Kanopy Digital Multimedia Report

7/28/2019 Kanopy Digital Multimedia Report

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Digital Multimedia Report

CURTIN

UNIVERSITYUNIT:MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION 301

Name: Muhammad Jawad Khalid Cheema

Student ID: 7E1B8873/15658672

Lecturer: Adreil Sim

Email: [email protected]

Total file word count 3,098

Less direct quotes 0

Less tables of content 64

Less reference lists 287

Total net word count 2747


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary................................................................................... 3

Company Profile & Background.............................................................. 3

Establishing an Environment for Innovation

- IP Strategies............................................................................................. 3,4

- Managing Organisational Knowledge and Innovation........................ 4, 5

- Colaborations........................................................................................... 5

Implementing Innovation

- Managing Innovation & Operations Management............................... 6, 7

- New Product Development...................................................................... 7, 8, 9

Points to Ponder.......................................................................................... 9

Questions from the CEO............................................................................. 10

Conclusion................................................................................................... 10

Reference List............................................................................................... 11, 12


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Ol iv ia Humph rey - Kanopy

1. Execu tive Summ ary

In this report I will be analysing Kanopy a streaming website in accordance with its IP strategies,

knowledge management procedure , collaborations as well as its innovation and operation

management techniques and also talk about their new product development process. theseanalysis will be made in order to paint and provide a proper picture of kanopy current position

and situation in the market and how they operate.

2. Company Prof i le & B ackground

Olivia Humphrey is the managing director as well as founder of Kanopy. she used to work as amarketing manager for a company called Roadshow Entertainment when she realised a missing

link in the way the streaming technology was being used by students. she thought sites like

YouTube were famous but were not using streaming to its full potential. Hence by 2007 OliviaHumphrey started the business in her house with only ten to fifteen thousand dollars and now

Kanopy is the leading supplier of DVD and Videos for Australian Universities (Mathew 2012)Kanopy is now regarded as the Netflix of the educational sector with a database of 15000 videos.

Kanopy acts as a bridge between filmmakers and university libraries. their clients have to obtainlicenses which allows them to stream their content anytime without a limit. some applications are

introduced to encourage students and give them a new experience. Kanopy gives a special search

method due to which their clients can ask for for material which isn't promoted,& then kanopywill seek to obtain those contents for their customers. There unique company structure has

changed itself the way libraries &film makers operate. (A teaching revolution 2013)3. Estab l ish ing an envi ronment for innov at ion.

IP Strategies

Intellectual property can be defined as the property which is driven from the intellect of a brain

(IP 2013). It includes things such as , inventions, formulas, different discoveries, software

designs and other works whether they be musical, artistic or literal. These innovative ideas have

their own value and are protected under things such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, imitationlaws and infringement laws (Intellectual Property 2013). Intellectual properties are basically

focused in order to form an IP strategy which itself is sort of game plan that a company creates in

order to meat its goals (IP Strategy defined 2010).

at Kanopy Olivias group has invented a complex & distinctive application which itself is

exceptional. Kanopys operation model and foundation is based on codes which they protect bykeeping them well hidden and with the help of continuously innovating, developing, and


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adopting change, this helps them gain a competitive advantage over others. Kanopy does have

the choice to patent or copywrite their codes & inventions but they choose not to as Firstly, if the

code is patented, its description will be open to public due to which anyone can use differentcodes to create a similar application and it wont be an infringement as the codes are not exactly

the same. Secondly, as codes demand continuous upgrading in order to hold a competitive edge.

so by the time the code would get patented there's a huge chance that the code would havealready become obsolete and replaced by a better one. Lastly, copyrighting or patentingthemselves are very costly and it would be a waste if codes become obsolete too quickly.

