Developing New Products

Great ideas are generated in different ways. Sometimes an idea may simply be when a company exploits an opportunity to extend the product range, to offer more choice to existing customers. Or a great idea could allow a company to enter a market which was closed to it before.

Companies which are prepared to spend a lot on R&D may make a breakthrough by having an original idea for a product which others later copy, for example Sony and the Walkman.

On the other hand, some products are developed in response to customer research. They come from customer ideas. These products meet a real need. Or the product does something similar to another product, but faster, so it saves time. Some people will buy new products because the product enhances their status – makes them feel more important. Other people will buy any ‘green’ product which reduces waste or protects the environment, even if it is more expensive.

If an idea is really good – perhaps the product fills a gap in the market – it may even win an award for innovation.

Isis Innovation

Isis Innovation is a company owned by the University of Oxford, and their job is to take the ideas that have developed in the university’s research laboratories and help the researchers turn them into commercial opportunities. The company does this either by negotiating licences or by helping researchers to start new companies. There’s one company which uses technology developed in the engineering department to make car bodies more quickly and therefore more economically. Another company makes houses for bees to help people who grow fruit as the bees help the trees to be more productive. Isis Innovation also started a company for archaeologists which trains them in the use of computer techniques and also sells them the software that they need.

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The verbs below are usually followed by the gerund.	\|	II. Decide whether these statements are true or false.

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