Managing Innovation - Assignment Example

Tutorial assignment Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Tutorial 1 The companies have chosen to study its innovation mechanisms is Canplas pty limited which is a private manufacturing organization in capital territories of Australia. The mechanisms it uses are shown in the table below with their strengths and weaknesses. Mechanism Strengths Weaknesses In house formal R & D Knowledge remains within the organization, builds teamwork, hard to emulate, close monitoring, more experiments, real experience and it is strategically directed The cost of maintaining it is high, there maybe lack of commitment, risk of failing to succeed and monotony of working environment. Reverse engineering Costs of training are low, the shipwright control the processes, global parts are better than crafted ones, Time consuming, expensive to get parts, low drop rate of components, knowledge may interfere with the process, the design may be protected by patent rights. Exchange of knowledge Knowledge can be easily transferred from one person to another, it is along time commitment, once acquired cannot be eliminated, and there is possibility of success. The costs of equipping technology is high, the technology may not be fully implemented as expected, some technology maybe protected by the patent rights hence cant be accessed and technology keeps on changing from time to time. Joint ventures Spreads the risks of failure, improves the expert knowledge, improves the image of the organization Partnerships may not work, one organization may be oppressed in terms of cost sharing, and one organization may be a head in technology than the other hence does most operations for the other leading to dependency. Tutorial 2 1. The possible mechanisms for ensuring both creativity and commercial realism include the entrepreneurship desires, technology, research & development and motivation (Feist 1999). When there is need to be an entrepreneur, an individual can start diversifying his or her skills. In the process the individual become creative. Motivation also can derive an individual to be creative and commercial realism. Like in this case Tim had an internal desire of developing a film and was encouraged by his friends. There is also need to apply modern technology in the operations. Appropriate technology helps an individual to be innovative because individual can access many sources and application of various ideas before coming up a more viable one. Research and development is another mechanism for creativity whereby an individual does research concerning a particular item and then come up with a sophisticated idea than the existing one. 2. To make an innovative project to come true, there has to be commitment by the innovator (Feist 1999). He or she should work hard towards achieving the dream. It also needs support from friends which can either be financial or non financial support to encourage the innovator. In this case study Tim was encouraged by his friend Mike whom he worked together with. He also received financial aid from various sponsors like the BBC and was able to raise the £100,000 he needed for the project. 3. First consideration in innovating for a global market is the availability of financial resources to make the brand. Availability of expert knowledge for making that brand like in our case Tim was looking for computer experts who will could animation for his project. Without experts he could not succeeded. 4. The first consideration is the technology available to make that brand. Second is the degree of competition from the same product or brand. Finally, it is the demand for the brand in terms of market for selling the brand. Tutorial 3 1. The free radios should be made available for free so that considering the economy of developing countries many could afford to purchase the radios if expensive price is attached to them (Bakteeva 2012). For instance in most communities in rural communities in Africa, they could not afford to buy the radios and therefore to reach many people the radios should be free. However there are problems which are associated with this social business which include; it could be hard to sustain the business because the running costs will not be met to keep the company running. Secondly, the company will not make profits hence it will manufacture less radios to distribute to all people. 2. Jennifer should look for sponsor who will help her pursue her objective. These sponsors will help with financial and non financial resources. The sponsors will advice her on how best to reach the whole of Africa. However she should watch discouragements from some organizations and individuals. Also she should watch out on how financial resources are administered or else she will run out of funds without achieving her objectives. 3. It is not easy to sustain business with social responsibility idea. This is because there will be no funds to run the business. The business despite aiding people, it may not meet its expenses and therefore it will be hard to continue operating because there will be salaries for employees and other resources to pay for. Tutorial 4 According to this case study of Hosden Besson limited, there are many ways of managing innovation. First there is need to build teams within the organization. These teams encourage sharing of ideas and skills of innovation so that continues improvement can be achieved. In this case the employees were encouraged to work together in team spirit to improve their ideas (Alfred 1998). The organizational culture should be changed. A culture of top down communication should be amended so that the ideas and suggestions of the employees can be assessed and given some benefit of doubt. The employees can come up with viable ideas but they are resisted by the top management and therefore they will not be encouraged to develop any more ideas. Good relationship should be created between the management and the employees so that there is good flow of information as well as sharing ideas. Good relationship creates a favorable business environment whereby the employees will feel free to share new ideas with the management but if the relationship is bad then there will be no sharing of viable ideas with the management. Finally, employees should be trained to improve their skills and knowledge which lead to innovation. Tutorial 5 On the other hand in the case study of Kumba Resource Company, innovation can be managed through provision of incentives to the employees (Noonan 2012). This will encourage them to generate