Unit 9 Innovation and Commercialisation Regent College Level 4

In the present report explain about, importance of innovation along with its difference with invention, building of innovation through the support of organisations mission, vision and team, 4P’s of innovation and Concept of Frugal innovation. Also, importance associated with commercial funnel and role of NPD, preparation of innovation business case and tools which helps to protect IPR.

Task 1

P1 Distinguish between innovation and invention along with the importance of innovation

Importance of innovation

Innovation is the process which includes use of new methods and techniques which are in trend in market and contributes in improvement of the different functional activities of organisation. It is bring by OAK Cash and Carry to improve the internal strength of organisation through make their administration, selling and distribution, marketing and production activities better. Innovation in business motivates the employees is to work with passion they have the opportunity to learn the new things and develop their personality and professional career. There are much importance’s which are attained by OAK Cash and Carry is mentioned below:

Competitive advantage: The main aim of small organisation is to build their position in market and improve their selling figures. This target is achievable by OAK Cash and Carry if they bring competitiveness in operations. It helps to attain competitive advantage in market. So, innovation is only aspect which contributes in making of the existing activities more effective and competitive. Administration department uses cloud technology to store large amount of information at one place which improves their decision making. Similarly, selling and distribution department is able to deliver their products timely to end customers or emergence of new method of selling like online platforms etc. Marketing activities are also enhanced where new options emerged for advertisement of products such as social media which is time saving and cost efficient. So, it provides the opportunity to OAK Cash and Carry is to gather the support of all departments in success of organisation through which are able to grab some good position in market.

Application of best methods: Innovation helps to use best which is present in market for operating their business operations. It improves the internal strength of organisation also helps to attract new and skilful candidate whom are searching for jobs. It provides the opportunity is to employ best candidate in the organisation which contributes most of their efforts in process of making the organisation different from their competitors. As more chance are available for their personal and professional growth. OAK Cash and Carry is provides grocery products. Through implementation of innovative technologies quality and design of the products is improved and also contributes in minimisation of cost. It provides opportunity is to set the low price to attract the large number of customers &(Bianchi and et. al., 2010).

Distinguish between invention and innovation

Both are different terms Innovation means development of the features of existing product through application of unique methods of working and on the other hand invention means development of something new which is different in all scenarios and emerged first time. The different between both the terms is understood from the points which are defined below:

Innovation	Invention
Process of making the existing product more productive in terms of quality, features, design through use of new technologies of working	Emerging new product which is not available in market. It is the process which includes use of new ideas and methods in development of product which is having new features not present in anywhere.
The main purpose behind the innovation is to improve their quality of their business operations through improvement in the different departments like accounting, administration, production etc.	It helps to fulfil the dream of expansion through launching of new product line.
For ex., use of innovation in improvement of the grocery products of OAK Cash and Carry.	For ex., invention helps to expand business in product line which is yet not available in market.

P2 Role of organisations culture, mission, vision and team in innovation and commercialisation

The culture, vision, mission and team performance plays an important role in development of the innovation and commercialisation in organisation. All the aspects are important part of the organisation, without them not possible to operate business.

Vision and mission are for the guidance of the employees is to clearly understood the objectives of organisation and according to which design their activities. It motivates the employees is to work with innovative ideas to accomplish goals in less period of time.

Culture includes about value, belief, norms which are present in organisation and followed by the employees while performing tasks. It contributes to bring coordination and built effective communication among the employees (Bradley,& Hayter and Link, 2013). The relation of employees become strong which improves their performance and positive working environment is created at workplace. In such easy to perform by the employees continuously 8 to 9 hours as they get the support of each other in difficult times. It is seemed that the conflicts are removed through given resources are optimally utilised to attain best results. The number of mistakes which are happen in organisation due to misunderstanding is reduced. Such positive and familiar environment provides freedom to employees is to share their innovative views and ideas.

Team performance is important aspect as goals are not achieved through effort of single employee. Support of many other members provides strength to the team is to use innovative ways to complete their task which results in something productive which is not exist till now.

Leadership is such aspect which helps in motivation of employees to use their skills and knowledge to provide their optimum to organisation. In this regard, they have the duty is to lead the employees from front and use approaches and strategies for their direction.

