INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION MANAGEMENT Assignment Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation and commercialization strategies within the context of the 99p Store, a UK-based retail organization. It begins by defining innovation and differentiating it from invention, emphasizing the significance of innovation for 99p Store's competitive advantage in the online retail market. The report explores how organizational culture, teamwork, and leadership shape commercialization and innovation, highlighting the importance of fostering creativity and adapting to changing consumer behaviors. It then delves into different types of innovation, using the innovation funnel to explain the 4Ps of innovation (product, process, position, and paradigm). The report examines frugal innovation, providing examples relevant to 99p Store's operations, and discusses processes required for commercializing innovation, including the application of New Product Development (NPD) and the importance of a commercial funnel. It also outlines methods for protecting ideas and intellectual property, evaluating tools for knowledge development, retention, and protection. Finally, the report offers recommendations and concludes with a summary of key findings, providing valuable insights into how 99p Store can leverage innovation for sustainable business growth and success in a competitive market.

INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION MANAGEMENT
Assignment
Student name:
Organization: 99p Store
Student ID:

Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Define innovation and determine the difference between innovation and invention..............3
P1 Explain the importance of innovation to 99p Stores and its comparison with the invention.....3
P2 Mention the ways using which culture, teamwork and leadership can shape
commercialization and innovation in the organization....................................................................5
LO2 Explain the types of innovation...............................................................................................6
P3: With the use of innovation funnel explain the 4ps of innovation.............................................6
P4 Line out the developments in frugal innovation and draw examples with chosen organization7
LO3 Processes required commercializing innovation.....................................................................8
P5 Importance of commercial funnel in the application of New Product Development (NPD)
with respect to commercialization of innovation.............................................................................8
P6 Build a business case include ways to access funds.................................................................10
LO4 What is the range of ways for protecting ideas and understand their benefits and
disadvantages.................................................................................................................................11
P7 Evaluate the tools that can develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property..11
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Reference list.................................................................................................................................14
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................16
Appendices....................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
The importance in innovation within the sector of commercialization has gained immense
importance. Thus, the assignment aims to understand the importance of invention with respect to
innovation in regards to 99p Stores as a chosen organization. 99p Stores is a medium sized retail
organization that operates over the UK. The organization mainly deals with delivery of consumer
goods with low-cost delivery to all parts of UK. The organization aims to emerge out as one of
the major online pound shops. However, it should also be taken into consideration that lower
price does not mean degraded service quality. The company promises to deliver the purchased
goods at a stated address within the mentioned time. Hence, the assignment works on explaining
the difference between innovation and invention with the factors that work on supporting
innovation and commercialization of business processes. Finally, the innovation funnel with
New Development of Products has been outlined in order to ensure innovation in business
processes.
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LO1 Define innovation and determine the difference between innovation and invention
P1 Explain the importance of innovation to 99p Stores and its comparison with the
invention
The report shed lights on the commercialisation and innovation of 99p stores and in addition to
this, organisation culture has been evaluated for next 12 months. Innovation decides about
company’s culture, vision and also helps in commercialisation. This has been discussed in this
report in details. 4Ps of the innovation has been explained in details for shaping the innovative
ideas. All the frugal innovation has been explained with the help of various examples. This helps
in making the organisational culture more innovative. Innovation needs to commercialise and
hence, for this, commercial funnel and NPD have been explained significantly. This is highly
important for the employees of 99p stores. This helps in overcoming the challenges faced in the
organisation. Different tools have been used by the company to retain develop and protect
knowledge. The major tools that have been used are copyrights, trademarks, patents and design
rights.
Innovation may be termed as a new idea with creative thoughts. However, as opined by
Bashmakov et al. (2014), innovation is often viewed as an application of better solutions that
work on meeting the needs of competitive markets, customer demands or even unarticulated
needs. Thus, the importance of innovation is imperative in the operational management of the
business. Hence, as per perspective of marketing, in regards to increasing competition in online
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retail stores, it is important to stay competitive. As influenced by Fang et al. (2017), an important
part of innovation is creativity, a business that fosters and implements creativity has high
chances of implementing creativity and thus more likely to be innovative. Moreover, as
mentioned by Donate and de Pablo (2015), the benefit associated with innovation is generally
tangible. Thus, the following are the sources of innovation in the chosen retail organization:
The unexpected market trend: The retail sector is basically customer-centric that is subjected to
change in consumer purchase behaviour. In order to meet the demand of the customer, 99p
Stores needs to make changes in business operations that can help in gaining a competitive
advantage in the market. As per Curtis and Sweeney (2017), in order to gain competitive
advantage innovation is an integral part.
