Innovation is the process by which an existing idea is developed in a unique way in order to improve the features and the characteristics of the original idea. Invention and innovation are the terms which are often confused with one another, where invention is the process by which a new idea or concepts are developed on the other hand innovation is the further extension of the invention. Any business organisation operates under micro and macro environment, the factors that make up this environment keep changing and evolving with time and hence the companies also have to change and innovate in the process, operation, product or service etc with the dynamics of the factors that make up the internal and external business environment. Innovation is important as it ensures that there is continuous development process in the dynamics of the international market (Nambisan et al. 2017). Innovation management is the strategic decisions and policies that are formulated by the company in order to encourage and motivate the process of innovation among the employees. It is the culmination of the process of innovation and management of a business organisation; it brings about changes which highly impacts the operations of the business. Innovation helps the organisation in achieving the goals and objectives it also helps in making the business more attractive for the shareholders. Innovation also helps the employees of the organisation scope to change the process (Tidd and Bessant 2015).
In this assignment the organisation that is going to be studied in order to understand the concept of Innovation and innovation management is Amazon Inc. it is one of the leading multinational company with a plethora of products and services, the organisation runs on a business model that revolves around the consumers and in order to cater to the needs and requirement of the consumers the company incorporates innovation in the products or services (Amazon.com 2018).
With the changes and the dynamic nature of the business environments, it is essential for organisations to keep up with the changes in order to make a mark in the industry. Innovation is important in this case as the organisations are expected to evolve with time and trend depending upon the need and requirement of the customers. Innovation management is the process by which a company uses innovation to achieve the strategic objectives of the company. Form the management perspective the company can involve innovation in the process or in the product or service. A change or innovation in the policies or decisions of the company would mean that there is process innovation in the company. For example if the company has come up with an idea of employee engagement then this would be a process innovation. On the other hand, product or service innovation is the approach which helps the company upgrade and improve the products and services that are already in the market or come up with products or services which is new for the company but is based on an innovative concept.
Impact of the innovation depends on the nature and the type of decisions that are taken and how effectively they are implemented. Innovation management helps in identifying the advantages and the barriers that are on the way of implementation of an innovation. Recognizing the aspects that promote and those that challenge the innovations undertaken by the company helps in analyzing the process and devising the decisions and policies.
Amazon is an innovation driven company and the management of the organisation not only includes innovation in the products and services but also in the process of management. The role of the management is to encourage the employees in thinking innovatively, the company strategically invests capital in products and services which are innovative in nature for example: Amazon Go is one of the latest offering of the company. This is the most technologically advanced retail grocery store which cuts all the hassle of billing and standing in a long queue. The company has established itself several times as a consumer-centric organisation and this why it is also driven by innovation. As mentioned above in order to keep up with the changing trends and requirements of the customers, organisations have to change and innovate.
Based on the impact and the implementation process, innovation can be segmented in two types: radical and incremental. A radical innovation also known as disruptive is the process that has a important impact on the industry of operation as well as on the financial aspect of the company in that industry. As the process may cause disruptive changes in the industry it has given the name. On the other hand incremental innovation is the process in which the changes occur slowly and the impact is not as drastic as the radical innovation. This is mostly concerned with the products which already exist in the line of products and changes are made in these in order to develop, Improve or upgrade the situation. Innovation management decides on the type of innovation which is required by the company in order to achieve its goals and objectives.
A business model is like a guideline or an action plan for the business organisation in order to help the management focused on the objectives of the organisation. Amazon is an organisation which has evolved to cater to the requirements of the customers. The business strategy of the company is well planned and well-designed. The company has multiple and independent revenue sources which are connected by technology and innovation. The company started off as a place where book lovers could find their choice of books and order them with the help of an internet platform and a device that supported the connection. Amazon now has come a long way in the business and has established some important benchmark in the e-commerce business model as well as in the retail industry. Innovation is in the core of the business model as any of the services that the company has in the product line is innovative in nature. And there is a continuous process of upgrade to improve the existing line of products to meet the evolving needs of the customers. The company has established itself to be a consumer oriented organisation. CEO of Amazon Inc Jeff Bezos say that the customers of the company are loyal to the extent where the company provides the best possible service in the market, hence the importance of innovation is essentials and forms the core of the business model.
One of the biggest challenges that the company has faced so far is as that the concept and the service are innovative in nature the customers is apprehensive of availing them or accepting them at the beginning. In this case it is important to have strategic communication plans ready in order to make the target market realize the value of the service and the potential it has. Theories related to the innovation dynamics state that when a new product idea is implemented there is an initial stage of uncertainty during this time number of experiments and researchers take place. But then a ‘dominant design’ or ‘technological trajectory’ becomes recognized and the importance changes to become incremental development and variations on this basic theme.
