Reference no: EM132675501

Case Study: Healthy Drinks

When Mr Daniel Green, the founder of Healthy Juice, started the company two years ago he could not have foreseen the rapid early stage growth that took place. He launched the company with one drink (a healthy milkshake) into the UK market and achieved a dramatic rise in sales in his first year due to the innovative formula and distribution capability.

However, as the company enters its third year of trading there has been a significant decrease in sales as a number of competitors have entered the market. Mr Green thinks the answer is to create an innovative new range of drinks, juice or smoothie but does not want to move away from juice. You have been hired as an innovation consultant to evaluate the situation and present recommendations on how the company should move forward. You should answer the following four tasks in a business report format to be presented to Mr Green. The business report will address the following:

1. Explanation of the difference between invention and innovation.

2. The value and importance of innovation to organisations and how this can be embedded within the organisational leadership and culture.

3. The different forms of innovation and the four directions of change an organisation can take. Explain the 4Ps of innovation and how this supports capability and management of innovation. Advise Mr Green which form of innovation he should engage in.

4. Discuss the approaches that Mr Green can take to process innovative ideas, including the innovation funnel and frugal innovation.

5. Explain the steps Mr Green should go through to derive a new and innovative drink.

What you must do

The following tasks are required to be carried out:

LO1 Explain the context for innovation and determine the difference between invention and innovation.
Explain innovation and determine its importance to organizations in comparison with invention.
Explain how organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can shape innovation and commercialisation.
To achieve M1 you should analyse different sources of innovation, and how organisations can foster and develop an environment and culture of innovation.

LO2 Explain the different types of innovation.
Explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to examine and shape innovative ideas.
Explain developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is used in an organisational context.
To achieve M2, you should analyse and apply the innovation funnel in organisational context of Mr Green's healthy drinks.
To achieve M3, you should evaluate the role of frugal innovation in organisational context of Mr Green's healthy drinks.
To achieve D1 you should critically analyse how innovation is developed, embedded and measured in an organisational context of Mr Green's healthy drinks.

LO3 Discuss the process required to commercialise innovation.
Explain the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of new product development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation.
Build an innovation business case for an organisation, including ways to access funding. .
To achieve M4, you should build a detailed innovation business case which includes how to measure its overall effectiveness using appropriate techniques available to test, iterate and improve.

LO4 Evaluate the range of methods for protecting ideas and understand their advantages and disadvantages.
Evaluate the different tools that Mr Green can use to develop, retain and protect knowledge and intellectual property.
To achieve M5, you should present supported evidence-based evaluation of these different tools in the context of the wider business environment.