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1 COMPANY TYPES AND STRUCTURES 1.3 Complete the text about operations with the words and phrases in the box.. The phrase 'quality assurance' QA is a more modem term, and it means gettin

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Macmillan Education

Between Towns Road, Oxford OX4 3PP

A d iv ision of Macmillan Publishers Limited

Companies and represen 1at1ves throughout the world

ISBN 978-0-230-40760-2

Text C Paul Emmerson 2011

Illustrated by Peter Harper and Juhan Mosedale

Design and illustration C Macmillan Publishers limited 2011

First published 2011

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored 1n a ret neval system, transmi11 ed 1n any

form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording , or otherwise, without the prior wnnen

pe rmis sion of the pub l ishers

Designed by Carolyn Gibson

Cover des ig n by Macmillan

Author's ackn owledgements

The author would l i ke to tha nk Darina Ri chter for c ommissi oning the book, K a r en Spiller fo r project

management , conten t editi ng, and numero us creat i ve contr i butions on the des i gn s i de, and

D eborah M anni ng f or pr oof r eading

Thanks ye t again to Marna Warner for transcr i b i ng the origina l interv i ews on which the l i ste ning sc rip ts are

base d Many students at I nternat i onal House, London gave u p the ir time to be interviewed for th e listeni ng

material, and I wou ld l ike to thank in pa r ucula r Antonella D 1 Biasi, B u l ent E rsoz, Ce li ne Per ez, Ilar i a Romano,

Ma ss i mo Grand i , Mik i H irai, Mur at Ozot, Shahr ok h Ami r i, Shan S han Liu, Tania Me ii a T omas Leisztinger and

Yasuh 1s a T akan ashi

In addition I would h ke to than< Ian McMaster and Bob D i gnen for their permiss i on to use some ideas from a

'Business Spotlig h t' article on conference calls and K en Taytor for his permission to use a few ideas from '50

vvays to im prove your Telephoning and Teleconferencing S k ill s'

Printed and bound m Thailand

201 5 2014 2013 2012 2011

I

Contents

, ,

26 Pay, benefits and motivation 56 56 Meetings: checking, clarifying, active listening 116

27 Cross-cultural communication 58 57 Meetings: developing the discussion 118

29 CV (resume) and cover letter 62 59 Presentations: an introduction 122

WORDS: FAMILIES, COMPOUNDS , PARTNERS

61 Word famili es: verbs and nouns

62 Word famili es: a djectives and nouns

63 Word famili es: mor e adjectives

64 Word famili es: prefix es

65 Word famili es: revi s ion /e xtension I

66 Word familie s: revision /exte nsion II

67 Compound noun s

68 Compound adjectives

69 Word partner s (collocation) I

70 Word partner s (collocation) II

LISTE NIN G EXERCISES

Interviews with business people: exercises

1

' An interview with an accountant

Topics: explana tion of income s ta tement

2 An interview with a 828 commercial director

Topics: de legat i on; role of the sales rep

3 An in terv ie w with a bank manager

Top i cs: differe nt ways to mot i vate e1Tip loyees

4 A n i n t erview w i th an events organ i zer

T op i cs: organ iz i ng exhibitions in an export market

5 An in te rview w i th a specialized manufacturer

Top i cs : SWOT analysis of a smal l fam ily firm

6 An in terview w ith a negotiator

Topics: price; localization; quality guarantees

7 An interview with a freight forwarder

Topics: logistics using airlines

8 An interview with an investment banker

Topics: IPOs; M&A; raising funds

9 An interview with a consultant

Topics: cross-cultura l differences

10 An interview with a sa l es director

Top ics: distribution cha nne l s; fra nch ising

11 An interview w ith a takeover s pecia l ist

T op i cs: host ile ta keove rs; restruct urin g

12 An i nterview w ith an exporter

Top ics: control in the export market; get ting pai d

ANSWER KEY

153

154

163

Here is a simplified l ist of the diffe re n t types o f lega l

s t ructures for a business

• Sole trader (Br E) I Sole proprietor (AmE) This is a

one-p erson b u siness T h e p er so n m ay describe t hemselves

as 'self-ernployed ' (eg the ovv n e r of a s m all shop), or

as a 'free lanc er' if th ey are a pr o fe ssional w h o \VOr ks for differen t cl ien ts (eg a photographer)

• Partnership A g roup of p eo pl e \ v ho \vork toge t her

a s equ als (eg a fi rm of lav 1 yers o r architects) They

s har e th e risks a n d the profits

• Private co1npany T h e sha r es o f th e compa ny ar e

privately owned, usually b y a small number of people These shareholders typically include the

found e r o f th e cornpan y, p ossibly som e close fan1il y members, and perh aps a few b usiness a ssoc iat es

who provided rn o n ey for th e con1p any

• Public co1npany (B r E) / Corporati on (AmE ) Th ese

are the large co m pan ies tha t a re listed on s tock exchan ges like Ger man y's D AX, Fran ce's CAC

or the UK's FT SE T h ey are c a lled pub lic because any one can buy their shares ote : d o n ot confu se a state - o\vned ente r pr i se \Vith a public co mpany

Departments

The list of d epartn1ents belovv is typica l for n1an y

business - e ach one corres p o nds to a bu s in ess function

Companies also hav e o the r dep artmen ts relate d to th e ir

O\Nn parti c ular business activi ty

• Production might also includ e Purchasing an d Quality

Assurance (QA)

• Operations re f e rs to all the internal processes of a

co mpany a nd might includ e, for exa mp le, Logistics

• Sales mi ght a l so incl ud e Busines s Developn-zent

• Customer S ervices migh t in clude Technical Support

• Marketing might include Market Research

Co1nrnunica t ions refers to all prom ot i ona l act ivi ies

in c l uding a st r ong focus on JJublic Relations (P R)

• Finance has many subdivisions, suc h as Financial

Control, Treasun;, Accounts a n d Payroll(= ma nag i ng

1 Read th e t ext for general understa n d in g

2 Read i t again and w1d er l ine the words you don ' t k now

As well as d epar t men ts , an int e rn ational con1pany

r na y a l so have divisions organized according to geographica l a r ea or n1ajor product l n es

Individuals within the structure

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) runs t he comp a n y The level belo w CEO is Chief Officer, f or exam ple

Chi ef Financial Officer (CFO)

The CFO is part of the se nior manage1nent tea1n

The CFO reports to the CEO(= has th e CEO as their boss)

The CFO is in charge of · ( = responsi ble for) all the fi n ancial side of the business

T he n ext leve l d o >vn m igh t b e c o untry level for a la rge interna tio nal organizatio n, or d epartmental level A job title here nught be Sales Direc tor or He ad o f Sa les o r

VP ( = Vice President) Sales

The Sales Director for Sweden li ais es closely zvith (= talks to

i n o rde r to wo rk b etter \\ 1 i h) the Chief Marketing Officer

at H ead Office in the States •·

Below this are people \V i th job titles lik e Manager,

Officer , Coo rdina to r, etc The > vords Assistant o r D eputy

may a l so occur at an y level

I'1n the Bu siness De velopnzent Officer for Sz.veden

M y line manager( = p erso n dire c tly ab ove rn e / person

vv h o I report to) is the Sales Director

Th e Sales Director delegates( = gives) a lot of the work to nie

Th e struct ure of a co mpa ny is often clo sely connected

to i s culture In a small company it's easier to b e dynan1ic a nd inno vative, whereas in a lar ge con1pany

th ings are of t e n slow-mov ing and b ureaucratic

Sirnilarly, if th e company is hierarchical (many l evels),

th e n p eo ple at the bottom aren't allov•e d to ta ke

in itiati ves \-vithou t p ermiss io n from thei r senio r s;

d ec i s ion-n1a kin g and communication are top-down

If the struc ture i s flat (few le vels), then the flov.r of inforrna tion can be more bot tom-up

In a ll ca ses you h ope tha t the company cult ure i s hon est, open a n d tra n sp ar en t (= n o t t rying to keep things secret)

3 H i ghlight wor d s you know passive l y, but do n ' t use active l y Choose sorne to write sen t ences of yo u r o\v n

Exercises

1.1 Underline the correct word in ital i cs

1 My bro the r i s a p l u mb er H e's autonomous I

self - employed

2 The peop l e who own a pr i vate company might i nclu de

th e founder o f the company, so m e f ami l y membe r s,

an d p erhaps a few bus i ness associates I compan ions

3 I n a pub li c co m pany anybody can b u y th e

action s I shares

4 A pub l ic co mp any is list ed I posted on a stock ex change

5 Our rai l ways we r e r ece nt ly priv a t i zed I th i n k t he

serv i ce w a s b e t te r be f o r e, when they were a public

compa ny I state - owned ent erprise

6 T he Pu rc h as i ng De pa r t m ent i s r espons i b l e for buying

parts and raw materia ls I making the final product

7 I f you have a comp l a in t, p l ease co ntact Consumer

Services I Cust o mer Services

8 A l l r ecru i tment an d se l ect i o n i s done by our H um an

Relations I Human Resources Depa rt m e n t

9 ln no 'i atio n is t h e key to our success a nd we have

r ece n t ly ex p a n de d the Research and Des i gn I Research

and Development Departm en t

1 o I n the L ega l De pa r tment we ha ve t h ree

lawye rs I advocates tr ained i n co mm er c i al l aw

1 1 I ' s the CE O's j ob to control I run th e co mpa ny

1 2 O u r Busi n ess Devel op m ent Off i cer is res ponsible for I the

responsible for f ind i ng new b u siness o pp o rtun i ti es

1 3 I can ' t tak e th at deci s i on I t w i ll h ave to be r e f e rr ed to

hi gher people I more senior peop l e

14 T h at dec i sion w i ll h ave t o be take n at a higher level I a

more super ior level

1 5 - I n the de p ar t m e nt t h ere are s i x Sa l es R e p resen tat i v es

a nd th e i r line direc t or I line manager

16 The Sa l es De p ar t m ent has to li aise I li a i son c losel y w i th

Mar ket i ng

17 She is part of I makes part of a tea m o f d es i g n ers

18 I am the F in a n c i a l Co nt r ol ler , a nd I re l ate directly I report

1 The Qu a l it y Assurance ect 1 on

·· the prod ucts have no defects

2 The Log i s t i cs D e p ar t m en t -· -· · - the

t ra nspo rt o f g oods and m ater i a l s

3 Techn i ca l Suppo rt -· -· - spec i f i c ques ti ons

fr o m cus t omers abou t h ow to use the pr oduc t

4 T h e Ma r ket Rese a r ch Sec t io n - an d

ana lyzes i n f ormatio n about th e needs o f consu m ers

1 COMPANY TYPES AND STRUCTURES

1.3 Complete the text about operations with the words and phrases in the box

- ·- - -

back - office f unc t ions behind the scenes day - to - da y basis liaise closely makes a profit

meet their need s rec ruit step on anyone's toes

Everyone k n ows t h e funct io n s o f company departmen t s

such a s Ma rketing and Finance Marketing is abou t

p r omo t ing the com pany an d m a kin g su r e that custo me rs

can fin d p roducts t h a t 1 Fina n ce is abou t con tro lling t he reso u r ces of a company to make s ur e

tha t t h e bus i ness 2 - ·

B u t w h a t abou t Operations? T he depa r t men t nam e is

l ess well - known yet m any l ar g e companies are run on

a 3 _ by O peratio ns M anagers

Opera t ons i s abo u t the internal processes of a company

In a m anu fa ct ur i ng com p any a n Opera t io ns Manager w il l make sure t he prod u ction p r ocess i s r unn i ng s m oothly

In a h o te l t h ey a re re sp on s ibl e for boo ki ngs fr o nt desk

m aintenanc e , etc I n a ban k t he y loo k a ft er

the a dm i n i stra t o n of acco u n ts and other

4 Operations Manage r s h a ve to 5._ . _

with people fr om othe r depa r t m ents In t h e facto ry, i t i s

w i th Pu rch asing Manage r s wh o buy t h e raw m a t erials In

t he ho t e l i t i s wi t h Hu man Reso u rces Managers w h o

6 - ·· - · ne w s t aff In the bank it i s with

I T Manage r s who work 7 to k eep eve r ything r un n ing So t h e Operations Manager has t o be

ca ref u l not t o 8. -·· - - ·

I

1 4 Read what Pieter says about company culture at h i s previous company and his current company The text has eight wrong words Find them and correct them

I n my l ast j o b I wo r ke d fo r a large t elecomm u n i catio n s

comp a ny I t use d to be t h e estate- ow n e d mo no poly , but

t h ey p r iva t i zed i t i n t h e n i n e t i es U nf or t u nate ly, t h e cu l t u ra l

t h ere h as n' t reall y cha n ge d Dec isio n - ma kin g i s ve r y s l mov in g and b ur ea u c r acy - ev e ryt h i n g h as to b e agreed

ow-a l l t he way u p t h e c h ai n b efo r e act i o n ca n be t aken

I di d n' t r ea ll y l ke wo r ki n g t h e r e , a nd I move d t o a smal l er c om pe t itor two yea r s ago I t's muc h bette r n o w -

I h ave mo r e respo n s ib le b e cau se my bo ss trus t s m e an d

h e r e l egates a l o t o f i n t eresting p r oj e c t s t o me Every bod y

k n ows w h a t is go in g o n a n d can make a c on t ri bu t i o n

-comm u n i ca t ion wo r k s we ll i n b oth d irec t i ons , bot h bo t

tom-d ow n an d to p -up I t's a dy na m i c , innovat i on comp an y an d

we ' re g r ow in g f as t I ho p e to co n t i n u e w o rk i ng h e r e f o r

s e ve r al more ye ar s

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Companies and sec t o r s 7

Start-up and growth

Planning

An entrepreneur secs a gap in the market and \>Vants to

found (=s t a rt ) a nev • company First some planning is

n ecessary The ent r ep r eneur has to:

Do market research and develop the product

Think about pricing, distribution c hannel s, and promotion

Rai se capi t al ( = m o n ey used to s tart or invest in a

bu s ine ss)