Innovation is a time consuming process and the company has to make sure that they do not let the customers know about an innovation before it has been released or is ready and set to release. This is important in order to build a motivated innovation culture in the organization.
Innovations can be sometimes non-profitable and can be not effective as anticipated in that case the company has to face loss.
Amazon is a company that has reached its heights but has opened the ways of new companies to achieve the same in the industry. The e-commerce platform is something that is now a very competitive market on the international platform. Hence, in order to keep an edge over the competition new or existing Amazon not only innovated in the process of management but also in the services. The company is slowly moving from being entirely e-commerce based business model to a company that is also focusing on physical retail business. The organisation is aware that the retail industry is already crowded hence they include their innovation in the process of the services they offer so that the company can stand out from the rest of the competition (Frank 2017).
Process innovation has allowed the company to not only stick to one industry; the company has services in several markets such as retail, entertainment, technology etc. When the company had started Jeff ran his online book services from his garage in Seattle in 22 years, he has been awarded the title of the richest man (Frank 2017).
Innovation also helps the company always build a buzz around the media and the customers, the company stays in the focus because of its innovations, for example the company is coming up with the Amazon Go project and all the leading news papers and other publishing institutions are writing and discussing about it.
Innovation has helped the company gain goodwill in the industry and has helped the company make a name for it. The company is kwon by the customers and the target market to produce provisions of services that has premium quality therefore this has helped the company to build a good reputation in the market.
Innovation has helped the company to diversify the services according to requirement of the people of the country of operation. In turn it has provided opportunity for the company to build valuable relation with the customers on a global level (Frank 2017).
Managing innovation involves risk mitigation as one of the major aspects. Market research is also one of the most important aspects of the innovation process. With the help of market research the company finds out the about the needs and requirements of the target market. Accordingly an organisation invests in the idea and products (Sven Heidenreich et al. 2016). The networks that the company builds in the process depend upon the logistics that are required by the company. Amazon is an organisation that invests considerable amount in the process of research and development. The management process interconnects the networks which are included in the organization to finally bring out a product or a service which is aligned with the requirement of the customers. According to the spaghetti model the process of innovation results in an innovative process or product but on the other hand the company has to go through a complicated web of networks in order to have an appropriate outcome (Sven Heidenreich et al. 2016).
The innovation network model is an integrated management process which includes all the steps in the above figure. The management of Amazon comes up with an innovation concept or an idea that may prove to be helpful for the customers and can also get the company revenue. This is the shared vision after the idea has been developed the first most important network is to ensure the funding is on track. Funding is for the purpose of the basic operations of innovation network this including the research and development as well as tactical shifts along with the meetings. Next, it is essential to outline the structure of the innovation in order to ensure performance, support and guidance along with accountability (Sven Heidenreich et al. 2016). The structure of networks in Amazon includes the research team, context and content professionals, design department etc. it is essential for each of these departments to know all their responsibilities and job roles clearly in order to execute the process of innovation seamlessly. To streamline the process even further the company should encourages the employees to have engage in other activities as well. Process of innovation involves clarity, engagement and equity among all the above stated departments of the structure. Communication is also one of the major aspects in the process of innovation strategic organisation of communication can make or break. People or the human resources who are associated with the innovation are one of the most important aspects of the network, any ideation or effort of the operation in the process (Sven Heidenreich et al. 2016). The commitment among the people of the organization can ensure success or failure of the idea as it is essential to have the interest of the employees of the organisation aligned with the objectives of the company in order to ensure efficiency in performance. Strategy is the approach that the management of the company take in order to initiate the plan of innovation, strategic analysis and implementation of decisions are important in the process of innovation. Lastly, while ensuring the process of innovation it is important to have a clear goal and accordingly set short term objectives which will help in identifying the responsibilities of the people associated with the innovation better (Sven Heidenreich et al. 2016).
With time there has been changes adopted by business organisations world-wide in the way they operate. Values and principles have taken precedence over profitability and sales objectives of the company, but innovation has been the age old strategy for many organisations to survive the dynamics of the industry of operation (Matos da Silva et al. 2016). It has been one of the most widely used strategies to gain competitive advantage for the companies. Amazon has been based on innovation and the business model of the company has been surrounding innovation. In a span of 22 years of operation the organisation has come up with a plethora of products and services which are technologically driven advanced innovative concepts (Kratzer et al. 2016). Some of which have been an instant success where as some has been not but the company has grown and expanded. Amazon operates in several countries and Jeff Bezos quickly realized that language is one of the major barriers in communication hence he had launched the retail website in many languages as well in order to cater to a larger group of people. The website Amazon.com began its operations just with book and then diversified into music and entertainment. Quickly Bezos learnt about the potential of the platform and included a number of items to the list of products that was made available. This innovation in the business model has helped the company expand the target market and cater to a wider group of people. The company strives to achieve a valuable relation with the customers in order to create loyalty (Matos da Silva et al. 2016).
