Todd Foster meets Olivier Moyon

0.4 At the beginning of the week, Olivier arranged to meet Todd at the head office in Bordeaux, Listen to this extract fr om their conversation. Make notes.

7Л..

Writing

You are Head of Human Resources at European Clampers. Write a letter to Olivier Moyon. informing him of the result of the meeting between Charles Holden and Todd Foster.

Writing file page 130

European Campers

100 avenue de la Republique

33405 Bordeaux

Dear Mr Moyon

I am writing to inform you of the outcome of the recent meeting between Charles Holden and Todd Foster. ...

Vocabulary

Economic terms Listening

Starting new businesses Reading

The human touch Language review Time clauses Skills

Dealing with numbers case study Marcia Lee jeans

fijjWhat conditions are important for people starting new businesses? Choose thethree most important from this list. Can you think of any others?

• low taxes • good transport links

• skilled staff • training courses

• low interest rates • high unemployment

• cheap rents • a strong currency

• stable economy • government grants

QlMany economies contain a mix of public- and private-sector businesses. Think of companies you know in the areas below. Which are public-sector companies and which are private-sector companies?

• post office • rail

• TV/newspapers • water

• energy • telecoms

• cars • airlines

QMany companies in the UK have been privatised. What are the trends in your country? Talk about the business sectors in Exercise B.

h)money from overseas

i)official rules/regulations/papeiwork j) difference in value between a

country's imports and exports

(TflTry to complete this economic profile without looking back at the terms in Exercise A.

The economy is stable following the problems of the past two ye ars. Бу following a tight monetary policy the government has reduced the

i.ofldtj.QV.... rgtC............... 'to 2%. After going up dramatically, the

i................. Г.................. ² is now down to 8%. The last six months has

seen a slight improvement in the e................. Г................... ³ against the

dollar. The .................... ⁴ has grown by 0.15%. Exports are increasing and

the ................... of .................... ⁵ is starting to look much healthier.

The I.................. Г.................. ⁶ continues to be a problem as it is still 16%.

In order to stimulate the economy and attract/................. /................... ⁷

the government is offering new t................. /.................. ⁸ as well as

making a renewed effort to reduce .................. Ь.................. ⁹. Finally, a

large skilled ........................................ ¹⁰ means there could be attractive

investment opportunities over the next five years.

Q^11-1 Listen to the report and check your answers to Exercise B.

фWrite sentences about the economic profile of your country.

Q D 11.2 Professor Roger Mumby-Croft is Head of the Enterprise Centre in the Business School at Oxford Brookes University. Listen to the first part of the interview. What are the main problems facing new businesses, in his experience?

© 11.3 Listen to the second part and decide which of the following was the interviewer's question.

1 What advice do you give to people starting their own companies?

2 Why are there so few agencies which really help new businesses?

3 How can new businesses get help to grow and become successful?

4 Why do so many new companiss have problems with business planning?

[JDlU Listen to the third part of the interview. Decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F).

1 The managing director was confident that the electrical engfneers would be able to build and grow a business.

2 The engineers needed help in order to develop their product.

3 The product they developed was problematic from an environmental point of view.

4 It took two years to develop their business skills.

5 Their turnover this year will be o\ er a million pounds.

A Roger Mumby-Croft

6 They were able to grow properly because they had recognised their weakness.

flDiscuss these questions.

1 There are four key ingredients when starting a new business: an innovation, a good team, the right market opportunity, and the right financing strategy. In what ways are they important? These pnrases may help you.

If vou have (an innovation), you can..........................

Without a good (team), you can't.........................

If vou want to.......................... you have to have

It is impossible to......................... if you haven't got..........................

2 In your opinion, wnicii of those four ingredients is the most important? Why?

QGo through the article quickly to find the four elements that a good team needs.

A good team needs:

1 the ability to......................

2 ..........................................

3 ..........................................

How to add the human touch

By Doug Richard

When thinking about how you start your business, getting the right team together will be the most 5 important and the most dif­ficult decision vou make,

The reason is simple. No one person has all the skills, expeiiunce, contacts 10 or reputation that are required to get a business up aлd runnrng. So, in order to succeed, you will havi to form a core team of 15 people-

Before tint, however, you can only know who else you need by knowing your strengths and your *veak- 20 ncsses. Having a great busi­ness idea does not mean that you have the skills to manage others. The hard­est of all your decisions 25 may be to let someone else lead the company you founded.