The capi t al 1ni g ht co m e from the founder's own fu11ds,

loans fro1n th e bank, o r money invested by other

peopl e/ bu s in ess partn e r s

Start-up

The found e r is n o w r ea dy t o se t up(= star t) the

business The first s t eps are to rent premises(= the

buildings that a co mp a n y u ses), purchase equipment

and s uppli es, and em pl oy a nd train s taff The company

can n ow begin its o p erations

One thing is certain: th e first few yea r s will be difficult

Sometimes a start-up com p any can ge t help from

ventu r e capi t al (= m oney invested in a n ew busines s

by a s p ecialis t company w h o wo rk in high-gro•vth

areas lik e nc\.v technology) VC money is used to run

the bu siness, pay sa l aries, etc in the early yea rs In

exchange th e VC co mp a n y will t ake part o'.vnership of

th e company a nd h o p e to se ll it l ater for a large profit

Growth

In a successfu l bu s in ess th e nun1ber of cus to1ners

grows , turn over increases, a nd eventually the company

break s even and th en m a k es a profit Th e company

employ s mor e s t a ff a nd di v ides them into different

function s : operations, sa l es, marketing, accoun ts , etc

The company deve l o p s a n e t work of s uppli e rs The

brand nam e s t arts t o b eco m e well-kno ,.vn among

c ustom ers

What happ ens if the business needs t o rai se additional

capital to expand its o p erations? There a re various

options

The company ca n ask the ban k for a loan The company ca n i ss ue ne\ · v s h ares and sell them t o

ou t s id e investors

1 Read the text for general understanding

The company can a ttr act private eq ui ty Pri vate equity i s very s imilar to venture capital, but it comes

at a l ater s t age in the company's growth

Maturity

All being well, th e com p any co ntinue s to grow This grow th may b e organic ( thr ough increased sales and dev e l oping th e product r a ng e) or b y acquisitions / take- overs (buying ot h er com panie s)

Exit strategies

" fh e r e a r e va ri o u s ex it s tr a tegie s availab l e to the owi;iers

if they v • ant t o se ll the c ompany

The bu s in ess ca n be s old as a go ing concern(= as

an es t ablished, profita bl e business) to other pri vate individu a l s

The bu siness ca n be so ld to a competito r , or to a lar ge foreign co mpan y wa n t in g to en t e r the market The co mp a n y tha t i s ta k en over may or n1a y not

k eep i t s brand name

The co mp any goes public This means it is listed

on a stoc k exchange a nd it s s hares are sold to indi vi du al a nd in sti t utional investors The original owners may co ntinue t o run the company

Risks

T he m ajo r i t y of bu sinesses fail( = go out of business )

T here are many reaso n s, which include:

Th e fo und e r ca n ' t get a loan, perhaps because of

in s u fficien t co ll a t e ral (=prope rt y yo u agree to give the bank if yo u f a il t o g i ve back the money you borrowed)

Th e com pany ca n't meet its monthly repa y ments to the bank

The com p a ny f a il s to get e n ough customers

Co1npeti ti o n from ot h e r companies

Change s in th e m a rk e t ( d e mand for the product s falls)

P oor manag e m ent of cas h flow and / or insuffici en t capi t a l

Management problems (eg th e founder finds it diffi c ult t o delegate wo rk to other people )

F ai lur e to integrat e an acqui r ed business after a take ove r

-3 Hi g hli g ht words yo u kn ow pa ss ivel y, but don ' t use activ e ly C h oose so m e to w rit e se nt e n ces o f your ow n

Exercises

2.1 Rearrange the l e tt e rs to make words Use the

definitions i n brackets to help you

1 enrt r epeenur entrepreneur

(someo n e who sta rt s a company and makes b usiness dea l s)

( pro pe rt y or mone y th at yo u p r om i se to give the bank i f

you cannot pa y back a deb t)

1 0 damend ···-·· -·· · -··

( t he des i re or need th at custo me rs have for a prod uct)

2 2 Match an item on the left with an item on the

right to make phrases from the text opposite

staff some ma r ket research

to get enough c u sto me rs prem i ses

2 3 Complete the sentences with phrases from

Exercise 2 2

1 T he fo u nder of the company is goi ng to re t i re

ne xt year I th i n k he' ll p ro b abl y sel l t he bus i ness

as -·-· But f i rst he needs t o

to see who might be intereste d i n taking ove r t he bus i ness

2 I f t he company is go i ng to expand, t hey w i l need to

T hey can eithe r ask t he ba n k ,

i ssue new shares, or t ry t o attract _ _ _ _

3 She wants t o star t he r own busi ness a nd she t hin k s she

can see _ She has money of her

own, so the f irst steps are to _ _ i n a

su i tab l e locat i on, pu rch ase e q u ipm en t and employ staff

2 STAR T-UP AND GROWTH

2 4 Underline the correct word in italics

1 T he ba n k lends you I borrows you money

2 You lend money/borrow money fro m t he ba n k

3 So ' l end' is temporary g ivin g /taking

4 And 'bo r row' is temporary giving I taking

5 T he ba n k give s you a lend I a loan

2.5 Complete the table below Verb

1 a ) H ow are w e go i ng to d i st r ibute our prod u ct?

b ) W h d at 1stn ·b ut1o· n -· -· -· channels are we goi ng to use?

2 a) S h e was the founder o f t h e business

b ) She set th e busi ne ss

3 a) T he company is growing st r ong l y

b ) T he co mp any has st r ong _ _

4 a) T his ye ar the company will make neither a p r ofit nor

a loss

b ) Th is yea r the company wil l brea k _ _

5 a) Who supplies them?

b) Who are thei r · · · ·-· -· · - s?

6 a ) A lot o f people know thei r br a nd name

b) The i r brand name is very well-

7 a ) They're an established b us i ness and t h ey m ake a p r ofi t

b) Th ey're an estab l ish ed, business

8 a) The company i s going to be liste d on the s t ock

exchange

b) The co mpany is going to go · -·-·

9 a) Why did the business fa i l?

b ) Why did th ey go of b us i ness ?

1 0 a) Their customers we re l ate in pa y i ng them so they

cou l dn' t pay t heir b i ll s

b ) Thei r custome rs were l ate in paying them so they had cash · -· -· - p rob l e ms

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Companies a nd s e c tors 9

Individual company profile

A company profile is a short description of a company

A typical con t ext for a company profile is at the

beginning of a presentation

Business activity

You usually start a company profile with a general

introduction describing your business activity a nd

the sector you operate in (eg financial services,

pharmaceutica l s) Verbs to describe business activity

include: d esign, dis tribute, expor t, i111port, make,

manufa cture, offer, ope r ate, produce, provide, se ll , special i ze

in , s up ply

We offer a wide range of financial services

We provide n etwor k solutions to the telecom sec tor

We s p ec ialize in so ftware for the Ji.Im industry

We sell fashion a ccesso ries - our main products are

shoes and bags

We're in the hospitality bu s iness

Location

Here you might talk about your H ead Office, the

location of your p r oduction si tes , etc

We 're based in Toulouse./Our Head Office is in Toulouse

We have around 20 offic es all over Europe

We have production sites in Ro1nania and Turkey

We have branch es in Brazil and Mexico

Size I Markets

There are many way s to ta lk abou t the s ize of a

company You can talk abou t yo ur mark et, the number

of employee s, or use a financia l indicator suc h as sa le s

(=turnover/r eve nu e) or profit

We only operate in o ur domestic market

We 're an international company ivith operations in over

40 countries Our main markets ar e India and the Middle East

We' re the market l e ader /We're second in the market

We ha ve a market s har e of around 25 %

Our main competitors are A straZeneca and Pfizer

We employ 200 people I We fza ve 200 employees

Our annual turnov e r is around €40 million

Our operating profit last yea r lvas €15 rnillion

You ca n find 111ore inf o r1nation about our financial

performan ce by looking at th e In v estor relations

section of our webs ite

1 Read the text f or ge n e ral understanding

A company may look small but be part of a larger group w ith a completely differen t name

W e'r e part of the Media World group of companies

W e ar e a s ub s idiary of Media W orld

Our par e nt c ompany is Me dia World

The co111pany has tl1r ee di v isions

expand, g row , laun ch, n · 1 e rg e, m ove to, move into, open, purchase, st op, start

The company was set up / established / founded in 1998

by 1ny father

W e mov e d our Head Office to Stuttgart

We bought/ acquir e d / took over a small local company

We were bought/ were acquired / were taken over by

an An1erican con1pany

We merged with a Dutch company two months ago

An important milestone was when sales passed $3 million

We realized zue needed to di v ersify Sales grew rapidly in the Benelux region

Sales suffered badly when the law changed

We entered / mo ve d into the US market

The publishing division was sold off

Our UK s ub sidiary was closed down

Th e co 111 pa11y was broken up into four parts

We opened a new factory I plant I production fa cility

Th e co mpany recently celebrated its 50th anniversary

A key factor in our success has been our s taff

Future

Tf you are g iving a presentation, this is the part th at is likely to be the m os t interesting

We ' r e going to open a new office in Indonesia

We' r e going to take on an additional 30 staff

W e ' re going to laun c h a new range of clothes aimed at

older wo 111e n

W e ' re planning to e xpand into South-East Asia

W e liope to go publi c ( = become listed on th e s t ock mark e t) next year

Our ailn is lo be one of the top three biotech companies

3 Highlight words you know pa ss ively, but d on't use actively C h oose so me to write se nten ces of your own

Exercises

3.1 Match the b e ginnings of sentences 1 - 8 with their

endings a-h

1 Th e company was found ed

2 Th e company was set

3 The company merged

4 The company realized i t needed

f('

I •

c·

5 The company dec i ded to concentrate [_J

6 The company changed it s nam e [ ~

7 Th e company move d

8 The company was take n C!

a up by th ree so f tware e ngi neers f rom Bangalore

b over by a large r compet ito r,

c by three software eng i nee rs fro m Bangalore

d to Infor m at i ca Solut i ons

e into the Chinese m arket

f to dive rs i f y

g w it h anot he r I nd ian software develo pe r

h on IT serv i ces

3.2 Write a senten c e number from Exercise 3 1 next to

its closest meaning below

1 Some people started the company .J_c._ and

2 The company s ta rted sel ling i ts products in another

country ···

· 3 The company dec i ded to focus on o ne th ing

4 One company bought another company -·

5 Tw o companies comb i ned to form one company _

6 The company knew t hat it had to develop new products

and act i vit i es

3 3 Fill in the missing letters

1 An event that ma r k s an import ant stage in a process is

called a m _ one

2 A company t h at is owned o r con t ro ll ed by anot her

co m pany i s ca ll ed a su ary

3 To sound business - l ke, say 'a k _ t ac .r' i nstead of

'one of t he i mportant t hings '

3.4 Gomplete each sentence 1 - 3 with the correct

adverb a -c You will make three phrasal verbs

1 The U K su b si d i ary was sol d a up

2 The U K su b si d i ary was closed b o ff

3 The UK su bs i d i ary was b r oken c down

3.5 Write a sentence number from Exercise 3 4 next to

•

the best explanation below

1 The UK su b si d i ary was los i ng money The parent

compa ny decided it would b e better if it stopped doing

business comp letely

2 The UK subs i d i ary was profitable, but it didn't fit the

p l ans of t h e paren t company Another company was

interested i n the subs i diary an d bought i t

3 The UK subs i d i ary was too l arge The pa r ent company

d ivided i t into several sma ller compan i es, kee ping one

and se ll i ng the ot h ers ···-

3 INDIVIDUAL COMPANY PROFILE

3 6 Read the profile of clothing company H&M and underline the correct word in italics Not all the words appear opposite

H&M is a Swedish clothing company in the 'val ue

fashion' 1 sectionlsector It has c l othes 2 aimedlpoin te d

at all age groups and both sexes, but it specializes

3 inlon clothes for young women H&M has more t han

1 , 800 stores in 34 different countries and 4 employsl

employees over 75,000 people I ts 5 H ead Offi ce/ T op

Office is in Stockholm , although t h e 6 p rincipal lmajo rity

of its clothing is 1 manufac tured lf ac toried i n Bangladesh,

Indonesia , Roman ia and Turkey

Th e company \Vas 8 es tablishedlfound in 1947 and

opened its first store 9 abroadloutside in the 1960s

Today it has an 10 intensivelextensive network of stores throughout Europe , North America , t he Midd l e East and East A s ia

A key factor i n H&M 's success has been its

1 1 collaborationslcollaborators with 'gues t designers ', including Karl Lagerfeld, S tella McCartney, Viktor &

Rolf and Madonna A recent guest designer was Jimmy Choo , who designed 12a range/an arrangement of

products not normally associated with H&M, like men's

s h oes H&M a l so works with pop s t ars such as Kylie Minogue to promote the 1 3 brand l ad v ertising

H&M's main 14 competitorslconcurrents are US - based Gap and Spain ' s Inditex (owners of the Zara chain) It's difficult to say which company is the biggest as 15 sales /

sells diffe r from year to year and from country to country

At the time of writing Zara had the largest worldwide

16 balance!revenue and the l argest market 11 partlshare ,

and so was the market 18 leaderlwinner Gap was second

1 inlon the market and H&M third

H&M has slightly 20 belowllower prices than its competitors A recent Annual Report described how this was achieved: having fe\v middlemen; buying

large volumes; having a broad, in-depth 21 kn owing l

knowledge of design, fashion and textiles ; bu y ing the right 22 produceslproducts from the right market; be i ng cost - conscious at every stage ; and ha v ing 23 efficientl

proficien t distribution

L ike other clothing retailers, t hese days H&M has to pay a lot of attention to its social responsibility 24 policyl

politics It has to make sure t ha t all 25 employslemployees

have good working conditions, es p ec ially in poorer countries , otherwise it risks negati ve media coverage and 26 damage ldama ges to its brand

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Companies and sectors 11

\The manufacturing sector

It then uses these to

.J, make/ produce/ n1anufacture

.J, products/ goods

.J, in an factory I plant/ facility

.J, using machines/ machinery I equipment

The Production Manager

.J, controls the whole process, for example by making

sure that the correct machine tools are used for each batch(= group of items produced at the same time)

.J, can speed up or slow down the production process

.J, tries to reduce or eliminate waste

.J, tries to minimize inventory in order to reduce

storage costs

Note that 'inventory' = raw materials + unfinished

work + finished v.rork (stock) in the warehouse

Inside the factory

.J, trucks arrive at the loading bays where they unload

.J, fork-lift trucks carry parts on wooden pallets from

the loading bay to the storage area

.J, parts are taken from the storage area to the

individual workstations on the assembly line

Manufacturing has changed a lot ln the old days

a company would make the number of products

it thought it could sell, then transfer them to a

warehouse, waiting for customer orders However

the goods often remained unsold because customers

wanted other products - not the ones in the warehouse

And storage costs were very high

The modem approach is different It combines 'just-in

-time' vvith 'lean manufacturing' 'Just-in-time' means

that products are made as a response to a customer

order Everything is done only when it is needed and

inventory is kept to a minimum 'Lean manufacturing'

means no waste Waste is not just useless material lying

on the factory floor - it is anything that the customer

is not willing to pay for If something extra might add

value for the customer, check first that the customer

really wants it

1 Read the text for general understanding

Production or assembly?

