innovation

Question 1

what is innovation

Answer 1

innovation comes in the form of a new idea and putting it into action. this could be in the form of a new product or a new process.

Question 2

product innovation

Answer 2

making new goods/services or improving existing ones
e.g. car manufactures are constantly innovating new features to put on their latest models.

Question 3

process innovation

Answer 3

putting in place new or improved production and delivery methods.
e.g. in 2007 amazon prime was launched in the uk

Question 4

why do businesses want to innovate

Answer 4

businesses are always looking for ways to innovate as it can help them to stay ahead of competition, expand their markets and increase their market share.

Question 5

where do new ideas come from

Answer 5

new ideas can come from anywhere in the business, but many businesses have a research and development department that drives innovation.

Question 6

benefits of innovation

Answer 6

• can initially charge higher prices for innovative products and services before their competitors bring similar products to market.
• can be good for a firms reputation - if they’ve been the first to launch exciting new products in the past, people will naturally be interested in their future products.

Question 7

drawbacks of innovation

Answer 7

• can be a very costly and time consuming process as the businesses risks running out of money if the invest too much in R&D and dont get products to market quickly enough.
• can end up wasting resources by developing something customers dont want.
• risk ruining their reputation if the innovative product is poor quality.

Question 8

innovation affects functional areas of the business
- finance

Answer 8

R&D for innovative products is expensive, the finance department might need to raise extra working capital to pay for it.

Question 9

innovation affects functional areas of the business
- operations

Answer 9

might mean that the operations department has to set some of its bedget aside to spend on expensive new machinery. also need to organise training for employees to get them up to speed with the new methods.

Question 10

innovation affects functional areas of the business
- marketing

Answer 10

the amount of market research a company does is increased when researching a new idea - the risks and costs are high, so they need to be sure customers want/need the product. (may use a different pricing strategy like price skimming)

Question 11

innovation affects functional areas of the business
- HR

Answer 11

• can mean there’s a change in staffing needs - if a company starts heavily focusing on R&D they might need more skilled staff.
• HR also needs to make sure the business has the right culture for innovation to thrive.
• in a culture where staff are scared of
  consequences from failing innovation wont thrive
• HR needs to find a way of encouraging employees to take risks.

Question 12

new product development (NPD) has six stages to create and launch a innovative product.
1) idea

Answer 12

• business comes up with new ideas, explores and develops existing ideas/modifies competitors’ ideas.
• new idea could come from brainstorming, employee suggestions or from R&D department meeting.

-also discovered through market research finding out what consumers want, or from customers submitting requests to a firm.

• can sometimes also use already patented ideas (for a fee)

Question 13

(NPD) has six stages to create and launch a innovative product.
2) analysis and screening

Answer 13

• the business wants to see if the product can be sold at a profit.
• all aspects of the idea are investigated, if there’s a potential market, whether the technology and resources exist to develop it, whether a competitor has an existing patent.
• at this stage a prototype may be made to see what the product will be like.

Question 14

(NPD) has six stages to create and launch a innovative product.
3) development

Answer 14

• the R&D department develop a working prototype.
• test it scientifically and tweak the design to make the functional design and aesthetic design as good as possible

Question 15

(NPD) has six stages to create and launch a innovative product.
4) value analysis

Answer 15

• tries to make the product good value for money.
• means balancing the function, features and appearance of a product with the cost of making, warehousing and distributing it.
• the goal is to make a product that is good value for both business and consumer

Question 16

(NPD) has six stages to create and launch a innovative product.
5) test marketing

Answer 16

sometimes sells the new product in a limited geographical area and then analyses consumer feedback on the product, price and packaging. this allows modifications to be made before a wider launch.

Question 17

(NPD) has six stages to create and launch a innovative product.
6) Launch

Answer 17

a successful launch requires enough stock of the product to be distributed across the market. also needs an effective promotional campaign to inform retailers and consumers about the product and persuade them to buy it.

Question 18

a patent is a way of registering and protecting a new invention

Answer 18

-can get patents for your product and the method of producing it - no one else can copy it without a licence from you (and paying a fee)

• patents allow businesses to maintain the unique features of their product as long as their patent lasts. do not have to worry about competitors copying

Question 19

the more general the patent is the better

Answer 19

if a patent is very specific then it is very easy for competitors to tweak the innovation and get around the protection that a patent offers

Question 20

trademarks protect logos, slogans etc

Answer 20

• it can be difficult to register some slogans as a trademark, especially those that dont include the companies name
• mcdonalds were able to trademark the slogan ‘im lovin’ it ‘ because of its distinctiveness
• they might have been less successful if they had tried the phrase ‘i love it’

Question 21

mdonalds golden arches logo (trademark)

Answer 21

• the intellectual property of mcdonalds international property company Ltd and it cant be used by any other company.
• they promote a certain brand image - if the logo was used by other companies it could damage their reputation.
• could also lose profits if consumers went to another company by mistake because it had the same logo

Question 22

copyright gives protection to written work and music

Answer 22

• its illegal to reproduce other peoples work without their permission

-authors, musicians or their publishers receive royalties (payment) everytime their work is published or played on the radio

Question 23

what is automatically protected under uk copyright laws

Answer 23

any original writing, music, video, images and photos

Question 24

what is kaizen

Answer 24

• the kaizen approach to innovation is by encouraging employees to improve the way they work and the processes they use all the time.
• over a long period of time these small kaizen changes can add up and lead to innovation

Question 25

what is an important part of kaizen

Answer 25

• gives workers control over decision making.
• when there is a problem workers are encouraged to ask ‘why?’ until they get to the root of the problem.
• creates a working environment where innovation can thrive

Question 26

benefits of kaizen to drive innovation

Answer 26

• the company doesn’t have to spend lots of time and money on research and development
• improves employee satisfaction

Question 27

downsides to only relying on kaizen for innovation

Answer 27

the kaizen mindset means that workers are focused on making small changes to their own jobs rather than thinking about big changes they could be making to the whole process - means big innovation leaps are rare.

Question 28

what is intrapreneureship

Answer 28

• when employees within a business are encouraged to solve a problem by coming up with new innovative ideas
• allow intrapreneurs to take risks and experiment with different ideas until they find the most productive and efficient way to complete a task.
• their solution can then be implemented across the whole department or company

Question 29

advantage of intrapreneurship

Answer 29

• it is done alongside the intrapreneurs regular role, company isn’t wasting money employing someone just to try new things
• even if they don’t find a solution they will still have produced some work along the way

Question 30

intrapreneurs can also come up with innovative goods and services during their experiments and research (example)

Answer 30

• google allows its workers time to be creative and work on personal projects
• one of the biggest successes to come out of this is Gmail

Question 31

what is benchmarking

Answer 31

• studies other businesses with excellent quality standards
• aims to innovate by adopting the same methods.
  sometimes do this by joining benchmarking where firms agree to share information about their ways of doing things

Question 32

internal benchmarking

Answer 32

they can study activities in efficient departments and use what they learn to innovate processes in other departments

Question 33

benchmarking across different industries

Answer 33

tesco click and collect - the benchmarking of popular drive through service offered at fast food restaurants

Question 34

benchmarking & motivation

Answer 34

• more encouraging to introduce a process or a product you’ve already seen working successfully somewhere else than it is to introduce something unknown

Question 35

advantage of benchmarking

Answer 35

provides early warnings to businesses about technology or methods that might allow their competition to overtake them

Question 36

downside of benchmarking

Answer 36

it wont directly lead to new products - competitor products are likely to be protected by a patent or copyright