Innovation and Commercialisation of UNIT9: A Report

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Innovation and Commercialisation of UNIT9
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1. Explain the concept of innovation and differentiate between innovation and invention
(P1 & P2)....................................................................................................................................3
LO2. Exhibit various form of innovation (P3 & P4).................................................................5
L03: Process required for commercialization of innovation (P5 & P6).....................................9
LO4: Evaluation of significant methods to protect ideas along with the possible advantage
and disadvantage (P7)..............................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Development of new areas and sectors had facilitated development in other areas, which are
related to it. The concept of development has become very crucial in businesses and
organisations. At present, a fierce and cutthroat competition is going in the market, which has
enforced the organisation to develop their operations and sectors. Innovation has been the key
success factor for the business organisation to face and survive this competition and run their
business appropriately. In this report, exemplification of Unit9 company of United Kingdom.
Unit9 is a London based SME, which function under several industries comprising of
interactive, film and advertising industry of UK. The company comprises of 150 employees
and serve its products and services all over the globe. In this present description, various
aspects of innovation and invention will be introduces in context of Unit9. The differences
between innovation and invention and its impact on Unit9 will be described and the 4Ps of
innovation as well as innovation funnel will be assessed and applied in the following report.
LO1. Explain the concept of innovation and differentiate between innovation and
invention (P1 & P2)
Describe innovation and determine its significance along with inventions for the
organisations
Innovation
Figure.1 Innovation
(Source: I.dlpng.com, 2019)

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According to Soni and Krishnan (2014), innovation is generating creative ideas and
techniques and applying them in practices. Innovation is the key to success in today’s market.
Organisations practice innovation in their operations and activities for getting enhanced
results and gaining competitive advantage in the market. Through innovation, more
developed and unique ideas are generated and they are used for developing any
organisational sector, strategy or process. However, innovation is baseless without invention
as innovation helps in upgrading any invention. As opined by Zandoval Bonazzi and Ari
Zilber (2014), invention is the process of inventing or creating something new for the first
time. Therefore, it can be very well said that both innovation and invention are both
interrelated to each other. Through innovation, the status and situation of an organisation can
be developed and more propensity and growth can be brought in the business.
Significance of innovation and invention for Unit9
Unit9 is multidisciplinary organisation and leading in its field among other such companies
of United Kingdom. Despite of being a small enterprise, Unit9 has managed to gain
considerable amount of recognition, and this is because of its innovative and creative
business ideas (UNIT9, 2019). Unit9 provides its worldwide customers new and unique
products through applying highly innovative ideas and techniques in its products. This helps
the company in bringing more variation in its products and service ranges. Through
innovation, Unit9 brings accuracy and uniqueness in its products and services.
Unit9 uses innovation for offering higher quality of services and digital experience to its
customers. For being in digital and multidisciplinary sector, it becomes very vital for Unit9 to
be highly innovative. As opined by Amabile and Pratt (2016), this will help the company in
sustaining its business and getting advantage in the market against its rival companies. In this
way, innovation becomes very significant and crucial for Unit9. As opined by Sousa (2012),
the company produces new games and bring innovation in them for continuing their
popularity among its customers. For filming new documentaries and web series, Unit9 finds
out new and creative ideas for giving unique and enhanced experience to the audiences.
There are many apps developed and programmed by Unit9, which are popular among its
customer. However, using same app with constant features might be boring for the user
sometimes. Therefore, Unit9 adds innovative features in its applications and softwares for
facilitating enhanced functioning and specifications of its applications and softwares. Along
with this, the company develops and invents new apps and softwares for continuing its

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business in the market (UNIT9, 2019). Due to this reason, invention as well as innovation
becomes very important and vital for Unit9.
Impact of vision, leadership, teamwork and culture of Unit9 over innovation and
commercialisation
The mission of Unit9 Company is to create content and innovate them with love. This
mission of the company helps it in continuing its innovative business successfully. Leaders in
Unit9 are self-motivated and highly experienced as well as talent in their fields. According to
Sung and Choi (2014), they provide proper guidelines to other employees of the enterprise to
innovate and generate creative ideas and then apply them for enhancing their personal skills
and productivity. The teams of Unit9 consist of directors, writers, game developers and
technologists. These people are very good at their work and they do not require much of help
or guidelines from the management to perform their work properly. Various types of teams
are formed in Unit9 for performing different type of tasks. As stated by Drucker (2014), these
teams can be of any type including functional team and cross-functional teams also. They
continuously focus on adding more varieties and products to the product range, which will
help in satisfying their existing customer and this will help in gaining new customers of the
company
The organisational culture of Unit9 has a very employee friendly and nurturing work place
environment. Employees of Unit9 are provided with maximum freedom to choose the ways
in which, allotted task are to be completed for attaining the organisational goals and
objectives. According to Vanhaverbeke (2013), employees in such free and friendly working
environment develop more creative and innovative ideas leading to more innovation in the
business and products of the organisation. According to Černe (2013), employees also find
the environment suitable for inventing something unique, which helps the company in setting
new standard in its business. Employees of Unit9 are free to experiment in their task and thus
it promotes creativity of the employees facilitating more innovation in Unit9. In this way, all
these factors including vision of Unit9, teamwork, leadership and culture of Unit9 have a
great influence over innovation and commercialisation.
LO2. Exhibit various form of innovation (P3 & P4)
Assess the 4Ps of innovation along with innovation funnel for examining and shaping
innovative ideas

