Warburtons: Developing an Innovation Business Case for Growth

This case study delves into Warburtons' innovation strategies, examining the challenges the company faces and the methods it employs to foster innovation. It identifies and compares different types of innovation, analyzing their successful application through the innovation funnel. The study also evaluates the risks and benefits associated with new product development, investment requirements, and the protection of intellectual property rights. Furthermore, it assesses the potential financial returns on investment and provides recommendations for Warburtons to enhance its innovation processes and maintain a competitive edge in the market. The analysis covers aspects such as leadership support, teamwork promotion, and the creation of an innovative culture within the organization.

Developing Innovation
Business Case

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Section 1..........................................................................................................................................4
Background of Warburtons and challenges faced by the company.............................................4
Ways in which innovation is sourced and fostered.....................................................................4
Leadership supporting and promoting teamwork for the development of innovative culture and
environment.................................................................................................................................5
Identification and comparison of different types of innovation..................................................6
Critical analysation of innovation and their successful used for processing developing and
embedding through innovation funnel.........................................................................................7
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................8
The Executive Summary..............................................................................................................8
The problem faced by company and the need for new product development.............................9
Risk and benefits of new product................................................................................................9
Requirement of investment and sources of investment.............................................................10
Critical evaluation of the intellectual property rights application ion NPD of the company....11
Financial return prospective on investment funding.................................................................12
Recommendations......................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Innovation refers to the introduction of new process, products or services in the market
by organization to positively affect the business. This will include improvement in existing
products or services or introduction of new product line. The ultimate goal of the organization is
to expand its business line and attract more customers. This will result into higher profit margin
and enable company to achieve competitive advantages. The innovation in organization would
enable company to increase market shares and maintain position in the market. The purpose of
innovation is to create value which would attract customers and help in expansion of business.
The project highlights the challenges faced by Warburtons and the ways through which
innovations are sourced. Further, the discussion about the different types of innovation and
methods used by organization to process them. There will be analysis of risk and benefits of
innovation and different tools used to develop, retain and protect intellectual property rights.
MAIN BODY
Section 1
Background of Warburtons and challenges faced by the company
Warbutons is a British bakery company which is engaged in five categories of products
i.e. bread, roles, gluten free, weight watchers and bakery snacks. The founder of the company is
Thomas Warburton and headquarter is in Bolton, England. The products of the company is
second largest food and drink brand in UK. Company provides products according to the
customers' taste and preference and invest a huge amount to understand its customers' needs. The
increase of competition has become a major threat for the company. Company has to continue to
innovate and make opportunities for the customers with its new products so that it can maintain
its position and increase market shares. The changing trends and preferences of the customers is

a challenge for the company who provides products according to the customers' needs. As the
customers are becoming health conscious and preferring organic and low calorie food and
beverage products, company has to introduce product which are healthy and low calorie muffins
(Buhl and et.al., 2019). The increase in pressure of competitors company is forced to introduce
new products with competitive advantage of reduction in sugar and salt level in its products. The
another challenge faced by the company is that it is not able to maintain good level of customer
service. This is because it is not able to provide its customers products at right time. Company is
searching for innovative delivery channel which ensures the reach of products at right time.
Ways in which innovation is sourced and fostered
The different sources of innovation are:
Unexpected: Innovation can occur surprisingly or coincidentally. This may occur while
evaluating the reason for success or failure of organization. The failure of Sony's Betamax VCR
and success of industry standard VHS format has made the CEO of Sony to pay more attention
on developing products in industry standards line.
Incongruity: In an attempt to resolve the reason for the gap between actual outcome and
forecasted outcome there may be scope for innovation (Philipson, 2020). The innovative idea of
South west airlines who introduced a different approach for airline service.
Market structure: The change in the existing market may give rise to chances of innovation.
The need for adapting the new fast growing market there may be need for innovation.
Necessity: Necessity will give rise to innovation in the business. In the process of recovering
from deficiency and minimizing the gaps innovation is essential.
Demographics: The diverse lifestyle and change in preference of people also give rise to
innovation.
Changing perception: Changing perception of people regarding anything can also give birth to
innovation (Demircioglu, Audretsch and Slaper, 2019). For instance, people moving towards
healthy living has resulted into introduction of healthy food products in market.
New knowledge: The new knowledge of anything can also be source of innovation. For
instance, advancement in technology also give rise to innovation.
Foster innovation in organizations
 Make innovation part of business strategy
 Develop a plan for innovations

