Innovation and Commercialisation Report: F-Drone's Commercial Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation and commercialization, focusing on the case study of F-Drone, a company specializing in drone delivery. The report explores the core concepts of innovation, distinguishing it from invention, and emphasizes its significance for organizational growth and competitive advantage. It examines how organizational vision, leadership, culture, and teamwork influence innovation and commercialization processes. The report delves into the 4 P's of innovation (Paradigm, Product, Position, and Process) and the application of the innovation funnel for shaping ideas. Furthermore, it discusses frugal innovation, its key attributes, and its practical implementation within F-Drone. The report also highlights the importance of the commercial funnel and the New Product Development (NPD) process for successful commercialization, culminating in the development of an innovation business case and an exploration of funding access. Finally, the report evaluates various tools and strategies organizations can employ to develop, retain, and protect their knowledge and intellectual property.

INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALISATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in comparison with
invention......................................................................................................................................1
P 2 Explain ways in which organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape
innovation and commercialisation...............................................................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
P 3 Explain 4 P’s of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and
shape innovative ideas.................................................................................................................3
P 4 developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is used in F- drone
organization..................................................................................................................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................5
P 5 Importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product Development
(NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation..............................................................5
P 6 Develop an Innovation Business Case for an organisation, including ways to access
funding.........................................................................................................................................7
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................7
P 7 Evaluate the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Innovation can be defied as a kind of process and action of creating creative ideas that
can be worked upon so that new and required features can be developed within existing products
and services of the organization (Skillicorn, 2020). Today, innovation is one of the most
important factors which is required to be focused upon by organizations in order to attract a
greater number of customers, sustain within the market in which they operate and gain
competitive advantage. But in order to make an innovation successful and increase awareness
about innovative product and services its commercialization is extremely important.
Commercialization is a kind of process that helps an organization in order to introduce new
innovative product or service developed into market so that its success chances can be enhanced
and organization can gain competitive advantage (Azar and Ciabuschi, 2017).
This assignment will lay emphasis upon a case study of F- Drone organization which is
world’s first transition drone building organization for enabling aerial deliveries to ships and
offshore platforms. This assignment will further cover explanation of innovation and determine
its importance to organisations in comparison with invention, ways in which organisational
vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation,
explanation of different types of innovation, process required to commercialise innovation and
evaluation of range of methods for protecting ideas and understand their advantages and
disadvantages.
LO 1
P 1 Explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in comparison with
invention.
Innovation is a process that helps in development or creation of something new within an
existing product or service. In business innovation is extremely important because innovation
help an organization in updating their products and services as per the changing needs and
demands of customers. Innovation can further help a firm in updating their products and services
in order to attract a greater number of customers, sustain within the marketing in which they
operate and for gaining competitive advantage (Mazzucato, 2018). Due to advancement in
technology and rising awareness for environment among customers it has become extremely
important for organizations to focus upon innovation so that development of products and
services as per changing needs and requirement of customers can be fulfilled without additional
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cost economically. One of the main purpose because of which innovation becomes important for
firms is that it helps in making customers life much easier. F-drone is also one of those
companies who focuses upon innovation for development of products and services like drone
delivery in order to make delivery of shipments for customers from dockyard to ship much
easier. Their final target is to bring innovation within their existing service so that drones can
deliver 100 kg parcel over 100 Km till 2022. The main idea behind drone delivery is that it helps
in reducing carbon emission because drones emit zero carbon dioxide. Innovation is further
important for an organization it helps them in maintaining loyalty and satisfaction level of
customers (Adelowo, Akinwale and Olaopa, 2017).
Innovation and invention are completely different from each other and are useful and
important for organizations in different ways. invention can be defied as creation of something
new for the first time in terms of product or service. As invention is done for the first time so
success and failure rate of invention is fifty- fifty. But innovation is introduction of something
new in existing products and services as per the changing needs and requirement of customers
due to this failure changes of innovation is less. F-drone has focused upon introducing innovative
features within their drone delivery. They next aim is to develop drone which is capable of
carrying 5 kg over 50 Km and till 2022 they want to develop drone which is capable of
delivering 10 Kg over 100 Km (Willis, Koper and Lum, 2018) .
P 2 Explain ways in which organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape
innovation and commercialisation.
