Innovation in Products

Introduction Innovation can be described as one of very important factors for the success of any industry. It also helps the organization in getting a fair market position. In order to attain a better competitive advantage over the competitors, innovation helps the organization to improve its products. In short it can be said that innovation is the key factor for an organization to get a fair market position. This report describes the important innovation done by an organization. For the discussion, the famous technological company Samsung has taken in this report. This report focuses on various innovative strategies that have been adopted by Samsung.Since Samsung is one of the best electronic enterprises in the world. It generally has specialization in media and digital appliances, system integrators, semi- conductors and memory. The company is usually known for its innovativeness and best quality equipment. With time the company expanded its product line (Anthony, 2012). Innovation in products Innovation is the best tool of entrepreneurs, using which they make best use of opportunities by exploiting any change for a business or service.

There are many innovative tools by using which an organization can reach on the top and also able to satisfy its customers. Samsung uses its innovation in electronic products like television, mobile phones, air conditioners and pc’s etc. which help in less power consumption (Teece, 2010). 4p framework of innovative activities for the company Samsung is as follows: Product- Samsung is building an international orientation by the new product process. Using innovation in the existing product, it becomes new and fulfills the requirements of customers. While innovation process, Samsung established an international orientation which means innovation made in the product will serve the requirements of domestic as well as international clients. Samsung practices are eco-friendly to make the products eco-friendly for its customers. Some of the innovative measures undertaken by Samsung to make its products better are as follows- ?Samsung do not use mercury in led TV’s during the production process. It also doesn’t include any paint or spray in the production. ?As compared to other TV sets, Samsung TV consumes 60% less energy and is ranked as one of the most outstanding sets with high picture quality. ?Samsung mobile phones are manufactured of 40% recycled material.

Samsung has been provided the title of “green” thinking innovation. Its memory has been considered as one of the fastest chip and consumes less energy (Samsung, 2016). Position- The company has been regularly designing and introducing new products i.e., Galaxy series. Samsung has been trying to establish its point of parity through innovation and introduction of new technologies. The innovative features of their smart phones are the important part of their parity i.e., introduction of Samsung Galaxy S6 with curved screen which is new innovation in mobile sector. Samsung seems to be the pioneer in this criterion by thinking out of the box. The current position of the Samsung is to be a market leader in the market. Samsung always comes up with the new ideas which are customer-focused and creative. The products offered by the company are establishing a strong brand image in the Australian market. Main focus of the company is to provide amazing and unique design products to meet the expectations of customers (Elmansy, 2017). Process- In the process of product innovation, there are some steps adopted by the company. The company has the design team for the development process. The process includes understanding, Ideating, concept development, and concept finalizing. In the understanding process, team understands the market, collects data, ideas and information about customers. In the Ideating, designers generate the ideas by analyzing the collected data so that the company can provide innovations or solutions to the customers. In the concept development, the team analyzes the information i.e. the business strategy, research, and ideas which the company has generated. In the last concept, the team works business unit to develop final product based on the customer and market requirement (Samsung, 2013).

4P Framework of Innovative Activities for the Company Samsung

Samsung is known for the best electronic devices in the market. Samsung has adopted the open innovation process to build external innovation strength. The aim of the innovation is to collaborate with designers, thinkers and innovators to provide various solutions. Samsung is focused on both customers as well as competitors to stay competitive in the market. Samsung is the most innovative company and it always comes up with the new version of products. Samsung is basically looking to differentiate the premium devices by adopting the unique design process. Company is also planning to launch low-end and mid-range devices with the fingerprint scanner. Along with this, the company is also planning to increase our shipment of mid-range devices (Bosnjak, 2017). Present portfolio of Samsung Samsung has many resources of modernization at the global level. The first source of innovation is investment and interest of government in the innovative technology like in smart phones. The other source of company’s innovation is the customers of the technology, demand of which is increasing day by day in the world market. The Research and Development department of Samsung has an important role in the innovations of the company. Online surveys are the major source for getting new ideas to Samsung. The company always focuses on the customers who have new requirements. There are many new ideas and technologies that are connected to the industry. The newest products are generally main source of innovation and are highly innovative. Tablet and Smartphone that contains all the important factors of laptop is innovation. Alarm clocks, weather, movies and other functions like mobile games are available in the system. These innovations are used by the company throughout the world in all Samsung companies. Mainly the innovative techniques are decentralized in the company but these are also centrally coordinated for global cooperation of the Samsung Company (Nisen, 2012). Innovative strategies of Samsung can be broadly classified as international and domestic upstream and downstream. Domestic up-streaming and down-streaming is a type of strategy which initiates the innovation through vertical combination of products and organization. The main focus of the innovation is digitally conversion of products like TFT/LCD, mobile phones and semi-conductors. On the other side, domestic down-streaming is the method of horizontal expansion of business in markets and countries by increasing its multinational status.