(Humphrey 2013)

Managing organizational knowledge and innovation strategies

The process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets in an effort to devise best practices (Meridith 2013).

a company's knowledge base includes 5 different aspects. firstly there are the individual assets

which basically are the skills people in the organization posses. secondly there is the technologyproperty which basically concerns the production process. thirdly comes managerial resources

which are responsible for the system and operations through which things get done. next it's the

external resources which are the relations and contacts a company has with its clients,competitors, politicians, suppliers etc.. and lastly its the projects itself by which most resources

are deployed and organized. (Trott 2012)

in kanopys case they work on a cloud based operating system which can be defined as a lightoperating system which uses web apps and saves information from remote servers (Margaret

2013)

in simpler terms it is usage of internet to perform tasks on the computer (Margaret 2013).

there cloud operating system is designed to improve continuously making sure that everything isvisible to all the employees. furthermore a compulsory intensive training is provided to every

new employee for 3 months to make sure that they know every aspect on how the business

works as well as how what information is passed through each hierarchy level. This immenselyadds value to the business. (Humphrey 2013)

kanopy doesn't have the habit of conducting a lot of meeting for their employees, they actually

organize big team meetings where its compulsory for everyone to attend. its more of an

information session where everyone input their ideas so that all information is passed toeveryone. (Humphrey 2013).

competency levels should be high in business so that unique products are created which are hard

to imitate so that long term profits can be enjoyed. (Trott 2012)

since kanopy's core competency is high as they created a unique software which keeps onimproving and its hard to imitate as the coding is hard to copy. they will easily earn long term

profits. (Humphrey 2013).Figure 1.0 below represents how core competency and imitability effects the profitability of acompany


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Figure 1.0(Afual 2003)

absorptive capacity can be described as the ability of a firm to process new information and

manage it in a productive fashion in order to obtain favourable outcomes (What Is Absorptive

Capacity 2013).kanopy has always been progressing on what external knowledge they posses which helps to

perform efficiently to acquire their needs .we can easily say that kanopy has absorptive capacity

as they are managing different sorts of information for different clients are meeting the unique

information requirement of their clients whether they be corporations or universities (Humphrey2013).

Collaboration strategies

organizations often collaborate or go into strategic alliances with other companies. this could be

for numerous reasons such as, increasing capital, reduce research and development cost,improved market and technological strength etc. (Trott 2012).

there are certain risks that arise from strategic alliances e.g reduced control in managing, more

complexities and conflicts due to different goals and corporate cultures, lesser competitive

knowledge and the firms might be competing with each other rather than actually cooperatingdue to which information could be distorted (Trott 2012).

kanopy uses licensing which can be defined as the permission given to use a business's

intellectual property rights like technology, patents, trademarks etc. (Licensing 2013) kanopy

has already acquired rights of different businesses to use their content and provide them with astreaming platform. under the licensing agreement with MEF, kanopy will provide MEF with a

streaming platform and MEF will give them their customers & clients by approaching them and

telling them that MEF's content now can be bought digitally on kanopy streaming and thereforekanopy will also get to sign contracts with MEF's clients and customers and hence will be

entitled keep a portion of the sales profit. This way MEF will save itself from spending heavily

on creating a similar software as kanopy and in turn improve the sales for its own content.


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4. Implementin g innovation

Managing innovation and operations management

a definition of innovation could be described as the transition of a certain invention or an ideainto a service or good with such a value for which consumers will easily be willing to pay (Innovation 2013).

Innovation is considered as the prime basis for creating wealth, and is extremely crucial for

business survival (de Waal, Anton, MAritz and Sheih, 2010)From the above we can see that innovation itself is not easy to manage, but it indeed does helpstrategically as innovation provides new creations as well as breakthroughs which improves

efficiency.The 7 important steps for managing innovation efficiently are as follows: 1.Strategicthinking, 2. managing portfolio, 3. Research, 4. Inputs, 5.developing the innovation, 6.

Developing the market, 7. Commercialisation (Innovation 2013). Management of the innovationprocess is actually the improvement of the creativity prospective of an organization. The main

attribute of an innovation procedure is uncertainty management. A framework designed by

Pearson (Figure 1.1), assist in evaluating and recognizing innovation process and uncertainty (Trott 2012).

High

Uncertainty ofthe Outcome

Low HighUncertainty of the approached used

(Pearson 1991) Figure 1.1

to further enhance the innovation performance a certain innovation incentive or stimulus is

required at the start and more importantly an innovation faculty with extensive capabilities areneeded to achieve the desired performance (Trott 2012).

