企业创新那些事

重点内容

听力原文 / 对话稿

Welcome to today's Business4U podcast. The focus of this podcast is to think about innovation and why it's important, and also to look at different types and stages of innovation. By the end of it, you will hopefully have a better grasp of the topic of innovation and be able to better understand and drive innovation in both your working and personal lives.

So, why is innovation important? Well, simply put, without innovation it would be difficult to make progress. Organisations and societies would stagnate. Innovation is what drives us forward. It's what forces us to compete in the business world. It's what leads to better products and services, and solutions to new and existing problems. From a business point of view, it's also something which is necessary for survival.

Four key types of innovation are incremental, disruptive, architectural and radical.

Incremental innovation involves innovating in increments, or small stages. Step by step. It focuses on existing markets and technologies and aims to make improvements and design changes to existing products and services.

Disruptive innovation aims to bring new ideas, like technology or processes, to existing markets. In that sense, the innovations will disrupt the market and the companies currently serving that market. The first touchscreen smartphones disrupted the mobile phone industry because up to then, mobile phones had buttons and keypads.

Architectural innovation involves taking successful ideas from one market or industry and applying them to a new or different market. This often happens when people think of other unconventional uses of existing technology. A good example of this can be seen in vacuum company Dyson's entry into the hand dryer and hairdryer market. Their advanced airflow technology from their vacuum cleaners was applied in reverse to machines that blow out air. In the case of these examples, it's personal hairdryers and hand dryers in public toilets. [「反过来用」这个转折是理解 architectural innovation 的关键]

And finally, we come to radical innovation. This is where a completely new idea is created for a market that doesn't exist yet. It's often what we think of when we think of innovation and it often swallows up existing markets. For example, the birth and growth of digital and downloadable music has practically led to the death of music CDs, and even DVDs. Similarly, film and TV streaming services may lead to the demise of traditional TV within a few short years.

Moving on from types of innovation, let's have a quick look at five key stages of innovation.

The first stage is Idea generation. This is where you think of the initial idea and develop it into a more detailed proposal or plan.

The next stage is Support. You need to check if you can get support for it, for example from senior leaders or stakeholders in your company. If you're innovating in your personal life, then the support you might need could be from friends or family. Do they think it's a good idea and do they think it would work?

The third step is to Experiment and test out the idea. This could mean creating a sample or a prototype of it, if it's a product. Or if it's a service, you could test out a basic version of it.

The fourth step is Evaluation. You need to assess how successful your experiments were and what chances of larger success your idea will have.

And finally, you then need to actually Implement your idea. That's the fifth stage.

So, there you have it. We've looked at four key types of innovation: incremental, disruptive, architectural and radical, and also five stages of successful innovation: firstly, idea generation. Then, get support. Next, experiment and test out the idea. The fourth stage is evaluation and finally implementation.

英文原文之后，附上对应的中文翻译：

欢迎收听今天的 Business4U 播客。这期节目要聊聊创新，聊聊为什么创新重要，也看看创新有哪些不同的类型和阶段。听完这期节目，希望你能更好地理解创新这个主题，也能在工作和个人生活中更好地推动创新。

那么，为什么创新重要呢？简单来说，没有创新，进步就很难发生。组织和社会会停滞不前。创新推动我们向前走，它迫使我们在商业世界里竞争，它带来更好的产品和服务，也带来解决新旧问题的方案。从商业角度来看，创新也是生存所必需的东西。

创新有四种主要类型：渐进式（incremental）、颠覆式（disruptive）、架构式（architectural）和激进式（radical）。

渐进式创新是一步一步、以小阶段推进的创新，专注于现有市场和现有技术，目标是对现有产品和服务做出改进和设计上的调整。

颠覆式创新的目标是把新的想法（比如新技术或新流程）带入现有市场。从这个意义上说，这些创新会打乱市场原有的格局，冲击目前占据这个市场的公司。第一批触屏智能手机就颠覆了手机行业，因为在那之前，手机都是按键式的。

架构式创新，是把一个市场或行业里已经成功的想法，应用到一个新的或不同的市场里。这种情况通常发生在人们想到现有技术的其他非常规用法时。一个很好的例子是吸尘器公司 Dyson 进入干手机和吹风机市场——他们把吸尘器上的先进气流技术反过来用在了「吹气」而不是「吸气」的机器上，也就是个人吹风机和公共厕所里的干手机。

最后是激进式创新。这是为一个还不存在的市场创造出一个全新的想法。这通常是我们一提到「创新」时最先想到的类型，而且它常常会吞噬掉现有的市场。比如说，数字音乐和可下载音乐的诞生和发展，几乎导致了音乐 CD、甚至 DVD 的消亡。同样地，电影和电视流媒体服务可能会在短短几年内导致传统电视走向消亡。

聊完创新的类型，我们再快速看看创新的五个关键阶段。

第一个阶段是「构思」（Idea generation）。这是你想出最初的点子，并把它发展成更详细的方案或计划的阶段。

第二个阶段是「争取支持」（Support）。你需要确认自己能不能为这个点子争取到支持，比如来自公司高层或利益相关方的支持。如果是在个人生活中创新，那你需要的支持可能来自朋友或家人——他们觉得这是个好主意吗？他们觉得这行得通吗？

第三步是「实验和测试」这个点子。如果是产品，这可能意味着做一个样品或原型；如果是服务，你可以试运行一个基础版本。

第四步是「评估」。你需要评估你的实验有多成功，以及这个点子未来更大规模成功的可能性有多大。

最后，你需要真正「落实」你的点子，这是第五个阶段。

好了，就是这样。我们看了创新的四种主要类型：渐进式、颠覆式、架构式和激进式，也看了成功创新的五个阶段：第一，构思；第二，争取支持；第三，实验和测试这个点子；第四个阶段是评估；最后是落实。

关键句 & 生词

听力技巧

• 单人讲解型内容信息密度高，练习「预判结构」——一听到「Four key types of innovation are...」就知道接下来会有四段平行结构的解释，可以提前在脑内建好四个格子等着填内容。
• 每种创新类型讲解都遵循「定义 + 生活化例子」的固定节奏，练习听到例子（Dyson、CD、触屏手机）时反向回推刚才的定义讲的是什么。
• 结尾的总结句把前面所有内容用一句话重新过一遍（"firstly...then...next...the fourth stage is...and finally..."），这类总结句是检验自己有没有跟住全程内容的好机会，可以在结尾暂停自测。

Sources

Blog / Website：

1. Innovation in business – LearnEnglish (British Council)