Company Innovation IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation
Luyện tập đề IELTS Reading Practice với passage Company Innovation được lấy từ cuốn sách IELTS Actual Test 6 - Test 3 - Passage 3 với trải nghiệm thi IELTS trên máy và giải thích đáp án chi tiết bằng Linearthinking, kèm list từ vựng IELTS cần học trong bài đọc.
Company Innovation IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation
❓ Câu hỏi (questions)
Question 1 - 6
Reading Passage 3 has nine paragraphs, A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1
an approach to retain the best employees
2
safeguarding expenses on innovative ideas
3
a certain counter-effect produced by integrating outside firms
4
an example of three famous American companies’ innovation
5
an example of one company changing its focus
6
an example of a company resolving financial difficulties itself
Question 7 - 10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
7
Umagic is the most successful innovative company in this new field.
8
Amazon and Wal-Mart exchanged their innovation experience.
9
New ideas’ holders had already been known to take it to small companies in the past.
10
IBM failed to understand Umagic’s proposal of a new idea.
Question 11 - 13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
11
What is the author’s opinion on innovation in paragraph C?
A
It only works for big companies.
B
Fortune magazine has a globally huge influence.
C
It is becoming increasingly important.
D
Its effects on American companies are more evident.
12
What is Peter Chemin’s point of view on innovation?
A
Small companies are more innovative than big ones.
B
Film industry needs more innovation than other industries.
C
We need to cut the cost when risks occur.
D
New ideas are more likely going to big companies.
13
What is the author’s opinion on innovation at the end of this passage?
A
Umagic success lies on the accidental ‘virtual expert’.
B
Innovation is easy and straightforward.
C
IBM sets a good example on innovation.
D
The author’s attitude is uncertain on innovation.
DOL IELTS Đình Lực
📖 Bài đọc (reading passage)
Company Innovation
A
A.
In a shabby office in downtown Manhattan, a group of 30 AI (artificial intelligence) programmers from Umagic are attempting to mimic the brains of a famous sexologist, a celebrated dietitian, a popular fitness coach and a bunch of other specialists, Umagic Systems is an up-and-coming firm, which sets up websites that enable their clients to seek advice from the virtual versions of those figures. The users put in all the information regarding themselves and their objectives; then it’s Umagic’s job to give advice, that a star expert would give. Even though the neuroses of American consumers have always been a marketing focus, the future of Umagic is difficult to predict (who knows what it’ll be like in ten years? Asking a computer about your sex life might be either normal or crazy). However, companies such, as Umagic are starting .to intimidate major American firms, because these young companies regard the half-crazy ‘creative’ ideas as the portal lo their triumph m the future.
B
Innovation has established itself as the catchword of American business management Enterprises have realised that they are running out of things that can be outsourced or reengineered (worryingly, by their competitors too) Winners of today’s American business tend to be companies with innovative powers such as Dell, Amazon and Wal-Mart, which have come up with concepts or goods that have reshaped their industries.
C
According to a new book by two consultants from Arthur D. Little, during the last 15 years, the top 20% of firms in Fortune magazine’s annual innovation survey have attained twice as much the shareholder returns as their peers. The desperate search for new ideas is the hormone for a large part of today’s merger boom. The same goes for the money spent on licensing and purchasing others’ intellectual property. Based on the statistics from Pasadena-based Patent & Licence Exchange, trade volume in intangible assets in America has gone up from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with small firms and individuals taking up an increasing share of the rewards.
D
And that terrifies big companies: it appears that innovation works incompatible with them. Some major famous companies that are always known for ‘innovative ideas’, such as 3M, Procter & Gamble, and Rubbermaid, have recently had dry spells. Peter Chernin, who runs the Fox TV and film empire for News Corporation, points out that ‘In the management of creativity, size is your enemy.’ It’s impossible for someone who’s managing 20 movies to be as involved as someone doing 5. Therefore, he has tried to divide the studio into smaller parts, disregarding the risk of higher expenses.
E
Nowadays, ideas are more likely to prosper outside big companies. In the old days, when a brilliant scientist came up with an idea and wanted to make money out of it, he would take it to a big company first. But now, with all these cheap venture capital around, he would probably want to commercialise it by himself. So far, Umagic has already raised $5m and is on its way to another $25m. Even in the case of capital-intensive businesses like pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurs have the option to conduct early-stage research and sell out to the big firms when they’re faced with costly, risky clinical trials. Approximately 1/3 of drug firms’ total revenue is now from licensed-in technology.
