Curso de Inglés de Negocios
Unit 06 – Advanced Business Course – Progress
"Exploring cultural differences in business relationships and communication"
Our English course will help you to be able to discuss innovation, talk about new ideas and use adverbs. Additionally, learn how to avoid giving direct answers in a professional setting. Join now and develop the language skills you need to excel in today’s fast-paced business environment.
- Juan Carlos Martinez
- Advanced Business Course
- More Lessons
Audios Unidad 6
Audio 6.1
Interviewer Today we’re continuing our theme of innovation, and I’m joined by our business analyst, Jost Van der Saar, to talk about a dilemma faced by many large companies. How do you run an efficient company, but also create space for those new, innovative ideas, without cutting into the bottom line? Jost, it’s not always that easy to get the balance right, is it?
Jost No, that’s right. If you take a company like 3M, for example. They tend to be associated with creativity – as you know, they invented the Post-it note among other things. Now, they underwent some significant changes when James McNerney took over as Chief Executive Officer – he was the first outsider to lead the company in its 100-year history. The company certainly needed knocking into shape at that time, and McNerney set out to boost earnings from the start. One of the first things he did was to cut the workforce by 11%.
Interviewer What kind of a reaction did he get to these changes?
Jost Well, he caused quite a stir. McNerney’s approach to raising profitability certainly satisfied the shareholders. He was clearly attempting to shift the emphasis from innovation to quality control. And from his days at General Electric, he introduced Six Sigma. Now this is a programme aimed at improving quality, controlling costs and increasing efficiency, and it doesn’t tolerate mistakes easily. It demands precision, and the main idea is to eliminate production defects.
Interviewer Well, McNerney left the company some years ago, of course. What’s the situation at 3M since then?
Jost Well, people are asking whether McNerney’s efficiency drive hasn’t in fact stifled creativity. As you can imagine, that’s quite a serious concern for a company whose very identity is built on innovation.
Interviewer Is there any hard evidence to support these fears?
Jost Well, it’s interesting. In the past, one third of sales came from products released in the five previous years – today this figure has slipped to one quarter only. The next CEO, George Buckley, was convinced he could outperform the competition by reigniting top-line growth. He pulled back from Six Sigma just enough to get the creative juices flowing again …
Audio 6.2
James So, even though it’s been a surprisingly difficult year for Skion PCs, hopefully today will help generate some ideas for improving our position in the market. Would anyone like to start?
Sue Well, yes … I mean, couldn’t we consider ways to develop our image, to show that we’re a genuinely caring business?
James Sorry, I should also say, I don’t think we need to do anything that’s radically different. Also, it’s not clear to me what you mean by ‘caring’.
Sue Well, for example, what about moving into the area of recycling? Most people have no idea what to do with old computers and components – they either keep them or end up throwing them out. I would have thought it would be possible to collect a customer’s old computer when we sell them a new one and implement a policy of recycling.
Jessica Oh, I see, so you’re thinking of something charitable, like maybe, we collect in used parts and send X per cent off to developing countries, am I right?
Sue Well, not necessarily that … I haven’t really had a chance to think it through properly, but that’s not such a bad idea. But thinking about it, we could even set up a programme where staff can choose to spend some of their holiday time working on a project in a developing country, but we’d pay to make sure it’s well-run and responsible. I’ve done something similar myself. It was actually one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
James Gareth, what do you think?
Gareth To tell you the truth, I’m not totally convinced. I’m concerned about how that would work in practice, and I can’t help wondering whether it would really be costeffective.
James So is that a definite ‘no’?
Gareth Well, no, but I would certainly need to know that it’s profitable, before taking it any further.
Sue It’s not about cost-effectiveness, it’s about acting responsibly …
Jessica Well, can we try and take this just a little bit further after this meeting? I mean, obviously we’d need to do a lot more research before reaching any final decisions.
Audio 6.3
Jessica It’s an interesting idea. In terms of marketing I think it has potential. It’s certainly worth thinking about. In fact … well, I’m not sure how this would work in practice, but how about a wider policy on environmental issues, you know, similar to the idea about being ‘the company that cares’, but more focused on energy-saving as well as recycling?
James OK, would you like to expand on that?
Jessica Well, I was thinking along the lines of solar-powered laptops, for instance.
Sue Solar-powered?
Jessica Look, I only say that because there’s big money in energy-saving and if we became well known as specialists in this area we wouldn’t just sell to domestic customers.
Sue Sorry, are you saying that we could open up market share with this idea?
Jessica Er … well, yes … look, could I just explain in a bit more detail? I think this is where our website could play a major role, I mean, we could target small businesses, educational institutions, and public sector organizations around the world. Places where electricity supplies are sporadic. Does that make sense?
James Well, yes, but I don’t really think we could get away with that – do you? It’s such a departure from what we’re doing at the moment. I mean, it’s potentially quite highrisk. If I’ve understood correctly, you’re saying that we should become energysaving specialists.