Changes in Perception: Population and people change over time. The lifestyle of individual
changes, thus companies should work on implementing innovation and must pay attention in
order to be remembered in the market. For example, people these days rely on online shopping in
order to ensure timely delivery and avoid time constraints. Taking advantage of this situation 99p
Stores can work on making use of innovative techniques to strengthen their online presence.
Process need: The need for processing works on identifying weak spots of the chosen
organization. As influenced by Eesley et al. (2014), the process need is not limited to the
identification of weak spots; it works on correcting them too. Thus, the task-oriented solution
acts as a source of innovation that comes from existing capabilities of 99p Stores with ways of
doing business and not the market.
The concept of innovation is made clear; however, the difference between innovation and
invention can be stated as follows:
BASIS FOR INVENTION INNOVATION
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COMPARISON
Definition An occurrence of an idea for a
product that has never been
done previously in 99P store.
While innovation refers to the
implementation of an idea for
the first time in 99P store/
What is it? Creates a new product or
service in 99P store
Works on improving old
services and product in order
to meet customer demands in
99P store.
Concept A genuine idea with a
working theory is the main
concept of the invention in
99P store.
The main concept in regards
to innovation relies on the
practical implementation of
formed ideas in 99P store.
Skills needed Usually technical and
scientific skills are required in
99P store.
Apart from a technical
knowledge that acts as an
added advantage; innovation
makes implementation of
marketing and strategic skills
in 99P store
When does it occur? It usually occurs due to the
advent of a new ideas in 99P
store
Occurs usually to meet the
existing competitive
advantage of the organization
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in 99P store
It is concerned with what? With a single process or
product in 99P store
It pays attention to more than
one product or process in 99P
store
Activities Limited to Research and
Development department in
99P store
Works on involving the
organization as a whole in
99P store
Table 1: Comparison between innovation and invention in 99P store
(Source: Created by author)
P2 Mention the ways using which culture, teamwork and leadership can shape
commercialization and innovation in the organization
Leadership can work on fostering innovation as leaders tend to have a vision for the future for
long-term success. Additionally, as stated by Eesley et al. (2014), innovative leaders establish
trust in employees that would be reflected back on themselves; employees that exhibit trust in
leadership are seen to implement alternative ways of thinking to conduct business. A strong
leader in 99p Stores can set appraisal goals that can further challenge employees to achieve
success in business. Additionally, leader’s value diversity and thus, cultural diversity can be
implemented. Hence, Saghezchi et al. (2017) stated cultural diversity can be beneficial as it
brings together viewpoints and pool of ideas.
On the contrary, diversity is of limited benefit if it does not allow viewpoints to be expressed.
Alternatively, as stated by Winterhalter et al. (2017), teamwork that is effective can transform
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ideas into services and products. Thus, it is critical to state an adapted structure is must need in
order to sustain 99p Stores operations and make it efficient. However, as stated by Moeller
(2014), organizational culture may be compared to the operating system. Hence, if the
organizational culture of the 99p Store values curiosity more than certainty then the event of
innovation would not happen. However, if the cultural values blame over accountability then the
chosen organization may fail to commercialize as well.
Explanation on vision, leadership, skills benefits of a team work
Vision of team work is always associated with the goals and objectives of the organisation. They
create vision which is very helpful for the organisation to achieve its goals. Vision is the
guideline to be following by the team of the organisation.
Team work is always followed by leadership. Leadership helps the team to work right on a
proper path. Leadership helps in moving the team work in a correct process. They help in
delegating the work to all the other members of the company.
Skill benefits are such benefits which are provided by the team when they are working. It helps
in managing the activities as the members of the team are skilled in doing the work.