F
Some of the major enterprises such as General Electric and Cisco have been impressively triumphant when it comes to snatching and incorporating small companies’ scores. However, other grants are concerned about the money they have to spend and the way to keep those geniuses who generated the idea. It is the dream of everyone to develop more ideas within their organisations Procter & Gamble is currently switching their entire business focus from countries to products; one of the goals is to get the whole company to accept the innovations. In other places, the craving for innovation has caused a frenzy or intrapreneurship’ transferring power and establishing internal idea-workshops and tracking inventory so that the talents will stay.
G
Some people don't believe that this kind of restructuring is sufficient. Clayton Christensen argues in new book that big firms’ many advantages, such as taking care of their existing customers, can get in the way of innovative behaviour that is necessary for handling disruptive technologies That’s why there’s been the trend of cannibalisation, which brings about businesses that will confront and jeopardise the existing ones. For example, Bank One has set up Wingspan, which is an online bank that in fact compete, with its actual branches.
H
There’s no denying that innovation is a big deal. However, do major firms have to be this pessimistic? According to a recent survey of the to 50 innovations in America by Industry Week, idea as are equally likely to come from both big and small companies. Big companies can adopt new ideas when they are mature enough and the risks and rewards have become more quantifiable.
I
At Kimberly-Clark, Mr Sanders had to discredit the view that jobs working on new products were for “those who couldn’t hack it in the real business.” He has tried to change the culture not just by preaching fuzzy concepts but also by introducing hard incentives, such as increasing the rewards for those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail. The genesis of one of the firm’s current hits, Depend, a more dignified incontinence garment, lay in a previous miss, Kotex Personals, a form of disposable underwear for menstruating women.
J
Will all this creative destruction, cannibalisation and culture tweaking make big firms more creative? David Post, the founder of Umagic, is sceptical: “The only successful intrapreneurs are ones who leave and become entrepreneurs”. He also recalls with glee the looks of total incomprehension when he tried to hawk his “virtual experts” idea three years ago to the idea labs of firms such as IBM though, as he cheerfully adds, “of course, they could have been right”. Innovation unlike, apparently, sex, parenting and fitness is one area where a computer cannot tell you what to do.
🔥 Answer key (đáp án và giải thích)
1
F
Giải thích chi tiết
Chiến lược làm bài: Đối với dạng Matching Information, nên làm cuối cùng sau khi đã làm các dạng câu hỏi khác, vì lúc này bạn đã phần nào nắm được bố cục bài đọc => có thể tìm info nhanh và chính xác hơn.
-------------------------
Step 1: Đọc hiểu câu hỏi
QUESTION: an approach to retain the best employees >>> Ta cần tìm đoạn văn chứa thông tin về phương pháp giữ chân các nhân viên giỏi
-------------------------
Step 2: Imagine thứ cần tìm + xác định info trong bài:
Nhiều bạn sẽ đi tìm cụm "approach" hay "retain the best employees" trong bài đọc. Tuy nhiên, việc này sẽ không hiệu quả vì với dạng Matching Information, bài đọc thường sẽ không nhắc lại chính xác từ hoặc cụm từ đó và cũng không sử dụng các cụm từ đồng nghĩa.
>>> Thay vào đó, bài đọc sẽ mô tả thông tin cần tìm một cách cụ thể hơn>>> Khả năng cao bài đọc sẽ ko lặp lại từ “approach" hay cả cụm "retain the best employees" mà sẽ là thông tin cụ thể nêu lên các phương pháp để giữ chân người tài
==> Tìm được thông tin trong bài đọc ở đoạn F
-------------------------
Step 3: Phân tích info ==> So sánh 2 meanings để xác định tính chính xác của đáp án
READING: the craving for innovation has caused a frenzy for intrepreneurship’ transferring power and establishing internal idea - workshops and ... so that the talents will stay Cấu trúc: SV, so that SV (đưa mục đích)
Meaning:Transferring power and establishing internal idea => talents stay
==> Ta kết luận được rằng:
QUESTION: an approach to retain the best employees
READING: the craving for innovation has caused a frenzy for intrepreneurship’ transferring power and establishing internal idea-workshops and tracking inventory so that the talents will stay.
