Morrison's Innovation Roadmap: Future Growth and Development Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Morrison's innovation management practices within the retail industry, focusing on its future development and growth strategies. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction to innovation management and its importance for businesses. The main body of the report examines the future of the retail industry, highlighting trends such as augmented reality and cashier-less stores, and then analyzes Morrison's innovation requirements in 2022 and beyond. The report then details a simplified innovation model and an innovation roadmap, including the integration of AI systems, automated warehouses, and new delivery channels. It also explores the development of Morrison's innovation capabilities, including stakeholder engagement and organizational culture. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and providing references for further research. The project report also demonstrates the significance of knowledge and cross-functional operations in an organisation setting. This project report also delves into capabilities of chosen organisation for building it innovative in nature.

Managing innovation in
Businesses

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report highlights the innovative practices that are undertaken by Morrison's for
building their future development process efficient. It also illustrates the understanding of
innovative practices that are adopted by companies operating in retail industry. It also enlightens
the knowledge in relation to innovative capabilities of Morrison’s. It also delves into varied
framework which can be used to gain insights regarding innovative practices in Morrison’s. The
report also described the various factors that will be required to achieve future growth for the
company with the help of an innovation roadmap which includes various avenues to pursue
future growth such as building automated warehouses, smart AI systems, use of augmented
reality and creating new and fast delivery channels. The report also included various aspects of
the company in relation to innovative capacity building such as organizational culture and cross
functional cooperation.

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
The Future of the Industry 2022 and Beyond.........................................................................4
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2022 and Beyond...........................................5
Development of future innovations capabilities of chosen organisation.............................12
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................15
REFRENCES...............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Innovation management encompasses a process whereby innovative procedures of an
organisation is managed starting from initial phase till successful implementation (Batac and
Maymo, 2019). It essentially consists of varied decisions, processes and practices which are
devised and analysed for developing strategies to make an innovation strategy. It is considered as
a key for transforming ideas into deliverables action. Innovation management is beneficial for
organisations as it aids them in discovering new products, reducing cost and enhancing
development practices in a significant manner. It is important for any organisation to capture
differential ideas from their employees in order to make them feel valued and satisfied. It should
be analysed properly in order to facilitate progress. For better understanding of innovative
practices, Morrison's have been taken into consideration. Morrison's is an UK based supermarket
chain which was established in 1899 and has its headquarters at Bradford, United Kingdom.
This report is based on the aim of developing an innovation road map which outlines the
preparation of innovative practices in an organisation. This report highlights the understanding of
retail industry regarding its future plans. This project report also demonstrates the significance of
knowledge and cross-functional operations in an organisation setting. This project report also
delves into capabilities of chosen organisation for building it innovative in nature.
MAIN BODY
The Future of the Industry 2022 and Beyond
Retail industry of UK is mature with two primary kinds of merchandise, namely, durable
and soft goods. In this, durable products include sporting equipment, appliances and electronics,
while, soft products are household items, paper products, clothing and cosmetics. UK has most
vibrant along with dynamic retail sector across the globe. It accounts for 5% of overall economy
with contribution to £98.4bn GVA and employment of more than three million people that other
industries (A Vision for The UK Retail Industry, 2022). With technological advancements in
retail products, there are ample products related to retail that are gone high-tech. In retail sector,
incremental innovation is category of innovation which is taking place. In this, retailers make
investment in new technologies, comprising, machine learning, automation along with Internet of

Things so to ensure to enhance values of customers, profits remains low on average and
productivity continues to outpace rest of economy.
Morrison’s is popular establishment in Retail Industry. Consumer demands and choices are
becoming unique in the fast paced world towards technologically advanced commodities (Deslée
and Dahan, 2018). Business concerns across the globe in retail industry are chasing similar
metrics so to stand out in competitive marketplace. From the coursework one, it is analysed that
retail industry forms huge share of GDP resulting in existence of high level of competition
among players in market. Morrison’s being largest retail and grocery corporate, has sped its
technological together with innovative advancements in operations. For the company, some
sources of innovation ate users as innovation, opening different possibilities and recombinant
innovations. Mentioned below are certain factors which drive innovation in retail industry for
2022 and beyond:
Augmented reality: In retail industry, augmented reality experience is becoming new
norm for 2022 and beyond. With virtual fitting rooms, improves in-store augmented reality
navigation and so on, retailers without these characteristics are falling behind. In case with any
retailer, useful application of virtual reality helps digital consumers in retail sector include try
prior devising purchase decision (Fitzmaurice, 2018). For Morrison’s, augmented reality is a
factor that foster innovation to help shoppers in looking distinct types of products before
purchasing.
Cashier less stores: It is new retail trend wherein customers visit physical shop, select
what they want, make purchase themselves and walk out of store. As with huge number of retail
decisions, primary reason for cashier less stores come with profit. For Morrison’s, building
cashier less store in future will help in reducing friction during process of checkout, permit in
generating more sales per unit of time. Against backdrop of increasing shortage of workforce,
cashier less stores can offer array of benefits such as speedy shopping, eliminating cashier
personnel and so on. The novel trend will also decline staffing costs to company and assist stores
to keep more of sales that they will make in future of 2022 and beyond.
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2022 and Beyond
In order to emphasis towards strengthening core foundation, organisation, such as
Morrison’s needs to emphasis on advanced requirements for bringing innovation. With the

