Contribution to Innovation and Change: Spark New Zealand Case Study

This report analyzes Spark New Zealand's approach to innovation and change, focusing on its 5G technology implementation and its impact on business operations. The report begins with an introduction to Spark and its commitment to digital transformation, highlighting the different types of innovation it employs, including incremental and radical innovation, to enhance customer experience. It then delves into three key contributions to innovation: detailed presentation of ideas and solutions, the pursuit of ideas and their economic value, and conflict resolution and problem-solving, all within the context of Spark's technological advancements. The report further examines the contributions to change, specifically focusing on the roles of knowledge, expertise, and tools and training in driving innovation. The analysis extends to the operational aspects of Spark, detailing how various departments, including operations, marketing and sales, accounting, and human resources, contribute to the successful implementation of innovation and change. The report concludes by providing a comprehensive overview of Spark's strategies, challenges, and the significance of innovation in its business model.

Running Head: INNOVATION 0
Innovation and Change

INNOVATION 1
Table of Contents
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................2
Type of Innovation...................................................................................................................................2
Three contributions to Innovation...........................................................................................................3
Type of Change........................................................................................................................................4
Contributions to change..........................................................................................................................5
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................7
Task 3..........................................................................................................................................................9
Task 4........................................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................18

INNOVATION 2
Task 1
Introduction
Spark is considered as the New Zealand leading digital service company that focuses on
improving the experience of the customers through the introduction of the new technologies and
collaboration with the business and the industry partners. The company engages its community
stakeholders and the policymakers to thrive into the digital economy through the delivery of
world-leading products and services (Spark, 2019).
Type of Innovation
The company uses different types of innovation to enhance customer experience and turn
New Zealand into the fastest-growing digital economy. The most common innovation used by
Spark includes incremental innovation under which the company adds new features in the
existing technology to entice the customers and increase the value of the products. It also uses
radical innovation under which it creates revolutionary technology to deliver higher satisfaction.
The first innovation that Sparks brings to the market is the 5th generation of wireless network and
technology. Spark also planning to launch 5G innovation labs and eyeing live services by 2020
through yearly investing up to NZ$ 140 million (Reichert, 2018).
The next innovation about Spark is 5G x Healthcare as the company believe that with
generation of 5G technology, there are various possibilities unlocked considering wider range of
healthcare sectors from surgery to emergency response, diagnosis, health monitoring and
medical training. With this, the company also plans to bring autonomous medical drones that

INNOVATION 3
have the capability with addition to 5G technology, providing real-time video feeds and complete
control over the changing environment (spark.co.nz, 2019).
The third innovation is the Spark Agri Assesment, a tool particularly developed for the
agri-sector. Spark together collaboration with Digital Journey, bring this tool as in the
agribusiness sector, there were seen some of the fastest growth in IoT technology as there will be
over 50% of the company IoT partner focused on the solutions for this sector. It was also
indicated that 35% of agribusinesses are adopting cloud-based services, trailing countrywide
business use of 52% (Tuhi, 2018). Such innovations allow attracting new customers and
becoming the leader in the digital service company.
Three contributions to Innovation
Innovation is the key to transformation and the growth of the economy. It is analysed that
the radical innovation i.e. introduction of 5th generation technology will provide ease to the
customers, investors and the policymakers. Spark is also collaborating with other firms such as
Cisco, Ericson and Huawei to create and strength the 5G system while streamlining into other
areas. Adoption of this model will allow the government of New Zealand to develop certainty
and allows investment predictability (Wang, Liu & Sparks, 2017).
It will enable the businesses to grow and provides the opportunity to the country to grow
through technology advancements. The development of the 5th generation technology will allow
resolving the conflicts by delivering constructive solutions to the company. It will allow the
Spark to resolve the issues and the problems faced during 4g and 4.5g technology. The changes
in the technology have led to a conflicting situation for the company but it was able to derive

INNOVATION 4
constructive solutions through innovation in the technology (Fritsch & Schroeter, 2011). The
economic value can be increased as 5G will offer greater speed at lower cost in comparison of
the previous generation of technology.
The company was facing the problem of inconsistent data, limited visibility of data which
in turn slower the network for the automation of services. The company faced a lack of more
comprehensive and flexible solutions. With regards to this, the general manager of Spark i.e.
Moutter also said that there are undertaking various researches on 5G technology so that it can
effectively bring out by the year 2021 ahead of competitors and time. To strengthen the research,
the company is also doing collaborations with various partners such as Ericsson and Cisco for
processing and customer authentication technology, Huawei to get Radio Access Network or
RAN, which is the equipment located at cell sites to transmit and receive cellular signals and
many more (O'Neill, 2018). Innovations at Spark have allowed transforming the process and
have provided coverage of all the networks and have increased the visibility network through a
single pane of glass. It has focused on providing accurate and timely information to the
customers that promote customer satisfaction and increases the loyalty of the customers towards
the brand (Spark, 2018a).
Type of Change
Spark focuses upon bringing the continuous changes in the business process and has
expanded the technology through continuous innovations. The company has introduced 1g in the
year 1987 and has reached to 4.5g in the year 2016. It focused on enhancing the services and
providing peak data speed in excess of 1 Gbps. The company has focused on bringing
incremental changes in the process and the existing products to deliver higher satisfaction to the

