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- QUESTION
Choose an innovative organisation and critically analyse the seven dimensions within a strategic innovation framework to produce a portfolio of outcomes that drive growth in your chosen organisation.
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| Subject | Business | Pages | 8 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Choose an innovative organization and critically analyze the seven dimensions within a strategic innovation framework to produce a portfolio of outcomes that drive growth in your chosen organization.
The chosen innovative firm for this paper is Samsung, which is a highly innovative company given the various consumer products that it has launched in the global market within categories such as electronics, home appliances, pharmaceuticals among other categories. Each year, Samsung launches several innovative products in various categories that reposition the firm as a market leader in terms of innovation and creativity in launching product that anticipate and meet unique customer needs. “The company’s operations are a model of innovation that is described by the company’s co-CEO as ‘relentless innovation’ where the company is always pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation within the various industries in which it operates” (Sang Chul, 2014). The company’s innovation culture is supported by top management as a crucial strategy for the company’s future where the company is constantly reinventing itself by bringing to market new innovative products that redefine the company’s global positioning as an innovator. This paper analyzes the seven dimensions within a strategic innovation framework that are applied by the company in order to produce a portfolio of outcomes, which in this case refers to products, that drive growth within Samsung. The seven dimensions of an innovative strategy are clearly outlined and discussed in relation to Samsung’s innovation strategy and culture.
The first dimension refers to a managed innovation process that combines traditional and non-traditional approached to business strategy. The managed innovation process refers to the entire process of innovation from the initiation of ideas to their implementation as innovative products and services. Each innovative company has a set procedure for coming up with and implementing innovative ideas and Samsung is no different (Cravens, et al, 2009). The company combines both traditional business approaches to innovation such as competitor and market analysis as well as studies of consumer demands in order to create innovative products and services that meet customer demands. However, the company also employs non-traditional business practices such as workshop sessions that allow innovation teams to speculate and predict future treads and products to meet customer needs that are yet to be defined. On many occasions, Samsung employs small consumer-focused innovation teams that are tasked with creating new innovative products that meet consumer needs in a certain market. The ideas generated by such teams are subject for approval by the top management in South Korea before the products suggested by the teams can be brought to market (Youngjin & Kyungmook, 2015). The top management allows such product teams to employ their creativity in creating innovative products according to the current strategies applied by the firm, although at times, the teams might create products that deviate from the strategies being applied by the company.
The second dimension is that of strategic alignment whereby all the relevant internal and external stakeholders are involved throughout the process of creating innovative products. Strategic alignment refers tote process of building support with the organization for all its innovative efforts across all levels of the organization as well as with external parties (Al-Aali & Teece, 2013). The process of building support for innovation within an organization should involve all employees who should be excited about creating products that place the company at the top of the list of innovative companies. Samsung does a good job of building support for the development of its innovative products across all product categories by ensuring that all product teams are composed of employees from all levels across the company. This means that innovative ideas are not just proposed by top managers who then force the ideas onto the junior staff, but that even the junior staffers are involved in the design and production of innovative products (Seongjae, 1998). The company also works with outside contractors who are also tasked with creating innovative products for Samsung, but such products must be developed according to the company’s strategy. Every Samsung employee is trained to appreciate the innovative product development process employed by the firm in developing its products in such a way that internal support for innovative product is guaranteed.
Industry foresight allows an organization to develop a compelling and proprietary view regarding the future which enables it to define a pragmatic well-grounded participation strategy. Industry foresight is the third dimension that helps organizations determines the direction in which their specific industry is heading by finding the emerging trends within the industry and adopting strategies that take the emerging trends into account (Marx & Hsu, 2015). Industry foresight refers to an organization being visionary by monitoring the complex factors that might affect the future of the company within the particular industry. Samsung engages its employees from the executive branch to the lower level employees in the practice of anticipating changing trends within their industry and coming up with ways to adapt to the changing environment. The company executives are constantly monitoring the different forces affecting the company and finding new ways to adapt to the changing environment in order to create new innovative product that are relevant in the changing environment (Si Hyung & Keun, 2010). Factors such as industry deregulation, emerging markets and industry convergence are constantly monitored in order to identify new opportunities that the company can exploit by creating innovative products. The constant monitoring of emerging trends helps the company to avoid threats to their existing businesses and to identify new potential opportunities that might arise due to the convergence of industry trends.
The fourth dimension is referred to as consumer insight which is a qualitative process for understanding the perceptions, behaviors and needs of existing and potential customers. This process goes much deeper than the traditional process of gathering feedback from customers about concepts developed by the company. The innovation consumer insight looks to identify the customer articulated and unarticulated needs by conducting ethnographic research, which facilitates the identification of unarticulated (latent) needs through direct observation and analysis of consumer behavior (Michailova & Zhan, 2015). Samsung uses both traditional methods of involving its customers in the innovation process by validating their product ideas with their customers, but more importantly the company also looks to involve its customers in the product creation process in non-traditional ways. The company gathers data from its consumers through innovative products such as the Slimband, which gathers data about a user’s health and can recommend viable health options for the user (Choung, et al, 2014). The company also involves its customers in the creation of its innovative products such as refrigerators and other electronic devices by engaging the users at the design and concept stage in the creation of the aforementioned products. The company uses traditional consumers forums such as focus groups in imaginative ways that are exploratory in nature rather than in the traditional way that most companies utilize such consumer forums.
