B2 – Upper Intermediate
Innovation is the development and implementation of ideas that lead to more value for whatever business you are in.
When grocery chain Tesco wanted to expand their market share in South Korea, they came up with a brilliant idea. Because the people in South Korea work long hours, Tesco thought of an efficient way to sell their products. Why is this shop interesting to view?
Watch the video to find out. Be able to answer the questions that follow.
Discussion Questions:
- What do you think about Tesco’s virtual store at subway stations in South Korea?
- How was Tesco better than its competitor in terms of innovation?
- Do you think this innovative idea could be successfully applied in all countries? Explain.
- What are the most important innovations for you in your daily life?
- Have you ever worked for a company that has implemented any innovative ideas? Talk about it.
- Have you ever had an innovative idea? If so, did you put it into action?
5 replies on “Tesco Homeplus Virtual Subway Store”
1. What do you think about Tesco’s virtual store at subway stations in South Korea?
I think it was a creative and practical idea. Many people in South Korea have busy scheduless and spend a lot ot time communtig. Therefore, by allowing costomers to shop while they wait for a train, Teso made grocery shopping more convenient and save a lot of people time.
2. How was Tesco better than its competitor in terms of innovation?
ecause they focused on solving a customer problem rather than simply reacting to the competition by opening more stores. Which brought the shopping experience to places where customers already spent a lot of time.
3. Do you think this innovative idea could be successfully applied in all countries? Explain.
Not necessarily. Because not all countries have the same access to internet and they also don´t have the same smatphone behaviour. To sum up, it would work in countries where the phone usage is high, the access of the internet is good and reliable and in very busy urban areas.
4. What are the most important innovations for you in your daily life?
Innovations that allow me to save more time. For example, in public transportation! And also regarding online shopping and delivery services.
5. Have you ever worked for a company that has implemented any innovative ideas? Talk about it.
No, actually I have never worked for a company that has implemented a meaningful innovative idea!
6. Have you ever had an innovative idea? If so, did you put it into action?
Yes, I have. During a university project, I developed a website for a local festival. The festival did not have an effective way to organize and share all the information that visitors needed. I created a website that brought everything together in one place, making it easier for people to find information about the event and helping the organizers make better use of their online presence.
Welcome to the Phone English blog! Excellent writing practice! Your ideas were clear, organized, and well expressed.
Make the series in this sentence parallel:
Keep going with this exercise.
How was Tesco better than its competitor in terms of innovation?
they placed virtual stored in subway and places like that, so that people could buy scanning qr codes with their phones. After doing the purchase tesco delivered it you.
Do you think this innovative idea could be successfully applied in all countries?
I think that there are countries where people prefer buy in the shop (physically), for example older people.
What are the most important innovations for you in your daily life?
Teleworking. It gives me more time for my life.
Have you ever worked for a company that has implemented any innovative ideas?
Yes i currently work in a company that implement data solutions for company based in innovations around this type of technology.
Have you ever had an innovative idea? If so, did you put it into action?
The most innovative idea was start to live trying to observe everything around me.
Good work with your answers.
See how this sentence can be written better:
Stay consistent with your practice.
1. They have a good idea because they know that the south koreans pass a lot of time in the work and don’t have much time for doing things after the work. For this reason they have the excellent idea to offer his products with this new system of sell. It’s great.
2. Yes definitely. I think that is a very good idea and if we could have it in Madrid probably would be a success.
3. The mobile phone definitely. With this object I can talk with my friends while I travel in the subway or I can read the news while I walk in the street or I can buy the tickets for the next match when I’m the cinema. Is incredible the change only in eight or nine years. I remember ten years ago, when I needed to travel to other city for the first time I needed to ask many things to the people or I needed to buy a map because I didn’t know where are the places that I wanted to go. Or when I was in the school I remember when I sent sms to my friends and I needed to put only 140 letters.
4. Yes in 2008 I was in a company that sold a service in Argentina and when the user pressed a button in the informative web automatically he or she received a call in his or her mobile phone with all the information about this product. Now this innovation probably not seems very important but nine years ago was very useful and innovative.
5. Yes I have an innovative ideas. Specially when I was living in México. In there I saw many things that could be made that it was did it in Europe before. For the other hand I saw things in México that doesn’t existed in Spain. And I remember that when I had my first smartphone I thought that would be interesting create an aplication for search the place where are your car in the city because it’s typical that many people don’t remember very well the last place that they parked their cars.
6. Normally have an special department with people that works all the time in this type of things. They need to think a lot about the needs of the people and need to develop product for answer to this needs.
7. I think that we will can drive electric cars with a big authonomy and probably when we are tired the cars will can drive alone without our intervention.
8. Because in the XXI Century probably is one of the most important things for the companies. If you have an innovative solutions will have more business and more money at the end. Now it’s very important for the companies if are the first when they sell an innovative product. A good example of this is the iPhone of Apple. Was a revolution for the mobile phones and they won a lot of money with this product.