Evaluation of five categories of innovation adopters for reliance jio company

Reliance Jio is an Indian mobile network operator. It was launched in India in the late 2016. Jio proved to be disruptive in the Indian telecommunication market soon after it was launched. This is because of the different strategies it came up with, which attracted the people towards it. Not only strategies, it also provided internet which was much faster and cheaper as compared to others. Jio became famous not only because of the cheap internet it provided but also because of the huge investments and controversies. The purpose of this report is to describe and study a specific disruptive innovation i. e. Jio. Further, how Jio was disruptive in the telecommunication industry in India according to Clayton Christensen’s theory is briefly explained.

This report gives the explanation about the five categories of innovation adopters for Jio. These five categories are explained on the basis of different age groups. Further three most relevant characteristic for each adapter category is explained on the basis of Roger’s 5 innovation characteristics. Following the retrospective analysis of Jio is provided. For this analysis, different methods of evaluation for Ex Ante and Ex Post phases are introduced and explained in detail. Pilot testing of the network and Cost-Benefit analysis are the two methods of evaluation suggested for Ex Ante phase. Surveys and Focus groups are the two methods of evaluation recommended for Ex Post phase. The report also provides 3 different strategies for a start up to be disruptive and make its mark in the Indian telecommunication market. Further, the benefits of business analytics on the innovation (Jio) and three issues solved by business analytics during the ongoing management is explained.

Introduction to the Innovation

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited aka Jio is an Indian mobile network. It is owned by Reliance Industries with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Jio is only a 4G data service and does not have options for 2G and 3G. It uses voice over LTE for providing the voice service on its network. At first, Jio was launched for its partners and employees on 27th December 2015 and then officially launched on 5th September 2016. For any product or service to be disruptive, it is necessary to overshoot the customer needs. The Reliance Industry exactly did that by launching Jio. They provided internet, with the lowest possible data rate globally. When Jio launched, it only asked the customers to purchase the sim card and in turn gave free internet and calling for 3 months. This proved to be a master stroke and shook the entire telecommunication industry. After 3 months, Jio provided the same amount of mobile data as other companies but with a price difference of almost 70%. Not only internet, it also provided with free calling (incoming + outgoing + roaming) all over the country. Big brands such Airtel, Vodafone, etc. were forced to reduce the prices and improve their services in order to survive in the market. Apart from cheap internet and free calling, Jio provided 13 complementary applications to its user for entertainment, news, games, etc. on the MyJio store for free. On 21st July 2017, Jio launched a mobile phone known as the JioPhone which was very cheap and efficient to the customer. The best tactic used by the company was that it was priced as rs. 0 with a deposit of rs. 1500 which will be returned to the customer after 3 years. This scheme attracted more and more customers towards the mobile phone. When Jio entered the telecommunication market, it was already disruptive because no other company provided such efficient, reasonable, satisfactory services to the customer. Today, Jio has become the world’s largest data network based on data consumption.

Exploration of Adoption Categories

The five categories of innovation adopters are:

1. Innovators – Customers with the age group of 15 to 25 fall under Innovators. This age group is keen to buy new things. Therefore, these were the first to buy Jio sim.
2. Early adopters – Customers with the age group of 25 to 30 fall under Early adopters. Office workers and daily commuters fall under this category. As soon as the product starts maturing, Early adopters made a move towards purchasing the Jio sim.
3. Early majority – Customers with the age group of 30 to 40 fall under Early majority. This age group purchases the product after proper analysis of the product and market. As soon as Jio made a mark in the market, Early majority group bought the Jio sim.
4. Late majority – Customers with the age group of 40 to 50 fall under Late majority. This category is reluctant at first but with the new offers and discounts provided by the company, they purchased the Jio sim.
5. Laggards – Customers with the age group of 50 and more fall under Laggards. This age group has the least usage of the services provided by Jio. Therefore, they chose Jio since everybody else was using it. All the characteristics below are presented in order of priority.

Retrospective Analysis of the selected innovation

1. Evaluation of their Design

Pilot testing of the network and Cost-Benefit analysis are the two methods of evaluation for ExAnte.

1. Pilot testing of the network – Pilot testing is a small-scale testing where few members of the company take the test and comment on the results of the test. Firstly, pilot testing will be carried out within the company. This will be implemented by providing the services of Jio to its employees and staff members. Based on the feedback from the staff regarding speed of the internet, voice quality, etc. appropriate changes will be made. Pilot testing also includes checking signal strength. Number of members will be sent to various remote places to check the quality of signal.
2. Cost-Benefit analysis (CBA) – CBA will be carried out to find whether the high stakes of investments will be benefiting the company or not. If not, then to find out the risk potential. Also, the budget of the project will be checked after regular intervals of time.

Surveys and Focus groups are the two methods of evaluation for Ex Post.

1. Online Forums – After Ex Ante and after Jio matures in the market, various surveys will be carried out through forums to understand the need of the customer. Based on the results of surveys, changes will me made accordingly. Additionally, a new, free application such as music, game, etc. will be introduced every month in order to satisfy and be connected with the customer.

Using the above methods, the value of Jio in the telecommunication market will certainly increase. Jio will have a unique selling point and therefore it will be difficult for any other company to overcome Jio. More and more people will port to Jio leaving behind their previous network. Customer satisfaction will be the primary reason for the success apart from improved services. All the other competitors will be easily disrupted by the Jio network.

2. Evaluation of original Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Potential

Following are the strategies for evaluation of start-up:

1. Collaboration – My company will try to make collaborations with every mobile company in India such that every mobile phone sold by a company comes with a free sim card. This will tremendously increase the Jio network.
2. Sim card delivery – By applying this technique, customers will not have wait in queues for registration of sim cards. An online portal will be created where the customer will have to just update his name and home address. Using this information, an employee will go to their doorsteps, complete the required documentation and hand over the sim card.
3. Partnerships – Customers will be treated as partners. They will be awarded with referral points based when the refer this to other people. These referral points can be redeemed for extra free internet data. This will benefit the company as well as the customer.

Evaluation of their Application of Business Analytics

I believe, a huge company like Jio would have definitely used business analytics. They would have used business analytics to understand how the telecommunication industry works, what are the strategies of other companies, their success rate and other business questions. According to me, Jio used business analytics for making data driven decisions. Information from different sources were collected and analyzed which led to decisions. This analysis will help them to avoid the mistakes made by other competitors. Using this, they can solve queries, doubts, etc. Data analytics helps to understand the insights faster using data visualization. A lot of information regarding other mobile network companies can be conveyed quickly and efficiently using data visualization. This will help them to make faster decisions and improve the process.