Unilever Innovation Report - Innovation Beyond the Comfort Zone

This report analyzes Unilever's innovation strategies, focusing on innovation beyond the comfort zone. It explores the company's approach to innovation in a competitive market, highlighting the importance of technological collaboration, networking, and open innovation. The report discusses the benefits of these strategies, such as improved resource allocation and access to information technologies, while also addressing the challenges, including the high costs associated with implementation and the need for sustainable solutions. The author suggests improvements, such as investigating inter-organization networking and developing websites to support innovation needs. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for Unilever to analyze its organizational structures to foster innovation and maintain a competitive edge. The report emphasizes on the management of organizational innovation which is targeted towards the changing of the firm’s structural and cultural wellbeing. The report also mentions the need for Unilever to be competitive in the market.

Managing innovation
Unilever “Innovation beyond the comfort
zone”

Introduction
Unilever is one of the multinational companies in the
world which performs well in the cooperate market.
 The company’s managers acknowledge the
importance of innovation in the firm because they
deal with a wide variety of goods and services which
requires invention and innovation.
Nowadays, majority of the workers are not satisfied
with the management of creativity in their industry.
The main purpose of this report is to point out
Unilever’s innovation structure beyond the comfort
zone as reported below.

Continued
The structural and organizational factors
remained constant because most firms in
Unilever will affect the innovation and the
wellbeing of the industry.
Innovation is inevitable especially with the
technological development all over the world.

Different options open to Unilever
Technological collaboration is discourse in
the context of development of complex
product systems.
The effort of converging various knowledge
sets offers significant merits based on
network innovation. As a result, less time will
be consumed and expenses on development
but it is always difficult to implement.
Activities of enabling higher level of sharing
knowledge in the network system is initiated
by competitive edge.

Option chosen
The networking systems generates an
effective solutions to the resource
complications. As such, it is irrelevant to have
various resources in the innovation programs.
The industrial development applies
knowledge of networking in its operations.
Substantial potential in the supply chain is
proposed by different learning behaviors. For
example, (supplier association) of
kyoryokukai in Japan industries was a notable
development in twentieth century.

Conti….
The innovative firms at Unilever are those
firms which are able to utilize available
resources for the purpose of improving their
goods and services and out perform their
competitors in the market.
The risk of performing well in the market is
also a key factor that should not be sublimed
by Unilever.
Innovation will lead to competiveness at
Unilever with skills and fresh management
which run the daily situations in a business
set up.

Reasons for the option
• The availability of information technologies
and empowering information have enabled
improvement of ‘virtual organization’ and ‘open
innovation’. These features are increased in
wide business landscape.
• Revelation of Bessant and Tidd argues that the
advancement of many manufacturing industries
in Japan follow; [Japanese firms exhibit]. This
facilitates to development of both inter-
organization networks and organizational
memeberships.

Challenges in the option
The effort of providing sustainable solutions
challenges innovation process and keep on
increasing each and every time.
Most firms including Unilever have invested
largely in the different sector of managing
innovation programs. As such, the underlying
assumptions in the innovation have improve
while challenging previous one.
The option requires more resources in the
process of implementation which is much
costly as compared to other innovation
options.

How I would have progressed the option
I would investigate the underling
assumptions on inter-organization networking
since it provides main procedures of
controlling different networking system.
Additionally, there is effective performances
in the networking organization.
I would have build and operate networks that
can facilitated a variety of enabling inputs.
I would have a design of the website that is in
line with innovation which can support the
needs of the users.

Conclusion
Unilever requires analysis of organizational
structures put in place to boost the well being
of the firms and compete favorably in the
cooperate world.
The management of organizational innovation
has shifted with the purpose of changing the
firm’s structural and cultural wellbeing.

Reference
Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. R. (2013). Managing
innovation: Integrating technological, market
and organizational change. Chichester, West
Sussex : John Wiley & Sons