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  3. Businesses throw around the term "innovation" to show they’re on the cutting edge of everything from technology and medicine to

Businesses throw around the term "innovation" to show they’re on the cutting edge of everything from technology and medicine to

admin2022-02-06  48
问题 Businesses throw around the term "innovation" to show they’re on the cutting edge of everything from technology and medicine to snacks and cosmetics. Companies are touting chief innovation officers, innovation teams, innovation strategies and even innovation days.
    But that doesn’t mean the companies are actually doing any innovating. Instead they are using the word to convey monumental change when the progress they’re describing is quite ordinary. Like the once ubiquitous buzzwords "synergy" and "optimization" , innovation is in danger of becoming a cliche—if it isn’t one already.
    "Most companies say they’re innovative in the hope they can somehow con investors into thinking there is growth when there isn’t," says Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of the 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma.
    The definition of the term varies widely depending on whom you ask. To Bill Hickey, chief executive of Bubble Wrap’s maker, Sealed Air Corp., it means inventing a product that has never existed, such as packing material that inflates on delivery. To Ocean Spray Cranberries InC. CEO Randy Papadellis, it is turning an overlooked commodity, such as leftover cranberry skins, into a consumer snack like Craisins. To Pfizer InC.’s research and development head, Mikael Dolsten, it is extending a product’s scope and application, such as expanding the use of a vaccine for infants that is also effective in older adults.
    Scott Berkun, the author of the 2007 book The Myths of Innovation, which warns about the dilution of the word, says that what most people call an innovation is usually just a "very good product" . He prefers to reserve the word for civilization-changing inventions like electricity, the printing press and the telephone—and, more recently, perhaps the iPhone.
    Mr. Berkun, now an innovation consultant, advises clients to ban the word at their companies. "It is a chameleon-like word to hide the lack of substance," he says. Mr. Berkun tracks innovation’s popularity as a buzzword back to the 1990s, amid the dot-com bubble and the release of James M. Utterback’s Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation and Mr. Christensen’s Dilemma. The word appeals to large companies because it has connotations of being agile and "cool" , like start-ups and entrepreneurs, he says.
    Technology concerns aren’t necessarily the worst offenders. Apple InC. and Google InC. mentioned innovation 22 times and 14 times, respectively, in their most recent annual reports. But they were matched by Procter & Gamble Co. (22 times), Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (21 times) and Campbell Soup Co. (18 times).
    The innovation trend has given birth to an attendant consulting industry, and Fortune 100 companies pay innovation consultants $300000 to $1 million for work on a single project, which can amount to $1 million to $10 million a year, estimates Booz & Co. innovation strategy consultant Alex Kandybin.
What is the author’s attitude towards the companies’ use of the term "innovation" ?
选项 A、Cynical.
B、Negative.
C、Positive.
D、Neutral.
答案B
解析 态度题。cynical“愤世嫉俗的，怀疑的”，negatitive“消极的，否定的”，positive“积极的，肯定的”，neutral“中立的，无倾向性的”。根据前两段，尤其是第二段中的“…innovation is In danger of becoming a cliche”可知，各行各业的公司滥用“创新”，“创新”正处于变成“陈词滥调”的危险之中。由此推知，作者对各家公司使用“创新”这个词持消极、否定的态度。故本题选B。
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