Lions Australia's NDP: Commercializing Technological Innovation

This essay examines the new product development (NDP) and commercialization strategies employed by Lions Australia, focusing on technological innovation. It highlights the importance of technological innovations for gaining a competitive advantage and discusses the application of the NDP process. The essay details Lions Australia's 'Lions Unleashed' program, which aims to provide real-time solutions through enhanced customer connections and improved product ingredients. It assesses the company's preparedness for technological innovation using the Innovation Diamond model, analyzing market, innovation, resource, and strategy indices. Furthermore, it includes a return-risk analysis using the RENT model and planning response contingency matrix. The essay concludes by evaluating the potential impact of the new project on the firm's overall success over the next 5 to 10 years, emphasizing the role of customer engagement and value chain analysis.

Running head: NDP AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF COMPANY
NDP AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF COMPANY
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Executive summary
The aim of the study is to highlight the importance of the technological innovations.
Technological innovations provide a competitive advantage to the company. There are
different methods of development and commercialization of the new product such as the new
product development process and other. The new product development process had been used
in the study. Lions Australia has innovated the lions unleashed programme whose main aim
is to provide real-time solutions to the company.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Outline of the new project. What is it?......................................................................................3
The new product development and commercialization is to be adopted for technological
innovation?.................................................................................................................................4
How prepared is the firm for this new technological innovation?.............................................5
Return-risk analysis of the new technological innovation?...................................................7
Commercialization of the technological innovation. Some special considerations...................9
Evaluation of the impact of the new project on the firm’s overall success for the next 5 to
10 years................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13
Appendix • Innovation Diamond results.................................................................................15
• Return-risk analyses, including RENT and planning response contingency matrix.............16
Source:..................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
The main aim of the study is to focus on the importance of technological innovations
in an organization through new product development and commercialization of the
innovation using the NDP process. Technological innovations are also called disruptive
innovations because they challenge the status quo of the people (Kogan et al., 2017).
Technological innovations act as an economical driver because the more the technological
innovations a nation can present the more economically advantageous it is considered. The
importance of technological innovations can also be understood through the benefits that it
offers to the customers (Markard, Hekkert & Jacobsson, 2015). Commercialization of
technological innovations means to take a new product to the market and finding a market
that needs these products. Commercialization of the innovation can be done using different
processes such as the stage gate approach, the new product development process and others.
Lion is an Australian headquartered company that deals in food and beverages in Australia
and New Zealand (Dutta & Hora, 2017). It products include beverages like beer, wine and
others and food items like yogurt, cheese and other products. Innovation has always been an
important part of the lions and recently enough they have decided to adopt a technological
method for improving their present products and there by meeting the needs of the customers
well. The study will discuss about the new product development through innovation process
and the commercialization of the process (Goswami & Tiwari, 2015).
Outline of the new project. What is it?
In this new project of lion unleashed, the company has aimed at improving its
customer services through enhancing the connection with the customers with the use of
technology, by adding better ingredients to the existing products. Offering solutions to the

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customers in real-time and unleashing the capability of the company in all the aspects-
production, distribution and others (Lion Dairy & Drinks, 2019). This project thus helps in
developing new products for the company with technology such that the consumers can get
their desired products on a real-time basis.
The new product development and commercialization is to be adopted for
technological innovation?
There are different processes of the product development and commercialization such
as stage gate spiral development, the lean start up process and new product development. The
NPD model discusses about two main aspects product development and business
development and comprises of three main phases-idea, development and production (Fuller,
2016). Product development comprises of preliminary technical analysis, preliminary
production analysis, product development with the use in-house prototype testing,
independent technical review and production. Marketing development comprises of
preliminary market analysis, market feasibility study, consumer product testing and product
review from customers (Lawson, Krause & Potter, 2015). This technique is used for the
purpose of the study because the new innovation technique applied by the lions beverages
and food company, called the lion unleashed, also focuses on these two aspects of product
development and business development. By using the technique the company can develop
new product that is preferred by the customers and the company has decided to link some of
its major food and beverage brands such as dairy farmers, dare iced coffee, stein lager with
this new initiative so that the innovations can be accelerated (Christensen, Raynor &
McDonald, 2015). This new initiative of the lions is focused on building a market for product
by maintaining better relationships with the suppliers. If the company succeeds in its efforts
of maintaining proper relationship with the suppliers they can be able to meet the needs of the

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customers faster. Commercialization is the technique of creating a market for the customers
(Vigani et al., 2015). For this readiness of the market is considered, the strategies of the
existing market players is considered and the customers are considered as an essential part of
this approach. The lions unleashing initiative can act as a competitive advantage that will
differentiate the company’s product from the other existing product because of technological
innovations undertaken by the company for developing new products (Anadon et al., 2016).
Customers are considered as vital to this approach so the lions new initiative will aim at
enhancing customers engagement to the brand, giving them real-time solutions (Deng, Gao &
Vuppalapati, 2015). Readiness of the market means the company sees if a product is launched
in the market, how readily the market will accept it.
How prepared is the firm for this new technological innovation?
The people at lions have always supported new innovations and it is clear from the
fact that recently the company has introduced Hahn ultra a low carbohydrate beer for health
conscious people and the company is always looking for innovations like these to meet the
needs of the customers (Davis et al., 2018). The readiness of the organization for the
technological innovation can be explained with the help of the innovation diamond (Adams et
al., 2016). There are four main criteria’s for measuring the readiness of the organization.
These are – the market index, the innovation index, the resource index and the strategy index.
The market index can be understood with the help of 10questions that show the companies
understanding of the future market for the technological innovation. The innovation index
includes 10questions that show what steps the company will take for protection of the NDP
and intellectual property rights of its technological innovation (Jaye, Thomas & Reedy,
2015). The resource index involves 10questions for understanding the company’s ability to
commercialize the technological innovation using its resources. The strategy index the

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strategies adopted by the company for the purpose of planning systems evidences, financial
and marketing and other risk assessment measures that the company can undertake. For this
technological innovation, called lion unleashed accelerator that has been undertaken by lions
Australia, this innovation diamond can be used. The market index for the lions unleased
accelerator will be used to identify how the company can use the innovation for the future
market. The lions have adopted this innovation so that they can continuously improve their
products and develop new products according to the market needs by engaging the customers
with the use of technology and providing the customers with the real world technological
solution. Seeing the present generation needs for technological connectivity and demand for
real time solutions, the company developed this innovation. The index can be measured on
the basis of R&D intensity such that if the company gets an index of more than 5 than it can
be said that the customers understanding of the company is good. However, if the index is
less than 5 than the company needs to pay attention to the customers need of the present
generation. The company will manage its NPD through continuous feedback from the
customers; it can improvise or make improvements to the existing market products (Jaye,
Thomas & Reedy, 2015). The company can main its NPD by adding new extensions to the
existing product. The company is aiming at the improving value chain analysis and data
analytics with this new innovation of the company. The accelerator can help to innovate such
products that can give a competitive advantage to the company and at the same time provide
value to the customers using technological innovation in its production such that a wide
variety of products can be developed with minimum cost. This would meet the needs of the
consumer and provide the goods to the company on a real-time basis (Rüßmann et al., 2015).
For protecting its intellectual property rights they can get the patents of their technological
innovation to avoid any form of replication by other companies in the same industry. The
innovation index has been measured and the results shows that the index is above 5 and that

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shows the company’s ability to innovate using the new process development model and
commercialization process. The company has always kept at its heart because the company is
continuously trying to meet the needs of the customers such as the company recently
launched a product for health conscious people. The resource index of the company can be
measured with the help of the commercialization initiatives undertaken by the company
(Jamil, Ismail & Mahmood, 2015). The company is using the new product development
process to commercialise their products. The company has taken up the lions unleased
programme to draw the attention of the customers. The company is using promotional
techniques such as asking entrepreneurs to take part in their innovation programme and this is
making the consumers feel that they have taken innovation seriously such that the company is
even accepting new ideas from entrepreneurs for developing new products and improving
their existing products (Rodgers, 2016). All these approaches undertaken by the company to
provide real time solutions to the customers by using technology. The company’s ability to
commercialize its products shows that the company has sufficient resources with itself to
meet the needs of its customers. The innovation diamond shows that the company has scored
above 5 which means that the company is capable of allocating all its resources in such a
away so that innovation is being supported by the lions Australia. The strategy index of the
lions Australia can be measured with the help of risk assessment measures taken up by the
company to see if they identify and mitigate all the risk associated with these lion’s unleased
accelerators. The strategy index also shows the company’s ability to carry out sound planning
and implementation. The company’s score of strategy index is above 5 which shows that the
company is capable of making proper plans and implementation of the same. Henceforth,
from overall analysis of the diamond innovation of lions Australia it can be said that the
company is ready for the implementation of the technological innovation in developing new
products for meeting the needs of the consumers (Haimes, 2015). The company is trying to

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provide real time solutions to them and provide a value chain analysis with the use of big data
for solving various complex problems being faced by the company.
Return-risk analysis of the new technological innovation?
To carry out the risk-analysis of the company, the company will use the rent model
and the planning response contingency model and impact of planning on risk-perception (Do
et al., 2015). The rent model explains the ability of the company to secure higher return from
the scarce resources of the organization. There are two main dimensions the annual volume
and the margin rate. The amount of the rent can be calculated by multiplying annual volume
with the margin rate summed over the length of exploitation through the years of product life.
As the volume increase the rate of margin increases over the period of exploitation. The main
components of the rent model are volume, rate and length. The volume means the potential
annual sales as is indicated by size of the industry, size of the end-user market, geographic
diffusion potential. Rate is indicated by the type of the innovation process involved, the type
of the innovation involved and the level of protection to the intellectual property rights. The
length means the potential life of that product which is indicated by technological basis of
innovation, the innovation intensity and the legal and technical protection of the property
rights. On the basis of these 3 main components and the respective scores in each, the
typology of the rent model can be made which comprises of – shrimp category, the joker,
champion, flash pan, oasis and gadgets (Google Books, 2019). The organization risks can be
assessed with the help of the planning response contingency matrix model for innovation
rent. The rent outcomes can be mapped against uncertainty and risk. The matrix has two main
dimensions- the organizational configuration shows the level of complexity, scale and scope.
The organization configuration can either be formal or informal. The other dimension is the
task environment that measures the level of uncertainty and risk. The task environment can
be operational or strategic. Those company’s which comes under the shopkeeper category

