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How to combine heritage and innovation
如何把传承和创新结合起来
“Thick”, scoffed the headline on the Daily Mail website on April 9th, in response to the news that Scrabble has had an overhaul.
“笨蛋”，4月9日英国《每日邮报》网站的新闻标题嘲讽道，这是对Scrabble进行了大改造消息的回应。
In some parts of the world the word-play game has been relaunched with a double-sided board; one side now shows a new, simpler design that is meant to be less intimidating and more inclusive than the original.
在世界上的一些地区，这款文字游戏重新推出了双面棋盘，其中一面现在有新的、更简单的设计，目的是不要像最初的设计那么吓人，变得更包容一些。
The idea that Scrabble needs to be made less competitive in order to be attractive to Gen Z was always going to make some people rather vexed.
Scrabble需要降低游戏竞技性才能吸引Z世代，这种想法总是会让一些人感到恼火。
“Next, they’ll turn to chess, but with only one piece each and only two squares on the board,” ran one typically balanced reader comment.
“接下来，人们要改造国际象棋了，每方只有一个棋子，棋盘上只有两个方格。”一个平时情绪很稳定的读者评论道。
Rants about snowflakes and wokeness aside, the new version of the game, which Mattel is introducing outside North America, looks like a perfectly good solution to a common strategic problem: how to make changes to much-loved products.
撇开对玻璃心和觉醒文化的抱怨不谈，美泰在北美以外推出的新版Scrabble游戏看起来是对一个常见的战略问题的完美解决方案：如何对备受欢迎的产品进行改变。
Reams of innovation research focus on the need for managers to draw on diverse sources of thinking.
大量的创新研究关注管理者需要利用不同的思维来源。
The more you rely on a group of the same old faces for new ideas, the more you constrain the chances of breakthroughs.
你越是依赖一群熟面孔来获得新想法，你就越会限制进行突破的机会。
To take one example among many, a recent paper by Paul Vicinanza of Stanford University and his co-authors analysed the emergence of prescient ideas in court rulings, earnings calls and speeches by American politicians.
从许多例子中举一个，斯坦福大学的保罗·维奇南扎及其合著者最近发表的一篇论文分析了法院裁决、财报电话会议和美国政客演讲中出现的有先见之明的想法。
It found that such ideas tended to come from the periphery.
论文发现，这样的想法往往来自边缘地带。
But the perils of entrenched thinking can also apply to customers.
但思维固化的危险也可能适用于客户。
If the people who buy your products and services view them as traditional, they are more likely to resist changes.
如果购买你的产品和服务的人认为这些产品是传统的，那么他们更有可能抵制改变。
Such resistance is most obvious for brands with a long heritage and a loyal following.
对于历史悠久和有忠实追随者的品牌来说，这种阻力最为明显。
Consumers like the notion of longevity.
消费者喜欢老字号。
In a study by Fabien Pecot of TBS Business School Barcelona and fellow researchers, the authors showed people two logos for an unfamiliar chocolate company, one with an old-school font and a black-and-white photo of a building, the other with a more modern font and a picture of a contemporary office.
在巴塞罗那TBS商学院的法比安·佩科特和其他研究者的一项研究中，作者向人们展示了他们不熟悉的巧克力公司的两个标志，一个有老式字体和一栋建筑的黑白照片，另一个有更现代的字体和当代办公室的照片。
Participants were willing to pay more for the brand that had apparently been around for aeons (five points but really handy if you have a lot of vowels).
参与者愿意花更多的钱购买这个显然已经存在了很多年的品牌(字母A得5分，如果你有很多元音字母块，拼aeon这个词就很方便)。
But a rich history—even an entirely fictional one—also makes it harder to make changes.
但深厚的历史--即使是完全虚构的历史--也让做出改变更加困难。
In another study, by Minju Han of Singapore Management University and her co-authors, people were told about a made-up cosmetics company.
在另一项研究中，由新加坡管理大学的韩敏菊（音译）及其合著者进行，人们被告知了一家虚构的化妆品公司。
Some heard it had been founded in 1917, others that it had been established 100 years later.
一些人听说它成立于1917年，另一些人则听说它是在100年后才建立的。
Each group then tested two hand creams, one ostensibly made to the original formula and the other a newly developed product.
然后，每个小组测试了两种护手霜，一种表面上是根据原始配方制作的，另一种是新开发的产品。
Even though the cream was the same in every instance, people who thought the firm had been founded in the early 20th century rated the new product as inferior to the original; those who thought it had been established recently gave them the same ratings.
尽管护手霜在每个例子中都是一样的，但那些以为公司成立于20世纪初的人认为新产品不如原来的产品，那些以为公司是最近成立的人对两个护手霜的评价一样。
Heritage can command a premium but it can also be a prison.
传承可能会带来加持，但也可能是禁锢。
These trade-offs are also visible in a paper by Giulia Cancellieri of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Gino Cattani of New York University and Simone Ferriani of the University of Bologna, which looks at the programming decisions made by Italian opera houses.
威尼斯卡福斯卡里大学的朱莉亚·坎切列里、纽约大学的吉诺·卡塔尼和博洛尼亚大学的西蒙·费利安尼在一篇论文中也表明了这些利弊均衡，这篇论文研究了意大利歌剧院对节目安排的决策。
Directors of such cultural institutions have to balance respect for the traditional canon with a desire to put on original productions; in management terms, they have to innovate while being true to their qi (which is not the right word but does give you 11 points and gets rid of that stranded “q”).
这些文化机构的负责人必须在尊重传统经典和制作独创作品之间取得平衡，用管理学术语说，他们必须在创新的同时忠于自己的气(虽然qi不算正确单词，但确实能给你11分，并消掉那个一直消不掉的字母q)。
The researchers examined in particular how attendance was affected by reinterpretations of classic operas.
研究人员特别研究了对经典歌剧的重新演绎如何影响上座率。
They categorise these changes depending on whether they are more cosmetic (the plot of “La Boheme” remains unchanged, for example, but takes place in a Dunkin’ Donuts) or more radical (Mimi has incredibly warm hands, say).
根据这些改变是比较表面的(例如，《波西米亚人》的情节保持不变，但故事发生在唐恩都乐甜甜圈店)还是变动很大的(比方说，咪咪的手非常温暖)，研究人员对这些改变进行了分类。（注：原作中最著名的咏叹调是“你那双冰冷的小手”。）
They find that opera-goers liked novelty but that they reacted differently depending on its extent: season-ticket holders, who were more familiar with the classics, were less tolerant of radical changes whereas single-ticket visitors were keener on them.
他们发现，歌剧观众喜欢新奇的演绎，但他们的反应根据程度的不同而不同：买季票的观众更熟悉经典，不太能容忍程度大的改变，而单票观众对改变更感兴趣。
Freedom to innovate depends in part on how much you depend on loyal, repeat customers.
创新的自由度在一定程度上取决于你在多大程度上依赖忠诚的回头客。
Given all these pitfalls, Mattel’s innovation works well.
考虑到所有这些困难，美泰的创新算是做得不错。
It allows traditionalists to play the game they grew up with while also permitting an experiment that might bring in new players.
既让传统主义者能玩他们从小就玩的游戏，同时也进行了可能带来新玩家的实验。
Despite the sound and fury, it is all rather elegant (which gives you a bingo, 58 points and total, annihilating victory).
尽管有这些喧哗与骚动，这个创新还是很体面的(elegant能让你得到一个宾果、58分和彻底、绝杀的胜利)。
