BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample

1. Introduction

Innovation is a process of practical implementation of different and unique ideas that help to introduce new products or services to the target business market. ISO TC 279 on innovation management helps to develop a new or changed entity redistributing value. In this report, Morrisons has been selected to show what changes the retail supermarket company is adopting to gain competitive advantages in the target business market.

Apart from that, this report helps to gather a brief knowledge about innovation and its use in business strategies as well. Moreover, this report aims to find out two effective innovation processes taken by Morrisons to develop better business strategies. Besides, this helps to identify internal sources of the company.

2. Company overview

Morrisons supermarkets plc is a renowned and bestseller retail company situated in Bradford, UK founded in 1899. Moreover, it is the fourth-largest supermarket chain in the UK after Aldi and Tesco. It was the first supermarket in the UK that had self-services for thor customers.

The company has more than 110,000 employees in around 494 stores all over the UK (Morrisons.com, 2021).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample At the same time, the company serves almost 11 million customers every week. Hence, it could be considered as the best seller supermarket all over in the UK. Morrisons have a different range of products at a lower rate that helps to attract more customers as well (Morrisons.com, 2021).

Products of the company include foods, drinks, clothing and books with an operating income of GB£513 million in 2020. Moreover, it has a stock price of 179.10 GBX in the year 2020 whereas it increased in November by around 12%. William Morrison was the founder of the company.

Morrisons have annual revenue of 1,753.6 crores GBP in 2020 by adopting new technology and innovation within the organisation (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample

Table 1: Company information

(Source: Morrisons.com, 2021)

3. Tidd & amp: Bessant’s Innovation Process Model

The innovation models are used to identify the success of the organization so that it can meet the company’s objectives. As per the view of Tidd & Bessant (2018), the models are used by the innovation management who are responsible to look after the changes that are occurring in the firm.

Tidd & bessant innovation process model consists of four stages namely search, implement, select and learn. The companies whose results are either products and services can implement such an innovation model. In this report, there is mention of Morrisons which is one of the top 5 retailers in the UK.

Figure 1: Concept of Tidd & amp: Bessant’s Innovation Process Model

(Source: Tidd & Bessant, 2018)

The first stage of the model is search where there is a need to identify and inspect the risks and opportunities that are present within and outside the companies. For example, Morrisons could make a survey asking the customers about how to improve the quality of a product by adding more nutrition to it.

As urged by Tidd (2021), there is a gathering of information from the initial stage that is needed to be selected. The best among all the strategies collected are chosen in the second phase which is practically possible, have a scientific description and can be performed systematically.

There is a need to be present in the proper planning of the project which includes the mention of risk factors, teamwork efficiency and impact on the market. Steps of the model include;

Facial recognition

• Search: The first stage of the model is search where there is a need to identify and inspect the risks and opportunities that are present within and outside the companies. As an example, Morrison’s need to develop technology or innovation that helps to provide fast services to their customers (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample
• Select: This is the second step of Tidd & Bessant Innovation Process Model which helps to select a better innovation or modern technology for the company. In the case of Morrison’s innovation of Face recognition could play an important role to provide fast services.
• Implement: This is the third step of the model of Innovation which helps the company to implement a search strategy to its business or innovation plan. In case of Morrison, the management needed to collect and save customer data including photocopy and general information (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample
• Capture: This is considered as the final and last step of the innovation model which shows whether this strategy is effective for a company’s sustainable growth or not. In the case of Morrison’s innovation of Face recognition helps to reduce customer traffic in the retail stores.