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4Ps of innovation
The products and service of Unit9 are unique and experimental. They are to be used by wide
range of customer population, which means, safety and eligibility of the product offered by
Unit9 need to be checked and tested, before launching them in the market. As opined by
Vanhaverbeke and Roijakkers (2013), it is also required by Unit9 to assess its current
performance and growth as compared to other rivals of Unit9 present in its business
environment. For this purpose, Unit9 can refer to 4Ps of innovation, which are product,
paradigm, position and process.
Figure.2- 4Ps of innovation
(Source: Egyptinnovate.com, 2019)
P-1: Product
Unit9 offers various service and product to its customer. The products of Unit9 are unique
and innovative. The product range of Unit9 comprises of several Android and IOS games,
apps, softwares and the company directs and produces documentaries and web or TV series.
All these products of Unit9 are highly demanded in today’s market, especially by the
youngsters. The company should offer more products to its customer frequently for
continuing the flow of sales of its products.
P-2: Paradigm
Different types of standard are used by Unit9 for generating content and producing its
products. New concepts and ideas are used by Unit9 in its business for generating web stories
and content (UNIT9, 2019). For example, Unit9 used twitter as a source for generating

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content in its one of the projects named as Barclaycard Bespoke ballads. This concept was
very innovative and unique, which gained considerable amount of recognition and
appreciation. In this way, Unit9 makes its products attractive through innovation and
creativity.
P-3: Process
The process used for production and creation of service and products of Unit9 are concerned
and focused on cost cutting. This helps the company in making their products more
affordable and accessible to more number of customers. The processes in Unit9 are carried
out with minimum wastage of resources. The employees of Unit9 are less in number but are
properly skilled and well trained in their fields. According to Anderson (2013), due to this
factor, the organisation processes takes little time but the outcomes are more efficient and
better. All these features of the processes of Unit9 help the company in increasing its revenue
generation and maximizing its profitability in business.
P-4: Position
The customers of Unit9 are served with best and innovative products giving rise to immense
satisfaction to the customers. This is because; Unit9 focuses on positioning of its products to
the targeted customers. Majority of the customers of Unit9 are youngsters. Therefore, the
products suitable for youngsters are manufactured in majority e.g. Games, both Android and
IOS Smartphone applications and softwares (UNIT9, 2019). This characters and effective
positioning strategy of Unit9 makes it one of the favourites of the customers. The employees
on other hand are also impressed with the work culture of Unit9 making the company a better
Launch pad for its employees.
These are the 4Ps of Unit9, which can be assessed and developed by the company for
enriching and enhancing its performance and status in the market of United Kingdom and its
other operational areas.
Innovation funnel
Varity of new products are developed and introduced by Unit9 in the market. However, it is
very necessary for the company to carry out the process of new product development in an
effective way. According to Hakkarainen and Talonen (2014), for this purpose, the company
can use innovation funnel, which will help in assessing the new creative ideas and will help

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in conceptualising the developed product. The model of innovation funnel comprises of
several steps, which are mentioned as follows:
Opportunity assessment- This is the first step in the innovation funnel, which emphasises
the assessment of market opportunity for the company. As it has been stated above many
times, Products of Unit9 are in high demand in the market as youngsters tend to get attracted
more towards games, softwares, Web series, etc. Therefore, there is great opportunity for
Unit9 in the market of UK as well as other countries.
Insight based ideations- After getting the insight into the market opportunities; Unit9 can
conceive a suitable product by making several assumptions based in the data gained by
researching and surveying customers.
Conceptualisation-In this step, Unit9 needs to conceptualise the actual product and its
features. This product will be the best result of the ideation stage (UNIT9, 2019).
Evaluation and benchmarking- In this stage, Unit9 can test the product by conducting a test
from customer and gaining feedback from them. This will help in bringing necessary
amendments in the product.
Go or no go- As opined by Anderson et al. (2014), after getting the feedback, the decision of
launching or not launching of the product is decided by the executives by considering other
relevant factors also.
Launch- After passing and qualifying all stages, Unit9 can launch its product in the market.
By providing examples, demonstrate development process in frugal innovation.
According to Tiwari and Herstatt (2012), the complex nature of the production processes and
the cost of the product as well as processes are controlled and brought down through frugal
innovation. Through frugal inventions, higher rate of sales and profit can be enjoyed in
business. The concept of frugal invention can be better understood through the example,
provided further in the description.
In Ghana, majority of people living in urban region are indulged in the practice of cooking on
charcoal, which creates negative impact on the environment as well on their health. The
stoves that were used for this purpose were made of metal sheet and were very inefficient.
This also resulted in wastage of over usage of the resource. This increased the consumption
of charcoal leading to more production and retail of charcoal in Ghana. All these factors were

