- •Предисловие
- •Read the article and choose the best answer for questions 1 – 5 below it.
- •Language focus
- •Read the text and speak on Nestle.’
- •Read and translate the text about managerial functions and roles.
- •Language focus
- •Skills: Introducing yourself
- •Giving details about your organization
- •Match the questions to the answers.
- •Main Job
- •Other tasks
- •Typical problems
- •Role play
- •Before starting a conversation, read the following:
- •Unit 2. Company culture
- •Read the text and speak on corporate values the companies can have.
- •Individualist or collectivist societies – (behavior towards the group)
- •Language focus
- •Case study
- •Student A
- •Student B
- •Problems reported by Indian employees:
- •India-Business etiquette
- •Problems reported by Swedish employees:
- •Sweden – Business etiquette
- •Read the text. Explain why company structures are necessary.
- •Functional or line structure
- •Divisional structure
- •Matrix structure
- •Language focus
- •Skills: Describing a company’s structure
- •The most common verbs for describing structures are:
- •Make up a description of a company structure you know.
- •Discuss the following questions:
- •Match the words 1 – 4 to their definitions a-n. Translate them into Russian.
- •Cisco Systems, Inc.
- •Language focus
- •Example:
- •Managing Practice
- •Read and translate the article.
- •Stage 1 Creativity / Leadership
- •Stage 2 Direction / Autonomy
- •Stage 3 Delegation / Control
- •Stage 4 Coordination / Red tape
- •Stage 5 Collaboration
- •Language focus
- •Skills: Making recommendations
- •I suggest that we should recruit people who are already employed in the sector …
- •Write recommendations using the ideas given below.
- •Management practice: Modernizing a company
- •BMW transforms its Cowley plant
- •Discussion
- •Task
- •Comprehension questions
- •Language focus
- •Skills: Job interview at a hotel
- •Read the interview and answer the questions below.
- •Answer the questions
- •Asking questions diplomatically
- •If you are an interviewer, you can begin a diplomatic question with:
- •What would you say if…. ? What / Why do you think that … ?
- •If you are an interviewee, you can begin your diplomatic question with:
- •Discuss the following questions about a job interview.
- •Case study: The Bellagio interview
- •Task
- •Read the text and be ready to speak on it.
- •Read the text and match the answers below with the questions.
- •Language focus
- •Managing practice: Top Perks
- •Answer the following questions:
- •Skills: Giving your opinion
- •Personally, I think / feel …
- •Case study: Staff turnover
- •Task
- •Main reasons given by employees for leaving:
- •Read the text and be ready to speak on it.
- •Language focus
- •While defining their missions you can use the following expressions:
- •Skills: Company’s performance
- •Describing trends in graphs and charts
- •Useful phrases (adjectives and adverbs)
- •Notes on prepositions
- •For example: Exports fell by 6%.
- •For example: It continued to rise in the early afternoon to 3412.
- •Time prepositions:
- •Complete the following sentences with prepositions and adverbs.
- •Practice:
- •Case Study: The world watch industry
- •Background
- •In 1948, the Swiss watch industry had 80% of world wide sales. By 1985 this had dropped to just 13%, with new entrants to the market, the Japanese, having taken over as market leader.
- •Management practice: A business meeting
- •Tips for effective meeting
- •During the meeting, the chairperson should:
- •Topics for discussion:
- •Steps to follow:
- •Role play A meeting
- •Background
- •Language focus
- •Case study: Breaking glass
- •Macbeth Glassware
- •Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company.
- •Key expressions you can use when you suggest something or recommend:
- •Unit 10
- •Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- •From satisfaction to loyalty
- •Answer the following questions.
- •Language focus
- •Case study
- •Useful language
- •Expressing causes
- •Wordlist
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Unit 8 Strategies and decision-making
Read the text and be ready to speak on it.
Every company tries to gain a competitive advantage that makes the company more able to succeed on the market. The top management of a company have certain unique responsibilities. One of their key tasks is to make major decisions affecting the future of the organization. In other words, the top management should develop strategic plans. The strategic plan focuses on the long-term horizon – five or more years into the future. These strategic decisions determine where the company is going and how it will get there. For example, top managers must decide which markets to enter and which to pull out of, how expansion should be financed, whether new products will be developed within the organization or acquired by buying other companies. These and other decisions shape a company’s future.
Before doing any kind of strategic planning, the management must be sure in one thing. They must decide what is the mission and purpose of their business and find answers to the following questions: What business are we in? What customers should we serve? What kinds of products and benefits can we create for them?
