Innovation and Commercialisation: Amazon Go Strategy Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of innovation and commercialization strategies, with a specific focus on the Amazon Go company. The report begins by defining innovation and its importance, particularly in the context of competitive markets, and then examines the application of innovation within Amazon Go's retail model. It explores leadership, teamwork, and cultural elements that support innovation and commercialization, detailing the 4Ps of innovation (product, process, position, and paradigm) and the use of the innovation funnel to assess and shape innovative ideas. Furthermore, the report explains frugal innovation, providing examples of its use in business functions. The analysis covers Amazon Go's mission, teamwork dynamics, and the influence of company culture on innovation and commercialization processes. The report also details the innovation funnel process, including stages like concept, plan, develop, qualify, launch, and life-cycle. The report concludes with a synthesis of the key findings and their implications for Amazon Go's strategic approach.

INNOVATION AND
COMMERCIALISATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO.1 ................................................................................................................................................1
P.1. Innovation and its importance to company with invention.............................................1
P.2.Explaining the vision, leadership, teamwork and culture in order to prepare innovation
and commercialization process...............................................................................................3
P 3. Explain 4P’s of innovation and explain the use of innovation funnel to examine and shape
innovation ideas......................................................................................................................3
P 4 Explaining the frugal innovation in order to support with some examples that how it used
in the business function..........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Innovation process is the steps to invent some new ideas and translating new innovation
from idea to new product development. It is very important that innovation is very important for
the survival of the businesses. Today, the entire world is of competition, thus, each and every
organisation have to go for innovation to beat the competition in the market (Bain and
Kleinknecht, 2016). In this present report, Amazon Go company is being chosen for assessment.
It is operating in a retail industry of convenience stores. It is a chain of grocery stores operated
by the online retailer Amazon. Its headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington.
LO.1
P.1. Innovation and its importance to company with invention.
It is very important that innovation is very important for the survival of the businesses.
Today, the entire world is of competition thus it is very essential that organisation should go for
innovation on continuous basis (Christensen, Raynor and McDonald, 2015). Amazon Go
company is going to open a grocery store in Britain with highly technical and innovative
machines. It is truth that there are many other groceries stores located in the Britain, thus, in
order to come up from others, it is very essential that they should provide those services and
product which are unique and different from other. It is very easy to copy others ideas and
thoughts but it is very difficult to go for innovation. Innovation makes the businesses entirely
change in terms of products and services.
Here are some importance of innovation in comparison to invention in case of Amazon GO.
Innovation is the process of creativity and implementing ideas which make the business
unique and well as different from other organisation in the market or industry. Innovation is very
crucial for all types of organisation as well as for Amazon Go company and it is much more
important in contrast with invention (Wallace, 2017). Amazon Go company is operating in a
retail industry of convenience stores. It is a chain of grocery stores operated by the online retailer
Amazon. Amazon GO is going to open its new grocery store in Britain which is the great
pleasure for the company to raise its share in the world. There are numerous number of
organisations which are operating with the same business. Thus, in order to beat the competition
it is very important that Amazon Go should come up with innovative concept in the market. It is
truth that innovation as well as invention both are very profitable for the company but the better
option for Amazon Go is to go for innovation instead of invention because company is dealing in
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the grocery items which are very common products. Invention is good for those businesses
where the products are not common. Thus, for Amazon Go, invention is not much profitable for
Amazon GO as compare to innovation (Dodgson, 2018). Innovation nit only raises the sales and
profitability of the organisation but it also attracts huge number of customers towards them.
Differentiation as well as uniqueness in the products is also increases by innovation. The
customers in Britain and all over the world are becoming highly innovative and technological
advance, so it is very important that Amazon Go should go for new and innovative concept.
Here are some sources of opportunities which can be used by Amazon Go-
Unexpected- It is true that innovation is the thing which take place unexpectedly. There
are numerous opportunities available in the market to grow and expand. Kit is up to the company
that how they use the opportunities (Drucker, 2014).
Structure of the market- Structure of the market also plays a crucial role in innovation
and creation. Innovation can also take place in existing structure of the market but Amazon Go is
going to expand there business in Britain so they have new market for innovation.
New Technology- This is also one of the most important which have to consider for
innovation. Amazon GO have opportunities to come with innovative concept like digital
payment, home delivery in very little hours etc.
Difference between Innovation and Invention
 The main difference between the Invention and Innovation is that the thing they do for or
for which activity they are used. The invention is creating something completely new on
the other hand innovation is all about Improving something that already exists.
