Text 2. MANAGING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing, better known as 3M, is an international hotbed (зд. центр) of creativity and innovation. The company has a stated goal of generating 25 percent of its annual sales from products less than five years old. Recent successes include Post-it Notes¹, removable Scotch magic tape², and new, high-quality VHS tape³. The company employs 6, 000 scientists and engineers and encourages them to spend 15% of their time working on projects outside their normal duties. 3M even finds some of its new ideas by accident. A few years ago, a researcher dropped a beaker (мензурка) of industrial compound and noticed a few days later that the spots it had made on her sneakers were cleaner than the rest of the shoes. This led to the development of Scotch Gard⁴, a highly successful fabric protector.

3M is an excellent example of what American business does better than business in any other country in the world – develop new and innovative products and services. Although innovation can be part of all managerial activities, managers usually attempt to manage it through the organizing function. Thus, this module explores how organizations try to harness individual creativity and spur innovation.

 

Notes:

1. Post-it notes	клейкая бумажная закладка
2. Scotch magic tape	скотч
3. High-quality VHS tape	высококачественная бытовая видеосистема
4. Scotch Gard	защитная тканевая пропитка

 

 

Text 3. THE NATURE OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

 

1. Creativity and innovation are related but different phenomena.Creativity is an individual’s innate ability to generate new ideas or conceive new perspectives on existing ideas. Innovation is a managed effort to create new products or services or new uses for existing products or services. Thus, creativity is an individual process that may or may not occur in an organizational setting, and innovation is an organizational activity aimed at stimulating and managing the creativity of employees.

2. The importance of creativity and innovation . Creativityand innovation are essential for organizational survival in today’s complex environment. Companies are constantly facing changing competitors, technologies and government influences, and these new situations require new ideas. An emphasis on innovation serves several functions. For one thing, it attracts bright people to the organization. For another, it injects a sense of excitementandfun¹ into the workplace. People enjoy coming to work when they realize they may get to participate in an exciting breakthrough² of some sort. An emphasis on innovation also helps keep an organization competitive. 3M ³ makes over 60, 000 products. Some of them are marginally profitable; others are reasonably profitable, and still others are highly profitable – and in any given year, many of them did not exist the year before.

3. Innovative decisions. Innovative decisions are those that are based on the discovery, identification and diagnosis of unusual and ambiguous problems and the development of unique or creative alternative solutions. Innovative decisions normally represent a sharp break with the past. Therefore, to be effectively innovative, individuals must be especially careful in defining the problem and creating solutions.

Innovative decisions frequently involve a series of small, interrelated decisions made over a period of months, or possibly even years. Leading-edge innovations⁴ often take years to develop and involve numerous professional specialists and teams. Innovation will never be a logical, orderly process.

 

Notes:

1. it injects a sense of excitement and fun	здесь – научно-исследовательские разработки – процесс интересный и захватывающий
2. an exciting breakthrough	волнующий прорыв
3. 3M (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing)	горно-добывающее предприятие в штате Миннесота
4. Leading-edge innovations	качественно новые инновации

 

Ex. 1. Useful English. Read, translate, learn and use the following expressions in sentences of your own:

today’s complex environment, new situations require new ideas, attract bright people, a sense of excitement and fun, keep an organization competitive, highly profitable.

Ex. 2. Complete the following sentences.

1. Creativity is an individual’s innate ability…. 2. Innovation is a managed effort…. 3. Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing company is…. 4. Recent successes of the company include…. 5. 3M is an excellent example of what American business… 6. Creativity and innovation are essential for…. 7. Innovation attracts…. 8. Innovation helps keep…. 9. Innovative decisions…. 10. Leading- edge innovations….

 

Text 4. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

 

1. Introduction and definition. Research and development (R and D), a phrase unheard of in the early part of the 20^th century, has since become a universal watchword¹ in industrialized nations. The concept of research is as old as science; the concept of the intimate relationship between research and subsequent development, however, was not generally recognized until the 1950s. Research and development is the beginning of most systems of industrial production. The innovations that result in new products and new processes usually have their roots in research and have followed a path from laboratory idea, through pilot or prototype production and manufacturing start-up, to full-scale production and market introduction. The foundation of any innovation is an invention. Indeed, an innovation may be defined as the application of an invention to a significant market need. Inventions come from research: careful, focused, sustained inquiry, frequently trial and error.

2. Research can be either basic or applied, a distinction that was established in the 1^st half of the 20^th century. Basic research is defined as the work of scientists and others who pursue their investigations without conscious goals, other than the desire to unravel the secrets of nature. In modern programs of industrial research and development, basic research (sometimes called pure research) is usually not entirely “pure”; it’s commonly directed toward a generalized goal, such as the investigation of a frontier of technology that promises to address the problems of a given industry. An example of this is the research being done on gene splicing or cloning in pharmaceutical company laboratories.

3. Applied research carries the findings of basic research to a point where they can be exploited to meet a specific need², while the development stage of research and development includes the steps necessary to bring a new or modified product or process into production. In Europe, the United States, and Japan the unified concept of research and development has been an integral part of economic planning, both by government and by private industry.

 

Notes:

1. universal watchword	универсальный лозунг
2. to meet a specific need (s)	удовлетворять конкретные потребности

Ex. 1. Useful English. Read, translate, learn and use the following expressions in sentencesof your own.

