Assignment:
Review the reading below and provide one paragraph introduction and one paragraph conclusion
The Relevance of key design thinking components
The value adds that any organizations bring to the business world are about Design Thinking strategies where one build an idea based on others idea. It brings people from different background and brainstorms together who are diversified thinkers. There involves a culture thing which builds on different ideas, watches people using different things and build empathy towards what people care the most and try observing people doing them where experience will communicate what you need to focus on... Being empathetic to people what they really value, solutions for their everyday problem and help people find confidence in their creativity.
Key components of design thinking process to a chosen innovation
The key components of design thinking process to a chosen innovation with a force is needed in business these days. High range of competition that exists in the industry, rivalry forces, threat of new entrants and substitutes, power of buyers and suppliers are some of the forces which drive for such design thinking to exist in the business and organizations need to go through such powerful transformations for being creative to deliver such innovative needs for the end customers. Key components include the drive for change based on the customer demand, easy substitutes, new arrivals, alternative strategy etc.; Cell Phones are the classic example of the need for design thinking that exists in the current industry.
Develop a communication strategy including a story map visual to use in an innovative process
For a better communication strategy to use in an innovative process, I would like to choose an industry example that better explains this process. For this, I would choose Amazon's strategy of implementing innovation. Actions that Amazon as a company is taking to drive innovation and research. Amazon does two different innovative approaches towards research and innovation. They are service innovation and open service innovation. The feedback Amazon gets on their online shopping portal is not just from Amazon or the manufacturer. It is from the consumer themselves, other consumers who have used it, commentators who review their product etc., Amazon doesn't pay for it. They get it for free. More purchase choices are made through this innovation without any cost. Source of more growth and profit for the company. The Same infrastructure they use to process all the information. They bundle them and make that a service. The communication strategy they use in the innovation process is amazing. Amazon web services like the GE engine where you get power by the hour, in Amazon where you pay for the service you get. This is real growth accelerator for Amazon and for companies you pay only for what you need and it is a win-win for everybody. This makes Amazon stay apart and step ahead from other competitors in the online retailing industry.
Amazon's Business Model
Amazon revolutionized the online marketplace when the company was founded in July of 1994. Amazon continues to abide by its original mission statement to "be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover online anything they might want to buy, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices" (Amazon.com). Amazon currently has over 10 million Amazon Prime Members, loyal customers that buy frequently from the online retailer and enjoy free shipping and other benefits after paying a yearly fee. As large as that number might seem, the number is projected to increase 150% from 10 million in 2013 to 25 million by 2017 (McCovey, 2013). Since Amazon began, other companies such as Walmart and Target have entered the online marketplace with considerable success. To remain competitive, Amazon continues to promote low prices across all of their products in order to retain the trust and loyalty of customers. However, over the last few years, with delivery costs rising as a result of rising gas prices, Amazon's profit margins have shrunk to ever lower levels as the company strives to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction. To remain competitive, the company looks to cut costs rather than raise prices. One major expense for Amazon is delivery. Amazon currently relies on Fed Ex, UPS, and the postal service to deliver its packages. This means that Amazon currently has no foothold in the delivery/transportation market. By entering this market, Amazon would cut out the middle man (its current delivery service) and complete a customer's order all the way to their doorstep. Amazon would effectively eliminate the profit that UPS and FedEx currently skim off the top. This also would give Amazon the opportunity to directly access its customers. By entering the transportation market and reducing delivery costs, Amazon has the potential to pass on some of its savings to consumers by continued low prices while increasing its profit margin. The drones would replace most of the need for human labor to deliver packages to the doorstep of customers. The only human labor required would be for operational management and drone maintenance. By eliminating some and reallocating other labor costs, the drone technology has the potential to save Amazon money through increased efficiency and error reduction.
Innovation of drone technology
With their innovation and use of drone technology, Amazon could achieve a first-mover advantage through technological leadership. According to Lieberman and Montgomery this can be accomplished through successful patenting or research and development (R&D) races. "When technological advantage is largely a function of R&D expenditures, pioneers can gain advantage if patented or maintained as trade secrets," (Lieberman, 1988). This means that Amazon must be looking to patent their drone technology/system or keep the logistics secret. It is important to note, that according to Lieberman, first-mover advantage does not apply to every firm and is "firm specific." Lieberman was also quoted as saying, "firms like Amazon and Yahoo that have patents, tend to be more successful as measured by market value," (Render, 2005). One would assume that Amazon will seek a patent for its drone system to curb their competitors' ability to construct copy-cat drones and thereby profit off of Amazon's hard earned R&D success. But, as stated earlier, in order to maximize their advantage, Amazon must rely on secretiveness as well as patents to gain the best possible advantage. So far, Amazon has released few details on how the company plans to implement and operate their proposed system. When asked for comments or details, Amazon declined to give further information or details about their drones, systems, or programs.
