9.2 - Innovation Flashcards
What is innovation?
New products new ideas new processes
What department can help drive innovation?
R&D
Benefits of innovation
Initially charge higher prices for innovative products or services before their competitors bring similar products to market.
Good for reputation
Add value to existing products and services
Economies of scope can be utilised if a business has multiple innovative products
Drawbacks of innovation
Can be very costly and time-consuming
Wasting resources if developing something customers don’t want
No guaranteed return - business may not be able to produce large scale with low costs
Risk of reputation being damaged if poor quality
What are the stages of new product development
- Idea
- Analysis and screening - all aspects investigated
- Development
- Value analysis - Make sure the product is good value for money - low cost - large-scale production
- Test marketing - sells to a limited geographical area and analysis customer feedback
- Launch - promotional campaign and sufficient stock
What is kaizen?
The continuous form of innovation
Encourages employees to improve the way they work and the processes they use all the time
these small advances can lead to innovation.
This means giving workers some control over decision-making - which creates a working environment where innovation can thrive.
Benefits of Kaizen
Doesn’t have to spend time and money on research and development., and the process will become more efficient over time.
Drawbacks of relying on kaizen
Won’t lead to innovative new products as workers aren’t encouraged to think about the wants and needs of customers.
This mindset also keeps workers focused on small changes in their own job rather than big changes that could be made to the whole process - meaning big innovation leaps are rare.
What is benchmarking?
Studying business with good quality standards and aiming to innovate by adopting those same standards.
Benchmarking groups are joinable for businesses and allow the discussion of shared information on innovation.
Benchmarking can be done internally, by looking at better functioning areas of the business and using that area to adopt processes from.
It can also be done across industries.
Advantages of benchmarking
Motivates staff
Early warning to businesses about technology or methods that might allow their competitors to overtake them.
Downsides of benchmarking
Won’t directly lead to new innovative products as competitor products are probably protected by patents or copyrights Processes also sometimes can’t be transferred between other corporate cultures.
What does a patent protect
Original ideas of products / new inventions
general patents are better as its harder to copy and find ways around the patent
What does a copyright protect
media - online pictures and videos - written work - music
Illegal to reproduce without owners permission
What does a trademark protect?
Logos - slogans - names
Hard to trademark general slogans
What is intrapreneurship?
Employees are encouraged to solve problems by coming up with new innovative ideas.
Businesses allow employees to take new risks and experiment with lots of different ideas until they come up with the most efficient solution to a task.
their solution can be implemented across the whole department or country.
