Managing Innovation in Zipcar - Essay Sample

Managing Innovation in Zipcar

Zipcar is an American firm that deals with vehicle reservations. The company was formed in January 2000 (Kaplan, 2017). The headquarters of the company is located in Boston, Massachusetts. It has other sub-branches in various parts of the country. Additionally, the company operates in more than 500 cities in 9 nations (Zhou, 2012). In which it has more than 10,000 vehicles (Alpkan & Gemici, 2016). Members reserve cars using a mobile application or company website. Using a mobile app, members can access and locate a Zipcar. The charges are done on a monthly bases among members. Based on the description, Zipcar is a firm that highly relies on the application of technology. The management believes that innovative firm is associated with intellectual culture. Therefore, innovation management has been an essential approach to Zipcar management highly focuses. Innovation management helps to shape workers' experience, which is a critical aspect of the decision-making technique (Schwieterman & Pelon, 2017). Additionally, experience impacts workers to develop positive behaviours, especially when dealing with coworkers and customers. The essay reviews how Zipcar apply disruptive innovation theory in managing technology, and the company used to embrace mobile app.

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As a way of determining the effectiveness of an innovation, companies engage in managing innovation assessment by introducing tools that test the effectiveness of the system. Using an innovation assessment tool, an organisation acquire information which assists in improving the technology application through considering areas that are essential in the system. Since innovation is a process, the administration needs to develop an effective way to support it to improve its survival and development (Zhou, 2012).

Most companies use measures and indicators to determine and follow the innovation process. All activities deploy in the innovation should match the organisation goals. In some companies, managers use innovation management tools to assist in determining trending technology. The notion helps to determine a new approach to use to supplement the existing technology.

Theory of Innovation

Technology development has been an essential factor that has boosted companies to introduce new modes of operations. Embracing modern technology helps companies produce high-quality products that compete effectively in the market. Industrial 4.0 entirely relies on the application to technology in various levels of production and marketing (Akbar & Ozuem, 2019).

As a way of embracing technology, there is a need for a manager to develop innovation management. Innovation management is a technique that the administration uses to help employers and managers to understand and introduce new ways of operations. The notion assist the manager in deploying creative capabilities in operation to support the organisation in attaining the goals (Alpkan & Gemici, 2016). Through the technique, a firm can respond to external and internal opportunities.

Additionally, managing innovation is achieved by introducing new ideas, process, and products which meet customers' need. Creative thinking is an essential aspect of innovation management. Managers and workers are supposed to deploy logic thinking to develop effective ways of solving issues. Usually, innovation is associated with a lot of complications, which requires deep understanding before introducing in production (Zhou, 2012). Therefore, managers are needed to embrace a collaborative approach to create an environment that simplifies the issue for easier understanding. Additionally, the collaborative approach helps to develop a networking system that impacts how an innovation diffuse within the organisation.

Disruptive Innovation Theory

In most companies, the theory of disruptive innovation assists management in creating a new market and value network and finally destroying the existing. According to King and Baatartogtokh (2015), disruptive innovation theory mostly relies on customers' information to understand which marketing aspect to change. In a business environment, the market is a crucial aspect that impacts performance techniques (da Costa Nogami & Veloso, 2017).

Due to high competition, companies tend to introduce new ways of performance to improve their chances of surviving (Schneider, 2019). However, disruption technology introduces new approaches which supplement the existing process. For instance, the introduction of electric cars aimed to disrupt the application of gasoline cars. However, the system sometimes is high resisted since it undermines other companies' performance.

Like human beings, technology has a start and an end (Christensen, Raynor, and McDonald, 2015). Therefore, when a technology is introduced in a company, management aims that the new system will challenge the existing issues to create more opportunities to boost their performance. Throughout the process, companies deploy managing innovation assessments to ensure all activities work according to the goals.

According to Guttentag (2015), disruptive innovation takes positive attention as it illustrates the impact of a new system in a company. Usually, innovation plays a vital role in the formation and development of a market share by introducing new performance techniques. When a project is disrupted, a company gains the advantage to improve its growth due to good market performance and understanding.

Market performance impacts a company to engage in various activities such as advertisement which affect the production and distribution. High profit gives a company a chance to introduce an innovation because they have enough resources to cater for all requirements.

