NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

HIGHER NATIONALS
BTEC HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS (RQF)

Unit Code, Number and Title M/508/0494 – Unit 8 - Innovation and Commercialization

Semester and Academic Year Semester 1, Academic year 2021-2022

Unit Assessor(s) Pham Quang Ngoc/ Nguyen Quang Huy/ Bui Thu Van/
Tran Lan Huong/ Nguyen Duc Trong

IC E1.1: Innovation, Commercialization and Protection

Assessment Number and Title (Assessment 2 of 2)

Issue Date Wed, December 8th, 2021

Submission Date Wed, December 8th, 2021

IV Name Phan Thi Thuc Anh

IV Date

Student name

NEU Student ID Pearson ID

Plagiarism is a particular form of cheating. Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs and students who
break the rules, however innocently, may be penalised. It is your responsibility to ensure that you
understand correct referencing practices. As a university level student, you are expected to use
appropriate references throughout and keep carefully detailed notes of all your sources of materials for
material you have used in your work, including any material downloaded from the Internet. Please
consult the relevant unit lecturer or your course tutor if you need any further advice.

I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I fully
Student declaration understand the consequences of plagiarism. I understand that making a
false declaration is a form of malpractice.

Student(s) name(s) /
Date: Wed, December 8th, 2021
Signature

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 Regulations for the conduct of Time-constrained assessment
 The time-constrained assessment is taken online. Case studies will be issued 5 minutes before the exam
time.
 Before the deadline, students are required to submit the assignment on Turnitin, which was synchronized with
Moodle. Please be noted that you can submit ONE TIME only. You are strongly recommended to submit at
least 15 minutes before the deadline.
 This is an opened-book assessment.
 The submission format is in the form of an E-report. Please refer the Student handbook (Vietnamese
version, Appendix 2) for the Assignment submission rules.
 The file on Turnitin must be in Word format and include the first page of this cover sheet. The first page of
the cover sheet should be in the picture format in order to ensure the accepted similarity of Turnitin.
 The similarity allowed is up to 25% after excluding references.
 Name of the file includes Student ID_Unit name_Assessment no. (E.g. “1010001_IC_E1.1”)
 Ensure that authenticity declaration has been signed electronically.
 Duration: 2.5 hours, from 8h30 to 11h00; Submission time: 2 hours, from 11h00 to 13h00.
 Plagiarism is unacceptable. Students must cite all sources and input the information by paraphrasing,
summarising or using direct quotes. A Referral Grade is given when Plagiarism is identified in your work.
There are no exceptions.
(*) Any misconduct one of those rules above will be formally reported to investigate. If an investigation
reveals reasonable evidence that a student has engaged in exam misconduct, a severe penalty, which can
include cancellation of results and exclusion from the course, may apply.

Unit Learning Outcomes:

LO3: Discuss the process required to commercialize innovation.

LO4: Evaluate the range of methods for protecting ideas and understand their advantages and disadvantages

Assessment Brief and Guidance:

SCENARIO 1 – TESLA
Imagine you’re responsible for developing Tesla first electric cars.
Answer the following questions:
1. Explain the importance of the Commercial Funnel through which the Tesla’s electric cars were
successfully passed into the market.
2. Apply 8 steps of New Product Development (NPD) to the case of Tesla to explain how the Tesla
developed a business idea into a product and launched it into the market.

SCENARIO 2 – RESONANCE
After the Pyer Moss fashion show last September, designer Kerby Jean-Raymond didn’t have to
scramble to take orders from boutiques and forecast demand. That’s because he manufactures all
of his garments with Resonance, a five-year-old, on-demand fashion production company that uses
design software, automated cutting machines, and an army of sewers to make apparel only  after a
customer has placed an order. Rebecca Minkoff and Tucker are among the 20 brands currently
using Resonance, which has already manufactured more than 100,000 units.

