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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

INNOVATION
AND PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT I

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1 Warm up

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What are the most recent products or services from your company? What do they do?
2. What is the most interesting new product you have seen recently? What did you like about it?
3. What new products have you used that turned out to be less useful than you thought they would
be? What was the problem?

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

2 Scanning for vocabulary

Find words in the article on page three which have the same meaning as the following definitions.

1. the use of imagination and skills to create something new (n, para. A)

2. create or produce something, often in large amounts (v, para. B)

3. the possibility of something going wrong or not as planned (n, para. B)

4. in competition with you for something (adj., para. C)

5. a product or service sold by a company (n, para. D)

6. the act of thinking carefully about a situation or topic (n, para. D)

7. the ability of something to keep going into the future, even if there are
unexpected problems (n, para. D)
8. the most important element of something that everything else is built upon
or grows out of (n, para E)

3 Skimming for gist

Read the following sentences and match them to the gaps a - f in the article on page three. Write
down the correct number in the gap. There are more sentences than gaps.

a. Check in with the sales teams regularly at this stage.

b. Consider to your own existing range of products and how it will fit into that.

c. It must do something better.

d. Why do customers need this?

e. Ask yourself, ‘Who is going to buy this?’; ‘What needs do they have?’.’

f. The process can be divided into six main stages.

g. This is information you can use to improve your product or service or make your marketing of it
clearer.

h. Remember that it’s much better to go back to the beginning during this stage than it will be later
on.

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

The process of product development

Is this a good idea?

A. Product development can be an exciting and interesting aspect of a business. Identifying a gap in the market and
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working out how to fill it takes time, patience and creativity. Here, we will look at the first
stage as it is certainly the most important.

B. To begin with, you will need to generate ideas. For this to be effective, you must be very clear on what your target
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market is. . A great idea for a product is no use if nobody will actually buy it. So all of your efforts
must be focused on these people. You will also need to be clear on existing products in that market which you
will be in competition with. A good way to do this is to perform ‘a SWOT analysis’. SWOT stands for Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

C. The strengths of your product are mainly looking at its Unique Selling Point (USP). This is where you decide what
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advantages your product has over the competition. For example, it could be that it works better,
does more tasks, it’s cheaper, or it’s of higher quality. You also have to consider if your USP is something that is
obvious to your customers. It must be clear in their minds as to why they are buying it instead of a rival product.
A careful and honest look at what the weaknesses are is also essential. To do this, you should look at your product
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from the competition’s point of view. What will they find that is negative about it?

D. With the above in mind, you now need to consider what the opportunities are for this product. Can it sell into
markets you don’t already cover? Can it answer a need that no one else is offering? Can you change it to make it
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more attractive for customers? What does this new product add to your offering? There are
also threats to think about. How is the market likely to change in the next few years? Will there be any difficulties
getting a supply of the materials you need for the product? What would happen if there was a war or a disaster
that stopped you from getting a supply of an essential part? Careful consideration of all of the problems you have
or might have in the future will increase the resilience of your product or service and help your team to manage
future difficulties.

E. Spending time at this stage is worthwhile as it’s the foundation of everything you do later. You may find yourself
circling back through the process several times before deciding on a final product or service that you want to
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continue developing. It will also cost much less in terms of time and investment.

Sources: Asana, The Guardian

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

4 Reading comprehension

Complete the following sentences with up to four words from the article on page three.

1. In the world of business, one of the most tasks can be product development.

2. of the six stages is the first one: idea generation.

3. Creating is a good way to make sure you are considering all aspects of the product
or service.

4. Your is essentially what the strongest feature of your product should be. This
should be something that no one else is offering to customers.

5. When deciding on the weaknesses, take the of the competition and think what
they would be critical about.

6. The resilience of your product will increase dramatically if you carefully consider the difficulties
you may run .

7. With this stage completed, you will find the cost of will be far lower if you have
planned carefully.

5 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Match the vocabulary to the definitions.