According to Guttentag (2015), competence destroying changes are connected with the theory to ensure they obligate previous aspects of production. The theory highlights that innovation should focus on improving customer expectations since they are the key to success. The notion increases the demand rate, thus boosting productivity. However, the new system should be time-consuming and cost-effective. The concept will boost the connection between organisations and customers. Usually, the key aim of disruptive innovation is to capture customers by changing the performance metric and creating a gap between competitors.

According to Guttentag (2015), disruptive innovation introduces a unique value suggestion in an environment. Using the theory, companies acquire competitive advantages, which helps to recognize the gap in the market. The market gap helps the company in developing strategies that assist in utilizing opportunities in the working environment effectively (Mottla et al., 2019).

In most cases, companies use the concept to engage in the mass market process to dominate the market. The approach assists a company in effective enter the market and competes effectively with other firms. High-quality products force companies to shift to the product, thus, taking advantage of other organisations. The success of an innovation is highly grounded on visionary leaders. Therefore, leaders have a vital role to play in the adaption of an innovation (Dixon, Lannon, & Eames, 2018). Visionary leaders develop strategic approaches that they deploy during the innovation implementation.

Disruptive innovation is a process that may take a long time before it is effectively implemented. The success of the innovation may depend on various marketing approaches that the company embraces. Advertisement and promotion are two major factors that most firms engage to ensure they create awareness about the services (Guttentag, 2015). A good service tends to grab customer's attention.

According to Yu and Hang (2010), an innovation process may take a long time before a company determines its success. The nature of customers is a critical aspect that may impact the success of an innovation. In this case, for an innovation to be successful, customers must be in a position to use and apply all the techniques required. If they encounter a challenge when using, it may become a challenge, and hence, they may prefer to use the previous services which they are used.

In production and marketing, high technology introduces more effective versions that shift mode of performance. According to King and Baatartogtokh (2015), technology changes the demand for specific skills and experiences in the market. The concept helps to expand how a company is performing due to the introduction of some concepts which aim at improving the performance (Rosenstand et al., 2017). For instance, the application of robots has highly replaced human labour because they are effective and faster. In this case, robot technology disrupts the application of human force.

Typically, a system that can introduce a revolution in an environment is seen as an effective way to change performance approaches (Christensen et al., 2015. Competition has been an essential factor that subject firms to engage in disruptive innovation. Introducing a technology that disrupts others help to outweigh their performance.

The high technology system that companies introduce changes in their structure and component in production. The high technology changes companies' physical, energy, and data flow. Changes impact the skills requirement and duties handled (Christensen et al., 2015). Additionally, high technology introduces new management approaches that a company may deploy to improve performance. However, the technology system that a company introduces should be faster and more reliable as compared to the previous system (Schwieterman & Pelon, 2017). As such, the system should be in a position to improve performance by producing a large number of products within a short period. Theory helps a company to develop a creative system that assists in overcoming existing issues to outweigh their performance. In this case, the theory helps to find a solution and deploy the concept company's problems (Christensen, McDonald, Altman, & Palmer, 2016). Even though various management approaches a company may deploy, there always challenges that impact companies' performance.

Like other companies, Zipcar highly relies on the application of disruptive innovation theory to improve their performance. Usually, Zipcar is a fascinating company where a person rents cars based on a certain period (Christensen, McDonald, Altman, & Palmer, 2018). The company uses an online booking system using a mobile app. The process deploys the theory of disruptive as it introduces new ways of customer interaction, which changes the previous model. The company mostly operates in busy regions such as public parking, institutions, apartments, and much more (Christensen et al., 2015). The operations provide customers with an easier way to access the services. The application of mobile apply helps to illustrate where available cars are located. Additionally, the mobile app provides customers with up to date information to ensure they understand new changes introduced in the company (Millar, Lockett, & Ladd, 2018). The mobile app has become a good idea, especially in towns, as customers can easily access the services anytime.

In the past, customers were required to move up to a particular region to acquire car services. The introduction of mobile app disrupt companies that rely on parking near public transportation. When a person opens a mobile app, all Zipcar within the region appears in the form of an image. The concept assists customers to acquire a Zipcar that is near them. According to Kaplan (2017), Zipcar is one of the first ride-sharing services that offer high-quality services. The services has introduced new ways of transportation disrupting, which has been improved...