Unit 1: Innovation 

Learning Outcomes The learner will:

Assessment Criteria The learner can:

Indicative Content

1. Understand how innovation and disruption are influencing organisational growth

1.1 Assess how innovation is changing the external market in which organisations operate

• Environmental scanning, trends, discovery theory
• Disruptive innovation and digital disruption
• Emerging economies and innovations
• Competitive advantage – new competitive approaches

1.2 Analyse the business opportunities and challenges available within markets

• Intuitive, ‘gut feel’, insights
• Discovery-driven planning
• Traditional business plans
• Developing business models
• Internal and external approaches
• Business process re-engineering

1.3 Identify the challenges faced by an organisation in developing and implementing innovative strategies

• External environmental factors
• Competition
• Leadership buy-in
• Budget/Capital requirements
• Resistance to change

2. Assess the key factors that facilitate innovation in organisations

2.1 Analyse the key features of an innovative organisation

• Vision and styles of leadership
• Organisational structures
• Key individuals and team working
• Creative climate/culture
• External focus – market orientation, boundary spanning and networks

2.2 Apply the different dimensions of innovation to an organisation’s marketing approach

• Invention, creativity and innovation
• Disruptive and sustaining innovations
• Product, process and platform innovation
• Open and closed approaches to innovation
• Radical and incremental forms of innovation
• Market pull vs. technology push
• Business model innovation