Detailed Report: Innovation and Commercialization at Airdri Limited

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation and commercialization, using Airdri Limited as a case study. It begins by defining innovation and comparing it to invention, highlighting their importance to organizations. The report then explores how organizational vision, culture, teamwork, and leadership shape innovation and commercialization. It delves into the sources of innovation and how organizations can foster an innovative culture. Furthermore, the report examines the 4Ps of innovation, the use of an innovation funnel, and the development of frugal innovation. The report also discusses the commercial funnel, the application of New Product Development processes, and the importance of an innovation business case. Finally, the report covers tools for knowledge development, retention, and protection. The report incorporates real-world examples, such as Airdri Limited's energy-efficient hand dryers, to illustrate key concepts and strategies. The report aims to provide insights into successful innovation management and commercialization processes.

Innovation and
Commercialization

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Innovation and its importance to organisation in comparison to invention............................1
P2. Ways through which organisational vision, culture, teamwork and leadership can shape
innovation and commercialisation...............................................................................................3
M1. Sources of innovation along with the ways organisations fosters as well as develops an
environment along to innovation culture.....................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. 4P's of innovation along with usage of innovation funnel for shaping innovative ideas......4
M2. Application of innovation funnel.........................................................................................6
P4. Frugal innovation development with example......................................................................7
M3. Role of frugal innovation.....................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5. Importance of Commercial funnel addition to applicability of New Product Development
processes to commercialise innovation........................................................................................8
P6. Innovation Business case.....................................................................................................10
M4. Business case involving measurements of all effective techniques...................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
P7. Tools used to develop, retain together with protecting knowledge. ...................................12
M5. Evaluation of tools..............................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is characterised as new imagination, ideas with creative thought in the form of
method addition to device (Bernstein, 2015). It is termed as adoption, exploitation and
production of value added originality in order to establish new management systems. In addition,
commercialisation involves stages to bring new commodity in the market. It encompasses
activities related to marketing, production, distribution, customer support and sales so to attain
commercial success for new items or services. Organisation uses both concepts at the time when
they experiences decrease in number of customers, sales quantity and market shares. To gain
deeper knowledge about the concepts of innovation and commercialisation, Airdri limited is
selected which develops energy efficient hand dryers and having its head offices at Oxfordshire,
united Kingdom. The products of the company are designed for providing comfort to users as
well as are recognised for low energy consumption, reduced noise and have ease of services. The
report involves information about innovation along with differences among invention and
invention. In addition, it discusses about distinct innovation types along with procedures to
commercialise innovations. Further, the report includes tools that are used for developing,
retaining as well as protecting knowledge.
TASK 1
P1 Innovation and its importance to organisation in comparison to invention
Innovation is defined as an process of transforming an idea into a good or service that
will create value for the product and service and consideration will be received in respect to that
idea. Expectations of the consumers are met when the idea is transformed in reality. In simple
terms innovation can be termed as to make change or to do something in different manner
(Cunningham, 2013). For example- Airdri Limited is one of the famous hand dryers
manufacturing organisation recognised the need of innovation to meet the requirements of the
new markets. A new hand dryer available in different fragrance are introduced by the company
that is completely new in the market and helps in satisfying large number of consumer group and
creating new markets. Importance of innovation in an organisation are described as follows-
Adaptation to the changing environment- Business environment had evolved over the
years and it is changing continuously. To cope up with the changes and managing the
competitive position in the market Airdri organisations needs to make innovations to their
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products and services. These innovations helps in responding towards trends and helps in
satisfying large number of consumers as more competitive business organisation.
Gives compensative advantages- Innovation adds a little more to a business then before
and this becomes a source to gain competitive advantage. Managers and all the department of
Airdri will help in introducing the concept of fragmented hand dryers to make the business more
competitive and successful.
Invention means when something is done for the first time without making improvement
in the existing products and services. Invention is featured with creative thinking, new idea and
unique method to represent an idea (Datta, Mukherjee and Jessup, 2015). Invention provides
several benefits to business organisation by understanding the need and preference of the
targeted consumer group. Certain importance of invention is described as follows-
New consumer group: Introduction of a product and service by Airdri organisation that
is not already existing in the market will help in establishment of new markets for business. New
consumers will be attracted and market sharing of an business organisation will enhance.
Introduction of Innovative products: When innovation is really implemented in the
real world then it leads to introduction of innovative product. A innovative product will be more
advance and helps in satisfying the requirements of consumers.
Comparison of innovation and invention:
Basis of Comparison Innovation Invention
Meaning Innovation is defined as the
idea for a product and process
for the first time.
In innovation the idea of
introducing a new product and
service has never been made
before.
Focus Focus of innovation is made
on adding value to something
that is already existing.
