Module 4

Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation

Meaning of Strategic Management
Meaning of Innovation Management
Types of Innovations
- Disruptive vs. Sustaining innovation
- Radical vs. incremental innovation
- The Innovation Matrix
- Architectural vs. Modular Innovation
Strategic Innovation
Features of Strategic Innovation
Scope of Strategic Innovation
Design Thinking and Strategic Innovation
Practices of Integrating Design Thinking in Strategic Innovation

Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation

Strategic Management
Strategic management is the process of setting goals, procedures, and objectives in order to make a
company or organization more competitive. Typically, strategic management looks at effectively
deploying staff and resources to achieve these goals.
Innovation Management
It is the concept which has multiple aspects and dimensions and are contributed based on the multiple
disciplines of the study that has a various theories and frameworks.

Types of Innovations
There are four types of innovations which are (1) Disruptive vs Sustaining innovation (2) Radical vs
incremental innovation (3) Innovation matrix (4) Architectural vs Modular innovation
1. Disruptive vs. Sustaining innovation
The concept of disruptive innovation is related to the concept, product or service which will create
new value to the existing market and also create a completely new market. While the sustaining
innovation is based concept of improving and growing the existing markets.
2. Radical vs. incremental innovation
Radical innovation happens when a new technology completely disrupts existing business or
economy and creates a new business model. Incremental innovation, in turn, refers to a series of
small, gradually built improvements to existing products, processes or methods to maintain
competitive position over time.
3. The Innovation Matrix
To clarify the aforementioned dimensions and to better demonstrate them, we took all four terms and
combined them with our Innovation Matrix. Radically disruptive – Innovation that harnesses new
technology and creates a new business model. Has no clear competitors. Radically sustaining –
Improvement on a product or process in an existing market that provides new value for the customer.
Incrementally disruptive – An incremental improvement in technology that leads to a dramatic
disruption. Incrementally sustaining – Small and cumulative changes in an existing product,
technology or service.
4. Architectural vs. Modular Innovation
Architectural innovation is described as the reconfiguration of existing product technologies.
Modular innovation (or component innovation), on the contrary, is the exact opposite. In modular
innovations, one or more components of a product is changed while the overall design stays the same.
Strategic Innovation
Strategic innovation is an organization's process of reinventing or redesigning its corporate strategy to
drive business growth, generate value for the company and its customers, and create competitive
advantage. This type of innovation is essential for organizations to adapt to the speed of technology
change.

Features of Strategic Innovation

Strategic innovation demands for holistic approach towards the activities of the organizations at various
levels in the organization. The features of strategic innovation are as under;
1. This concept is based on the long-term perspectives and is developed based on the developing
strategic which matches the innovations in the organization.
2. The main objective of strategic innovation is to create competitive space for the products and services
offered by the organization.
3. The process of strategic innovation combines business process with creative solutions to the problems
in the organizations.
4. Collect information about the business from unconventional sources and provide innovativestrategy
for the challenges in the organization.
5. Development of the organization process which can accommodate the changes in the organization
and build robots business process and procedures in the organization.

Scope of Strategic Innovation

The scope of strategic innovation is based on the seven dimensions which include (1) Managed
innovation process (2) Strategic alignment (3) Industry foresight (4) Customer Insight (5) Technology
(6) Organization Readiness (7) Implementation

1. Managed Innovation: In this process the facilitating process includes external and internalperceptive
with regards to organization capabilities, process, procedures and customers.
2. Strategic Alignment: This is created for development of shared vision, goals and actions among the
key stakeholders in the organization.
3. Industry Foresight: This process includes deeper understanding of the driving forces, influence of the
new technology, competition dynamics and changing market trends.
4. Customer Insight: Strategic innovation provides deeper understanding of the customers’ needs and
demands and provide innovative strategic for the growth of the market.
5. Technology: The perspective of technology is assessed through strategic innovation on the aspect of
internal technology capabilities, organization capabilities and reaching higher customer satisfaction.
6. Readiness of the organization: Strategic innovation provides an insight on the readiness of the
company to the changing innovations and also provides insights on the capability of the organization
to accept the changes in the business environment.
7. Implementation: Strategic innovation provides an insight on the process of implementation of the
strategy through the aspect of process and procedures and policies which align the organization to
the innovation in the organization.

Design Thinking and Strategic Innovation

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that integrates customer emotion and
empathy, the possibilities of digital tech and analytics, and the requirements for business success.
Integration of the strategy supports in the reaching the market better and improving the competitiveness
of the firms in the market.
In order to link design thinking and strategic innovation. Design thinking is based on the mental activity
in understanding the things and process of the organization. While strategic innovation is based on the
concept of strategic management. Interaction between the design thinking and strategic innovation
provides following benefits, they are as under;
1. Concept of design thinking has supported in developing products and services which match the
expectation of the customers and there by supporting the strategy of the organization.
2. Design thinking provides an opportunity to integration of new ideas and thinking which is essential
for the development of right strategy for the organization.
Practices of Integrating Design Thinking in Strategic Innovation
Design thinking and strategic innovation has four practices they are (1) Reviewing (2) Simulating (3)
Conversing (4) Collaborating.