 Hire skilled and creative employees
 Create innovative environment which would foster innovations
 Encourage employees to share their creative ideas
 Evaluate performance of employees
 Reward innovations
Leadership supporting and promoting teamwork for the development of innovative culture and
environment
The ways in which the leaders can support innovative culture and promote team work are,
Empowering employees needed for providing value for new ways
In order to increase the innovative culture of an organization the leaders are considered to
be the key that are able to help achieve greatness through the effectiveness of the ways in which
the business is going to gather the operations that are essential for the practices.
Designing innovative networks:
Designing the innovative networks are going to be the key factor that is going to help the
business to be able to understand how the business can be able to be effective in the management
of the study (Cinar, Trott and Simms, 2019). The innovation of the networks is also considered
to be the key factor that is related to the operations which are effective towards the generation of
key strategies that contribute towards the success.
Quick actions
By taking quick actions the leaders will allow the organization to understand how
effective the organization has been towards the ways in which they can generate the growth
required for the achievement of results. Gathering of information and also the meeting of the
factors that are essential towards the success of the organization is going to be with the hep of
new leadership opportunities.
Learning from past experiences
Being able to learn from the past experiences is going to be a very effective factor which
is going to be able to contribute towards the factors that are essential for the learning of the
organization (Marion and Fixson, 2021). In leadership the experiences help the employees be

able to gather the information that is essential for the ways in which they are able to generate the
growth required for achieving results.
Developing culture of trust
The development of the culture trust is going to be very important for being able to
understand that the business needs to develop the key factors which contribute towards the
success. Management of the employees is said to be the factor that is able to develop the
practices of enhanced culture.
Identification and comparison of different types of innovation
The different types of innovation for Warbutons are,
Product Innovation
This is the process of the creating a product or improving an existing one for meeting the
needs of the customers. It can also be said as the key factor that is able to influence the ways in
which it is able to novel the way towards the creation of sustainability for the high quality of
products and best customers.
Process Innovations
The process innovation is the implementation of a new and significantly improved for the
methods of delivery. It also considered to be the factor that is able to influence the practices
which are related towards the ways in which the business can understand the innovation
practices.
Radical Innovation
The innovation is considered to be the one that is able to destroy the supplants or an
existing business model which is considered to be the key factor that is able to develop the
system process or be able to replace it with new. This is able to help the organization change its
operations through bringing innovation (Chen, Liu and Zhu, 2018).
Incremental Innovations
This is the type of innovation that takes place in a series of small improvements which is
towards a greater result that can be achieved in the future. The focus of this innovation is towards
the creation of new factors that contribute towards the differentiation of the company for
competitive building n current offerings.
Product Innovation Process Innovation Radical Innovation Incremental
Innovation

The development of
the information has
been considered to be
the factor that is able
to influence the
common for the
business world.
This is going to be
focusing on
improving the
efficiency or
New technologies and
business model seem
especially in the
beginning of the
existing solutions for
the help of iterations.
It can be made
through the use of
existing technology
with a goal to improve
the existing offerings.
Critical analysation of innovation and their successful used for processing developing and
embedding through innovation funnel
Innovation in the bakery is going to be related to the development of new product which
would help in generating the growth that is required for the achievement of the success. This
innovation is going to processed in the organization through the use of new strategies which ae
going to be contributing toward the success of the business. The development of the innovation
in an organization is going to gather effectiveness which is considered to be the key factor that is
about ways in which they are able to generate the growth. Innovation funnel is the mechanism
which is able to continue a stream of innovative ideas that is able to prototype the screening for
the viability. The development of the approach is going to be considered to be the key factor that
is able to influence the organizational effectiveness (Sergeeva and Trifilova, 2018). It can be said
that the understanding of the organization depends of the ways in which they are able to
influence the realistic which is the factor that is able to generate the growth for the ideas that are
idealistic.
This innovation funnel is going to use the following stages that are going to help in the
development of the innovation funnel. Following are the stages that are considered are,
 Stage 1: Opportunity assessment is considered to be the stage in which the organization is
going to examine the opportunities present for that innovation.
 Stage 2: Insights-based ideation is also considered to be the one that is able to develop a
R&D strategy. The next step is also considered to be the factor that is able to influence
the capitalization of the brain storming idea which is going to help the market achieve the
targets that are required.

