Intrapreneurship & Entrepreneurship
Innovation is a complex phenomenon, which describes the process of new idea generation and implementation aiming at to create a new product, service or a process (Urabe, Child & Kagono, 1988). Innovation is often a prerequisite for successful competition, that is why companies invest extensively into their research and development activities. Industries and markets, which are characterised by high degree of innovation, are in the majority of cases very dynamic and require fast adjustment according to the market conditions. One of such industries is the game industry, where Nintendo has launched its truly innovative product Nintendo Wii.
Nintendo Wii or Wii has become a new step in video console industry, where the competition mainly occurs between the three major products: Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo and Sony's PlayStation. While Microsoft and Sony were trying to create the best video game, Nintendo followed a different strategy. The idea of Wii is to offer a new game kind , where the rules are so intuitive that anyone could play it. Wireless controllers and motion detectors made Wii more than just a console, but an experience. Instead of trying to win customers in the existing market, Nintendo attracted consumers, who usually do not play video games. Wii has become a console not only for games, but also for yoga, fitness and other activities, which is so easy to operate, that even little children and older people can master it. The new technological solution as well as an innovative customer segmentation made Wii a real break-through in the industry.
Market introduction of Wii in 2006 occurred stepwise, targeting Japanese and American markets first. As intrapreneurship is entrepreneurship in an established business, Nintendo’s introduction approach was largely intrapeneurial (Tassiopoulos, 2008). Intrapreneurial strategy has a number of advantages, as intrapreneurs leverage on the existing distribution channels, market information, previous market experience and brand recognition. However, innovation within an existing organization always entails the need for integration of the product into the already existing structures and culture. Moreover, the existing brand reputation may create unreasonably high demand on the first days of the launch, thus leading to product shortages and price gauging, as in the case of Wii. However, in general the launch of Wii was considered very successful based on the reaction of the customers, making Wii the current leader in the console market.
References
Tassiopoulos, D. (2008). New tourism ventures: an entrepreneurial and managerial
approach. (pp. 336-340). Cape Town, South Africa: Juta & Co.
Urabe, K., Child, J., & Kagono, T. (1988). Innovation and management: international
comparisons. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
