Question:
ULO 4: Reflect on own innovation related skills and demonstrate insight into how best to apply and further develop these skills.
Assessment Task
What insights did you gain from talking to them?
What will you do differently based on your discussion?
What advice could you offer this entrepreneur?
Section B (15% – 1600 words) is a personal innovation capability audit where students reflect on their own skills and plan how they intend to develop these going forward.
Answer:
Introduction
This project is all about the innovation and entrepreneurship and will able to understand the different aspect of the innovation. Innovation is one of the important facts in the business process and also gives rise to the concept of the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a man who adopts the innovation in their business to provide the new concept in the market.
In this project the interview with Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria is conducted. The experience of this interview will be described in depth. In addition, evaluation of the strength and weakness of my own activities in contrast with the interviewer will also be placed. Personal development plan and several innovation models will also be described in this assignment for a better understanding of the topic. Lastly, the suggestion of the implementation of model and reason will be elaborated properly.
Section A:
The reason for selecting the entrepreneur for conducting this interview on:The respective interview was conducted to share experience and ideas from an entrepreneur for understanding the skills and qualities an entrepreneur has to possess to achieve the respective success of entrepreneurship. So for that purpose, Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria could be considered as one of the best choices for the interview.
Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria is the co-founder of the organisation or the company named the Paul Mitchell, which does the business of various hair products and hair care accessories along with the company The Patrón Spirits. Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria is a self-made billionaire. Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria is one of the well-known entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Therefore, it would be very accurate to choose such an entrepreneur who achieved the success all on his own to gain some valuable advice about entrepreneurship. In the period of his struggling career, he experienced some very valuable lessons, sharing which with all of the people looking forward to doing a start-up business and aspiring their dreams could encourage them and enrich them with wisdom and knowledge about the challenges that they could face in the process.
The Insights That Were Gained From Talking To Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria
Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria is one of the well-known faces of the entrepreneurs of the modern American fashion industry. He has started from the small and developed his own business into a giant modern business organisation. He went through lots of struggle and ups and down, in this interview the history behind his success will help to learn lots of things.
At the earliest stage of his life, Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria worked even as a janitor, or as a door to door salesman selling encyclopaedia and even as an insurance salesman. After this, his first introduction to the respective business of hair care and hair care products started with the job as an employee of a local company where he started to gain knowledge about the business. However, after a short period, he was fired from the job as he claims that there was a disagreement about the business strategies between him and the authority of the company. After this Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria founded own small business organisation. The entrepreneur did market research, tried to identify the requirements of customers and then based on the research has taken the risk to introduce hair care products that can fulfil the customer requirements.
Thus, in his story, it could be said that the passion for one’s work and continuous hard work will always reward the person with the success they deserve. Many people could be more talented than the entrepreneur in the respective area of business, but an entrepreneur is the one who builds the ability to recognise the opportunities at the right time and takes the right steps for achieving success (Crumpton, 2012).
Things That Could Have Been Done Differently Based On The Discussion Of The Interview
In the separate interview, Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria has shared some of his business strategies an mindset, which could be useful in order to achieve success in the respective business area, he works in. He said that the basic key factor to becoming an entrepreneur and reaching the top of the business industry lies in the good understanding of the business and applying the right process to the right place at the right time.
However, there are certain factors that Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria has mentioned in the interview, which could be modified in order to get even better results. He concluded that he refuses to change his signature strategy of doing the promotion of his business and keeping it quite a low key and let the talent and quality of his products and services do the publicity instead. But it would be even better to advertise his product more on the social media and in other offline media such as the magazines, newspapers and many other media so that it could gain the attention of more people as well as the new generation which is becoming more interested in the fashion industry day by day.
The advice that could be offered to Mr John Paul Jones DeJoriaIt would be quite an audacity to give advice to such a big entrepreneur as Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria about the respective business of hair care and products. However, it will be better for him to take the more new initiative in the business as the public is becoming more interested in the fashion and self-care industry day by day. He could introduce more innovative technologies and modern techniques in his work to attract the modern generation even more.
Section B
1) ReflectionThis part is going to deal with a personal innovation capability audit where I will reflect on my skills as well as a plan for how I intend to develop these going forward. I can derive from the feedback from my parents, teachers, and co-learners as well that I have enough innovation capabilities. However, I do also have some flaws and weaknesses as well that I have to rectify. As a student in the business management, I need to focus on my capabilities and my weaknesses.