1. leverage (v) a. make something particularly important or noticeable

2. emphasise (v) b. the number of people who desire a particular product or service

3. tolerate (v) c. a person or company who provides products or services to

another company
4. minor (adj.) d. not very important or serious

5. demand (n) e. the possibility that something can be better in future

6. potential (n) f. deal with something that isn’t ideal or causes problems

7. convenient (adj.) g. use something to get as much advantage as possible from it

8. supplier (n) h. easy to access and get to

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

Part B: Now complete the following sentences with a different part of speech from the same word
family as the Part A word in brackets.

1. I’m very excited about our new range and think they could be the biggest sellers
in the company’s history. (potential)

2. I try to make sure I check all of my work carefully as my manager is very of mistakes
that could have been avoided. (tolerate)

3. To open the gate, you will need to pull the on the right hand side downwards.
(leverage)

4. I enjoy my job, although the customers can sometimes be very which makes it a
lot harder. (demand)

5. There’s a lot of stress in the office at the moment as management has put a lot of
on the importance of meeting the deadline. (emphasise)

6. Our office is in the city which means it can be quite noisy, but you can’t beat it for the
of shops, restaurants and bars. (convenient)

7. Some people have their own offices, but they are in the . Most of us work in a
shared area and it works well in my opinion. (minor)

8. A company in Germany has just agreed to us with the packaging we need to ship
our products around the world. (supplier)

6 Listening for gist

Listen to the meeting and decide what the product is that the team is developing.

7 Listening comprehension
Listen again and complete the notes on the SWOT analysis with one or two words or a number from
the meeting.

1 2
1. Strengths → The makes it far easier to , so it’s practical as well
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as being to look at.
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2. Weaknesses → more expensive than the competition. Design requires
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boxes, not flat packs.
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3. Opportunities → High demand in , with some possibilities in Asia and the Middle
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East, particularly during the as an alternative to air conditioning.
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4. Threats → Only one supplier in will need to consider other possibilities for the
future.

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

8 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What are the USPs of some of the main products that your company sells at the moment?
2. What are the weaknesses of some of your company’s products in your opinion?
3. What opportunities do you think there are for your company to improve its products or expand
its markets in future?
4. What threats do you think there could be for your business in future?

9 Extended activity/Homework

Your teacher will give you a card containing details of a product that already exists. Imagine that this
product is one your company has just created and do a SWOT analysis with your partner.

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

Transcripts

6. Listening for gist

Deborah: Right everyone, let’s just go through this SWOT analysis and make sure we have all the
essential points before we present the idea to management. So, looking at strengths, to
begin with, obviously, the design is key here. We’ve got a unique design which makes
it much quieter than any of the competition. That’s obviously our USP there. I want to
make sure we leverage that as much as possible. Sebastian? Anything to add to that?

Sebastian: Yes, the design also makes it easier to clean. The traditional versions attract a lot of
dust which is then blown at the customers causing problems with allergies. Ours is self-
cleaning. I also think it’s a beautiful design. I think the marketing needs to focus on
that too. It’s not just for keeping cool, it’s an attractive addition to the home. We can
emphasise the design in a similar way to what Apple did when they introduced their
products such as the iPhone and the Mac. Our customers are going to care about that
too, not just the function.

Deborah: Yes, yes. Both are great points, thank you. OK, let’s look at our weaknesses. Sylvia?

Sylvia: Well, the main one is obviously going to be price. We’re planning to sell this at a price
point that is 30% to 40% higher than the nearest competition. As beautiful as the design
is, it’s not as easy to make. There’s also the packaging. Traditional versions can be easily
taken apart and put together by the customer making them easy to put in a flat box. Ours
will have to come ready-made, meaning the boxes will be much larger. Not only is that
more expensive for us, it’s less convenient for the customer and for the shops selling
them as they will be able to store fewer of them.

Deborah: Yes, I can’t really see anything that we can do to change that. It comes back to the design.
I think if we are selling this as a must-have item and people see how good it looks, the
market will be able to tolerate the inconvenience of the size of the packaging. Besides, a
lot of people will be having them delivered directly to their homes, so the packaging will
be a minor problem for them. We could even focus on the fact that they don’t have to
put it together themselves. I know it’s a plus for me, I hate putting anything together. So,
opportunities?