INNOVATION 5
customers by delivering advance featured products. To introduce new digital services and
innovations the company has focused upon adopting the agile way of working. It has
transformed the hierarchical structure into self-managed teams where all the members are
responsible for their actions and work collaboratively to derive constructive solutions for the
company (Nambisan, Lyytinen, Majchrzak & Song, 2017).
The next change that the company pursue is radical change with bringing 4G, to 4.5G and
then 5G. The company aims to add 5th generation technology in its services by the year 2020 and
has developed various wireless products to advance the services delivered by the company. The
company pursues on digital transformation and has added new efficiencies in the service delivery
and has developed automated operations. It shows that the network performance of the company
has been improved and it has developed high quality and cost-effective network (Nambisan,
Lyytinen, Majchrzak & Song, 2017).
Contributions to change
For the effective development of the new technologies, the company has to ensure the
proper availability of the tools and the knowledge to implement change in the company. At first
it requires knowledge that can help the company to supports its research in relation to market
trends and demands. The changes in technology are developed through appropriate knowledge of
the environment and the process of change (Yoo, Henfridsson & Lyytinen, 2010). For instance,
when the company plans to move from 4G to 4.5 G or 4.5G to 5G, studying new network
technology requires the company to undertake various practices and research including hiring
new IT skilled employees, working on bringing more areas of security related to the user account
connected to the network and necessarily, prepare respective budget in advance. Hence, it will

INNOVATION 6
bring more efficiency from future perspective and allow customers to gain their trust and
converting them into loyal ones.
The next contributions to change is expertise. As the latest innovation of Spark is 5G
network and technology which connects and supports its other innovative areas as well including
driverless cars, Ohmio, 5G x Healthcare and many more, the company should plan to recruit
skilled candidates from diverse fields. With regards to this, the company can also recruit those
employees who are having any sort of experience in other company concerning 5G technology as
it will bring greater creativity in the organisational environment also help the company to save a
lot of costs in research and development.
To develop 5G technology and its related process, the company requires tools and
training to convert the ideas into reality and has developed efficient training programs for
employee to reduce resistance to change. In addition, such tools will also reduce fear of change
among customers. Considering employees, they must be trained on how to make this technology
more robust and attract customers in other ways. On the other hand, customers can be trained
while offering free services for one month, so that they can effectively try their new services and
if they like, they can go for subscribe those services to use them on continuous basis. Spark can
put a survey to the customer to collect necessary feedback about their experience to its services
so that to improve it on later stage. The company focuses on bringing digital transformation
through radical and incremental innovations and provides advanced wireless products and high-
quality network (Spark, 2018a).

INNOVATION 7
Task 2
In relation to business operations, the operation of Spark will be responsible for
controlling internal flow of information and resources to plan for the respective product or
service. Spark aim to bring 5G technology in the market requires various setups in terms of
infrastructure and gaining the necessary permission from the government. However, the
company found some challenges with government resistance and competitors in adding of new
network areas and market coverage. Hence, through internal planning and research, Spark
discovers that there are needs for collaboration with other mobile operators so as to share
necessary resource and bring the technology out for the customers. The company do partnership
with Vodafone and 2degrees start delivering rural broadband in New Zealand and when the
company plan to bring 5G in near future, this collaboration will help the company to apply for
more network coverage (Bannerman, 2019). At present, it is very important for the operation
division of Spark to share and communicate as much as possible with the employees of other
organisations as this information can be used by the company while implementing 5G
technology in near future.
The marketing and the sales department were majorly responsible for creating brand
awareness and influencing the buying behaviour of the consumers. Spark focuses on developing
effective marketing campaigns that allow interacting with the customers and make them aware
about the benefits of new 5G network and technology and its uses in various other sectors such
as healthcare and agri-business. It allows the company to entice the customers and creates
personalize the experience for the customers by involving them through use of their technology
on trial basis. Later on, when company plan to commercialize its 5G, marketing and sales

