Part 1- Description of innovation
In this assignment you will report on an ICT-enabled disruptive innovation case study. Disruptive innovation as defined by Clayton Christensen describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.
You are to choose and describe an example of disruptive innovation. Your choice must be:
A specific technology product or service process.
We ‘suggest’ that you choose a product/technology type of innovation.
You may decide to choose a service type of innovation, if you believe you can provide better and more specific answers.
A real example that exists and has been publically reported
ICT-enabled meaning: the ‘information’ element should exist and this information can be shared among individuals or groups via a communication network.
Therefore, a specific brand of laptop, tablet, smartphone, a specific social media, a specific brand of digital camera (if it can connect to a computer and share information/photo via a network such as internet) are examples of ICT-enabled technologies.
Your ICT-enabled disruptive innovation case/selection should be found through conducting a well-structured literature review. You may identify any ICT enabled disruptive innovation that has been reported in the press, in trade journals & magazines, and in academic journals.
To find sources for such ICT-enabled innovation cases, you can examine magazines such as Wired, Harvard Business Review, consulting firm web sites, as well as journals on innovation.
You are also to produce an infographic illustrating the innovation, the component parts, and how they communicate with each other.
The purpose of this report is to describe and analyse a specific disruptive innovation using the knowledge that you have gained from the lectures, workshops and readings. You also need to review literature and cite relevant studies to support your description, analysis and recommendations.
Your main audience is the chief executive of an organization within your selected context, or a venture capital investor who funded the innovation idea. The language used should be appropriate for senior staff who are not ICT literate. They are particularly interested in the analysis and impact of the innovation.
Describing the selected innovation: Having selected a specific “technology/product type” of disruptive innovation which is “ICT-enabled” and is in the “voluntary use” context. Introduce in the following way:
Introduction to the Innovation: Introduce the innovation and use what you learned from Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation to explain why this is a disruptive innovation.
Exploration of Adoption Categories: For this innovation, who are the five categories of innovation adopters? For each of these adopter categories:
Evaluation of their Design: Put yourself in the shoes of the designers of the innovation. What methods of evaluation do you recommend for the Ex Ante and for the Ex Post phases of evaluation? Introduce two methods for each of these two phases, and explain why they are appropriate.Assume that there are no significant time and resources constraints.
Evaluation of original Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Potential: IT start-ups are usually under resource (e.g. budget, technology and human resources) //constraints. Assume that you were the company about to introduce this disruptive innovation. Consider the strategies that you learnt in lecture(“innovation and entrepreneurship”). What strategies do you think are most applicable? (Describe the relevancy of three specific strategies to your start-up and why)
Evaluation of their Application of Business Analytics: In your opinion, how can the organisation that innovated your selected innovation benefit from business analytics in:
(a) designing the innovation
(b) supporting the efficient management of the innovation (you should cover three related issues, such as efficient customer relationship management and customer service).
Create an infographic depicting or explaining the innovation, the technologies and the context. An infographic is a visual representation of information or data that translates into insights and understanding.
You may create your Infographic using any tool that you like. You might decide to use Microsoft Powerpoint but there are also a range of free online tools that you can use that can be found by searching with Google.
Part 1- Description of innovation
Innovation is the method of generating new ideas and inventing new process of working for the sake of attaining sustainable growth. In the context of business, innovation plays a very important role in running a business in a creative manner. This is the mode of creating stronger working process, which is highly requited to cope up with the volatile business environment. Innovation is the key of attracting stronger base of customers as it helps in improving the quality of products as per the ongoing trend in the market (Drucker, 2014). Therefore, innovation is the best way to improve the likelihood of attaining success from business. This paper puts forth in-depth discussion of innovation. A specific disruptive innovation will be selected in the first part of the paper. Robotics is one of the major types of disruptive innovation, which is emerging rapidly in the market. This is a valuable branch of science and technology. With the assistance of this technology, machines have been developed in order to replicate the human actions. This portion will also cover theoretical framework of innovation. Different categories for adapting the selected innovation will also be explored. The second portion of the paper will describe design of innovation and strategies required for implementing disruptive innovation. The benefits of business analytics will also be explored in this paper.
