Innovation and Commercialisation Study Case

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, the corporate firms try to be innovative for running their business operations creatively across the international markets (Lončar, 2017). It is important for the organisations to renovate the whole system and utilise the organisational resources and capabilities for gaining high competitive advantage so that the corporate leaders can manage their operations and strengthen their customer’s base in long run to secure future sustainable development. The study focuses on innovation and commercialisation, which is mandatory for the business firms to manage their international operations and provide innovative services to all the customers. Through this study, it is possible to analyse the innovative process of Tesco, which is a famous organisation across the retail industry around the globe. After reviewing the theory and strategies of innovation and creativity, it is useful to analyse the strategic planning of Tesco for great innovative practices at the workplace.

Organisational background

Tesco is the British multinational and general merchandise company operating across the international markets and it is the third retailer in the world by gross revenue. Tesco is efficient to handle the clients across the world by providing good quality goods and innovative services to all the buyers. The vision of the organisation is to provide the best quality products and services at affordable price so that the customers can make effective purchase decision. The major products of Tesco include supermarket, hypermarket, superstores and convenience shop, where there are huge varieties of products and services for the customers. Total numbers of employees in the company is more than 423092 and gross revenue in the last year was £64.760 billion and operating income was £3.005 billion. There are 7005 shops of Tesco, and it is successful to run their international operations. Tesco is one of the successful companies for great innovation and creativity where the organisation strategies their business tactics by utilising latest technology, brand infrastructure and internal capabilities of the firm (Tesco, 2021a).

Explaining the context for innovation and determining the difference between invention and innovation

Innovation refers to increasing the creativity of the organisation by new product launch, designing services for the customers and launching different business strategies for satisfying the ultimate customers. As per the Drucker’s definitions of innovation, it is the task of endowing the human and material resources within the organisation with new and greater wealth producing capacity (Alexander, 2020). The corporate leaders try to renovate their business activities through knowledge improvement, resource utilisation, employee’s empowerment and equipment design, and these are the major activities through which it is possible to increase creativity in running the operational activities successfully. In this regard, the corporate firms focus on commercialisation through innovation where commercialisation refers to the new direction and process to create and implement a feasible business model for successful product-service system. The corporate leaders are concerned about managing the ecosystem and maximising the product and service quality for satisfying the ultimate users (Smailhodžić and Berberović, 2020). On the other hand, invention is the action of inventing something in the market. There is a difference between invention and innovation, where intervention is to create something new while innovation is introducing the concept or new ideas in the organisation. Invention mainly refers to a creative thing where innovation is the process of interactions.

Innovativeness of a specific organisation and its leadership, organisational culture and teamwork

Innovation is hereby mandatory for the organisation Tesco to run their business creatively and introduced new product and services for successful invention. The organisation is efficient to develop innovative process and generate new ideas through successful resource utilisation and capacity building activities, so that it would be possible to create values for all the stakeholders. In this regard, the organisation also focuses on leadership, culture and teamwork for enhancing innovative process and generating new ideas to run their international operations (Markopoulos, Umar and Vanharanta, 2019). In this regard, the transformational leadership style is mainly followed at the firm where the leader of Tesco is cooperative and communicative withy salt he employees, shareholders, board members and suppliers. The leader always tries to maximise individualised creativity and encourage the employee’s innovation in long run. Continuous motivation and guidance are there at the workplace which are also beneficial for Tesco’s leader to run the business proficiently (Kristiansen et al., 2019). The internal workplace culture of Tesco is also effective with transparency and accountability management, strong bonding among the employees and management team members, harmony and freedom as well as equality and diversity management. There is effective team work with high communication and cooperation, where the employees try to work as a partnership working practice in order to serve the customers innovatively. Knowledge haring practice, continuous guidance by the senior team members and leaders cooperation are the major success factors of Tesco, where the organisational leader is efficient to lead the stakeholders towards achieving the business objectives (Tesco, 2021a).

Explaining the 4 Ps of innovation

There are different types of innovation and 4P of innovation is effective to analyse various creative strategies of the organisation Tesco. As per the 4P of innovation, the factors are such as product, paradigm, process and position. Through product innovation, the organisations mainly target the customers and retain them for innovative product base and services to satisfy them. Offering a vast range of products and services are one of the great innovative strategies of the firms to create values for the clients by providing high quality goods and services as per their choice and preferences (Kristiansen et al., 2019). The process innovation is also another creative strategy where the organisation can provide high quality services and in this regard Tesco provides financial services, internet services, telecom and other clothing related services to the clients. The internal process of Tesco is effective where cloud computing and digital database management system support the whole back end process of Tesco. The organisation is successful to manage client data and maintains safety of the personalise information through computerised integrated system and cloud computing. The organisation is also efficient to manage their position and paradigm for running the operations creatively (Kristiansen et al., 2019). The internal technology is crucial at Tesco for managing their whole process, where the front desk staff members and back end processing management team are experienced and skilled to handle the digital database and protect the customer’s personal information for serving them with safety and security. The consumers trust and loyalty can be built through such process and Tesco in this regard is one of the famous organisations with strong customer base.

