Busn11075 Business Creativity - Free Assessment Answers

You should read the Dyson Case Study (attached in MBAOW) as a starting point which is based on topics covered during the main lectures. You are required to analyse the case study by firstly presenting the situation analysis of the case study and then addressing the following questions:

1.Discuss whether Dyson’s success has been based on radical or incremental innovation. Your discussion should include examples of other innovations in other countries (Vietnam, China, Pakistan) which have come about due to similar forces;

 

2.You are a consultant to a small technology/ engineering company in your country which wishes to emulate the success of Dyson. They need advice on an innovation strategy that takes lessons from Dyson. What would you advise them?

Answer:

Introduction

Dyson Limited is one of the chief British companies based on technology that was established in 1991 by James Dyson (Dyson.co.uk 2018). It has been specialized in developing household appliances like hairdryers, heaters, vacuum cleaners and others. Dyson Limited has been revolutionizing the world of electrical and electronics equipment since its inception, trying to change the face of the way these goods are sold to the customers. In order to do this, Dyson Limited had started manufacturing the items they sold in a much different manner than the typically manufactured household appliances. It started revolutionizing the way these appliances were made with the help of various ideas that would somewhat lower the barrier between a consumer and the manufacturer organization (Dyson.co.uk 2018). The innovative implementation they had on their products made the consumers literally see through the product they have been using. This made Dyson different than its market competitors and also made it stand out against the others. This innovation has been described thoroughly in the following case study and would be followed with a thorough analysis report on the case study. The case study analysis report would include a brief introduction about the organization and detailed case study about the various innovative measures that Dyson Limited had implemented in order to launch various new household appliances (Maiocchi 2015). It would then be followed by a situation analysis that would describe the issues regarding the organization of Dyson Limited in accordance with the case study. The reasons behind the success of Dyson Limited will be then discussed to find out if the success had been based on radical innovation or incremental innovation. The next phase of the analysis report would then include the emulation of the success behind the innovation strategy of Dyson following with further advices that the organization could make use of to reach further levels of success. This would present with a thorough analysis report on how organizations can utilize innovative measures for the betterment of the business process.

Brief introduction to the case study about Dyson

James Dyson, the founder of Dyson Limited had previously been using various household appliances. As a matter of fact, while he was using an ordinary vacuum cleaner, he had been analysing the working method of the appliance (Han et al. 2018). He had found that after repeated use of the appliance, it had lost its suction powers sooner than expected. This resulted into him opening up the vacuum cleaner to look into its mechanism. He had opened up the bag inside to find the lining of the bag being clogged with a good amount of layer of dust, which had resulted in deteriorating the fine material mesh of the suction capability of the vacuum cleaner (Dyson et al 2017). Thus, he had the idea to invent his own set of innovative household appliances that would literally be transparent to the customers. The innovation propelled Dyson to establish his own organization that specialized in the manufacturing of innovative home appliances.

The case study that has been under analysis states the fact about the innovations of the organization Dyson Limited. Dyson had strategized to capture the market in a new applied way of innovative technology in the manufacturing of their products. Such as, they have invented the new and improved vacuum cleaner with a transparent body that enables the customers to see through the mechanism behind the manufacturing of the vacuum cleaner itself. However, these products are not at all economical for a customer as each of them would cost about 460 British pounds, which is three or four times of the other vacuum cleaners available in the market (Dyson et al 2017). Therefore, this matter has been established in the case study that the latest innovation in the manufacturing of the household appliances by Dyson Limited indeed was a promising effort in presenting something new to the customers but it was not available at a reasonable price (Goto et al. 2014). The case study has also been stating the fact that Dyson wanted its customers to have a clear idea about the product they are buying from the organization and wanted to be true to their technology. This would result in acquiring the trust of the customers, which would be beneficiary to the organization (Park et al. 2018). This is why Dyson would extensively test their products before presenting them in the market.

The case study also focuses on the earliest innovation of James Dyson in presenting the dual cyclone cleaner and the ways by which the now competitors of Dyson Limited have shut down the innovation standpoint. Dyson had previously offered licence to these organizations before but had got rejected (Gnanapragasam et al. 2017). Ever since then, Dyson had been successful in the innovation of the various household appliances and had made prominent mark in the market with these innovative products.

The case study also identifies the success of Dyson Limited as an entrepreneurial myth, which had been out of the frustration that Dyson had been developing while using his own vacuum cleaner (Pisano 2015). The early innovation that Dyson had implemented was the ballbarrow, which is a wheelbarrow attached with a ball instead of a wheel, that had also been developed due to the frustration that Dyson developed while he used a paint ballbarrow and found its faulty air filter. This was again one of the reasons that compelled Dyson to create his first prototype which was the first of the 5,127 prototypes that have been created so far (Harmer et al. 2015).