Strength: I have enough innovative capabilities. I can fix my goal very well. I know that the goal should have a SMART approach that my goal has to be specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant and time-bound. From the experiences of my childhood, I know that I can take the decision very quickly and confidently. The decisions I take have proved to be right. My teachers observed that I have the creativity of my own to serve any job and I can focus on my efforts. Good communication is another advantage. Through a work process, I can communicate with everyone whom I have to deal. I collected the feedback from my co-workers and learners about my communication skill, and they have conveyed that I can manage it smoothly by extending the hands of cooperation towards others. My friends are quite satisfied with my power of right decision-making, as it seemed to be advantageous for them also several times. Therefore, in any crucial issue, they insist me to take the decision and fix the goals. I possess a good assessing power for my activities. I can evaluate my tasks and others. The ideas I generate have a clarification. My implemented ideas add value. I can take initiatives with enthusiasm. My insights support my actions leading to achieve success. I can go forward to my goals quite confidently. I know the importance of my goals and the things that I need to accomplish to reach my goal (Aoun and Hasnan, 2017).
Weaknesses: Besides having the strength I do also have some weaknesses as well. In accomplishing my tasks, I get confused sometimes. That shifts the focus of my goal. If the resources are limited, I become tensed and nervous. If the time is limited and I have a short deadline for the task, it takes my breath, and I become a little bit pessimistic about whether I can end it up with time. In the examination hall, I face these problems very frequently. As the time progresses and a little time left for writing the answers, I start making mistakes. I need more practices and confidence in me to be developed for rectifying this. My friends and classmates told me that I become panic-stricken even over a trivial thing. This nervousness spoiled a number of my performances.
Opportunities: I am gifted with many advantages. I have good parents, and I have friends who inspire me and help me in every task. My economic condition is not so poor that I cannot concentrate on my studies and jobs. I have a motivating and preferable ambience to continue my study. My parents advised me that I should use every opportunity that comes in my path to the fullest. My friends affirmed it that my creativity and sense of responsibility is much than others. The success of any work is a reward, and it inspires me in my further performances.
Threats: The risks of work seem to threaten me a lot. I need to predict the risks more and try to solve it with innovative ideas. Therefore, I have to hold more insight and foresightedness. I have to grow the power of risk analysis. In several past matters, if I noticed any major risk in any project, I passed the act of decision making over to my co-workers. According to the accumulated feedbacks from my teachers, classmates, colleagues and my parents, I lack the capability of risk assessing and risk facing. I need to improve the behavioural skills for this. The behavioural skills refer to the ability to solve the problems and manage the risks (Vivarell, 2014).
2) Planning
Based on the personal swot analysis that I have conducted in the reflection section, I have identified some strengths and weakness that will potentially create opportunities as well as threats for me in my professional growth. To enhance my strengths and to overcome my weaknesses, here I have developed a personal development plan that will outline the path to achieve my development objectives. In the following section, I have developed my development objectives using a SMART framework.
SMART objectives: SMART framework outlines objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. The following table outlines the SMART development objectives.
| SMART | Objectives |
| Specific | Unable to work under pressure and overreact in difficult situations. Achieving the goals within deadlines is quite problematic. |
| Measurable | To get the objective to be met within the two months of period. |
| Achievable | To achieve the objective before the deadline set |
| Realistic | To exercise the targeted and set goals within a time period and inculcate the qualities in the concerned person. |
| Time-bound | To pressurise thyself to check the position of the learning status |
Table: SMART Personal Developmental Objectives
Source: (Developed by the author)
Personal Development Plan (PDP): In order to accomplish the Personal Developmental Objectives outlined in the SMART table above, I have created a PDP that will outline the tasks, and the time and resources required, for me to accomplish those objectives.
| Activities | Resources Required | Time required |
| Follow up meditation classes to control the overreaction under pressurised situations | Meditating teacher | One month |
| Set targets for small and day to day work | Maintaining a diary to plan the day to day working | Two weeks |
| Recheck the causes of the delay in achieving targets and recording it | Presence of mind and analysis of self-actions | One week |
| Penalising himself for not achieving the day to day set targets, this would motivate for achieving the targets within the deadline | The setting of penalties and a monitor to take charge of penalising | One week |
| Setting self-criticism sessions | Colleagues and friends | One week |
Table: Personal Development Plan (PDP)
Source: (Developed by the author)
Innovation Strengths that I will capitalise on for going forward: Innovation involves certain key elements such as teamwork and collaboration, ideation and implementation. Teamwork and collaboration are integrated part of career management as often we are required to integrate with a team and do the tasks assigned to us.
Similarly, for innovative project management, this skill is required. Actualizing the PDP requires me to rely on my strength and capability of teamwork and collaboration (Dees, 2017). Overcoming personal weaknesses requires an integrated approach in which I must work with my colleagues, my tutor, my friends, and family. I would listen and explore my growth opportunities with the people who have provided me valuable feedback regarding my capacities. I would learn and adjust my ideas with their ideas. I would focus and align my objectives with that of the objectives of others and then link them and leverage them. For developing my innovation capacities further, I would use my strength of ideation or my capacities of developing new ideas. Ideas that I develop must be economically viable and socially significant in terms of making the most positive impact in society. I would use my capacity of developing new ideas to think of new activities that I can accomplish for my continuous personal and professional development and enhance my learning, which would help me to accomplish my developmental objectives.