LO2 Explain the types of innovation
P3: With the use of innovation funnel explain the 4ps of innovation
The aspect of innovation with innovation funnel is fairly new for the medium-sized retail sector
such as 99p Stores. Currently, 99p Stores plans to expand its business outside the UK. However,
the area outside the UK is already ruled by retail giants such as Tesco, Wal-Mart and so on that
further discounts may act like a tough competition for 99p Stores to establish its business on the
international market. Thus, 99p Stores can implement this model and derive ideas from existing
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concept to the reality that converge them into a specific product to meet market needs
(innovation funnel). Hence, the process of 4Ps in innovation can be stated as follows:
Attributes Impact
Product The main impact of product innovation can work in advantage for the chosen
organization. Thus, 99p Stores can work on making sure to introduce a new
range of products that further catch the attention of customers. For example,
during the event of Halloween, 99p Stores introduced new candies and treats.
Furthermore, during the events of Christmas, 99p Stores introduced a new
range of Christmas decorations in order to keep up with the festive mood
(just99.co.uk, 2018).
Process With the change in customer demands, 99p Stores changed business process
too. The change in process was observed in the system of service delivery
that was done on time and within an affordable range.
Position The aspect of re-positioning is gaining prominence. Through the use of
services and innovative product, 99p Store can reclaim its position in the
market of online shopping and delivery
Paradigm The product and service innovation is for an operational purpose; however, it
is important to ensure an all-round development for the organization. Cash-
based programming acts as the most radical step that involves new product
(cash), a new system of delivery or process (ways of distributing cash)
Table 2: 4Ps of innovation
(Source: Created by author)
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P4 Line out the developments in frugal innovation and draw examples with chosen
organization
Frugal innovation is a concept that makes business response to change and implement the same
with limited resources and transform these constraints into innovative ideas coupled with
practical solutions. However, the aim of the chosen organization is to develop an analytical
framework with thinking models that can help in order to understand the developmental
implications associated with frugal innovation. As influenced by Chuang et al. (2016), frugal
innovation can, therefore, result in a balanced perspective on the phenomenon of frugal
innovation. Thus the following are the areas that can make use of frugal innovation in 99p Store:
● The retail operations implement cutting-edge technology that hints towards expensive solutions.
However, currently, the European retail sector is driven by selfless motivation. As stated by
Kesting et al. (2017) ingenuity is linked to combining and mobilizing for frugal innovation in
business. For example, 99p Store uses open innovation models that look for technologies for
constituting relevant sources for design related to frugal solutions in the future.
● Simultaneously, frugal innovation in the 99p Store sold their services as per the desire of
customers. In order to increase their services, 99p Store maintained a low price margin.
● Moreover, the chosen organization made it imperative to sell products as per the demands of
seasons such as Christmas and Halloween that can work on increasing their profit margin. [Refer
to Appendix 1]
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LO3 Processes required commercializing innovation
Technological innovation is done in 99p store. Technological innovation is very important in any
organisation. Return on investment suggests that the company is earning profits when the
company does innovation. This business profits are calculated from return on investments. The
return on investments explains that all the cost done on the investment is recovered and the profit
is earned thereafter.
P5 Importance of commercial funnel in the application of New Product Development
(NPD) with respect to commercialization of innovation in 99p store
For proper commercialisation of innovation, use of a commercial funnel is essential to improve
the sales and achieve the target as per the expectation. As stated by Westland (2016), application
of commercial funnel can help employees in the organisation in converting strangers into a
customer for a particular product through 5 different steps in 99p store.
● Awareness phase: In this step target customers become aware of new products by a company and
thus company gets with an opportunity to attract target customer in a mannered way.
● Interest phase: In this phase strangers are converted into normal visitors by a company by
generating interest among them about a particular product launched by an organisation.
● Evaluation phase: In this phase, the company provides an opportunity to its customers to
evaluate their new products and thus it can lead to a close relationship between customers and
organisation.
● Decision phase: This phase provides an opportunity for the customers to take a decision about
purchase of new products. Thus according to Biemans (2018), this phase can help a customer to
get appropriate products according to their needs.
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