Innovation Management Strategic and Success of Thai Dessert Business 

Narumol Limlahapun and Kanyamon Kanchanathaveekul

Introduction

          Thailand has abundant natural resources. Thailand is the world's largest rubber producing countries, the largest sugar exporter, the sixth largest rice exporter, an exporter of canned and frozen seafood, tuna and canned fruit canned. There are rich resources and superior geographical position (BOI, 2013). Some of the internal obstacles that Thai SMEs are facing are deficiencies in corporate capabilities, such as, marketing, technology, and innovation, problems arising from global economic, social and environmental changes, new stipulation of international rules, change in consumer behavior, the government put many efforts in promoting SMEs, that lack of competitive advantage and the access to credit as among the greatest barriers to their operation and growth (OSMEP, 2007a); (Harvie & Lee, 2005) (Bank, 2009).    

          In operation, Thai dessert entrepreneurs as a group of small business which produce local products need to define a strategy for survival. It is found that most of the producers of community enterprise group apply sufficient economy philosophy, and also found that small business group has made business networks inside and outside the community for their business survival. However, community enterprise group extremely needs to apply operation principle according to the method of community enterprise, as the community enterprise group has its feature different from other businesses in general. Community enterprise is classified as a community activity group in which the community conceives from learning from working together, not an individual activity which aims to the big market, not complicated activity, but doing for consumption instead of buying from the market. It is the management of production system and consumption that occurs in daily life, by applying the method of community enterprise development and business management development in business operation for creating sustainability, starting from the development of local small business (Wajirum & Inwang, 2018).

          OECD (2005), based on its work in the area of innovation in several countries, has come up with a list of types of innovation that has been widely referred to in current literature that divides innovation into two main categories: (1) technological innovation, and (2) non-technological innovation. There are two types of innovation under technological innovation, namely, product innovation and process innovation. In a similar manner, there are two types of innovation under non-technological innovation, namely, marketing innovation and organizational innovation. The focus of the current study is on product innovation which is a type of technological innovation as product innovation plays an important role in improving quality of life and improving a firm‘s financial and marking performance (Hoonsopon & Ruenrom, 2012).

          Thai desserts are an important community product because they are locally produced and well-known in the community, and they have the characteristics of applying local wisdom to produce it before being a provincial product that can attract tourists both domestic and international. Considering the economic grouping, we found that Thai desserts are in Thai food. If you add a creative concept, it will add value to the product. It has creative, new perspectives and generates revenue. (Bureau of Economic and Social Development, Central Region, 2013)  Most Thai desserts originate from household businesses that have the knowledge, skills, and techniques of production, which is constantly developing themselves by finding new products, flavors and product forms. To make a difference from other brands, as well as today, consumers are more interested in health. So there is a Thai dessert to have ingredients with herbs added. However, Thai dessert business needs to adapt to survive and be competitive by creating quality products, building good relationships with raw materials, accurate production process, using natural materials. In addition, the distribution channel to reach the target group is very important. The promotion of small and medium enterprises to improve the quality of Thai dessert products to meet the standard. However, over the past 10 years, Thai desserts have been exported to other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the United States. As well as operators who produce and sell desserts to Thailand to sell more overseas. As a result, competition has increased as well. (Sirang klankhumson, 2010) At the same time, people in Thailand pay more attention to foreign desserts because of the variety of imported desserts, which Thai dessert operators need to adapt to survive the business by reaching the target. The technology has been developed into products and efforts to expand into key export markets such as China, Laos, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Myanmar, which will have an increasingly important role. (Department of Industrial Promotion, 2010) The Thai dessert business executives are trying to find out how to use marketing strategies, using production innovation and other planning to achieve the most efficient and effective. It is also found that there is current research on the use of Thai dessert production machinery faster and better packaging. Operators can learn production management to get the standard. In the past, Thai desserts inspire Japan to import coconut from Thailand continuously. The government recognizes the importance of teaching the use of thought processes. Focusing on learning and enhancing knowledge, and creating networking and production networks to help teach, manage, invest and market, makes learning and access to information truly tangible (teerapat, 2013)

          Based on the concepts and theories and relevant research, it can be concluded that the adoption of appropriate innovation management strategies to deal with the forces can potentially increase a firm’s competitiveness which in turns contributes to its market and financial performances and long term sustainability. Key factors threatening the long term survival of many firms include growing international competition initiated by major global business firms; shifting market demands; the rapid changes in technology; the rapidly increasing popularity and adoption of the internet which has fueled the dramatic growth of e-commerce; changes in logistics; and the progressively decreasing trade regulations (Carbone, 2011; Saigosoom, 2012).

          From the importance of development and method of Thai dessert business group development as mentioned above, it, therefore, should be promoted and supported to make potential to enterprise management system development and to increase capability in readiness for trading competition, both domestic and international trading, to efficiently support changes that have a high dynamic. However, Thai dessert business must realize and prepare its organization to be ready for challenges due to higher adjustment of raw material cost as well as the cost of operation. The researcher is interested in studying a feature of Thai dessert business in lower Central Region.  