All such different provides their support in their own way in development of innovation and commercialisation in OAK and Cash and Carry. The different benefits which they achieved through this includes high market share, more customer base, high amount of profits, competitive advantage etc. So, while adopting innovation in business need to focus on all such aspects which are defined below:

Vision: The vision of OAK Cash and Carry is to bring diversity in their grocery products and provides best quality products which cater the needs of customers having different perception in mind. It helps improve their number of profits and sales figure.

Culture: The management of OAK Cash and Carry build value, belief ad norms for employees to make their efforts more coordinated towards their goals of organisation.

Leadership: Leaders of OAK Cash and Carry is required to provide freedom to employees to use their own ideas in performance of their functions. It helps to motivate the employees is that they are important part of organisation (Caniëls& and van den Bosch, 2011).

Team work: OAK Cash and Carry is required to provide more emphasis on team building as it helps in removal of weaknesses through using the strengths of other employees. It creates the familiar environment where employees enjoy to work.

Task 2

P3 4P’s of innovation and contribution of innovation funnel in generation of innovative ideas

4P’s of innovation

Process innovation: It includes about converting the existing processes which are used in the OAK Cash and Carry to attain some valuable outcomes. It has direct relation with the strength of organisation structure and profit making capacity. OAK Cash and Carry need to bring innovation in their distribution process to effectively meet out the demand of customers.

Product innovation: It is the process creation of innovative and unique products which are different from rivals. It helps to grab the customer base of competitors also. In this regard, OAK Cash and Carry required changing the features of their grocery items.

Position innovation: It includes about brining of innovation in their brand name and logo to build its position and identity in market. It has direct influence upon the behaviour and perception of customers. In this regard, OAK Cash and Carry required to give some tag line and logo through which their products are known in market.

Paradigm Innovation:It is the process of building structure of organisation where freedom is provided to employees to share the views and ideas which contributes in creation of familiar environment. It motivates the employees of OAK Cash and Carry is to work in the faith of organisation.

Innovation funnel

It refers as the funnel where more emphasis is provided on development of exiting products through continuous efforts of creating something valuable which is in demand in current period of time. This funnel includes three steps which are mentioned below:

Wide of mouth: It includes collection of ideas through conducting research from different sources such as competitors, employees and customers. It provides the opportunity is to make changes in product as per their customer preferences and current market trends.

Selection of idea: Process of choosing best innovative option from various alternatives. Before using it required to check the effectiveness of the alternative as per their business model.

Implementation of ideas: This will includes the work of implementation of alternative which is selected above. The process of implementation is required to be so precise that it only benefits are gathered (Cooper, Seiford and Zhu, 2011).

P4 Developments in Frugal innovation

Frugal innovation: It is just opposite from the basic meaning of innovation which includes the process of adding up of new features. Here, more emphasis in provided on such feature of product which proves as negative for their image and decrease the sales figures. So, as per frugal innovation such kind of negative features are removed from the products such as colour, design or pattern. In the present report, this technique is used by the management of OAK Cash and Carry is reduce their cost of production for improve their number of profits. In this regard, need to remove such aspects from grocery products which are unwanted and only contributes in improvement of cost of production. It can further provided the option that provide products as per the spending power of customers to build relation with them. The various benefits attained by OAK Cash and Carry are defined below:

Reduction in production cost: Frugal innovation includes identification of unwanted feature which takes extra time and cost but contributes in influencing the behaviour of customer in spite creates negative image of product. So, the removal of such feature helps to save the time and cost (Gray, 2011).

Development of new feature:& After removal of unwanted feature some amount of time and cost is saved which in turn used in development of the new feature as per the preferences. It improves the attraction of grocery items of OAK Cash and Carry.

Task 3

P5 Importance of commercial funnel and role of NPD in innovation and commercialisation

Commercial funnel: This includes the activities related to the assistance provided by the employees of organisation in choosing the best product through analysing their needs. Analysis of needs helps to add the features in their products are not present which influence their buying behaviour. The main aim behind the providence of such kind of activities is change the perception of customers towards brand and retains them for longer period of time. In this regard, OAK Cash and Carry required investing extra amount to make themselves effective from rivals.

Importance of commercial funnel

Importance of commercial funnel for OAK Cash and Carry is understood from the following points which are defined below:

Improves quality of products: The quality of products is increased automatically while adopt commercial funnel model as it includes influencing the mid of customers who can be achieved if products is best in quality in comparison to their competitors.