Benefits
Besides monetary gains, Amazon stands to gain other benefits if its venture is successful. As stated in the theory previously, Amazon would essentially be the first mover in the e-commerce world. With the economic benefits of being the first to innovate comes the prestige and impression that follows. Amazon would always be recognized as the first online retailer to use drone delivery. As such, Amazon would gain the trust of their customers through originality. This gives Amazon recognition and status in the drone delivery market. There are other factors that could contribute to Amazon's future domination of the drone delivery market. The idea itself is a novelty. Many persons within range of drone delivery are likely to be excited by the very idea of receiving a package delivered by drone, to the point that they might choose to order an item from Amazon instead of a retail store for the sole purpose of seeing a drone land in their backyard. Through this innovative system, Amazon will not only deliver a product, but a novel service to its customers. Another advantage Amazon will develop is faster speeds of delivery. The time required for a drone delivery (less than 30 minutes) could potentially be faster than driving to a physical retailer. Currently, customers are faced with a decision between driving to a physical retail store and buying the product or waiting for a product to be delivered to their door in a 2-5 of days for a lower cost. This choice forces a customer to choose between time and money. With drone 43 delivery, a customer no longer sacrifices time by ordering a lower cost product over the internet. Amazon will have a considerable advantage over not only online retailers, but physical retailers as well. Amazon will also be able to advertise green practices with their drone system in place. The drones will run on batteries, presumably cutting down on fuel costs and air pollution normally associated with postal delivery. The battery powered drones are arguably more environmentally friendly and a more sustainable choice even considering the increase in electricity consumption. Many environmentally conscious customers may choose to have goods delivered by drones rather than drive a fossil fuel-consuming vehicle to the store. In short, Amazon could make a name for itself through implementing drone delivery that will not only bring in revenue, but lead to a larger number of customers and higher customer satisfaction due to faster delivery.
Key components of design thinking process to a chosen innovation
Innovation refers to the development of a new element(s) or improvement in an existing element(s) (Kuok, J 2016). This element can be Idea, Technology, Product, Service etc. For applying design thinking process in any current process, services or product; it is necessary to understand what human mind thinks like (Ukko, J 2016). The basic concept of design thinking is to generate new opportunities and systematically solve problems. There are several design-centric firms that constantly apply the concept design thinking. These firms keep on innovate their products with extraordinary performance (Ja-Shen, C. 2013). The key components in innovation vary from application to application. The service I wish to innovate is Amazon drone delivery service. The stages of design thing are applied in following ways:
Empathize: This is the first stage of innovative and design thinking. This stage deals with getting familiar with our target audience and crucial to observe the audience and take hint from that about their needs.During designing phase, there is discussion important with the audience to learn about their problems, understand their requirements and seek feedback. In this case our target customers will be people who are busy with their jobs, kids or events and are in need of certain products but don't have time to go to the store or wait for long shipping times.
Define: After we understand the problem. In the next stage, we define it. It is important to frame the problem clearly so that the proper solution can be determined by exploring the prospects of innovation . In this case the problem is "Everyday people going through life hectic schedule up and down changes, not having the time to shop at retail store the things they need nor waiting for long shipping periods."
Ideate: At this stage of design thinking we identify opportunities and prompt as many ideas as possible . Team thinking is desired at this stage, so that maximum possible ideas are generated and inbuilt. Collaborating by working with Vendors, dealers, researchers, subject matter experts collaboratively to get possible solution. Being open to ideas is crucial in design phase as small hint can be taken from any idea and can be worked upon to give concrete structure.
Storytelling
To advertise this new drone technology, Amazon needs to convey to the customer on personal level how beneficial the drone delivery services can be. Commercials is the best way to share a story, the commercials can be shown on television and through all social media outlets. Imagine within the commercial showing the life of two different people. First the story of the first-time dad, who's home alone with the baby and relegalizes he ran out diapers. For most parents especially new one that is a scary situation, because some babies need their diaper changed at least every 2-3 hours. Second story is the working mother whom child just told them they have a major project due and needs a list of supplies in order to complete the project. Most working parents can relate to this story because most kids always wait to the last minute to tell you what things they need especially when it comes to school. With both stories of the new dad and the working mom, they realize they can turn to amazon to supply them with the products they need in a quicker time. At the end of the commercial we see the drone fly in delivering exactly what each of them. Right when the new dad needed to change the diaper of the crying baby and as the working mother walks in her home she can see her child already starting the project with the supplies she purchased through amazon. The purpose of the commercial is to show current and potential customers of amazon, how amazon understands the unexpected changes and last minute hiccups of life. And with amazon new drone delivery services, amazon can help you manage and get back on track.
