Раздел 3. Введение в профессиональную коммуникацию
Тема 12. Innovation and Change
Цель темы - ознакомить обучаемых с одним из разделов бизнес курса “Нововведение и преобразование”, что является неотъемлемой частью бизнеса и тенденцией в развитии науки, производства, деятельности компаний и организаций. Тема состоит из трех разделов: • Great Idea –“Великая” идея • Innovation – Нововведение • Change – Преобразование В результате успешного изучения данной темы обучаемые должны: • знать что подразумевается под понятием “великая идея”, способы и источники создания и этапы развития “великой идеи”, как защищать свое открытие, что такое преобразование, способы убеждения в его необходимости сотрудников компании, причины противодействия работников преобразованиям и введениям новшеств, основные этапы презентации. • уметь правильно анализировать причины проблем, связанных с продвижением новой идеи, находить способы убеждения сотрудников в необходимости преобразования, подготовить и провести презентацию. • быть ознакомлены со способами возникновения и развития ”великой “идеи, с понятием “R&D” (исследование и развитие), причинами, почему некоторые “великие” идеи не имеют развития, с преимуществами и недостатками преобразований на предприятиях и в организациях, с некоторыми оригинальными открытиями, которые сделали своих первооткрывателей известными, с причинами, которые дают возможность компаниям использовать и внедрять идеи других изобретателей. |
Оглавление
Great Idea and Innovations. 2
Change. 3
Successful Change. 4
Test yourself 7
Библиография. 8
Рассмотрению подлежат следующие вопросы:
• Что такое “великая” идея
• Возникновение идей
• Воплощение идей
• Стадии развития новой идеи
• Патентование
• Возможность разработки чужих идей
• Презентация своих изобретений
• Успешные и неуспешные преобразования
• Проблемы, связанные с преобразованиями, и способы их решения
Great Idea and Innovations
Great idea is a bright thought, opinion or a belief that you have about how to do something or how to deal with something.
The best way to have a great idea is to have a lot of ideas. Many inventors are known have a number of ideas before coming up with the Big One. But some inventors don’t bring their ideas to fruition because they depend on a particular technology or the right social and economic conditions. Some inventors are not interested in developing their ideas. But one thing is certain: business will continue to benefit from the creativity of individuals and organizations that can develop great ideas and bring them to the market. This process means creating innovations, that is a new idea or method to produce new and better products.
There are some stages in the process of turning a Great idea into a successful innovation.
Stage one is a sudden inspirational bright idea, brainwave, which comes in your mind. This idea can be generated in different ways:
• When a company exploits an opportunity to extend the product range, to offer more choice to existing customers. That allows a company to enter a market, which was closed to it before.
• Companies may make a breakthrough by having an original idea and using R& D.
• Some products are developed in response to customer research to meet a real need.
Stage two is developing the idea, after it has been generated: to create a blueprint, a detailed plan or scheme of a new idea. There are some stages of developing an idea and bringing it to the market: to write a business plan, to raise the investment, to find experienced specialists.
Final stage is to create and produce a prototype of the idea as a new device.
Generating and developing new ideas often take place during business meetings, where these three stages of turning a Great idea into a successful innovation are discussed and accepted by experienced specialists. There are some rules for successful meetings to discuss a new idea:
• A meeting must always have a leader.
• At a formal meeting each person should speak in turn.
• The best number of participants for a meeting is six people or fewer. It is probably good to have at the meeting only those who really need to be there and to limit this number as far as possible.
• If the participants sit round the table, it makes meetings more ‘democratic’.
• Always start and finish a meeting on time. However in some places, starting a 2 o’clock meeting at 2.20 may count as starting on time.
• Never have food or drink during a meeting. Different companies and cultures deal with this in different ways.
The choice of the rules depends on the kinds of the meeting, the policy of the company and on the culture of the country.
