MGMT20132 Innovation and Sustainable Business Development Report Sample

MGMT20132 Innovation and Sustainable Business Development

Assessment Task and Criteria

This assessment must be completed by students individually. The assessment is designed for students to develop innovation insight and practices aimed at developing a novel value proposition for an existing business or organisation and aligned with the strategic trajectory of the business or organisation. The assessment is also designed for students to self-reflect on their own innovation capabilities and practices. The assessment involves writing a 2000-word report for a novel value proposition within an existing business or organisation.

You are required to write a 2000-word report for a novel value proposition (product or service that is new or original) within an existing business or organisation. You must use appropriate headings to structure the body of the report.

Your report will be assessed according to the following criteria.

a) Your report must demonstrate:

1. Logical and persuasive articulation of the big idea; the problem insight; the problem worth solving; the targeted customers; the solution (the novel value proposition such as a new product or service); the market size; the competition; the competitive advantage and strategic fit. (This includes all elements in the value proposition canvas by Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, and Smith (2014, pp. 8-9). The canvas describes the fit between the value proposition and customer segments). 40%

2. Logical and persuasive assessment of critical business model assumptions and uncertainties related to customer desirability; technical feasibility; and financial viability as described by Bland & Osterwalder (2020, pp. 32-33). 16%

3. Logical and persuasive argumentation for the selection of the innovation tools and techniques used to support the report findings and recommendations. Minimum five 
(5) tools and techniques must be selected from the provided list of tools and techniques. 6%

4. Logical and persuasive application of the selected innovation tools and techniques used to support the report findings and recommendations. Minimum five (5) tools and techniques must be applied from the provided list of tools and techniques. 8%

5. Candid and critical self-reflection about assessment 1 tasks including a reflection on the development of personal innovation capabilities and practices; identification of own personal strengths and weaknesses; supported with suggestions for self-improvement. 10%

6. Clear flow of thought throughout the report with a convincing executive summary; clear and succinct purpose described in the introduction; relevant structure and content within the body of the report; and a clear and succinct conclusion. 6%

7. Critical review skills and integration of relevant academic and professional literature. A minimum of ten (10) academic and professional references must be used. 4%

8. Appropriate in-text referencing and reference list. Adherence to CQUniversity APA reference style. 4%

9. Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling. Appropriate report format with good use of bullet points, illustrations and figures. Within ±10% of the word limit for the report, excluding references and appendices: 2000 words. 6%

b) You must select a business or organisation impacted by the advances of a technology and/or sustainability trend which drives industry innovation.

• Business such as, but not limited to:

• Important - submissions about the following organisations are NOT accepted: automobile businesses, smartphone manufacturing businesses, and online shopping businesses.

• LinkedIn, Instagram (social media)

• Aldi, Woolworth (supermarkets)

• Caterpillar, Volvo (construction equipment)

• Maersk, UPS (shipping and logistics)

• Rio Tinto, Alcoa (mining)

• CommBank, WestPac (banking)

• Stanbroke, AACo (Agriculture and farming)

• Toll, Australia Post, Linfox (delivery services)

• Siemens, Airbus, Vestas (industrial products)

• Lorna Jane, Billabong, Cotton On (clothing fashion)

• Anytime Fitness, Goodlife (fitness)

• Hilton, Rydges (hospitality)

• Domino’s, Zarraffas Coffee (fast food)

• Government, not-for-profit, such as but not limited to:

• CQUniversity, QUT (education)

• The Royal Melbourne Hospital (health care)

• Ozcare (home care)

• Red Cross (aid)

• A business or organisation that you are or have been employed at and therefore know well.

• No confidential information must be included in the submitted report.

• If in doubt about the selection of your business and organisation you must consult your lecturer.

c) You must select a technology and/or sustainability trend driving industry innovation to inspire the development of a novel value proposition.

• Technology trends such as, but not limited to (Manyika et al., 2013):

• Artificial intelligence (Davenport & Ronanki, 2018; Iansiti & Lakhani, 2020; McKinsey Global Institute, 2018).

• Robots (Tilley, 2017).

• Smart-connected-products (Porter & Heppelmann, 2014, 2015).

• Blockchain (Carson, Giulio Romanelli, Walsh, & Zhumaev, 2018; Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017).

• Augmented, mixed and virtual reality (Porter & Heppelmann, 2017).

• Big data (Hagiu, A & Wright, 2020).

• Connectivity (Grijink et al., 2020).

• Healthcare (Pearl & Madvig, 2020).

