COMM1120: Collaboration and Innovation in Business (6 UOC) – Week 1: Innovation &
Creativity Pre-Workshop Activities
Week 1 Tasks:
Before your weekly workshop:
o Complete the Pre-Workshop Activities
During your weekly workshop:
o If you are in an online workshop, please go to the Online synchronous (live) workshop classes section
and open the Zoom links. If you are registered for an on-campus workshop class, please refer to your
class timetable for the location of your workshop
o Follow your tutor’s instructions on the workshop activities
End of week:
o Please provide feedback on how your week went
Pre-Workshop Notes:
Innovation (and creativity is a process)
Not necessarily something new – can be an adaptation or small improvement etc
Innovation leads to value creation to a stake holder (internal or external) or customer
Each person has a role
The difference between innovation and creativity
Creativity is about creating or generating a new idea, concept, way of doing things
Innovation is about making the idea work in the real world
o Its about taking the risk of implementing this idea which can revolutionise the world (or small
incremental changes - modifying a business model, adapting to changes in market, coming up with a
better practically to generate profitability, customer experience, better products or service)
Netflix
Creative then innovative
Changed the way we see movies + changed viewing habits - introduced binge watching and how we engage with
pop culture in society
Created in 1977 to provide the service of movies in peoples home to be more convenient and accessible –
starting with mailing out DVDs to people’s homes
Became widespread – emphasised collection of data (location, preferences) in their business model to figure out
the popular movies + recommendations for people needs to improve business model and profitability
Streaming service to eventually phase out mail service – willingness to adapt to their own business and took the
risk of disrupting their own business
Blockbuster did not adapt and gave up the opportunity to buy Netflix – not that innovative
Innovation and Creativity requires a level of risk taking and bravery to explore the idea and possibilities it might
generate and the risk to disrupt business model in an attempt to maximise growth opportunity – important for
future proofing your business (do not become attached to your ideas – works with collaboration as not one
person can be attached with their ideas as Amazon collaborated with Netflix (competitor) to develop back-end
infrastructure for online streaming long term growth)
Collaboration is important with healthy conflict when working with competitor is important to put creative ideas
by innovative practices + can lead to better innovations in the long run
Innovative on an almost global scale - Changed the way most people engage with entertainment media +
entertainment content is produced as they generate their own content based on collection of data based on
user preferences and behaviour and practice to make sure their content is directly tailored to user interests
Business model relies on collection of data and data analytics for creating and disseminating a well customised
product is common – Amazon, Facebook, Apple – relies exclusively on data collection to adjust their business
model, create products adjust products or send products to their consumers in some way
Confirms that Netflix’s innovation practices in 2000s was extremely effective as it is widespread – due to the
providing of value to consumers with their subscription model compared to blockbuster.
If innovation has the capacity to add value and enhance quality of product, level of convenience, and
effectiveness of consumer engagement then it is extremely effective.
Netflix started this innovation process by understanding target audience by thinking creatively of the way they
disseminated their product, not afraid of change, not afraid of disrupting themselves, brave enough to change
form their mail order service to online streaming service at the risk of self-destruction and they did this by with
knowledge of customer preferences and educating customer preferences on the way – shows readiness to
engage with the creative side which was methodically and thoughtful put into practice as part of the innovation
process of changing their business model
Showing that innovation and creativity does not always have to be hugely revolutionary in order to create
revolutionary outcomes – important to follow a systematic process to take a creative idea from the stage of an
idea to the stage of implemented product that has benefits to the company and society.
Learn through practice + collaboration + knowledge of processes
Google Glass
Creative idea that was not a successful innovative idea
Legal implications of being able to record with glasses (not allowed to bring into businesses) and societal fear
due to not enough exploration and discovery into how it will be used and perceived) + price was too high to
provide value for customers (more than $2000 AUD)
The creative idea of wearable technology is still heard of such as Apple watch so the leading initiates in creativity
have the potential to be put into practice in an innovation sense more effectively
Demonstrates Netflix’s success to discover and exploration to really understand the context in relaunching a new
product –understood stakeholders in terms of their preferences, economic affordability as being a priority,
culture interests, technological preferences and partnered with ley strategic companies to help them develop a
platform that could cater their customer base
Key to effective innovation - Exploration and iterative stages in the beginning where creatives ideas are merely
explores and potential innovative ideas thought about in depth in a way that’s relevant to their business and
meets an unmet need
To prepare for your workshop, have a think about the Double Diamond approach that was mentioned in the
Welcome video and reflect on how it might apply to the following three context areas:
a. in context of your own experience
In the context of my own experience, I have come to the realisation that I have unknowingly been utilising the
Double Diamond Approach to break down the stages of a complex problem in order to find solutions that are
considerate of all factors relevant to the issue and have been thoroughly thought out by visualising and focusing on
defining the why and how of the problem. I have used this approach in a variety of daily problems such as figuring
out the best method of transportation or tackling assignment and homework tasks.
b. in the context of a business case
In the context of business, the double diamond approach allows businesses to effectively solve complex problems by
discovering and exploring the issue in depth and their contexts in order to create effective solutions which not only
solves the problem, but provides value by enhancing the quality of product, level of convenience, and effectiveness
of consumer engagement, as seen with the case of Netflix adapting to their consumer preferences.
c. in the context of Assessment Task 1A: Goal setting
In the context of Assessment 1A: Goal Setting; the Double Diamond approach directly relates to the assessment by
breaking down the task into the four stage and encouraging a deep understanding of the problem in order to solve
these complex issues.
In the context of completing an assessment task, it is important to recognise, discover and define the scope of
the task. This directly correlates to the problem diamond, as having a greater, more apt understanding of the
problem is necessary to develop and deliver successful solutions. The understanding of the marking criteria
and class material allows for issues to be identified as well as concurrently enabling the generating of ideas
suited to combat these problems. For example, devising a study schedule to complete the assessment in an
orderly, timely manner; this can be seen through the implementation of a gantt chart.
Workshop Notes:
First group activity:
Catching the bus
1. Walk to the bus
2. Signal the bus
3. Take a seat
4. Press the stop button and Tap off and Walk off
Innovation – invention or changes to
Incremental changes that can improve business processes (supply chains, customer experience, adapting to new
markets
Value creation and commercialisation
Innovations fail
o Wrong decisions: insufficient information as a basic for decision
o Low priority for innovation
o Lack of market orientation
o Slow structures: bureaucratic decision making, not keeping up with comp
o Weak business models to support innovative ideas
o Lack of effective communication to market – telling target audience the value
Vine:
Vine shut down because it failed to support its content creators, due to high levels of competition, lack of
monetization and advertising options, personnel turnover, as well as issues at parent company Twitter.
DD: Why/How did you choose to study at UNSW
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