BU 7030 Managing Innovation Assignment Sample 2023
Executive summary
Innovation has been proven to play a vital role in the development of an organization and also introduce new ideas that have been helpful for the business to maintain competitiveness in the ever growing market. It may be mentioned that Sykes Holiday Cottages have benefited a lot from implementing innovation in the business as it has provided the company with ample opportunities to acquire the most beneficial results from its business practices. Tidd and Bessant’s innovation theory has provided a significant idea about the several steps through which the process of innovation goes in order to reach its final stage. Moreover, the innovation in a company has been shown with the help of good leadership styles and skills which brought progress in the company. The internal resources and external challenges need to be monitored effectively for the success of the innovation where organizational culture motivates individuals to take creativity in the workplace and invent the ideas to solve real life issues.
Introduction
It needs to be mentioned that the concept of innovation is extremely crucial for an organization or a business, since it helps an enterprise to penetrate a market faster and also provides a significant connection to developing markets as well. These phenomena help organizations to obtain relevant opportunities that prove to be more beneficial and innovation also allows a company to develop authentic ideas and take risks as well. Moreover, sometimes innovation allows a business to achieve overnight success as well and in this report, the concept of innovation along with its relevance in an organizational culture will be discussed critically.
1. Innovation theory
Innovation in the business world is achievable by providing an original concept and it often proves to be efficient, which further leads to an idea that may be beneficial and has relevant effects on the general society. Innovation in an organization plays a vital part as it allows the enterprise to introduce a new concept or idea to the organizational culture or in the business operations as well. Implementing a new idea most of the times proves to be a positive and significant aspect for a business, since bringing change to an existing business ventures opens up more ways and also helps to expand the revenue also. It may be stated that innovation is not just about merely implementing or introducing a new concept, as the concept of innovation also demands certain activities or a defined approach to unravel new ways to achieve certain things. In order to define the theory of innovation in the most proper way, Tidd and Bessant theory of innovation and management is considered to be one of the most relevant theories till date (Tidd & Bessant, 2020).
According to Tidd and Bessant, the concept of innovation and its implementation involves several stages before it could potentially be obtained in reality (Tidd & Bessant, 2020). The first approach in accordance with the Tidd and Bessant theory proposes that in order to look for innovative ideas and implement innovation one may have to think about in a certain way. On a broader note, businesses trying to incorporate innovation in the business operation may have to first comprehend the ways through which opportunities for innovation may be seized and found. It needs to be mentioned that innovation has a significant impact on several dimensions of business performance, such as operations and finance as well (Exposito & Sanchis 2018). Following the first step, the next approach according to the theory is to determine the specific and particular things that a business or organization will do and also evaluate the reasons behind it as well (Tidd & Bessant, 2020). It is extremely imperative for a business to have a clarity and clear concept about the things that the company wants to achieve in the future and also for which reasons. Trying to accomplish something and more importantly trying to implement innovation on a whim may prove to be fatal for the organization’s business operations in the future.
The next step in the innovation theory of Tidd and Bessant asserts the concept of implementation and in this stage businesses need to fathom and evaluate the way through which it may make the desired things happen (Tidd & Bessant, 2020). In order to innovate something and implement innovation, it is relevantly imperative for businesses to lay some ground rules and conduct a proper planning through which every step may be conducted to reach the final stage. Especially, for small and medium sized businesses it is even more important as these corporations do not have many resources initially and may not afford to have any plans going downhill during the course of implementation. Research has stated that many small and medium sized businesses do not have the means to adopt technology and utilize its advancement for implementing innovation as a result of lack of resources and other market issues as well (Haseeb et al., 2019). Therefore, proper planning and consistent administration is of significant importance for small sized businesses to implement innovation effectively in the business.
Lastly, the theory suggests the concept of capturing and establishes that a business needs to have a clear knowledge about the way it may derive benefit out of the proposed innovation. A business always needs to work on an innovative idea that is bound to provide it significant results at the end, since without obtaining an efficient outcome the innovative ideas and its implementation may go in vain (Tidd & Bessant, 2020). On a specific note, oftentimes a business is unable to comprehend the way through which it may gain benefits from a proposed innovation and therefore, the complete process of implementing innovation in the business acquires no relevant result at the end. Therefore, implementing innovation in the organization in an efficient manner may provide these businesses a way to enhance competitiveness and also create a way for facilitating different types of innovation (Apsalone, 2018).