Internal Research and development is mainly vital but it is also advised that because of the

problems with managing human resources as well as finances, small medium entrepreneurs candepend on some other outside Research and development options by creating collaborations

with other small medium entrepreneurs or even large corporations if needed. (Dodgson and

Rothwell, 1991; Riedle, 1989)

3. Application

Engineering

1. Exploratory

Research

2. DevelopmentEngineering

1. joining marketopportunities withtechnical

capabilities


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Figure 1.2 (Trott2012)

considering Kanopy, we can see that in the beginning Olivia was worried about the US market

but later realised that opportunities do exist as she found out other business that were starting up.

mainly for innovation management Kanopy used make use of its internal resources but at this

point when entering a new market they decided to use external resources as well and hencecreated alliances with other companies in order to become a foundation or a platform for

education, media and networking based companies so that they can sell their content onlinethrough streaming E.g. MEF. all the way through the venture Kanopy consistently enhanced its

softwares and also improved the quality and the amount of content they were providing to their

users. hence the conclusion is that Kanopy sits on the fourth quadrant in the map od uncertainty.

Furthermore Kanopy has excellent recruiting policy due to which they enjoy a working teamwhich is unique and extremely innovative and helps work through uncertainties in an effective

manner. as far as long term goals are considered Kanopy prefers videos to play an objective role

in higher education enhance educational standards and create its own community.

New product development

NPD (New Product Development) can be referred to as the process by which a new service or

product in introduced in the market. it also helps with the developing, marketing, conception,analysis and selling of the product(New Product Development 2012).

Electronic New development can be described as joining the organizational process with IT

applications and knowledge systems in order to improve innovation (Yang and Liming 2002).New Product Development process consists of 7steps which are firstly strategy planning, then

gathering information, thirdly creating opportunities for the business, next to generate the idea of

the product, then they have to develop prototypes, fifthly to conduct technical testing and lastly

to introduce the product in the market. Furthermore to achieve NPD three vital objectives should

be fulfilled which are first to make sure that they are meeting the needs and requirements of thecustomers. Secondly they should decrease the time taken to launch the product in the market and

lastly they should try to minimize the production cost as much possible without affecting the

quality.(Trott 2012)

Innovation capacityTechnology

ManagementR&D Management

Innovationperformance

Product InnovationProcess Innovation

Innovation stimulusLeadership

People Management

Knowledge

ManagementCreativity

Management


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Opportunities for business Growth will always exist when NPD is in place. figure 1.3 below

shows Ansoff's matrix which helps in deciding on developing strategy (Product/Market Grid 2013)

(Product/Market Grid 2013) Figure 1.3

Growth can also take place with the help of external and internal achievements. New product

development Network model is another way of outlining the external factors linking with theinternal which come together in order to successfully develop a product. (Trott 2012)

(Suwannaporn and Speece 2000) Figure 1.4


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the Next activity in NPD process is generating business opportunities. the idea is to assemble

any prospective business opportunities which can easily be used to create a successful product.

(Trott 2012)

Unexploited patents

Brainstorming Buyers and Sellers

Existing ProductsTechnology

Rivals products &Reverse engineering

Individuals Upper level Mangement

Figure 1.5

Next comes the screening of these opportunities and ideas. screening is a basic activity when it

comes to new product development. screening is done for the soul reason to select those

opportunities which would most likely be successful and reject the others. (Trott 2012)Kanopy's products are the content they stream which is basically huge. they are consistently

bringing in new content on an average of three hundred content in a week. they have also been

releasing applications to encourage more student involvement. but their main focus at themoment is on the higher education market but they are willing to explore new opportunities at

the same time. e.g. the new market consists of corporations, schools, libraries etc. thus in

accordance with ansoffs model kanopy can chose a market development strategy and or

diversification strategy. kanopy should also use screening in generation of new opportunities to

make out what options they have to make sure they reach a favourable outcome. ThereforeKanopy can sell new substance according to the needs in the new market &present a diversified

service for example live streaming of lectures for all their partner universities. In which case,external inputs will be given by the universities in shape of finance for the gear used e.g. video

cameras to properly stream lectures through Kanopy (Humphrey 2013).

