unit four great ideas track 37 great ideas are generated in different ways sometimes an idea may simply be when a company takes advantage of an opportunity to extend its product range to offer more choice to existing customers or a great idea could ow a company to enter a market which was closed to it before companies which are prepared to spend a lot on R&D may make a breakthrough by having an original idea for a product which others later copy for example Sony and the Walkman on the other hand some products are developed in response to
customer research they come from customer ideas these products are made to meet a need to satisfy consumer demand or the product does something similar to another product but faster so it saves time some people will buy new products because the product raises their status gives them a new more upmarket image unit four great ideas track 38 other people will buy any green product which reduces waste or protects the environment even if it is more expensive if an idea is really good and the product fills a gap in the market it may even win an award
for Innovation unit four great ideas track [Music] 39 in your opinion what were the best business ideas of the last 15 years I thought about this for quite a long time and in my opinion it's a service and two products the first is eBay and this works for me because it provides individuals and small businesses with a channel to Market that didn't exist before it started in the com boom and has been extremely successful with a turnover in 2009 of $2.4 billion it's not a new idea though running an auction is almost as old as
Society it's based on a model of traditional auctions it's just transferred the model and the thinking to a different environment my second is the product and it's a USB stick for computers or plug andplay devices this enabled data and pictures to be easily transportable and satisfied a demand for easy portability from computer to computer the amount of data that can be transported now is enormous and it had the huge benefit of meaning that you didn't have to take your portable computer with you everywhere so it's satisfied a basic customer need the technology itself also enabled
a lot of other devices the final one is the digital camera I'm not sure it's if it's strictly an invention of the last 15 years or if it's just become a mass Market item but it's revolutionized photography and it's now incorporated into many other devices as a free gift like mobile phones or PCS and again it satisfied a customer demand to share pictures and images quickly and easily unit four great ideas track 40 do companies spend enough time on research and development I think this depends very much on the industry there are some product based
companies like Pharmaceuticals and high-tech companies that spend an enormous amount of time and money on research and development nearly 25% of the costs of sale for example at Erikson The Finnish mobile phone company are on research and development I strongly believe that most companies can benefit from using information and relationships within their own company to actually develop new products and services my definition of innovation is to look at what everybody else sees and see something different so that might mean looking at what you already do and looking at where you can do it slightly differently
to increase your product range or extending your products into new markets this can save time and money unit four great ideas track 41 okay everyone let's begin shall we our main purpose is to decide the date of the launch for our new product dm2000 after that we've got to decide the recommended retail price for the phone and talk about our marketing plans okay may what's your opinion should we launch in June or September personally I'm in favor of June let's get into the market early and surprise our competitors it could give us a big Advantage
it might even force them to bring out their new phones earlier I mean before they're really ready to do so thanks May what did the rest of you think Chang how do you feel about this well um I'm not sure about June really I think it's too early in fact far too early we need more time to plan our marketing you know a lot of people potential buyers will be away on holiday in June it's not the best time to have a launch we need to start with a real bang thanks Chang when what's your
view I believe you'd prefer a later date for the launch is that correct yeah June's too early I think September is the best time we can promote the smartphone strongly then with a multimedia campaign the last 3 months of the year have always been the peak period for selling new electronic products that's when we need to put the phone on the market I agree I think there are good reasons for choosing September what about about the recommended retail price for the phone any thoughts on that hold on a minute I thought we were talking about
the launch date not the price okay may maybe we are moving a little too fast let's get back to the point I get the feeling that most of us seem to prefer September is that correct yeah yeah M maybe okay we're agreed the launch is in September now what about the price w I asked you to bring us ideas about this I know we've set a price but we should think again I think it should be about 900 Hong Kong dollars H and your reasons well simply our main competitor brought out a smartphone recently mhm
it retails at just over 1,000 Hong Kong dollars if we sell at 90000 we'll be undercutting them by 10% so we'll have a big price advantage at the start of our launch good we need to be sharp on pricing now what sales Outlets do you think we should Target when no problem there we could start with the specialist mobile phone stores and big department stores after that we could look at other distribution channels you know stations airports that sort of thing right sounds okay to me everyone happy with one suggestions yeah great great good unit