How should we create the firm’s capabilities and focus its efforts? They also need to decide what their business should be in the future. Determining the company’s mission and purpose is the foundation of any planning process. Thus, mission statement of any organization is a starting point for setting realistic objectives and making strategic decisions.
Driven by the mission statement, senior managers can create a corporate plan that provides the overall direction for their business and influences the tactical and operational plans. Tactical plans are worked out by middle management. They support strategic plans’ implementation and achievement of tactical goals. They are more specific and concrete than strategic plans and take one or three years to be implemented. The objectives specific for tactical plans can be, for example, producing and marketing new models of cars in the medium-price range or increasing market share by 10% in the next five years, etc. First level management is involved in working out operational plans. Operational plans support the implementation of tactical plans and achievement of operational goals, with timeframes of below a year.
The corporate plan is closely linked to the external environment in which the organization operates and takes into consideration the strengths and weaknesses within the organization. Many organizations now work out contingency plans that can help them to prepare for dramatic change in their business environment. They will also carry out a SWOT analysis where the understanding of the external environment is related to the internal environment of the organization.
Michael Porter identified five factors affecting the competitive position of a company: rivalry among existing firms, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, potential entrants, a threat of substitute products or services. He
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said that a company should take these competitive forces into account before making any decision about the best strategy for its future success.
Basing on this theory, Porter identified three main strategies: competing on prices, differentiating products and services by offering something not offered by competitors, focusing on a niche market. Later, he added diversification strategy that means increasing the range of goods and services provided by the company, and complementary goods that are sold or used with other products: videocassettes and video recorders or computer software and computer hardware.
Language focus
1.Look through the text and find words and phrases having the same meaning as the Russian words and phrases below.
Получить конкурентное преимущество на рынке; |
ключевая |
||||||
задача; |
принимать основные решения; |
оказывать влияние на |
|||||
будущее компании; |
выйти на рынок; |
выводить компанию с |
|||||
рынка; |
финансировать расширение (рост) компании; |
приобретать |
|||||
(покупать) товары; |
формировать |
будущее; |
|
заниматься |
|||
стратегическим планированием; |
определить миссию компании; |
||||||
цель компании; основа процесса планирования; |
начальный пункт |
||||||
(исходная точка); |
общее направление бизнеса; |
разрабатывать |
|||||
тактические планы; |
выполнять |
планы; |
|
выполнение |
|||
стратегических планов; точные и определённые планы; |
продавать |
||||||
автомобили по средним ценам; |
увеличить долю рынка на 10%; |
||||||
разрабатывать операционные планы; |
|
срок исполнения меньше года |
|||||
(до года); |
быть тесно связанным с; |
|
внешняя среда; |
принимать |
|||
во внимание (учитывать) сильные и слабые стороны; |
план, |
||||||
предусматривающий непредвиденные обстоятельства; |
проводить |
||||||
SWOT анализ; |
определить пять факторов; |
соперничество; |
|||||
власть покупателей, |
позволяющая |
им |
отстаивать |
свои интересы |
(рыночная власть); власть поставщиков, позволяющая им отстаивать
свои интересы; |
потенциальные новички на рынке; |
угроза со |
|
стороны товаров-заменителей; |
устанавливать различия между |
||
товарами; |
сосредоточиться на рынке-нише; |
увеличение |
|
ассортимента товаров и услуг; |
дополнительные товары. |
|
2.Match word partnerships used in the text on the right with the synonymous verbs on the left.