4.1 Points to pon der.

There are things or options kanopy can explore such as going into collaboration with companieslike Google or face book this way they wont have to worry about there advertisement and plus

every user who has a Google account for example could have automatic access to kanopy from

the same email and in return kanopy could provide them the content at a discounted rate. furthermore if kanopy faces any financial problems they can register the company in the stock marketand sell some shares in order to attract investors and increase the capital of the company. this

option could be used especially when kanopy in the future decides to go global.

Generating businessoppurtunities


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5. Questions f rom th e CEO

1. How and where do you think Kanopy can continue to innovate to preserve the trajectory of beingtrue game-changers?

kanopy should also explore the opportunity to provide live streaming of conferences and

lectures. kanopy can always ask their partner universities to encourage their students to work onprojects with kanopy to bring more technological and innovative improvements. this way kanopy

will have more brains working for them. furthermore Kanopy should try to become a media

analysist or provider itself rather then obtaining licenses from different companies, this way

kanopy will have more content and more profits and a new area to work in.

2. What do you think some of the challenges Kanopy will face in scaling up globally?

as the global market is a hard target due to competition, even though kanopy is one of the

leading online educational stream providers, there biggest problem is promotion andadvertisement. kanopy has to conduct more advertisement campaigns to promote themselves and

create awareness. this can be done by using media, providing internships, sponsoring big eventsor charities. this way kanopy can easily go into contracts with more universities world wide as

well as corporations and thus should obtain more licences from companies like MEF around the

globe.

6. Conclus ion and recommendat ions

as we have analysed Kanopy through different areas which are IP,knowledge management,collaboration, innovation and product development. the conclusion comes down to the fact that

kanopy truly has a lot of potential to capture the global market for educational streaming and

revolutionize education itself. there innovation has been consistent with full proof softwares and

there product development strategy so far has been solid which allows them to easily expand intothe global market. the only short coming i have noticed is that kanopy really needs to work hard

on promoting themselves.


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7. Reference List

Afuah, A. 2003, Innovation Management: Strategies, Implementation and Profit, Oxford University Press

Inc., New York, USA.

A teaching revolution: Kanopys Olivia Humphrey. 2013. Women in Focus.

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de Waal, Anton, Alex Maritz, and Chich Jen Shieh. 2010. "Managing Innovation: A Typology of Theories

and Practice-Based Implications for New Zealand Firms." International Journal of Organizational

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Intellectual Property: Definition of intellectual property. 2013. Merriam Webmaster. http://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/intellectual%20property.

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property.html

Levinson, Meridith. 2013. CIO: Knowledge Management Definition and Solutions. Accessed May 9,

http://www.cio.com/article/40343/Knowledge_Management_Definition_and_Solutions

Licensing. 2013. InvestWords.com.http://www.investorwords.com/2799/licensing.html

Mathew Hogan. 2012. Smarter: How Kanopy Became The YouTube Of The Education Sector.

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New Product Development 2012. QFINANCE.http://www.qfinance.com/dictionary/new-product-

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Pearson, A.W. 1991, Managing Innovation: an uncertainty reduction process, in Managing Innovation,

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Product/Market Grid. 2013. VectorStudy.http://vectorstudy.com/management-theories/product- market-

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Rouse, Margaret. 2013. SearchCloudApplications: Cloud OS. Accessed May 9,

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Suwannaporn, Prisana and Mark Speece. 2000. "Continuous Learning Process in New Product

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Education, Ltd. Essex, England

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PowerPoint Lecture notes.

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Yang, Jie and Liming Yu. 2002. "Electronic New Product Development - a Conceptual.
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7. Appendix (for Multimedia Exhibits)

Timel ine:

Link for timeline :

Timeline
http://www.timerime.com/en/timeline/2088769/Olivia+Humphrey+Kanopy/http://www.timerime.com/en/timeline/2088769/Olivia+Humphrey+Kanopy/http://www.timerime.com/en/timeline/2088769/Olivia+Humphrey+Kanopy/

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Kanopy Digital Multimedia Report