Whrt, then, does the team need? 30 First, it needs the ability to sell - and in particular the ability to persuade oth­ers to buy into your vision. Second, the team needs 35 the ability to count. The business is managed by

'S >

' < -

•J

managing the flow of cash. It may be the accountant's job to do youi books, but it ⁴⁰ is your responsibility to understand them so well that you use them to drive the business.

Third, the team needs 45 experience. There art- three types^- custumer experi­ence, product experience and start-up experience. If you are going to sell an ⁵⁰ Internet service to restau­rants, you need experience in the development of Internet services and the experience of running ⁵⁵ restaurants. If your team

has only one or the other, you will either know what product to build or how to build it, but not both. 60 Fourth, the team needs to have contacts, relation­ships, a network. Having people who can help you informally or formally will 65 help your business suc­ceed.

Finally, you and your team must be fully aware that starting a business 70 means giving up two things - time and money. It fre­quently means working evening⁰ and weekends, and being last in line for 75 payment. Succecding with an innovation-based com­pany takes everything: all of your time, all your great ideas, lots of personal sac- 80 rifices - and it may tak^c all of your money.

There is no magic formu­la to building a business. It is like putting together the 85 pieces of a puzzle. But it is worth remembering that the team is the most impor­tant piece.

FINANCIAL TIM £S

(чRead the article carefully. Then decide whether these statements are true (T)

or false (F) according to the article.

1 If you want your new business to succeed, you yourself first need to gain all the necessary skills and experience.

2 New entrepreneurs sometimes rightly decide to let another person lead the company they started up.

3 Good cashflow management is a necessary condition for a business to be successful.

4 An effective team will have experience in three key ateas.

5 You need to put in a lot of time and effort before you can enjoy the rewards of owning a fast-growing start-up.

6 Building the right team is the magic formula to setting up a successful business.

фt/Vork in groups of three or tour. Think about a business you could start as a

group. Consider these questions.

• What kind of business would it be?

• What do you already have as a group? ^Think about -skills

-experience - contacts

• What other strengths do you have? What about your weaknesses?

• What difficulties do you think you may face? How will you overcome them?

Time clauses provide information about actions and events in the past present and future.

1 We often use when to introduce time clauses.

• He remembers when he first joined the company .... (past time)

• When there are few jobs, young people tend to study more (present time)

• When I'm on the plane, I'll read all the contracts, (future time)

We can also use while, before, after, until and as soon as to introduce time clauses.

• Many new high-tech companies started while the economy was growing.

• We need to arrange our finance before we can develop the business

• After we meet the candidates we'll decide how many to employ.

• Until inflation is under control, planning will be difficult.

When we use a time clause to talk about the future, the verb in the time clause is m the present tense or the present perfect tense.

• As coon as they sign the contract, we'll announce the deal.

• We '11 make tne decision when we've finished the budget. page 128

QComplete these sentences withwhen, while, before, after, until or ussoon os. More than one answer may be possible in each case.

1 Don't make a decision................. we've seen the leport.

2 I'm meeting with Atsuko this afternoon. Send her up........ she arrives.

3 Let's sort out this problem................ she gets here

4 I'm coming to Paris tomorrow afternoon. I'll phone you............. I arrive.

5 Can you type this report for me ............... Гт away?

'pjL(ate North is an American who works in London. Read about her work routine and underline the most appropriate words.

Q^ and answer these questions.

What is the population of your a) country? b) city? How many people work for your company/study at your institution? What is the average salary in your country? What is the inflation rate? Roughly how many people are unemployed? What is the interest rate for savings?

Useful language

Saying large numbers

For example, 912,757,250 =

British and American English differences

and twenty (BrE)

320 = three hundred 0 = nought / oh (BrE)

Decimals

1.25 = one point two five 0.754 = nought point seven five four (BrE) zero point seven five four (AmE) point seven five four (BrF/AmE)

Fractions

⁵/7 = five-sevenths ²A = two-fifths

Percentages

65% = sixty-five percent

Currencies

£3,000,000 = three million pounds €16,000 = sixteen thousand euros

1 Marcia Lee Jeans

In the next ten years, Marcia Lee plan» to expand in Europe and South­east Asia so that it becomes a global company. To do this, it has decided to build its own factory in an overseas country. The factory will have approximately 2,000 workers who will produce the jeans. These workers will be recruited locally. Denim, the raw material which is used to make the jeans, will be imported from several countries.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 3857