B2 – Upper Intermediate
The role of the Research and Development (R&D) department is to keep a business competitive by researching the market and the customer needs and developing new and improved products and services to fit these needs.
Read the article to know more about how businesses gather knowledge to create new products or discover new ways to improve their existing products.
Vocabulary Questions:
- Define “line item” here, “Amazon is among the top R&D spenders even though its financial statements do not mention R&D as a separate line item.” Use this word in your own sentence.
- Define “set forth” here, “The company’s R&D expenses continue to be set forth within “technology and content” in its financial statements.” Use this word in your own sentence.
- What does “world leader” mean here, “However, in terms of cumulative patent holdings, Samsung is the world leader with 80,577 active patent families.” Use the word withstand in your own sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- How useful is R&D for a business?
- Do you have an R&D department in your company? What does it do?
- “Our business environment changes rapidly and needs long-term investment. We will not hesitate to place major bets on promising new opportunities. We will not shy away from high-risk, high-reward projects because of short-term earnings pressure.” Do you agree with this statement? Explain.
- What are some examples of investment risks?
- In your opinion, which is the better approach: Working quickly to develop a good solution or taking more time to craft an excellent solution? Elaborate.