Focus of invention is made on
creating a new product (Evers,
Cunningham and Hoholm,
2014).
Basis Innovation is based on the
broad set of strategies,
marketing and technical skills.
Invention is based on primary
scientific skills.
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Implementing innovation in commercialisation is creating challenges on survival of small
businesses. As availability of resources required for innovation is not available with small
businesses and this hampers business operations in long run. Biggest challenge for small
business owners is to compete with large organisations in terms of product variety, quality, cost
etc. All these elements will be a challenge for surviving in the competitive world.
P2. Ways through which organisational vision, culture, teamwork and leadership can shape
innovation and commercialisation
Vision and mission of an organisation are long term objectives that helps in defining
targets that needs to be achieved to move towards ultimate goal of success. Innovation and
commercialisation in an organisation is largely affected by culture and employees. Appointment
of staff in Airdri is made in such manner that skills and knowledge of managers and employees
working for the company helps in adding something valuable to organisation. Vision, culture,
teamwork and leadership of Airdri will help to shape innovation for business. Contribution of
these factors for organisation is defined as-
Organisational vision: Vision and mission of Airdri is to create new business
opportunity through disruption to the global market. Together with this long term vision of
company is to innovate sustainable solutions that reduces waste and co2 emission (Henttonen
and Lehtimäki, 2017). A effective coordination at all the levels of management helps Airdri to
clarify their vision to each employee. This also brings new and innovative thoughts of employees
working at different levels to the upper level and considered when suitability is found.
Culture: Organisational culture as well as culture of society plays important role to
introduce innovation. Charles Handy Culture is followed by Airdri to shape innovation. Elements
of this culture are as-
Power- As per this culture power in an organisation must be given to few hands who can
influence others to perform well. Upper level of managers are given power in Airdri to make
decisions and implement new policies.
Role- Each individual working for Airdri must be provided with their roles and
responsibilities to make them more efficient for attaining objectives.
Task- Each objective of business is termed as task and all the progress and issues related
to particular objective is resolved while performing this particular only.
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Person- Each individual in an organisation is available with some unique quality and this
gives power to each individual to contribute towards shaping new innovation for Airdri.
Leadership: It is an important function of management which helps to maximize the
efficiency and to achieve organisational goals. A effective leadership in Airdri will motivate all
the employees to maximise their output and provide best quality results. Leadership style in the
company is decentralised that provides decision making power at each level of management. A
effective superior and subordinate relationship will be created that will help to shape innovation
(Kolychev and Prokhorov, 2015).
Team work: A good team and efficient team work is the key for success of business.
Innovation and commercialisation in Airdri is not possible until work is performed in team. This
will help in utilising best of individual skills and a common goal to achieve. For this Bruce
Tuckman’s theory is used that involves forming, storming, norming and performing stage.
M1. Sources of innovation along with the ways organisations fosters as well as develops an
environment along to innovation culture.
Numerous innovation sources opted by Airdri Limited to pursue its operations for
attaining all the set objectives. Some of the sources includes creative thinking, organising
brainstorm sessions, engaging personnels to motivate them for sharing creative ideas, remaining
flexible, understanding market structure, consumer perceptions addition to developing
knowledge about social needs. Other then this, Airdri Limited managers fosters together with
developing environment of innovative culture through leading from front, building effective
teams, reward failures and benchmarking against best.
TASK 2
P3. 4P's of innovation along with usage of innovation funnel for shaping innovative ideas.
Innovation mix model was provided by John Bessant as well as Joe Tidd. The models is
used to discover the aspects of developments of innovation procedures and bringing new changes
in the business. Different innovation types are classified as product innovation, paradigm
innovation, process innovation along with position innovation. At the time of planning activities,
management of Airdri Limited uses the tool so to understand existing position together with
analysing ways that results in improvement of 4P's. Following are the elaboration of 4P's of
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innovation and organisational managers can adopt one of them while introducing innovations in
future time (Innovation types. 2019).
Overview of different innovation types:
Disruptive approach: Stealth innovation is its another name and in this type new
technologies along with procedures are applied towards organisation's current market. It is
generally stealth in nature as new techniques are inferior in current technological market.
Managers of Airdri Limited, with this innovation type implements latest technology or
innovation in existing market. The approach benefits the company by making few iterations and
surpassing old ones. In contrary, new technology is quite expensive, difficulty to use and may
posses fewer features which can hamper organisational profit margins along with image in
market.
Incremental approach: Herein, existing technologies are utilised by companies to add
customer values within existing market. In context to Airdri Limited, operational managers with
this approach adds new features or make limited changes in designs to innovate the products.