Improvement goodwill: Provide assistance to select best product and also catering their needs through development of their products helps to attain the trust and loyalty towards the brand which results in improvement of their goodwill in market.

New product development

While producing new product, OAK Cash and Carry is required to follow the steps which mentioned below:

Generation of new idea: Here more emphasis is provided on thinking of new aspects of product which helps to create something valuable &(Guan and Chen, 2010).

Screening of idea: Selection process which includes choosing of best method from various alternatives. Here, profit margin and sustainability power of product is analysed to make choice.

Defining concept: Provide timely information to staff members to gather their views and support.

Business analysis: Checking of the effectiveness of new product through analysing condition present in business environment.

Product development: Process of selecting technique which is used further in production of product which is emerged after innovative thinking.

Test marketing: New marketing plans are made to spread awareness in market in limited period of time.

Commercialisation: Process of checking up past transaction to build future strategies through which introduction phase of new product is effectively completed.

P6 Formulation of innovation business case

Innovative business is required to prepare with effective planning as it guides the employees and includes the strategies which helps to come out in difficult time in future period of time. It is observed that due to high competition in retail market many difficulties are faced by OAK Cash and Carry to sustain in market. The only possible ways which assist to continue their business operations in market includes acceptance of innovation. So, for its effective implementation need to build innovative case which includes different steps which is defined below:

Executive summary: OAK Cash and Carry is retail organisation which deals in grocery products at small level. Its aim is to become leading organisation through building innovative products to cater the needs of customer through bring diversification in their offerings. Marketing activities helps to create place in such high competitive business environment.

Need: Identification of market trends, competitor’s offerings and attitudes of customer towards their product to start working on making of various products which changes their perception.

Solution: The process which helps to collect all the information required is through the medium of research. It also assists in formulation of pricing policies.

Research of customers: Contributes to attain the views of customers about their existing products and pricing policies. It helps to assess the current position in the market.

Designing of plan: Formulation of plan which includes strategies and approaches to guide the employees to execute the activities in right form which contributes to make the current offerings of organisation better.

Investment requirements: Raise adequate amount of funds from different internal and external sources as per need arises (Huang and et. al., 2012).

Task 4

P7 Tools which helps to develop, retain and protect intellectual property rights and knowledge

The process of innovation sometimes helps to invent something new which is yet not present. Such kinds of inventions are required to protect by the organisation as there is lot of threat of copying by the outsiders. In this regard, many tools are provided by the government which helps to prevent their inventions such as trademark, copyright and patent. It is the responsibility of the management of organisation is to choose tool which is most suitable for securing their new invention in market. All the tools have a different regulation which serves their function in different manner. There are many other benefits which are gathered by the organisation like builds high brand image, removal of the threat of copying etc. The role of different kind of tools in process of securing inventions of the OAK Cash and Carry is defined below:

Patent: It is the tool which includes the regulation about protecting the new inventions. This will restrict the other organisations and person is not use the same technique and methods which is involved in the process of inventions. An organisation takes the patent to secure any kind of aspects in which invention is evolved such as design, feature, colour etc. Through this OAK Cash and Carry is able to secure the invention made in grocery products. It can be taken by effectively applying to government of UK.

Trade mark: It is helps to secure the tag line, symbol, logo or name of OAK Cash and Carry through registering all such aspects. It brings restriction upon all the organisation not same aspects anything which resembles to them.

Copyright: This tool provides the option to the investor is to delegate the right of use of invention to any third party to produce the products through apply such new techniques and methods. No other persons are allowed to use because such right is not given to them.

Conclusion

It has been concluded from the above report that innovation has important place in small organisation development. Through effective use of the different aspects which are associated with innovation helps to attain large number of benefits like competitive advantage, high involvement of employees, more sales and profit etc. Vision, leadership, team performance are such internal aspects through innovation is promoted in organisation. The process of innovation involves four different P’s which has huge contribution in the development of innovative ideas. There are many tool are required to use for protect their inventions and innovations such as patent, copyrights and trademarks.

References

• New Product Development Stages. 2017..
• baraicli, h. ana waiuszewsiu, A., GUI 1. "Bening on science or Muddling inrougn me Network": Two Universities and one Innovation Commission.