Unit 30 Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital listening 1e
Ed Coombes First of all investors are obsessed with two key things: competition and the revenues. With the competition, they want to know who is there at the moment? How are they going to react when this company comes into the market? Or if there is no one there, who is going to come there as well? Now this sends a signal out to the investor about whether the management really understand the market they're in, and how they're going to react in the future and the fact that they are a little bit focused on the future as well. So they can put in barriers to entry or what we call defend themselves. The other thing is, with revenues investors don't mind if a company, if it's a start-up, in the first two or three years is making a loss, because they are using the capital invested in them to achieve as great a market penetration as possible ... So the investor in that business plan when they are reading it is wanting to see when is the first revenue going to come in. How big is it going to be? Apart from those two chapters, there are chap, management are key. You tend to want to find people with past experience of their sector, you want to find out if there's any nonexecutive directors on board. They are very, very critical to young growth companies, but also to mature companies, because the world changes and everybody suffers from myopia, i.e. they can just see their own little spot. They need to be challenged because markets change, customers change, the company needs to change to address its market. Entrepreneurs tend to be very emotional, very focused, a lot of qualities which are paramount for starting a company, drive, etc., but they can get in the way of investors at a later stage in terms of the style of running the company, the attitude, the relationships between the new shareholder or potential investor/shareholder and the existing management.
…………… unable to stop thinking about something; too interested in or worried about something
…………… the main or central point of something, especially of attention or interest
…………… a problem, rule or situation that prevents sb from doing sth, or that makes sth impossible
…………… a movement into or through something or someone
…………… inability to see distant things clearly
……………… a person who makes money by starting or running businesses, especially when this involves taking financial risks
…………… more important than anything else
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Unit 30 Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital listening 1d
market revenue write plan deploy prior overview seize
Ed Coombes Business plans tend to be between 30 and 60 pages long, and so 1_______to any meeting with the company I like to see what they've 2________ down on paper about themselves. You first of all find a two-page, what we call executive summary, and that is basically an 3_______ of the next 50 pages or what this business 4_______ is roughly about and what you are going to expect to read. The next, the first chapter tends to be what the company is going to do. The second chapter tends to be the 5________ opportunity. The third chapter tends to be the strategy of how they're going to 6________ the investment and 7________ this market opportunity. Fourth chap, fourth chapter tends to be the 8________. Fifth chapter is the competition. Sixth chapter is the management. Seventh chapter is marketing, advertising and normally at the, at the end is the finance needed. There you are, there's a quick business plan for you.
market revenue write plan deploy prior overview seize
Ed Coombes Business plans tend to be between 30 and 60 pages long, and so 1_______to any meeting with the company I like to see what they've 2________ down on paper about themselves. You first of all find a two-page, what we call executive summary, and that is basically an 3_______ of the next 50 pages or what this business 4_______ is roughly about and what you are going to expect to read. The next, the first chapter tends to be what the company is going to do. The second chapter tends to be the 5________ opportunity. The third chapter tends to be the strategy of how they're going to 6________ the investment and 7________ this market opportunity. Fourth chap, fourth chapter tends to be the 8________. Fifth chapter is the competition. Sixth chapter is the management. Seventh chapter is marketing, advertising and normally at the, at the end is the finance needed. There you are, there's a quick business plan for you.
Unit 30 Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital listening 1c
Ed Coombes My name is Ed Coombes and I am a corporate finance executive 1________, a small corporate finance team that is regulated by the SFA, and we focus on rais ing funds for private companies. We specialize in the technology, media and telecoms companies. Primarily because ten years ago if you wanted to start one of those companies you needed a lot of money and it took a long time to grow it, then gradually society is demanding products, and so is industry, which are faster to develop and the money necessary to develop them is less, and so, and also the speed to market is less. A market opportunity has opened up in the technology, media and telecom sector, compared to ten, fifteen years ago. It's speed of getting a company up and running, 2________, and pension funds who traditionally in the past were risk averse and also like to just invest in the large companies. They are not getting the return on their investment so they recognize they need to take a higher risk, so a smaller potential high growth company, and they get a higher return. That's effectively the market opportunity that has opened up which wasn't around so much ten years ago and in the financial sector, the banking sector, 3_________they have recognized this, whereas ten years ago they would only service clients that were listed on exchanges, gradually the corporate finance teams have seen, ah, we need to go and find those companies that are going to list and the next stage was, ah, well before they list they're private companies, and we need to go and help them before they even get to that stage for listing, and so bankers like myself have left the City and are now, we're increasing in number and are seeing there is 4_________. Now for us it's cost effective because when we raise some money, if you're a large bank or a small bank you take your fee in cash. What we do is,we, if we raise, if we're dealing with a small company we can't always take it in cash but we'll take it in equity, which is shares in the company, 5_________and if we take the rest of the fee in equity, shares in the company, then we hope that in two or three years' time this will be a high growth company and ideally it lists on the markets and we can sell our shares then.