E-commerce-friendly POS systems

• Search: The company needs to identify different technology and innovation that help to maintain stock and items within the stores. In case of Morrisons better stakeholder activity will help to develop a POS system within the retail store.
• Select: This is the second step of Tidd & Bessant Innovation Process Model which helps to select a better innovation or modern technology for the company. In case of Morrisons E-commerce-friendly, POS systems could play an important role to provide fast services (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample
• Implement: This is the third step of the model of Innovation which helps the company to implement a search strategy to its business or innovation plan. In case of Morrison, the management needed to improve stakeholder activity so that it helped to maintain stock effectively.
• Capture: This is considered as the final and last step of the innovation model which shows whether this strategy is effective for a company’s sustainable growth or not. In the case of Morrison’s innovation of the POS system helps to reduce customer traffic in the retail stores (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample

4. Internal resource identification

Morrisons is one of the top-rated supermarkets which has their services on both online and offline platforms. One of the UK’s big 4 supermarkets have made its recent innovation in the digital platform and can make nearly 90% sales (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020). http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample

Morrisons is now found to be trying its feet in a completely different sector and is more focused on it rather than having a healthy competition with the other highest lead in the retail market (Bellini et al. 2017).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample The idea arose and got its implantation done during the pandemic period last year.

In the digital platform, the company has used the proverb Facial recognition and e-commerce-friendly POS systems have been introduced in more than 997 stores (Morrisons-corporate.com, 2020).http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample

The innovation started much before the Covid-19 period but has gained its profit during it. Many of the investors have seen their business profit and have shown their interest to invest in the digital marketing of Morrisons.

According to the view of Cheah, Ho, & Li (2018), an exceptional step was taken by the company during the pandemic conditions, keeping their stores open by providing products to the people and cooperating with them accordingly. It has been able to gain the trust and support of the customers by providing appropriate items to their home without taking extra charges and not compromising in quality.

The food products that are sold by Morrisons are completely hygienic nowadays which was not similar in previous times. According to the view of Ciriello, Richter, & Schwabe (2018), with time by making research the company has been able to make improvements in their product standard to provide healthy products to their customers.

The health of the customers matters to Morrisons and as a result, they are still working on the entire mechanism of the products from the plantation till its packaging. An innovative idea has been taken by the company that is to be completed within the next few years and is in the implementation stage.

As stated by Danylenko (2018), their initiative is to produce planet-friendly foods through which they want to spread the awareness of how food processing is linked with the environment and the measures that are to be necessarily taken by the common people. Morrisons wants to make people acknowledge that there is an equal need for animal and plant nutrients in a balanced manner as both are equal for the body.

Excessive consumption of plant food or only consuming meat which is mostly found in young people is the reason for creating disbalance in the ecosystem ( Beausoleil, 2018). http://BU7030 Managing Innovation Assignment SampleVRIO analysis helps to identify internal resources of the company by the innovation of an E-commerce-friendly POS system and Face recognition strategy. VRIO analysis on internal resources showed;

Table 2: VRIO analysis of Morrison’s Internal resources

(Source: Beausoleil, 2018)

5. Organisational culture

Organisational culture is important for every firm or company to motivate their employees so that they could work effectively for the company. During the Covid-19 situation, retail and other industries have faced several financial losses which they need to overcome.

The market rankings are a viable element to screen the criteria of the UK’s retail market for Morrisons. As mentioned by de Morais et al. (2019), the market rankings give a better idea about the overall condition of a market based on its credibility and working conditions.

This is going to help Morrisons with a piece of deep knowledge about the UK Market to identify the shortcomings, workability regarding their decision of entering the new geographic market. The key variables of dependencies are to be found incorporating the organisational, environmental and social elements of certain business policies of the Malaysian market. The organisational culture of Morrisons include;

Distributor Network: A joint venture instead of opening a subsidiary allows and benefits the company with a vast network of distributors in a new market. As stated by de Morais et al. (2019), the most difficult task in a new market is to find a vast supply chain management and distributors.

The merger will allow Morrisons to gain access to a new set of distributors benefiting them.

Figure 2: Organisational culture of Morrisons

(Source: MS Word)

Production Cost: A merger with another company will cost Morrison’s less than what it would cost to establish a subsidiary. As mentioned by Johnsson (2018), the main motive of a joint venture is to reduce the production cost to provide the best of products and services for the customer. This will benefit Morrisons even with taxation policies of the UK at an efficient and affordable price.

Technology and Brand Name: A joint venture will provide Morrison’s with the technology used in the other company which can be utilised for innovation and vice versa.