The approach benefits in adding small updates that adds values towards customer experiences
through making small improvements n existing commodities of company and protecting current
models of business. But the approach has some disadvantages that results in huge marketing
expenses for company and it is very difficult to notice the product changes made by competitors.
4P's and innovation space strategy
Innovation Space 4P's is powerful tool that is used for analysis (Innovation space 4P's.
2019). The categories of innovation space strategy 4P's are the following:
Product innovation: It includes all the products or services which organisation offers in
the market. Airdri Limited sells wide variety of hand dryers and make modifications as per the
specifications addition to customers demands so to acquire huge market shares. If the entity has
strong vision to grab attention of numerous customers then they have to perceive exact needs of
customers so to frame strategies to attract large base of market.
Process innovation: The another category that comprises ways along with changes
through which commodities of company are created and delivered. It is usually used by selected
entity while developing innovative internal processes so to modify existing products and
increasing awareness so to boost presence of attractive innovations and attaining higher
profitability.
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Position innovation: The innovation type that emphasis towards framing addition to
communicating information with products or services. It involves changes made in context to
introducing the products. In other words, it involves the ways in which particular commodity is
perceived addition to usage of products. With position innovation, Airdri Limited managers
visualise the actual position of products in competitive market (Mazzarol and Reboud, 2017).
Paradigm Innovation: The innovation includes mental models that can shape the
aspects of business. It is related to changes in context to how, where and why the commodity is
used as well as how managers gets things done. By using paradigm innovation, management
team of Airdri Limited improves the ways in which operations of company are performed so to
gain success.
From the described innovation space 4P's, effective option for Airdri Limited is product
innovation which will help in innovating commodities which will provide huge opportunities to
expand globally so to make more profits and attaining market shares.
Use of innovation funnel: A tool that helps in enables various ideas which may be
further screened for viability. It is among the popular innovation approaches that is used by
managers to formulate innovative addition to realistic action plans. The funnel involves key
phases of investigation, development addition to distribution (Innovation funnel. 2016).
Management team of Airdri Limited uses the tool to implement new solutions or plans for
modifying existing commodities. In investigation phase, the tool helps in widening the mouth
where managers expand their knowledge and access information to enhance quantity of new
products addition to new process ideas. In development phase, generated ideas are managed and
screened so to focus to resource that can provide wide opportunities. In shipping stage,
organisational managers ensures to ship the innovative products at wide locations. With this,
managers can effectively make usage of innovative funnel for managing new solutions as well as
developing ideas.
M2. Application of innovation funnel.
Innovation funnel can be implemented at Airdri Limited due to its effectiveness that
helps in introduction as well as modifying commodities in market. With the help of its three
elements such as investigation, development as well as shipping phases, managers guides
employees addition to leaders so to collect actual market information. In addition, producing
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addition to developing commodities according to the market trends and further launching it in
market. At last, all the manufactured products are delivered to consumers through shipments.
P4. Frugal innovation development with example.
Frugal innovation: It postulates considering all the constraints associated with
organisation at the time of generating innovative ideas. All businesses faces certain limitations in
context to non financial or financial resources. In context to Airdri Limited, managers can use
the limitations in various ways so to generate innovative ideas that can result in betterment of
organisational performances (Rasmussen, 2010). It is used at the company to gain wide number
of benefits in uncertain situations. Frugal innovation is a unique concept which is usually
developed so to respond towards scarce resources in context to material, institution and monetary
aspects and turning them towards developing practical solutions that can satisfy market
necessities along with market driven innovations. By relying on such innovation, selected
organisational managers emphasises on developing product quality solutions which are
affordable by market.
Example of frugal innovation:
Airdri Limited managers applies frugal innovation so to reduce unproductive products
addition to redundant costs that are associated with manufacturing innovations. It is generally
developed to produce market driven innovations that can fulfil various requirements of business.
Other than this, necessity driven innovations are also developed so to solve urgent problems and
make profits during difficult situations. For instance, if Airdri Limited implements new
technologies in hand dryers models that can help the business to set above 50% less prices and
will be serving to 70% market in efficient manner by using the innovation. Small organisations
like Airdri limited faces tough time because of failures in business strategies, increasing
substitute products and more competitors. During such necessity time, the managers opts frugal
innovation for improving business performance in the market.
M3. Role of frugal innovation.
Frugal innovation involves series of actions related to reducing costs as well as
decreasing complexities in the manufacturing stages. At Airdri Limited, it plays key role of
removing unnecessary and extra characteristics of items which are not useful together with
increases complexities and product prices. The concept helps in re designing products along with
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serving better product version. Further, it also plays role of discovering unique applications
related to innovation and commercialising products ion market.
TASK 3
P5. Importance of Commercial funnel addition to applicability of New Product Development
processes to commercialise innovation.