The personality development plan, which has been made if it is rightly executed, and a large number of people are kept in order to acknowledge the developments or the failures then this would help in improvising the weaknesses (Naranjo-Valencia et al. 2018). The weakness of not being able to work under pressure and overreacting in such situations would result in huge losses. The plan made for improvising and making up for the weaknesses needs to be studied well and should be implied. The meditation classes would help in controlling the anger and overreactions under pressure. This is the best tool to deal with a short temper, which is one of the biggest drawbacks of an entrepreneur. The second plan of setting small and day to day targets would help in teaching the quality and nature of finishing the tasks within a timeline. If this quality were inculcated like the person then automatically he would imply it in his every word. A record should be kept of the number of targets being achieved within timeline and those being not being achieved within timelines; its analysis would help in identifying the areas where improvisation is required, and the causes for the delay would also be known. The solution to these identified problems could then be given specific solutions. Penalising one would be the best method of correcting oneself as this would create an environment for developing himself into something which is desired the penalisation would act as a punishment which would have more of a mental effect than the physical effect. The last one is the self-criticising sessions which would act as medicine along with the wounds which would be the best solution for correcting oneself. If one wants to develop his personality, then he is the best teacher and critics, this is so because a person knows about himself the most and he cannot lie to himself. The identification of the weaknesses and trying to overcome it would help in rectifying himself.
Section C:
| Linear innovation process model | Flexible innovation process model | Coupling innovation process model | |
| Description | Linear innovation process model froze the service or product concept at the early stage to minimise risk. This model defines that innovation starts with basic research and next steps should follow or apply those research information and ends with production or diffusion (Cañeque and Hart, 2017). Innovation in enterprises starts with some sequential phases, and for proceeding to the next stage, the first phase needs to be clear (West and Bogers, 2014). The model defines that the innovation project must have to pass a gate with the permission of the gatekeeper to evolve the success of the innovation. These gatekeepers are defined before the project starts (Phan, Zhou and Abrahamson, 2010). The main aim of gatekeepers to examine whether the project properly met the stated objects to pass the phase or not and the desired development has taken place at the proceeding phase or not. For incremental innovation, this model is generally followed. The innovation process tightly controlled from the beginning and inputs are controlled to attain the desired target or goal (Biemans, 2018). Technology push model and market pull model are two types of linear innovation model. | Initially, innovation considered being linear or planned activity. However, flexible innovation model approaches a model where the innovation can be non-linear and ideas or innovation can emerge from any sources (Edwards-Schachter et al. 2015). It can happen in any of the stages of innovation. This combination of non-linear and linear approach has led to the advent of the third-generation model. The complexity of the innovation process reflects in this third generation model. Nowadays business environment changes rapidly, and this flexible innovation model explains the radical innovation process in the changing business environment (Christensen, Bartman and Van Bever, 2016). This model does not freeze the product concept at the early stage because one of the main aims of this model is not to miss the new opportunity or the opportunity of emerging technology.
For this reason, development of a process can happen in more than one phase at the same point in time. In these models, phases are basically overlapped. The combination model of technology push, market pull, cyclical model etc. is included in this model. There is no doubt that these models emerge the business innovation opportunity. Proper interaction between R&D, marketing and other corporate functions helps in the proper management of innovation process. |
As both the technology and market changes constantly, it was one of the key challenges for the innovation. Suppose something is technically unachievable today, but it can be achievable someday due to a broad expansion of advance science. Innovation is a case of survival of the fittest. Most of the time innovation fails because of not using the proper technology or misjudging the market. Therefore, to make an innovation successful, the focus should not too much one–dimensional and the proper balance between the technology and market can achieve the goal of an innovation (França et al., 2017). Coupling innovation process model approaches the coupling between the technology and the market elements at the time of innovation. This model defines the importance of coupling between the technology and market from the time of research, design, and development of the process to the introduction of new product or service (Okpara, 2007). As the technology and market elements come with one another for this mode, it can be complex to understand. But as the world now days depends on the science and technology, market varies due to it (Chesbrough et al., 2014). But proper use of technology can help to gather information which can be beneficial for the entrepreneurs to achieve success in the competition of the global market. |
| Advantage | One of the advantages of linear innovation process model, this innovation process model is safe and suitable for the first-time beginner. Additionally, this model works well when the safety, reliability, and quality requirements are critical (West and Bogers, 2014). This innovation process requires short to innovate than the rate of change in the environment. | There are many advantages of flexible innovation process model. Continuous interaction with the market is one of the advantages of flexible innovation process models. Additionally, it evolves the chances of acceptance of the product and services. This model decreases the risk of failure and resultant after-effects (Martins et al., 2015). This model depends on the customer’s needs, which helps the enterprises to understand the customers think. | As the technology and market elements come together under the innovation process of Coupling model, it can be beneficial for the entrepreneurs to gather proper information for innovation. Additionally, there is no phase to maintain and any information, which can benefit the innovation, will be developed at any stage of the process, which can help the process to be upgraded from the customer needs perspective. |
