New Product Module-Design Thinking, Pathway-Business and Marketing - Assignment Example

“New Product" Module-Design Thinking, Pathway-Business and Marketing Table of Contents Introduction 2 Discussion 3 The Product Chosen 3 The Chosen Company 3 Design of the Product 4 Innovativeness Involved with the Product 6 Competitive Advantage That Can Be Gained By Norton Motorcycle Company by Manufacturing the Proposed Product Design 7 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction With the advancement of technology in the contemporary business environment, companies operating in the global and domestic markets need to strategize their moves in an efficient manner. This would eventually enhance their sustainability for a longer time period in this competitive landscape. Arguably, it is the reputation of the companies, which enables them to ensure a distinct position amid the competitors in the business markets wherein they operate. This aspect is evident irrespective of the scale, nature or the type of industries that the companies are identified to be operating in. Contextually, it would be crucial to mention that promoting innovativeness and creativity in product designing is one of the decisive aspects of gaining a distinct business reputation for companies in the global markets. Since competition are high in this present day context, companies will need to become more flexible in implementing technologies while designing their respective products that could positively add to the experience of the users (Dodgson & et. al., 2008; Harvard Business School, n.d.). Contextually, this particular assignment will be framed concerning the design a particular product, which is quite innovative and one of its kind which is yet to be made by any company. In this regard, the technology innovation idea of a voice recognition software installed smart helmet for motorcyclists of Norton Motorcycle Company, one of the renowned players in automobile industry would be discussed. Discussion The Product Chosen The product, which has been selected for this assignment, is a helmet especially designed for motorcyclists with voice recognition software installed in it. Observably, with the advancement of pioneering technologies, companies are more inclined towards emerging with products that are highly innovative and is not present in the market. This might be owing to the reasons of gaining maximum attention of the customers and accomplishing superior competitive position as compared to their chief business market competitors. In this context, it can be affirmed that the selected product is quite a new and creative concept, which is yet to be introduced in the market. Notably, helmet is viewed as one of the imperative safety gears of motorcyclists. In the modern day scenario wherein technological advancements have touched new heights, certain developments can be ascertained with regard to this particular safety aspect of people. This particular product might be crucial and can attract maximum number of customers owing to the fact that it is a basic product, which is needed by every individual while riding a motorcycle. Hence, this is one of the major rationales for choosing this particular product idea in the assignment. The Chosen Company It is evident that in order to ensure better execution of any product idea into reality, the presence of a well-known brand is highly required. Contextually, the company, which has been chosen to present the idea for this product is Norton Motorcycle Company. It is a British motorcycle manufacturer, which was founded in the year 1898. This depicts the experience of the company that it holds in this particular sector. The company is one of the renowned manufacturers of motorcycle in the world today. The extensive presence of the company in the global market further depicts its brand image and its popularity amid the customers all over the world (Motorbike Search Engine, n.d.). This aspect is regarded as one of the most crucial elements, which influenced the selection of this company for this particular product idea. Since the design or the thought of the product is quite creative and realistic up to an extent, this particular company will be appropriate to provide the product, the scale of promotion and presentation required to perform better on the global platform. This further affirms the reason for selecting this particular company for the product idea. Design of the Product The selected product is a helmet for motorcyclists with voice recognition software installed in it. With regard to the advanced technologies that prevail within the modern day scenario, the proposed concept of the product is deemed to be quite realistic and attainable. However, it will be crucial to depict that in the society where technologies such as Google Glass prevail, a helmet with voice recognition is indeed quite a realistic as well as an innovative concept. In general term, voice recognition is a particular technology, which is duly considered to be an alternative of keyboard. In more simple terms, it can also be depicted that this particular technology is one of the latest and the fastest means of writing. However, this particular technology can also be used for other purposes apart from using it for the purpose of writing and speech recognition. In this regard, it can be affirmed that this particular technology helps users to conduct certain basic activities through electric means (Juang & Rabiner, 2004; Furui, 2001). This particular technology can be implemented in designing a helmet for motorcyclists. This helmet can be built with a head-mounted display along with an inbuilt navigation. The product will thus include a voice recognition, which will be the base structure of the design, facilitating it towards performing various operational functions. Furthermore, the helmet will be accompanied with a luminous colour display, which would be projected on the screen of the helmet. All the commands that would be conveyed through the voice recognition technology will work on English language when the user initiates using the helmet. However, the language of the voice recognition can be changed as per the convenience of the users. This particular design will not follow the conventional design, which deemed to be quite complex, rather it would emerge with a different structure altogether. The device or the helmet will have live maps installed in it, which will work directly by the command of the users through voice recognition software. The live map software will be fully integrated with the headgear of the device. The display in the helmet will include a sensor, which will be used to adjust the brightness of the screen as per the conditions of the external light. The device will come with an accelerometer as well as a gyroscope that will depict the movement of the head of the users. All these facilities in the helmet will be executed with the assistance of the installed voice recognition command (UNSW, 2014). Hence, all this features installed in the device will certainly depict it as a highly innovative design altogether. Innovativeness Involved with the Product The device depicted above includes the implementation of various technologies that make it quite attractive and appealing in the business markets. The device is equipped with all the latest facilities that could possibly