A a market need for corporate finance at the smaller end of the scale
B and the hope is that we take enough cash to cover our running costs
C and I work for Cambridge Capital Partners
D if we take corporate finance services
E money available for it from high net worth individuals
Ed Coombes My name is Ed Coombes and I am a corporate finance executive 1________, a small corporate finance team that is regulated by the SFA, and we focus on rais ing funds for private companies. We specialize in the technology, media and telecoms companies. Primarily because ten years ago if you wanted to start one of those companies you needed a lot of money and it took a long time to grow it, then gradually society is demanding products, and so is industry, which are faster to develop and the money necessary to develop them is less, and so, and also the speed to market is less. A market opportunity has opened up in the technology, media and telecom sector, compared to ten, fifteen years ago. It's speed of getting a company up and running, 2________, and pension funds who traditionally in the past were risk averse and also like to just invest in the large companies. They are not getting the return on their investment so they recognize they need to take a higher risk, so a smaller potential high growth company, and they get a higher return. That's effectively the market opportunity that has opened up which wasn't around so much ten years ago and in the financial sector, the banking sector, 3_________they have recognized this, whereas ten years ago they would only service clients that were listed on exchanges, gradually the corporate finance teams have seen, ah, we need to go and find those companies that are going to list and the next stage was, ah, well before they list they're private companies, and we need to go and help them before they even get to that stage for listing, and so bankers like myself have left the City and are now, we're increasing in number and are seeing there is 4_________. Now for us it's cost effective because when we raise some money, if you're a large bank or a small bank you take your fee in cash. What we do is,we, if we raise, if we're dealing with a small company we can't always take it in cash but we'll take it in equity, which is shares in the company, 5_________and if we take the rest of the fee in equity, shares in the company, then we hope that in two or three years' time this will be a high growth company and ideally it lists on the markets and we can sell our shares then.
A a market need for corporate finance at the smaller end of the scale
B and the hope is that we take enough cash to cover our running costs
C and I work for Cambridge Capital Partners
D if we take corporate finance services
E money available for it from high net worth individuals
Businesspeople and entrepreneurs
A businessman, businesswoman or businessperson is someone who works in their own business or as a manager in an organization.
Note: The plural of businessperson is businesspeople. Businessperson and businesspeople can also be spelled as two words: business person, business people.
An entrepreneur is someone who starts or founds or establishes their own company. Someone who starts a company is its founder. An entrepreneur may found a serie s of companies or start-ups. Entrepreneurial is used in a positive way to describe the risk-taking people who do this, and their activities. Some entrepreneurs leave the companies they found, perhaps going on to found more companies. Others may stay to develop and grow their businesses.
A large company mainly owned by one person or family is a business empire. Successful businesspeople, especially heads of large organizations, are business leaders or, in journalistic terms, captains of industry.
There is a lot of discussion about whether people like this are born property with leadership skills, or whether such skills can be learned.
Use words from exercise above to complete this text.
The big place at the moment for (1) ________________ is, of course, the Internet. Take
John Pace. 'After an engineering degree at Stanford and an MBA at Harvard, I worked for a
while in a computer games company. But I always felt I was an (2) _____________ _
kind of guy. In 1997, 1 (3) ________ an Internet site for cheap travel: fIights, hotels, renting
cars and so on. I obtained money for investment in the (4) ____ - __ from friends.'
Now the site has 300,000 customers, and Pace is very rich, with a big apartment in Manhattan and a house in the Bahamas. 'I don't want to sell the company,' he says. 'I've had offers from
some big companies, but I want to stay independent. I want to (5) _ the business and do
things my way. Unlike many entrepreneurs, I think I have the (6) skills to lead and inspire a
large organization. I can see the day when I'm in charge of a large business (7) __ .'