• Sustainability trends supporting United Nations sustainable development goals (Brackley & York, 2019; United Nations, 2015; United Nations, 2019):

1. No poverty.

2. Zero hunger.

3. Good health and well-being.

4. Quality education.

5. Gender equality.

6. Clean water and sanitation.

7. Affordable clean energy.

8. Decent work and economic growth.

9. industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

10. Reduced inequalities.

11. Sustainable cities and communities.

12. Responsible consumption and production.

13. Climate action.

14. Life below water.

15. Life on land.

16. Peace, justice, and institutions.

17. Partnership for the goals.

d) Your selected innovation trend must be important to the selected business or organisation as that makes the innovation proposition and proposals important to its senior executives and stakeholders, the report interesting to read and your report writing exciting.

Solution

Introduction

Value Proposition helps companies to place their products and services in a way that attracts customers and retains them. In addition, it becomes essential for companies to continuously detect issues and gaps within the operations and develop products, processes, and services to create a competitive edge over critical players. The application for value proposition needs to be done with sustainability patterns owing to increasing stakeholder preference and tightening legal obligations. As per the MBA Assignment Expert Overview,  This report will aim to develop a Novel Value Proposition for Alcoa Corporation and provide self-reflection. The information will use not more than five tools to prepare a novel value proposition. To complete the report, Alcoa Coro has been selected, technology trends- blockchain has been chosen while the sustainability goals responsible for consumption and production. 

Alcoa Corporation is a mining company that produces bauxite, alumina, and aluminum. The firm operates in bauxite mining areas, alumina refining networks, and energy portfolios. The company has been operative in active bauxite mining areas. 

The Big Idea 

The mining sector has been criticized for its environmental damage and impact on nearby areas. In addition, many national and international agencies have imposed strict regulations on the companies to reduce environmental effects, nearby places, and people involved in such operations. The mining companies gain massive profits from extracting valuable minerals from the earth. It is essential to embed sustainability within mining operations which could be done by recognizing the social impact of mining, enacting laws, and involving community participation throughout. 

Many conferences and programs have been organized and urged countries to indulge in sustainable mining operations. Although, all of the international agencies failed to develop an international treaty that binds companies and governments to operate in an environmentally friendly manner. This has provided the impetus for companies to indulge in practices that improve operational efficiency and assist in complying with national and international laws. It has provided the impetus for investing in technologies that include transparency in operations, cost-effectiveness, and reducing environmental impacts. The Big idea here is to use advanced technologies and invest in devices that help mining firms to minimize ecological damage, maximize profits, and set new standards for the industry. 

Automation has been applied within the industry for more than two decades. Thus, enterprises are making use of autonomous vehicles to improve mining productivity. It is estimated that automation will be the backbone in upcoming years, so companies like Alcoa Corp should invest in such devices and tools (Carvalho, 2017). Operational Intelligence helps to acquire insights in real-time from mining locations, thus initiating data-based decision-making within the organization. Hence, the big idea for companies like Alcoa Corporation is to translate into digitizing dynamic assets for visualizing behavior, aggregating information, and generating recommendation that helps track behavior, land use patterns, and environmental issues. 

Problem Insights and Problems Worth Solving 

Alcoa Corporation has been operating within the mining industry for several decades. It has faced issues like the pressure of selling aluminum at low prices and high power costs. The market share has dropped by 80% from the year 2008. Alcoa Corp runs alumina, which has been in losses and failed to recover only 10%. Alumina is a silent partner with Alcoa in a subsidiary named AWAC (Treadgold, 2020). Even though AWAC is a subsidiary of Alcoa, the investor's valuation is higher for the latter than the former. In addition, extractive industries are very energy intensive, is expected such a sector uses more than 3% of the global electricity. 

Alcoa Corp has been facing issues in competing with global companies. Since the prices are soaring high and with increased consumption of metallurgical minerals, the demand for aluminum, steel, and other metals. Alcoa's aluminum production occurs in Point Henry Aluminum's Australian factory. It has been vulnerable owing to age, the scale of operations, and product mix (Brooks, 2012). The factory has been operating since 1963; although energy efficiency has been improved, the electrolytic cells use more considerable energy than compared to smelters in Middle East countries and China. 

If this plant is closed, Alcoa will have a significant revenue setback. In addition, two smelters apart from Point Henry have been witnessed to consume more than 20% of the energy supplied by local and state authorities. This contributes largely to greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Production efficiency is vital as the carbon tax is increasing, which will directly impact the firm's revenue generation. 

