Questions 1
Reading 1/1:
Read the article and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each question.
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Not long ago innovation was The Big Idea in marketing circles. Now, however, it's hard to see the benefits of this rush to innovate. Indeed if anything, companies seem to be drawing back from innovation, not charging ahead. But just a few years ago many companies were combining a commitment to create entirely new product categories through innovative technologies - working to hugely ambitious growth targets with a root-and-branch organisational overhaul designed to free up creativity and speed new product roll-outs.
The result was that as resources were shifted away from core businesses, sales and profits declined, share prices slumped and CEOs were ousted. Now the mantra is a
more conservative focus on the top brands, the top retail customers and the top markets. It's being rewarded in many cases by healthier share prices. This sustained effort
to cut long tails of smaller brands and focus marketing resource on existing leaders seems to be paying off.So were we wrong to pinpoint innovation as key to long-term market success? Surely not. But we might have underestimated the enormous complexity of this beast. The term 'innovation' may be simple enough but it spans a vast landscape, including the type and degree of innovation, marketing purpose, management process and market circumstance - not all of which are well understood.
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Take 'type' of innovation. As one business editorial news complained, 'innovation' is often just 'simple abundance of similar products'. Then there's process. What is the best way to manage this particular innovation? Is it to employ creative revolutionaries and set them free, or is disciplined risk management, requiring the careful testing and sifting of options to pick winners, a better approach? In larger organizations, has senior organizations, management really made time I spent in cross-functional teams recognized element of successful career paths? What time frames (e.g., payback periods) and degrees of risk is senior management comfortable with? And does the organization have a culture that fits the chosen approach? Does it 'celebrate failure', for example, or is it actually a risk-averse blame culture (despite what the CEO says in
the annual report)?
Successful innovation requires clearing two hurdles. First, it needs. the right project with the right degree of innovation to fit with the right marketing purpose, the right
innovation process, corporate culture and market circumstance. Second, it needs senior managers that understand the interplay between these different factors, so that
rather than coming together simply by chance, they are deliberately brought together in different ways to meet different circumstances.
Clearing Hurdle Two can happen by accident. Clearing Hurdle One requires reskill. We can all point to admirable, inspiring innovations. But how many companies can we
point to and say, 'these people have mastered the art of innovation'? Brilliant innovations are a wonderful thing. Expert innovation management is even better and much
rarer.
1) According to the first paragraph, a few years ago companies
A. trusted in technology to improve existing products.
B. expected that growth would increase steadily.
C believed they needed to produce new goods
