Questions
1. the methods some companies use to try to keep their most creative employees
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
2. a new way of getting help with your personal difficulties
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
3. how much investment goes into safeguarding the ideas of individuals
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
4. two examples of companies which have succeeded through being innovative
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
5. how some innovators manage to avoid spending large sums of money on testing out their ideas
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
6. a commonly held opinion about product designers that needs to be proved wrong
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
7. the target of one large company that has changed its business focus
Select
A. The stars of American business tend today to be innovators such as Amazon (the internet bookstore) and Walmart (the supermarket chain) which have produced completely new ideas or products that have changed their industries. B. And a fortune is spent nowadays on identifying and protecting intellectual property: other people’s ideas. According to the Pasadena-based Patent & License Exchange in the United States, trading in intangible assets such as intellectual property rose from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with an increasing proportion of the rewards going to small firms and individuals. C. It is easier for ideas to develop outside big firms these days. In the past, if a clever scientist had an idea he wanted to commercialize, he would take it first to a big company. Now, with the banks encouraging individuals to set up new businesses through offering special loans, innovators are more likely to set up on their own. D. Some giants, including General Electric and Cisco, have been remarkably successful at buying up and integrating scores of small companies. But many others worry about the prices they have to pay and the difficulty in keeping hold of the people who dreamt up the ideas. Everybody would like to develop more ideas in-house. Procter & Gamble is now changing the entire direction of its business from global expansion to product development; one of its new aims is to get innovations accepted across the company. Elsewhere, the search for innovation has led to a craze for ‘intrapreneurship’—giving more power to individuals in the company and setting up internal ideas-factories so that talented staff will not leave. E. Companies have to discredit the widespread view that jobs working on new products are for ‘those who can’t cope in the real business’. They have to change the culture by introducing hard incentives, such as giving more generous bonuses to those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail.
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