Introduction to innovation by considering certain theoretical framework:
In the contemporary business environment, uncertainty in market is rapidly increasing. Such uncertainty is posing major challenge for the companies to run business properly. There lies the significance of innovation as it supports in running the business in a unique manner. Innovation is considered as the process of creative more creative business related ideas, modifying the durability of existing products. Producing more dynamic products that can satisfy the requirements of the customers and thereby generate interest among them (Wolin, 2016). Innovation, in its simplest form, can be defined as the process of altering the existing business model and coping up with the changes in the business environment. This is one of the most significant parts of business strategy. It is imperative to initiate a culture of innovation in an organization which can support in implementing the strategy of creative problem solving. Robotics is one of the most significant innovation in the market in the context of disruptive technology (Dodgson, 2018). This is the mode of promoting sustainable speed in the business process, which is the key of coping up with the intense competition in the market. With the assistance of robotics, the companies are becoming able to cut the cost of human labor which is the key of running business in a cost effective manner. Quality and accuracy of business has also been improved through robotics.
According to Christensen’s theory, disruptive innovation can be considered as that type of innovation, which supports in creating a new market and strengthening the value of network, which is the key of maintaining healthy relationship with that of the market. Such kind of innovation plays a critical role in disrupting the existing market. According to Christensen, disruptive innovation is basically the process of placing a product or service at the bottom of a market and move them relentlessly by displacing the existing competitors. Disruption at the market can happen at the time, when the startup companies enter into the market and the customers eventually start to access the products or services, offered by the new companies. As the larger companies are already ruling the upper line of market, it becomes easy for the new companies to operate in the bottom line of market, which is the key of getting timely success from business.
Part 1.1- Introduction to innovation by considering certain theoretical framework
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Figure 1: Model of disruptive Innovation
(Source: Hatch, 2014)
This results in a continuous upheaval in the market which according to Christensen is the outcome of the activities of companies to offer better quality of products among the existing customers. Such activity is highly incremental for the companies as it offers them with the opportunity to be more innovative. It is true that, the inclusion of disruptive innovation is extremely helpful in the market. However, it is imperative for the companies to explore the right opportunity for the sake of strengthening their position in the market.
In order to introduce something new in the existing business process, it is imperative to adapt it properly. There are five different categories of innovation adaptor, which include Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards.
- Innovators can be referred as those individuals, who are technologically enthusiastic. Such individuals hold a strong position in a firm. The IT manager of a firm holds the responsibility of implementing robotics at workplace. Relative Advantage must be incorporated by this adaptor in order to integrate multiple function of robotics within singular tool (Tukker et al., 2017). Compatibility is another major characteristics, which must be possessed by the adopter assimilating the innovation with that of the workplace. The innovation adopter must have trial-ability which can have a firm impact on exploring the innovation in an appropriate manner.
- Early Adopters plays the role of influencing the staffs to execute the innovation and apply them as required. The leaders of an organization hold the responsibility of influencing the staffs to execute Observe-ability is the greatest skill of this adopter, with the assistance of which, they become able to perceive the benefit, which they are more likely to get after executing the innovation (Biemans, 2018). Compatibility is another vital skill, which the leaders must have for the sake of aligning the innovation with that of the existing value of the company. The business leaders must also have relative advantage, through which the possible value of proposed innovation can also be explored.
- Early Majority is another major type of innovation adopter, who can be regarded as the person, who perceive the practical benefit along with the productivity of certain innovation. The operational head of a company is the early majority, who can perceive the practical benefit, which they are more likely to get after implementing Such person must have observe-ability, through which they can be able to recognize the long-term benefit of robotics. Complexity vs. Simplicity is another great quality of adopter. The adopter must have Compatibility, through which they can generate new idea related to robotics throughout the organization (Bason, 2018).