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directly indicating the negative impact on the forest, as the production of charcoal required
cutting don of trees. As opined by Basu et al. (2013), this gave rise to deforestation.
Therefore, fee entrepreneurs initiated Toyola Company, which produced efficient and eco-
friendly charcoal stoves. These stoves are now used by the urban people of Ghana.
Unit9 can also implement frugal innovation in its production for producing less costly and
efficient product for the customer. The company can implement different strategies and
eliminate any kind of unnecessary and waste element from the production. According to
Zeschky et al. (2014), this will lower down the cost and price of products and production
process, making the products more affordable for the customer.
L03: Process required for commercialization of innovation (P5 & P6)
Explain the significance of commercial funnel and the application for new product
development
The significance of funnel in the marketing is not being underestimated. The main important
concept is the sales funnel. As noted by Davila et al. (2012), the process of commercial
funnel may be separated in several steps like production of quality, the product introduction
and deliver of the items by the company. In order to gain the commercial success, company
must adopt the effective marketing strategy. Besides, company must deliver their items in
several international markets and hence the services of consumers may be adopted after the
launch of their first item. The audience must understand that the company exists, but do not
specifically show a focused interest.
To success in commercial business, potential consumers should know about the business of
certain company and they are interested to know more about the products of that particular
company. As opined by Walsh (2012), commercial funnel has the huge range of perspective
with initiation of several ideas in the direction of any business. However, it may be
contracted due to rejection of innovative ideas and then the production of new item takes the
place. Commercial funnel supports in launching of any items in any marketplace and sales
their business efficiently. The commercial funnel for several methods in case of product
development of Unit9 is given below:
Main stages Details about the stages of New product development
New idea In this phase, several ideas have o be estimated and suggested for

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development launching of new items. Additionally, the specification and
symphony of the new items are to analyze by the leaders or
managers of Unit 9.
Determine the
innovation goal
The main analyse is to find out the benefits to launch the products.
For example, Unit9 has developed a device without estimating what
issues they were resolving for their consumers. Thus, the product is
a monumental failure.
Innovation idea
estimate
Several failures and shortcoming are engaged in the process of
processing of the new items (George et al., 2012). Unit9 managers
must have to evaluate those problems. Additionally, refinement and
filtering of this idea has to be applied.
Figure out what the
consumers think
about this goal
People would buy a product or service from the company, which
solves a problem for them, but the problem itself, should be present
(Gassmann et al., 2010). Products, which consumers do not require
and degrade the brand loyalty are unsuccessful.
Define the concept of
goal
The feasibility gaming products and innovative items of Unit9 in the
market are required the needs of technical equipments for
producing. The potential of market is needed to examine in this
phase.
Product development
and testing
In this phase, the innovation leaders of Unit9 are needed to create a
model of the item and check its possibility (Nathan and Lee, 2013).
This may be also performed by giving samples of technical items to
the consumers through direct service. Unit9 must conduct a
consumer value assessment to obtain the option of a product from a
target base market.
Market testing This stage supports the company to predict the response or feedback
for launching the products in market. Market expert always says that
early investment of any items cut down based on uncertainty and
supports the company to make the clear objectives of product
(Sumrit and Anuntavoranich, 2013). This is also recognized as the

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listening towards the voice of consumer.
Commercialization In this phase, managers of Unit9 have to make a decision about the
product’s price. Additionally, the strategies of advertising will be
attracted the existing consumers and new consumers also. In this
way, the company will evaluate the target market.
Product launch Innovation managers have to determine a complete launch plan like
location and date for launching of innovative products like gaming
items, production and direction items (Kotha et al., 2013).
Planning Planning is the final stage of determining how to mass-produce,
develop and identify the new market prototype. This is the
opportunity for Unit9 to conduct a technical assessment and
evaluate the value of that assessment.
Table 1: New product development for Unit 9
(Source: Learner)
Developing innovation business case for the company and access towards it funding
For any company, budget and funding are to be vital aspect for developing the ideas in
respect to the products (West and Bogers, 2014). In absence of these sources, innovative
ideas may not be developed. It is essential for the company that all the aspects should be
analysed by the managers of innovation products. It is essential for the managers of Unit9 to
estimate all the probable sources of funding to launch the items in the international market.
Some of the sources are given below:
Resources Estimating time Details Significance
towards the
company
Equity Shares Extended term This engages
ordinary share and
part of tenure is taken
by the stakeholders.
High

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In case of Unit 9, this
method is to be a
probable resource for
the process of
funding (Eesley et al.
2014).
Venture capital Long term It takes the company
to an equity place for
helping it developing
the product but high
risk of failure in this
case. This engages
providing some
ownership or equity
in Unit9 towards an
external party.
Small
Government grants
and subsidies
Long term Government agencies
give the financial like
subsidies and grants,
which must be
accessible for Unit 9.
Medium
Trade credit Short term This engages
monetary support,
which may be getting
from investors and
the agencies in start
of new project
(Partanen et al.,
2014). In case of
Unit 9, such agencies
and investors are
playing the most
High