innovative ideas towards achieving total operations performance and improve the performance of the Company. The company structure should also be on a two way communication. The employees’ ideas should be listened to and there should be good communication from the top management as well. This will lead to exchanging ideas which will lead to innovation. There should good communication between the employees and the management, employees should be trained to improve their competency, the management needs to support the viable new ideas through financial or non financial resources and finally there should be commitment to make the innovated ideas come true. All the above factors lead to creativity and innovation. For instance when there is adequate support from the top management be either financial or non financial resources, the employees will be encouraged to develop new ideas as they will access resources they need in the process of development or conducting research. Appropriate technology is another mechanism that accelerates innovation because it helps individuals to access many useful resources which are needed in the innovation process. Tutorial 6 1. If I were Andrew I could have raised the prices of the products so that the organization will make sustainable profits (Bronn & Vidaver 2009). This could have enabled the organization make profits so that it can compete effectively in the market with other recycling companies. I could have invested a lot I research and development so that the products will be designed in a way that will attract many customers. Previously the organization had not invested in conducting research therefore the products were not developed in any way. Also I could have invested in the human resources of the organization. I could have organized some programs for the employees to undergo training and get skills which help them to be creative and come up with more new ideas. Training would have motivated the employees. 2. Factors that underpin the success of green products are lack of appropriate measures to minimize activities that affect the products (Jenkin et al 2010). Competition from the sustainable products also hinders the success of the green products. Finally, the cost of acquiring green products is expensive as well as maintenance hence discourages many people from their use. 3. Green is trying to make a product to maintain the environment but the product itself is not sustainable green tries to make a product environmental friendly (Gil et al 2005). Sustainable is the ability to protect the environment by the product. A product is both sustainable and green when it preserves the environment as well sustaining its intended consumption. Tutorial 7 1. Yes it is sustainable because it has enough shops where the customers can buy their clothes of different models. The production is also high with effective prices to meet the demand of the customers. In order to survive in this industry, I will conduct research and development which will help the business to stand out in the market by manufacturing more quality products with different designs (Tiddy et al 2005). Furthermore in order to improve the performance of the business, there is need to motivate the employees. They will improve their productivity if they are motivated in terms of quality and quantity. 2. First they should conduct market research to assess the market. Secondly they need to manufacture different models of the clothes apart from those Zara is manufacturing so that they will get market for their products and finally they should price their products using the customer oriented pricing strategy. 3. Yes it will succeed because its pricing is effective and it manufactures variety of models for the customers to meet their different fashions. In addition the quality of its products is high besides using modern technology in manufacturing process and finally, the brand itself Zara can attract customers because of the perception they have towards the organization. 8. Tutorial 8 Ihavemoved.com is a fast mover because within a short time they have managed to expand their business globally. The company started in the year 2000 but up to date it has one of the biggest information technologies company in the world. The company was able to get about 78 percent of the internet users who moved from and to home. This age group is between 15-44 years. Having started the year 2000, the company has really moved fast to cater for this large number of customers. The company was able to raise huge amount of capital to change design the website and hire professionals to manage the business who are the director, sales manager, operations manager and assistant and a website manager. 2. In order to make the business to go forward, I will propose that the organization should be able to diversify their skills into other businesses (Tiddy et al 2005). The various investments will bring in more capital and help the company management to get a source of revenue without paying interest. The company should also separate the various departments so that each department will manage its section effectively towards achieving the aim of the business. The company should train its employees so that they will acquire new skills which will help them to be innovative and design programs which will improve the already existing programs. Finally, the business should do research and development and come up with more new ideas of improving the company operations. References Alfred, K 1998, Is labor market flexibility harmful to innovation? Cambridge journal Of economics, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 389-424. Bakteeva, A 2012, Business and Economics: Social Business, McGraw-Hill, Boston. Bronn, P & Vidaver-Cohen, D 2009, Corporate motives for social initiatives: Legitimacy, Sustainability, or the Bottom line? Journal of business ethics Vol. 6, No. 87, p. 91-109. Feist, G 1999, The influence of personality on artistic and scientific creativity. In: Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK. Gilg, A., Barr, S & Ford, N 2005, “Green consumption or sustainable lifestyles? Identifying the sustainable consumer”, Futures, Vol. 37, No. 6, pp 481-504 Jenkin, T. A. Webster, J & McShane, L 2010, “An agenda for ‘Green’ information Technology and systems research”, Information and Organization, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp 17-40 Noonan, T 2012, Brand driven innovation, Meyer Resource Group. Tidd, J. Bessant, J & Pavitt, K 2005, managing innovation Available online: www.wileyeurope.com/college/tidd Read More