In a shabby office in downtown Manhattan, a group of 30 AI (artificial intelligence) programmers from Umagic are attempting to mimic the brains of a famous sexologist, a celebrated dietitian, a popular fitness coach and a bunch of other specialists, Umagic Systems is an up-and-coming firm, which sets up websites that enable their clients to seek advice from the virtual versions of those figures. The users put in all the information regarding themselves and their objectives; then it’s Umagic’s job to give advice, that a star expert would give. Even though the neuroses of American consumers have always been a marketing focus, the future of Umagic is difficult to predict (who knows what it’ll be like in ten years? Asking a computer about your sex life might be either normal or crazy). However, companies such, as Umagic are starting .to intimidate major American firms, because these young companies regard the half-crazy ‘creative’ ideas as the portal lo their triumph m the future.
B. Innovation has established itself as the catchword of American business management Enterprises have realised that they are running out of things that can be outsourced or reengineered (worryingly, by their competitors too) Winners of today’s American business tend to be companies with innovative powers such as Dell, Amazon and Wal-Mart, which have come up with concepts or goods that have reshaped their industries.
C. According to a new book by two consultants from Arthur D. Little, during the last 15 years, the top 20% of firms in Fortune magazine’s annual innovation survey have attained twice as much the shareholder returns as their peers. The desperate search for new ideas is the hormone for a large part of today’s merger boom. The same goes for the money spent on licensing and purchasing others’ intellectual property. Based on the statistics from Pasadena-based Patent & Licence Exchange, trade volume in intangible assets in America has gone up from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with small firms and individuals taking up an increasing share of the rewards.
D. And that terrifies big companies: it appears that innovation works incompatible with them. Some major famous companies that are always known for ‘innovative ideas’, such as 3M, Procter & Gamble, and Rubbermaid, have recently had dry spells. Peter Chernin, who runs the Fox TV and film empire for News Corporation, points out that ‘In the management of creativity, size is your enemy.’ It’s impossible for someone who’s managing 20 movies to be as involved as someone doing 5. Therefore, he has tried to divide the studio into smaller parts, disregarding the risk of higher expenses.
E. Nowadays, ideas are more likely to prosper outside big companies. In the old days, when a brilliant scientist came up with an idea and wanted to make money out of it, he would take it to a big company first. But now, with all these cheap venture capital around, he would probably want to commercialise it by himself. So far, Umagic has already raised $5m and is on its way to another $25m. Even in the case of capital-intensive businesses like pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurs have the option to conduct early-stage research and sell out to the big firms when they’re faced with costly, risky clinical trials. Approximately 1/3 of drug firms’ total revenue is now from licensed-in technology.
F. Some of the major enterprises such as General Electric and Cisco have been impressively triumphant when it comes to snatching and incorporating small companies’ scores. However, other grants are concerned about the money they have to spend and the way to keep those geniuses who generated the idea. It is the dream of everyone to develop more ideas within their organisations Procter & Gamble is currently switching their entire business focus from countries to products; one of the goals is to get the whole company to accept the innovations. In other places, the craving for innovation has caused a frenzy or intrapreneurship’ transferring power and establishing internal idea-workshops and tracking inventory so that the talents will stay.
G. Some people don't believe that this kind of restructuring is sufficient. Clayton Christensen argues in new book that big firms’ many advantages, such as taking care of their existing customers, can get in the way of innovative behaviour that is necessary for handling disruptive technologies That’s why there’s been the trend of cannibalisation, which brings about businesses that will confront and jeopardise the existing ones. For example, Bank One has set up Wingspan, which is an online bank that in fact compete, with its actual branches.
H. There’s no denying that innovation is a big deal. However, do major firms have to be this pessimistic? According to a recent survey of the to 50 innovations in America by Industry Week, idea as are equally likely to come from both big and small companies. Big companies can adopt new ideas when they are mature enough and the risks and rewards have become more quantifiable.
I. At Kimberly-Clark, Mr Sanders had to discredit the view that jobs working on new products were for “those who couldn’t hack it in the real business.” He has tried to change the culture not just by preaching fuzzy concepts but also by introducing hard incentives, such as increasing the rewards for those who come up with successful new ideas and, particularly, not punishing those whose experiments fail. The genesis of one of the firm’s current hits, Depend, a more dignified incontinence garment, lay in a previous miss, Kotex Personals, a form of disposable underwear for menstruating women.
J. Will all this creative destruction, cannibalisation and culture tweaking make big firms more creative? David Post, the founder of Umagic, is sceptical: “The only successful intrapreneurs are ones who leave and become entrepreneurs”. He also recalls with glee the looks of total incomprehension when he tried to hawk his “virtual experts” idea three years ago to the idea labs of firms such as IBM though, as he cheerfully adds, “of course, they could have been right”. Innovation unlike, apparently, sex, parenting and fitness is one area where a computer cannot tell you what to do.
