A six-slide MBA 580 Module 2 presentation with full speaker notes on incremental versus discontinuous innovation at an automaker, including architectural innovation, the risks of each type and a recommendation for managing both. Searches like "mba 580 module 2 assignment", "mba580 module 2 innovation types presentation" and "mba 580 module 2 example" land here.
The MBA 580 Module 2 example, in full
Two Kinds of Better: Incremental and Discontinuous Innovation at a Composite U.S. Automaker
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
MBA 580: Innovation and Strategy for High-Performance Organizations
Module Two Presentation
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.
Slide 1: Why This Matters Now
We win awards for steady improvement.
Rivals are redesigning the car around software.
Question: are we investing in the right kind of better?
Speaker notes: Thank you for the time. Our company, a composite U.S. automaker, produces roughly 1.1 million vehicles annually, and our quality and reliability ratings are among the best in the mass market. That success comes from a particular kind of innovation, steady improvement year after year. Today I want to show why that is necessary but no longer enough, because several competitors are changing what a vehicle is, not just making it better. The question for this team is whether our innovation spending reflects that shift.
Slide 2: Incremental Innovation
Improves what exists along a known path.
Our examples: 4% better fuel economy, quieter cabins, 18% fewer warranty claims.
Low risk, predictable return, builds on our strengths.
Speaker notes: Incremental innovation improves existing products and processes in small, predictable steps. Researchers distinguish it from more radical forms by how far it departs from existing technology and markets (Garcia & Calantone, 2002). Our record here is excellent: over three model years we improved fuel economy on our best-selling sedan by about 4 percent and cut warranty claims by 18 percent. This kind of innovation funds the company. It is low-risk because we know the technology, the customers and the factories, and it plays directly to what our engineers do best. Our planning, budgeting and reward systems are all designed to produce more of it, which is a strength and, as the next slides show, also a blind spot.
Slide 3: Discontinuous Innovation
Breaks from the known path; can make old strengths less valuable.
Industry examples: software-defined vehicles, over-the-air updates, subscription features.
High uncertainty, slow at first, can reshape the industry.
Speaker notes: Discontinuous innovation is different. It introduces technologies or business models that do not build on what we know and may make some of our strengths less valuable. In our industry, the clearest example is the software-defined vehicle: a car whose features, from driver assistance to battery management, can be improved or added through over-the-air updates after the sale, and in some cases sold as subscriptions. Christensen (1997) showed that established leaders often underinvest in changes like this because they begin small and serve needs the best customers are not asking for yet. By the time the change is obvious, newer competitors have improved enough to compete for our core customers.
Slide 4: The Hidden Threat Is Architectural
Same components, new arrangement.
Connected vehicles rewire how electronics, software and data fit together.
Our organization mirrors the old architecture.
Speaker notes: The most important idea for us comes from research on architectural innovation, which reconfigures familiar components into a new system. Henderson and Clark (1990) found that established firms often fail at exactly this kind of change, because their knowledge and communication channels are organized around the old way the parts fit together. That describes our situation. Our vehicles contain dozens of electronic control units designed by separate engineering groups and suppliers. A software-defined vehicle centralizes computing and connects everything, which means the organization must also connect differently. The components are familiar to us; the architecture is not. A practical example: when our infotainment team wanted to push a map update last year, it needed sign-off from four separate engineering groups, because nobody owned the software across the whole vehicle.
Slide 5: Risks of Each Path
Only incremental: excellent cars that feel outdated after two years.
Only discontinuous: expensive bets that starve the core business.
The risk is choosing one and ignoring the other.
Speaker notes: Each path has a risk if pursued alone. If we focus only on incremental improvement, we will keep building excellent vehicles that cannot improve after purchase, while rivals' cars get better every few months. If we chase only discontinuous change, we could pour capital into unproven software platforms and weaken the business that funds everything else. Research on ambidextrous organizations suggests the answer is to do both, running the core business efficiently while exploring new ones in units with their own structure and culture, connected by senior leadership (Tushman & O'Reilly, 1996).
Slide 6: Recommendation
Protect the incremental engine: keep continuous improvement funded.
Create a separate connected-vehicle unit with its own budget and leader.
Decision today: approve a proposal for that unit within 90 days.
Speaker notes: My recommendation has two parts. First, we should keep funding the incremental improvement that makes our vehicles reliable and profitable, because it is the foundation. Second, we should create a separate connected-vehicle and software unit with its own leader, budget and hiring practices, reporting directly to the chief executive so that it is not absorbed into existing engineering priorities. The decision I am asking for today is approval to prepare a detailed proposal for that unit within 90 days, including which connected features to pursue first, how they would be evaluated and how the unit would work with vehicle engineering without being absorbed by it. The cost of that planning work is small; the cost of waiting another model cycle could be large. Thank you.
References
Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovator's dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business School Press.
Garcia, R., & Calantone, R. (2002). A critical look at technological innovation typology and innovativeness terminology: A literature review. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 19(2), 110-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5885.1920110
Henderson, R. M., & Clark, K. B. (1990). Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(1), 9-30. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393549
Tushman, M. L., & O'Reilly, C. A., III. (1996). Ambidextrous organizations: Managing evolutionary and revolutionary change. California Management Review, 38(4), 8-30. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165852
How this MBA 580 Module 2 example is structured
The presentation moves from definitions to the company's own examples to the risk it faces and a recommendation. Each slide carries a few lines for the audience, and the speaker notes provide the explanation and evidence. The final slide asks for a specific decision rather than summarizing.
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MBA 580 Module 2 questions, answered
What does MBA 580 Module 2 usually ask for?
Early assignments in an innovation strategy course often ask students to explain types of innovation, such as incremental and discontinuous, sometimes as a presentation for leaders, with examples from the course scenario or a real industry and implications for strategy.
What is architectural innovation?
Architectural innovation reconfigures existing components into a new system without changing the components much. Research shows it can be especially hard for established firms because their knowledge and organization are built around the old way the components fit together.
Why can discontinuous innovation be dangerous for market leaders?
Discontinuous innovation can make a leader's existing skills, assets and customer relationships less valuable. Leaders often underinvest in it because it starts small, serves different customers or earns lower margins at first, which gives newer competitors time to improve.