There is always a strong coordination between Research and Development and sales and growth. Samsung spends huge amount on its research and development which is its great strength of adopting innovations in competitive world. Since 2005, Samsung has been in the list of top 20 global spenders in Research and Development.

Paradigm

The most important strength of Samsung’s innovationis its investment in Information Technology sector. As in today’s world IT sector is variable and continuously changing resulting in lot of innovations every minute. Investment in IT sector leads to great impact on company’s profit and also helps in competing with the fast moving innovations of the competitive world. Proper communication system is also major strength of company’s innovations. By using effective techniques of media and advertising, it is able to communicate the quality of its products and innovations with its customers (Murray, Markides & Galavan, 2008).

Although Samsung is the most innovative company of this world but there are certain areas in which it has a little control. The devices of Samsung like mobile tablets and handsets run android which is the same feature used by most of its competitors except Apple. Also for the innovations in the core of operating software, it has to depend on Google. Samsung doesn’t have control on its profits because 90% of the profits on android apps and ads go to Google. Sometimes it gets no revenue from apps because Google controls that money from Google play.

A lot of specific targets are incorporated for the strategic innovation of the company. The company is seeking to achieve annual sales of USD 400 billion by placing brand value of the company among global top 5. The company is also trying to deliver the world class products through innovation and operational excellence. The company’s ultimate mission is to inspire the world with innovative products and designs to enrich the customer’s lives for a sustainable future. Through innovation Samsung also targets to become the global enterprise which can attract the world’s best talent.

The new target for Samsung electronics can be set on the basis of three key strength i.e., new technology, innovative products, creative solutions and to adding specific value to the main networks i.e., industry, partners and employees. Opportunity comes from technology which helps in growth of business and by using innovative technologies Samsung will help its customers to tap into the digital economy with new possibilities. This will help the company to become a trusted market leader in the global market. So, by the set targets of strategic innovations, company is able to achieve competitive advantage in market (Afuah, 2009).

References:

Afuah, A., (2009), Strategic innovation, New York: Routledge Anthony, S., (2012), How Big Companies Can Save Innovation: Harvard Business Review, accessed on 28th July 2017 from https://hbr.org/2012/09/how-big-companies-can-save-inn Bosnjak, D., (2017), Samsung’s 2017 Mobile Strategy Focused On Innovation, accessed on 28th July 2017 from https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/01/samsungs-2017-mobile-strategy-focused-innovation.html Elmansy, R., (2017), 5 Successful Open Innovation Examples, accessed on 28th July 2017 from https://www.designorate.com/successful-open-innovation-examples/ Murray, J., Markides, C., and Galavan, R., (2008), Strategy, innovation, and change, Oxford: Oxford University Press Nisen, M., (2012), How Apple, Samsung, And Google Take Different Approaches To Innovation, accessed on 28th July 2017 from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-apple-samsung-and-google-take-different-approaches-to-innovation-2012-11?IR=T Samsung, (2013), Samsung’s Product Innovation Team: How Ideas Becomes Streamlined, accessed on 28th July 2017 from https://news.samsung.com/global/samsungs-product-innovation-team-how-ideas-becomes-streamlined Samsung, (2016), Samsung Shows Dedication to IoT with $1.2 Billion Investment and R&D, accessed on 28th July 2017 from https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-announces-vision-for-a-human-centered-internet-of-things-planning-1-2-billion-for-u-s-research-and-development-of-iot Teece, D. J., (2010), Business models, business strategy and innovation: Long range planning, 43(2), 172-194.