Moreover, innovation also helps businesses to envision the things that exist in the market in the present and also the things that may be popular in the future as well (Refer to Appendix 1). Therefore, by having a complete and thorough idea about the market trend, a business may be able to plan its operations and implement innovation in accordance with that. In order to summarize, it may be stated that the innovation theory of Tidd and Bessant provides a significant concept about the concept and also states the various steps that are of importance to achieve innovation profoundly as well.
2. Innovation in practice
2.1 Company context
Sykes Holiday Cottages is a small medium enterprise based in the United Kingdom (UK) is an independent holiday cottage and has homes throughout the UK and Ireland. It is also a rental holiday cottage with twenty-five years of experience in business and has flourished over 16,000 holiday homes through the UK and Ireland (Sykescottages.co.uk. 2021). However, the enterprise is owned by Clive Sykes, whose mother started the small lettings agency, who saw a huge amount of demand for quality holiday cottages and wanted to extend Clive’s mother’s small lettings into quality based holiday cottages. However, the Holiday Cottages started in 2015 with the leadership of Graham Donoghue and within three years the industry saw huge amounts of profits with the help of technology driven business and presently the company has around 500 employees (Sykescottages.co.uk. 2021). The business of Sykes Holiday Cottages has grown a lot with opening many other business enterprises by using the brand name in all over the UK and Ireland. Moreover, the company has flourished so well because of the technological innovation that has been able to flourish so well.
Moreover, as the cottages are used for holiday purposes, cleanliness and all kinds of safety protocols are absolutely necessary for the company to progress well. However, to successfully run a company, specific software tools and innovation management processes have to be taken up so that it might help the company to run well and also to efficiently grow properly (Huesig & Endres, 2019). The company might be able to achieve the desired goals which the company has been able to maintain such as the company believes in collectivism which might help the company to grow and work well. However, collectivism is possible only when a company communicates well with one another and the flexibility between the company’s leaders and also with the company’s employees. Therefore, this kind of communication and flexibility helps the company to progress well and helps to learn efficiently which helps the company in introducing the innovation within the structures which might be maintained uniformly by the employees. In order to maintain such values, the company needs to build good trust among the employees in order to incorporate innovation within the company with success.
The company even after making careful observations and even after maintaining such measures have made the company to face certain challenges. However, the biggest challenge being the Covid-19 pandemic situation which the company has to face which has affected the flow of customers a lot due to worldwide lockdown situations. Moreover, the company even after it maintained good contacts the customers flow did not increase until the lockdown curbs were not taken up. Furthermore, after the lockdown was lifted the company had to maintain certain Covid-19 protocols for the company when the guests again started to flow. However, the challenges which the company particularly had to face was to provide contactless service which means the company has to provide robots with the help of robotics technology to provide service in order to maintain the safety and health services. Additionally, the company has to put up in the websites about the employees vaccination stature and also may be able to provide vaccines to the customers, who have come to the hotel although may not have taken vaccination.
2.2 Innovation in action
Proposed innovation
The service of the Holiday Cottage is quite good which may be seen with the help of the service and the kind of success the company got within three years of its inauguration. However, the innovation procedure of the company was quite good and each and every innovation has become successful for the company which made the company able to sustain even during the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Moreover, in the initial phase of the lockdown situation the company did have to face a lot of challenges due to lack of customers and on the other hand most of the employees are leaving the jobs for safety purposes and new recruits have been taken in order to fill the places. However, the survival of any company depends heavily on the competitive market the company is in and the amount the company is able to innovate new products or incorporate new methods to sustain and at the same time support sustainable measures to prevent any kinds of business failure (Dias et al., 2020).
The innovation procedure although includes many procedures which help the company to progress such as the kind of innovation which may help the company in gaining profits with the help of good network and at the same time the product structure and the product performance in the market which might helps the intake of the customers with the help of good customer engagement (Refer to appendix 2). Therefore, if all this is taken into consideration then the innovation of the company may be maintained well and good which may help the company to sustain longer.
The company may after the loss which the company had to face for the lockdown situation may become a huge problem for the sustenance of the company. Although even when the Covid-19 pandemic situation has been curbed, the progress of the company such as before may not be possible as the customers might want to make sure if it was safe for the customers to visit the Holiday Cottage provided with the given situation. Moreover, digital technology has advanced in the Covid-19 pandemic situation with people relying more and more on technology which even created a digital divide with people with low digital skills failing to use it adequately (Watts, 2020). Therefore, in this kind of situation during the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the company needs to make the website user friendly so that the users may be able to understand well and at the same time be able to search and find out and also book cottages smoothly.