 Stage 3: Conceptualisation of the factors which are essential for the viability of the
mocked up prototypes is considered to be very effective for testing the mock-ups which
help in influencing the different types of tests.
 Stage 4: Evaluation and benchmarking is also a very important factor that is able to help
in improving the relevancy of the product that can be tweaked and retesting (Dekkers and
et.al., 2020).
 Stage 5: Ploughing out of the cut lose is also considered to be the factor that is able to
help in the collaboration of the stages that is able to develop a clear factor that is able to
help in the recommendation of the companies.
 Stage 6: Launching is the most crucial in which the product is released in the market.
SECTION 2
The Executive Summary
The innovation enables the organization to remain competitive in the market and helps to
increase profit margin and market shares. This enables company to achieve competitive
advantages and growth of the business. The project is about the problem that is faced by
Warburtons which has lead to develop a new healthy food product. It also highlights the risk and
benefits of launching new product in the market using market analysis tools. The sources of
investment and the importance of intellectual property rights tools used in new product
development. The project also highlights the return on the investment on new product
development and the recommendations that would enable the company to overcome the
challenges for sustainability in the future.
The problem faced by company and the need for new product development
The rise in competition and increase in number substitutes have become a problem for
Warburtons to increase its market share and revenue. The growth of the company has become
steady and to increase the growth level company needs to expand its business. Company has
implemented product development strategy and diversification strategy which would enable long
term growth (Gurbuz, 2018). The change in customer preference and shifting of customers
towards healthy and low calorie food products has given opportunity to the company to expand
its business line. The increase of competition has pressurized company to diversify its product
line and launch new products attract health conscious customers and build strong customer base.

Risk and benefits of new product
Risks of new product development
Financial risk
The development of new product requires huge amount of investment. Company need to
analyse the financial risk associated with the development of new product. The failure of product
in the market will lead to loss of huge amount that is invested in the project. Company needs to
carefully analyse and evaluate the need of new product in the market and need to develop a plan
to ensure right product reach right place at right time.
Social risk
The rapid change in trend and customer perception has a great impact on the new product
development. The company needs to ensure that the product being launched will give long term
profit to the company (Taylor and Ahmed-Kristensen, 2018). An organization can enjoy the
benefit of new product development if it is delivered to customers at right time. The products
provided by the company should be according to the customers' preference and taste. This will
enable company to satisfy its customers and increase its revenue.
Environmental risk
Environmental risk refers to the negative impact of operational activities of business on
the environment. Company needs to ensure that the new product development would not
adversely impact the environment. The company needs to follow environmental friendly
approach which would not impact the environment and leave a positive image of the company on
its customers.
Benefits of new product development
New product development enables Wanburtons to achieve competitive advantage in the
market. This would enable company to potentially compete with its competitors and maintain its
position in the market. This ultimately helps the company to increase its profit margin and
revenue. Company is able to increase its customers by providing products in accordance to
customers' preference and tastes (García-Alcaraz and et.al., 2018). New product development
also enables company to expand its product line and market. By implementing product
development strategy and diversification strategy company can increase the scope for customers
to choose variety of products and build a brand image. New product development also enables
company to access new opportunities and long term future growth and development.

