Advising Companies

A. Richard Brown is the managing partner of Cognosis, a management consultancy in London which advises companies on organisation and change. Listen to the first part of the interview and answer these questions.

1. What four approaches does Cognosis use to analyse a business?

1. How many different business ‘character types’ does Cognosis recognise?

2. What three things do companies deal with differently, according to Richard?

B. Listen to the second part of the interview. Tick the sentences below which are true, according to Richard, and correct those which are false.

1. The hardest way to change the character of a business is to merge it with another company.

2. When Guinness and Grand Metropolitan merged, they wanted to create a business culture which was different from the two companies.

3. The senior managers spent a lot of money training staff in the new business methods.

4. The new culture was only partly successful.

C. In the third part of the interview, Richard Brown describes three ways in which successful companies are similar. Complete the description below.

First, they’re ……¹: they have a very clear sense of ……². Second, they’re ……³: they invest much time and energy in understanding and ……⁴. And third, they are … – …⁵. By that I mean that people inside the organisation are very clear about the values that should ……⁶ behaviours.

SPEAKING

A. Useful language: Introductions and networking.

Greeting Hello … . Nice to see you again. Hi … . How are you? How’s everything going?	Talking about your company The company was founded in… We make/manufacture/sell/ distribute… We have subsidiaries/factories/branches in… We have a workforce of 2.000. Our main competitors are…	Talking about common interests You and Heinz have something in common. You both like/enjoy/are interested in…
Introducing yourself I’m from…/I’m with…/I work for… I’m in sales/finance/ marketing. I’m in charge of… I’m responsible for…	Responding Fine, thanks. Not too bad, thanks. Nice/Pleased to meet you. It’s a pleasure.	Networking We’re very interested in … Do you know anyone who could help us? Could you let me have their contact details? Could I call him and mention your name? Let me give you my business card.

Ex. 1. Listen to the three conversations. Choose the correct description from the list for each one.

Greeting someone and talking about the past.

Introducing another person.

Introducing yourself and giving information about your company.

Ex. 2. Listen to the first conversation again and answer these questions.

1. Which of these expressions do you hear in the dialogue?

a) Nice to see you again. b) Fine, thanks. c) Wonderful!

d) How about you? e) I changed my job last year. f) I’m in banking now.

2. Who is head of data processing?

3. Who now works in marketing?

Ex. 3. Listen to the second conversation again and complete the chart below.

Name Don Larsen Erika Koening

Company

Activity

Ex. 4. Listen again and complete this extract from the second conversation.

Don	Well, we’re basically an ……1 business. We supply large companies with various services including payroll, ……2 and human resources.
Erika	Is Atsource solutions a new company?
Don	No, we’re well established. The company was ……3 in 1978. It’s organized into three ……4. We have over 6.000 ……5; we’ve got our ……6 in Frankfurt and ……7 in over 20 countries – we’re pretty big.

Ex. 5. Listen to the third conversation again and answer these questions.

1. What expression does John use to introduce Miriam?

2. Why could Miriam be helpful to Heinz in his work?

3. What interest do they share?

B. Case Study: Visitors from China.

Background

Toyworld is a profitable toy retailer based in Seattle, US, with subsidiaries in over 30 countries. Toyworld buys its products from suppliers all over the world.

Mr Lee Chung, head of a toy manufacturing firm based in Guandong, China, is going to visit the Toyworld subsidiary in your country. Mr Chung will be accompanied by his Export Manager, John Wong. The purpose of the visit is to get to know Toyworld’s management better and learn more about the company. He may set up a joint venture with Toyworld if he has confidence in them and considers them to be a suitable partner. This is Mr Chung and Mr Wong’s first visit to your company, and to your country.

Task 1

You are members of the planning committee for Mr Chung’s visit. Read the

e-mail informing you about Mr Chung’s visit.

To … Manager, Public Relations

From … Chief Executive

Subject: Mr Lee Chung’s visit Date: 2 June

Mr Lee Chung and Mr John Wong will arrive at 9.10 a.m. on Monday 20 June and leave on Thursday 23 June.

When you prepare the draft program, please schedule a meeting (morning or afternoon) during which we can discuss our business plans with Mr Chung and Mr Wong. Also, make sure that our visitors have opportunities to meet our staff and gain a complete understanding of our business.

The visitors will expect to have some basic information about Toyworld and to be offered activities which give them an understanding of the company. Please also arrange some social and cultural activities during their stay.

Above all, we do not want to make any cultural mistakes during the visit. We want Mr Chung and Mr Wong to leave with an excellent impression of our company and the way we treat foreign visitors.

To help you plan the visit, please could you attend the talk by Catherine Eng (an expert on Chinese business culture).

Peter Lewis

Chief Executive

Task 2

Listen to the talk given by Catherine Eng. Make notes of her key points.

Task 3

Plan a draft program in small groups. After that, compare your ideas with the rest of the class and produce the final program. Think over the contents of e-mail to Mr Chung with details of the program for his visit. The tone of the e-mail should be friendly and show that you and your colleagues are looking forward to meeting him soon.