The usage of digital technology may be quite helpful for the company as the company may be able to share the details and also at the same time may advertise about the opening in all kinds of social media platforms so that people might get attracted towards it and may be able to visit the cottage. Additionally, the company too has to make sure that the company provides adequate safety measures for the customers in order to attract more customers to the Cottage.
Leadership importance in innovation
The leadership is utmost necessary in any company depending on which company may flourish and make an adequate profits from the work. Moreover, the leadership style of the company may depend on the type of innovation the country may achieve in order to achieve innovation. Furthermore, in a pandemic situation such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s leadership is utmost important as the company has to start again after the lockdown measures are cut off. However, a company’s leader have to possess some kind of leadership skills in order to understand various ways in which the company may able to flourish with the help of the leaders strategic thinking which includes self-awareness too, the planning and delivery of the leaders may be possible with the help of good communication among the leaders as well as the employers, the management of the people in the company too may be maintained with the help of communication and lastly the leaders have to be good motivators and change makers so that it might be useful for the company (CCL. 2021). Additionally, this might help the company with the help of such good leadership styles to improve the marketing about the company to the customers.
The leadership skills of the company have to be maintained so that it helps the company to sustain well and at the same time helps the company to progress. However, a lot of persons may think that those persons lack utmost leadership skills which sometimes even affect the company and other than that some people think that the people have more leadership yet too weak in communication (Refer to appendix 3). Moreover, this kind of attitude may affect the company and the employees and also stagnant the growth of the company which affects the company heavily. Additionally, the leaders need to learn about the organizational skills and at the same time some of the leadership styles which help in affecting the innovative process in the company (Megheirkouni, 2017). Furthermore, the Sykes Holiday Cottage has to make sure that after the lockdown protocols are curbed, the company is able to provide adequate facilities by including robotics technology for contactless service in order to maintain healthy and safety protocol. Moreover, the company also has to make sure that the employees are fully vaccinated and also the customers too and if not then the customers may get vaccinated in the hotel. Thus, for successfully doing these, the leadership of the company is utmost important which might help the company in progression.
Evaluation of internal resources for getting success in innovation
The internal resources of any organization has a big impact on the innovation and getting success in innovation where it may evaluate the innovation with value creation according to market trend. Sykes Holiday Cottages has taken the innovative steps depending upon the internal resources of the organization to roll over the market with innovation.
SWOT analysis of Sykes Holiday Cottages
| Strength | 1. More than 20,000 holiday home internationally
2. Having own catering service 3. Presence in strategic locations |
| Weakness | 1. Requirement of additional cost
2. No guaranteed bookings 3. Lack of control over management |
| Opportunity | 1. Holiday home management company are assisting customer on bookings and management of property
2. Advertisement and marketing strategy over social media 3. Winner of the British Travel Award Best large UK holiday cottage company consecutively 8 years |
| Threat | 1. Isolation measures due to pandemic
2. Competition from other holiday management organizations |
Table 1: SWOT analysis
(Source: Self-Created)
From the above table it has been observed that the company has more than 20,000 properties internationally which is boosting the business more regularly and generating revenue and contributed to attracting a large base of customer footsteps. Moreover, it has its own catering service which influences the consumer and holiday home management companies to offer food and beverages within those companies’ own arrangement according to customer choice. Improving quality and facilities along with developing values for tourist attraction products and participation of communities in management practices motivates the innovation for better sustainability (Tambunan, 2020). The threats of isolation measures and increasing competition from the business rivals have pushed the organization to adopt innovation for progress of the business operation. The innovation of contactless services and digital transformation of existing processes has given ample opportunity to reach the consumer doorstep and organize the customer more relatively according to the process of booking to ordering services. The transformation of the services with the help of human resources to help directly to consumer satisfaction without having contact within the isolation measures of Covid-19 regulation and policies to let consumers experience fearlessness (Rahimizhian & Irani, 2020).
The innovativeness of the hospitality and tourism sectors is necessary according to the cautious measure of travel and living to gain the consumer trust and confidence for repeated transactions within the isolative measure of the Covid-19. Additionally, the holiday home management companies are taking great care with flexible management of almost everything from gardening, room, cleanliness, culinary and rental management with insurance and mortgage options. Innovations depending upon the course of services and internal resources of Sykes Holiday cottage have been proven essential to remain the top position in consumer choice where it has taken several measures to keep accustomed the consumer in a cosy environment with sophisticated choice. Relatively, use of sensors, Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices play a significant role in innovative measures to provide services on time remotely. The resources as assets and human resources play actively to measure the innovations according to consumer demand and requirement profoundly.
