General The purpose of this assignment is to have you explore, in reasonable depth, a range of Innovation Management concepts and how they could be applied in practice in organisations. The assignment will also help to further develop your team working, organisational, communication & time/project management skills. Task 1) You should establish a small group of three or four as soon as possible but at the latest by Tuesday 29th September 2015. The names of the group members should be emailed to Miss Tracy ([email protected]) by that date. One assignment should be completed per group. 2) You need to produce a business report, complete with executive summary, which addresses the questions below. To do this, start off by reading the following: Nambisan, S., (2002), " Designing Virtual Customer Environments for New Product Development: Toward a Theory", Academy of Management Review, Vol 27, No 3, 392-419. Visit http://www.innovation-portal.info/wp-content/uploads/Lego1.pdf and read the Lego case study. (If the link does not work, go to www.inovation-portal.info and select the Lego Case Study). With reference to the case study: a. Nambisan (2002) identified three key roles of the customer in the NPD process. Identify examples to support each of these key roles from the Lego case. b. In terms of managing innovation, discuss the advantages and disadvantages to Lego of using the customer in the roles that you have identified in (a) above. Undertake some searching of websites, journal articles, textbook and newspapers for additional information to answer the following: c. Identify and discuss three key innovation management challenges that you consider will be the most important for Lego to address over the next five years. d. Rank these challenges according to importance, justifying your selection of the challenges, referring to relevant theory. (Remember to keep note of all sources of information and ensure appropriate referencing in your report.) 3) In an appendix to the main report, your group should critically assess how they managed the assignment. The following questions should be answered: a. What did you do? (Description) b. How did you do it? (In answering this question analyse the process that you undertook, e.g. how did you, allocate time, allocate roles, prioritise the work, analyse the data obtained, organise and write the report?) c. How well did you do? (Evaluate how your group performed, e.g. how long did the assignment take? were there any critical incidents? etc) d. Identify the skills that you have used to complete this assignment and identify any new skills that you have started to develop during the coursework. e. How did the process of completing the assignment enhance these skills? f. If you were to undertake a similar group assignment at a future date, what improvements would you make? • As part of this section your group MUST provide a brief statement of acknowledgement at the end of the assignment which gives an assurance that the work is theirs and states that the group members are aware of the University policy and regulations on copying, plagiarism and collusion in assessed work. Non-inclusion of this statement will be penalised. • The group must also complete the peer contribution declaration and include it in the submission. 4) Given the likely volume of work required for this assignment, it is essential that you work in a small group. 5) The format of a Business Report will be discussed in lectures; there will also be the opportunity for students to ask questions about the assignment. Length The assignment should be a maximum of 2,500 words. However, up to four appendices may be included but these need not be part of the word count. Your appendices should include one on the self assessment and another with your Turnitin email receipt for the group. Marks will be deducted for exceeding the word count. Some guidance on the allocation of time, effort & words per section can be obtained from reading the assignment assessment criteria. please read the attached articles for this assignment.