Pop quiz time! If you've ever wondered how much you know
about new product development and business writing--and, honestly,
hasn't it been keeping you awake at night?--here's a quick
true/false test to gauge your aptitude in these two areas.
Question #1: Taking a "me-too" approach to
product innovation never works. Unless you've created something
entirely different from everything else on the market, you're
better off not pursuing it.
Question #2: To improve your business writing, the best
advice would be to simply follow the basic grammar rules you
learned in school.
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Question #3: To come up with new product ideas, it's
a good idea to read an assortment of newspapers and magazines--even
if it means taking time out of your workday to do it.
Question #4: A "tangent" is a diplomatic way to
describe what happens when a writer fails to stick to the point of
their correspondence. You know, like when you digress and begin
discussing something totally irrelevant, or you ramble, or you just
go on and on and on.
So how did you do? The answers to the first two questions are
false; the answers to the last two questions are true. The good
news is that we're not assigning grades--on the contrary,
we're assigning reading in the form of The Complete
Idiot's Guide to New Product Development and The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Terrific Business Writing (Alpha
Books, $16.95 each, paper).
Once you get over your initial reluctance to pick up anything
with the word "idiot" on the cover, you'll realize
these books serve as handy refresher courses on topics of concern
to entrepreneurs. What's more, thanks to graphics and pull-out
boxes that emphasize key points, you probably won't feel as if
you're back in school.
Written by Edwin E. Bobrow, New Product Development
covers everything from thinking of new products in the first
place--not an easy task for either veteran or early-stage
entrepreneurs--to legal, marketing and distribution issues.
"The world is clogged with ideas," Bobrow reassures.
"The veins of new product notions run deeper and thicker and
are more varied than the riches of a Wild West gold rush. The key
is to prospect for these nuggets in a targeted way rather than
randomly groping the hills or idly waiting for time and the winds
of change to expose the ore."
Likewise, Marcia Layton's Terrific Business Writing
encourages readers to be pro-active and work to improve their
company communications. Unnecessary, you think? Something to only
get around to mastering in your spare time? Untrue, insists Layton:
"Communicating effectively can mean business success or
failure."
Whew! And you thought it was stressful to take a pop quiz.
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