Analysis of external challenges impacting the design stage of innovation
PESTLE Analysis
Political factor
The political stability in the UK has provided business authenticity with infrastructure and tax regime of the government to flourish the investment in tourism and hospitality sector with good relation of neighbours.
Economic factor
From the above figure it may be stated that the inflation of the United Kingdom (UK) is quite stable so the spending behaviour of the population is generally high and tends to market growth of the business operation of the tourism sector.
Social factors
The society of the UK is affluent and has a nature of travelling and boosting the tourism sector where it becomes necessary to adopt the innovation to interact more casually with the communities with preferred safety and security (Refer to Appendix-4).
Technological factors
The growing technological influence of Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital communication in everyday life has hugely benefited the population as well as the tourism sector to advertise continuously and reach the potential customers within the isolative measurement. The technological aspects also motivated the innovation in the organization more conveniently.
Legal factor
The legal challenges are quite affordable in the UK for innovative measures with government support and transparent law as adoption of national policy of tourism along with adhering to the regulations of Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other employment laws (Legislation.gov.uk. 2021).
Environmental factor
Environmental issues of innovations are measured briefly and the Sykes Holiday cottages are going organic in hotel management practices and waste management according to environment and climate change law 2021 (Legislation.gov.uk. 2021).
Threat of new entrants
The growth of new entrants may have influenced the organization to accompany the innovation for accessing growing interaction of global consumers with confidence. However, the technology is evolving rapidly with advancement of technology and needs to be more collaborative for sustainability (Nam et al., 2021).
Supplier bargaining power
The bargaining power of suppliers may disrupt the process of innovation where technological aspects need timely installation to attract consumer attention and it is necessary to work according to the supplier.
Internal competition
Internal competition has been growing and needs to be acknowledged about the innovative actions and measures of other organizations to become unique and competitive in the market. The competition may affect the domestic market of the UK and be proportional to the turnover of the organization.
Threat of substitutes
The threat of substitute is low as the company is offering product and service with market prices where the innovation of contact less services is within the market standard which attracts the consumer election over the year.
Customer bargaining power
The organization goes digital to offer the products and services over online where the customer bargaining power is low and not in the measurement of innovative steps where the organizations follow standard princess for the innovative services and products to amuse the consumer.
From the analysis of PESTLE and Porter’ five forces it needs to mention that the external challenges need to be apprehended in order to get success in the design of innovation.
Cultural influence of organization on approach of managing innovation
Organizational culture has a great impact upon innovation where the leadership contribution and engagement with the employee may define the overall aspects of the work environment and encourage employees to take creativity and innovative steps for process smoothness.
The management will analyse market and external factors to withstand the innovative process in the market competition. The approach of collaboration from stakeholders, investors, and open market communication impacted the open innovation for the sustainability of the innovation in the long run.
Figure 6: Cultural dimension of UK
(Source: Hofstede Insights, 2021)
According to Hofstede, the cultural dimensions of the UK have six dimensions such as power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation and indulgence of the people. The power distance view the relation of power between people with distribution of power in 35 in the UK whereas individualism is at 89 direct the autonomy trend of people rather than group mentality. On the other hand, masculinity with 66 clears the culture aspect of gender bias and uncertainty avoidance 35 shows low resilience nature of people with uncertainty. The long term orientation 51 and indulgence 69 in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions shows the people’s comprehension of the culture which influences the work environment. The person driven culture emphasizes employee welfare at the heart of the organization with a result oriented motto to welcome change and drive for innovation. In addition to that, open culture system welcome the diversity without discrimination increase the competency of employee and the loose control culture provide flexibility to working practices and allows to take creative steps for innovation.
The low power distance in Hofstede shows the power balance among the employees which influences the organizational behaviour of innovative change and innovation practice more often. Leadership approaches with resources, planning and execution to change effectively according to the innovation of process and service. The leadership and change management strategy of the organization through planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the innovation procedure will bring success of innovation. It has been stated that organizational culture influences innovation significantly with motivation, resource allocation and controlling the nature of innovation and value creation to gain superiority in the market. The leadership inspiration and motivation with employee issues and personal growth allows innovation to take place in the organization.
Conclusion
It may be concluded that a company’s innovation utterly depends upon the leader and also on the employees without whose collective effort the company may not been able to achieve successful innovation.
References
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