Reviewing: Design thinking is based on the data collected through various sources, which include
customers, employees and other stake holders. Based on the data collected protype is developed through
the concept of design thinking. These development support in development of right strategy for the
innovation in the organization.

Simulating: The concept of simulation provides insights on the experience of the individual in the real
world of business. Simulating opens up strategy practice because it provokes managers to form an
empathetic engagement with the customer experience, thereby making the market context immediately
appraisable.

Conversing: Conversing was particularly important in enabling collective reflection and getting
agreement between participants with diverse understandings of the strategy. In other words, this aspect
of design-led strategizing amplified managers’ attention to the real fit within product-market fit.

Collaborating: This practice was especially useful when teams were dealing with complex issues that
could easily be forgotten or lost in conversational dialogue. Rather than trying to empathetically
understand each manager’s perspective (as in the conversing practice) the focus in collaborative
translation was on generating a shared solution to a complex problem.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Design thinking is also known as
a. Adaptable Enquiry
b. Strategic design thinking
c. Transformation by design
d. All of the above

is the way to narrow down the thoughts to reach at the final solution
Convergent thinking
Divergent thinking
None of themh of
them

Who is called the Father of Strategic Management?

a. Chandler
b. Igor Ansoff
c. Michael Porter
d. John Nash

What is the starting point of Strategic Intent?

Goal
Objective
Vision
Mission

5. Which of the following is not a major element of the strategic management process?
a. Formulation strategy
b. Implementing strategy
 c. Evaluating strategy
d. Assigning administrative tasks

6. An organisation strategy
Remains set in place longer than the mission and objectives
Generally, forms over a period of time as events unfold
Trends to be formed at the same time the mission is developed
None

The primary focus of strategic management is

Strategic analysis
The total organisation
Strategy formulation
None

Strategic Management handles

External issues
Administrational issues
Internal issues
Management issues

The following are considered grand strategies, except for

A retrenchment strategy
Strategic business unit
c. A growth strategy
d. Related diversification
10. Strategic business units
a. Are found in one-business organisations
b. Carry out strategies assigned by the CEO
c. Implement the marketing function’s strategic planning and management decisions
d. Develop their own unique way of competing

The three organisational levels are

Corporate level, business level, functional level
Corporate level, business unit level, functional level
Corporate strategy level, business unit level, functional level
None

Competitive advantage can be best described as

Increased efficiency
What sets an organisation apart
A strength and the organisations
Intangible resources

The corporate level is where top management directs

All employees for orientation
Its efforts to stabilise recruitment needs
Overall strategy for the entire organisation
Overall sales projections

14. What are the guides to decision making?

a. Rules
b. Procedures
c. Goals
d. Policies
15. Low cost, Differentiation and Focus are examples of
a. Corporate strategies
b. Operational strategies
c. Business strategies
d. Functional strategies

What type of strategy is stability strategy?

a. Corporate level
b. Functional level
c. Strategic level
d. Business level

The term strategy is derived from a word.

a. Latin
b. Greek
c. French
d. German

The strategy was developed by the visionary chief executive in which mode of strategic
management?
Planning mode
Strategic mode
Adaptive mode
Entrepreneurial mode

19. What type of range is the impact of strategies on the general direction and basic character of a
company?
a. Medium range
 b. Short range
c. Long-range
d. Minimal

A possible and desirable future state of an organisation is called

Mission
Strategy implementation
Strategy formulation
Vision

Hierarchy of Strategic Intent:

Vision > Mission > Goals > Objectives > Plans

Mission > Vision > Goals > Objectives > Plans

Plans > Vision > Mission > Goals > Objectives

Goals > Vision > Mission > Objectives > Plans

a. i
b. iii
c. iv
d. ii

22. Selling all of a company’s assets for their tangible worth is called
Divestiture
Concentric Diversification
b. Liquidation
c. Unrelated integration
 23. Which environment can create new markets and new business segments?
a. Political environment
b. Economic environment
c. Sociocultural environment

d. Technological environment

The word tactics is most likely to be associated with

Business strategy
Corporate strategy
Operational strategy
All of the above

Divestment is what kind of strategy?

An asset-reduction strategy
A weakness-reduction strategy
A product-reduction strategy
A cost-reduction strategy

26. Design thinking is an approach to come up with new solutions to--- problems.
a) Easy b) Difficult c) Interactive d) Highly creative

27. What element of User Experience Design would the design strategy fall under?
a) Interaction Design b) Experience Strategy
c) User Research d) Information Architecture
28. Which of the following is key element of design thinking?
a) Creativity b) Efficiency c) Scalability d) All the above

29. Which of the following is NOT a stage in the Design thinking process.
a) Test b) Analyse c) Plan d) Implement

30. Who is the primary focus of the design thinking?

a) The designer b) User c) business d) Technology

31. Which one of these is correct order of agile methodology?

a) Plan-Design- Develop-Test-Deploy-Review-Launch
b) Plan-Develop-Design-Deploy-Test-Review-Launch
c) Plan-Deploy-Develop-Design-Review-Launch-Test
d) Plan-Design-Develop-Deploy-Review-Test-Launch

32. Developing around the prototype help to communicate it in the contexts.

a)Box b) PPT c) Story/Skit d) Website

33. What is the main objective of the Innovation?

a) To improve existing product or services b) To generate revenue
c) To create new product or services d) All the above