1. |
to gain a competitive advantage |
a) to sell |
2. |
to succeed on the market |
b) to take into account |
3. |
to affect the future of the company |
c) to put into practice |
4. |
to determine five factors |
d) to withdraw; to leave |
5. |
to focus on a niche market |
the market |
|
|
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6. |
to acquire new goods |
e) to get; to obtain |
7. |
to shape the future |
f) to develop |
8. |
to set objective |
g) to conduct |
9. |
to work out a plan |
h) to increase the range of |
10. to implement a plan |
goods or services |
11. to achieve a goal |
i) to identify |
12. to market goods |
j) to concentrate on |
13. to take into consideration |
k) to influence |
14. to carry out SWOT analysis |
l) to buy |
15. to diversify the company’s activities |
m) to do well |
16. to pull the company out of the market |
n) to establish |
|
o) to form |
|
p) to reach |
3. Match the following definitions to the correct terms below.
competitive |
advantage |
strategic planning |
contingency plan |
||||
mission statement |
senior managers |
middle managers |
SWOT analysis |
||||
substitute product |
bargaining |
power |
environment |
entrant |
|||
diversification strategy |
|
rivalry |
niche |
market |
complementor |
||
differentiation strategy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.showing the difference of the company’s products from competing products_____
2.a plan for dealing with a future event or situation that might cause problems_____
3.an advantage that makes a company more able to succeed in competing with others_____
4.a company that starts to sell goods or services on the market where they have not sold them before _____
5.something new or different that can be used instead of something else _____
6.analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the company can have _____
7.a short written statement made by an organization, intended to communicate its aims to customers, employees, shareholders, etc._____
8.when a company plans what it will do in the future _____
9.a market for a product or service, perhaps an expensive or unusual one, that does not have many buyers, but that may make good profits for companies that sell it _____
10.the general conditions that might influence the business _____
11.goods sold or used with other products _____
12.power that one person or group has during discussion to get an agreement in their favour _____
13.the most important managers in an organization _____
14.managers between senior managers band junior managers
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15.competition between people, companies, organizations who are in the same business or selling similar goods or services in the same market _____
16.increasing the range of goods and services a company produces _____
4.Answer the following questions in any way you wish using the phrases below. You can use one and the same phrase more than once.
pull out of the market |
carry out SWOT analysis |
set realistic objectives |
develop a contingency plan |
enter a new market |
do market research |
work out a differentiated strategy |
|
1.What does a firm often have to do if it is not successful on a market?
2.What do you do if your main competitor is doing better than you on the market?
3.What should you do if you want to implement your plans?
4.How can you find out if there will be a demand for a product you wish to develop?
5.What can you do if the demand for your products in your home market is saturated (насыщен)?
6.What should you do if you want to prepare for possible dramatic changes on the market?
7.What should you do if you want to evaluate your current position on the market and compare it with your competitors?
5.Translate the following sentences from Russian into English.
1.Высшее руководство компанией занимается стратегическим планированием. Они решают, на какие рынки компания может выйти через 5 лет, каким образом расширение компании будет финансировано, какие новые товары будут разработаны в будущем.
2.Тактические планы разрабатываются руководителями среднего звена. Эти планы более конкретны и ставят задачи, которые должны быть решены сроком от 1 до 3 лет.
3.Проводя стратегию дифференциации, компания демонстрирует отличие своих товаров и услуг от конкурирующих товаров.
4.Соперничество между существующими на рынке компаниями постоянно растёт.
5.SWOT-анализ помогает компании увеличить свои конкурентные преимущества, снизить недостатки в работе, эффективно использовать возможности для дальнейшего роста и избежать угроз со стороны конкурентов.
6.Товары, которые невозможно произвести на внутреннем рынке, можно приобрести на внешнем рынке.
7.Программное заявление определяет цели компании и пути их достижения.
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8.При разработке стратегических планов необходимо принимать во внимание угрозы со стороны товаров-заменителей, а также появление компаний-новичков на рынке.
9.Сосредоточиться на рынке-нише очень полезно для небольших компаний, так как в этом случае они не представляют собой угрозу для рыночных лидеров.
10.Если спрос на товары снижается, компании следует подумать о разработке стратегии дифференциации, т.е. об увеличении ассортимента товаров, о создании новых производственных линий.
11.Наша компания тесно связана с поставщиками. Мы работаем с ними уже несколько лет.
12.Чтобы сохранить своё конкурентное положение на рынке и успешно справляться с возможными проблемами в будущем, компании необходимо разработать план, предусматривающий непредвиденные обстоятельства.
6.Mission statement is a formal statement in an organization’s strategic plan that describes the overall purpose of the organization and what the organization intends to achieve in terms of its customers, products, and resources.
This is an extract from a presentation about UPS (United Parcel Service) company. Match the sentences 1-6 with the sentences a-f that should follow them. What do you think about the mission of the UPS?
1.We have invested a great deal in making our company the most technologically advanced in its sector.
2.We believe in treating every customer with care and respect.
3.We have a reputation for operating fair employment policies.
4.We are committed to taking the best possible care of the environment.
5.We are well known for contributing to charitable and educational community projects.
6.We are proud of being chosen as one of Fortune magazine’s ‘most respected companies’.
a)A recent survey placed UPS as the most admired mail package and freight delivery company in the world, and Forbes magazine also voted UPS
‘Company of the year’.
b)We deliver over 3 billion packages annually, but each customer should feel that their delivery is our top priority.
c)The UPS literacy foundation has given nearly 58.5 million to support literacy programmes throughout the country.
d)Over the past ten years, we have spent more than $9 billion on information technology, and we continue to spend $1 billion every year.