BUS705: Innovation Management - Simsat Technologies Case Study

This assignment analyzes the Simsat Technologies case study, an edtech company facing challenges in innovation and employee retention. The analysis covers various aspects of innovation management, including the S-curve, organizational blockages, team innovation processes, and strategic innovation models. The student identifies the need for technological upgrades, employee training, and a more collaborative work environment. The case study explores the importance of understanding market dynamics, employee roles, and the implementation of effective innovation strategies. The student suggests solutions such as employee empowerment, strategic innovation planning, and the use of Belbin's team roles to improve efficiency and sustainability. The assignment highlights the significance of aligning innovation strategies with business goals to achieve growth and development. The student also discusses the need for a strategic innovation plan, risk-taking, and a flexible, adaptive approach.

Running head: INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Answer to Question 1
The change in the work and employment has become highly important for all the
organizational scholars in the era of rapid advancements and increasing reliance on technology.
In the given case study Simsat is a education technology based company that focuses on
providing software solutions to the education market. It has been analysed in the case study that
although the business is expanding its area of services yet they are facing challenges with
technological upgrades and employee turnovers. The greatest challenge is that there are a number
of softwares that are available but these softwares are not user friendly. The competitors like
Coursera, BrainGroom and StudySoup are doing better. In this light the following changes can
be seen in the recent education technology that must be understood by all edutech companies.
The forces of change that persists are therefore technological, socio-cultural and economical
changes.
At the technological level, the world is leading towards a new stage where the
computational technology analyses almost everything thereby giving the people access to
anything from anywhere. It is the technology of ubiquitous computing. Things have changed into
automation now-a-days and the presence of web analytics helps in determining the preferences
of the customers at ease. The company needs to implement these upgradations in order to meet
the demand of its customers. At economic level Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation
has allowed transfer of knowledge, information and various quality resources at cheaper prices
(Amabile et al. 1996). At a socio-cultural level, there is a growth in the youth market and they
believe in individuality. They are more interested in exposure, development and earning rather
than mere appreciation. All these factors demands for change within the organization so as to
meet the demands of the consumers effectively and to retain the employees for a long term. The

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present changes therefore demands for innovative ideas and training and development of the
employees. The more the employees will be trained and developed, the better will be the
innovative solutions for the customers and it will also help in retaining talents as they will have a
feeling of development in the organization.
Answer to Question 2
The S-Curve refers to the path of technology or the innovation patterns that evolves over
time in an industry. The curve makes it possible to analyze the probable solutions. The four
major phases of the curve are ferment, takeoff, maturity and discontinuity. Ferment era states the
beginning of innovation, the takeoff stage indicates the ability of overcoming major technical
and technological changes and the maturity refers to that phase where the product has been
adopted by the society and has reached a limiting phase. As and when any product or service
approaches its maturity stage it must be ready for further developments and innovation and must
ensure the customers that it has new offerings with itself in order to capture the future profit
earning opportunities (Goodman and Dingli 2017). The S-curve helps in understanding the
relationship between performance and profit and how the market shifts from old to modern
technologies. There are four types of S-Curves – Level of invention, number of inventions,
performance and profit. While shifting from one S-curve to the other, there is a requirement of
innovation window and design thinking.
It is very important for Simsat to understand the importance of the S-Curve. Simple
emphasis on employee programs and diversification will not help. The company must first
analyze its position in the market with its current technology (Dawson and Andriopoulos 2017).
The case study analysis states that the company has already reached its maturity level with its

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existent technologies and it requires further modern technologies and innovations. As stated in
the case study that the company is providing with a number of softwares but it is unable to meet
the client requirements specifically. The company must focus on taking ideas from the
employees rather than just checking the competitors. Youth are full of ideas and those ideas
should be appreciated. Investments on research and development and training of employees will
help in bringing innovative and customer interactive solutions that will not only attract customers
but also retain employees. The company should aim for product differentiation at lower costs.
The customers prefer a software package than a standalone product and focus should be given on
that.
Answer to Question 3
In the given case study, Vikram Srinivasan, the head of recruiting supports the People
Support Idea, whereas Luna Nguyen the Vice President of recruitment does not seem to support
the same. Keith Caldwell also didn’t seem to be much interested in the program. There are
organizational blockages that can be identified from the case study. There seems to be a
perceptual blockage. Vikram stated that the new and young employees could join the
brainstorming sessions with the senior ones and this would encourage and motivate them to
work. He gave example from Steve’s philosophy, which emphasizes his stereotyping of facts. It
must be however understood that not all people can motivate the others in the same way. The
employees stated in their exit interviews that the bro culture shown by Steve was also no more
alluring to them. It states the environmental and cultural organisational blockages. It is obvious
that the employees are not satisfied with their pay and they are getting better payments outside.
They are willing to put the additional efforts in the other organizations for the increased pay
rather than staying in this organization. This also sates the monotony of the work and lack of

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developmental opportunities of the employees. Communicative and emotional blockages can
also be seen as one employee states that the bro-mance of Steve is only with his favourites
(Ekvall 1996). Steve doesn’t swing enough by the office and his communication with everyone
does not bear proper gestures as he puts his feet up and talks with most employees. The
employees feel over involved and stuck if they do not get proper access to the top officials and
this creates a communication gap and emotional gap between the top administration and the
employees. It is also stated in the case study that Luna was not much sure if the managers really
had grips on what was going on within the team, which suggests the process skills organizational
blockage. The managers were not clear about the facts of employee turnover and lacked creative
thinking.
Answer to Question 4
In the given case study it is observed that Vikram strongly supports the People Support
idea and so does Steve Graham, the CEO of the company. The company has been facing huge
competition against the top competitors and somehow protected itself from bankruptcy. It
however couldn’t make it to the top ten companies and hence it requires innovation and change.
The monotony of the work, lesser pay and partiality has also increased the labor turnover. So the
team innovation process is required for Simsat company. As Vikram stated genuine caring for
people is a step for retaining talents. By genuine care it means that there should be no partiality.
The company should be innovative and follow a strategic innovation model in order to support
the development idea. It should prepare for innovation, take the action plan and reflect the same.
The team must focus on its present management expertise, products and services and the
logistics and distribution segment. The management then must focus on the team process, where