| Disadvantage | One of the disadvantages of the linear innovation process, this process takes time as it is a step by step approach and if the gatekeeper has a low level of knowledge, the project may get rejected or delayed in evolution due to the poor judgment. Additionally the focus of the process to attain a desired target and less focused on learning. As the concept frozen early, customer needs or market requirements undergo a later stage. | As the improvements emerge from any of the phases, it can become chaotic in nature, and this is one of the disadvantages of flexible innovation process model. Additionally, improvements can take place from any of the sources, the process may become directionless, and it may sometimes lead the process to a static state. Due to the chaotic situation, the process may take some time to get the right direction. | One of the disadvantages of coupling innovation process model that the relationship between the technology and changing market is complex and it is difficult to understand for a beginner. Additionally, The people who will interact with the innovation must have the deep market knowledge and should be technically sound. Otherwise, a wrong decision can lead the innovation to the way of failure. As the process accepts improvement ideas for the innovation at any of the stages, it can lead the innovation to a chaotic situation. |
Table: various innovation models
(Source: Saebi and Foss, 2015)
Selection Of A Model
According to the above description coupling, innovation process model can be the useful one for Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria and his business because this model always supports the latest innovation process and does not restrict the concept into one direction. As Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria is in hair designing industry, the latest innovation needs to be commenced at every stage because various technologies are arriving in the market and huge competition is there. In the oligopoly market, building concept in the earlier stage will not be futile for the company or for the entrepreneur because due to large market research every company is now trying to adopt the latest technology to attract the customer and progression of the innovation. Not only that, coupling innovation model allows the entrepreneur to understand the customer demand and this is very much important in the innovation process (Farajtabar et al., 2015).
Most of the time innovation fails because of not using the proper technology or misjudging the market. Therefore, to make an innovation successful, the focus should not too much one–dimensional and the proper balance between the technology and market can achieve the goal of an innovation (França et al., 2017). Coupling innovation process model approaches the coupling between the technology and the market elements at the time of innovation. The linear model can be applied in the early stage of the business to meet the objective, and this is completely safe for the beginners. Coupling innovation model on another hand will help Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria to interact with the market and consumers. The hair industry is very much sophisticated and stylish also and directly linked with the physiological aspects of the human. In such scenario, coupling innovation model helps the entrepreneur to adopt different technologies according to the market research and demand of the customer. Risk can also be mitigated as much as possible because this model only allows the entrepreneur to go for innovation after understanding the external and internal condition.
Reflection:
For last one week, I am researching the innovation models and found that coupling innovation model is a prominent model for the innovation in an enterprise because nowadays world became very fast and people become dependent on the technology. Coupling model works market point of view and for an experienced entrepreneur coupling innovation model can be beneficial. I found that this model will help the enterprise to understand the customer’s point of view and technology can help the entrepreneur to gather the information. Sometimes it is critical to understand the complex relationship of technology and advance science and market elements all together, but I found that proper research work and knowledge will help the entrepreneur to cope up with this problem.
Coupling innovation model is the third generation innovation model, and this model was produced after many innovation models, so I found that this model can evolve business opportunity in the global market. By this model, an organisation will understand the changing nature of the markets, and as the innovation process can develop at any of the phases of the process, it will give extra benefit to the entrepreneurs. I found the coupling innovation model is environmentally friendly because of its interference with nature. Technology helps the enterprises to grow the relationship between the customers and the organisations, and it also helps the process to be an easy, safe, attractive and reliable innovation process.
So from my point of view, the coupling between the technology and the market elements will help the entrepreneurs to grow their economic valuation if the process of the innovation does not violate the scientific laws. This method will help the entrepreneur, to understand the market structure and also the expectation of the consumers. Not only can that, I think that this method will help the industry to adopt the extraordinary technology and also the proper communication can be made through this model. As I research the model, I come to know that innovation is the vast process and not only depends on the creative idea but also separate the market from being stoic. It is the process of culturing the new thought with new technology for satisfying the customers.
Conclusion:
From the above description, it can be said that the interview with Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria revealed several aspects of the personal activities which made him a successful entrepreneur. Several innovation models are also described, and coupling model has been suggested for the Mr John Paul Jones DeJoria to improve their business more in future. Not only that, but SMART objectives is also placed in this assignment for the personal development.
References
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