Another big change is that 'production' nowadays almost never means making a complete product in one place Take the automobile industry as an example

In the 1950s the factory would have parts and raw materials at one end, an assembly line in the middle,

ai1d the finished cars at the factory gate The whole

plant would be in the car maker's own country

Nowadays things are different Globalization means that production of car parts, components, and sub-assemblies like engines is outsourced(= subcontracted)

to factories all over the world After production, these

parts are then shipped to other cou11tries where they

are assembled After assembly, the finished goods are

shipped again to their final markets The question is:

what still happens in the car maker's own country? The answer is often this: no production, no assembly,

but coordination of the whole process (the global supply chain)

Quality control or quality assurance?

The phrase 'quality control' emphasizes the testing

of products to uncover defects The phrase 'quality

assurance' (QA) is a more modem term, and it means getting things right first time In other words, making

sure that all the processes in the company work as efficiently as possible so that mistakes do not occur in the first place If they do, then the process itself needs

to be changed to avoid the mistake happening again

A key idea of QA is that a product should be 'fit for

purpose' This meai1s that it should do the job it was

designed to do, and do it well But there is no point

having an unnecessarily high quality that would be

expensive and difficult to achieve

We say

inspect / check a product

find I detect I uncover a defe c t / fault

remove then replace a faulty part

And note this common word:

reivork (v) (do work again because of a defect)

reivork (n) (the work that you do again)

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don't use actively Choose some to write sentences of your own

Exercises

4.1 Three items in each group are closely connected

Cross out the one item that is different Check any

unknown words in a dictionary

1 manufacturer I producer I supplier I maker

2 p l ant/warehouse/factory I faci l ity

3 equ ipm ent/ machines/ machinery / i nventory

4 buying I purchasing I negot i ating I procurement

5 was te I sub - assemb li es I parts/ components

6 de fec ts/ r ework/fau lts /mistakes

7 200 pieces/ 200 items/200 units/ 200 batches

8 produce/assemb l e/bu i ld/put together

9 supp l ie s/ products/ goods/ merchand i se

10 subcontract I use an outside company I d i stribute I

outsource

1 1 i nspect/ examine I check I contro l

12 f i nd I re place I detect I discover

4.2 Use an item that you crossed out in Exercise 4.1 to

complete the sentences below

1 T he parts arrived late and the qual i ty is not as good as it

used to be We should look for a new _ _.5J!QQfier:

2 We have reduced storage costs by keep i ng

to a m i n i mum

3 The company is no t profitable We need to t ry to

e l iminate · in the o rga n i zat i on wherever

we find it I 'm talk i ng about ra w materials, budgets,

human resources - everything

4 The defec t rate is 1 4 i n every 1,000 p i eces we produce

We can't just throw the who l e piece away so i t means a

lot of · -

5 We have our own company magaz i ne that comes out

four times a year We it to emp l oyees,

customers and a ll our business partners

6 We the speed of the assembly l ine

using th i s panel here

4.3 Match an item on the left with an item on the

fit for purpose

goods from trucks waste

the g l obal supp l y cha i n

4.4 Find a word or phrase from Exercise 4.3 that

matches the definitions below

1 ( three words) good enough to do t he j ob it was designed

-·-·-· 2 unwanted and use l ess materials _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3 (two words) the whole ser i es of processes and companies

invo l ved i n making, stor i ng, transporting and sell ing a

produ ct _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

4 THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR

4.5 Look at these dialogues between engineers in

a factory Check any unknown words in a dictionary then answer the questions below

Do you know how this

new machine works?

How do you update the

software on this device?

The machine keeps breaking down

Why isn't it working?

What's wrong with it?

The machine is making

a funny noise

Do you need to connect

th is sensor to the mains?

You just press the button and

it starts automatically After that you adjust the settings

on the control panel

You just connect it to a

computer with th is lead

Yes, we need to get it fixed

I'll turn it off and put an 'out of order' sign on it

Sorry, I unplugged it earlier when

I moved it I'll plug it in again the socket is right here

-Not again We only had

it serviced fast month

You can do, but it's designed

as a handhefd device and

it runs on batteries

I'm trying to set up this machine tool for the next production run

but it isn't working properly

Yes, one of the pieces doesn't fit

Read the dialogues aloud several times, then cover them with a piece of paper

Now fill in the missing letters in the sentences below

1 The mac h i ne keeps br ing down and we only had it

se _ d l as t month

2 I th i nk this i s t he wr g le _ d It doesn ' t f _ t t he socket at the back of this d _ ce

3 The machine is making a f y noise We need to get it

f_ ed I 'l l un ug it , move it i nto the corner, and put an 'o -of-o er' sign on it

4 I f you want to connect it to the ma s, there's a so et

on the wall over there But it 's not necessary - it r s on

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Companies and sectors 13

The service sector

Service sector industries

The service sector consists of industries such as:

• Banking, financial se rvices and insurance

• Ret ailing

• Hospitality (hotels and restaurants) and tourism

• Real estate

• Bu siness services (recruitment , consultancy, legal

services, office cleaning, etc)

Manufacturing companies can diversify into se r v i ces

Of cour se th ey c hang e their business model as a

result A good examp l e is companies like IBM and HP

They still make computers, but they now get mos t

of their mon ey from offering services, cons ul ta n cy

and busine ss so lution s So instead of gett i ng a s i ngle

payment for a piece of equi pment, they now r ece i ve

mon ey for a service on a regular basis There is a

steady income stream every month for an ongoing

contract This is called the s ubscription pricing model

('s ubscripti on' = money that yo u pay regularly for a

service)

Issues for the service sector

First , in the service sec tor there is no physical p r oduct

you can t o uch , and so it can be difficult for a client to

know exactly what they will receive (eg tourism) Even

if the client does understand the service offered, it can

be difficult to m easure its value against the price paid

(eg in finan c ial services and consulting)

Second, it i s difficult to differentiate yourself from the

competition How does a clien t choose one investme n t

a d visor or hotel or real estate company ra t her th an

ano t her? They seem to provide identical serv i ces

Fina ll y, the quality of se rvices depends very m uc h on

the quality of the individuals providing the service

(a r ude waiter can spoil a delicious meal) Employees

have to b e very customer-oriented Recruiting, training

and retainin g s t aff is very important

1 Read the text for genera l unders t anding

Describing services

The phra ses below can be used \vhen selling a service They include reference to particular business areas

in o rd er to give a context, but th ey can be adapted t o

most other areas

We provide cu s tomized / cost-effective I innovati v e solutions fo r th e telecornmunications industry

We can pro v ide you with a comprehensive package for all your recr11itrnent needs

W e cu s tomize our services to fit / meet your needs

We spedalize in this area Outsourcing the work to

us would be c h eape r and more efficient than doing it ·

We focus on the top end of the market

We offer a full range of iuebsite development services

We offer a complete publishing service , from design and

artwork to project managen1ent and print

We're a one-stop shop for all your insurance needs

Our consultants can help you identify , assess and

implement th e best solutions for your business

('implement' = make something start to work)

We're 100 % focused on gi v ing value to our clients We're actively involved at every stage

W e iuork c lo se ly alongside the client to maximize business opportunities

This 1.uill rnak e a direct impact on your bottom line

( = this will give you more profits)

We tak e a long-term approach to value creation for our c li e nt s

You can choose whether to lease or buy You pay a subscription every 1nonth to access our site

We charge a n1onthly fee

We work on a commission basis We charge a

co n1mission of 10 %

The s ervi c e charge is €3,000 per year

Til e s ervice contract includes routine maintenance and e merg e ncy call-outs but it doesn't include spare part s

You can have immediate access to your a c count online

Our 1uebsite is sec ure and easy to use

We give you access to a valuable online resource

3 Highlight words you know passively, bu t don ' t use

actively Choose so me to write se ntences of your own

Exercises

5.1 Find one wrong word in each sentence Write the

correct word at the end

1 Our bus i ness moda l i s t o get a steady stream of revenue

from c l ients every month rnodel

2 We customerize our services to f it the c l e nt's needs

3 Shou l d we do a l l our recru itment in-the - house? It

might be better to outsource r e c ru itment to a spe c ia l st

4 We offer a comp l ete service for a l l your bus iness

need i ngs _ _ _ _ _ _

5 In our investments we focus ma in l y i n companies with a

h i gh growth poten t ial _ _ _ _ _ _

6 We charge a month fee of €600 for our serv i ces

7 We work on a comm i ss i on basic - 1 Oo/o of the va l ue of

any t ransad i ons we hand l e -·

8 T hey ga ve us a good service - they we r e very

5 We ' r e act i ve l y i nvo l ved

6 T h i s w i ll make a dir ect

.-

I :

L J

~ ' '

l _ _J

7 We take a l ong -term D

8 We hand le a l l the paperwork and LJ

-a on g i ving va l ue to our c l ients

b shop for a ll your bu s i ness needs

c a l ow you to concentra t e on what you do best

d range of bank i ng services

e at every stage

f so l ut i ons for the hote l and restaurant sector

g approach to va l ue creation for our cl i ents

h impa c t on your bottom li ne

5.3 Fill in the missing letters The words are all

prepositions

1 We work w ith the biggest names in the indust ry

2 We offer a f u ll range services

3 We offer a comp l ete pub l ish ing serv i ce, des i gn

•

and a rtwork project managemen t and print

4 We' re a one-s t op shop _ a l l your t ravel needs

5 We prov i de cost-effec t i ve so l utions _ the ba nking

industry

6 We are focused g i ving va l ue to our cl ients

7 We are ad i ve l y i nvo l ved every stage

8 Th i s w i ll make a d i r ect impad _ your bottom l ine

9 We take a long -term appr oach value crea t i on

10 You have access _ your account on li ne

S THE S ERVICE SECTOR

5.4 Complete the sentences with verbs from the box

advise allow assess charge customize differentiate handle implement pro~ 1 ick

1 W e t::_ nrov1de _ ,;_ a comp e e service I t ·

2 We a month l y fee o f € 500, a l l i nc l uded

3 Our IT so l utions -·· _ ~ you to m ax i mi z e the use of data in your organiza t ion

4 It is often d i ff i cu l t f or a serv i ce company to

_ i tse l f f rom the compet it i on

5 We al l the paperwo r k for you

6 We can the serv i ce to mee t your needs

7 Ou r consu lt ants wi l l -· -· t he secur i ty r i s ks

t o your network, and then -· -· -· - you on the adion you shou l d ta ke I f you w i sh, we w i l a l so

_ _ the so l ut i on you choose

5.5 Complete this email sent by a financial consultant

to a potential client using the phrases in the box

) it was good to mee t yo u o n Tuesday - I though t we had a very f :J l I

j usefu l discuss i on I have been looking at my notes a ri d study i ng o l

l the for m that you comple t ed and I have now made a de t ai l ed j I

j assessment of you r financ i al sit u ation i I

l As a married man with a fam i ly t o s u pport you want 1 l

j a reliable , we l - es t ablished co m pany to 1 handle your j' I

l f1nanc1al planning_ I be l ieve that Merlin Weal t h

; Manage m ent can p r ovide you wi th a package that w i ll j

i We 3 _ o f wea l th management se r vices fr o m j I

! inves t ment funds t o t ax pla n ning We 4 1 '

! t o build i ng and protect i ng our clien t s' money , and we work

; c l ose l y a l ongside the c l ient at every stage t o make su r e that

~ you feel co m fortab l e with every dec i sio n

; As I exp l ain e d i n the meeting, we 5_ of 2.S o/o

; of any m o ney y o u i nvest wi t h us , and then ther e i s an an n ual

! m anagemen t c h arge o f 1 5% You 6 t o '

your accoun t on l ine and yo u can t r ack the performanc e o f th e

; funds you choose to in v est in

;

; I hope that y o u w i lt choose M er l in as y o ur I n v e s tment Manag e r

! and I look forward t o h eari n g f ro m yo u s o o n

I : K i nd regard s

Markets and competitors

Markets

There are three basic areas of business

• B2C ( the business -t o-consumer market: food

retailing/ consumer electronics, etc.)

• B2B (the business-to-business market: making parts

for the auto industry I consultancy, etc.)