When three stages of turning a Great idea into a successful innovation have been realized, the new idea, the innovation or new device must be protected, that is patented, not to be used by others. You need have a legal right protecting your invention, to get a patent for your device. The special patent committee of experts will decide if your innovation will be useful. The innovation must be efficient, brilliant, beneficial, revolutionary, marketable, ground-breaking, feasible, viable, clever and ingenious. To make an idea be approved by the patent committee, it needs to be presented well. To have some experience and skills to make presentations is also necessary if you are a representative of the company, selling a new product, or you sell your own innovation.
These are rules, which can help you to prepare an effective presentation:
1. Try to find out what your audience already knows.
2. Visit the room in which you are presenting before the presentation.
3. Memorise the introduction to be more confident.
4. Turn off an overhead projector when you don’t need it not to distract the audience’s attention.
5. Stick to the three-part structure of a presentation:
• opening (introduction): introduce yourself; say what the presentation is about; explain the structure of the talk; indicate your policy on questions; get the full attention of your audience.
• main section (body): give all the facts; involve the audience as appropriate; make use of any visuals; mark changes of topics clearly.
• conclusion: give a summary or a conclusion; invite questions and thank the audience.
Often the pioneers of innovations don’t develop their ideas into commercial successes because of different reasons. But some individuals and organizations don’t find it wrong to use the ideas of others. Innovations of other pioneers are used more often by large companies. It is easy for them to do this because they have better experience and opportunities in realising projects successfully. Moreover bigger companies have deeper technical expertise, extended marketing skills.
Change
Change is the process or result of something becoming different.
“There is nothing permanent except change”- said a Greek philosopher in 500 BC. The permanent change is the characteristic of our century, the period of great progress and a high level of development of technology and science. A great number of innovations and new ideas lead to permanent change. Change has a positive influence on the progress in economy and industry. Advantages of change are obvious. A successful company wants to be a company that is constantly renewing itself, leaving the past behind, adapting to panies that don’t change will not survive. Changes may be in different areas of business.
The most typical changes in business
Nowadays the most widespread changes occur in the sphere of company hierarchy. The role of management has changed. Companies face restructuring and need fewer managerial layers, because computer networks allow top managers instant access to information that was previously gathered and transmitted upwards by middle managers. Top managers can communicate more directly with front-line employees, the people who actually produce the goods or services, and deal with customers.
The other sphere of business that causes a lot of changes nowadays is creating different corporate alliances.
Although the role of change is positive, changes cause some problems.
The problems caused by changes.
Company restructuring is connected with some problems:
• Changes in the employees’ position
• New location of the company or department
• The opportunity to lose the job.
The people probably feel demoralized, wondering when the next wave of change was going to come and whether it would be their turn to be thrown out.
These problems lead to resistance to change which the most natural of human reactions based on fear of losing your job, not being able to cope with a new situation. It’s based on lack of trust in the decision-makers and on a complete feeling of lack of control over the situation. The best way to cope with resistance successfully is not to ignore it and to manage it.
Successful Change
Managing change may be successful if it is planned well in the right order. It depends on the right actions of a leader, who should prepare people to the change. Three things are very important:
Giving people full and clear information.
People need the rationale for change, that should be laid out in the clearest, most dramatic terms. When everybody gets the same facts, they will generally come to the same conclusion.
How people react to change. If people are provided with the educational tools, they will see change as an opportunity.
The qualities of leader, who should have: enormous energy, the ability to energize and invigorate others, to stimulate and relish change and not be frightened or paralyzed by it, to see a change as an opportunity, not a threat.
No discussion can be held without using Grammar which is typical for different situations of communication. Past Simple and Past Continuous are used for describing different actions which we see as completed or which were already in progress when something else happened.
• In the 1970s Herta Herzog, an Austrian psychologist, was working for the Jack Tinker advertising agency in New York.
• Vodafone was making good profits when it introduced its new Pay As You Talk service.
• Richard Sears bought in bulk and so kept prices low.
We often need to use Passive Voice in some discussions. In this topic we give the rules of its using.
• In each of these markets the innovator was swept away.
• Low-alcohol lager was developed as an alternative to traditional soft drinks.
• It has been agreed that a report should be commissioned.
There are a number of ways to report what people say. We give all cases of using Reported Speech in this topic, which is necessary for discussing, presentations and business written forms of documents.