Magnates, moguls and tycoons
People in charge of big business empires may be referred to, especially by journalists, as magnates, moguls or tycoons. These words often occur in combinations such as these:
Media, press, shipping, oil ………………….
Movie, media, shipping ……………………..
Property, software …………………………..
(Mascull, Bill: Business Vocabulary in Use, CUP 2002)
A businessman, businesswoman or businessperson is someone who works in their own business or as a manager in an organization.
Note: The plural of businessperson is businesspeople. Businessperson and businesspeople can also be spelled as two words: business person, business people.
An entrepreneur is someone who starts or founds or establishes their own company. Someone who starts a company is its founder. An entrepreneur may found a serie s of companies or start-ups. Entrepreneurial is used in a positive way to describe the risk-taking people who do this, and their activities. Some entrepreneurs leave the companies they found, perhaps going on to found more companies. Others may stay to develop and grow their businesses.
A large company mainly owned by one person or family is a business empire. Successful businesspeople, especially heads of large organizations, are business leaders or, in journalistic terms, captains of industry.
There is a lot of discussion about whether people like this are born property with leadership skills, or whether such skills can be learned.
Use words from exercise above to complete this text.
The big place at the moment for (1) ________________ is, of course, the Internet. Take
John Pace. 'After an engineering degree at Stanford and an MBA at Harvard, I worked for a
while in a computer games company. But I always felt I was an (2) _____________ _
kind of guy. In 1997, 1 (3) ________ an Internet site for cheap travel: fIights, hotels, renting
cars and so on. I obtained money for investment in the (4) ____ - __ from friends.'
Now the site has 300,000 customers, and Pace is very rich, with a big apartment in Manhattan and a house in the Bahamas. 'I don't want to sell the company,' he says. 'I've had offers from
some big companies, but I want to stay independent. I want to (5) _ the business and do
things my way. Unlike many entrepreneurs, I think I have the (6) skills to lead and inspire a
large organization. I can see the day when I'm in charge of a large business (7) __ .'
Magnates, moguls and tycoons
People in charge of big business empires may be referred to, especially by journalists, as magnates, moguls or tycoons. These words often occur in combinations such as these:
Media, press, shipping, oil ………………….
Movie, media, shipping ……………………..
Property, software …………………………..
(Mascull, Bill: Business Vocabulary in Use, CUP 2002)
EfBS unit 13 Finance and accounting
bankruptcy; invoice; revenue; ledgers; equities; assets; overheads; debtors; liabilities; budget; investor; returns; balance; fixtures; depreciation; creditor; capital; drawings; goodwill; expenditure; dividend; bankrupt; auditor; discount; security;
Match the words above with the dictionary definitions which follow
1. The spending of money, on advertising for example.
2. Articles such as display cabinets which would be difficult to remove.
3. A payment to shareholders when a company has made a profit.
4. A person whose affairs are in the hands of an Official Receiver.
5. Another name for ordinary shares.
6. The person who takes on the responsibility for checking a company's accounts.
7. Possessions which can be converted into cash.
8. A deduction made from the price of goods when payment is made promptly.
9. Debts which will have to be paid either now or in the future.
10. A list of goods which have been sent to a customer indicating the amount charged to their account.
11. The situation when the two sides of the accounts are equal.
12. The books of account showing how much we owe and are owed.
13. Goods which are not wanted after all, usually because they are faulty.
14. The proprietor's withdrawal of funds from the business.
15. The proprietor's stake in the business.
16.:.. People who owe us money.
17. The fall in the value of an asset as a result of waste or usage.
18. A person to whom we owe money.
19. Something which is valuable yet intangible.
20. The situation facing persons who cannot pay their creditors.
21. Money received from sales.
22. The device which aims to control expenditure.
23. The costs attached to maintaining fixed assets such as plant and machinery.
24. An asset such as a share certificate which can be offered as a safeguard when a loan
is received from a bank.
