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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  32
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.
Which of the following is likely to be the reason for most companies to favor the word "innovation" according to this passage?
选项 A、They want to improve their products and service.
B、They are interested in technological innovations.
C、They are on the cutting edge of everything.
D、They are trying to attract investments.
答案D
解析 细节题。根据题干关键词定位至第三段。根据该段中的“Most companies saythey’re innovative in the hope they can somehow con investors into thinking there is growth when there isn’t”可知，大多数公司喜欢用“创新”这个词是因为他们可以以创新的名义来欺骗投资人，从而吸引投资，D项“他们在试图吸引投资”在意思上和原文最为接近。A、B两项原文未提及，故排除；根据第一段中的“Businesses throw around the term ‘innovation’ to show they’re on the cutting edge of everything from technology and medicine to snacks and cosmetics”可知，从科技和医药到零食和化妆品，公司都用“创新”来彰显自己位于行业最前沿的地位，这是在阐述“创新”一词被滥用的现象，而且C项中的“everything”说法也过于绝对，故排除。故本题选D。
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