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Innovation in Business: Before Reading

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LEIDY LORENA DAVILA VALLEJO
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76 views4 pages

Innovation in Business: Before Reading

Uploaded by

LEIDY LORENA DAVILA VALLEJO
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reading: B1

Innovation in business
Read a blogpost about being innovative in business to practise and improve your reading
skills.

Before reading
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation task
Match the definitions (a–h) with the vocabulary (1–8).

Vocabulary Definition
1. …… profits a. using new ideas or ways of doing things
2. …… innovative b. to look at something again to change it if
3. …… a demand necessary
c. research and development, the part of a
4. …… to review
business that develops or improves its products
5. …… feedback
d. money that is made by a business after all the
6. …… R&D
costs are paid
7. …… to target
e. a need for something to be sold or provided
8. …… to be aware of
f. to direct a product at a particular person or
group
g. to know that something exists
h. information about people’s opinions of
something that can be used to improve it

Reading text: What does it mean to be innovative in business?


In order for a business to survive in today’s world, it is important that we regularly review what we
are doing and how we are doing it. By considering new ideas and new ways of doing things, and
trying to innovate, we can improve on our products/services, increase sales, reduce costs and
make our processes more effective and efficient. Innovation is key to increasing profits.
There are several ways a company can be innovative with their products and services. Today we
will look at four of them.
1. Using the latest technology to improve your product/service When we think
of innovation, we often think of new technologies. While they might be impressive, we should
not use new technologies just because they are available. It is important to consider how the
technology can improve our product/service and make a difference to our customer.
Companies that produce cars, toiletries, household appliances, etc. often have a large R&D
department to work on making their products better.
© 2019 British Council www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

2. Responding to customer demands by changing what is on offer By listening to


customer feedback, we can get their opinions on how we are doing and find out about what it is
that they want. We also need to be aware of changes in customer demands and keep up with the
times. When fast-food restaurant McDonald’s realised that the market wanted healthier choices,
they introduced fruit and salads, while removing the ‘super size’ option from their menus.

3. Offering a new product/service to reach new customers Your business might be


doing well, but there is no growth or development and there is a risk that your competitors might
take away some of your customers. Innovation sometimes means developing a new product that
targets a different market. Although video games were often played by boys, in 2006, video
games giant Nintendo introduced the game console Nintendo Wii, successfully targeting girls and
older customers with games like Cooking Mama and Brain Training.

4. Changing the way you provide a service


By looking at the changes to the customer’s lifestyle and needs, we sometimes realise that
there might be better ways to serve them. Customers who do not have a lot of time might prefer
to have their food or their shopping delivered to their homes, or they might like to do their
banking online rather than in an actual bank.

Not all innovation will bring success to our businesses, but it can give us the opportunity to
grow and learn more about what we do and what our customers might want.

© 2019 British Council www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish


Tasks
Task 1
Complete the text with words from the box.
aware recent innovative customers convenient development better demands

We need to introduce (1)innovative ideas and ways of doing things so that we can improve and
grow. One way of doing this is to look at the most (2)recent… technologies and see how they can
make our products or services (3)better . Some companies have a research and (4)development
department that specialises in this. Another way is to be (5)aware of changes in what our
customers want and make sure we offer products or services that meet their (6)demands . A third
way of introducing innovation is to develop new products that can help you target new
(7)customers. You can also change the way your service is offered to make it more
(8)convenient for your customers.

Task 2
Are the sentences true or false?

Answer
1. We innovate because we want
to increase the amount of money
our businesses make. (true)
2. Being innovative is all about
using the newest technologies in
your business. (false )
3. Customers often don’t know
what they want. (false)
4. McDonald’s have not changed
their menu since they started.
(false) Discussion
5. If you always target the same What are some of the latest
customers, you might lose them innovations in the
products/services that you use?
to your competitors. (true)
6. Nintendo understood that only
boys will play computer games.
(false)
© 2019 British Council www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

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