 The invention requires technical skills to bring the idea to life, whereas innovation
requires technical as well as marketing skills to improvise something.
 The invention is born from an idea the inventor gets or pictures to produce something on
the other hand innovation is born from the constant need to make things better and to
gain a market advantage for an existing product and invention.
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P.2.Explaining the vision, leadership, teamwork and culture in order to prepare innovation and
commercialisation process.
It is very important that Amazon Go should go for innovation as well as it is essential for
all types of company operating in any industry across the world. It is accomplishment of new
ideas and thought that lead to the change for the customers as well as for staff members.
Commercialisation is the process in order to bring all the invention along with innovation
together or at single platform to make a new good or services (Hatch, 2014).
The mission culture, leadership and teamwork of Amazon Go will assist to shape innovation and
commercialisation-
Mission- The mission of Amazon Go to deliver high satisfaction to the customers by
furnishing quality of services and unique products to them. It is truth that the mission of
organisation can only be executed if they will go for innovation. Mission of Amazon HQ aim is
to create effective and supportive customer experience in order to meet out the company
purpose.
Teamwork- This is most essential factor in innovation and in implementing any other
strategies or plan. Teamwork is the essence of the company. None of the goal can be achieved if
they ignore teamwork within organisation (Mowery, D.C and et.al., 2015). Collaboration is very
important when company is planning for innovation. Company can achieve its highest success
with the team working. Teamwork is the great and effective form of new developing areas in
order to meet the overall team performance.
Culture- This is also one of the most important factor when company plans to go for
innovation. Culture is the values, norms, standards, religion of the employees working in the
company. There are variety of employees employed in the company which shows that company
has cultural diversity. Culture influence innovation and commercialisation in a great manner.
Culture of the company make effective working
Leadership : Leadership is the great terminology and goals in order to meet out the best
productive goals to make process more reliable. According to that, it also helps to make the team
more energetic and supportive in terms of encouraging behavioural growth. Amazon should
need to require some energetic leadership styles so that they can make effective result outcomes
and forming new team building thing.
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P 3. Explain 4P’s of innovation and explain the use of innovation funnel to examine and shape
innovation ideas.
Similar to marketing mix, innovation also has 4P’s that enables organisation to innovate new
product, service, ideas or process. As defined by Tidd and Bessant these 4P’s includes product,
process, position and paradigm (Jamieson, 2018).
 Product innovation: - this is considered as the most common type of innovation and under
this most common innovation is that which enhances the existing product that is already
offered to a customer. An example of it could be the digital reader, an innovated version
of traditional book.
 Activity creativity :- it refers to the procedure that is involved in making the new
product. In other words, this form of innovation takes into consideration the way in which
products are designed or delivered to the customer. It is the process of creating new
concept and developing the effective product outcomes.
 Orientation :- this type of innovation involves relocation of the user’s perception
regarding a specified good. This innovation refers to the change in the context in which
the products are introduced or where the target customers lies (Rosca, Arnold and
Bendul, 2017). Paradigm :- this is associated with the mental models, in Particularly it is change in the
mental models which tells what the organisation does. This means company uses
innovation to enhance the way it does business and it can be radical (Mount and
Martinez, 2014).
Innovation Funnel
The funnel of innovation is the process of developing a new product and is the common
model used by various companies to evaluate ideas and conceptualised products. The purpose of
all innovation funnel is to develop processes or goods that fulfil market needs in manufacturing
or economic forms. In developing an innovation funnel, it includes three key stages:
 Focused on the broad mouth of the funnel: - at this very first step organisation increases it
knowledge and information base. It has been determined that the major aim of this step is
to gather as many ideas as possible. In addition, it indicates that the more the ideas will
be the greater the range of products organisation can develop. Here, company can gather
information regarding their competitors, research, etc.
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 The narrow segment of the funnel is the second step: - the idea that firm generates in the
first step go through screening, and this process of screening includes matching the ideas
with the goals to check whether they are associated or not. After this, the company
conduct an assessment of returns and risk to finalise the idea. At this stage the
organisation test its product or service with actual customers (Yun, 2017).
 The third is the narrow segment stage of a funnel :- under this finals step, organisation
makes sure that the selected idea delivers to the company’s objectives that were expected
when the firm had started. By this then the new service or product is released or the
market at this stage.
