The thesis of the paper entails the development of a new innovative idea to the Toyota motor company, which has been identified as manufacture flying cars to their esteemed customer. The act of manufacture flying cars has been recognized as one of the competitive advantages the company has developed through its production, sales and marketing team, thus following an intense competition in the global motor market. The innovation manufacture flying cars is aimed at improving the relationship between the company and the customers (Story, Raddats, Burton, Zolkiewski and Baines, 2017, pg. 59).
The idea of manufacture flying cars by the Toyota motor company is one of the most incremental innovative services the company has ever had since most of its customers have been ordering their motor products globally, and the manufacturing flying cars will attract more users of their products. The innovative part of manufacture flying cars idea suggested by the production, sales and marketing team is that most of the competing motor firms within the state do not offer such products; therefore by considering the concept of manufacturing flying cars to their customers will be a competitive advantage for the company (Lee, Chen and Trappey, 2019, pg. 159).
Manufacture flying cars intended by the Toyota motor firm include after services like offering transportation and delivery services to their customers, providing insurance cover for one year for such cars, contributing to check and maintenance services to newly manufactured cars, and providing buying warranty to their products in case there are defaults during the first year of purchase. The services, as mentioned above, are unique within the company, and the neighbouring companies, therefore, justifies its innovative part.
The innovation idea that is manufacturing flying cars to customers by the organization can be assumed to be incremental innovation due to its characteristics of attracting and maintaining existing customers to the organization. According to Chuang and Lin (2017, pg. 30), incremental innovation is a series of small improvements or upgrades on the existing products by the management body. The changes brought by incremental innovations are believed to focus on improving existing products in terms of its efficiency, productivity and competitive differentiation. This implies that as long as the customers will embrace the new products developed by the Toyota Company, customers’ satisfaction will be prioritized hence attracting new customers to their products.
Design thinking theories
Creative mindset theory
The creative mindset is characterized by problem sensitivity, fluency, flexibility, originality, daringness, drive, and confidence (von Thienen, Clancey, Corazza and Meinel, 2018, pg. 20). The theory of a creative mindset has led to the innovative idea of production flying cars by the Toyota motor company to thrive within the competitive motor market globally. Sales and marketing team has to consider the principles as mentioned above to successfully innovate a program for the organization, thus after considering the risk and uncertainties which might befall the innovated idea or plan.
The creative mindset in innovation plays a vital role since one is expected to be a problem sensitive to design problem-solving ideas within the organization effectively. For instance, the idea of production flying cars innovation has been triggered by the increasing competition within the market; hence the organization through the production, sales and marketing team had to brainstorm various innovative ideas to maximize their sales in which production flying cars to the market was innovated. Since the concept is unique in the market, the company, therefore, intended to adopt it as a competitive advantage tool to attract and maintain customers due to the product they plan to offer the customers. (Lehrer, et al., 2018, pg. 450).
The fluency in the creative mindset theory is the number of ideas one gives to the organization based on the current marketing problem the organization is faced with (Puente-Díaz and Karwowski, 2017, pg. 150). With fluency trait, the innovation of production flying cars has been generated for the Toyota motor firm, which will maximize the sales of their products as it aims at customers’ satisfaction and appreciation by the organization. Through customer satisfaction, the organization will, therefore, ensure a good relationship with its customers hence maintains and attract new customers through referrals and positive reviews from satisfied customers.
Theory of thinking mode
The theory of thinking mode comprises of three principles that are analytical, judicial, and synthetic. The three mentioned thinking mode best applies to the innovation process for new service offered by the profit-making organization to maximize its profitability (Wan and Kong, 2017, pg. 222). Regarding the Toyota motor firm, the theory of thinking mode that is analytical, judicial, and synthetic has led to the innovation of production flying cars in the market, thus following the market analysis process conducted by the sales and marketing team within the organization.
The analytical model of thinking developed by the production, sales and marketing team of Toyota motor firm involves critical analysis of the market response to their products; consumers taste and preference and the competition level within the motor market hence contributing the development of the new product which has been termed unique by the team as it lacks in most of the competing organizations (Witell, Snyder, Gustafsson, Fombelle and Kristensson, 2016, pg. 2850). The analysis mode in design thinking theory was necessary for approval of the innovated idea by the management of the organization since it considers the market response to the idea and the impacts both the positive and negative outcome of the new service innovated to the organization. (Carayannis, Campbell and Rehman, 2016, pg. 23).
