Innovation Strategy Using AI For Strava Company Essay.

Innovation is an important part of the business as it helps in becoming competent in the target market. There are various innovation trends present in the external environment that helps the companies to grow effectively in the target market.

The below mentioned report evaluates the use of artificial innovation trend in the company Strava.

Strava is mobile application that helps the user in tracking the record of their physical activities. Use of artificial intelligence in the internal management and services will effectively support the company in operating its functions.

Further, the report concludes the responses of the innovation trends used by the company in the environment along with the recommendations for the company to grow. More details about the report are discussed  below:

Organisational environment

The aim of this report is to provide details about the innovation strategy of the company Strava along with its arrangement of the innovation strategy with the business functions. The report explains different concepts of innovation and their relationship with each other as well. Further, the report also elaborates the impact of the innovation trends on the activities of Strava Company. The chosen innovation for the company is artificial intelligence.

Strava is software as a service mobile application that is used to track running, cycling and swimming activity via GPS. The company was initially released in the year 2009 and is now used in different parts of the world by people to organize their physical activities and show up it to the people as well. Through this application, the user can record and upload their physical activities performed. The software also stores the statistics, like heart race, pulse rate, distance, pace, and then provide a better way of comparison of the growth in physical activities. By the time of March, 2015 the company was occupied with more than 200000 premium customers with them. In the year 2009, the company as found by Mark Gainey and Micheal Horvath who build the application with an aim to assist people with the physical activities. The service uses GPS facility of mobile phones or other extendable devices such as Fitbit, Garmin to get access and record multiple types of information during the workout sessions of the users.

Further, artificial intelligence refers to the innovation that focuses on the process of creation intellectual machines that work and reacts like humans. The information technology used by the company Strava is already a part of artificial intelligence but with the use of hi-tech features of this technology, the company can easily grow their market share in the external international environment (Child, et. al., 2017). Furthermore, details about the innovation trend and the activities of the business are discussed below:

Discussion of some of the topics related to the process and innovation and organization are mentioned below:

Organisational environment: Organizational environment refers to the environment in which a business works. This environment includes the internal and external force that drive the activities of the company. Organization environment is the environment in which employees carry on the business functions of the company (Epstein, 2018).

Innovation trend: it refers to the different developments occurred in the process of innovation in the society. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality etc. are some of the innovation trends present in the society which the companies pick to increase their competence.

Innovation strategy: it refers to the strategy implemented in the organization to the purpose to implement the innovation trend in the business and attain benefit out of it as well (Hiteva, & Sovacool, 2017).

Innovation capabilities: It refers to the capability present in the innovation used to help the business to successfully grow in the target market. Innovation capabilities explain the expertise of the innovation aspect that can help business to improve their operations and succeed in the target market.

Innovation trend

Innovation value creation and capture: It refer to process in which innovation helps the business in creating value for the business. The aspect involves the process in which either business creates value by using innovation or captures it from the organizational environment (Lubberink, Blok, van Ophem, & Omta, 2017).

The fact should be noted that all the above mentioned concepts have relation which each other as they are a part of the organizational environment. The trends present in the environment are selected by the organization to capture values for business. In order to create or capture the value, the business process initiates innovation strategies and align it to the activities of the business. The innovation strategy should also match to the activities of the business, then only it will become capable to help the company succeed in the target market (França, et. al., 2017). Thus, in this way all the concepts have a definite relationship with each other in the target market.

As discussed above, the innovation strategy should have a definite relationship with the activities of the business so as to drive success for the business. But, before proceeding towards the alignment of both the concepts, it is important to understand the innovation strategy used in the business Strava. The information about the artificial innovation strategy used in Strava are discussed below:

Search: Strava being present in the IT industry face a regular need to innovate their services in such a way that the productivity of the company is increased and revenue is earned as well. In response to which, the company search various innovation trends presented in the market like augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotic automation etc. (Inigo, Albareda, & Ritala, 2017).

Select: From the above searched innovation trends, the company Strava found artificial intelligence innovation best suited for the business. The company was in an actual need to use this type of innovation to grow in the target market.

Implement: Further, the company strategized various activities in such a way that they can use the successfully use the innovation in the business and grow as well. The company improved the application and initiated its configuration with various other apps as well that can help the business to attain greater market segment (Malik, & Raheja, 2018).