The concept of research; the foundation of any innovation; research can be either basic or applied ; a new or modified product; research and development is an integral part of economic planning.

Ex. 2. Complete the following sentences.

1 . The concept of research…. 2. Research anddevelopment is the beginning of…. 3. The innovations that result in…. 4. The foundation ofanyinnovation is…. 5. Research can be either…. 6. Applied research carries the finings of….

 

Text 5. INFORMATION SYSTEMS

1. Preoccupation with information and knowledge as an individual, organizational and societal resource is stronger today than at any other time in history. During the past few centuries great advances have been made in the human capability to record, store, and reproduce information. All the technological advances together¹ have made information a new basic resource, ranking alongside² material and energy resources in importance.

2. The term “information” refers to facts and opinions provided and received during the course of daily life. Information as a concept has many meanings, depending on the context from everyday usage to technical setting. Simply stated, information is a message received and understood. There are many other aspects of information since it is the knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction. Information is that which adds to human knowledge. Information becomes data when it enters an information technology system; but at the output side, it becomes information again when a person has access to it.

The value of information. Today’s organizations store and process vast amounts of data, which managers and other employees must turn into useful information. In turn, this information enables them to perform their jobs better. Effective employees control their information. They are not controlled by it. Too often users’ lack of knowledge places them at the mercy³ of the information systems department. Data are raw facts and figures. Every organization is concerned with processing facts and figures about its operations in order to create current, accurate, and reliable information. Many decisions are based on data such as market statistics, operating costs, inventory levels, sales figures, and so forth. Raw data are much like raw materials. They are not very useful until they are processed. The processing of raw data involves comparison, classification, analysis and summarization to make the data useable and valuable to employees at all organizational levels. Thus the relationship of data to information is the same as that of raw materials to finished goods or⁴ services. Information is useful knowledge derived from raw data. It is an essential resource of any organization. It is a self- generating resource⁵.The value of information is assessed on the basis of quality, quantity, relevance and timeliness and is determined by those who use it to make decisions. Employees at different levels and in various functional areas of an organization have different information needs. Interest to information phenomena has increased dramatically in the 20^th century. On the commercial side the information service industry has become one of the newer industries worldwide. Almost all other industries – manufacturing and service are increasingly concerned with information and its handling.

3. The term “system” has been used repeatedly. It applies the concepts to information systems in particular. In the broadest sense⁶ a system is simply a set of components that interact to accomplish some purpose. Systems are, in fact, all around us. We have a complex nervous system. We communicate by means of language, a highly-developed system of words and symbols that convey meanings. We live according to an economic system. A business is a system too; its parts are: marketing, manufacturing, sales, research, accounting, and personnel, these parts all work together, and each of these parts being a system itself. We begin to see (понимать) how pervasive systems are. The system’s purpose is its reason for existing. Complex information systems came into existence through people. Technology has developed at a soaring rate⁷, but the most important aspect of any system is the human know-how and use of ideas to harness the computer so that it performs the required task. To be of any use⁸, a computer-based information system must function properly, be easy to use, and suit the organization for which it has been designed.

4. Information systems are a means by which data flows from one person or department to another, and it can encompass everything from interoffice mail and telephone links to a computer system that generates information for various users. An information system is a system of information sets⁹ needed for decision and signaling in a larger system containing subsystems for collecting, storing, processing and distributing information sets. Information systems “in fact” serve all the systems. They link together the different components in such a way that they can effectively work toward the same purpose, and they are increasingly being developed to receive and process data using on-line methods. The purposes of information systems are to process input, maintain files of data and produce information, reports and other output. Information systems consist of subsystems, including hardware, software, and data storage for files and data bases. The particularset of subsystems¹⁰, that is, the specific equipment, programmes, files, and procedures comprise an information systems application. Many information systems are implemented with generic “off-the-shelf” software¹¹ rather than with custom-built programmes¹².

For any information system to serve its purpose. the information must be available when it is needed. This means that the computing systems used to store and process the information, the security control used to protect it, and the communication channels used to access it must be functioning correctly. High availability systems aim to remain available at all times, preventing service disruptions due to power outages, hardware failures, and system upgrades.

 

Notes:

1. all the technological advances together	все направления технического прогресса вместе
2. ranking alongside	занимающие ведущее место наряду с..
3. places them at the mercy	ставит их в зависимость от…
4. finished goods	готовая продукция
5. self-generating resource	самовосполняющийся ресурс
6. in the broadest sense	в самом широком смысле
7. at a soaring rate	стремительно
8. to be of any use	в любом применении
9. information sets	информационный ряд (набор)
10. the particular set of subsystems	определенный набор подсистем
11. “off-the-shelf” software	готовый программный пакет
12. custom-built programmes	программы на заказ

 

Ex. 1. Useful English . Read, translate, learn and use the following expressions in sentences of your own.

during the course of daily life; vast amounts of data; lack of knowledge; useful knowledge; information service industry; in the broadest sense; the system’s purpose is its reason for existence/

Ex. 2. Complete the following sentences.

1. Great advances have been made in…. 2. The concept of information is closely related to…. 3. Information becomes data, when it enters…. 4. Today’s organizations store and process…. 5. Too often user’s lack of information…. 6. Many decisions are based on…. 7. The value of information is assessed by…. 8. A system is simply a set…. 9. The system’s purpose is…. 10. To be of any use, …. 11. An information system is a….

 

 

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