B 2C (the business to governm en t market: defence

and aerospace/big infrastructur e projects, etc.)

its mar k et

• The type of product (eg the mobile pho n e market,

the property mark et, the s t ock market)

• A particular place (eg the German market)

like fashion, single professional s who like going out

with their friends, families with young children )

Usually a company will have different products aimed

at different sec tions /segmen t s of the market For

example, to target different income levels a company

might offer an economy model, a sta ndard m o del a nd

an exec utive model

In the world of finan ce ther e are seve ral s pecific

mark ets: the s t oc k market , the bond market, the foreign

exchange market, the commodity market, and others

In finance a rising market is called a bull market, and a

falling market is called a bear marke t

H ere is a list of adjectives that are often used with the

word ' market '

boonzi ng I expa ndin g I g r o1.ving, co111pet it ive, declining,

do111estic, existing, foreign, free, g lobal I international I

worldwide, healthy, huge, nu1in , n1n ss, niche/specialist,

potential, profitable, protected , sluggish, total, wide

1 R ea d the text for general understanding

The tnnrket is boomin g (= doing very well)

It 's n hu ge ntarket (= very big)

It 's a nich e market (=sma ll and spec ialized ) ' fhe 11u1rket is s lu ggis h at the 1110111e11t (= s l o>v)

We say

n product is on the 111nrkel

n co111pnny is in lite 111nrkel • there can be a rnnrket fo r n particular product you hope to increase your s ha re of t h e market the total rnnrket i s wo rth €80 111illio11 a year

Number of emplo yees

Sales and distribution network

The larges t company is the market leader, but it is

no t a l ways clear who this is For example t here may

b e a different le ader for different pro duct lines or in

differe nt markets

Here a re so m e adj ectives often used vvit h the vvords 'competi t or', 'co mp etition' and 'competitive'

closest I direct / 111ai11 I1 11ajor I near es t competitor

fair, fierce I strong I tough , h e n/thy , ope n competition

extrernely I highly I fiercely competitive

Tlte iPhorze is our dir ec t co mpeti t or

There is fierce c omp e titi o n , but it's h e althy for th e

1nnrk et because consumers benefit

Retail banking is hi g hly c omp e titi ve

We say

co111pete a g ain s t another co 111pany win nn order a g ain s t the co 111p e titio11

be in c ompetition wi th o th e r co 111pnnies there is cornpetition amo n g/ b etwee n con1panies face co111petition fro m other co111pa11ies

con zpete for a rnarket

to succeed in business you n eed n co mp e titi ve e d ge/

c ompetiti ve ad v anta ge ( = so 1nething t hat you do better than other co m pan i es in the same market)

3 Highlight words you kn ow passively, but don ' t use actively Choose some to write sentences of your own

Exercises

6.1 Underlin e the correct word in italics

1 Our bi ggest market i s the France I Fren ch ma r ket

2 We're a 828 I 82C company We se l l spec i a l st

equ i p ment to t he te lec ommun ica t ion s in dustry

3 Th e pr i ce of o i l was around $23 a ba rrel i n 2001 and

2002 Today th e f i gure i s over $100 There's no doubt

that oi l is i n a l ong-term bear I bull ma r ket

4 We publish e-magazines fo r various mass I niche

ma r kets such as stamp collecting and extreme sports

5 The Lat in Amer i can pharmace uti ca l s market is worth I

values $50 b i lion a year

6 We have been in I on t he mark et for over 20 years

7 This product has bee n in I on the market since Apr i l

8 It's a sma l l company but we're growing fast We hope

to i ncrease ou r part I share of the m arket to around

1 0°/o within t he next three years

9 Pan asonic , Samsung a nd Sony are d i rect competitors/

concurrents i n the HDTV m a r ket

10 The air l ine indust ry is high I highly compet i tive

11 We were in competit i on from I with six o t her

companies, bu t we ga ve the best presentation to thei r

manageme nt team an d won the contract

1 2 In our ma rk et we front I face a lot of competition f rom

low-cost prod ucers i n As i a

6.2 Match a word descr i bing a market on the left with

a word with a similar meaning in the middle and their

opposite on the right

protected sma l l

6.3 Complete the sentences with a word from the

left or right column in Exercise 6 2 Ignore the middle

column

1 I n the nex t few decades nanotechno l ogy i s go i ng to open

up huge new m ar kets i n the areas of m e d i c i ne,

electronics and energy product i on

2 We have to pay a lot of i mport duties to sell goods i n

their country, and t he ir own domest i c compan i es get a

lot of gov e rn ment he l p It' s a very ·- market

over there ·

3 Why waste resources try ing to enter new m arkets? Our

m arket is very big, an d we need to

establ i sh our brand name a t home firs t

4 I n t he o l d days we used to ta l k about the '

marke t' - th at means your products are a i med at

everyone These days i t's different - we have d i ffere n t

products for d i ffe rent sectors

5 In my bus i ness there's very litt l e interference or regulat i on

from gov e r nments It's a _ _ ma r ket!

6.4 Complete each sentence with one of these words :

competitor, competition , competitive, competitiveness

1 We have a patent on th is technology It gives us a very impo rtant _ advantage

2 The long - te rm of ou r economy depends

on t raining and innovation

3 Another brand of co l a isn't a good idea - there would be very strong ·- from Coke and Pepsi

4 Our closest _ _ ·- has impro ved the i r

d istr i b u t i on network and is win n i ng marke t share

6.5 Complete the report extract wr i tten by the Marketing Director of a large supermarket chain Use the words in the box

-·· -

research trend decline entered

take over withdraw from

- - · - - · - - - -· - - ~ - ·-·-··

We've spent the last month doing extensive market

l · · · -··-···- - talking to customers in-store and

asking them how we can improve our service This

research shows that customers want two things: first,

more ready-made food, and second, better quality

organic food

In relation to the first point, we know that the

market for ready-made food is growing rapidly It already accounts for 8% of our total sales, up from

5% just three years ago This 2 is likely

to continue, as the pressures of work mean that people have less and less time to cook meals for

themselves This doesn't mean that sales of fresh fruit and vegetables will disappear; it just means that they are likely to slowly 3 _ _ _ _ _

This leads to the second point: organic food We

for a time sales were very strong It even looked as

if organic food would 5 the fruit and

vegetable market However sales peaked and have now fallen to low levels

The problem is that organic food is expensive - its

a_ will always be significantly higher than non-organic This doesn't fit well with' our market

7

··-··· as a value-for-money supermarket with lower prices than our competitors Given the low

levels of sales, one option would be to 8 _ _ _ _ _

the organic food market completely However,

I think this would be a mistake We are the market

9 -·-···· and we can't simply stop selling this

product 1 _ -· This matter needs further discussion

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Markets, products and customers 17

Marketing - the four Ps

What is marketing?

There is a well - known phra se th at identifies the various

areas of marketing The phra se i s 't he four Ps', and the

Ps sta nd for product , price , place a nd promotion

Product

F or a marketer, the most important things about a

product are the following

• It s features ( = important and interesting things that

will help to sell it)

• It s benefits( = how those features translate int o a

better exper i ence for the u ser) Marketers often

u se the phrase 'value propo s ition' to mean the key benefits of the product

• Its USPs ( =unique selling points, in other words

f eatures that the competitors ' products don't have)

Price

A high price says to the market , 't his product is

high-quality and exclusive' If th e quality really is good,

and people enjoy the feeling of owning the brand, then

some consumers will pay the high price However, a

high price often means fewer sa le s and less market

share, and so identifying the exact price point for a

product is an important issue Usua lly a company has

diff ere nt products with diff erent price points aimed a t

different seg ments of the mark et

W e say

We need to set our price point s carefully (=charge as

much as possib l e without damaging sales)

The cost price to us was €40, and rve se ll it in our stor es for

€80, so the margin (= percentage profit) is 100% and

-manufacturer's sugges t ed retail price) is €399 , but you can often find it at a di sc ounted pri c e

Our prices rang e from €1,250 for tile s tandard/ economy

rnodel to €1,950 for the deluxe/exec utive rnodel

We need to cut / bring down / low e r our prices

W e need to increase / put up / rai se our prices

W e c har g e €65 per hour for our services

Our f ee will be €8,450, all included

Read the text fo r general under s tanding

Place

This refers to the distribution channel, often referred to in marketing simply as 'the channel' A cus tomer can find a product in a retail outlet, s uch as a store or supermarket, but how did the product get there? What logistics

ope rations were necessary (wareho u s ing, handling , transportation)? How many intermediaries were there ? Was there a distributor ? an agent? a wholesaler?

All these people - logi s tic s co mpanies, intermediaries and retailers - are referred to as the 'channel partners' Direct marketing is a typ e of marketing with no

• intermedia ries or outlets - it 'cuts out the middleman' Direct marketing includes email marketing, catalogue

s hopping, direct mail, door-to-door leaflets, etc

In the future m-commerce ( u sing mobile devices as

a shopping platform ) will grow and take its place alongside e-commerce ( u sing a computer)

Promotion

There are many different forms of promotion

• Online advertising (banner ads, flash animation s, and search marketing that uses links on the re sul t s page of a search engine)

• Ads in the media (TV, magazines, newspapers)

• Outdoor advertising (billboards, buses )

• Promotional material s (brochures, catalogues, leaflets, flyers )

• Sponsorship (eg associating your logo with one particular football team)

• Sa les promotions (special offers suc h as get-one-free', coupon s/vo uchers, etc)

run an advertising carnpaign

Exercises

7 1 Complete the text abo ut a p izza serv ic e using the

words in the box

coupon delivery differen ce guaranteed

leaflet offer online range

Near to my house the re are two or three pizza

stores , all offering home 1 J 1 1 r I usual ly

choose Pizza Place - I love their pizzas They have a

much better 2 of toppings than the others

and their pizzas are thin and crispy so you really taste

the topp ing not the base They put a 3 _ _ _ _ _

through my door most weeks and there's always some

k ind of special 4

Fo r example, you can cut out a 5 and use it i n the s t ore to get

special dea l s on desse rt s and d r i nks There's a c ode

printed on the coupon so you can use i t over t he

phone o r to order 6 _ _ And every Monday

they have a 'buy -one-get- one-free' offer But the best

thing about Pizza P l ace i s their 7 _ de li very

time They say that if they don ' t deliver in 30 minutes or

less, it's free None of the other pizza stores offer that,

and when you're hungry it makes a 8 _ _ _ _ _

7 2 Use the text in Exercise 7 1 to underline the

correct word in 1 - 2 below

1 Th in, crispy pizzas are a feature I benefit

2 Be in g able to taste the topping not the base i s a

feature I benefit

7 3 Fi ll in th e missing lett e r s

1 If the quality is good and people enjoy the feeling of

owning the b d, t hen some consumers will pay a

higher price

2 Usua lly a company has diffe r ent products aime d at

di fferen t seg _ ts of the ma r ket

3 Th e cost price to us is €200 and we sell it in our store

for €300 So the m _ in is SOo/o and the m k-up

is €100

4 Our prices ra e from €600 to €900, depending on the

model

5 Profe ss ionals offering a personalized service, such as

lawyers, don't rea lly use the word 'price' with clients

Instead they say 'f '

6 We ch e €90 per h ou r for our ser v ices

7 Between the man ufacturer and the end-user there a r e

just two in ter _ i ar ies: a d i stributor and a re tai le r

8 We use various reta i l out _ s, inc l uding large

supermarkets, sma ll neighbourhood shops and kiosks

9 B illboards are an examp le of door advertising

1 0 In the age of social networks such as Facebook •

w _ -of-m th marketing is very important

7 MARKETING - THE FOUR Ps

7 4 Make w o rd partnership s by matching an item

fr om eac h co lumn One so lut io n u ses each word once

of €54 and see what differen ce i t ma ke s

2 I n the summe r we're go i ng to run an _ _ _ _ _ _ _ across various med ia: online, TY and magazines

3 I thin k we need to expand our range of

- - - s to include small local shops

4 As an online retailer, the logis t ics company we work with

is a very important - We use their

warehousing services as well as their del iv ery serv i ces

5 When people type 'Rome hotel', we want ou r name to

appea r on t he firs t page of the _ re su lt s

7 6 Complete the sentences with the verbs in the box

aim at place

attend charge handle

~ sponsor translate

1 We need to the right pr ic e point to maxim i ze profits - not too high and not too low

2 The consultan t s' fees are very high They spent two days

in the co mpa ny and then _ d us €2,400 fo r a report which said noth ing new

3 Ou r advertis i ng budget is l imited an d we hav e to be very

care ful about where we this ad

4 We have a reputation for high quality and high prices

But in the current economic climate I think we also need

to _ the value - oriented shopper

5 It's poss ibl e to make th is product with a ll sorts of additional features The question is this: do those feat ures

_ into benefits for the customer?

6 The cost of the s t and i s very high, but we have to

····-·-·· - the F ran k furt t r ade fair every year It's the

best place to mee t al l our custome r s at one t i me

7 I n orde r to attract wealthy c li ents from the local area

I think we should the next season at t he Opera House

8 A lot of customers are calling to complain about

damaged goods We need to investigate how they're

- d at the warehouse and i n transit

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Markets, products and customers 19

Marketing strategy and brands

Marketing strategy

The four Ps described in U nit 7 is a good way to loo k

at the marketing of individu a l product l ines over t h e

s h or t t e rm But a company also needs a longer -t erm

strategy with realistic objectives in order to plan its

overall marketing effort The marketing stra te gy is

likel y to include the follo,.ving

Collecting data to try t o forecas t (= say vhat i s likely

to happ en in the future) market tr ends

• Revie\ · ving the positioning of the com pany Which

segments of the market does th e company wan t to

t a rg e t(= aim at)? Who do th e products appeal to(=

who finds them interestin g a nd wants to buy them)?

Reviewing the compan y's existing product range

to see ho"' ' well it fits the needs of the market

Which products need a quick facelift? Which need a com pletel y new model? Which need to be withdrawn from the market?

• Developing new produ cts, working closely with

production, R&D and sa le s staff

• Doing ma r ke t r esearch to get feedback on existing

products a n d i deas fo r new products This m ay involve in t erviewing both ex i s tin g cus t omers and potential cus t omers ( = people who may become cus t omers in the future )

Analyzing and decidin g how to respond to the behaviour of competitors

Allocating( = decidin g how to use) resources What shou ld be the overall size of the marketing budget?

How is this money going t o be divided between the different promotiona l activities?