The Targeted Customers

AlcoaCorp is a mining company; hence it sells its metallurgical products to Business-to-Business consumers, which might be government holdings or private houses. Thus, the solution will help the company in providing products at lower prices, creating a competitive edge in the extractive mineral market. Alcoa Corp operates in America, Australia, and other countries. Thus improvement in process and internal operations will help the company to build transparent and trustable relations. The targeted customer base will be American and Australian B2B companies that operate in manufacturing and similar industries. 

The Solution

Mining companies like Alcoa generally have a diverse and fragmented value chain. Since mining operations are conducted, complex spatial information related to engineering is created that might not be in a structured format (Campbell, 2012). Companies like Alcoa face issues in managing and maintaining the accuracy of large data volumes that further result in high operations costs. The costs delay the run rate and enterprise-related goals. 
The use of blockchain will help to make transactions more traceable within the complex process of managing regulations, energy use, and other operations that are fragmented. 

Solutions 1 (Compliance and Managing lease)

Alcoa must manage documentation approval during exploration, resource estimation, mine design, and planning processes. Thus, blockchain technology helps improve custody and control (Vintró et al., 2014). This would help to enhance traceability, which uses smart contracts which can be easily expanded to vendors, thus reducing fragmentation. 

Blockchain technologies help validate auditing or managing activities and outputs within plants like Point Henry and others. 

Solution 2 (Managing Supply Chain)

Blockchain technology will help track materials within the value chain, ranging from concentration to metal forms. This helps to improve value for the B2B customer base of Alcoa Corp. The transactions amongst the vendors and multiple parties are fragmented. Hence, it helps to embed transparency at all levels of the value chain (Muchaendepi et al., 2019). 

When final products like aluminum ore are supplied to B2B, the clients will send the samples for assurance. Hence, Blockchain technology can leverage the process by bringing all three parties (mining companies, customers, and labs) into one platform, which will help access information and acquire real-time information. 

Solution 3 (Use of Mining Equipment Like OEM)

The mining equipment like OEM will help Alcoa source parts from different vendors, promoting collaboration and allowing the company to yield high performance. Blockchain will help in giving authorization on the relevancy of the information. OEM will help collaborate with different vendors, which further assures customers about the quality and use of systems (Dubiński, 2013). Blockchain will help Alcoa Corp understand product quality, identifying which vendors have supplied poor materials. The company will be able to maintain its end product quality and retain its customer base. 

Considering the issues of Alcoa Corp and existing sustainability patterns, Solution 3 has been selected that uses OEM backed with Blockchain technology. 

Market Size and Competition 

More than 40 global mining companies will generate revenues of more than 656 billion in the year 2020. Although, the industry has faced a reduction in profit margin owing to tightening regulations and stakeholder preference, reducing profitability from 25% in 2010 to 11% in 2020. The market size is enormous, with total operating expenses accounting for more than 633 billion (Garside, 2022). In addition, blockchain technologies are expected to improve market size and competition. It assists in decarbonizing economies by making transactions more traceable and secure and lowering time consumption (Mancini&Sala, 2018). It is expected that connected devices in the mining market will be worth $28.1 billion. From 2022 to 2027, the market size is expected to grow from USD 12.7 billion to 23.6 billion. The mining equipment and smart devices are increasing at a CAGR of 4.6 % and16.3%, respectively (Garside, 2022). 

This indicates that using blockchain technology will help Alcoa improve market opportunities by exploring production optimization at all levels of the value chain. Also, the company might face stiff competition owing to improved technologies invested and developed by key players. To explore good profit margins in varied growing industries, it is essential to embed blockchain and ensure traceability with vendors and end customers.

Competitive Advantage and Strategic Fit

Blockchain technologies in Australia are currently used by BHP, which operates in the mining sector with the extraction of various other materials. Alcoa Corp mines bauxite and aluminum, in which not many companies have successfully applied technology and optimized operations (Vintró et al., 2012).
Also, Alcoa owns one of the essential and efficient infrastructures, Point Henry, in Australia. Thus, using blockchain at all levels of the value chain will reduce operations costs and help the firm supply at lower prices with improved processes and shared transparency with business- to business clients. 

Sustainability is a part of Alcoa- Corp’s organizational culture. The company publishes its sustainability report annually to improve awareness amongst vital stakeholder groups. The company operates in more than 31 countries and has achieved sustainability in people, profits, and the planet. In existing times, the company has established a public issue committee which has helped review goals and schemes to maintain its responsibility towards the environment (Felicity, 2012). Thus, investment and using devices related to blockchain will strategically fit into the goals as the company will be able to optimize its production of bauxite and aluminum and responsibly consume resources with high traceability and transparency. 