Requirement of investment and sources of investment
The company is planning to develop new product in the market and it needs huge amount
of investment to mitigate the cost for development. The expenses that are related to development
of new products are research and development expenses, human resource expenses, raw material
cost, selling and distribution expenses, etc. There are many sources through which company can
raise funds:
Retained earnings
Company can use its retained earning for investing in new products. The benefit of
raising funds through retained earning is that company would not have any financial risk.
Reinvestment of retained earnings in the company may decrease shareholder's value if there is
loss due to introduction of new product.
Equity capital
Company can raise funds through equity shareholders by offering shares to family
members (Ibragimov and Jalilov, 2021). The company has no repayment liability as funds are
raised through owner's capital. The disadvantage of this source is that there is no tax benefit and
there may be conflicts between shareholders and management.
Debt capital
Company can borrow funds from banks or other financial institutes or by issuing
debentures. There is a tax benefit on interest payment and there is fixed payment of interest.
Company do not have to give sharing in the profits and it also helps to boost credit score. The
disadvantage of debt capital is that company is obliged to repay the funds paid i.e. there is
financial risk.
Critical evaluation of the intellectual property rights application ion NPD of the company
The implementation of the Intellectual property rights tools is considered to be very
effective for the ways in which they are going to help the bakery protect the healthy and low-
calorie muffin which is considered to be very important for protecting the rights of these
products. There is various tool of IPR which can help the new product development of this
company to be able to protect the products and stop it from being mitigated. The management of
the rights are also considered to be the strategy that helps the organization. There are four such
tool that can be used by the organization,

Patent
A patent is also considered to be very useful for the ways in which they are going to
create or sell the factors that are responsible for the company to be able to generate effectiveness
in eh study. It has been considered to be the ways in which being able to achieve the results that
is essential for the protection of the rights that influences the patent owning company (Different
Types of Intellectual Property Rights and Why They Are Important, 2022).
Trademark
It is considered to be the factor to be the one that is able to influence intellectual property
rights for the protection of the distinctive sign. The management of the company has also been
considered to be the key factor that is able to influence the practices that help the company to
protect the ways in which the product is going to be represented with the form of sign. The
product will have a unique from a way in which the customers are going to be able to influences.
Copyright
This is the tool that is not the protection of the ideas but is more towards the intangible
forms of creations that are original work. This can be an art, music, architectural drawings and
other software’s. This can be considered to be the factor that is essential for the development of
opportunity which is able to influence the business in gaining a competitive advantage in the
market.
Trade secret:
Trade secrets are the secrets of a business are the proprietary systems, formulas,
strategies or other confidential information that are not mean to be for any unauthorized or
commercial use by others (Gupta, 2018). This helps in gaining the competitive advantages for
the generation of effectiveness which is essential for the gathering of information that is essential
for the management of the operations.
Financial return prospective on investment funding
The investment made by the bakery on the new product is going help the monitoring of the
return on investment ratio of the organization. This is the financial metric that is able to help
measure the performance of the company in terms of investment that is made for the efficiency
of the profitability of the organization. This is also considered to be the factor that is able to help
in the relative of the investment’s costs. Through this the calculation of the ROI is going to help
in the division of the cost of the investment. This is going to help the organization help in the

measurement of the metrics that are considered to be the key towards the ways in which the
business and its financial performance are measured.
Recommendations
This bakery is going to help the organization in eh ways in which the business would be able
to achieve success in the new product development are,
 In order to be able to gain the success that is important for the organization having a
innovating management is going to be very important for the Warbutons to develop new
product.
 Being able to build new strategies that contribute towards the ways in which the
employees are able to help the business is able to gather the growth through the
development of the employee engagement.
 Development of the transparency is going to help the business be realistic towards its
performance that are going to contribute towards the success of the business. hence this is
going to be the factor that allows the business to build new strategies that ae essential for
the development of the new product in the market (Urbinati, and et.al., 2022).
 Promotion of the new product development which is considered to be very effective for
the ways in which allows the business in the development of an increase business factor
that is the key towards the growth. For an organization the study of developing the new
strategies are considered to be very important to be able to generate the growth that is
required.
CONCLUSION
From the above project it can be concluded that the Warbutons is going to be very effective
for being able to achieve the growth that is required for the achievement of new strategies. The
management of the operations that help the business gain success through analysation of the
operational activities. This project has been able to understand the effectiveness of innovation
with the investigation of the sources support for different organizations. Explore the process that
is able to process the different type of innovation within the organizations. Application of the
process that is required for the commercialization of the innovation is also considered to be the

factor that is effective for an organization. Evaluation of the range of methods are considered to
be very effective for the analysation of the required commercialisation in innovation within an
organization.

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Online
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