• Making decis i ons abou t s pon sorshi p, for example

deciding which sports/cultural ac t ivi t y t o b e associa ted with

Making decisions about endorsements, for example deciding which famous per so n is going to be 'the face ' of the company or a certain product

Developing the corporate image in ge neral

• Developing and promotin g individual brands (see

next sec tion)

Note

sponsor an event

e ndor se a brand

sponsorship endorse111e11 t

Read the text for general understanding

Brand development

A brand is a product or g r o up of products that h a s a well-known name Some brands have the same nam e

as the company, for exa mpl e Google, BMW, Sony

Other brands ha ve a different name to the company, for exam ple Do ve, PersiJ, Ben & Jerry's (all made by Unilever, which is not in it self a brand) A brand is usually associated with:

A logo ( = symbo l of a company), for example Nik e, Apple, McDonaJd s

A particu l ar style of l e tt ering, for example Disney,

A slogan(= short phra se that i s easy to remember), for example Life's Good (LG), Because we ' re worth it

(L'O r eal), H igh Perforn1nn ce, Delivered (Accenture)

A good brand has a personality, an identity, an image

It can be young and fun, conservative and safe , edgy (=radica l ) and innovative, warm and comforting, expensive and exclusive, soft and romantic The idea is that consumers will get th e feeling associated with the brand every time they u se it

Sponsorship and endors emen t s are very im por t ant

to building a brand identity - you buy a product associa ted with a football team or movie star and you feel personally connected to the values and lifestyle they represent

A 'white label product' i s one produced by a company that no-one has heard of so that another company

(us ually a r e t ailer) can put their own brand name on

it This is very common in s up e rmarke t s (wi t h food) and also in consumer electronics and c l othing With the

s upermarke t 's name on it, th e product is now called an

ow n-lab e l brand , or store brand

ote these collocations with the word 'brand'

n leadin g / top brand

n famous I favourite I popular I we ll-knawn brand

promote a brand nam e

d eve lop a brand identity I image

i ncrense brand awar e n e s s I r ecogn ition brand loyalty (= wh e n people regu l arly b uy t he same brand a n d refuse to c han ge)

3 Highlight words you kn ow passively, bu t don 't use actively Choose some to write sen tences of your own

Exercises

8 1 Underline the corre c t word in italics

1 Our strategy must have a rea li stic object I objective

2 We have to dec i de wh ich segments of the market we

want to aim I target

3 We shou ld do some ma rke t investigation I research to

see what customers t h ink abo ut o u r bran d

4 The senior m anagement team has decided to

allocate I delegate fewer r esources t o promot ional

act iv ities nex t yea r

5 I hear t hat t he company is look ing fo r a new 'face' af ter

t he l ates t scandal E ven spo rt s sta r s are hu m an , a nd

w h en you c hoo se someone to endorse I spo n so r your

products, you always ta ke a ri s k

6 Our m ar k eting budget i s large , bu t not l arge enough to

endorse I sponsor a t eam l ke M anch este r Un it ed, Rea l

Madrid o r Baye rn Mu nch en

7 We need a so f ter , more roma nt i c im age Someth i ng

that wil l appeal to I attract to women

8 A brand is a product with a known/well-known name

9 I n today's wor ld there are m any competing I competition

prod ucts with a s imi l ar p r ice

1 0 I n a r ecession consumers buy cheaper products, or

prod ucts on spec i a l offer I ' s mu ch ha r der t o ma i nta i n

brand fidelity I loyalty

8 2 Replace the underlined word or phrase with one

word from the box The meani ng mu s t s tay the same

awareness behav i our facel i ft forecast identity positioning slogan withdraw

1 I t h i n k our main compet it or has changed t h eir decision

about w h i ch seg m e nts to ta r get i n the market Now they

have more exclus iv e i tems a t a highe r price posi t ioning

2 The r ange of wh ite goods we i ntrod u ced th ree ye ars ago

i s do i ng we l l in the m arket May b e we j ust need to give

them a superfic i a l redesign of the exter i o r to ma ke them

l ook m o r e contemporary

3 The new a dvert isin g campa ign i sn' t designed to p r oduce

imm ed i ate sales In stead, we wan t to increase br an d

recognit i o n at a more general leve l

4 T h i s l ne is l ooking old now and sales are very low I th i nk

it ' s time to r emove i t f rom the m a rket completely

5 It ' s difficu lt t o predict ma r ket trend s exactly, bu t the

co m puter screen migh t beco me le ss importan t as the

mob i le phone screen b ecomes more i mpo rta n t

6 We need to th ink of a good short phrase t hat wil l stick i n

people' s me mory to he lp launch the new brand

7 We have spent a lo t of money develo pi ng th e br a nd

Now it has a cl ear ima ge t hat makes it di fferen t from t he

othe r s

8 We are j us t a sma l l com p any an d we only star te d a

few yea r s ago We can learn a lo t by studyin g our

competitors' way of doing t h i ngs i n t h e m arket

8 MARKETING STRATEGY AND BRANDS

8.3 Complete the table be l ow Thi s exercise includes some item s from Unit 7

-·-·-·-·· (a ct ivit y )

_ _ _ ( person) ···-·- _ _ (long fo rm)

range solut i ons strategy word-of-mouth

-~

I

l s i t p oss ibl e t o d eve l o p a bran d b y l1 av in g 'no b rand' as

yo ur 1 •••• -~_tratfg_gy .? The an swe r is yes, according t o the

Japane se r e tail co n 1pany l 1 \uji, wh ose fu ll naiue (1'1 uji rush i

R yo hin) ni c an s 'no brand q u ality goods' in English

£.1 luji sells a w ide variety of house h ol d a nd

consu1uer goo d s, ye t yo u won't fin d the i r na m e o n any of t heir products Every th in g tha t t hey sell i s j us t

si1up l e, 1 uo dern and fu n c ti o na l A ll 2 ···· - _ _

i s n1in i 1ua l - d esig n e d n o t to m ake t h e pr o d uc t

l oo k 1uore than it is C l othes come in a limi t ed

3 of co l o u rs an d h ave no patterns o r

d esigns; house h old goods and stat ion ery are easy to use and practical Inside t h e stores th ere is no iu ar k e t ing -

j u st a Zen-like sense o f ca lr u An d their a d vert i sing 4

i s close t o zero as Mu ji re l es rnai nl y on

O n th e ir webs it e M uji s ta te that, 'As l fe gets niore

co rnp le x , t h e n ee d f o r si mpl e li festy l e 6· -···· ···-····

be comes all tl 1 e niore n ecessa r y' T h ey explain t h at th e idea

behind ' n o bran d' i s tli a t ' tli e quality and cre d i b ility of each

pr c)t l uct s p e ak s for itse lf - w l1 at yo u sec i s wl1at you ge t

So i\> luji ha ve d eve l (Jpe d a very c l ever bran d st rat egy:

f u nc ti o nalit y, a si n1pl e s h op pin g ex p e ri ence, and an anli- b rand image In th e a ge o f brantl s th i s is a powerfu l

diff e r ent i ating fa c t o r

lv \uji 's brand i dentity 7 strongly to

peop l e who d on't li k e conventiona l 1uark et i ng 1 and t h e

8

_ (be c ause that is what it i s) is now

expan d ing into Europe an d No rth 1 \mer i ca

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Markets, products and cus t omers 21

Describing products

Features

The features o f a product are its selling points Here

is a list of 60 adjectives that can be u sed to talk abou t

mass-produced modular

off - the-shelf one - touch optional portable practical real-time reliable revolutionary secure

shock- absorbent sophisticated state - of-the-art sh;lish

tailor-made time-saving trouble-free ultra - light

unique up-to- date user- friendly waterproof well- built well-designed well-made Our financial products offer a secure home for your money,

and are tailor-made to your o ivn personal ne e ds

Our ner.v range of clothing for the summer is attractive ,

affordable and stylish

It's a revolutionary , state-of-the-art home cinema

system A use ful feature is the built-in iPlayer access

These running shoes are waterproof and

shock-absorbent They are available in a full range of sizes

1 Read the text for general understanding

Physical description of a product

ln addition to describing the features of a product, you may also have to describe it physically, in particular its shape(= the form that it has), size( = dimensions), weight and materials

To talk about shape we can use adjectives or nouns

It 's square, circular I round, rectangular, L-shaped , star-shaped

It's in the shape of a square, circle, rectangle, letter ' L'

To talk about dimensions we can use adjectives or

We might want to talk about area and volume

It measures 60cm by 20cm So that's 1,200 square centimetres (written as crn 2 )

It measures 2m by 2ni by 1.Sm So that's 6 cubic metres

(written as m 3 )

To talk about weight we say:

It weighs six kilos

It's six kilos in weight (NOT six ef kilos)

To talk about materials we say:

It's made of aluminium, reinforced conc rete, copper, fibreglass , glass, leather, moulde d pla stic, nanomaterials, rubber, steel, wood (US: lumber) , etc

It's a composite material (=made o f several things)

It's a new type of polymer

Note these questions that a customer may ask:

What shape is it? What size is it?

How long is it? H o iv wide is it?

Can you give me the dimensions?

How much doe s it 1.veigh?

What's it niade of?

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don't use actively Choose som e to write sentences of your own

Exercises

9.1 Mat c h the adjective s 1-15 with the word s a-o

with a s imilar me a ning

J already co mbined in order to

be more effective

k water cannot pas s through

advanced i n des i gn

m parts can be bought separate ly

and then joined together l ater

n reasonably priced

o makes i t eas i er to do the job

9.2 Match the adj e ctives 1 - 5 with the products a-e

they are most likely to de s cribe

1 attractive, p ra ct i ca l, styl ish [ill

2 labour-saving, re l iabl e, econo mi ca l to run D

3 secure , low- risk, convenient D

4 rev o l utionary, state -of-the-art, ultra-light 0

5 low-cost, funct ional, expandable D

a f inancial product where you pay in money every month

and ge t a gua ran teed retu rn after five years

b s impl e wine rack for stori ng nine wine bottles, with clips

at the side to attach other units

c wash i ng machine

d pl ate to hold sush i with a p lace to put chopsticks,

des igned by a to p Japa nese designer

e amaz i ng new co mpact camera

•

9.3 Find thre e adjectives from the Features list

opposite for e ach product below Do not choose

adje c tive s already given in Exercise 9.2

1 a produ ct aimed at 'g reen' consumers who want to

save energy; p rotect the environment; and who hate the

th r ow - away society

2 a produ ct aimed at parents w i th young chi l dren whose

ch ildren m ake a mess with food and paint; who want to

carry the product when t hey vis i t f r iend s and relations;

and who want a high qua l ty of construction so that it

doesn't break

3 a produ ct aime d at teenage boys who want something

that works by its elf w ithout t he m doing anyth ing; is very

fast and powerfu l; and is produced i n sma ll number s so

that none of thei r f r iends have it

9.4 Underlin e the corr e ct word in itali c s

1 The features I characteristics of a produc t are t he

i mport ant and interest ing t hings that he lp to sel l i t

2 Dimensions of a product include I don' t include weight

3 What form I shape is it?

4 What dimension I size is it?

5 How length/ long is i t?

6 What is its length! long?

7 How much does it weigh I weight?

8 What is the weigh !weight?

9.5 Complet e the s e ntences by writing one word i n each space

1 How long is it?

~ It's 120 centimetres long

~ It' s 120 cen 1me res t ' t · 1 n -' · length

2 How wide i s it?

~ It's 15 cent imet res wide

~ It's 15 centimetres in -· ·- · -

3 H OW - IS 'It ?

~ It's j ust 25 mi ll imetres h igh

°' It's jus t 25 mi l imetres in _ _ _

4 How - is the hotel swimming poo l?

~ It's around 2 metres i n _ _ _ _ _

~ It ranges dep t h f rom 1 metre at one

end to 2 metres at the other

5 How much does it wei gh?

~ It a little over 2 ki los

~ It's a little over 2 kilos in _ _ _ _ _

6 What area of 9round does it need?

~ Wel l, it measu res 1 O metres _ _ _ _ _ 1 O metres when it's constructed, so i t wi l l need 1 00

· - metres of ground

7 What is the of the tank?

~ Let me see It's 1 5 me tres lo n g by 1 5 metres wide by

4 metres deep So that's 9 metres

8 What's it made - ?

°' Wel l, l ke most modern b icyc les it's made of a _ _ _ _ _ ma ter ia l - pl astic rein fo rced w i t h carbon fibre

9.6 Write th e name of the material next to the object

it is most likely to b e made from

reinforced concrete copper leather moulded plastic nanomaterials steel

- -

-1 washing machine , bridge stPPf

2 fizzy drink bottle , cheap toy

3 pipe to carry water, wire, coin

4 seat of a luxury ca r, s hoe

5 computer me mory, high-tech cloth i ng

6 wal l s and floo rs of a tal l bu ilding

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Markets , products and custome rs 23

C u stomer vs client vs consumer

In many cases the words 'customer' and 'client' can

both be u se d Hovvever:

• Custorner is more common where there i s a s tandard

product or service, and also where cash is exc h anged (eg i n a s h op or res t aurant)

• Client is more common where the product or service

is i ndiv i duall y designed

The '"'ord 'consumer' is more general and refers to

anyone who buys things (rather than a customer of

a particu l ar company) Eco nom i sts are interested in

consume r demand, consume r confidence, etc The

consumer is also the end - user, whereas a customer I cl i ent

may be another b usiness or a distributor or agent

P r e -sa le s contact with the customer

This is the area of work of the sales department

Typical s t ages are:

Contact ~ Lead -1 Prospect ~ Customer

Contact can be made through many c h annels (eg a

websi t e enquiry, an exis t ing customer) T h e sa l es

consul t an t may:

deal with / handle an enquiry

gi v e / pro v ide inforrnation

ask for / r e quest inf orn 1 ation to find out the custonzer's

needs I requirement s

A ' l ead' is a piece of i11formation or a person tha t helps

you find new cus t o1ners The sales consultan t may:

follow up a lead(= do more work on it)

A ' prospect' is a per so n who may become a cus t omer

The sales consultant may :

offer a c u s tomized I p e rsonali ze d I tailo r- mad e

solution

provide an indi v idual pa c ka g e for a clie nt

meet ( = sa t isfy) I fa i l to me e t tlte c u stomer's ne e d s or

expectations

And finally t h e customer may:

mak e / place an order

niak e a r e p e at pur c ha s e ( = buy the sa me thing again)

1 Read the text for general understanding

After-sales contact with the customer

He r e the interaction with the cu s tomer will be very different, and m ight involve t h e follovving

Ansvvering que s tio n s about pay1nent and delivery The activi t y of processing and s hippi n g an order is called 'f ulfilment' •

Unle ss we receive payment in full, we're unable to fulfil your ord e r

• Explainmg how to use the product

• Discussing the t erms of the warranty

• Dealing with complain t s The person w h o hand l es

t he complairl t will first apologize Then, if t h e pro du ct is faul t y and is still under warranty, the company will offer a repair or replacement In other cases they may offer a r e f un d or some ot h er form of compensation

Many co m panies d o all this i n a departmen t 'INi t h

a name like Custo m er Se r v i ces, Custo m er Care or Customer Support Sometimes this department handles pre - sales e n quiries as well

Loyalty schemes

The company wants l oyal, satisfied cus t o m ers who wi ll come back again and again This can be encouraged wit h a special loyalty scheme that offers va ri ous revvards Exis t ing cus t omers may have a chance to win

a prize if they order again, or a customer who hasn' t

p laced an order for some t ime may be sent an ema il vvith a discoun t coupon

The Marketing Department and customers

The Mar k etmg Department comes in t o contact wit h customers as par t of market research They wan t t o get feedbac k on existing products and get ideas for new produc t s They might d o the followi1 1 g

• Carry out a survey, for example with an on l irle ques t ionnaire

• Conduct a focus group( = a face-to-face discussion with a small group of consumers)

We say

carry out / condu c t / do a survey

tak e part in / respond to a survey

fill in / fill out / c omplete a questionnaire

3 Highlight words you k now passively, b u t do n 't use actively Choose some to write se n t ences of your ovv n

Exercises

10 1 Co mpl ete each se nt ence with a word in the box

Sev e ral answers may b e p ossi bl e but choose the b es t

one

client customer consumer end-user

1 We offer f inan cial advice t o wealthy ind i v i d ua l s We have

around 200 s on our books

2 We manufacture chi ldre n's toys and sel l them to a

d i stributor The distributor suppl i es reta i l outlets all

over Europe So we never come i nto contact w i th t he

3 I work i n the retai l bus i ness and people o ft en bring back

c l othes s i mply because t hey don ' t like them But we

don 't argue We hav e a saying: 'the _ 1s

a l ways r ight.'

