Narrator: Listen to part of a discussion in a business management class.

旁白：听一段在商务管理课程中的讨论。

Professor: Last week we were talking about innovation in business.

教授：上个星期我们讨论了商业中的创新。

Remember the graph I showed you?

还记得我给你们看得那张图表吗？

Student: The curve that looked sort of like the letter S?

学生：那个看上去有点像字母S的曲线图吗？

Professor: Right. Cathy. Let's take another look.

教授：是的。Cathy。让我们再看一下。

Do you recall? Cathy. How this S-curve represents the life cycle of innovation?

Cathy,你还记得吗?这个S型曲线图是怎么表示创新的生命周期的？

Student: Sure. Starting on the left, the new innovation, let's say it's a new product.

学生：当然。新的创新是从左边开始的，假设这是一个新的产品。

Almost nobody's heard of it or at least nobody takes it seriously.

几乎没有人听说过这个产品或者至少没人把这个产品当回事。

Then its popularity increases, uh, slowly at first till sales really start accelerating quickly.

然后它的知名度上升，一开始是非常缓慢的直到销售额开始快速飙升。

There are where the line goes up steeply in the middle as more and more get excited about the product and they go out and buy it.

当越来越多的人对这个产品感到激动并且去买的时候，就在中间部分呈现出陡峭上升的曲线。

But eventually, moving over to the right side there, interest begins to fade and the growth and sales levels off.

但是，最终曲线向右方移动，人们的兴趣也逐渐消退，销售额的增长开始趋平。

Professor: At which point the market has matured for that product.

教授：就在这个产品的市场成熟的时候。

We can still sell it and even marginally improve it, but it's not new anymore.

我们仍然可以卖掉产品，并且在有限的程度上改良产品，但是这不再是一个新产品了。

It no longer offers exciting growth opportunities.

它不再能提供让人激动的增长可能了。

So a business leader might face a choice: either stick with this old, safe, proven idea or move on to the next big idea, a fresh innovation.

因此，企业的领导者面临着一个选择：要么坚持做这个老的但是安全可靠的点子，要么继续去做下一个新产品，全新的创新。

But innovations are risky.

但是，创新是有风险的。

They may succeed or they may not.

他们可能成功也会失败。

OK. A case study.

好的。我们来做一个个案研究。

George. I have heard your Thursday night program on the campus radio station.

George,我听说了你在学校广播站周四晚的节目。

You like Jazz, right?

你喜欢爵士，对不对？

Student: Huh? Uh…yeah…sure! But…what?!

学生：啊？额……当然！不过……怎么了？

Professor: OK. Stay with me here.

教授：跟着我的思路。

On your program last week, I heard an old Miles Davis album.

在你上周的节目，我听到了老迈尔斯•戴维斯的专辑。

Tell us about that.

和我们说说那个吧。

Student: Uh…Miles Davis. Trumpet.

学生：迈尔斯•戴维斯。喇叭演奏者。

I played a CD of a Jazz classic he recorded in the 1950s called Kind of Blue.

我播放的是他在二十世纪50年代录制的一张爵士CD, 叫做Kind of Blue。

It's my all-time favorite Jazz recording.

它一直都是我最喜欢的爵士专辑。

Professor: Mine too. Would you call that recording innovative for its time?

教授：同样也是我最喜欢的。你会把那张专辑称作为那个时代场唱片的革新吗？

Student: Absolutely! Nothing at all like what he had recorded up till then.

学生：当然！在那个时候没什么是比的上他所录制的专辑。

I mean, before that Miles Davis played things so complex that…well…nobody could touch him.

我的意思是，在那之前，迈尔斯•戴维斯演奏的音乐太复杂了，几乎没人能够接近他。

But this was something totally new.

但是，这张专辑完全是不一样的。

Suddenly his playing sounded so amazingly simple.

一下子，他演奏的音乐简单到令人惊讶。

Professor: And how did people react to this new sound of Miles Davis?

教授：那么人们对于迈尔斯•戴维斯的新音乐有什么反应？

Student: Well…some were disappointed, even angry that he'd abandon his old style.