25. Someone who buys something in the expectation that it will rise in value.
bankruptcy; invoice; revenue; ledgers; equities; assets; overheads; debtors; liabilities; budget; investor; returns; balance; fixtures; depreciation; creditor; capital; drawings; goodwill; expenditure; dividend; bankrupt; auditor; discount; security;
Match the words above with the dictionary definitions which follow
1. The spending of money, on advertising for example.
2. Articles such as display cabinets which would be difficult to remove.
3. A payment to shareholders when a company has made a profit.
4. A person whose affairs are in the hands of an Official Receiver.
5. Another name for ordinary shares.
6. The person who takes on the responsibility for checking a company's accounts.
7. Possessions which can be converted into cash.
8. A deduction made from the price of goods when payment is made promptly.
9. Debts which will have to be paid either now or in the future.
10. A list of goods which have been sent to a customer indicating the amount charged to their account.
11. The situation when the two sides of the accounts are equal.
12. The books of account showing how much we owe and are owed.
13. Goods which are not wanted after all, usually because they are faulty.
14. The proprietor's withdrawal of funds from the business.
15. The proprietor's stake in the business.
16.:.. People who owe us money.
17. The fall in the value of an asset as a result of waste or usage.
18. A person to whom we owe money.
19. Something which is valuable yet intangible.
20. The situation facing persons who cannot pay their creditors.
21. Money received from sales.
22. The device which aims to control expenditure.
23. The costs attached to maintaining fixed assets such as plant and machinery.
24. An asset such as a share certificate which can be offered as a safeguard when a loan
is received from a bank.
25. Someone who buys something in the expectation that it will rise in value.
Complete the text. Use these words :
record; various; purpose; involve; revenue; generally; file; assume; rule; designer
Sarah Brandston I'm Sarah Brandston. I am an Enrolled Agent, which in America is a person who has been Certified by the IRS as an expert in all areas of taxation. I operate a business that employs two or more people in addition to myself, that concentrates on filing income tax returns and other forms ' required by the federal and local governments related to income taxes and sales taxes, for my clients.
I tell people, on the most basic level, a lot of my clients are young people who are just starting out, and often they have no idea at all what's 1_________, they might be talented in a certain field, they might be a good graphic 2_________, or might be a media person, or a writer, but that doesn't mean they know how to run a business. The first thing I try and do is ease them on and tell them that the basic rule for accounting, in terms of their business, is that they have to keep 3_________ that accurately reflect their financial life, the life, the financial life in the business, and the records have to be accurate enough so that we together can 4_________ a tax return from them. That's the bottom line, that's really all it's about. Then you go and you get into more complex forms of bookkeeping for corporations or partnerships, which have to follow both the generally accepted 5_________ that are put out by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the rules that change on a daily basis that we get from the IRS.
Bookkeeping is keeping good accounts, period, it's just taking what comes in, it's looking at how much income comes in, and it's looking at what's going out, and then further breaking down what goes out into the 6_________ categories that I’ve told them are important for tax 7_________. So I usually say, in terms of their bookkeeping that they should set up categories that make sense to them in their business. They wouldn’t want entertainment with office supplies, they wouldn't want books and periodicals with car expenses, it's just what I think are those common sense. ..bookkeeping is really a common sense way of keeping track of the income and expenses.
Interviewer The kind of companies you work with. can you just describe the sort of range of companies that you work with. and the kind of input you give them. I 8_________ you see them sort of more than once a year?
Sarah Brandston Right. In terms of the people that I do, my clients who have their own businesses, be they self-proprietorships or small corporations or partnerships, most of the people I deal with are in creative fields. I have several film makers, I have architects and people who consult in the computer field, what I think of as my corporations, and music, those are the kind of people I think of. They're 9_________ people that are
not comfortable with doing bookkeeping. or accounting. nor do they have enough 10_________ in their companies that they want to. or that they're able to pay the type of accountant that needs to see them on a monthly basis, and charge them a minimum of twenty four hundred dollars a year, let's say, to do all the accounting, the bookkeeping, and the tax preparation for them, so I try and keep my costs low so people can function. continue to function as a business...
record; various; purpose; involve; revenue; generally; file; assume; rule; designer
Sarah Brandston I'm Sarah Brandston. I am an Enrolled Agent, which in America is a person who has been Certified by the IRS as an expert in all areas of taxation. I operate a business that employs two or more people in addition to myself, that concentrates on filing income tax returns and other forms ' required by the federal and local governments related to income taxes and sales taxes, for my clients.
I tell people, on the most basic level, a lot of my clients are young people who are just starting out, and often they have no idea at all what's 1_________, they might be talented in a certain field, they might be a good graphic 2_________, or might be a media person, or a writer, but that doesn't mean they know how to run a business. The first thing I try and do is ease them on and tell them that the basic rule for accounting, in terms of their business, is that they have to keep 3_________ that accurately reflect their financial life, the life, the financial life in the business, and the records have to be accurate enough so that we together can 4_________ a tax return from them. That's the bottom line, that's really all it's about. Then you go and you get into more complex forms of bookkeeping for corporations or partnerships, which have to follow both the generally accepted 5_________ that are put out by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the rules that change on a daily basis that we get from the IRS.
