Innovation in business

Innovation in business

Read a blog post about being innovative in business to practise and improve your reading skills.

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

Preparation

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.

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.

Discussion

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Submitted by Osuke on Mon, 20/07/2020 - 05:36

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The latest innovation I’m using is video chat. I can’t meet people recently due to the influenced of covid-19. Video chat is very convenient because we can meet people far away. However, even if I say that we that we can meet, we can only meet on screen. Still, video chat is very useful. I also use it to talk with my friends and take classes for university. And even working people use video chat to hold meetings. In this way, many people use video chat. And I think it is the latest innovation.

Submitted by Y on Sun, 19/07/2020 - 16:59

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I use many the latest innovation in products. For example, smartphones, computers and so on.I think that there are many innovation products in today's society. These products make our lives comfortable.Why do smartphones have so many features? I’m very curious what kind of secret there is in such a small thing.With a smartphone, we can always find out what we do not know. And we can always reach out to our family and friends. I think that smartphones will be essential to us. I guess one more thing, it’s Transportation. Thanks to that, we didn't take long to move. I think our society will continue to evolve.

Submitted by ryota on Tue, 14/07/2020 - 14:12

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I think some of the latest innovations that I use is internet technology. It has a lot of functions and these functions make our lives very useful. For example, through the internet, we can buy many things and call someone far away. Recently, it's becoming essential now for many students. Because of the influence of COVID-19, many students can't go to school and they take classes online. I use it on my computer four hours in a day to take university classes and do homework. If it were not for internet technology, we can't do many things and our life become inconvenient. It is integral for our lives.

Submitted by Riko on Mon, 13/07/2020 - 11:55

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I think that is video chat. Nowadays, we should not go outside and meet our friends or other people because of corona virus. In this situation, video chat is very useful to communicate with them. We can see each other's face and talk wherever I am. Also, it is used in classes. This is the latest innovation I use.

Submitted by naru on Mon, 13/07/2020 - 00:11

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Some of the latest innovations in the products/services that I use is the technology to judge immediately one's temperrature only from video. As you all know, we have to stay at home as much as possible due to corona virus. However in Japan, there are more and more stores have resumed business recentlly. Then it's important to know own condition. I saw the technology when I went shopping. At the entrance we can judge own temperrature just by looking camera. It doesn't take time and efficiently. So I think this technology is the latest innovations in the products/services.

Submitted by senes19 on Sat, 11/07/2020 - 11:54

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Some of latest innovations that I used is the screen sharing of my phone to any place or wall which I prefer. That was very incredibly and unbelievable. Wherever you want you can watch high quality and in quite large screen. This is amazing. It is best side of this innovation is to adapt all of areas and also it doesn't lose their quality.

Submitted by martin olivares on Sat, 11/07/2020 - 05:18

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Ive always thought that smartphones are the best innovation yet. because these devices allow us to communicate with our families and friends and smartphones are the most perfect invention of all times! and i spend several hours a day using these things and sometimes i think im an iphone addict ahhaha

Submitted by Nanami on Fri, 10/07/2020 - 07:56

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I think the smartphone is the latest innovation. Traditional cell phones were only equipped with phone, email and camera functions. But the creation of the Internet, people have been able to look up things and connect with people around the world. In addition, the apps that get into smartphones are becoming more and more innovative in responding to customer demands. For example, the artists perform live through the distribution app for those who couldn't go to a live show directly because of COVID-19. These efforts by an individual or companies sometimes energize people. I'm looking forward to what kind of technological innovation will emerge in the future.

Submitted by yusuke on Tue, 07/07/2020 - 04:24

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What I use that is one of the latest innovations is online system in a computer. These days, we had better not go out because of corona, so we usually use chatting online or calling. That system really comfortable. We can talk face to face on kind of a video call, like Zoom. Also it helps students about studying. I don't know when this system invented, but developed recently, I guess.

Submitted by Ayaka on Mon, 06/07/2020 - 07:29

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I also use the internet, one of the new technologies. That services are so useful for me. This is because even if there is something I want to know, I can instantly know what it is and I can also keep in touch with the people such as families, friends and teachers. But I always search in Japanese, It has less information than searching in English and the article is probably written based on Japanese culture. So I’m studying English now. I would like to be ale to read articles written in English and get out of fixed ideas and see things from many sides. Then I want to be able to have my opinion clearly and be confident in it.