Evaluate personal leadership skills and practices that suit an innovative change process
The personal leadership skills and practices that suit an innovation change process are exemplary in nature. According to Change model, the dominant factor that initiates the organizational change is its external environmental factors. Such factors influence the organization's mission, culture, leadership and the internal operating strategies. The changes in the 12 major dimensions bring changes to the existing structure, practice and the routine of an organization. Those 12 dimensions are the External environment, Mission, and strategy of the organization, Leadership, Organizational culture, Management practices, Structure, Systems (Policies and Procedures), Work unit climate, Motivation, Task and individual skills, Individual needs and Performance, Individual and organizational performance. The change interpreter or the change image is those who initiate change and those who experience the change. The leadership, Individuals of an organization that includes employees, shareholders, and stakeholders. When the change is introduced in an organization due to any factors viz., external environment, internal operational strategy etc., both the change model influences the change image as explained in the above 12 dimensions to change. The personal leadership skills that suit an innovation change process is about managing Innovation and the change. Innovation management is the amalgamation of the management innovation as a process and managing the change effectively. It is very much applicable in the product, business process and organizational innovation as such. This could be either pushed or pulled based on the means of development. It involves some of the process re-engineering tools that allows managers, supervisors, Innovators, Enablers, Operations experts etc., to collaborate with a common understanding of the process goal, objectives, values and the vision of the organization. It manages to respond to the internal and external opportunities in the organization and use the creativity to bring in new ideas, process, products etc., for better utilization of innovation management techniques, management uses the capability of the existing workforce for the ongoing development of the organization. Managing Innovation is about creating a fresh and fertile mindset, to give a feel for what innovation is and bring in a positive difference in our professional endeavors... Innovation is about creating a new idea, device, or method. It introduces new ideas, devices, or methods and generates value and it renews changes and adapts for betterment. Once way of executing this is found, the next step is to manage the change which is also referred as managing the innovation and get through the cycle completely.
The two leadership practices that support innovation in organizations are; leadership encouragement and organizational encouragement. Leadership encouragement is the main trait of the Innovative leaders is to show support and confidence in the work and value of the individual contributions. They nurture and promote creative people. Leaders encourage innovation when they protect and participate in the innovation process by watching out for corporate systems and responses that quash innovation. Organizational encouragement is an innovative organizational culture will always have a shared vision for innovation. It demonstrates fair, constructive judgment of ideas, rewards and recognizes innovative work and will have different mechanisms for encouraging and developing an active flow of ideas.
Effective Communication in business environment is very important. It must be in a manner which is professional and consistent with the expectations of the members of business profession. When we communicate, we want to be effective. Our communication will be effective and purposeful only if the persons who are listening to it will deem it to be important and listen to and they can deem it to be important once they will understand it. They can understand it only when we will be able to present it to them in a manner that is professional and is consistent with their expectations.
Various leadership theories are developed depending on whether the leader is born based on the personality traits, skills developed over time, how he/she motivates the followers, whether he/she puts the preferences of customers, followers before his own objectives and preferences etc.
The most effective leadership theory in global environments is a hybrid of various leadership theories like Contingency, transformational and transactional leadership theory. (Gupta, A. (2009, April 25). Contingent Leadership)
Below are the reasons for the effectiveness of these leadership theories:
a) Contingency theory - This is a theory which states that the situation decides the style of leadership to be adapted. Also, the leader must concentrate set goals to the followers and help them achieve the goals. Adaptiveness to situations and motivating the employees are the most important things a leader should possess to succeed in the global competitive world.
b) Transformational theory - This theory suggests that a leader should have the capability to transform the working environment by motivating the employees and help them achieve the professional and personal goals.
c) Transactional theory - This theory considers rewards and punishments as the right way to achieve the required results. Performance evaluation of the workers/employees is done by leaders from time-to-time to understand how well an employee is contributing to the firm's success. Better performance is rewarded and under-performance is punished by employing certain performance metrics.