His innovations had reached its way through a small Japanese company that funded his prototype, resulting in the invention of G-force vacuum cleaner which has been a luxury item in the Japanese Market. Ever since then, Dyson had been inventing various home appliances with uncommon innovations but it focused mostly on the innovation of different kinds of vacuum cleaners. Later, Dyson had launched its first washing machine, the CR01 Contractor, and ever since then there has been latest inventions in almost every one of the new product that Dyson had launched (Dietrich 2016). However, it has faced criticism for the increased pricing of the products but there has not been any complaints raised regarding the quality of the products.

In explanation of the high pricing of the products, James Dyson stated that to maintain balance between the quality of products and the business expenditures, the prices of the products had to be made higher than usual or the business would have faced severe funding problems and would have failed to launch any of its quality products further.

Situation analysis of the issues regarding Dyson

Dyson Limited had been one of the pioneer British business organizations in the development of innovative household appliances. The appliances that this organization presents in the market are known mostly for its transparency, both in the figurative as well as literal form. The customers so far could not complaint about the quality of the product they have been presented with by the organization (Dimbylow et al. 2017). The controversial issues that prevail with this organization is the high pricing of the innovative products that the company has been presenting to its customers. The issue that has been created here shall be further analysed as per the situation that has been there in the organization due to the innovations so far. This would be done with the help of SWOT analysis of the innovations and its impact on the organization of Dyson Limited so far. The SWOT analysis would consist of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that the latest innovations in the household appliances have brought about in the organization (Maya and Betancur-Rodríguez 2017). This would be described in details as follows:

SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis for the situation would include the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the Threats about the situation which would further help in describing the impact the innovations of the home appliances that have been on the organization (Landaeta et al. 2016). The SWOT analysis will be described in details in the following way:

• Strengths: The Dyson Limited organization had been producing various ranges of innovative home appliances in the British market. The products have been a brainchild of the founder of the organization, James Dyson. As per entrepreneurial myth, the products have been developed out of frustration of the founder while he had been using traditional products and found them to be faulty (Paulson and Schramm 2017). He had also noticed that these products were made by different companies with no structural difference with each other and barely the manufacturing companies thought of improving the problems that the products have been imposing on the customers. Thus, the primary strength behind the innovation of these products have been the idea that made its way into James Dyson’s mind while no one else had been thinking of implementing them. This proved to be one of the most unique qualities that proved beneficiary to the organization.
• Weaknesses: At the time of its inception, the products of Dyson had been tremendously innovative as well as expensive in comparison to the other household appliances that have been in vogue in the British market since a long time. This acted as one of the weaknesses in the strategic idea to introduce the innovative products in the market. Although the products have been of extremely good quality and provided a classic range of services, they have been hard to acquire by a general class of consumers given its expensive market price (Phaal, Farrukh and Probert 2015). For example, the products had been manufactured as transparent devices to make the customers aware of the appliance’s working structure, but not all of them were able to buy it since the price of the products have been three or four times more than the general market price for these commodities.
• Opportunities: James Dyson thought of the idea of imposing these innovative technical appliances when he found that the household appliances like vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, washing machine and others were treated as commodities and no other organization was interested in introducing any new technology regarding this to the market or have been competing with the other companies for providing better support to the customers (Slater, Mohr and Sengupta 2014). Instead, the companies were manufacturing these products as mere copies of each other with least efforts to provide a better performance to the customers. Thus, it can be analyzed from the above situation that the plans and ideas to innovate the home appliances was a wonderful idea to bring about changes in the organization which would only be beneficiary to them.
• Threats: The innovations that have been presented by the Dyson Limited organization have been successful in presenting state of the art quality of products to the British market. It had been so successful in manufacturing the products that a Japanese small organization had taken up the onus of making it a household product in the Japanese market (Coskun, Kaner and Bostan 2018). This formed somewhat of a threat to the other organizations in the industry that had previously shut down the innovations but were now focused as the core competitors of Dyson Limited. Dyson Limited had ever since been dealing with the legal battles against its competitors who have imposed charges like patent infringement and vandalism of intellectual property on the organization. For a nascent organization like this, it can be serious threat towards the business organization that has the potential to lead the organization towards its downfall.

Reasons if the success of Dyson was based on radical or incremental innovation

Radical innovation happens to be the mode of invention that has the ability to make an existing business model be destroyed completely. On the other hand, the incremental innovation happens to be a phenomenon in which an organization goes through several trivial changes on the products, services and other business development features generally focusing on improving the efficiency of the organization.

In this case, it can be seen that the innovations that were introduced by Dyson Limited had completely changed the face of household appliances in the market that have been existing so far (Gao, Hsu and Li 2018). Since its inception, it could be seen that Dyson Limited were presented with numerous new innovations that had never been seen in the market before (Eesley, Hsu and Roberts 2014). James Dyson, the founder of the organization, thought of the idea of imposing these innovative technical appliances when he found that the household appliances like vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, washing machine and others were treated as commodities (Norman and Verganti 2014). No other organization was interested in introducing any new technology regarding this to the market or has been competing with the other companies for providing better support to the customers.