Capture: Strava will attain benefits of the artificial intelligence innovation by effectively expanding the scope of business and joining hands with various other organization that can help the business to create its effectiveness. Use of artificial intelligence will help the app to get better understanding of the physique of the user and guide them in a better way.

It is important for the management of Strava to align the innovation strategy applied in the company with the strategic objective of the business to get valuable return for the company. If an organization does not align the objectives of the company strategically with innovation, then they will face difficulty to attain capable returns for the business (Gassmann, Schuhmacher, von Zedtwitz, & Reepmeyer, 2018). The creation of innovation strategy ensures strategic alignment within the organization so that the business easily fulfils the objectives defined. Innovation strategy ensures strategic alignment by using all the available resources present in the environment and attracting the customers as well. This strategy utilizes all the resources of the company and turns them according to the disruption so as to attain profits for the organization. Further, this alignment is important for the business because it helps the management to use all the available resource and grow in the target market (Xi, Kraus, Filser, & Kellermanns, 2015).

Innovation strategy

The impact of use of innovation strategy in the position of the company is discussed below by using the SWOT analysis strategic tool:

Strength: The biggest strength of the organization is entrepreneurial traits of management that helped the business to place their position in the target market. As an entrepreneur, effectively make use innovation in the business to succeed so they company will adequately adopt this type of innovation in the business as well. The flexible approach of the business will help the company to align the strategies of business with innovation and grow in the target market (Perry, Rahim, & Davis, 2018).

Weakness: A weak promotional strategy is the biggest weakness of the company in the target market. The services served by Strava are well efficient that can attain good demand in market but the prospective people present in the market do not actually know about the company. So, use of artificial intelligence can successfully help the users to generate a better level of satisfaction in the environment and promote the brand as well. Mouth to mouth promotion is the most reliable promotion strategy, so in this way, the company can turn its weakness in strengths (Lin, Kong, Bai, & Kong, 2018).

Opportunity: The whole market is unexplored by the organization Strava, so they attain great opportunity to capture a greater market share as well. Now days, many people are getting attracted towards fitness so this aspect provide opportunity to the company to use innovation and capture a greater share in the target market.

Threat: the biggest threat of the company is the connectivity of the app with the user and reliability of the user on the results of application. This states that customers satisfaction is the biggest threat of the company as the people are very conscious towards their health, poor results from app can lead to major distress among the user as well (Jørgensen, & Pedersen, 2018). 

Response of the innovation strategies of Strava towards the innovation trend is discussed below:

• The company should organize its innovation activities in such a way that the threats and weakness of the company are eliminated and successfully results are received. As discussed above, that the company faces problem in attracting the right type of customers in the target market. Further, the innovation strategy should be used by the organization so that they successfully make use of available resources to succeed in the target market (Burmeister, Lüttgens, & Piller, 2016).
  
  
• Talking about additional innovation, it should be noted that the company should include regional language also in the app so as to enhance the satisfaction level of the customers. Every user should be provided a buddy through app with the help of which they should attain the healthcare related solutions from the app. The app should be developed in regional languages, this aspect will enhance the use of artificial intelligence in the business and increase the satisfaction level of the users as well (Antikainen, & Valkokari, 2016).
  
  
• The innovation initiative that the company should be pursue is the process of adoption of innovation in the back office also. This aspect will enhance the internal as well as external functioning of the business. Also, the company should setup a customer care centre that should solve the problems of the customers. The process artificial intelligence should be used by the company in interacting with the clients in the market (Popa, Soto-Acosta, & Martinez-Conesa, 2017).
  
  
• The best indicator of the performance of the company is the Key Performance Indicators. The KPIs set for the organization will effectively help the company to aim for the target and compare the growth of the organization. Monitoring the growth in this way will help the organization to succeed in the target market (Baldassarre, Calabretta, Bocken, & Jaskiewicz, 2017).

The organization Strava has a well distinguished mobile application present in the market. The company provides physical fitness related services to the customers in the target market. Looking at the above analysis, it is recommended to the company that they should focus on targeting the right customers in the market. Also, the entrepreneur of the organization should aim to adequately deliver the used innovation in the business. Inn this way the company will be able to attain a greater market share in the international market.

Conclusion

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the company Strava is a physical service provider and health tracker organization. The above mentioned analysis successfully explained the use of innovation strategy in the business and the way in which the company can achieve advantage in the target market. The report successfully satisfies the requirements of the assessment.

References

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