INNOVATION 8
division can attract customers by offering one month trial basis and attract them through
partnership with other companies such as Netflix to go on with less subscription on their channel
if customer uses their 5G network. Other than this, they can also offer extra amount of data i.e.
say 10 GB on their monthly post-paid phone bill.
The automation of the accounting process allows the company to maintain the accounts
and records in an efficient manner. The accounting division of Spark helps the company in
collecting the data related to budget while implementing the 5G network and plan in the market
and thus do necessary adjustment priory in response to the changing needs of the customers.
Spark needs to invest lot of capital in various areas before successfully implementing 5G
technology such as network infrastructure, government compliances, collaboration with other
firms and many more. It will be the responsibility of accounting department to undertake
necessary financial analysis with each step of implementation of this technology and therefore,
put necessary efforts while saving costs. It will help Spark in building the portfolio that reflects
the best possible investments for the company and choose the investment that increases the
profitability of the business (Reason, 2016).
The changing roles of human resource division help the company in creating high
working performance and implementing innovation and change in the strategies that facilitate the
company in introducing innovation product. The key responsibility of Spark HR department will
be to recruit skilled employees and provide the necessary training to broaden their technical
knowledge such as gaining understanding of new technologies in relation with 5G networking as
LTE, SON, C-RAN, SDN, Mesh Network and IoT. There will be more efficient if the human
resource department recruits possible personnel having experience with this technology in

INNOVATION 9
another company. According to Evans et al (2017), the implementation of the project will be
achieved successfully with the right planning and direction of HR department of an organisation.
The innovation and the change in technology will be effectively done through
undertaking calculated risk by the risk management department and conducting the data analytics
research to analyse the changing needs of the customers (Evans et al, 2017). It is necessary for
the risk management department of Spark when planning to roll-out 5G technology to explore
various sorts of political, financial, operational and market research so as to develop strategic
action plans. For example, New Zealand bans Spark from using Huawei for 5G as the
government state that use of Huawei equipment in Spark's 5G network would raise significant
national security risks. Hence, such risks must be anticipated before coming up at final stage of
the project. It helps the company in sustaining its competitive advantage and differentiates its
product and services from the other competitive firms (Reason, 2016).
Task 3
The written communication strategy is a cohesive plan that lays the principles and the
policies to make the stakeholders aware of the company and reach a wide variety of audience
(Addams & Allred, 2015). The written communication is done in the form of email campaigns,
corporate magazines and CEO Webcast to make the stakeholders aware of the activities of the
company and retaining their interest. It allows describing the innovations that Sparks is coming
with and increases the base of the customers.
In the case of internal stakeholders, written communication helps in the proper
delegation of the roles and the responsibilities and helps in describing the changing roles of all

INNOVATION 10
members including its employees and shareholders. It acts as a reference and helps the internal
stakeholders in performing the complex functions through the proper presentation. It helps in
avoiding the ambiguous situations and maintaining the interest of all the manager, leader and
team members (Ji, Li, North& Liu, 2017). Internally, such letter can be presented for the
announcement of new 5G business.
Publication of new 5G Network and Technology
Date: 18 October, 2019
To,
Union and Employees
Address: 34 Viaduct Basin, Auckland
Subject: Information of 5G Network
Dear Mr, /Mrs,
It is to inform you all that our company is planning to bring new product/service portfolio with
5G technology and innovation and this will lead us to new path of success and corporate vision. I
believe that all the employees working for the organisation are happy with the resulting internal
changes in near future and ready to support out new project. If they face or encounter any issue,
our management has developed a separate committee for the same and they are ready to collect
respective feedback.
Thank You,
With Regards,
ABC

INNOVATION 11
In the case of the external stakeholders, written communication is used to spread the
news of the company in the public, government, competitors and customers. The newsletter,
press release, and financial reports are spread to make the stakeholders aware of the company
and build a strong rapport for further investments. It helps the company in reaching to the new
customers and changing the perceptions of the existing customers. Sparks uses social media
platforms to target the new demographics and helps the company in increasing its customer base
(Ji, Li, North& Liu, 2017).
Considering oral communication, it refers to the communication done through the mouth.
It includes face to face communications .i.e. meetings, conferences, and interviews.
In the case of internal stakeholders, Oral communication provides the flexibility to
make the decisions and allows two-way interaction between top management and the lower
levels. This helps in increasing the motivation of the employees and allows them to increase the
productivity of the company. It provides the benefit to the team members to coordinate their
efforts towards the common goals and develop harmonious relation which in turn motivates the
stakeholders to retain in the organisation and be committed towards organisation goals. It also
provides an opportunity for the members to construct creative ideas for the company (Eskerod &
Jepsen, 2016).
In the case of external stakeholders, oral communication helps in providing satisfaction
to the customers by delivering efficient customer service and resolving the issues faced by the
customers. It allows the company to interact with the investors and retain their interest in the
company. Oral communication is required in the marketing of the goods and influencing the