There are many factors such as organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork that
helps in shaping innovation and commercialization. Contribution of these factor in shaping
innovation is completely different.
Organizational vision helps customers of the organization to understand vision and mission
of organization and what they want to become in future. It is an important factor because it helps
customers as well as stakeholders to bond and develop a strong relationship with the company.
Organizational vision further employees to understand what is required and expected form them
so that they can work upon bringing improvement within their work and performance
accordingly it further helps employees to think of innovative ideas so that main vision of the
organization can be achieved. For example, main vision statement of F-drone is to enable large
scale on- demand aerial deliveries (Akinwale, Adepoju and Olomu, 2017). This vision statement
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of F-drone helps its employees to understand that they are expected to thin of innovative ideas in
order to bring innovative improvement within their drone delivery service.
Another factor is organizational leadership. It is extremely important in shaping innovation
and commercialization because it helps in motivating employees so that they get motivated and
put more efforts in order to enhance their performance, think of more creative and innovative
ideas so that they can work upon introducing new and innovative features within existing
products and services of organisation. Yeshwanth Reddy and Nicolas Ang are co-founders and
leaders of F-drone who motivate their employees so that they get motivated and work with more
dedication in achievement of their goal of developing a drone that can carry 100 Kg over 100 km
and that emit zero percent carbon dioxide.
Organizational culture also helps in shaping innovation because it helps in development of
a working environment for employees so that employees get motivated and satisfied and work
more dedicatedly for development of innovative products and services in order to attract a
greater number of customers and for achievement of desired goals and objectives .Team work is
another factor that can help an organization shaping innovation. In fact it is the most important
factor because every successful innovation require team work and team efforts so that desired
goal can be achieved in pre-defied time period. Team work not only helps in achievement of goal
in pre-defined time period but it further helps in reducing changes of failure and even if there is
any kind of error then it can be identified in timely manner (Amponsah and Adams, 2017).
LO 2
P 3 Explain 4 P’s of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and
shape innovative ideas
4 Ps of innovation is known as innovation mix which is used by firms for understanding
innovation process so that they can focusing upon introducing innovative features within their
existing products and services in an accurate manner for growth and development of business. 4
P’s of innovation are as follows:
 Paradigm: It helps an organization to bring necessary and importance changes within
their current operations or activities that can help an organization to bring required and
positive changes within major business operations and activities for development of
innovative products and services.
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 Product: It helps an organization to focus upon their existing product and services so that
required and important changes can be brought for development of innovative product or
service that can fulfil needs, demand and requirement of customers in an effective
manner. Perfect example of this paradigm is F-drone who are focused upon bringing
innovative changes within their drome delivery service (Dincer, 2017).
 Position: This paradigm focuses upon content within which a product or a service is
framed so that innovative changes within the content can be brought.
 Process: This paradigm focuses upon current process of organization in which changes
are required to be brought in order to bring improvement within services of the
organization in terms of its operability, accuracy, profitability and many more.
Innovation Funnel
Innovation funnel can be defied as a kind of mechanism that can help in screening long stream of
ideas that are flexible and can be worked upon for development of innovative products and
services. Using innovation funnel innovative ideas can be shaped in three main steps:
 Ideas: At this step ideas are collected so that maximum number of solutions can be
identified that can be used and worked upon for development of innovative services and
products.
 Criteria: At this state some criteria are set that helps in filtering all the ideas so that
appropriate and accurate solution can be identified and selected. This stage is extremely
important for identification of appropriate ideas that can be worked upon for development
of successful innovative product and service. For example: F-drone has set some criteria
for identification of appropriate ideas that can be worked upon for development of drone
that can carry 100 Kg of weight over 100 Km (Dutta and Rousseau, 2020).
 Fine-tuning or Testing: This is the last stage in which selected idea is tested so that it
can be identified that selected idea is appropriate and can be worked upon in order to
ensure its success .
P 4 developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is used in F- drone
organization
Frugal innovation refers to new models for business, make changes in products so that
more customers can buy and create different image in market. It can be defined as change in
design of goods and services, system and to reduce cost of product so that consumers can afford
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it easily. It helps in minimising use of resource and efficiently use resources to make better
products. In today's scenario every consumer want new and innovative product. It helps
producers in reducing cost and eliminating wastage so that work can be done efficiently. Frugal
innovation helps F drone organisation in adapting change and companies should adjust in every
situation. There are some key attributes that are considered while making new product.