adoption of certain concepts and frameworks of innovation, Morrison’s is able to achieve
success. In this context, managers of Morrison’s require Simple model of innovation that is a
process view diagram. Below are phases of the innovation model and operations required by
managers of Morrison’s in 2022 and beyond?
Figure 1: Simplified model of innovation process. 2021
(Source: Simplified model of innovation process. 2021)
Search: At the stage of search, retailers carry out practices to search ways so to turn
ideas into reality (Simplified model of innovation process, 2021). In case with Morrison’s,
required search options are research and development, market signals, regulations and behaviour
of competition.
Select: In this, managers of company require to select effective method for conversion of
ideas into reality (Götz, Hohler and Benz, 2018). Herein, management of Morrison’s selects
competitive differentiation to turn ideas in real globe. It is claimed by Morrison’s that products
of the company are technologically advanced and have spent huge resources in research and
development. Organisational ideas are differentiated as per price, designs, benefits and customer
services.

Implement: The stage is related to putting words into real actions. It is requirement of
managers of Morrison’s to transmit ideas into reality for the purpose of becoming leaders and
attaining a sustainable competitive position in retail industry. It is desirable for managers of
Morrison's to implement innovative practices regarding digital platform and use of digital
technology for enhancing their productivity as well as securing competitive advantage.
Capture Value: It is last stage of the innovation process wherein organisation require to
capture values for offering through organising certain events (Griesar, Bessant and
Bernschneider‐Reif, 2018). For Morrison’s, values for products are captured by hosting
campaigns in which potential and prospective target audiences are provided opportunities for
trying new products for self before purchasing products. It gives the company power for selling
points for retail products in portfolio, rather than depending on practices of marketers.
Another major model which can be used to assess the innovation requirements of
Morrison’s to pursue the future growth in the retail sector is the simplified process of innovation
which details the exact way in which companies like Morrison’s can take inventive approaches
regarding new market avenues (Oeij, and et.al., 2019).
Figure 2 Innovation process model

Conception
In this stage of the innovation process, companies like Morrison’s focuses on finding
areas in which it can innovate further and this stage majorly involves the generation and
evaluation of multiple ideas. According to the research done in the CW1 project and analysing
the future trends in the retail and grocery sector, the company bases its future innovation
requirements around ideas relating to augmented reality and smart system integration (Kakatkar,
Bilgram and Füller, 2020).
Figure 3 Morrison's cashier free shopping experience

Figure 4 Automated warehouse packaging lines at Morrison's
Implementation
This stage of the innovation process involves the company testing its capabilities for
undertaking innovative procedures and also does a complete evaluation of the products and
services that it intends to launch or streamline. Morrison’s capabilities are vast which can be
used to partner with better brands and services to provide a much more agile delivery network
that won’t get disrupted easily in the future.
Marketing
This stage is concerned with the way firms market their products and the strategies they
use to effectively position their new and innovative products or services in the market.
Morrison’s uses emotional appeals in its advertisement which can go along great with its planned
focus on automation and smart AI systems as people are looking for safer ways to shop in the
pandemic and have suffered for a long time (He, Aggarwal and Nof, 2018).
According to the above model’s application, the CW1 project analysis of the capabilities
of the company and the future trends and requirements of the retail and grocery industry, the

following innovation roadmap for the company has been developed below in the form of a Gantt
chart which is a tool used to quantify the time required to achieve particular tasks.
Activities Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Opening new
online and
offline fast
delivery
channels
Developing
augmented
reality based
supermarket
shopping
system
Integrating
new AI
systems in the
firm’s supply
chain
functions
Making the
warehouses
fully
automated
The above designed innovation roadmap will help the firm in establishing dominance
over the retail industry in the coming years by using cutting edge technological solutions which
are proven to be effective as the market size of AI solutions in global retail has been booming for
a while and practices such as automated warehouses are also showing promising future growth
prospects which Morrison’s could effectively cash in on.

Figure 5 AI integration in retail sector over the years
Figure 6 Global warehouse automation outlook