be used in designing such daily unusable product. It is worth mentioning that the GPS navigation device or the live map software, the luminous display, the light control sensor, the automated accelerometer, the gyroscope as well as the voice recognition software are all technologies that have been used earlier in various devices including PC’s, cars and mobile devices among others. However, integrating all this technologies in designing a product such as helmet is surely a new and innovative thinking. Probable Advantages and Disadvantages of the Device The device discussed in the above section is a helmet, which will be integrated and equipped with various modern day technologies, resulting in enhancing the riding experiences of motorcyclists. Contextually, certain advantages as well as disadvantages can be depicted about the product design i.e. helmet. The voice recognition technology that is proposed to be installed in this particular device will enable the user to access all the other technical equipment that are installed in the headgear of the helmet. The user could be able to operate all these devices through voice command without touching them. This aspect will be an important point of convenience for the bike riders while wearing the helmet. It is evident that while riding bikes, people find it hard to use their hands on other activities as it might break their concentration and affect the balance of the vehicle, which often results in causing severe accidents. In this regard, the product design will be advantageous (The international Engineering Consortium, n.d.). However, there might arise certain challenges while using this particular technology in the product design. The technology is deemed to work less accurately and effectively while there is noise in background. As helmet is used while riding bikes, this particular challenge will evidently arise in the product design. Again, voice recognition is a particular technology wherein users are required to convey their command with regard to the completion of any particular task. This aspect might hurt the concentration of the users while using this particular product design (Shneiderman, 2000). This aspect might also act negatively with regard to the effectiveness of this particular design. Competitive Advantage That Can Be Gained By Norton Motorcycle Company by Manufacturing the Proposed Product Design The product design, which has been proposed in the earlier section of this assignment, is deemed to be quite innovative and one of its kind that is yet to be introduced in the global market. The company i.e. Norton Motorcycle Company has been chosen to execute this particular design into practical product owing to the reason it is regarded as one of the most renowned players in the automobile industry. However, with the immense rise of competition in this particular industry, the company will need to emerge with innovative and creative ideas in order to sustain for longer duration of time. In this regard, the innovative product design might be an idea that the company can work upon. The above discussion depicts that the proposed design for the device is quite innovative in nature with the implementation and integration of various technologies in a particular device i.e. helmet, which will be highly beneficial for the motorcycle riders. The voice recognition technology implemented in the device will ensure convenience for the riders as they can operate other devices installed in the headgear of the helmet such as light control sensor, GPS navigation and accelerometer through voice command using their hand. This aspect will surely add to the convenience of the riders. Furthermore, the devices such as GPS, light control sensor and luminous display will also be advantageous for the riders, as they would be able to gain a different experience altogether. However, while executing the design, the company might need to deal with several challenges such as integrating various technological elements in one particular headgear. Since space is quite limited in helmet, the company might find it difficult to inbuilt all the technology together further considering the aspect of comfortableness of the riders. However, it is evident that the advantages associated with executing the product design into reality is quite high as compared to that of some of the minor challenges associated with it. Through manufacturing this particular product, the company will be able to reach new heights in the domain of business innovativeness. This would certainly enable the company to gain a competitive edge over that of its competitors in the automobile sector. Conclusion From the overall analysis of the paper, it can be comprehended that innovativeness and creativity are among the major components that companies require to ensure a sustainable position in the global business sector. It is evident that with the advent and the advancement of technologies in every domain of business, the expectations of the customers have become quite high with regard to obtain innovative products from the companies. In this regard, a particular product has been recommended in this particular discussion. The product i.e. a smart helmet is quite innovative in nature and one of its kind as it is designed through complying all the technical demands of motorcyclist that can add to their convenience while riding. It is proposed to entail voice recognition software, which will allow the users to control various other technologies inbuilt in the helmet including GPS navigation, light control sensor and luminous display through voice commands. This will assure maximum convenience for the customers or the users. This particular design is proposed for Norton Motorcycle Company, which is known to be one of the major players in the automobile sector. This particular product design is expected to enhance the competitive advantages of the company as compared to its chief business market competitors. References Dodgson, M. & et. al., 2008. The Management of Technological Innovation: Strategy and Practice. Oxford University Press. Furui, S., 2001. Automatic Speech Recognition and Its Application To Information Extraction. Department of Computer Science, pp. 11-21. Harvard Business School, No Date. Technology and Innovation. Topics. [Online] Available at: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/topics/Pages/technology-and-innovation.aspx [Accessed February 26, 2014]. Juang, B. H. & Rabiner, L. R., 2004. Automatic Speech Recognition – A Brief History of the Technology Development. Rutgers University, pp. 1-24. Motorbike Search Engine, No Date. Norton Motorcycle History. Home. [Online] Available at: http://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/classic_bikes/norton-motorcycle-history.php [Accessed February 26, 2014]. Shneiderman, B., 2000. The Limits of Speech Recognition. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 43, No. 9, pp. 63-65. The international Engineering Consortium, No Date. Speech-Enabled Interactive Voice Response Systems. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.uky.edu/~jclark/mas355/SPEECH.PDF [Accessed February 26, 2014]. UNSW, 2014. The Many Benefits and Applications of GPS systems. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.gmat.unsw.edu.au/snap/gps/pdf/gps-article2.pdf [Accessed February 26, 2014]. Read More