Strategic Innovation and New Product Development: Business Report

A UK-based organisation of your choice wants to introduce new products into its existing market due increasing demand. The Innovation Manager has studied the market for growth and potential profitability and is convinced that the organisation should certainly develop new products. Your chosen organisation’s competitors are currently engaged in developing new products, so developing new products is a must in this industry. In fact, the UK market is increasingly becoming competitive.

You have been hired as an innovation consultant to evaluate the situation and present recommendations on how the company should move forward with developing new products. Your answer should be in form of a business report format to be presented to the Innovation Manager. The business report will address the following:

1. Explanation of the difference between invention and innovation.

2. The value and importance of innovation to organisations and how this can be embedded within the organisational leadership and culture.

3. The different forms of innovation and the four directions of change an organisation can take. Explain the 4Ps of innovation and how this supports capability and management of innovation. Advise the Innovation Manager which form of innovation he should engage in.

4. Discuss the approaches that the Innovation Manager can take to process innovative ideas, including the innovation funnel and frugal innovation.

5. Explain the steps the Innovation Manager should go through to derive a new and innovative product.

For your chosen organisation to see the benefits of new products, explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in comparison with invention

Using your chosen organisation, explain how organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation.

For the benefit of your chosen organisation analyse different sources of innovation, and how the organisation can foster and develop an environment and culture of innovation. You should also critically analyse how innovation is developed, embedded and measured in your chosen organisation.

You are required to explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and shape innovative ideas. You should also analyse the innovation funnel and apply this concept in your chosen organisation.

To demonstrate you understanding of innovation, explain developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is used in an organisational context. You should also evaluate the role of frugal innovation in your chosen organisation.

To further demonstrate your understanding of innovation, you should critically analyse how innovation is developed, embedded and measured in your chosen organisation.

To demonstrate your understanding of the innovation, explain the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of new product development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation.

The Innovation Manager needs to be convinced that developing a new product is the way forward for the organisation. You are required to build an innovation business case for the organisation, including ways to access funding. The innovation case should also be detailed and should include how to measure its overall effectiveness using appropriate techniques available to test, iterate and improve (e.g., market survey, projected fund flow statement, etc.

Using your organisations, evaluate the different tools that it can use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property. You should also present supported evidence-based evaluation of these different tools in the context of the wider business environment