Some of the threats facing Samsung include threats from competing firms such as Apple Inc who have eaten into Samsung’s share of the Smartphone market and continue to pose a growing threat to Samsung. Samsung has recorded decreasing sales of its flagship Smartphone models due to stiff completion from Apple products as well as products from other manufacturers. Samsung must continue creating innovative products that meet the unspoken needs of consumers in order to remain ahead of the competition. The company’s weaknesses include the fact that it relies on markets with limited growth potential such as the U.S and Europe for most of its consumer electronics sales, which limits its growth potential. The company makes smart phones that rely on Google’s android operating system, which many consumers view as being inferior to Apple’s iOS, which has limited the company’s sales. The company’s marketing strategies are not as sophisticated as the strategies employed by Apple. Since 2014, Samsung biggest weakness has been the mobile division, especially in its top of the range Galaxy devices launched in the same period, which include the Galaxy S4, S5 and S6, which led to declines in sales. The company has continued to lose market share in its premium devices and the mid-range devices have had to pick up the slack.
The sixth dimension refers to organizational readiness which is the organization’s ability to implement innovative strategies and ideas and its capacity to handle the operational, cultural, political and financial demands that usually follow such implementation. Organizational readiness can be classified into three categories, which include cultural readiness, process and structural readiness (Chen, et al, 2015). Cultural readiness refers to the norms and mindset that allow individuals working in teams to take calculated risks think imaginatively and create innovative solutions. Process readiness refers to the business processes and practices that allow teams to function effectively through collaboration in order to achieve a common goal; it consists of a set of robust methodologies and tools that are designed specifically to enhance innovation. Structural readiness refers to the technologies and structures within an organization that support innovation including the ability to assign qualified and available staff to projects that have a high priority, which is a major barrier to the implementation of innovative projects. Samsung ensures that the entire organization is ready for the implementation of innovative projects and that qualified staff are available to handle the innovative projects (Heath, et al, 2015). The company has specific teams dedicated to implementing innovative ideas and projects within the organization’s specific divisions. The culture at Samsung also encourages the implementation of disruptive innovative ideas by teams within the company as encouraged by the top management, which is good for innovation.
The seventh dimension refers to the process of disciplined implementation which is the management of the path from inspired vision to business impact where innovative ideas meet the path to implementation. The process of implementing innovative ideas within a firm involves a wide range of activities that include technical product design and development, transitioning to specific programs or projects, and the development of a distinct value proposition through consumer-based methods (Lew & Sinkovics, 2013). This process also involves effective communication within the organization in order to get all employees to buy-in to the innovative idea and its implementation process. Samsung conducts a process of disciplined implementation by assigning specific teams to create innovative ideas for products that can be designed to meet customer needs both in the present and the future (Featherston, et al, 2016). All employees are encouraged to pitch their innovative ideas to top management in order to get approval for implementation. The project teams that come up with innovative ideas are also responsible for the implementation of the same ideas within the company and the management takes full responsibility for the success or failure of the ideas. Project teams usually negotiate with top management to get room for innovative ideas that go against the current strategy, but such teams are allowed to begin implementing low-risk ideas before implementing the high-risk high-reward ideas.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the seven dimensions within an innovative framework are applied by companies such as Samsung and other innovative companies in order to stay ahead of their competition and produce products that make them market leaders. Samsung applied innovative strategies based on the innovative framework to stay ahead of the competition in various categories of products such as pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, biotechnology, and even the aerospace industry. The company has launched a large portfolio of innovative products within each of the categories in which it operates, which has automatically placed it as a market leader in numerous industries. The innovative strategies applied by Samsung have contributed largely to the growth of the firm as its products meet consumer needs and are extremely popular among consumers. In order to remain a market leader and a relevant firm in a field that constantly suffers from disruptive technologies, Samsung must continue applying the seven dimensions of an innovative framework in order to continue creating innovative products that meet the articulated and unarticulated needs of consumers. Other companies should emulate the innovative strategies implemented by Samsung on its journey to the top of its industry by remaining innovative even as it expands into new fields.
Appendices
Figure 1: Samsung financial summary
Figure 2: Samsung sales statistics
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Samsung company background Samsung was founded in 1938 as a dried fish exporter in Taegu Korea where it exported fish and other commodities such as flour to China. Within a decade, Samsung had its own confectionery machines, flour mills, and its own manufacturing facilities as well as its own sales operations. In the 1950s and 60s, the company acquired several insurance companies and went into other fields such as petrochemicals. It was in 1969 that Samsung started manufacturing electronics and the first Samsung black and white television was on sale as from 1970. Since them the company has evolved into a global electronics company that specializes in digital appliances, semiconductors, system integration and memory.
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