Assessing Business Model and Uncertainties 

Assumptions

• Blockchain technologies will help reduce energy consumption by decarbonizing activities from the value chain.
• It will promote transparency with all vendors and the end customer base. 
• It is secured and will ensure high interoperability 

Uncertainties 

• The increase in cyber crimes has impacted the use of advanced technologies in the mining and manufacturing sectors. 
• Pandemic and other external forces might disrupt the investment and implementation of such tools.
• The company lacks technical feasibility, which might impact the implementation and operation of such technologies. 

Selection of Innovative Tools 

Value proposition Canvas 

It will provide both customer needs and innovative product offering 

The company will gain optimization, hence will require training and education of its staff to use such technology. Costs and efforts to comply with the law might be the pain. 

Workforces, suppliers, and technology firms will gain creators while improving services will be fostered. High ROI and retaining business clients will be relievers. 

SWOT analysis 

This will help explore the product's strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities, and proposed ideas. 
The company has a renowned brand name and resources that could be used to improve its operations and energy consumption weakness. Increasing adoption of technology and tightening rules have provided the impetus to mining companies that might pose a threat. Although, innovation and collaboration could help Alcoa to explore market opportunities. 

Market Segmentation 

This will analyze market segmentation by identifying segmentation, targeting, and positioning. 

The market segmentation will be based on the customers' income and business. The location would be Australia and America. Manufacturing units will be targeted as they have different forms of minerals. Positioning will be done to attract customers as services will be faster, of higher quality, and without any transaction errors. 

Total Addressable Market 

Total Addressable Market helps to understand the market available for exploitation. The total Addressable Market is estimated at USD 159.74 billion, which will grow at a CAGR of 7%.
Customer profile 

A customer profile helps to understand potential customers and their expectations. 

Appendix 

Candid Self-Reflection 

The assignment required analytical skills, which I initially lacked. Before starting, I was concerned about the use of tools as most of them are used through portals and online software. I lacked the skills to use the software and had to search for software that could be easily operated and downloaded. After working out different sections, I have achieved part of the learning outcomes as I gained information on why and how the value proposition is done. This learning will support my professional and work life in the future. 

Conclusion 

The report analyzed that Alcoa Corp faced issues in managing its sustainability goals like energy consumption and maintaining it at all value chain levels. Since the operations are segmented, resources are wasted, which could be improved by using blockchain that will help to trace different functions and provide real-time insights. The company is renowned; hence application of technology will help to build a competitive edge. 

References 

Brooks, G. (2012). The solutions to Alcoa’s problems may lie in its backyard. https://theconversation.com/the-solutions-to-alcoas-problems-may-lie-in-its-backyard-5289 (Accessed 24 Aug 2022) 

Campbell, B. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility and development in Africa: Redefining the roles and responsibilities of public and private actors in the mining sector. Resources Policy, 37(2), 138-143.

Carvalho, F. P. (2017). Mining industry and sustainable development: time for change. Food and Energy Security, 6(2), 61-77.

Dubiński, J. (2013). Sustainable development of mining mineral resources. Journal of Sustainable Mining, 12(1), 1-6.

Felicity, C. (2012). US aluminium giant Alcoa says it's leading the way. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/us-aluminium-giant-alcoa-sustainability (Accessed 24 Aug 2022) 

Garside, M. (2022). Mining industry worldwide - statistics & facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/1143/mining/#topicHeader__wrapper(Accessed 24 Aug 2022) 
Mancini, L., & Sala, S. (2018). Social impact assessment in the mining sector: Review and comparison of indicators frameworks. Resources Policy, 57, 98-111.

Muchaendepi, W., Mbowa, C., Kanyepe, J., &Mutingi, M. (2019). Challenges faced by the mining sector in implementing sustainable supply chain management in Zimbabwe. Procedia Manufacturing, 33, 493-500.

Treadgold, T. (2020). Alcoa’s Slide Looks Awful Alongside Alumina, A Business It Helped Create.https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2020/01/22/alcoas-slide-looks-awful-alongside-alumina-a-business-it-helped-create/?sh=77fa9c0b303c (Accessed 24 Aug 2022) 

Vintró, C., Fortuny, J., Sanmiquel, L., Freijo, M., & Edo, J. (2012). Is corporate social responsibility possible in the mining sector? Evidence from Catalan companies. Resources Policy, 37(1), 118-125.

Vintró, C., Sanmiquel, L., &Freijo, M. (2014). Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies. Journal of cleaner production, 84, 155-163.