Sebastian: Unfortunately, with temperatures rising, the market for these is going to be increasing.
There’s going to be a lot of demand in Western Europe for these as the cost of air
conditioning still isn’t something that people want to have to pay, especially after heating
their houses all winter. Also, the time when you’re really going to need our product is
going to be for a month or so in the summer. I think the Middle East and Asia will also
be interested in the high end of the markets. Although there’s more air conditioning
in those places, I think there’s still a lot of potential in the cooler months to replace air
conditioning.

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Sylvia: As for threats, we will have to be careful of similar designs in future from our competitors,
although I think customers will value the original over a cheaper version if our marketing
is right. We do have a possible situation with the design which means it has to be made
in Sweden. If there’s any problem with the supply from there, it will affect the number
we can make. However, I think we have time to look at other ways to design the fan in
future so that we can use other suppliers.

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INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I

Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
This introduces the topic by asking students to consider their own experience. Ask the students to discuss the
questions and then you may want to bring it back to the class to pool ideas for new products.

2. Scanning for vocabulary

5 mins.
This helps students identify useful vocabulary. Be sure that students can correctly pronounce the target vocabulary.

1. creativity 2. generate 3. threat 4. rival

5. offering 6. consideration 7. resilience 8. foundation

3. Skimming for gist

5 mins.
You may want to set a time limit on this task to encourage students to skim read rather than read in detail.

1. f. The process can be divided into six main stages.

2. e. Ask yourself, ‘Who is going to buy this?’; ‘What needs do they have?’
3. c. It must do something better.
4. g. This is information you can use to improve your product or service, or make your marketing of it clearer.
5. b. Consider to your own existing range of products and how it will fit into that.
6. h. Remember that it’s much better to go back to the beginning during this stage than it will be later on.
Sources:
asana.com/resources/product-development-process
www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/jan/29/how-to-sell-your-product

4. Reading comprehension

10 mins.
Ask students to read more carefully and complete the sentences with three consecutive words from the article.

1. exciting and interesting

2. The most important
3. a SWOT analysis
4. unique selling point
5. point of view
6. into in the future
7. time and investment

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5. Focus on vocabulary

Part A
5 mins.
This focuses on some of the higher-level vocabulary used in the audio. Ask students to do the task unaided in the
first instance, but allow them to use a reference later if needed. Be sure the students can correctly pronounce the
target language.

You may need to elicit or tell the students the following vocabulary.
Allergy (n) - a medical condition making you have a negative reaction to certain substances, such as dust, certain
foods, or plants.
Price point (n) - one of the potential prices that could be charged for a product or service.

1. → g. 2. → a. 3. → f. 4. → d. 5. → b. 6. → e. 7. → h. 8. → c.

Part B
5 mins.
The focus of this exercise is to encourage students to increase their vocabulary by making them aware of other
forms of words connected to the target language. They are likely to need a dictionary to do this, but see if students
are able to guess any of the words before allowing them to look them up.

1. potentially (adv.) 2. intolerant (adj.) 3. lever (n) 4. demanding (adj.)

5. emphasis (n) 6. convenience (n) 7. minority (n) 8. supply (v)

6. Listening for gist

5 mins.
This gives the students a chance to hear the recording ahead of the main comprehension.

a fan

7. Listening comprehension

10 mins.
Ask students to complete the notes to the best of their ability after the first listening, but then allow them to
check their answers by listening for a second time if required.

1. design 2. clean 3. beautiful 4. 30% - 40%

5. larger 6. Western Europe 7. cooler months 8. Sweden

8. Talking point

10 mins.
Ask students to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Circulate and help as needed.

9. Extended activity/Homework

20 mins+.

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Split the class into pairs or small groups and give them a card. Allow them some time to prepare but ask them to
conduct a meeting as if they had just decided on that product. Ask them to create a SWOT analysis in a similar
way to the one they heard in the audio. Circulate and help as needed.

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