 Cautious resource utilisation – It is the basic need of frugal innovation that proper
utilisation of resources should be done. F drone organisation is planning to develop new
drone which will have new features and for making that less resources are required and
company can use reduce production cost as with the help of limited material more
products can be developed. Innovation requires huge amount of investment but
organisation should make plans or strategies according to the budget (Edler and
Fagerberg, 2017).
 Significant cost reduction – It means that cost of the product should be less so that
consumers can easily purchase it and sales of company can be increased. Frugal
innovation helps F drone organisation in reducing cost of product by making efficient use
of resources and employees should give their best. As F drone company is planning to
make new drone which will have more features and at affordable price.
 Adaptability and flexibility – Frugal innovation helps organisations in adjusting with
different situations, as all the time company will not face same situation. Due to change
in technology company has to face many problems as it has to give training to employees
for using new machines. Competition in also increasing so organisations has to make new
products or do innovation to maintain its position in the market and company can
generate more profit.
So, F drone company should make new product with limited resources and prices should be
affordable so that more customers can buy. Organisation should make new products to maintain
its position in the market and make innovative products (Žižka, and et.al., 2018).
LO 3
P 5 Importance of the commercial funnel and the application of New Product Development
(NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation
Commercial funnel can be defined as buying process that is used by companies to analyse
every stage of customer journey, starting from consumers need and requirements and till they
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purchase the product. It is important for organisations to use commercial funnel because it helps
in identifying need and demands, taste and preference of customers when they are purchasing
product. F drone company is also using commercial funnel model to analyse the buying
behaviour of customers and according to that innovation is done to make good quality product
(Edwards-Schachter, 2018).
New development process refers to taking product and identify its demand, this process
has many stages through which company identifies that whether product is suitable or not and
ends with market analysis. This process helps organisations in identifying market situation and
choices of customers. There are some stages of new development process which is followed by
every company to analyse the demand of product in market.
 Idea generation – This is the first step of new development process which involves
generating new ideas for making good quality product through group discussion or by
analysing market situation and demand for product in market. F drone company conduct
market research and according to that they make strategies to introduce new product or
make improvements in existing product. F drone company gets new ideas by conducting
meetings of team members and taking suggestions from them for developing new product
(Gabriel, 2019).
 Idea screening – In this stage of product development new ideas are being generated by
gathering information from market. Idea screening helps in identifying objectives of
company and compatibility with business. It also helps in determining whether this idea
will work or not. F drone company is planning to make new product but there is risk that
whether customers will like product or not.
 Concept testing – After completing the idea screening stage next step is to test technical
feasibility of product and design. F drone company will check the suitability of product
and working of drone. It is essential for organisations to go through this stage so that they
can make changes if required (Schot and Steinmueller, 2018).
 Business analysis – In this stage company determines that whether idea fits into strategic
plan and it also considers cost of producing new products, expected sales for the year,
demand and expected profit.
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 Product development- In this stage ideas that are passed through all the previous stages
is now converted in new product. Company start producing products according to plans
made by the managers .
 Test marketing- New product is distributed among few customers as free sample or
group of people to check that whether people are liking product or not. F drone company
after making new product test it by asking customers to use and share their views.
 Commercialisation - This is the last stage of new product development process in which
feedback is gathered from consumers and try to improve or make changes in product so
that next time good quality products should be provided to people.
P 6 Develop an Innovation Business Case for an organisation, including ways to access funding
Business case refers to benefits, advantages, funds that are required and risk involved in
making new and innovative product. It also helps organisations in determining that whether they
should continue with product or change idea. F drone is using business case to identify what are
benefits of doing innovation in product, disadvantages, how much investment is required and
factors that can affect working of organisation (Lehtimäki, and et.al., 2019).
Benefit of making changes in services of drone is to provide good facilities to customers
as company is planning to make drone which will carry 100 kg parcel over 100 km. This will
help the customers in easy delivery of shipments from dockyard to ships. It helps in keeping
environment safe and healthy and it is useful for the society. Some disadvantages of drone for
organisation is that training should be given to employees, they are affected by weather,
sometimes due to technological issues work get disturbed. In this fast moving world technology
is changing day by day, so it is difficult for organisations to make rapid changes. F drone
company is also facing problems in developing new product (Tirmizi, Malik and Hussain, 2020).