Jessica Well, I just thought that in a way maybe we’d gain competitive advantage, you know, something innovative … after all, the technology’s there. People are already doing it. Why not us?
Gareth I’m sorry, I’m just not convinced. Look, shouldn’t we be thinking more about straightforward, commercial developments? I think we should get back to discussing what we can do realistically, now, with the capacity that we have at the moment, and focusing on the bottom line.
Audio 6.4
James Maybe you’re right. What did you have in mind?
Gareth Well, something similar to Sue and Jessica’s ideas earlier, about recycling. Supposing we were to sell recovered parts through brokers back to the manufacturers or clients who needed ‘obsolete’ parts?
Sue Obsolete parts? Right, erm … What makes you think that would work?
Gareth Actually, it’s not nearly as complicated as it seems; we might even be able to set up links on our own website …
James Mm, you’ve obviously given this some thought …
Gareth And there’s nothing stopping us from setting up as brokers ourselves, is there? We could buy up unwanted parts and sell them on ourselves, to our regular customers.
James Yes, that’s true. You may have something there. Well, it’s easily the best idea I’ve heard so far. And we could probably be more competitive on service than some of those larger brokers.
Jessica Mmm, I don’t know, I’m not so keen on the idea.
James We should at least consider it, though.
Jessica Yes, OK. But wouldn’t we be doing exactly the same as Green PCs? I’ve been looking at their website and it’s pretty much the same idea …
Audio 6.5
1 Could I just explain in a bit more detail?
2 You’ve obviously given this some thought.
3 I’m not totally convinced.
4 It’s been a surprisingly difficult year.
5 It’s easily the best idea I’ve heard so far.
6 I’m just not convinced.
7 It was actually one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
8 Look, I only say that because there’s big money in energy-saving.
9 I’m not so keen on the idea.
10 I don’t really think we could get away with that, do you?
Audio 6.6
1
a Could I explain in just a bit more detail?
b Could I just explain in a bit more detail?
2
a Surprisingly, it’s been a difficult year.
b It’s been a surprisingly difficult year.
3
a It was actually one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
b Actually, it was one of the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.
4
a I really don’t think we could get away with that, do you?
b I don’t really think we could get away with that, do you?
Audio 6.7
Anna Tom, I’m in the middle of preparing for the sales conference.
Tom Oh, yes?
Anna Yes … and I have to do a short presentation.
Tom Ah. Lucky you! Anna I know! More worrying still is that it’s only a month away!
Tom Yeah, it does seem to come round pretty quickly …
Anna Yes. Anyway, I’ve got a few ideas, but I still need to bring it all together. I was wondering if you remember what you said last year?
Tom Oh, erm, let’s see … Something about how well we were doing, I think! Er, hmm … you’ve put me on the spot here. I’m not quite sure now, it seems like a long time ago. I seem to remember talking about defending our strategic position – something like that, in any case.
Anna OK. And did you talk about the local markets? Erm. Any kind of analysis?
Tom Yes, I’m sure I would have done. Erm. And I remember starting off with a short quiz to break the ice … I’m trying to think what I would have done with that. I could certainly find it, though, and email it to you if that’s any help?
Eva So what do you think of my draft proposal? I’d be grateful for your feedback.
Dan Yes, it’s not bad. I’d say you’re on the right track. In any case, it’s the kind of thing we’re looking for. It just needs a bit more development.
Eva More development …?
Dan You know, explaining the rationale behind the proposal, why now, and so on.
Eva OK … what about the opening paragraph? Is it strong enough?
Dan Something along those lines … Yeah, you certainly need something like that, to help set the right tone, don’t you? Again, I’d say it just needs a bit more work, really.
Eva More work? Could you be more specific?
Dan Well, I could give you a few general pointers, but I’m afraid I haven’t really got time to get involved in the detail. Anyway, I thought Rob was supposed to be helping you with this?
Eva Well, yes, I did email him last week, but he still hasn’t got back to me.
Dan Well, he’ll probably get back to you before the end of this week – that should still give you time to revise your draft.
Federico Dominique! I thought you were in Germany?
Dominique No, I got back last night.
Federico How did the research go? Did you see any interesting interiors?
Dominique Actually, overall it was quite disappointing.
Federico Oh, really?
Dominique Yes. Still, there was one place that was quite interesting … I haven’t got my laptop with me now, otherwise I could show you some photos.
Federico Was it typically German? The style, I mean.
Dominique No, not really. It’s difficult to explain, really. It almost had a hint of something oriental – oh, and lots of black and white … it was kind of minimalist.
Federico A lot of lacquer?
Dominique Yes, panelling, partitions, you know, that sort of thing … In fact, you remember that Japanese restaurant we went to in London?
Federico Yes, of course.
Dominique Well the partitions were a bit like that, but not quite as decorative.
Ejercicio C - Escritura
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