Innovation funnel in a wider organisational context:
For Amazon Go company, the most important practice is to build and handle its
innovation funnel through strategic plan. Further, steps that needs to be followed by company are
concept, plan, develop, qualify, launch and life-cycle. The funnel is an approach used for the
conceptualisation of an idea to reality. Here company checks the viability of an idea through the
procedure of filters. The next step is to go to the target customers ans test the different concepts
from the early stage. After testing, Amazon Go collects feedback and based on it the organisation
and go for final decision on whether the new product should be launched or take into
consideration evaluation and benchmarking outcomes. Lastly, assuming at-least one concept, it
can launch the commodity into the market.
P 4 Explaining the frugal innovation in order to support with some examples that how it used in
the business function.
Frugal innovation is the procedure of decreasing the complexity and cost of items and its
production. Generally it means reduction in removing nonessential aspects from durable goods.
This innovation describes a form of innovation in which technical based products are customised
at lower cost and high volumes in the emerging market. As a procedure frugal innovation
determined new business models, rearranging value chains, and recreating products to serve
consumers who face uttermost affordability limitations, in a scalable and sustainable way. It has
been observed that at the time of frugal innovation, innovators think do not create. During this
process in their mind-set, resources constraint is considered as an opportunity and not as a
liability (Winterhalter, Zeschky and Gassmann, 2017).
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For example; in China software giant advanced telemedicine were used to help deal with the
increasing crisis in healthcare. Rather of constructing more hospitals the plan was to support
infrastructure to offer a network of an initial care i.e. a virtual lower cost and with much broad
outreach. Another example could be Siemens who took same approach of frugal innovation with
its Somatom Spirit in China with Computerised Axial Tomography scan i.e. a body scanner. The
aim was to be affordable, easy to hire skilled staff, and the final product cost 10% of full scan
machine, that delivers 60% less radiation. Further, example would be Akash, the 7th touch screen,
the internet allowed hand help device introduced in 2011 by Datawind a UK based organisation.
It was discover that, the supply of the product cost just $50 to the Indian government, & supplier
was further capable to perform out on lower cost, commensurate with the volume from the
government. In order to innovate and to come at “Low Cost”, the company Datawind has
described that they are utilising the existing new technology. This conceptual framework of
‘doing more with less’ could allow other firms to develop value for money items for their clients
(Zeschky, Winterhalter and Gassmann, 2014).
CONCLUSION
The overall report concluded that, invention means the creation of a brand new good,
process or device, whereas, innovation is an act of making modification to the current product or
process by establishing new ways or ideas. Later, it also concluded that there are various sources
of innovation such as; unexpected, market structure and new technology and so Amazon GO
must use these resources to develop innovation in Britain. Further, it added how organisational
culture, teamwork, vision foster innovation within an organisation. In last part of the report it
described use of innovation funnel with 4P’s i.e. process, paradigm, product and position.
Moreover, it concluded that frugal innovation is necessary to reduce complexity in the
innovation process.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bain, D. and Kleinknecht, A. eds., 2016. New concepts in innovation output measurement.
Springer.
Christensen, C.M., Raynor, M.E. and McDonald, R., 2015. What is disruptive
innovation. Harvard Business Review, 93(12), pp.44-53.
Dodgson, M., 2018. Technological collaboration in industry: strategy, policy and
internationalization in innovation. Routledge.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Hatch, M., 2014. The maker movement manifesto: Rules for innovation in the new world of
crafters, hackers, and tinkerers. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Jamieson, P., 2018. Innovation in wind turbine design. John Wiley & Sons.
Mount, M. and Martinez, M. G., 2014. Social media: A tool for open innovation. California
Management Review. 56(4). pp.124-143.
Mowery, D.C and et.al., 2015. Ivory tower and industrial innovation: University-industry
technology transfer before and after the Bayh-Dole Act. Stanford University Press.
Rosca, E., Arnold, M. and Bendul, J.C., 2017. Business models for sustainable innovation–an
empirical analysis of frugal products and services. Journal of Cleaner Production. 162.
pp.S133-S145.
Wallace, D., 2017. Environmental policy and industrial innovation: Strategies in Europe, the
USA and Japan. Routledge.
Winterhalter, S., Zeschky, M.B. and Gassmann, O., 2017. Business models for frugal innovation
in emerging markets: the case of the medical device and laboratory equipment industry.
Technovation. 66. pp.3-13.
Yun, J.J., 2017. Business Model Design Compass: Open Innovation Funnel to Schumpeterian
New Combination Business Model Developing Circle. Springer.
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Zeschky, M. B., Winterhalter, S. and Gassmann, O., 2014. From cost to frugal and reverse
innovation: Mapping the field and implications for global competitiveness. Research-
Technology Management. 57(4). pp.20-27.
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