ESL WORKSHEET - Product development (III)

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

(PART III)

LinguaHouse

Jun. 19, 2024

Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)
Type of English: Business English
Tags: Innovation and Product Development; Companies and Jobs; Business Skills; Describing a Product/Service; Project Management; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; Article Based
Publication date: 06/19/2024

This worksheet is the third of a series of three on Innovation and Product development. They are divided into looking at the six stages of product development and this lesson focuses on the last three stages: initial design, testing, and launch. Students will read an article on the topic and listen to three people talking about product recalls and the impact that it had on the company. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills, related vocabulary and provide students with an opportunity to discuss questions. (by Joe Wilson)

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 1: I remember in 2016 I was really excited to receive my Galaxy Note 7 when it arrived. I had never been a fan of iPhones and was confident that Samsung could create a product that was better. However, I noticed that not long after I started using it, it began to get really hot and at one point, it actually burst into flames. There was a lot of publicity about it as the same problem was happening to other customers too and there were 96 complaints altogether just in the first two months. Samsung had to recall 2.5 million phones and they were some of the most expensive smartphones at the time. So, it cost them $5.3 billion in the end. It turned out to be a problem with the battery, which was made by a supplier, but Samsung was still responsible. Since then, they have changed the way they test batteries to make it much more careful, so they don’t have the same problems in future. They later released the Galaxy Note 8 which, despite the problems the company had had, turned out to be very successful and had very good reviews.
Speaker 2: It’s so important to make sure that not only is your product safe for customers, but also what your suppliers are doing is also safe. Back in 2009, a company called Peanut Corp of America was supplying peanuts to several companies making peanut butter and snacks which used peanuts, such as J.M Smuckers and Jif. They had a problem with bacteria that affected their whole processing plant and infected all of their peanuts. As a result, they had to recall 3,913 products from 361 separate companies which caused a loss of around $1 billion in total. Although the major brands were not affected by the outbreak, the publicity from the problem heavily affected sales of anything with peanuts in it and sales across the entire industry went down by 25%. Peanut Corp. went bankrupt and had to go out of business with one of its top executives going to jail for 28 years for his poor management of the situation.
Speaker 3: I worked for Toyota in 2010 when they had their recall. The problem was that the mat on the floor of the cars was getting stuck to the accelerator and holding it down. It was such an unexpected issue and it caused huge problems for the company as it affected several models of the car. The government said at the time that it is suspected that the defect had caused the deaths of 89 people over the previous ten years. In all, it cost the company $3.2 billion which included a fine of $1.2 billion. This doesn’t include the fact that the prices of shares have been affected ever since too. It’s very scary to think how that one mistake ruined the lives for people and resulted in the loss of so much money. I ended up leaving the company the following year, partly because the stress of dealing with the problem was so great. I still work in the car industry, but I’m a lot more relaxed these days. Having dealt with such an awful situation has made me stronger in a lot of ways.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/business-english/innovation-and-product-development-iii. Accessed on June 20, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.