• He says he hates change (“I hate change”, - he says).
• He said he was leaving the company (“I’m leaving the company,- he said)
• She said the meeting would start at 2 p. m. (“the meeting will start at 2 p. m.”,-she said)
• She asked me if I was happy in my job (“Are you happy in your job? “- she asked)
• He asked me why I didn’t like my boss (“Why don’t you like your boss?”- asked she).
There are some words and expressions which are used for describing of this topic:
• Research and development;
• Copying and improving the ideas of others;
• Inventors and entrepreneurs;
• To come up with the Big idea;
• To bring one’s idea to fruition;
• Depend on a particular technology;
• The right social and economic conditions;
• To emerge;
• The creativity of individuals;
• To bring an idea to market;
• To exploit an opportunity;
• To extend the product range;
• To offer more choice;
• To enter a market;
• To make a breakthrough;
• In response to customer research;
• To meet a real need;
• To save time;
• “Green” product;
• Reduce waste
• To protect an environment;
• To fill a gap in the market;
• To patent Innovation;
• Inspiritual bright idea;
• Brainwave;
• A blueprint;
• A scheme;
• A prototype;
• A patent committee of experts;
• Efficient; brilliant; beneficial; revolutionary; marketable; ground-breaking; feasible;
• Viable; ingenious;
• Commercial successes;
• The depth of the technical expertise;
• The extent of the marketing skills;
• To get the full attention;
• To memorise the introduction;
• Opening, main section, conclusion.
Change
• Permanent change;
• Massive restructuring;
• Downsize;
• Delayer;
• Middle (top) managers;
• To deal with customer;
• Re-engineering;
• Redundancy;
• Resistance to change;
• Based on fear;
• Based on lack of trust;
• To be merging;
• A less powerful position;
• To be in charge of a hostile workforce;
• The rational for change;
• Winning and losing;
• A threat;
• To encourage;
• Enormous energy;
• The ability to energize and invigorate.
As a result of studying this topic the students are offered to discuss in groups how to organize a successful meeting with the best number of participants, a leader (or chairperson), the right conditions for the meeting.
The students are offered to make a presentation of their own imaginable innovation, using these main parts (opening, main section, conclusion).
The students are offered to discuss the reasons of good and bad meetings, the problems of changing of one of the organizations.
Test yourself
Great Idea
1. What is great idea?
2. Is it the truth that there are no new ideas?
3. What is the best way to kill an idea?
4. How are Great Ideas generated?
5. What should companies, spending a lot on R and D, pay attention to?
6. Why do some people buy new products?
7. What does “green product” help to do, even if it is more expensive?
8. Why must new ideas be patented?
9. Are there some rules for successful meetings? What are they?
Innovation
1. What is innovation?
2. What are stages of invention and developing of a new idea?
3. What are the problems which can hinder progress and your success?
4. Who decides if your innovation will be useful?
5. What kind (type) of idea must the Great one be?
6. Are the pioneers of inventions always the ones who develop their ideas?
7. What are the reasons which are given for the success of big, well-known companies, using the ideas of others?
8. What kind of expressions and skills do you need to make successful presentation?
9. What are three sections of presentation?
Change
1. What leads to permanent change?
2. What are the advantages of change?
3. What was the reason causing the redundancies of middle managers?
4. What is a trend called BPR?
5. Why do employees resist a change?
6. What are the situations which worry people, connected with any change in organizations?
7. What are the conditions of successful change?
Библиография
1. Sue Robbins. First Insights into Business. Student’s Book. Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
2. Kevin Manton. First Insights into Business. Workbook. Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
3. David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Kent. Market Leader, Pre-intermediate Business English. Course Book. Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
4. David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Kent. Market Leader, Intermediate Business English. Course Book. Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
5. David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Kent. Market Leader, Intermediate Business English. Practice File. Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
6. David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Kent. Market Leader, Pre-intermediate Business English. Practice File. Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
7. Vicki Hollet. Business Opportunities. Oxford University press, 1995.
8. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Pearson Education Limited, 2004.
9. Adrian Pilbeam. Market Leader. International Management. Pearson Education Limited, 2000.