Value of the innovation funnel and frugal innovation

The organisation also focuses on frugal technology and innovation which refers to creative decision making practice at effective cost. Tesco in this regard aims at providing high quality goods and services at lower or competitive price and it is supported by implementing frugal technology at the workplace (Markopoulos, Umar and Vanharanta, 2019). The economies of scale to produce a large volume of products are high at Tesco as well as the integrated internal system and process generation are also appropriate to handle the international operations of Tesco. Tesco has launched robot in the retail industry for transferring the products from one place to another at the production and distribution sites (Phillips and Phillips, 2017). There is other innovative strategy such as implementing electric cars for distributing the products and it is effective to reduce greenhouse gas emission and enhance the green supply chain management process. Additionally, Tesco introduced the mobile application for serving the consumers innovatively, through easy one click option to order their products, making easy payment through personal smartphone as well as easily handle the purchase activities, track the orders and identify he delivery time. These activities are innovative where the organisational representative at Tesco tries to be connected with the clients always so that it would be possible for them to resolve the quires of the customers and cooperate with them for influencing their purchase decision (Tesco, 2021b).

Importance of the commercial funnel and New Product Development

Commercial innovation through commercial funnel is effective for running the business creatively in the market through product and service development and thus product or service diversification is the major strategy for ensuring commercial innovation, where it is possible for the business to satisfy the clients by providing the best quality products and services according to the needs and preferences of the customers. Tesco is an innovative organisation to renovate their services and introduce new products (Lund, Byrge and Nielsen, 2017). The commercial funnel is the process of raising awareness, interest, making deceison and actions, though which Tesco develops new products where the products diversification strategy is effective. Tesco recently focuses on providing organic products such as organic clothing, organic colours and maintain sustainability in delivering quality food and grocery items to the customers. On the other hand, Tesco also focuses on utilising the latest technique and organisational infrastructure to enhance frugal innovation (Phillips and Phillips, 2017). In this regard, the strategy of instant self-checkout and instant online ordering through mobile application and organisational website management, Tesco tries to serve their customers and retain them for long run (Bilińska-Reformat et al., 2019). Tesco is a financially stable organisation for enhancing their innovative practices and in this regard innovation funnel is also beneficial to implement in the process. As per the innovation funnel, the stages are identifying the opportunities and reallocating the organisational resources, idea generation, utilising the latest technology and creating the new product base for product diversification and service creativity. This stages in innovation funnel further provides a scope to the organisational leader to ensure continuous innovation for maximising branding and strengthening their customers base in long run (Tesco, 2021b).

Evaluating different tools to develop retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property

Evaluate resource and funding considerations

The above mentioned innovation and creativity at Tesco are beneficial for the firm to manage their international operations. The major resource at Tesco is good infrastructure, availability of raw materials, effective production sights and human resources at the workplace. The organisation is also efficient to utilise the latest technology and implement the best technics such as ERP, ICT and cloud computing system, through which it is possible for the brand to develop integrated system of client handling, product stock management and delivering high quality products and services at effective time (Liao, and Tsai, 2019). The organisation is successful to manage the international operations innovatively through frugal innovation and technological advancement where the ICT and ERP system to manage the client and enhance market communication (Olsson et al., 2019). The product and service innovation at Tesco are also beneficial to manage the customers and strengthen their consumer base. Tesco is successful to supporting the consumers by providing 24*7 services through mobile technology, organisational website and chat box handling.

Specific Key Performance Indicators

The key performance indicators of Tesco are such as building trust and loyalty among the customers, good customer retention, profitability and sales volume of the firm as well as improved operations, market penetration and international supply chain management.

Protect the intellectual property rights

The organisation is also successful to develop new product range for increasing innovation and product diversification and in this regard, Tesco tries to utilise their resources and capabilities as well as arrange funding through maximising their profitability and attracting more foreign investment. For managing the intellectual property rights, the organisation tries to keep the product under scrutiny, using brand logo on the product packaging, maintain the copyright and consult with the expert for avoiding the issue of duplicate products, double checking the total product stock handling process, keeping the records of the products and services as well as protecting IP are the major activities through which authenticity of the products of Tesco are maintained successfully (Tesco, 2021b).

Conclusion

In order to run the business innovatively, Tesco tries to develop transformational leadership style; good working culture and teamwork practice for enhancing the business excellence and improve customer’s service for satisfying the clients and strengthening their consumer base for long run. The organisation develops mobile application to enhance online sales activities and supporting the customers 24*7 for influencing their purchase decision and resolving any queries. Additionally, the organisational great innovations are such as introducing One-touch-purchase buttons, developing good organisational website, Barcode scanners, launching robots for picking up and distributing the products. Through great innovation and business creativity, Tesco aims at strengthening their consumer’s base and maximise profitability for running their international operations successfully. The organisation focuses on utilise latest technology, ICT and ERP as well as develop integrated system at the workplace for managing the employees and provide them a structured workplace to work efficiently. Tesco is hereby successful to renovate their business activities and enhance commercialisation by maximising customer service excellence.

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Reference List

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Tesco, 2021a. About us. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/about/ [Accessed on 4 March 2021].

Tesco, 2021b. Innovation. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/innovation/ [Accessed on 4 March 2021].