The application of judicial thinking mode in the service innovation process for the Toyota motor firm was facilitated by comparing two entities, thus the proposed ideas by the marketing team to ensure practical application or adoption of the best approach by the organization. The comparison process was necessary for the sales and marketing team following diverse ideas and suggestions from the team members as every member had to share their opinions concerning the problem at hand, which was to maximize the sales of their products. During the compression, all suggestions from the team members were considered and compared against each other. Therefore, the idea of production flying cars was picked and agreed upon by the team based on its impacts and uniqueness to the operational activities of the organization and the market influence.
The team considered synthetic thinking as they had to bring together different views and ideas from the members and blend them for a more effective and considerate scheme, which was producing flying cars to the customers (Visnjic, Wiengarten and Neely, 2016, pg. 50). The purpose of customers’ appreciation, competition, and customers- organization relationship contributed to the idea of producing flying cars as the suggestions were put together by the team and decided on the best product which will consider the mentioned problem within the organization since production flying cars idea will incorporate various blocks in marketing like competition, relationships and market response.
Theory of problem types
The theory of problem types closely relates to the thinking mode theory discussed above in the context as the types of problems the organization is currently facing will determine the thinking mode to be applied in solving such issues (Govrin, 2019, pg. 1781). This implies that since the problem at hand was the marketing issues that are maximizing the sales of the products and maintaining and improving customers relationship with the organization, the theory of problem types best applies since it limits the innovation process to the current problem the organization should solve therefore service innovation suggested by the sales and marketing team was aimed to solve low sales volume problem and to provide solution on how the organization could effectively improve their relationship with the customers.
Sustainability-led innovation and disruptions in product innovation
The following factors have contributed to the sustainability of the innovative idea thus manufacture of flying cars by the Toyota motor company; product offering, process innovation, position innovation and paradigm innovation. Out of the four outlined sustainability- led innovation, product innovation sustainability has been discussed in depth based on the innovated idea.
Product offering
Production flying cars idea has been facilitated by the product offering in sustainability-led innovation which was aimed at designing a greener product by the firm to replace the existing normal car models within the market. Product innovation suggested for the Toyota Company that is in developing flying cars since it is focused on improving the internal production process of the existing products to effectively compete with more giant firms in the market. This is possible since the innovative idea as unique among the motor firms globally; hence the Toyota motor firm will be the first company to produce flying cars.
Based on the discussed sustainability- led innovations, the company has projected various disrupters for the innovation process which has been identified as limited resources, legislation, cost, and others factors as discussed in the context as follows.
Inadequate resources. Production flying cars do require a lot of resources from the management to manufacturing such cars. Therefore, most of the organizations do run out of resources like human resources, financial resources to finance the activities, and the transportation resources like movers and containers which the organization could use to deliver their products to the customers safely (Chen, Weng and Huang, 2018, pg. 415). Due to the lack of enough funds to sponsor the activities of producing flying cars, the organization has been limited to the type of services offered to customers, which in most have affected the relationship with their esteemed customers.
Legislations. The term legislations can be defined as the government policies which have been enacted by the government in control and regulation of innovative idea of producing flying cars intended by the organization. The intention of adopting such rules is to regulate the type of innovative idea to protect other firms from collapsing as most of the developed firms could excessively engage themselves in an innovative process to outdo others in the market. It is aimed to ensure sanity in the production market for all local and foreign companies. (Demircioglu, 2016, pg. 5).
Lack of qualified staff. To effectively implement the idea of producing flying cars to customers, the organization requires qualified staff with such production skills and qualifications. Such people within the organization include production engineers, mechanics for maintenance of the motors, and other professionals in motor production department since these are some of the requirements for the producing flying cars the organization intendeds to offer its customers. Inadequacy of such skilled personnel, production flying cars will be compromised hence resulting in a poor relationship with customers in terms of customer satisfaction.
Strategies to mitigate potential disruptions
To effectively mitigate the disruptions caused by the legislation, the organization should ensure adherence to the set guidelines and regulations in producing flying cars to avoid being penalized or closed down by the government (Cheng and Sheu, 2017, pg. 472). The organization can ensure adherence by observing such rules guiding production flying cars by the government.
Based on the limited resources, the organization can choose to hire in some of the necessary resources like transportation containers and other related resources from financial institutions to produce flying cars as intended by the production team. By employing such support, the organization will effectively mitigate the interruptions caused by limited resources. (Burton, Story, Raddats and Zolkiewski, 2017, pg. 33).
The organization should recruit more qualified staff or choose to train the existing staff with production skills, and others required skills in producing flying cars to effectively deliver or offer such products to customers as intended by the sales and marketing team.