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READING

Listening activity taken from the British Council for B2 level students.

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miss.aimi13
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77 views4 pages

READING

Listening activity taken from the British Council for B2 level students.

Uploaded by

miss.aimi13
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: UNIT 6 INNOVATION

LSP301

Read a blog post about being innovative in business to practise and


improve your reading skills. Then, answer the questions that follow.

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.

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READING: UNIT 6 INNOVATION
LSP301

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.

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READING: UNIT 6 INNOVATION
LSP301

Task 1: Complete the text with words from the box.

We need to introduce (1)…………………………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)……………………… technologies and see how
they can make our products or services (3)………………… . Some
companies have a research and (4)………………department that
specialises in this.

Another way is to be (5)……………………… of changes in what


our customers want and make sure we offer products or services that
meet their (6)…………………………. A third way of introducing
innovation is to develop new products that can help you target new (7)
……………………… . You can also change the way your service is
offered to make it more (8)………………………for your customers.

Task 2: Are the sentences true or false?

1. We innovate because we want to increase the amount of money our


businesses make.
2. Being innovative is all about using the newest technologies in your
business.

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READING: UNIT 6 INNOVATION
LSP301

3. Customers often don’t know what they want.


4. McDonald’s have not changed their menu since they started.
5. If you always target the same customers, you might lose them to your
competitors.
6. Nintendo understood that only boys will play computer games.

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