four great ideas track 41 okay everyone let's begin shall we our main purpose is to decide the date of the launch for our new product dm2000 after that we've got to decide the recommended retail price for the phone and talk about our marketing plans okay may what's your opinion should we launch in June or September personally I'm in favor of June let's get into the market early and surprise our competitors it could give us a big Advantage it might even force them to bring out their new phones earlier I mean before they're really ready to
do so thanks May what do the rest of you think Chang how do you feel about this well well um I'm not sure about June really I think it's too early in fact far too early we need more time to plan our marketing you know a lot of people potential buyers will be away on holiday in June it's not the best time to have a launch we need to start with a real bang thanks Chang when what's your view I believe you'd prefer a later date for the launch is that correct yeah June's too early
I think September is the best time we can promote the smartphone strongly then with a multimedia campaign the last 3 months of the year have always been the peak period for selling new electronic products that's when we need to put the phone on the market I agree I think there are good reasons for choosing September what about the recommended retail price for the phone anything thoughts on that hold on a minute I thought we were talking about the launch date not the price okay may maybe we are moving a little too fast let's get back
to the point I get the feeling that most of us seem to prefer September is that correct yeah yeah M maybe okay we're agreed the launch is in September now what about the price when I asked you to bring us ideas about this I know we've set a price but we should think again I think it should be about $900 Hong Kong dollars H and your reasons well simply our main competitor brought out a smartphone recently mhm it retails at just over $1,000 Hong Kong dollars if we sell at 900 we'll be undercutting them by
10% so we'll have a big price Advantage at the start of our launch good we need to be sharp on pricing now what sales Outlets do you think we should Target one no problem there we could start with the specialist mobile phone stores and big department stores after that we could look at other distribution channels you know stations airports that sort of thing right sounds okay to me everyone happy with one suggestions yeah great great unit four great ideas track 42 you know Jane I'm really looking forward to choosing the winner of this competition it
seems to be creating enormous interest all over the world yes a lot of people have asked for application forms what are you looking for I mean how will you judge the projects there are three things that are really important they'll help me to make up my mind the winner will have to come up with a great idea for an attraction it'll have to be something different a bit unusual but linked in some way to the culture of the community or country it could be anything as long as it's exciting a museum an art gallery a
theme park or a research study center the possibilities are endless I want people to use that imagination that's the idea of the competition I see what else will be important well the new attraction must provide an enjoyable experience for visitors they should really enjoy the visit and talk about it with their friends afterwards can you give an example well I was very impressed with the canedy Museum in Boston there was a replica of the Oval Office when John F Kennedy was president there are a lot of interesting exhibits including the rocking chair he used to
sit in sounds fascinating I'll visit it if I ever get to that part of the world one other thing that's important Jane I want the new attraction to make money it must be self- financing if it makes money it can contribute financially to other facilities that the community needs it shouldn't have to receive local government funds once it's been set up the winner will have to come up with lots of ideas on how it can make money I want it to be a commercial proposition Jeremy Keeley is an expert facilitator and specialist in change leadership
he works with people in over 60 different organizations in the commercial professional public education and charity sectors Jeremy what do you think are the most important features of a new attraction a new attraction needs somebody like Mr Sing who is committed to making it happen and who comes up with great ideas like this [Music] one it needs to be able to attract large numbers of people because over time it needs to be able to make money so that it can pay for this for the big investment that it takes to create it in the first
place people need to be able to get to it easily so it needs to be um available to local motorways and Road networks and uh public transport systems and then when they're in it people need to be able to get around it easily and it needs to be exciting and [Music] different why does some attractions fail some attractions simply aren't interesting or exciting enough and people stop going they probably cost too much to build in the first place and therefore they don't attract enough people to pay for the cost some attractions don't have people who
are committed to them in the same way that Mr Singh is committed to them and some attractions simply are not easy enough to get [Music] to what's the best attraction you visited I have three children and I love museums that uh interact with children that give children an opportunity to do lots of activities and have fun and learn at the same time so my favorite examples of that are the natural history museum in London and the Victoria museum near Vancouver in Canada and my children loved it when they went there I also so like attractions
that take advantage of the beauty of the local area so again one of my favorites is Table Mountain near Cape Town in South Africa