4 When the economy comes out of r ecession ,

_ demand for automobiles, holidays and

luxury goods will pick up rap i dly

10 2 Fill in the missing letters A few words do not

a pp ea r opposite

1 The customer buys from a su _ Jier ( =seller) In American

Engl i sh the word 'ven r ' i s also common

2 C lients expect a pe al i zed I cu ized I

tai -ma de serv i c e

3 Asa fie d customer w i ll often m ake a rep _ t

10.3 In e ach group cross out the one word in

it al i cs that does not make a common verb + noun

partn e rship

1 deal with I handle I meet I respond to

2 carry out I find out I request I provide

3 do I fulfil I make I place

4 attract I deal with I lose I offer

5 address I have I me et I sat i sfy

6 offer I prov i de I reach I suspend

7 deal w i th I do I handl e I i nvestigate

an en quiry

informat i on

an order

a customer somebody's needs

a service

a complaint

8 carry out I conduct I enter I take part in a survey

10.4 Und e rline the co rrect words in italics

1 If you 'ha ndle ' an enqu i ry o r a co mp laint , you deal with

it I pass it to some body else

2 If you 'prov i de' i nformation, you give/receive it

3 If you 'fulfi l ' an o r der, you cancel it I ship it

4 If you ' meet' somebody ' s needs, you discuss their needs

w i th them I sat i sfy the i r needs

5 If you ' carry out' a survey, you ask the questions I answer

the questions

10 CUSTOMERS

1 0.5 Complete each mini-dialogue with the most

app ropriat e phrase from the box

1 A : I s poke to so m eone on the re cepti on d es k She was

very c hatty and gave me a good l ead B: When are you go i ng to /

2 A : I have a Mr Rodr iguez on the line He sounds very

angry It's about the software he ordered

B : OK, give the phone t o me I ' ll

3 A : The in format ion t hat I want is really very basic

B : I'm sorry but I'm just not able to _ r i ght now Can I take your number an d call you back?

4 A: I'm ready to make an o r der now What shou ld I do?

B : The best way i s to on li ne via our

we bsite

5 A: Thank yo u very much, you've been very he lpfu l

B : My p le asure Just bef ore you go, may I g ive you this custo mer satisfaction questionnaire? If you

and return i t, you have a chance to

win a prize

10 6 Match the words 'war r anty' and 'g uarantee '

with their explanations below

1 ·· - · - refers to repai r I r ep lacement o r a refund

or general qual it y issues; i t can be used as a verb

2 _ - refer s to repai r I r epl ace m ent o n l y; it

cannot be used as a verb

10 7 Complete the text a bout customer loyalty schemes with the words in the box

Wh at is the b est way to get c us tome r lo yalty? The

first answe r must be to give good overall servic e But

cus tomer 1 _[ffa[1pnsh1ps can also be streng thened with

a special customer loyalty 2 These are programmes that use discounts , ext ra goods or prizes

to 3 customers for behaviour that b enefits the business For example , a local coffee bar might offer

a free drink every t enth visit, or a mai l- orde r comp any might offer a disco unt 4 to custom ers who

<

h aven't 0

- - ·· -·· a n order for some ti m e

It 's a l so common to give retail cus tomers a lo yalty card that i s prese n ted at the checkout (real or 6 )

and is used to collect 7 P erhaps the kno\vn example of this is frequent-flyer programmes ,

besi-although most points earned through these programmes are not 8 - - - - -

See page 146 for some discussion topics

M a rk e ts, products and customers 25

Orders, invoices and payment

Orders

When an end - user makes an order they simp l y pay at

the point of purchase But in the business-to-business

1 A customer makes an enquiry about a product and

the price

2 The supp li er provides information and quotes/gives

be made by e mail , phone or fax, or may be made directly off I from a website

processes it, and gives the customer a shipping date

Of course the goods may be o ut of stock, in which case there is a wait until they are in stock again

the progress of th e goods) online

7 On arrival, th e cus t omer checks the goods

8 If the goods are in good condition, the customer

pays the invoice If they are damaged, there is a 'returns policy' for sending them back

N ote that 'ship' means send/ dispatch by any means of

transport, not just by shi p

Note that 'quote' and 'order' are used as both nouns

and verbs:

Can you give rne a quote ?

Can you quote me a price?

I'd like to place an order for 300 pieces

I'd like to order 300 pieces

Invoices

An invoice (or bill) is a document issued b y a seller

to a buyer It requests payment for an order A typical

invoice contains:

• Date of the invoice and an invoice reference number

• Name, contact details and tax details of the seller

• Name and con t act details of th e bu yer

• Date that the products were shipped

they wan t on the invoice)

• Description of the products

1 Read the t ext for general understanding

• Unit price of the products

• Total amount charged for the goods

Note that 'charge' and 'invoice' are used as both nouns

•

and verbs

ls there a charge for shipping?

Hoiv much do you charge for shipping?

Payment

the conditions of payment If the cus t omer pays early, there is often a discount, and if they pay late, there is

a penalty The invoice also shows the t ax paid to the

The method of payment can vary A first - time to-business customer will often h ave to arrange a 'letter

business-of credit' at their bank (business people just say 'l/ c') With an l/c the customer's bank makes a guaranteed payment as soon as the seller's b ank presents certain documents (trans port documents, invoice, etc) If there

is a long-term business r elationship with more trust,

th e customer pays lat er, after the goods are received, according to the terms of the contract

The seller may:

ask for/demand payment in adv ance /upfront

ask for cash on delivery (COD) ask for prompt payment (within 14 days of delivery)

ask for payment in 30 I 60 I 90 days from date of in v oice

they must pay) The customer may:

pay by monthly instalments

delay payrnent (pay later than is planned)

defer payment (arrange officially to pay later)

settle an account(= pay everything that is owing)

If the customer is late in paying, the seller might say:

Your payrnent is due (=it must be paid now)

Your payment was due two weeks ago

Your payment i s no-UJ overdue (=it is late)

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don't use actively Choose some to write sentences of your own

Exercises

11.1 Match verbs 1 - 8 with definitions a - h

1 quote a send I dispatch goods

2 ship b as k s b to pay money for a service

3 issue c follow the progres s of sth

4 track d sa y how much sth will cost

5 acknowledge e take goods to a place

6 deliver f say firmly that you want sth

7 cha rg e g officially give I send sth

8 demand h tel l sb you have received s th

11 2 Match nouns 1 - 8 with definition s a-h

1 enquiry a request for payment; b ill

2 order b amount of goods transported

3 goods c question to get information

4 invoice d conditions

6 purchase f request for goods to be sent

7 terms g punishment for breaking an agreement

8 penalty h things produced for sale

11 3 Place the items in the li st into the most like ly

sequence

- - - - -

confirms the order issues an invoice makes an enquiry i

quotes a price sends a reminder tracks the shipment

Custome r

1

Supplier

2 places an order

3

- - - -

-processes the order;

ships the goods;

4

5

-checks the goods on

arriva l ; delays paym ent

6 settles the account

11 4 One of the thre e phrases in ita li cs does not exist

or is not used Cross it out

1 I called them to ma ke a ch arge I a complaint I an enquiry

2 I asked them to g ive me a quote I an enquiry I a pri c e

3 Make sure t hat the letter of credit I purchase order

number/VAT is clearly shown on the invoice

4 The goods were placed I shipped I d ispa tched yesterday

5 Our supplier has shipped the bills I goods I products

6 They want us to pay 50°/o in advance I upfront I up at

7 We paid the bill I invoice I terms on t ime

8 Your payment is due/overdue/overtime

9 Tell them we have cashflow problems and ask if we can

defer I delay I deliver payment

1 0 You have 30 days to install I pay I settle the invoice

11 ORDERS, INVOICES AND PAYMENT

11.5 Compl ete this sequence of emails with the words

in the boxes

I clicked on your ad on the Bu il ding Products website and got directed to your site I am interested in your high - security doors for commercial properties Do you make these doors with non-standard dimens ions ? If so can you give me a

: 1 ? And can you a l so tell me how l o ng it will

I ' Thank you ' Patrick Murphy

I ; Dear Mr M urphy

1 Yes, we can make made-to-measure doors according to your specifications but we require a min i mum 4 of ten doors

The pr i ce w ill be the catalogue pr i ce p l us 15%

5 w ill be ten working days from a firm order

' questions

I

, i Mar i e Berg er ' Sales Manager , _

attached d isr egard invoice overdue records terms

a few weeks later

-Dear Mr Murphy

I note from our 9 that you have still not paid our invoice no CMD6774 d ated 12 March The agreed terms were 30 days from date of 10 and so t his

I payment is now 11 _ _ _ __ _

' Please arrange to transfer th i s money to our account as soon

Money

Money, money, money

B e l ow a r e just some of the thin gs you can do with

mon ey Notice the prepo s iti ons

borrow money (from a bank )

c o s t ( us ) money (to cance l th e eve nt )

earn money (f rom yo ur job)

have enough mone y ( t o live co mf or t ab l y)

inv e s t money ( in ne w t echno l ogy)

lend m o ne y ( to a friend )

make money ( from home / by working hard)

sa ve money (on a flight by booking ear ly)

s pend m o ne y (o n ne w office furniture)

w as te m o n ey ( on lottery tickets - usually)

w in m o ne y (o n the lotter y- if you're lucky)

Your money at the bank

showi ng your t ransactions and th e final balance If you

want t o save money and earn int e r es t on your savings,

m o ney at a cash point /cas h machine ( AmE ATM)

Y o u ca n arrange an o v erdraft (= a t e mporary negative

balance) for a small fe e If you h ave a negative balance ,

yo u a r e 'i n the red ' No bod y likes be ing in debt / getting

int o d e bt and most people tr y t o c l ea r their overdraft as

soo n as pos s ible

In bu s in ess the phrase 'line of c redit' i s more common

th an 'ove rdraft' A line of credit ca n be given by a bank

or a s upplier

You m ay need to take out/get a l oa n from the bank

o t e that th e bank lend s yo u m o n ey, a nd yo u borrow

money fr o m the bank The bank c h a r ges yo u intere s t

on the l oa n and yo u pa y interest on the loan The

interest rat e is usuall y given as an APR ( annual

p erce nt age rate) which shows the ove rall cost of c redit

including bank charges as w e ll as interest You repay

th e l oan in monthly instalment s

To buy your own house you n ee d t o take out/arrange

a s p ec i a l type of long-term loan ca ll e d a mortgage

Read the text for general understanding

Spending money at the shops

Anna and Carla are out s hoppin g on the last afternoon

of a bu si ness trip

Anna: Look at th ese s h oes There's a dis count

( =reduction ) of 50% Tl 1 nt's ven; good value for

money - you'd pay a lot more in our co11ntn;

C arla : Really? 50 % o ff? That's a r eal bargain Why

don ' t you try tlzen1 on? H ey, loo k at this blouse No, it' s too expensive - I can ' t afford it

Anna: L e t me see th e price Wozv! That's a real rip-off

(=much too expensive) But you ' re coming back

in January, right? It 1ni g ht be in the sales

Carla: Look over here Thi s s kirt is on sale It 's be e n

reduced by €30

Anna: Yes, but it's sti ll expensive It's not worth it We

sazv something very si111ila r f or sale in the Inst shop

(A t the chec k out)

Anna: Ha ve you got any local currency ? I've run out

Carla: Just a Jew n otes and a bi t of change

Anna: Never mind , J'l/ pay by c r e dit card (To the shop

assistant) Can I ha ve a rec eipt please?

Note that 'for sale' means available to buy, while 'on sale'

means available to buy at a cheaper price than normal

o t e the uses of 'pay' W e say

pay a lot of rnoney for it, €80 for a dress, the bill at

pay for pay by pay with

•

pay in

a r es taur ant, i11co111e tax

a m eal, the drinks , 111y ticket , the taxi card

my card

euros/ dollar s

Money and budgets

A budget is an amount of m o n ey you have available t o

The project went ov er bud get

The project i s on budget The project came in under budg e t

l s th e r e any rnoney left in the budget ?