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the core values, vision and mission must be delivered to the employees, problem solving
strategies are to be prepared, ideas should be generated, selected and evaluated and thereafter the
ideas should be implemented. The strategic actions should be based on the universities, colleges,
students and other educational institutions in order to solve their problems and at the same time
focus should be given on the employees as they will be making those products and services. The
focus should be given on the current assets and capabilities and the new capabilities that can
bring innovation needs to be implemented. In this case, the employees must be allocated with the
proper resources and failures should be encouraged and embraced. Incentive system on the basis
of key performance indicators and appreciation on the basis of performance will boost up the
motivation level of the team and there will be an increased sense of belongingness. The
employees must be empowered to take decisions and actions and red tapes should be removed
for smooth communication (Imber 2016).
Answer to Question 5
The simple process of People Support will not work without a proper allocation of
resources and roles. The employees will be motivated if they are getting incentives and
appreciation but at the same time if the employees are provided with the required resources they
want and the exact role they fit in, then the productivity will shoot up. In this case Belbin’s team
role can work efficiently. Belbin’s team roles help in allocating clear responsibilities to the
employees and enable them to work at their full potential. The different team roles are being
assigned by Dr. Meredith Belbin after observing team work for many years. According to Belbin
(1981), team role refers to the tendency of behaving, contributing and interrelating with people in
a specific manner. He identified nine such roles – Shaper, Implementer, Completer Finisher,
Coordinator, Team worker, Resource Investigator, Plant, Specialist and Monitor Evaluator.

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These roles can be shortened into action roles, social roles and thinking roles. Each team roles
has their own strengths and weaknesses. These weaknesses can be further segregated into
allowable weaknesses and non-allowable weaknesses. These team roles will be allocated to the
employees on the basis of qualifications, knowledge and behavior. The behavior of any human
being will depend upon the mental ability, learning ability, personality, values, experiences and
external influences. The roles will be assigned as per these characterizations. The team roles will
be based on interpersonal styles and the behaviors observed. The team roles should be
categorized as preferred, manageable and least preferred. While the least preferred roles are to be
ignored, the preferred team roles must be implemented fully and used at the maximum strength.
In the given case study, Steve is a Shaper because he drives the necessary things in order to keep
the teams moving and tries providing support to the employees, whereas Luna is an implementer
as she has to plan all the innovative actions. Nani on the other hand, can be referred to as the
monitor evaluator. Allocating these roles accordingly will help in analyzing who is responsible
for what and will increase efficiency and sustainability (Haanaes et al. 2013)
Answer to Question 6
All the business organizations require an innovation strategy for its growth and
development. The case study highlights that there is an ongoing problem with innovation that has
a negative impact in front of the customers as well as in terms of labor turnover. The company
requires massive research and development and training courses for the employees. It has been
stated by Pisano that most of the companies does not align their innovation strategies with the
business strategies. He suggests that the strategies should create values for customers and must
state the value to be captured and the resources required for the same. Pisano characterized four
strategic innovation categories along with his colleagues of Harvard Business School – Rebecca

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Henderson and Clayton Christensen. They are – Disruptive, Architectural, Routine and Radical
(Pisano 2015). This is also known as the innovation landscape map. This helps any organization
in assessing how much to invest in technological innovation and how much to invest in business
model innovation, while making strategic innovation plans.
Steve and his team must first prepare a sound strategic innovation plan that should be
inspiring and challenging. The strategy must be flexible and adaptive. The organization should
indulge in risk taking rather than thinking about cost all the time. The old habits of work must be
challenged and new ways must be implemented (Isaksen 2007). Steve should pay a quarterly
visit or should arrange a weekly huddle to engage with the employees. He along with the
managers must encourage and motivate the employees in decision making and experimenting.
The company should focus on disruptive strategies in order to make user friendly software
packages and it must also focus on routine strategies to implement additional features in the
existing business model. Addition of web analytics feature will enable the organization to track
customer perceptions. The more the research and development, the more the participation of the
employees, the more will be the motivation.

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References
Amabile, T.M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J. and Herron, M., 1996. Assessing the work
environment for creativity. Academy of management journal, 39(5), pp.1154-1184.
Belbin, M. 1981. Management Teams: Why they Succeed or Fail, Oxford, Heinemann.
Dawson and Andriopoulos, 2017. Managing Change, Creativity and Innovation. 3rd edition.
Sage: London.
Ekvall, G. .1996. ‘Organizational climate for creativity and innovation’, European Journal of
Work and Organizational Psychology, 5, 1, 105–23.
Goodman and Dingli, 2017. Creativity and Strategic Innovation Management: Directions for
Future Value In Changing Times. 2nd edition. Routledge: London.
Haanaes, K.; David, M.; Jurgens, J. and Rangan, S. 2013. Making Sustainability Profitable.
Harvard Business Review. March, p. 110-115.
Imber, A. 2016, October 1. 5 steps you need to achieve innovation through creativity.
INTHEBLACK. Retrieved from https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2016/10/01/5-steps-to-
achieve-innovation-through-creativity
Isaksen, S. G. .2007. ‘The climate for transformation: Lessons for leaders’, Creativity and
Innovation Management, 16, 1, 3–15.
Pisano, G.P., 2015. You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), pp.44-54.

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