BUS705 Assessment 1: Innovation and Forces in Business Environment

This assignment is a blog post that explores how various forces within the business environment necessitate companies to innovate to remain competitive and successful. The blog post emphasizes the importance of innovation in the face of global competition, commoditization, and the digital revolution. It highlights how companies such as Apple and Nike have responded to these forces through strategic innovation, digital transformation, and by prioritizing customer experience. The post references key concepts from the course, such as strategic innovation responses and management theories, and provides real-world examples and data to support its arguments. It also discusses the importance of management's role in fostering innovation through change and continuity and the need for companies to understand and act proactively on market opportunities. The assignment concludes with a call to action, encouraging readers to consider how they can contribute to innovation in their own contexts.

Running head: FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO
INNOVATE
FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO INNOVATE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO INNOVATE
Innovation – Is it Critical?
What if we could have a device that could read our minds and assist us with our
thoughts? When we didn’t have a smart phone it was all about just calling people, but now it is
about taking pictures to getting inside the world of virtual reality. What we think aboutis way
ahead of what we have and that leads to Innovation.In the era of global competition innovation
justifies competitiveness, economic growth and development (Goffin and Mitchell 2016).
Business organizations that understand and act upon opportunities proactively through
innovation will not just survive, but it will be at its top even in the toughest market conditions.
Change is constant and it is inevitable. Innovation has clearly become the strategic
agenda for the business environment. According to 84% of business executives, innovation is a
key strategy to growth (Lee et al., 2017). The changes in the market forces have changed the way
a company functions. Evolution has taken place in the philosophy of production and
diversification (Vey et al. 2017). Creativity has become the important capital resource for the

2FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO INNOVATE
business organizations and innovation management is the only stair ways to sustainability and
success.
Forces requiring Companies to be Innovative
Business organizations arealways aware of the opportunities and they act accordingly.
Today’scompetitive business world has developed the culture of agile innovation.
Commoditization is an inexorable pressure, which pushes price downwards and it is an important
competitive force that drives organizations to be innovative. For example - Wal-Mart manifested
commoditization of world’s retail supply chain and outsourced manufacturing to Asia. Digital
Revolution accelerated commoditization and the goods that were considered luxuries are now
cheap. In order to compete in a market where goods are already available at a cheaper price,
innovation is necessary.

3FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO INNOVATE
In the age of Amazon offering with real time services, it is becoming difficult for the
others to stay in the game. Digitization and Artificial Intelligence has transformed buyers’
expectations. Time based assumptions are to be challenged and consumer waiting time and
documentations are needed to be eliminated for driving innovation in companies.
Apple started with the BASIC programming language along with a simple TV monitor.
Competition from Amazon and Microsoft and people’s demand has made Apple innovated and
produce iPhones, iPads, macbook, watches, smart TV. Guess what they have now? They have
Project Titan – The Self Driving Car. These are all the results of the modern digitization and
changing consumer demands.
Want to know about some more interesting facts!
Data from the SCM World Poll states that when public were asked – “Which company’s
supply chain do you admire the most for innovation?” - 59% stated Apple, 35% Amazon and 6%

4FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO INNOVATE
none. Management needs to focus both on change and continuity at the same time (Gardner
2018). Organizations peruse on change and innovation with a continuous focus on stability. They
try to maintain the balance of tension between the operational cycle and the innovation cycle.
Companies all over the retail industries have prioritized digital transformation (Schallmo,
Williams and Boardman 2017). The way Amazon has digitized the business made all the other
retail industries think over it. “Nike’s House of Innovation 000” is one example of digitization
that enables prior reservation of shoes and locker rooms and unlocking of rooms and checkouts
through mobile phones. It doesn’t require speaking to anyone. Nike’s strategic innovative
response is at a meso-level. The management believes that people can be trusted, and when
empowered can show organizational loyalty and team-work skills. McGregor’s Theory Z is
relevant in this case. Specsavers’ Frame Styler Tool captures a 3D image of the face and selects
the glasses that best suits the face. This allows the people to save time on trying out different
specs for a long time.
No we know what drives the change.Change occurs at different levels but taking step at
the right time leads to a greater success. In the world of competition today we all want to come
up with different solutions to be the best. So what are you going to innovate today?

5FORCES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NECESSITATE COMPANIES TO INNOVATE
References
Gardner, W.L., 2018. Continuity and Change at Group & Organization Management: New Year,
New Team, New Resources—Same Mission.
Goffin, K. and Mitchell, R., 2016. Innovation management: effective strategy and
implementation. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Lee, C.S., Chan, L. and McNabb, D.E., 2017, July. The role of strategic orientation in business
innovation.In 2017 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and
Technology (PICMET) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
Schallmo, D., Williams, C.A. and Boardman, L., 2017. Digital transformation of business
models—best practice, enablers, and roadmap.International Journal of Innovation Management,
21(08), p.1740014.
Vey, K., Fandel-Meyer, T., Zipp, J.S. and Schneider, C., 2017. Learning & development in times
of digital transformation: Facilitating a culture of change and innovation. International Journal
of Advanced Corporate Learning (iJAC), 10(1), pp.22-32.