W e ha ve to keepl sti.ck to the budget

40% of the budget goes on lab o ur cos t s

The budget for next year ha s n ot been se t

W e ha ve budgeted €20 ,000 for advertising

('b udget ' is used as a verb in thi s last example)

3 H ighlight words you kn ow p assive ly , but don ' t u se

actively Choose some t o writ e sen t e nces of your own

Exercises

12.1 Complete the s e ntences with a verb from list A

and a pr e position from list B

f A: borrowed earned invested lent

B: from from to

1 Last yea r I earn,,.d_ around €40,000 before tax

frorn my j ob

colleague at work to pay for her MBA program

3 My col l eague at work €25,000

the bank to pay for he r MBA program

4 Last year we a lot of money

new IT system and it's really made a difference

6 I know someone who _ _ half a million

·- the lottery Can you believe it? What luc k !

a

7 My parents · · _ _ €40,000 _ _ _ a luxury

cruise They went a ll around the wor l d

8 He used to have a lot of money, but he _ it

a ll speculating on the stock market

r A: cost made spent wasted

B: from on on to

9 Whi l e her ch i ldr en were small she ·· · ··- money

for the family by work ing home

1 0 It us a lot of money _ get on

the first page when people do a Google search

1 1 I money ·-··- that gy m membersh i p

- I only ever went twice

12 We _ _ a lot of money our holiday

in the Seychelles but we really enjoyed it

12.2 Complete what Sandra says about her bank

Some letters have been given to help you

i Every mon th my employ e r pays my 1sa _ y i nto

my bank 2a _ _ • t I have a card and I can

3wi _ _ aw money at any cash machine I'm not very

good with money and I usually have an 4ov aft

by th e e nd of th e month I a lmost nev er hav e any

5 sa gs A few months ago I had to 6b _ w

some money to buy a new car and the 7in st

r e was 8% What a rip-off ! Anyway , the arrangement

is that I repay the 81 _ n in twe l ve month ly

9 in _ _ ments I hate being in 10d t but I had

12 MONEY

12.3 First rearrange the letters to make word s connected with money Then us e th e words to complete the sentences

arffod chgane morggate

baraign dicsnout recipet

3 I don't have enou gh money - I can 't _ it

4 The price is so high! It' s not it

5 It's really cheap It's a

6 Here's the money Can I have a , please?

7 We took out a 25-yea r _ to buy our house

8 I'd l ike to g iv e the hotel porter a tip Do you have any

7

12 4 Complete the sentences with these prepositions:

for, for, in, 9R, on, over, to , under

1 Everything is going accord in g to plan The pro ject is on

t im e and _ budget

2 It would be nice to use better qua l ity materials but we have to keep ··-·· the bud get

3 The budget next year has not been set

4 Around 50% of our total budget goes labour costs

5 Is th e r e any money left the budget?

6 Our P r oject Manage r was real ly e ff i c i e nt Be li eve it or not, the project actually came in budget

7 There were a lot of de lays and other complications T he project went sign i fi can t ly budget

8 I have budg ete d €600 _ t r avel ex penses

12.5 Each time A and B speak , they use one wrong word Find the mistake and correct it

A: That last shop we went into was a real rip-eat

I I

B: You're right I've seen exactly the same things for I

sell at the airport, but about half the price I

A: What about that shop over there? It says 'Italian

fashion 50% of!' Let's go in and have a look

B: OK That suit over there looks nice, and it's been

A: Don't worry I have some local currents on me

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Money and finance 29

Company finance

Profit and loss

Companies have to produce accounts every year, and one of the most important is the income statement It is also

called the profit and loss account, or just the P&L Here is a simplified version

,,

ff"", ,

m o n e y t h at co m es into the company from sales

· Cost of goods sold d ir ec t c os t o f mak i ng th e g oods, s u c h a s ma te rial s cos t s,

l - Tax, depreciation, etc '

general c o s t s, s u c h as rent , utiliti es, in s ur a n ce, sal ari es

of office s taf f, mark e ting

pr o fit from the bu sine ss activities of the company ( of

course the company c an mak e a p r ofit or a lo ss )

money paid to the s har e holde rs of th e co mpany

Note the words 'gross' and 'net' These words can be

used for salary or weight as well as profit

Note these alternative words

revenue = turnover = sales income

operating costs = overhead = indirect costs

profit = earnings (formal)

a cost= an expense (formal)

spending = expenditure (formal)

Note that we say

make a reasonable / healthy/huge / record profit

make a slight / significant / substantial / heavy loss

first-quarter I half-year I annual profit

have an annual turnover of €15m

pay €2m in taxes

Assets and liabilities

A second annual account is the balance sheet Here is a

simplified version:

Assets Liabilities Current assets Current liabilities Long-term assets Long-term liabilities

Shareholders' equity

Assets are what the company owns Current assets

include cash and things that can be turned into cash

quickly, such as accounts receivable(= money owed by

customers) Long-term assets are things like machinery,

vehicles and buildings

1 Read the text for general understanding

Liabilitie s are what the company owes ('debts' in everyday language) Current liabilities are things that have to be paid quickly, such as accounts payable(=

money owed to suppliers) Long-term liabilities are things like bank loans

Now, imagine that the company stops doing business

tomorrow It uses all its assets to pay all its liabilities Anything that remains belongs to the shareholders and would be returned to them It is called shareholders' equity

Note: Latin and German languages have words like 'active' and 'passive' for assets and liabilities These are false friends

We say

have total assets of €8m

have a healthy I strong balance sheet

have a high level of debt on your balance sheet

Cash

A third annual account is the cash flow statement This shows the movement of real cash into and out of the company A company can be profitable 'on paper' but have cash flow problems because of customers paying late, etc A company needs real cash, not paper profits,

to run its business day to day This available cash, used

to pay bills and salaries, is called working capital

The three sets of accounts mentioned on this page are audited(= officially examined) each year

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don't use actively Choose some to write sentences of your own

E x ercises

13 1 Underline the correct words

1 Another word for ·revenue' is profit I turnover

2 Another word for 'profit' is earnings/dividends

3 The word that means 'total before things are taken away'

i s brute I gross

4 T h e word t hat m eans ' t ota l af t e r things a r e take n a w ay'

is liquid I net

5 ·Assets' are everything tha t the company owes I owns

6 'Lia bil it ies' are everything that the company owes I owns

7 Money owed by the company to suppliers is called

accounts payable I accounts receivable

8 To keep the business running, pay its bills, etc a company

needs daily capital I working capital

13.2 Rearrange the letters to make word s and phrases

from an income statement Use the definitions in

brackets to help you

1 cost of doogs l os d cost of goods sold

( direct cost of making the produ cts eg mate r i als costs)

( p rof i t f r om the b u s i n es s act i vi t i es o f the compa n y)

6 ten prifot after a xt _

( profit that remains after all costs and taxes are taken

( profit that remains, a f er d iv idend s have been pa i d,

tnat can be reinvested in the company)

13 3 Five of the items from Exercise 13 2 are given in

the i ncom e statement below and five a re missing F i ll

in the missing items

- Cost of goods sold

13 4 Put the phrases i nto order , from 1 (the best for

your company) to 6 (the wor s t )

slight loss record profit

healthy profit h eavy lo ss

13.5 Read the text , then answer the questions below

What is shareholders' equ ity ? On t h e very first day of t h e company's life i t is the amount that the o riginal fou nders of the business invest ed in the company Let's imagine this is €100 ,000 This money, called the share capital, will be held at the bank in cash, waiting fo r the business activity to start

So the balance sheet (BS) on Day 1 is very simp l e On one side current assets are €1 00,000 and lo ng-term assets are zero On the other side, liabilities are zero (the busines s doesn ' t yet have any

debt) and shareholders' equ ity is €100 ,000 The two sides of the balance sheet are equal (That is why it is called a balance sheet ) The company has a successful first year The in come

statement shows a healthy n et profit a t t he end o f the year, and

the shareholders decide to pay themselves a small dividend After this, there is still a little money remaining to reinves t in

the busin ess (th e re tained profit) In the company's accounts this amount is transferred from the income statement to the balance sheet In the BS it appears as an increase in shareholders' equity After several more years of successful trading the shareholders' equity is now quite la r ge - each year it has grown by the additi o n

of retained profits B ut remember that shar eho lders' equ ity is

only 'on p aper ' I t is not real money that we can see somewhere

Share hol ders' equity i s real only in t h e sense that there would

be somethi n g left theore tically i f the bus i ness stopped tomorrow

and all the debts we re paid using all the assets

Why is shareholders' equity important? Because investors

need to know appr oximately how much the business is worth The simplest w a y to value a company is to say that it is the shareholde rs ' equity right now plus (estimated) profits in the future

Now circle T (True) or F (False)

1 Share h o ld ers' eq u it y = share ca p i tal + ret ai ne d

3 The value of the bus iness is the same as the value of the

sharehold ers ' equ ity T I F

See page 146 for some discussion topics

The language of trends

Trends

A trend is th e way a situation is developing or

changing We talk about trends in the financial

budgets)

Sales fell slightly last quarter

Profits have risen 3 % year-on-year

We talk about t rends in marke t ing

We saw some growth in market share last year

We talk abou t trends in the economy (inflation, interest

There has been a steady rise in inflation

Movement up and down

go up, rise, increase, grow T he irregular verb forms are :

go up - ivent up - gone up

rzse - rose - rzsen

grow - grezv - groivn

The nouns are rise, increase, growth

Look at these examples with verbs and no u ns

Sales went up (no noun f orm)

Sales have risen There has been a rise in sales

Sales increased

Sales have grown

There was an increase in sales

We've seen some growth in sales

are: go down, fall, drop The irregular verb forms are:

go down - went down - gone dozvn

fall - fell - fallen

The nouns are fall, drop

Look at these examples wi t h ve r bs and nouns

Sales went down (no noun form)

Sales have fallen We have seen a fall in sales

Sales dropped There ivas a drop in sales

Verb forms

Remember that the past simple (rose, fell) is used for a

time period that is fiI1ished The present perfect (have

risen, ha ve fallen) is used for a time period that includes

the presen t

Costs rose last year I in f anuary

Costs have risen this year I since f anuary

1 Read t he tex t for general understandmg

Using adjectives and adverbs

large, sloivly, quickly and a lso the vvords below

slight - slightly : very small

gradual - gradually : slow and over ~ long period

steady - s teadily : slow but contmumg

significant - significantly: noticeable and important

sharp - sharply : large and sudden

Notice the t wo forms in t he example sentences below:

a There was a slight rise in profits

b Profits rose slightly

a There was a small increase in profits last year

b Profit s increased a little last year

a We have seen steady growth in market share

b Market share has grown steadily

Other types of movement

So m e ti mes there is n o trend:

Costs have stayed the same / been stable

Prices have fluctuated all year

Prices have moved up and down within a range

Sometimes there is a high point:

Sales peaked / reached a peak in the second quarter and then fell for the rest of the year

Profits were 15% down on the previous year

('on' = compared to)

Operating costs ivere stable at around €8.6rn

There has been a 2% increase in inflation

Sales went up 1.5% last quarter

Sales are up 6% year on year

Here are th e sales figures for last month

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don 't use

-a S-a les peaked in the first quarter of this year

b Energy costs i ncreas ed sign i f i cantly last year

th i s year

th i s year

this ye ar

c Unemployment has r i sen steadi l y f or the l ast tw o years

d Sha re pri ces have f al l e n sl i ghtly th is year

e In t erest r ates have s ta yed the sa me f o r two years

f P r ofits dropped sharp ly last year

14 2 Complete the sentences with the correct form

of the verb in brackets It may b e ne cessary to change

the verb to a noun

1 Sales vt '? < '-!P ( go up) 12°/o last year

2 Sales ( go up ) 12°/o t his year

3 Profits _ ( i se) sl i ght l y la st year

4 Prof it s _ _ _ ( is e ) sl i ght l y this yea r

5 There h as been a s l ight _ ( is e ) in profits

t his year

6 In he last two ye ars our market sha r e

(grow) steadily

7 Last year our mark et s hare ( grow ) stead ily

8 In the last t wo y ears there has been steady

_ ( grow ) in our market share

9 Turnove r ( f all) since J anuary

1 0 T u rnove r • ( f all) i n J an u ary

1 1 I n J an u a ry we saw a s i gn i ficant ( fa l l) i n

tu rno ver

12 Cos t s usually ( increa se) every ye a r

14.3 Underline the correct words in italics

1 Costs have stayed/rested more or less the same

2 Sales had a peak I reached a peak in March

3 M a rke t share has been stab ility I stable

4 T here has been a 2% addition /increase i n i nf l ation

5 T u r nover fell/fell down 5 °/o l ast month

14.4 Complete the sentences with these prepositions :

a t , for, from, in, of, on , to

1 There was a 14 % incre ase profits

2 Turnover went up E2Sm €28 7m That's

an in crease around 1 5°/o

3 M ar ket sha r e remained the same around 20 °/o

4 Sa l es a re up 1 0°/ o year- -year

5 H ere are the sa l es figures last month

14.5 Complete sentence b so that it has the same meaning as sentence a

1 a Costs incr eased s i gn ificantly last year

b Th ere was a ;J.9' 'La 1 ' in costs last y ear

2a P r ofits dropped sharply l ast yea r

b Th ere was a i n p r ofit s las t yea r

3a Inf l ation has r i sen grad ua l ly fo r the l ast t wo years

b Fo r the la st two yea r s there has been a

in in fla t ion

4 a Pri ces have fa lle n slight ly this year

b We have seen a in pr i ces th is year

Sa Market share h as grown steadily over the l ast f e w years

b We have see n _ _ in our market share

14.6 Joelle is reviewing the financial performance of her company over the last two years Complete the text with words from the box

advertising budget final figure 20% down

inc reased significantly percentage terms sharp drop start ing to rise within a range

Last year w as better than this year If we begin by look in g at annual turnover, it was around €40 m last year , wh il e t h i s yea r i t 's €32m That means i n

1

_ • we ' r e 2 _ _ on last year

Lu c kily , the manage ment team realized i t wou l d be a

d i fficult year and every d epa rtment was told to control

its costs Our 3 -· for e xamp l e , was cut

from €5 8m to €2 1 m W e also stopped re p l ac in g staH

who left the company Tha t saved us a lot of money ,

but it meant that the workload of the remaining peop l e

4

_ _ One thing that was very difficult to

control this year was the cost o f energy: oil p ric es

moved up and down 5 _ o f $70 to $ 120 a

b a rr el Lu ck il y our r aw material costs stayed m o r e or

l ess the same

Because of our success in con tr o lling cost s we did

s till manage to make a small p r ofit this year T h e 6

_ wi ll probab ly be around €2m - not too

bad but it's a 7 compared to last year

Looking ahead to next year, the business environment con t inu es to be difficult And we have a new challenge

- inflation i s now 8

-See page 146 for some discussion topics

Money and finance 33

Numbers

Numbers

21,000 twenty-one thousand

forty-eight

240,000 two hundred (and) forty thousand

8.5m eight point five million

No t e these point s

• The words 'hundred', 'thousand', e t c do NO T h ave

However they do have an '-s ' i n phrases li k e 'hundreds of people', 'millions of dollars'

• 0 can be s poken as 'zero', 'nought' or 'oh' depending

on dialect and context The safes t thing is j u s t to say 'zero'

404 just over 400

+I-Ix!+

Look at how t o say mathematical operations

8+2 eight divided by two

T o say the result use 'is' or ' ma k es' or 'eq u als'

Eight plus two is I mak e s I equals ten

Money

Look at how to say amounts of money

€9 nine euros

Euros and dollars both have cents Pounds have pence

Different currencies have an exchange rate You can ask:

