Interestingly, the finalists broke down into two distinct and equal groups:
有趣的是，进入决赛的公司分成了两组：
large firms with one thousand employees or more and small firms with two hundred and fifty employees or fewer.
拥有超过1000名或更多员工的大公司，和拥有250名或更少员工的小公司。
With both groups the judges decided to concentrate on two of the clearest indicators of a successful innovation process,
两组评委决定集中精力考察成功创新过程的两个最清晰的指标，
which are: how well the new product is combined with the company's existing business,
这两个指标就是：新产品与公司现有业务结合得如何?
and secondly, how-well the innovation methods are recorded and understood.
第二，创新方法的记录和理解的情况是怎样的？
Small firms naturally tend to do well in the first category since they have fewer layers of management and thus much shorter communication lines.
自然地，小公司倾向于在第一个指标上表现地很好，因为小公司有更少的管理层，所以沟通更为便捷。
But they seem to put less emphasis on creating formal development methods which would be repeatable in future innovations.
但是他们似乎不太重视创建正式的开发方法，这些方法在未来的创新中是可以重复的。
Large firms, on the other hand, have difficulty integrating the new development within their existing business for reasons of scale.
另一方面，由于规模的原因，大公司似乎不容易在现有业务中整合新的开发。
But they tend to succeed in achieving well-documented and repeatable development methods. This is because larger companies,
但是它们往往能够成功地文档化良好且可重复的开发方法。
with their clear emphasis on training, fixed management structure and administrative systems, require more formal, daily record-keeping from their staff.
这是因为大公司明确强调培训，有固定的管理结构和行政制度，因此需要它们的工作人员每天更正式地进行记录。
So what were the key questions the judges had in mind when assessing the finalists?
那么评委们在评估决赛企业时考虑的关键问题是什么呢?
One of the most important areas concerned how thoroughly a company checks what is happening in other fields in order to incorporate new ideas into the development process.
最重要的方面之一是公司如何彻底检查在其他领域发生的事情，以便将新想法纳入开发过程。
Many of the finalists impressed in the area.
很多进入决赛的企业都在这方面令人印象深刻。