- Late majority is also a major type of innovation adopter. This can be considered as the staffs of an organization, who adopt the innovation at its late maturity cycle. These people execute an innovation in an organization, after the acceptance of the majority of the company. In the case of robotics, the human resources in an organization, adopt it after the adaptation of higher degree of management. Complexity is one of the major characteristics of this group of individuals as they face certain difficulties in the way of adopting the innovation. Trial-ability is another major characteristic in this context, by which the staffs try the innovation on a temporary basis. The consistency of the new innovation is being measured by the staffs through compatibility.
- Laggards are the final type of innovation adopter who generally initiates the change in an organization. Observability is one of the major characteristics of this group of individuals as they ensure the visibility of innovation among others. Relative advantage is also a significant characteristic of these people, who are more likely to see the probable benefit of the new disruptive innovation. Experimentation of the new innovation is also being executed by the laggards through this trial-ability (Bain & Kleinknecht, 2016).
Assessing the design of innovation:
Appropriate design of innovation is highly required for ensuring accountability as well as durability of innovation. There are two different phases such as Ex Ante and for the Ex Post phases, through which robotics can be implemented in an organization. Ex Ante can be considered as that time, when the innovation has not been initiated. Policy reform is the greatest method of ex ante phase of evolution. As robotics is a new innovation, it is imperative to modify previous policy and keep all the employees informed about the new policy (Christensen, Raynor & McDonald, 2015). The needs and preferences of the staffs must also be assessed before implementing new policy. Setting of the foundation is another major method, through which the initial phase of evolution can be implemented. In this method, it is imperative to develop new monitoring system in order to perceive the durability of robotics among the staffs.
Ex Post phases of evaluation is another major phase, in which the fundamental effectiveness of the new system can be assessed. This is the way, through which sustainability of the new system is also being determined. Periodic analysis is one of the major ways, through which ex post phases of evaluation can be executed. It is imperative for the higher authority of the corporate entities to conduct a periodic analysis. Such assessment can serve them with the ability to determine the extent, to which the robotics is satisfying the objectives. Operationalization is another vital method of ex post phases of evaluation, in which the ultimate process of implementing robotics is also being done (King & Baatartogtokh, 2015). This is the method of aligning all the resources accordingly in order to implement robotics in a timely and cost effective manner.
Disruptive innovation is the process of moving a new product by strengthening the value network, which is the key of accelerating the public image of a company. There are major strategies, which must be implemented in order to introduce properly in an organization. Open communication is the greatest strategies of implementing disruptive innovation. It is imperative to maintain transparent communication in between the management and employees in order to create a trusting environment in the organization (Christensen et al., 2016). This is the way, through which, all the employees can be informed regarding the upcoming process. It is important to give the information to the employees regarding the importance of introducing disruptive innovation.
In order to flexibility is also a great strategy for introducing disruptive innovation. Through this way, change can be embraced in an organization, which is the key of initiating a new system. According to this strategy, it is imperative to modify the behavior of the staffs. Training must also be provided to the staffs in terms of enabling them cope up with the new process. Creation of scalable model is also a significant strategy for implementing disruptive innovation. As robotics is a new technology, it is imperative to modify the existing business model in accordance with the aims and objectives of new technology (Colombo, Franzoni & Veugelers, 2015).
Business analytics is the skills and practices, which must be aligned for promoting sustainable growth of business. This is the way, through which effective business related decision can also be initiated. This can result in business process of optimization. As robotics is the new process, all the employees must be informed regarding the significance of new technology (Von Pechmann et al., 2015). With the assistance of business analytics, the decision making process can also be amplified. This can serve the companies with the ability to align the strategy, with that of the new business process. One of the greatest benefits of business process is that, it helps in strengthening competitive advantage. This is the way, through which all the valuable resources can be aligned that can be beneficial for the companies (Pisano, 2015).
Conclusion:
Based on the discussion, it can be concluded by saying that disruptive innovation is one of the most significant way, through which the position of a company in the market can be accelerated. As the competition in the market is rapidly increasing, it is imperative to introduce disruptive innovation, which is the key of attaining competitive advantage. The companies must take special care in the way of exploring the opportunities, by which disruptive innovation can be introduced. There are multiple categories of adopters, which must be executed to execute innovation in a consistent manner.