In making new product funds are required to buy raw material, talented and new
candidates are recruited, investing in buying new technology to make good quality product. For
making new product F drone company requires small amount of investment and employees
should use resources efficiently and reduce wastage of material. There is huge risk involved in
making new product because may be customers does not like or they want some changes. So, in
making innovation company has to take some risk to generate more revenue and attract
customers by providing goods services (Pustovrh, and et.al., 2017).
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LO 4
P 7 Evaluate the different tools that organisations can use to develop, retain and protect
knowledge and intellectual property
There are some different tools that are used by organisations to develop, retain, protect
knowledge and intellectual property. If company want to protect intellectual right then they
should use copyright, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. Each method helps organisation in
protecting ideas as copyright prevents ideas from other companies or competitors. Without
taking permission from the owner no one can use the idea and if someone illegally uses then case
can be filed against the person or organisation. F drone company should complete process of
copyright as idea is created (Nepelski and Piroli, 2018). Trademark does not require to be
registered only prove in the court, it helps in protecting from others in same field. Patents is
available for inventions, new machines,new material, changes in existing patents. These are
some tools that company can use to protect its intellectual rights and this helps in development of
organisation. It is important for every company to use some tools so that their idea cannot be
leaked or used by someone else. F drone company should also use tools for protecting their new
idea. They should implement their plan and create a good image in market.
CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that, innovation plays an important role in growth of
the company because if organisation will make new products then customers will be attracted.
Innovation and invention are different from each other and organisational vision, leadership,
culture and teamwork helps F drone company in making innovative products. Further, innovation
funnel is described and it helps in generating new ideas and earn more profit. Frugal innovation
and how it helps F drone organisation in reducing cost of drone, adapting changes and proper
utilisation of resources. Commercial funnel and new development process is discussed. Business
case and different tools that are used to develop, retain, protect knowledge and intellectual
property is described.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adelowo, C. M., Akinwale, Y. O. and Olaopa, O. R., 2017. Innovation and knowledge transfer
in Nigeria. International Journal of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation. 1(1).
pp.57-73.
Akinwale, Y. O., Adepoju, A. O. and Olomu, M. O., 2017. The impact of technological
innovation on SME's profitability in Nigeria. International Journal of Research,
Innovation and Commercialisation. 1(1). pp.74-92.
Amponsah, C. T. and Adams, S., 2017. Open innovation: Systematisation of knowledge
exploration and exploitation for commercialisation. International Journal of Innovation
Management. 21(03). p.1750027.
Azar, G. and Ciabuschi, F., 2017. Organizational innovation, technological innovation, and
export performance: The effects of innovation radicalness and
extensiveness. International Business Review. 26(2). pp.324-336.
Dincer, I., 2017. Importance of research, innovation and commercialisation for technological
success. International Journal of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation. 1(1).
pp.8-22.
Dutta, D. K. and Rousseau, M. B., 2020. Alliance experience, industry conditions, and external
technology commercialisation. International Journal of Innovation
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Edler, J. and Fagerberg, J., 2017. Innovation policy: what, why, and how. Oxford Review of
Economic Policy. 33(1). pp.2-23.
Edwards-Schachter, M., 2018. The nature and variety of innovation. International Journal of
Innovation Studies. 2(2). pp.65-79.
Gabriel, K., 2019. Accelerating innovation in a changing world. International Journal of
Research, Innovation and Commercialisation. 2(2). pp.105-114.
Godin, B. and Vinck, D. eds., 2017. Critical studies of innovation: Alternative approaches to the
pro-innovation bias. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Lehtimäki, H., and et.al., 2019. Sustainable value creation in the commercialisation of
innovation: the case of Auria Biobank. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and
Innovation Management. 23(5). pp.451-465.
Mazzucato, M., 2018. Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and
opportunities. Industrial and Corporate Change. 27(5). pp.803-815.
Nepelski, D. and Piroli, G., 2018. Organizational diversity and innovation potential of EU-
funded research projects. The Journal of Technology Transfer. 43(3). pp.615-639.
Pustovrh, A., and et.al., 2017. Antecedents and determinants of high-tech SMEs’
commercialisation enablers: opening the black box of open innovation
practices. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja. 30(1). pp.1033-1056.
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