- •1. What unwritten rules do you imagine you might encounter?
- •2. How can companies help interns to adapt to their work culture?
- •3. Describe a company’s possible structure.
- •1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a call centre?
- •2. Are you for or against outsourcing call centers from industrialized countries to the developing world?
- •3. Describe skills and qualities of an efficient helpline operator.
- •4. What annoys you most as a customer?
- •1. What is the difference between customer service and customer support?
- •2. Why is customer support important?
- •3. How do many modern companies view complaints?
- •1. What communication facilities do you know (telephones and beyond)? (u.47)
- •2. Describe a phoning scenario. (u.48)
- •1. What are the functions of packaging?
- •2. What are the qualities and structure of a good presentation?
- •3. What stages of product development do you know?
- •1. What does the term product refer to?
- •2. What should sales staff know about the finished product?
- •1. What are the famous ‘4 Ps’ of marketing? (u.22-25)
- •2. What do you know about brands and branding? (u.22)
- •3. What can you say about pricing? (u.23)
- •4. What types of shops do you know? (u.24)
- •5. What is direct marketing? (u.24)
- •6. What advertising media can you name? (u.25)
- •7. What promotional activities may be used by retailers? (u.25)
- •4. Give an example of a person’s career (with the events in chronological order).
- •5. Think of advantages and disadvantages of taking a gap year and the ways of spending it.
- •2. What are skills and qualities of ‘the right person” companies look for? (u.4)
- •3. What types of pay and benefits may an employee receive? (u.5)
- •1. Do you prefer shopping in a store or on a website? Give your reasons.
- •2. What measures do e-tailers take to turn surfers into shoppers?
- •3. What is a conversational agent?
- •4. What steps in an e-tail transaction can you name?
- •1. What issues might be subject to negotiation?
- •2. What are the key techniques used during the negotiation?
- •2. What types of negotiation do you know? (u.62)
- •3. How can you prepare to negotiate? (u.63)
- •4. What should you do when negotiations get stuck? (u.65)
- •1. What are good and wrong reasons for mergers and acquisitions?
- •2. What are the five Gs of a possible acquisition?
- •3. How are mergers and acquisitions perceived by employees/ shareholders/ customers/ the general public?
- •4. Give examples of a company’s performance.
- •1. What problems may an acquisition bring to a target company?
- •5. What types of stakes do you know? (u.34)
1. What are good and wrong reasons for mergers and acquisitions?
Good reasons:
- improving earnings
- asset growth
- developing synergies
- making economies of scale
- increasing market share
- cross-selling
- diversification
Wrong reasons:
They mainly involve excessive pride or arrogance on the part of management, e.g. wanting to build too big an empire, too quickly, and overextending the financial, commercial and human capacity of the organization.
2. What are the five Gs of a possible acquisition?
Goals: the goals of both companies must be compatible.
Gains: there must be real gains in terms of economies of scale, big enough to compensate for becoming less reactive.
Genes: company cultures must be compatible.
Geography: head offices of the two companies should be geographically close.
Growth: the merger must unquestionably allow the company to grow.
3. How are mergers and acquisitions perceived by employees/ shareholders/ customers/ the general public?
Employees get worried about redundancies, having more office, etc. Workforces are generally resistant to change.
Shareholders like mergers if it means that they will profit from M&As.
Customers sometimes worry about losing contact with the company as they know it, especially if they are loyal, established customers. They might worry about a change in the quality of the company’s products or services.
The general public can view M&As with distrust or they may not even know that a particular company has merged with or acquired another company.
4. Give examples of a company’s performance.
+: --:
to be in the black - go under
cover costs - go to the wall
break even - go bankrupt
make a profit - to be in the red
grow slightly, improve significantly, go up sharply, shoot up dramatically +
a slight increase, considerable improvement, moderate growth, a sudden surge +
1. What problems may an acquisition bring to a target company?
People inside the target company will be less happy – they will be worried about their jobs. The larger company who is buying them is unlikely to need two marketing directors, two finance directors, and the extra middle managers. Indeed, one of the main arguments in favour of the acquisition will have been precisely this – to make cost savings by merging budgets and running the same business with fewer employees. In relation to the board of the target company – they may be prepared to flight for their independence if the takeover is hostile, or they may be pleased.
Business Vocabulary in Use
5. What types of stakes do you know? (u.34)
A stake (an interest / a holding) in a company is the shares that an investor has in a company.
A majority stake (interest / holding) when more than half if a company’s shares are owned by one investor, giving them control over how the company is run
A minority stake (interest / holding) when fewer than half of a company’s shares are owned by one investor