Unit 2. Companies

2 A. Who do you work for?

• Vocabulary

A. Read the keynotes and fill in the gaps with the words:

activities, produce, provide, employ, responsibility

Companies have different _________and work in different ways. Some companies manufacture or ________goods, others ________services. Retailers sell goods to the general public. Companies ________people to work for them in many kinds of jobs. Each person has ________for a specific area of work and a role within the team or group that they work with.

B. What do these companies do? Talk about each companies activities, using the words from the table

Example: Microsoft designs and sells IT software.

SONY	create	banking services
AUCHAN	design	cars
CITYBANK	develop	clothing
ADIDAS	manufacture	electronic goods
APPLE	sell	food and drinks
MICROSOFT	market	Internet services
TOYOTA	offer	IT software
COCA-COLA	provide

C. Read the dialogues and fill in the missing phrases.

manufacture, headquarters, work for, operations, multinational company, areas of business, side of business

A Manufacturing Company

A : So, who do you ______________?

B: I work for a large ____________ company called DAK group. We have five main ________________ - construction, heavy industry, shipbuilding, motor vehicles and telecommunications.

A: And which ______________ do you work in?

B: The motor vehicles division. I work in our Belgian factory. We ___________ components for our car production plants in Europe.

A: Where are DAK ________?

B: In Seoul. But the company has ______________ in over fifty countries and thirty factories all over the world.

annual turnover, employ, technical people, workforce

Company Size

A: How many people does your company __________?

B: We have sixty employees. We have about forty factory workers and ___________ and the rest are admin and sales staff. We started off with only ten people so our __________ has grown a lot. What’s your _________?

A: It was over 2 million euro last year.

D. You are in a business conference. Talk to someone about the company you work for.

• LISTENING

The Unipart Group of Companies (UGC) is a service provider for clients like Vodafone, Jaguar, Airbus and HP. "It is one of the largest private companies in the UK". John M. Neill CBE is Group Chief Executive of UGC.

A. Listen to the first part of the interview and complete these notes about the company's values. (Recording 9.1)

The company's values are:

• a clear guiding philosophy: to ___________ the real and perceived __________of our customers better than anyone else, and ___________ them better than anyone else;

• a corporate _____________, that requires us to deliver outstanding personal customer_________ to all of our customers;

• a very strong ___________which demands that we, as individuals at every level in the company, work very hard to inspire all of our stakeholders to want to have a lifetime ____________ with our company.

B. Now listen to the second part of the interview and answer these questions.

1 What was Peter Drucker’s warning?

2 When did UGC build its own company university?

3 What is the university’s mission?

4 Why does UGC help employees reskill themselves?

• READING & SPEAKING

A. Work in pairs.

Task for Student A:

Read the company profile of T.R.S. and share the information with Student B.

T.R.S. is a large German company in the electronics business. The main office and factory are located near Munich, in Germany. The company employs over four thousand people.

The company began in 1908. At that time they made telephones, but now they manufacture television sets, stereos and computers, as well.

T.R.S. is now developing a new video camera. The company plans to sell it next year.

Task for Student B:

Read the profile of Artaud International and share the information with Student A.

Artaud International is a medium-sized company, with about four hundred employees. The main office is located in Paris, but the factory is in Amboise, about 200 kilometers away.

The company began in 1947. At that time it manufactured shoes, but now it makes sportswear, as well. The company plans to sell more of its products in Britain and the US. Sales are not very good there at the moment.

B. Make questions about the two companies using these words. Answer the questions.

• What…?

• Where…?

• How many…?

• When…?

C. Complete the text with the correct form of verbs:

launch have begin manufacture provide export

Sonara__________ in 1972 near Turin. Today, it ___________ mainly aircraft engines, but in the 1970s it also ______________ the car industry with components. It _______________ a workforce of 2,000. Sonara _____________7 5 % of its engines to other European countries. Last month, it _________a new type of engine which burns 1 5 % less fuel than other models.

D. Match the sentence halves.

1 Panetti employs over 3,50 0 people,	a) but it plans to expand into France.
2 It introduced four new products last year,	b) including 1,400 in its own retail outlets.
3 It makes bread and	c) including sandwiches and pies.
4 Panetti only supplies its own shops;	d) many other bakery products
5 It doesn't sell any of its products abroad,	e) it does not make products for anyone else .

E. Match these words and phrases from exercise C with a word or phrase from exercise D that has a similar meaning.

1 manufactures	makes
2 provided
3 has a workforce of
4 export
5 launched

Notes: Make and manufacture do not have exactly the same meaning. To manufacture means to 'make large quantities of goods in a factory, using machines' . You manufacture (or make) cars, drugs, plastic goods, etc, but you usually make (not manufacture) bread, cheese, etc.

F. Complete each sentence with these phrases.

a) about future projects.
b) for quality control.
c) in international construction projects.
d) a new product.
e ) of a department-of 1 5 staff.
f) under the brand name Tekko.
1 Juliette is in charge …	4 They manufacture plastic furniture …
2 Panetti is going to create…	5 Jo and Francis are involved …
3 Alex is responsible …	6 She likes to make presentations …

• LANGUAGE FOCUS: Present Continuous (PART II)

We use the present continuous to talk about temporary actions and situations that are happening now.

The factory is working seven days a week.

We are selling in 72 different countries.

What is Jackie doing? She is talking to a customer.

The present continuous is formed with be and the -ing form of the main verb.

A. Complete these sentences with the present continuous form of the verbs in brackets.

1 BMW __________ (sell) Minis in China now.

2 People _________(work) in the factory 51 weeks a year.

3 I _________ (call) about a problem.

4 Many Chinese people_________(learn) English.

5 She____________(attend) a course on presentations.

6 He ____________ (not work) in the office today.

7 They_________ (entertain) some foreign guests.

B. Complete the article below about the food group Pret A Manger. Use the present continuous form of the verbs: