Foundation Degree Business: Professional Presentation on Innovation

This presentation analyzes the innovation process at Marks and Spencer, a British retail organization, focusing on its five stages: idea generation and mobilization, advocacy and screening, experimentation, commercialization, and diffusion and implementation. The presentation also includes a personal reflection on innovation practices using Gibb's reflective cycle, evaluating feelings, experiences, analysis, and conclusion to identify strengths (research and commercial acumen) and weaknesses (creativity) in the individual's innovation process. The presentation concludes with an action plan to improve creativity and persuasion skills, essential for effective innovation, and highlights the importance of a systematic approach to innovation for business growth, emphasizing the conversion of ideas into successful offerings to gain a competitive advantage. The presentation uses at least four different sources including academic textbooks and academic journals to support the assertions.

Innovation and Enterprise - Professional Presentation

Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• Analysis of innovation process
• Gibb’s reflective cycle
• CONCLUSION
• REFRENCES

INTRODUCTION
In order to ensure long-term survival of the company it is important for business firms to create
and implement an effective innovation procedure which facilitates innovative environment for the
business firm. The business firm selected for this presentation is British retail organisation Marks
and Spencer which was formed in the year 1881 and has expanded all over the globe. The present
presentation includes analysis of the innovation processes at Marks and Spencer. In addition to this
the present presentation includes a reflection on personal innovative practice with the help of
Gibb’s reflective cycle.

Analysis of innovation process
The five stages of innovation processes help in understanding the
effectiveness of innovation processes in helping the company
attain success in business endeavours. The analysis of various
processes at Marks and Spencer is provided below:
Stage 1: Idea generation and mobilisation
This stage focuses on using innovation skills such as creative
skills to generate new idea for the benefit of the company.
Mobilisation refers to the practice of taking new idea further to
new physical location or another department where the idea can
be materialised (Behera, 2017). In case of Marks and Spencer, in
order to create environment which enhances idea generation and
mobilization, the company launched Innovation Hub.

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Stage 3: Experimentation
This stage of the innovation process is cantered around the
concept of determining the viability of the business idea for the
firm at given time. It is important to understand the
appropriateness of an idea for the company and determine if the
existing capabilities are sufficient for effective execution of the
idea. In addition to this, it is important to determine if the idea is
suitable for the current target audience of the company or if it is
ahead of it’s time Bollinger, 2019). In relation to Marks and
Spencer, the company developed the idea of plant based food
line with the help of innovation hub (M&S LAUNCHES
INNOVATION HUB TO DEVELOP PLANT-BASED FOODS &
PLASTIC-FREE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS, 2020).

Gibb’s reflective cycle
The Gibb’s reflective cycle is a popular model
of reflection which assists in developing
profound understanding of a specific event.
The result gained with the application of this
reflective model is helpful in determining
personal strengths and weaknesses and seating
a course of action for improvement in areas
related to the experience.

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Feelings
It is important to be aware of the feeling generated by a particular
event as it helps in understanding the emotional conditions of the
event (Delves-Yates, 2021). This stage of the Gibb’s reflective
lifecycle involves understanding the thoughts and feelings present
before, during and after the event.
Before the event: I was confident of my research skills and excited
that this assignment will help me utilise my research skills to
understand any skills gap related to innovation. As I believe in
starting the assignment right away, I started researching about
innovation process and suitable business firm for the completion of
the task.

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Evaluation
This part of the Gibb’s reflective cycle focuses on
evaluating both negative and positive aspects of the
event. Objectivity is the key to conduct proper
evaluation of past experiences (Fathelrahman, 2019).
It is important to evaluate even negative aspects of
experiences because this knowledge can be used for
learning from thee experience.
What went well: The main aspects of the event which
worked absolutely deftly for mw was the research part
of the task. I was quick and accurate in identifying the
innovation processes used at Marks and Spencer and
analyse various stages of the process.

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Analysis
The knowledge gained from the experience is reflected
in this part of the report. After learning about the
innovation process I was able to identify skills gap in my
innovation process. Creativity is the biggest skills gap in
my innovations practice which stops me from providing
viable innovative ideas. Commercialisation which is the
fourth stage of the innovation is my strong suit because
of my commercial acumen. I am able to easily identify
ways which can make an idea more appealing to a
particular audience. I need to build my commercial
acumen in order to further strengthen my innovation
skills.

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Conclusion of reflection
From the above discussion it is determined that innovation
processes includes various stages which need to be completed
effectively in order to gain desired results. The discussion on
various positive and negative aspects of the event of researching
innovation process at Marks and Spencer have helped in
highlighting flaws and strengths in personal innovation process.
This is helpful in understanding developing a future action plan
for improvement in innovation. Creativity is a vital skill required
for an effective innovation process as it is part of the first stage of
the innovation process and is the basis for generating new ideas

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Action Plan
The areas of improvements and the actions taken for attaining improvement are determined on the
basis of previous parts of the reflective cycle. The main areas in which I require significant
improvement are creativity which area creativity and persuasion skills which ensures smooth
completion of diffusion and implementation. The action plan for improvement in these skills is
provided below:
Objective Specific Measured Attainable Relevant Timely
To build Creativity This specific
objective as it aims
to develop
creativity for idea
generation.
This skill can
measured by
improvement in
generating new
ideas.
This skill can be
attained with
practices such as
brainstorming and
pattern recognition.
Development of
creativity is
relevant because
the fundamental
element of
effective innovation
process.
6 months

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that innovation is essential for growth of a business firm. It
is important for business firms to implement a systematic procedure to facilitate innovation in
order to gain perpetual success in their industry. The innovation process consists of five stages
which helps business firms convert idea into successful innovative offering to gain competitive
advantage. The stages include idea generation and mobilisation, advocacy and screening,
experimentation, commercialisation, diffusion and implementation. These stages ensure that the
most viable ideas are selected and effectively implemented by the business firm and contribute in
profit generation.