Commercial funnel is said to visual representation of customer journey while
purchasing commodities. It is a marketing funnel that suggests number of potential customers as
well as actual clients. With this approach, Airdri Limited analyses purchasing behaviour of
individuals. It helps an entity to expand business operations in wider localities addition to
attaining maximum returns. The concept is used by selected organisational managers to
formulate business plan, managing demands together with setting product prices.
Importance of commercial funnels:
Formulating strategies: Commercial funnel is important for formulating strategies
through properly understanding business models and to attain growth. In context to Airdri
Limited, the funnels helps in formulating strategies to attract huge customers as well as
competing in the market.
Converting audiences: The tool is important for converting unmapped or little known
audiences into prospective customers. Airdri Limited analyses market needs and accordingly
providing discounts and offers on various hand dryers so to convert mass public into key
customers.
New product development: Strategic plan comprising procedures for bringing new
innovations to the marketplace. Every business needs to engage in new product development
process because of changing consumer preferences,technological advancements, increasing
competition or capitalising new opportunities. Marketing and management team of Airdri limited
adopted the model in order to enhance recognition via commercialising innovative hand dryers
(New product development procedure. 2019).
Procedures involved in new product development:
Idea generation: At this stage, organisational managers follows formal routines for
generating continuous flow of ideas through distinct sources. Airdri Limited generates new ideas
by searching distinct markets, inviting suggestions from workforce and customers, studying
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competitors products, conducting marketing reach in order to find needs with preferences of
consumer. Marketers of the company also analyses current perceptions and behaviours together
with available opportunities at the time of generating ideas.
Idea screening: Herein, the generated ideas are carefully evaluated. Airdri Limited
managers after evaluating numerous ideas selects effective option among the numerous ones.
They adopts product- market scenarios together with SWOT analysis to scree ideas. For passing
criteria, organisational managers set some standards.
Concept testing: Herein, answers to certain questions including whether the audience
will understand new product, whether consumers will accept new innovation or not and whether
consumer wants new product or not. Marketers of Airdri limited selects small group of people
and collect information for new product concept.
Business analysis: It is very crucial stage in the new product development phases.
Herein, management team of Airdri Limited conducts detailed detailed business analysis so to
analyse that the new product will help in gaining profits or not. As per business viewpoint, new
product is studied and if results are favourable then further steps are followed otherwise product
is rejected (Rasmussen and Eliason, 2017).
Product development: Herein, the business has decided to manufacture new product and
introduce it in the market. All necessary steps are taken by Airdri Limited team members for
manufacturing addition to shipping new product. First plans are produced by production
department and then marketing department frame strategies for product distribution. Later,
finance managers provide adequate funds for commodity introduction and advertising team plans
advertisements in context to new product. All the working is performed at small scale for the
purpose of test marketing.
Test marketing: In this, new product is generally introduced at small scale in small
market. If managers are satisfied with the results or customer opinions then further they
introduce it on large level. If Airdri limited managers finds product failure while test market then
they makes certain changes and make further introduction.
Commercialisation: When company finds success in test marketing, Airdri Limited
marketers introduces new product all over the nation. Huge investments are made and bulk
quantities are produces to distribute the product at huge scale. Mass media advertisements is also
done through radio, magazines and newspaper articles.
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Market performance review: Herein, marketing performances of Airdri Limited new
product are constantly monitored and reviewed. Further, necessary changes are also made on
marketing strategies addition to plans.
P6. Innovation Business case.
Innovation business case is characterised to plan used for preparing documentation forms.
All organisations while planning innovations prepares strong business plan in order to increase
organisational productivity ( Thota and Munir, 2011). Such as Airdri Limited is planning for
introducing innovation that is Black Storm Airdri hand dryer that will dry hands with 5-8
seconds and keep hands fragrant. Innovation business case in context to new product is under
beneath:
Executive summary: Airdri Limited is one of small business which performs operations
to serve market of United Kingdom and its surroundings. The company mainly deals with
manufacturing hand dryers and currently working for introducing new product so to capture huge
shares of market.
Vision statement: Top management of Airdri Limited has vision to making new
opportunities for partners, general public as well as for business to flourish innovative designs
with techniques.
Objectives: Smart objectives framed by the company are:
 To capture 35% market share till 2021.
 To attain annual sales of 15000 £ by 2021.
Situational analysis: Airdri Limited marketers have opted SWOT analysis to analyse
market situations.
Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat
 Diversified
product line.
 Strong
marketing
strategies.
 Limited market
coverage.
 Limited
resource
available.
 Expanding
globally.
 Delivering
products of
good quality at
reasonable
rates.
 Unidentified
obstacles.
 Fluctuations in
economic
conditions
(Uppenberg
and Strauss,
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