The company operates on the needs and requirements of the clients and the customers, which keeps changing with the changing trends in the business environment like lifestyle changes, social changes, economic changes, political changes, environmental as well as legal changes etc. in order to expand and grow the company took the opportunity of the change and listed household items to the most advanced technologies on the website (Galloway et al. 2017). Apart from this the company worked upon more services like could infrastructure services like LAAS and PAAS. Over the years the company has invested in products and services in the entertainment industry as well like Kindle Fire tablets e-readers, Echo devices, Fire TV etc and in services the company came up with services like Amazon Prime, Amazon videos, music etc (Amazon.com 2018). Amazon Prime is itself a unique concept as the other services of the company are linked with this subscription which condenses the loyalty of the user with the brand. For example: if a customer has Amazon prime subscription then he or she can easily avail the services of Amazon prime videos, music, shopping in the retail units etc. Another most interesting innovation of the organisation is Amazon Go stores; this concept has been given shape in the early 2017 when the company launched the first grocery retail physical store. The innovative part of the concept is both in the process as well as in the product (Galloway et al. 2017). Process innovation as the company is mostly known for using internet as the platform for operation but with the strategy of opening a retail grocery store in the physical store business model ensures that the company is thinking ahead. In the product innovation the company has incorporate a series of technological advances which has made the project one of its kind, the customers can easily set up the account with Amazon prime and pick up things form the store and just walk out without any payment or hassle of lining up in a queue. This has again helped the company gain an edge over the competitors in the retail industries like Walmart, target and other grocery stores. This is a difficult industry to set a foot upon as there is intense competition from large organisation which has been operating the market for long. In such a case Amazon has leaped in to the industry with the help of technological innovations which has set the company apart (Gouve?a de Oliveira et al. 2016).
Innovation plays a large role in the organisation process as well because in In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market which is a physical retail store as a mark of setting a foot in the brick and motor industry. The deal was settled for $13.4 billion, which vastly increased the presence of Amazon in the industry. The acquisition was interpreted by some as a direct attempt to challenge Walmart’s traditional retail stores (Stevens and Gasparro 2018).
Conclusion
It can be concluded form the above discussion that Amazon is an organisation that has already set revolutionary example in the retail industry both in the online as well as in the offline industry. The company uses both process and product innovation in the operations of the business to ensure growth and expansion.
Reference
Amazon.com., 2018. Amazon Go. [online] amazon.com. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16008589011 [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].
Amazon.com., 2018. Our Innovations. [online] amazon.com. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/tv76jef8gz289rm [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].
Frank, R.G., 2017. Hither and Thither: How Do We Innovate? Rehabilitation Psychology Journal, Vol. 62, No. 1, 1–6
Galloway, T.L., Miller, D.R., Sahaym, A. and Arthurs, J.D., 2017. Exploring the innovation strategies of young firms: Corporate venture capital and venture capital impact on alliance innovation strategy, Journal of Business Research. Vol 71. PP. 55-65
Gouve?a de Oliveira, M., Rozenfeld, H., Phaal, R. and Probert, D. (2016) Decision making at the front end of innovation: the hidden influence of knowledge and decision criteria. R&D Management Journal. PP:161 – 180.
Kratzer, J., Meissner, D., and Roud, V., 2017. Open innovation and company culture: Internal openness makes the difference. Journal Technological Forecasting & Social Change. (V 119). PP: 128–138
Matos da Silva, F., Aparecida de Araujo Querido Oliveira, Edison., and Barbosa de Moraes, M. , 2016. Innovation development process in small and medium technology-based companies. IMR Journal. PP176 – 189.
Nambisan, S., Lyytinen, K., Majchrzak, A. and Song, M., 2017. Digital innovation management: Reinventing innovation management research in a digital world. Mis Quarterly, 41(1).
Stevens, L and Gasparro, A., 2018. Amazon to Buy Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion., wsj.com. [online] amazon.com. Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-buy-whole-foods-for-13-7-billion-1497618446 [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].
Sven Heidenreich, S., Landsperger, J. and Spieth, P., 2016. Are Innovation Networks in Need of a Conductor? Examining the Contribution of Network Managers in Low and High Complexity Settings, Journal of LRP. PP.55-71
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J., 2015. Innovation and entrepreneurship.
Torugsa, N, (A). , and Arundel, A., 2017. Rethinking the effect of risk aversion on the benefits of service innovations in public administration agencies. Research Policy 46 (2017) 900–910
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download