
and innovation. Following points will describe the resources such as:
Human resource: It is the most significant resource which is required in Dearman to increase
innovation. Employees having innovative and creative mindset will help the firm to achieve the
goals of the organization.
Financial resource: These are also considered as significant resources which are for the
organization to implement innovation. For the implementation of new and innovative ideas
dearman should required the sufficient funds.
Technological resources: with the use of appropriate technology employees will be able to
generate new ideas through market research and practice.
In this scenario, dearman will achieve the funds through investors and financiers in the
market. It also has a sufficient amount of profitability which it has achieved in previous years.
Moreover, it can be said that the firm has sufficient amount of all the resources which are
required for implementation of innovation in the organization.
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