As per the views of de Morais et al. (2019), a joint venture saves time for the companies and helps in providing better quality than before. However, technology can be advanced with time, yet provides a competitive edge against other companies. A brand name can be used differently for a different product and will help Morrisons in gaining acceptability in the Malaysian market.

Scale of Economy: A joint venture will help Morrison’s in scaling up its capacity by engaging with the strength of the merger company benefiting each other. As analysed by Johnsson (2018), the merger provides a cross-platform to both the companies without a border to be able to gain a competitive advantage to generate better revenues.

6. Recommendation

To innovate new business strategies or modern technology in innovation the company needs to modify several factors within the company. Apart from that, these factors play an important role in a company’s sustainable growth and economic development as well. Recommendation to improve the innovation plan include;

Company infrastructure: Company infrastructure is the main important factor that helps to motivate employees for further development. As stated by Krasyuk et al. (2019), organisational structure or plan influence employee activity within the company whereas it also helps to improve communication behaviour with other employees.

In the case of Morrisons, the company manager needed to improve company infrastructure so that innovation taken by the company could have a great impact on its sustainable growth. Moreover, an effective organisational structure helps the company to gain competitive advantages from the target global business market.

Training and development: Proper training will help employees to understand advantages of innovation within the organisation. As stated by Pantano et al. (2017), in every organisation or company every employee needs to gather a brief knowledge about the company and its business strategies as well.

Hence, in case of Morrisons innovating face recognition technology will help the company to reduce traffic rate in the retail stores.  To implement these technologies and development effective for the company a proper training and development of employee knowledge is important.

Modern technology: Modern technologies help to reduce human effort within a company whereas it also helps to present services fast. As stated by Sansone, & Colamatteo (2017) in the case of the retail industry Modern technology helps to reduce customer traffic within the retail stores.

Apart from that, modern technology helps to collect and store customer data for further use. Hence, in the case of Morison’s face recognition innovation, technologies such as cloud computing and IoT will be effective to collect data from the customers in an effective way. At the same time, modern technology will help to maintain all Covid-19 guidelines given by the country’s government as well.

Figure 3: Recommendation to improve innovation plan

(Source: MS Word)

Company policy development: Company policies play an important role in its sustainable growth whereas it has a great impact on employee motivation as well.

As stated by Sansone, & Colamatteo (2017), every company manager needs to improve company policies so that employees could motivate themselves to work effectively for the company. In case of Morrisons, the company has to improve company policies so that it has a great impact on the company’s innovation plan.

7. Summary

The entire report can be summarised as the innovation plan taken by Morrisons helps to improve its Internal resources and organisational culture as well. Innovation such as face recognition helps to maintain customer traffic in the retail stores.

At the same time, an E-commerce-friendly POS system helps to maintain stocks within the company. Moreover, it shows the company manager has focused on Innovation and new technology development that helps the company to gain a competitive advantage from the target business market. Tidd & bessant innovation process model help to identify different advantages of this innovation plan within Morrison’s retail stores.

At the same time, VRIO analysis helps to find out internal resources of Morisons to adopt new technology or innovation for further development. Moreover, it showed food products that are sold by Morrisons are completely hygienic nowadays which was not similar in previous times.

Hence, innovation plays an important role in business strategy and company reputation as well.

Reference list

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Bellini, E., Dell’Era, C., Frattini, F., & Verganti, R. (2017). Design‐driven innovation in retailing: An empirical examination of new services in car dealership. Creativity and Innovation Management, 26(1), 91-107. Retrieved from: https://re.public.polimi.it/bitstream/11311/999879/4/Bellini%20et%20al.%20%282017%29_CIM_Design-Driven%20Innovation%20in%20Retailing%20An%20Empirical%20Examination%20of%20New%20Services%20in%20Car%20Dealership%5BRe.Public%5D%20%281%29.pdf, [Retrieved on: 10/05/21]

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Danylenko, Y. A. (2018). Characteristics and classification of innovation and innovation process. Science and innovation, 14(3), 14-26. Retrieved from: http://scinn-eng.org.ua/sites/default/files/pdf/2018/N3/Danylenko.pdf, [Retrieved on: 10/05/21]

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