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have operational planning and ad hoc intuition and are internally focused. Those company’s
which come under the salesman Category have intuitive strategic planning approach towards
risk and are externally focused. Those who come under the administrator category carry out
structured operational planning. The ceo category includes structured strategic planning
approach towards risk. These companies have a greater size thus geographic diffusion of
risks is possible. They take advantage of innovations and protection of property rights and
theses companies apply technological innovations. The lions Australia comes under the
champion category of the rent model because they are capable of earning higher return
through technological innovations. The company operates on a large scale and so the
company can diffuse the risks. It is involved ion technological innovations such as the lion’s
unleashed programme. It also has the patents rights for its innovation. The company also falls
in the CEO category of the planning response contingency matrix because the company has a
structured strategic planning approach towards managing risk and uncertainty. The cognitive
biases, the perceptions leads to the decision of innovation by the organization. This is how
the entrepreneurs perceive risks (Welter & Kim, 2018). Planning helps in reducing the
perceptions of risk by the entrepreneur and their uncertainty. The graph of entrepreneurial
risk perception given in appendix shows the impact of planning on entrepreneurial risk
perception. On the x-axis, we have managerial characteristics that shows the owners level of
knowledge and competence. On the y-axis we have task environment that shows the level of
uncertainty and risk. The graph shows that the risk decreases as the information and
competence of the managers increases. Information increases as the managerial
characteristics keeps increasing. The planning propensity and value of planning is high when
the risk is low and information is high and vice-versa (Ferreira, Loiola & Gondim, 2017).
However, the perception about the risk and uncertainty is different of entrepreneurs from the

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non-entrepreneurs and this leads to building of a sense of overconfidence in them, those
results in believing that planning is not required by the entrepreneurs.
Commercialization of the technological innovation. Some special
considerations.
There are four market consideration that are important for commercialization. These
are- consideration of the readiness of the market, considering the end user, to check the
strategies of the existing market player and to look for market gaps at premium price. The
readiness of the market means that the customer feedbacks relating to the technological
innovation needs to be taken into consideration. For these innovations market barriers of
significant market entry need to be overcome (Vargo, Wieland & Akaka, 2015). The lions
unleashed programmes objective is to enhance the engagement of the customers through
continuous feedbacks from them. The success of any innovation depends upon the acceptance
by the end user if they understand it than they will readily accept it. For improving customer
awareness, the company is using various promotional techniques. To overcome the fierce
competition, the company is trying to engage suppliers and create better relationships with
them. Market gaps need to be found out such that the company can create an innovation that
overcomes it. Customer in Australia are not able to get real time solutions and so identifying
the market gap, the company introduced the unleashed lions programmes. The five main
steps to develop technological innovations are: ability to differentiate the technological
innovation from others, to explain the importance of the technological innovation, to find a
market that adopts it, locate the innovation responsibility on small organizations. To deep the
disruptive organization independent. The lion’s technological innovation can be differentiated
by customers who are looking for variety of products in a real-time process. The customers
who do not like to wait for their products are the major customers of lion’s unleashed

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programmes. The three main tests to disrupt by creating new opportunities for new customers
are- targets customers are those who are dissatisfied with the industry standards, focus on
customers who are able to adopt to the technology and consider it as rather cool. Target the
customers who find this new innovation technique more beneficial than others. Customers
prefer fast delivery of goods where the waiting time is the least. Four key issues surrounding
the market adoption of radical technology innovation are: customers cannot evaluate the new
radical technology, they have little experience to compare the innovation against others,
certain customers are supportive and are ready to try and there are problems in introducing
technologies into large organizations. When customers are told about, any new technologies
they resist it unless they are explained the benefits of the same. New market needs to be
created rather than trying to compete with the other competitors. The new market space for
technological innovation can be created with the help of four techniques- the raise, reduce,
eliminate and create. Raise involves identifying the gaps in the present market scenario and
overcoming the same. Lions Australia identified the importance of reducing the waiting time
for the consumers because that causes inconvenience. The reduce technique involves making
use of such simple techniques that reduces the price of the innovation. Some of the
techniques that can be used to reduce the price of the innovation is that of- reducing product
features that is if the technology used for producing complex products has to be simplified
the best way is to make the products simple. The elimination involves removing a few parts
of the innovation to reduce its cost such as the owner of the company may use various reuse
techniques to reduce the waste. The created technique involves creating or adding such
features that can make the innovation a unique one in the industry. Lions can improve its
innovation by making a few changes to the innovation such as adding some more benefits to
the products than the customers expect. Some nutritional content can be added to the
ingredients of the new product in case of food products.