1.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION AS A CONTRIBUTOR TO ACHIEVING STRATEGIC

IMPACT?
ANSWER: Developing new products and services is a creative, and often innovative, process.
Innovation provides differentiated competitiveness in terms of quality and function, which offers
incentives for customers to choose. This allows companies to win competition, secure a market-
leading position, and create market performance by attracting new customers. An explicit
innovation strategy helps you design a system to match your specific competitive needs. Finally,
without an innovation strategy, different parts of an organization can easily wind up pursuing
conflicting priorities—even if there's a clear business strategy.

2. IS INNOVATION A PROCESS? DISCUSS.

ANSWER: short answer is yes. Even though it relies heavily on Research and Development, it has
a somewhat clear framework. It ideates, then needs, launch, and adapt to grow it in the market.
Innovation covers many separate things such as organization, process, product, tech, etc.
Framework for each category will have some differentiation of how it’s done. The innovation
activity is about successfully delivering change in its many different forms. Being good at
innovation has always been important. Innovation is fundamentally about getting other people
to adopt and invest in the new idea. It. Therefore, is very much a process, one focused on
“selling” the benefits of the new idea to those that might benefit from it in some way. The new
idea also must be fleshed out into something tangible enough to sell and refined and improved
with experience in implementing and using the new thing. which itself can be an object or a
process/service. The specifics of the process of innovation depend significantly on what the
operational context for that innovation is and the nature/scope of the environment in which that
innovation is intended to operate. Bradley’s answer outlines a business context for innovation,
but there are many other contexts and environments in which innovation can take place, such as
non-profits, governments, military, community organizations, churches, book clubs, hobbyists,
etc.

3. WHAT ARE THE STAGES IN THE INNOVATION PROCESS? DESCRIBE EACH BRIEFLY.
ANSWER: Almost all stage models start with a general idea or ‘concept’ and progress through to
a fully defined specification for the offering, incorporating various service and product
components. In-between these two states, the offering may pass through the following stages:
concept generation, concept screening, preliminary design (including consideration of
standardization, commonality, modularization, and mass customization), evaluation and
improvement, prototyping and final design. Concept Generation is the starting line for new
ideas. Successful idea generation should be fueled both by the pressure to compete and by the
freedom to explore. The idea travels to a different physical or logical location. Since most
inventors aren’t also marketers, a new idea often needs someone other than its originator to
move it along. Concept generation is all about ideas, and ideas can come from anywhere. Often
the expectations
within organizations are that ideas will emerge from the research and development (R&D) or
market research departments. However, this ignores the huge potential of other internal sources
of innovation. Front-line service providers can provide deep insights into what customers require
based on informal interactions. Similarly, while many customer complaints are dealt with at a
relatively operational level, they have the potential to act as a useful source of customer opinion
within the innovation process. Suppliers can also be valuable in the innovation process because
of their potential to improve the quality of products and services, minimize time to market, and
spread the cost and risks of innovation. This stage is vitally important to the progression of a new
idea and skipping it can delay or even sabotage the innovation process. This stage is the time for
weighing an idea’s pros and cons. Concept Screening must take place at the same time to weed
out ideas that lack potential without allowing stakeholders to reject ideas impulsively solely
based on their novelty. The authors found that companies had more success when the
evaluation process was transparent and standardized, because employees felt more comfortable
contributing when they could anticipate how their ideas would be judges. The Preliminary
Design stage tests an idea, such as with a prototype or pilot test. Preliminary Design can remain
continuous or exist in spurts, as advocates and screeners reevaluate an idea. Sometimes, this
leads to new ideas due to information that is gathered on the results and the overall feasibility of
the original idea. Time is crucial in this process; individuals must be given adequate time to run
the experiments. Having generated one or more appropriate concepts, the next stage is to create
preliminary designs. For service-dominant offerings, this may involve documentation in the form
of job instructions or service blueprints. For product-dominant offerings, preliminary design
involves defining product specifications and the bill of materials, which details all the
components needed for a single product. At this stage, there are significant opportunities to
reduce cost through design simplification. The best innovations are often the simplest. Designers
can adopt a few approaches to reduce design complexity. These include standardization,
commonality, modularization, and mass customization. Standardization in product or service
design is usually an attempt to overcome the cost of high variety by formally restricting it.
Common elements are used to simplify design complexity. If different services and products can
draw on common components, the easier it is to deliver them. This is a method of balancing two
opposite forces: standardization and customization. It involves designing standardized ‘sub-
components’ of an offering that can be put together in different ways. Flexibility in design can
allow the ability to offer different things to different customers. Normally, high variety means
high cost, but some companies have developed their flexibility in such a way that customized
offerings are produced using high-volume processes and thus costs are minimized. This approach
is called mass customization. As refinements and evaluations occur, they must be given enough
time to reflect on the experiments. Evaluation and Improvement aims to take a preliminary
design and see if it can be improved before the offering is tested in the market. Several
techniques can be employed at this stage to evaluate and improve the preliminary design.
Prototyping and Final Design happens at all levels of an organization. Product prototypes include
everything from clay models to computer simulations. For more service-dominant offerings,
prototyping may involve the actual implementation of the service on a pilot basis. It may also be
possible to ‘virtually’ prototype. In such simulations, safety is always an important objective, as
would be efficient movement through the area. And although the means of prototyping may
vary, the principle is always the same: do whatever one can to test out the innovation prior to
 delivery. The use or application of the innovation should be demonstrated by the end of this
stage, along with acceptance of the innovation. For the innovation to succeed, it will need the
proper resources, a marketing plan for customers and an open culture with strong advocacy.
Also important to diffusion and implementation is the opportunity for future ideas; this final
stage allows the organization to determine the next set of needs for customers. Receiving
feedback, in addition to indicators for success metrics and other benchmarks, enables the
organization to stimulate the innovation process once again.

4. HOW IS THE CONCEPT OF MASS CUSTOMIZATION LINKED TO THE INNOVATION PROCESS?

ANSWER: Mass customization enables manufacturers to delay the step of product differentiation
until the final phase of manufacturing. Rather than the manufacturer deciding on the features
that make the product unique, mass customization allows the consumer to make these
decisions. Flexibility in design can allow the ability to offer different things to different
customers. Normally, high variety means high cost, but some companies have developed their
flexibility in such a way that customized offerings are produced using high-volume processes and
thus costs are minimized. This approach is called mass customization. For some consumers, the
ability to customize a product is enough to sway their buying decision in favor of one company
over another. Mass customization can then become part of a lucrative marketing strategy for a
company. Companies that offer customization can give themselves a competitive advantage over
their rivals. They can tout their ability to produce a semi-custom product at a reasonable price to
consumers who are looking for an upgrade over a generic product. If the company can deliver a
product that does not compromise on quality, they have an opportunity to increase sales,
profits, and brand loyalty for their one-of-a-kind products.

5. ENUMERATE THE RESOURCES NEEDED FOR DEVELOPING INNOVATION.

ANSWER: For any process to operate effectively, it must be appropriately designed and
resourced. Innovation processes are no different, so there are some strategic resourcing issues
to consider, how much capacity to devote to innovation, how much of the innovation activity to
outsource and what kinds of technology to use in the innovation process. To achieve this
innovation, to create ideas, processes, services, and products that are forward-thinking and
unique, companies need to make permanent allocations of money, people, time, and equipment
that are dedicated to the sole mission of designing and innovating new products and services.