学生：有些感到失望，甚至是对于他放弃他原来的风格感到生气。

But soon most of his fans came around and this new style appealed to a whole new group of jazz listeners.

但是很快的，他大部分的粉丝都回来了，并且，他的新风格吸引了一批新的爵士听众。

Professor: I guess so. Kind of Blue became the most commercially successful album in the history of jazz!

教授：我想是吧。Kind of Blue是在爵士史上最成功的商业专辑！

So is there a lesson here anyone?

那么这是不是一个很好的例子？

Think of that S-curve I showed you.

回想一下我给你们看的S型图。

Student: Oh! So his old style of jazz was actually a kind of product, one that had been developed pretty thoroughly.

学生：噢，所以说他就得爵士事实上是一种产品，并没有被怎么开发过。

And he'd taken it about as far as he could.

而他尽他所能推动了这个产品。

So he decided to take a big risk and try something totally new.

所以说他决定去冒险，然后尝试全新的东西。

Professor: Exactly! Something completely fresh and cool.

教授：正是如此！一个全新并且酷的东西。

And people couldn't get enough of it.

并且，人们不能完全被这满足。

It was a brand new beginning that left lots of room for further development artistically.

这是一个全新的开始，为艺术上的进一步发展留下了很大的空间。

And as a market analyst, you could say that with Kind of Blue, he was jumping to the beginning of a brand new S-curve, with all that potential for profitable development still ahead of him.

作为一个市场分析员，你可以说用Kind of Blue, 他跳进了一个新的S曲线。在他面前有着利润发展的潜力。

But let me ask you something else.

但是，让我再问你们一些其他的事情。

This isn't just the music of a single performer, is it? George.

这并不只关乎与一个音乐演奏家，是不是？George.

Student: Hardly. More like a group of all-stars.

学生：很难。更像是关乎于一群演奏家的。

Along with Miles Davis on trumpet, there is Bill Evans on piano, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone…

连同迈尔斯•戴维斯的喇叭，Bill Evan的钢琴，John Coltrane的次中音萨克斯管……

Professor: Individually perhaps the best in the business.

教授：他可能是在整个行业中最棒的个人演奏家了。

But thinking of Miles Davis as the leader of this group, how did he organize and manage all these incredible talent?

但是，将迈尔斯•戴维斯当成这个群体的领导者，他是怎么组织和管理这些难以置信的天才的？

Student: Well, he'd lay out the general outline, the theme and then give each of these star performers, one by one, the creative freedom to really show what they could do with it on their own instrument, to improvise and add something new, but always within the same general theme.

学生：他给出了一个大纲和主题，然后给每一个明星表演者创新的自由去真正展示他们用乐器所能展示的，去即兴创作，去添加新的东西，但是一直在大纲的范围内。

Professor: So Miles Davis gets credit for recruiting the best jazz talent anywhere and getting them to collaborate on a fantastic musical product.

教授：因此，迈尔斯•戴维斯因为他雇用最棒的爵士人才并且促使这些人才在出色音乐作品上合作而受到赞誉。

Everyone see the business parallels here?

大家在这里都看到了与商业的相似之处了吗？

And give each of these musicians credit for seizing this opportunity and creating great individual performances.

每个艺术家都因为抓住了机会并创造了非常棒的个人表演受到了赞誉。

But good jazz is more than just outsanding individual performances, isn't it?

但是，好的爵士不只是个人表演，不是么？

Student: Definitely. Jazz musicians need to listen to each other and go with the flow.

学生：当然不是。爵士音乐家们需要听互相的演奏，并随着大家一起演奏。

Like, one time somebody goofed and came in a little early, but everyone else adjusted and went right along with it, as if nothing were wrong.

就像是，一次有人发呆，进来早了，但是其他人调整了，和他很好的配合上了，就好像什么错误也没发生。

And this mistake came out like just another unexpected creative interpretation.

这个错误的发生就好像是一个没有预料的创新的诠释。

Professor: Thanks. George. Great insights, ones that would certainly apply to what we are studying here.

教授：谢谢你George。很好的见地，这个可以适用到我们这里所学的。