Whereas, the innovative products developed by James Dyson had been extremely innovative, for example, the vacuum cleaner manufacture by Dyson had a complete transparent body that enabled the user to see through the mechanism comprising the vacuum cleaner (Cole et al. 2016). Thus, the primary strength behind the innovation of these products have been the idea that made its way into James Dyson’s mind while no one else had been thinking of implementing them. Whereas, the competing organizations never thought of implementing any innovations in the traditional manufacturing of these products, making vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, hand dryers, and the other products as mere commodities.

Thus it can be inferred from the case study that the innovations that have been imposed by the Dyson Limited organization have been radical in nature rather than being incremental in nature.

Examples of Innovative Implementations in other countries

Vietnam: Vietnam is amongst very few of the countries that have rarely used the strategy of innovating into the business process. This is because the Vietnamese companies fails to emulate the concept of innovation altogether (Han et al. 2018). This is the reason that the business organizations in the country of Vietnam has been seen to cluster within each other. The business organizations are seen to copy one another other than implementing any kind of innovative measures.

This makes the organizations in Vietnam become least attractive and there is only average sales noticed.

China: There have been many examples of China leading the path of innovation when it comes to business strategies. China has shown its might as a nation with the mightiest of innovative business strategies to the current day, and it has been completely undeniable to accept this fact. For example, the innovation of WeChat, called Tancent in China has ranked as the 5^th most valuable organization in the 3^rd quarter of 2017 (Han et al. 2018). China has also emerged as the leading Global power in the world economy that has been mostly possible because of the innovative strategies the Chinese organizations have imposed on their business structures.

India: India had recently started innovations in the business structures in their organizations lately, making them reach the levels of international countries that lead the way in the path of world economy (Han et al. 2018). From innovations in the factors of micro-edit to making changes in the business structures by the organizations, there have been increasing implementations of innovation strategies in the business organizations in India. This proves the fact, how innovations impact an organization and also a country in the world of economy.

Pakistan: Pakistan’s business structures and economic conditions were previously not at all up to the mark in comparison with the other organizations in the countries around the world. However, it is now slowly implementing innovations in the business process and all the previous problems are being eliminated one by one. Previously, Amazon did not deliver into Pakistan directly, but the problem is now being mitigated by implementing innovative strategies (Michaud et al. 2017). This proves how changes can be made in the business structure with the implementation of innovation strategies.

This proves that Dyson’s innovation would only lead the organization in the path of progress.

Emulating the success of Dyson

Since the time of its inception, the success of Dyson had been based on the innovative strategies that the organization had implemented to serve the consumers in the British market. Dyson had strategized to capture the market in a new applied way of innovative technology in the manufacturing of their products (Michaud et al. 2017). Such as, they have invented the new and improved vacuum cleaner with a transparent body that enables the customers to see through the mechanism behind the manufacturing of the vacuum cleaner itself.

However, these products are not at all economical for a customer as each of them would cost about 460 British pounds, which is three or four times of the other vacuum cleaners available in the market (Vaussard et al. 2014). Therefore, it can be emulated that innovative strategy has proven to be somewhat beneficiary towards the business structure of the organization of Dyson Limited.

Further advice on the innovation strategy of Dyson

Innovative strategies of Dyson had indeed been revolutionary, but these products are not at all economical for a customer as each of them would cost about 460 British pounds, which is three or four times of the other vacuum cleaners available in the market (Bakker et al. 2014). Therefore, this matter has been established in the case study that the latest innovation in the manufacturing of the household appliances by Dyson Limited indeed was a promising effort in presenting something new to the customers but it was not available at a reasonable price.

It can also be understandable that compromising on the products required for the manufacturing of these goods would have been expensive take on the company’s promise to their customers of providing quality products. Nevertheless, these can still be considered to implement further benefit to the company to have further development.

Conclusion

Thus it can be concluded that the latest innovations that Dyson Limited had implemented in the manufacturing of the various home appliances to the market have been brought under thorough analysis to find out if the implementations were a smart move towards the betterment of the organization and the service provided to the customers. The innovative implementation they had on their products made the consumers literally see through the product they have been using. For example, the vacuum cleaner manufactured by the organization had a transparent casket around its body that would enable the user to see through the mechanical parts inside it and how these work to serve the function of a vacuum cleaner. This made Dyson different than its market competitors and also made it stand out against the others. This innovation has been described thoroughly in the following case study and would be followed with a thorough analysis report on the case study. The case study analysis report has included a brief introduction about the organization and the detailed case study about the different innovative measures that Dyson Limited had implemented in order to launch various new household appliances. It was further followed by the situation analysis describing the issues regarding the organization of Dyson Limited with the help of the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in accordance with the case study. The reasons behind the success of Dyson Limited are then discussed to find out if the success had been based on radical innovation or incremental innovation. The next phase of the analysis report was comprised of the emulation of the success behind the innovation strategy of Dyson following with further advices that the organization could make use of to reach further levels of success. Thus, with a thorough report on how organizations can utilize innovative measures for the betterment of the business process, Dyson Limited and its innovative strategies have been analyzed according to the market and business structure.

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