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Last year the company also helped 11 Black designers launch their labels with a $50,000 grant and
free access to the platform. “Our vision is to allow designers to focus on what they do
best, creating, without needing the manufacturing resources of legacy brands,” says co-founder
Lawrence Lenihan.
This year, the brand will launch a QR code on its garments that will allow the customer to trace the
origins of the materials and even watch videos of their garment being made on the factory
line. Here’s how Resonance works.
DIGITAL DESIGNS
Designers can either send in paper patterns for Resonance to digitize or use the platform’s design
software to create virtual silhouettes, which can be made in one of more than 60 raw, uncolored
materials—all of them natural, such as silk and organic cotton—that Resonance keeps at its factory
in the Dominican Republic.
VIRTUAL SAMPLES
Brands can market their designs before they even begin manufacturing them by posting their
digitally-rendered garments on their websites.
ON-DEMAND MANUFACTURING
When a customer places an order, Resonance’s machines in the Dominican Republic use digital
printing to apply colors and patterns to the selected fabric then laser cut the garment’s shape.
Instructions for how to sew the item are embedded into the seams of the cut pieces.
REMOTE SEWING
The pieces of cut fabric are sent to a team of local sewers, who turn them into the final garment.
Eventually, Resonance wants to create sewing outposts around the world and use a cloud-based
logistic platform that would allow them to ship items directly to customers’ doors.
DROP SHIPPING
The item is shipped to the customer within 10 days. This system allows brands to avoid holding any
inventory, saving them overhead costs and ensuring they are not saddled with unsold stock at the
end of the season.
SMART RETURNS
If a customer returns an item, Resonance identifies potential problems with the design, such as
sizing errors or a misleading color, and sends feedback to the brand, which can begin addressing
the problem in real time.
Source: Elizabeth Segran (2021). Available from:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90600403/resonance-most-innovative-companies-2021
Read the scenario 2 and critically evaluate the associated business model for turning
Resonance innovative business into a profitable business by answering the following
questions:
1. Describe the founders’ initial business model assumptions and the firm’s “value proposition” (a
component of the firm’s business model canvas).
2. Explain how you tested these assumptions including: What would you do? How the canvas could
changed (various pivots)? Describe your potential customer interviews. Evaluate what you could
possibly learn after testing these assumptions: Changes you need to make so that the business
model can be sucessfully implemented?
Note: a pivot is a substantive change to one or more of the 9 business model canvas components
3. Identify and compare possible ways to access funding to support the Resonance innovation
business case?

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 SCENARIO 3 – FONOS
Fonos is a Vietnamese digital audio content startup. Founded in 2020 by Oscar Jesionek and Xuan
Nguyen, Fonos gained prominence in the local audiobook space with standardised in-house audio
recordings made by professional narrators. The firm produces short 10-15-minute book summaries,
guided meditation, stories, news, and offline reading options. Its audiobooks are multi-genre,
ranging from fiction, classics, economics to startups. Of these, non-fiction books are the most
popular.
Despite the stringent lockdowns and social-distancing measures, Fonos claims it witnessed a 5x
growth in monthly revenue since the beginning of the year. Its monthly active userbase also spiked
to over 80,000 in August alone.
With a population of more than 90 million, coupled with the smartphone penetration rate being in
the top 10 globally, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing markets for digital mobile-first content.
Source: Jamille Chan (2021). Available from: https://e27.co/vietnams-audiobook-app-fonos-raises-
us1-1m-seed-round-to-become-super-app-20210908/
You are supposed to provide consulting service to Fonos. You are required to build an
intellectual property protection strategy for protecting the audiobook app Fonos. Answer the
following questions:
1. Explore and evaluate the range of methods, different tools for protecting the company idea and
intellectual property.
2. Propose your IP strategy in brief (not more than 10 sentences).
3. Discuss the context of the company’s innovation commercialization and protection, including
challenges and the way to overcome these challenges for successful development.

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

Learning Achieved Achieved Achieved

Pass Merit Distinction
Outcome (ticked) (ticked) (ticked)
LO3 Discuss P5 Explain the M4 Build a LO3 &4
the process importance of the detailed D2 Critically
required to commercial funnel Innovation evaluate the
commercialise and the application Business nature of
innovation of New Product Case which innovation and the
Development (NPD) includes how context in which it
processing for to measure its is developed,
commercialisation overall providing
of innovation. effectiveness evidence-based
P6 Build an using judgements on
Innovation appropriate how organisations
Business Case for techniques can overcome
an organization, available to challenges to
including ways to test, iterate develop
access funding. and improve. successful

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 M5 Present
LO4 Evaluate supported
P7 Evaluate the
the range of evidence-
different tools that
methods for based
organizations can
protecting ideas evaluation of
use to develop,
and understand these
retain and protect innovations.
their different tools
knowledge and
advantages and in the context
intellectual
disadvantages of the wider
property.
business
environment.

Formative Feedback: Assessor to Student

Action Plan

Summative Feedback: Assessor to Student

The Student Is Awarded:

Choose One
(*) Referral PASS Grade MERIT Grade DISTINCTION Grade

Name of Assessor: Date of Assessment:

Re-submission Feedback:

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Choose One The Student Is Awarded A:
(*) Referral PASS Grade
Name of Assessor: Date of Assessment:
Feedback: Student to Assessor

Signature & Date:

* Please note that grades are provisional. They are only confirmed once internal and external verifiers
have taken place, and the final decisions have been agreed at the assessment board.
* This grade only reflects the result of this assignment, not for the whole Unit.