However, Development of innovation management strategic and success of Thai dessert business requires process and outcome, such as marketing innovation , segment to target to achieve the most growth, product improvement, to increase the value of a current product or create something brand new, key success factors of entrepreneur with vision and ability,  innovation and new creative activities, the direction of development in the long term. From the importance of development and method of development as mentioned above, it, therefore, should be promoted and supported to make the potential to develop and to increase capability in readiness for competitive advantage. 

Innovation management Strategic

          According to certain authors, The role of innovation in increasing the chance of success for new products and in improving business performance has received much attention from academics and practitioners from different disciplines in the last few decades. The competitive advantage of firms is achieved through innovation in new products (Carbone, 2011). Saigosoom (2012) has found that product innovation and process innovation are two of the most important factors for small and medium enterprises, ahead of marketing innovation and organizational innovation. Other researchers, such as Goedhuys and Veugelers (2012), only examine the innovation strategies relating to the internal development of technology and external acquisition of technology.

          To formulate the perfect innovation management strategy is to identify a strategy that engages all stakeholders, and that accomplishes the desired results.The problem is that most innovation management strategy happens randomly. It’s unpredictable. This is a problem especially for large, public companies that have an obligation to their stockholders to grow each year at a respectable and predictable rate. A company that is able to make innovation predictable would be able to promise stockholders reliable growth, and that would put the company in a very special category. There are three paths a company can take to grow its revenue organically  1) it can grow its existing markets by selling more of the products it already sells, 2) it can grow its existing markets by replacing products that sell poorly with better-selling ones, or 3) it can enter and grow new markets with new products. This means that to grow, a company has to excel at two types of innovation: product improvement and new product creation. There are two prerequisites for success: (1) the company must have a team that is devoted solely to new product creation, and (2) that team must have access to an innovation process that results in effective new product creation decisions. Few companies have even one of these prerequisites, and even fewer have both.

          Therefore, the importance of innovative management strategy of Thai dessert business to create popularity for consumers. By adopting the concept of business management innovation as a strategic activity, it can bring about benefits and affect the value of Thai desserts in the eyes of consumers. The success of the Thai dessert business in terms of product, marketing, service, a variety of products. Including the value dimension and quality of the economy. Thai society and culture using inputs, business process, and results, as well as creative thinking, are the basis of business ideas to become a global challenge. Contextualization of the changing social and environmental context.

An innovation management strategy is about creating winning products, which means products that are in an attractive market, target a profitable customer segment, address the right unmet needs, and help customers get a job done better than any competing solution. An innovation management strategy is essential for companies that want to gain a competitive advantage. An effective innovation management strategy should be inspiring and add something unique to the product or service being developed. To formulate an effective innovation strategy, a company must know all its customers’ needs, which needs are unmet, and what segments of customers exist with different unmet needs. Given this situation, there is no way they can successfully formulate an innovation strategy that will help customers get a job done better. The truth is, competitive advantage and differentiation are derived from choosing the right unmet customer needs to target. To do this, all the customers’ needs must be known. Our approach to formulating an innovation strategy works because it is built around a solid definition of what a customer need is, and our approach reveals all the customers’ needs. It is the only process to do so. (Damanpour, F., 2014).

Success of Thai Dessert Business

          Successful small business development inevitably requires some measurement of workforce training and/or human resources services. Business start-ups require a host of services beyond what the staff of most small business development organizations can provide on their own (Dowpiset and Inwang, 2011). In my conceptualization, feature of business agricultural machinery provides a platform to mainly use technology raw materials, use necessary for product production, using resources with value appreciation. For the business strategy of entrepreneur provides a platform to potential in business management continuously, have an outside alliance and network of businesses, develop to increase products continuously. (Wajirum, and Inwang, 2018).

          Successful small business developers analyze their prospective markets and develop products or services that offer a clear competitive advantage. Developers embody their vision in business plans that articulate, among other things, the size and growth rate of the market, the purchasing practices of the customers, why customers will choose the new business over others, what financial resources are required to start and maintain the business, and where those resources will come from. Successful small business development inevitably requires some measure of workforce training and/or human resources services. Business start-ups require a host of services beyond what the staff of most small business development organizations can provide on their own (Kitkorn Dowpiset, 2011).

          In conceptualization, a feature of Thai dessert business and the feature of innovation strategy provides a platform to mainly using local raw materials, use technology necessary for product production, use local labors and the local area, using resources with value appreciation. For the success of Thai dessert business provides a platform to create a network with Thai dessert businesses, seek products for distribution to markets continuously, conduct public relation in all channels continuously, make business plan systemically with clear target determination, have an outside alliance and network of herbal businesses, develop to increase products continuously.

          The success of the Thai dessert business in terms of product, marketing, service, a variety of products. Including the value dimension and quality of the economy. This Theories and research will be used to create a framework for the innovation strategy of Thai dessert business which can be applied as a guideline for further study.

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