WOIS THE HIDDEN PATTERN OF INNOVATION

BEFORE YOU WATCH

1. What invention or innovation has changed the world the most, in your opinion? Explain why you think so.

2. Can you explain the difference between discovery, innovation and invention? Try to give some examples of each.

3. Are you good at innovation? Could you be an inventor? Why or why not?

4. What would help you be more innovative?

Exercise 1

1. WOIS also offers education programs.

2. The speaker thinks that the Czech Republic has good engineers.

3. According to the speaker, big corporations have troubles finding the right information and the right contacts.

4. The speaker thinks that sometimes a small spark can help you solve impossible problems.

5. WOIS cooperates with big corporations such as Hilti.

6. The speaker thinks that their MBA program cannot help you if you don‘t have business in your blood.

WHILE YOU WATCHExercise 2

Are these statements TRUE or FALSE?

Listen and fill in the gaps

Exercise 3

1. We are a company that is specialized in strategic innovation processes for the industry on the one hand. On the on the hand, we also run WOIS Innovation School where we are a partner of the Steinbeinsnetzwerk for an executive MBA programme and it’s our profession to search for innovation opportunities in different fields.

2. What we are doing is that we run a strategy that is applicable for different industrial branches. We are not specialized in, let’s say, the automotive industry or in one typical branch but we seem to be from our point of view the experts for the changing fields. So we run projects with companies like Hilti which is about innovations for new chisel generations, for new screws, for new tools for Hilti …

3. The major challenge for innovation for nowadays companies from our point of view seems to be on two sides. On the one hand, sometimes it’s about the complexity.

4. And on the other hand, if it’s about the smaller companies, if it’s about small or medium size enterprises, most of them that are successful already deal with international markets and for them it’s sometimes the challenge to really find a structure that they are able to run, such innovation processes internally and it’s about the attitude, it’s about the way how to deal with the challenges that are sometimes from first glance key contradictions in a way that it seems impossible

5. What we have seen or if you ask me a question about intention of Czech people regarding innovation – we have seen and we have met many very interesting people, very good engineers and sometimes we believe that a small spark, like the knowledge about hidden pattern of innovation, could be a great change in the potential for such people.

6. But if someone has a good process and a good structure available to then really put his knowledge along such framework of know-how, than this could be a really creative and very good atmosphere. And there are some study programs, like executive MBAs, that concentrate also on such a new start-up opportunities and…

Match the following English expression with its Czech equivalent

AFTER YOU WATCH Exercise 4

WORK IN 3 GROUPS

The first group should try to think about potential innovations

concerning homework. The second one should consider exams

and the third one should look at your classroom.

What kind of innovations and improvements would you suggest?

Present your findings to the other groups and see if they agree.

Which of your suggestions would be easy to implement?

Exercise 5

1. The speaker in the video said: “What we are doing is that we run a strategy that is applicable for different industrial branches.” What is the purpose of the highlighted phrase? A) To emphasize the following information B) To make the sentence sound more formal C) To make the sentence more polite

2. Use appropriately the highlighted structure in Exercise 1 to emphasize the following sentences. A) We decided to stay there on our own. B) His behaviour worries me. C) I need to know if she was here yesterday. D) I don’t understand why he did it.

3. Which of the following sentences sound emphatic? Which words or structures were used to

this purpose? A) All you need is a little rest. B) I’m busy now. C) I did inform you on time. D) It was her who suggested it. E) I won’t be able to come tomorrow. F) What I didn’t know was that she was his daughter.

4. Look at the following sentences. Which of the grammatical means in Exercise 3 could you use

to make them sound more emphatic? A) People smoking in restaurants make me angry. B) You wanted to spend the holidays in Italy, not me. C) I just want a reasonable salary. D) I returned the book to you last month.

5. Try to write four sentences similar to those in Exercise 4. Then, make them sound more

emphatic. Read them out to your neighbour and have them guess what they sounded like originally.

Exercise 6

Exercise 7GRAMMAR – TEXT PROOFREADING

Work in small groups to correct the SCRIPT text. Discuss within the group what is wrong, why it is wrong and what the correct solution is. Then, check with the other groups and talk to your English teacher to verify if your findings were correct.

So, my name is Gunther Herr, I am one of the partners of the WOIS Innovation Institute. We are a company that is specialized in strategic innovation processes for the industry on the one hand. On the on the hand, we also run WOIS Innovation School where we are a partner of the Steinbeinsnetzwerk for an executive MBA programme and it’s our profession to search for innovation opportunities in different fields.

What we are doing is that we run a strategy that is applicable for different industrial branches. We are not specialized in, let’s say, the automotive industry or in one typical branch but we seem to be from our point of view the experts for the changing fields.

So we run projects with companies like Hilti which is about innovations for new chisel generations, for new screws, for new tools for Hilti on the one hand and on the other hand also to develop new strategies also for major companies which are in the German Dachs where it’s about finding new business fields for the entire company.  The major challenge for innovation for nowadays companies from our point of view seems to be on two sides. On the one hand, sometimes it’s about the complexity. If it’s a huge network of companies, it’s about finding the right contacts, finding the right information that is mainly available in such kind of companies, on the one hand. And on the other hand, if it’s about the smaller companies, if it’s about small or medium size enterprises, most of them that are successful already deal with international markets and for them it’s sometimes the challenge to really find a structure that they are able to run, such innovation processes internally and it’s about the attitude, it’s about the way how to deal with the challenges that are sometimes from first glance key contradictions in a way that it seems impossible, but if there is the right information, if there is the right attitude of the people that things become possible that have to be from a first glance impossible in the beginning.   

What we have seen or if you ask me a question about intention of Czech people regarding innovation – we have seen and we have met many very interesting people, very good engineers and sometimes we believe that a small spark, like the knowledge about hidden pattern of innovation, could be a great change in the potential for such people. Because what…or people that we personally know from Czech Republic, they have very interesting attitude regarding business, they’re usually very entrepreneurial people and we believe that this combination of such an attitude with the knowledge about such hidden pattern of innovation can really be a new spark for…and new powerness in such an economy.

If someone wants to really generate his own new business, we believe that a really good starting point is to search for a really good structure that allows to them creatively or to develop in a really creative way a new business case. And some people really have it in their blood and they can do it out of their heart. That is the style of people that are sometimes called the typical entrepreneur. We believe that it’s not only down to them to be able to do something like that. But if someone has a good process and a good structure available to then really put his knowledge along such framework of know-how, than this could be a really creative and very good atmosphere. And there are some study programs, like executive MBAs, that concentrate also on such a new start-up opportunities and if someone really has such an attitude, we know that such a kind of knowledge structure can be really helpful for that very early phase.