1 R ea d th e t ext for gene r al unders t anding

Fractions, decimals and percentages

IJil a quarter ¥:i two thirds

3Jil three quar ter s

A quart e r of our s taff are 011 s/1ort -t er1n contracts

1Wo third s of the p e ople 1v/10 responded to our survey

With more co mplicated fractions we say 'ou t of'

instead of giving the fraction

Thr ee out of ten people 1vho visited our website plac ~ d

With decimal s use the word 'po i nt' an d say t he numbers after the point individually

2 56 two point five six ( OT two poin t fifty-six) With o/o u se ' p er cent' The noun is 'percentage'

With rati os use the word 'to'

five by two (area/ cross section)

Don't use 'of' with units of measureme nt:

two hundr ed e ur os/gigaby t es

(NOT of euros/of gigabytes)

Other points

On a v e ra g e ive assen1ble 80 cars a day

Note the prepositions in these examples

Sales increased from €14m to €16n1

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don' t u se

actively Choose some to write sentences of yo u r ovvn

a seven th o usand , ni ne hund re d (a nd ) ninety

b seventy -ni ne t housa nd

c seven hund r e d (an d) ninety

d seven mill i on, n i ne hun dred thousand

e seventy thous an d, nine hun dred

f seven thousand, ni ne hund r ed

15.2 Write in words how you would say the numbers

below You can choose whether or not to include ' and '

1 460 _ _ _ _ ·-· · four hundred randi s1xtv ·-· ·-· _ _ , ., ·-

-· -· -· -· -·-· -15.3 Write in words how you would say the

mathematical operations below There may be more

than one correct answer

1 5.4 Write in words how you would say the prices

and measurements below

1 5.5 Match the fractions, decimals, percentages and

ratios with the way they are said

g fo u r out of t wenty -five

h two poi n t f i ve five

15 7 Complete the sentences with these prepositions :

by, in, of, of , of, on, out, over, to, to

1 What's the exchange r ate of the euro ·· ···· ·· the do l a r ?

2 Our turnove r las t quarter was j u st - €15 m

6 We saw an increase -··- prof its · -· 6.5°/o last year

7 The go l d to s ilver price rat i o is usual l y around 50 or 60

1

8 I need a p i ece of wood wi t h a lengt h of 2m and a cross sect i on of 8 cm 4c m

15.8 The following report extract has eight mistakes

Find them and correct them

We carried out an email-based survey of customers who have ordered from our website in the last six months 140 out a possible 873 customers replied Of these 140 people, the ratio

Existing customers had made, for average, three purchases I

from the website over the six-month period

Here are the main findings of the survey:

Rough half of our customers are from the business sector

business-to-85 percentage of customers were either 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with our service

The remaining 15°/o gave a variety of reasons for not being satisfied However it seems that recentl:g there has been

an increase on the number of late deliveries and missing items

Three quarters the people who replied said they wanted more video on the site so that they could see our products

in use

Many people suggested that we give more generous discounts One regular customer suggested a 5 °/o discount for orders with a value more than 1,000 of euros

See page 146 for some d i scussion topics

-Everyday business life 35

a couple of days ago

the oth e r day

just (a sho rt time ago)

just nocv (a moment ago)

nowadays (these days)

right away (immediately)

for now ( for a short time)

in a rninute from nozv on (starting nov 1)

as soon as possible in a little rvhile (soon)

in a few days sooner or later (someday)

The word 'w hile ' (used as a noun) means 'a period of

time'

1 saw her a little while ago

I haven't seen her for a while

T he wor d 'just' has two m eanings with time

I've just had a good idea ( ju st = a short time ago)

Hang on, I'm just coming (just = now o r very soon)

Here are some more useful phrases

It lasted for one hour (=it continued for one hour)

It took me one hour (=I needed one hour)

It's over (=it's finished)

There are ten minutes to go (=ten minutes remaining)

The word by' is used to mean 'not la t er t han'

l need your report by Friday

We often use 'by' with 'at th e l atest'

I'll call you zvhen l know more information - by the end of

next 1veek at the latest

The phrase 'by the time ' means 'v 1 hen'

By the time I arrived, the meeting had started

We use 'not yet' to talk about so mething that has not

happened, but probably will happen

I haven' t decided yet

Have you decided? - Not yet

1 Read the text for general understanding

Using the word 'time'

We can u se th e word 'time' with the verbs below

allow tirne for sb to do sth

find time to do sth

fix / set a tin1e for sth

(not) ha ve enough tinie to do sth ~

run out of time(= have no more time left)

s ave tilne by doing sth

spend time on sth/ doing sth

take sb time to do sth waste time on sth I doing stft

'

Notice that we spend/waste/save/run out a/both time and money

We've spent a lot of time and money on this project

Here are more expressions with the word 'time'

for the time being(= for a short period of t ime)

in the meantime(= until something happens)

in two 1veeks' !five years' time( = time from now)

in time(= early enough to do something)

on time(= at the correct time)

Schedules and deadlines

A schedule is a plan of activities and when t hey will happen Similar wo rd s are 'timetable' and 'programme' A project can be:

behind schedule( = late)

on schedule( = going according to the plan)

ahead of schedule(= early) You can:

have a busy / tight schedule

update the schedule (if it needs to be changed)

build something into the schedule

We also use 'sche du le' as a verb It mean s 'arrange

Let's schedule another meeting for July

A deadline is a time or date by which you must comple t e some work You can:

se t a deadline have a strict deadline(= it must be obeyed)

have a tight deadline(= there is on l y just enough time)

meet / make the deadline( = you finish on time)

miss the deadline(= you don't finish on time)

3 Highlight words you know passively, but don't use

actively Choose some to write sentences of your own

Exercises

16.1 Read the sentences and think about the meaning

of the underlined word / s

1 A r e you l oo k in g f or Claude ? I saw h im a l tt l e wh il e ago

-ma ybe he's gone for lunch

2 OK, OK I 'm coming right away

3 I was rushing and I made a mistake From now on I'm

going to be more careful

4 I started working here a g es a g o L et me see , it must be

ove r 20 years now

5 You can l eave your bags in the ha l l for now

6 N owada ys it's very difficult to find a secure j ob - th i ngs in

the busine ss world are changin g so fast

7 I was talkin g to Leyla the other day - she sen ds you her

best w ish es

8 It's the bes t smart phon e c u r r en tly availabl e

9 I need to stay at t he o ff ice t o finish t h is r eport I ' ll j o i n

you at the rest aurant in a little wh i e

Now match the underlined words with a word or

phrase from the box w i th the same me a ning

a long tim e ago a sho rt time ago

at the present time for a short time immediately

recently soon starting now these days

a snort t.me ago

16.2 Complete the sentences with lasted or took

1 It me a who l e day to pr epa r e the slides fo r

the presentat ion

2 The plann in g meeting f or two hours

•

3 Last year t h e ho t weat h er until October

4 It _ t hem two day s to send someon e to fix

the photoco p ier

5 T h a t pr i nter cart r i dge o n ly fo r a week

6 I t me over an hour to get to wor k th i s

morn in g - t he snow was terrible

•

16.3 Underline the c orrect word / s in itali c s

1 What a horrible experience! I ' m glad it's complete/ over

2 If we want a stand at the trade fai r , we need to let them

know by F riday at th e la s t I at the lat est

3 In the time I By the time I found t he ir off i ces it was near l y

five o'clock and everyone w a s going home

4 Sorry, I h a v en ' t spoken to my boss yet I yet haven't

spoken to my boss - I'll do it this afternoon

5 Many peo ple live until they'r e ninety actually I nowadays

16.4 Match th e beginnings of s entences 1-8 with

their ending s a - h

1 Befo r e we f i n i s h , l et's f i x a t i m e

2 I won't have enoug h t i me to

3 It look s like I 've run out of t ime so

4 At the weekend I li ke to spend time

5 Don ' t waste your time

6 If you cou ld find so me t i me

7 You s houl d allow time

8 We could sa v e a l ot of time

: _J

_J

-a fo r people to as k questions at the end of your talk

b do i t today , but I'll try to do it tomorrow

c to help me with this new software, I'd be rea ll y grateful

d I'll fin ish my presentation here

e fo r the next m ee t i ng

f try ing to ge t e veryt h in g abso l ute l y pe rfe ct

g mee t ing friends and relax i ng

h by taking a taxi direct to the conference centre and going

to the hotel later

16 5 Complete the sentences with these prepositions :

ahead, behind, for, into, of , on

1 Don't worry, we're schedu l e - everything is go i ng accord i ng t o the plan

2 I'm a little worried Accord in g to t he initial pl a n we're about a week sc h ed ule

3 Our P roject M anage r i s do i ng a great j ob Bel i eve it or not, we're abou t a wee k _ _ _ schedu l e

4 We calcu l ate the time we need and then b u i ld an extr a

week the sche dule for safety - j ust in case

anything goes wrong

5 The meeting is scheduled ne xt Tuesday

16 6 Complete the dialogue by writ i ng one word in each space Some letters are given to help you

D ANA : I'm going home now A:re you staying in the

office and working late again?

KARL: Yes, I am I have a 1dead that

I don't want to 2m_ I'm

writing a report on the Barcelona project

and it's very important that I finish it

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Everyday business life 37

Office equipment

12

19

I ad dress labels ( on a sheet of A4 ) 9 d r y wip e board/w hit e b oar d

2 b ub ble wrap with marker s

3 bookcase with shelves I 0 packi ng tape

4 e a se l with fl i pc hart I I stat ioner y cu pbo a rd

5 mai l ng box ( wit h the lid ope n ) I 2 fil i ng ca b i net ( w i t h one

6 d ra w in g pin open dr a wer )

7 document wallet 13 box file

16 stap l e r ( wit h spare stap l es ) 24 r in g bin d e r

17 pac k of copy paper 25 rubber (BrE ) / e ras e r (AmE)

18 pad de d envelope 26 st icky ta pe/sellotape

19 printer cart r i dge (conta ining 27 scales ink or toner) 28 s hredd e r

20 penc i l sharpener 29 t ray

21 paper clip 3 0 waste b in (BrE)/tras h c an

23 wall pl a nner

3 Highlight word s y ou know pa ss i v el y , but don ' t use activ e ly Choos e som e to write s entence s of your own

Exercises

17 1 Refer to th e drawings on the page opposite

Complete ea ch s entence with the name o f the most

a ppropriate obj e ct (or part of a n object ) No te that the

gap may have two words ( e g p a per c li p)

1 Th ey say these t itanium <"~ors will neve r need

s ha rp ening, but I don' t bel ieve it

2 I n the t r a i ning room we have a fixed

to the wall (with a tray for mar kers ) and also a

on an ease l We use P owerPoint as well, but t he old techno logy is better for brain stor ming and

using i dea s from the group

3 I' m ju s t prepa ri ng t h e handouts for the presentat ion

The paper is print ed double-s i ded, and I'm going to

fas te n the pages together with two at

th e side instead of one in the co rner, so tha t the pages

open li ke a book

of paper next to the room telephone in case you

want to make any notes But they n e ve r give you a

in case the pencil breaks!

wall - use B lu - Tack i nstead as i t won't leave a hole

6 Ha s the photocopier run out of paper aga in? The

_ s of pa per are over there in the

- don ' t worry, it ' s not l ock e d

7 I ndustrial esp ionage has been a b i g probl em in our

indu st ry Our po licy n o w is to put a ll paper documents

i n the after use - for r eas ons of

confident i al ity If w e t h ro w som ething a way i n the

_ _ , i t could be fo und later

8 As a free l ancer I need a s imple system to keep al l my

business rece i pts I j ust throw th e m in t o a car dboard

_ _ _ _ where they stay unti l I do my tax return

It sits on one of th e _ of a bookcase at the

side of my des k

9 I've m ad e a mis ta ke w ith the postcode on th is

door so that everyo ne k nows wha t's happening each

day We can e ven use co l ou r -cod ed st i cker s for different

ki nds of events - it' ll be fun !

11 I want to put these photocopies into a ring binder Have

1 2 If I want to sen d q book or DVD thr o ugh t he mail, I

usually use a s im p l e _ _ _ to give i t a b i t of

p rote ct io n B ut if it 's something m ore delicat e then I use

lo ts of be f ore pu ttin g it into a mail in g box

13 The word 'folder' is u se d in comput er filing systems

A phys ical folder is anyth i ng that folds ( = bends by

p r essing one part over anoth er) One exampl e migh t be a

documen t wa ll et another might be a that

holds pu nched documents firmly in place, and ano t h e r

might be the open fo lders that hang suspended from the

drawers of a

17 OFFICE EQUIPMENT

14 I want to make sur e this parcel doe s n't come open i n

th e mail I don't th ink normal w i ll be

st r ong enou gh to hold i t - have you seen that roll of

anywhere?

1 5 The ma il in g cost of all these packages wi l l de pend

on the weight Let 's take one and put it on the

to see how heavy it i s

16 Th ese are t he wrong address l abels We n eed the ones with sixteen l abe ls per

17 At the conference reg i st ration t hey gav e us a

_ _ _ to keep all our l oose papers It's quite

us efu l , in spite of t he horrible logo on the cover

18 When you buy a pr in ter near l y all the mon ey goes

to the retail e r The pr in ter m a nufacturers make their

mon ey whe n you replace the s It d oesn't

make any differen ce whethe r you use an i nk jet pri nte r ,

or a la ser printer with _ _ _

19 ( same word used three t i mes ) Some people st ill organ ize the ir desks t he old- f as hioned way They have

pend in g -· _ for docum ents that are wait i ng for act i on, and an out for document s that nee d to be filed (or for e nvelopes ready to be

ma i led )

20 The simple · _ _ i s s t i ll in use to ho l d sheets

of paper toge t her You can also use it for other th i ngs like cleaning a pen cil sha rpener

-17 2 Try to fill in the missing letters The words are not given opposite but they are all related to computers and computer equipment

1 P eople ar e now used to touch -sc _ _ n phones Do they want to touch co mputer mon _ rs in th e same way?

P ossibly, but I t hink that the two traditional in put dev es ( a mouse t hat you cl k an d a key_ d where you t _ e ) will be w i th us for a l ong time

2 I want a laptop with a long ba _ y life , a hard

d ve w i th a large ca p _ ity, the lat est

op _ ing system, a fa st p r _ ssor and a

w _ e sc r een Oh yes, it sho u l d also b e B luetooth

see me in my p yjamas!

See page 146 for some discussion topics

Everyday business life 39