X. Bright ideas

Read and translate the text:

The scene is the boardroom of a multinational cosmetics company at the end of an exhausting all-day meeting. The conference table is littered with screwed up papers and empty Perrier bottles. The financial controller is tearing his hair out and the director of R&D is no longer on speaking terms with the head of marketing. The launch of a new shampoo has backfired badly. All decisions have had to be deferred until the next meeting. Nobody even wants to think about the next meeting.

At this point a young marketing consultant cuts in. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have an idea which is guaranteed to double sales of your new shampoo. Now, believe it or not, my idea can be summed up in just one word and for $30,000 I'll tell you what it is." Naturally, objections are raised, but the chairman finally agrees to the deal. "Here is my idea. You know the instructions you put on the back of the shampoo bottle? I suggest you add one word to the end. And the word is: 'repeat'."

Not all good ideas are this simple, but in business a surprising number of them are. At least, they seem simple after they've been thought of- the secret is to think of them in the first place. As someone once remarked, "if you can't write your idea on the back of your business card, you don't have an idea".

So what are the conditions for creativity in business? And is there a blueprint for having bright ideas? Here's what the psychologists think:

1. Be a risk-taker. Those who are reluctant to take risks don't innovate.

2. Be illogical. An over-reliance on logic kills off ideas before they have a

chance to develop.

3. Let yourself be stupid from time to time. Great ideas often start out as

stupid ideas.

4. Regularly re-think things. Problem-solving frequently involves breaking

up problems into parts and putting them back together again in a different

way.

5. Take advantage of lucky breaks. The most creative people never ignore an

opportunity.

They say the West creates and the East innovates, and there may be some truth in this. Take British entrepreneur, Sir Clive Sinclair, the great electronics inventor of the 70s, whose C5 electric car flopped when people found it quicker to get out and walk. Then take Akio Morita, the chairman of Sony, who has seen his company claim 85% of the world personal stereo market with the much imitated Sony Walkman - a masterly innovation which merely took advantage of existing technology. The comparison speaks for itself.

And maybe one reason high-technology companies seek to merge multinationally is so that they can combine both creative and innovative strength. For anything that won't sell isn't worth inventing and it's an expensive waste of time coming up with ideas you can't exploit. But it's even more expensive if your competitors can exploit them. And there's not much point doing the research if another company is going to end up doing the development, and making the profit.

Assignments:

1) Find the words and expressions which mean:

1. is frustrated

2. has gone wrong

3. a master plan

4. unexpected opportunities

5. failed badly

6. is obvious

2) Produce a 70 - word summary of the text.

You need only mention the important points.

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