Bookkeeping is keeping good accounts, period, it's just taking what comes in, it's looking at how much income comes in, and it's looking at what's going out, and then further breaking down what goes out into the 6_________ categories that I’ve told them are important for tax 7_________. So I usually say, in terms of their bookkeeping that they should set up categories that make sense to them in their business. They wouldn’t want entertainment with office supplies, they wouldn't want books and periodicals with car expenses, it's just what I think are those common sense. ..bookkeeping is really a common sense way of keeping track of the income and expenses.
Interviewer The kind of companies you work with. can you just describe the sort of range of companies that you work with. and the kind of input you give them. I 8_________ you see them sort of more than once a year?
Sarah Brandston Right. In terms of the people that I do, my clients who have their own businesses, be they self-proprietorships or small corporations or partnerships, most of the people I deal with are in creative fields. I have several film makers, I have architects and people who consult in the computer field, what I think of as my corporations, and music, those are the kind of people I think of. They're 9_________ people that are
not comfortable with doing bookkeeping. or accounting. nor do they have enough 10_________ in their companies that they want to. or that they're able to pay the type of accountant that needs to see them on a monthly basis, and charge them a minimum of twenty four hundred dollars a year, let's say, to do all the accounting, the bookkeeping, and the tax preparation for them, so I try and keep my costs low so people can function. continue to function as a business...
Join together words and their definitions
1 Trial
2 Channel
3 maturity
4 publicity
5 assist
6 impact
7 temporary
8 generate
9 counter
10 loss leader
11 sparing
12 complement
13 prospect
14 spread
15 via
A produce or create sth
B lasting or intended to last only for a short time; not permanent
C product or service that is sold at a very low price in order to attract customers, who will then buy goods or services that produce more profit
D reply to sb by trying to prove that what they said is not true
E careful to use or give only a little of sth
F search an area for gold, minerals, oil, etc.
G method or system that people use to get information or to communicate
H thing that adds new qualities to sth in a way that improves it or makes it more attractive
I affect or make sth affect, be known by, or used by more and more people
J business of attracting the attention of the public to sth/sb; the things that are done to attract attention
K help sb to do sth, especially by doing a share of the work
L by means of a particular person, system, etc.
M time when a product has been sold for a long time and is well known, but its sales are not increasing
N powerful effect that sth has on sb/sth; process of testing a product to see whether it is safe, effective etc
1 Trial
2 Channel
3 maturity
4 publicity
5 assist
6 impact
7 temporary
8 generate
9 counter
10 loss leader
11 sparing
12 complement
13 prospect
14 spread
15 via
A produce or create sth
B lasting or intended to last only for a short time; not permanent
C product or service that is sold at a very low price in order to attract customers, who will then buy goods or services that produce more profit
D reply to sb by trying to prove that what they said is not true
E careful to use or give only a little of sth
F search an area for gold, minerals, oil, etc.
G method or system that people use to get information or to communicate
H thing that adds new qualities to sth in a way that improves it or makes it more attractive
I affect or make sth affect, be known by, or used by more and more people
J business of attracting the attention of the public to sth/sb; the things that are done to attract attention
K help sb to do sth, especially by doing a share of the work
L by means of a particular person, system, etc.
M time when a product has been sold for a long time and is well known, but its sales are not increasing
N powerful effect that sth has on sb/sth; process of testing a product to see whether it is safe, effective etc
EfBS unit 12 listening
advertising; location; television; colours; novelty; customers; notice; publicity; painted; taste; digested; strategy;
Interviewer How do you expect potential 1_______ to become aware of Fresh Fries? Are they just going to walk down the street and see these machines?
Jogishwar Singh That is correct. You know the machines will be 2________, as you can see from the picture, in very bright fast-food 3__________, which is red and yellow. I’m sure you have to really make an effort in order to miss such a machine if it is placed on the path around which you will be, and you know we will place many of them, even the test machines, we will put them in and around Piccadilly Circus, so I’m sure people will 4______ them.
Interviewer So the 5_______ is important?
Jogishwar Singh It is important, yes.
Interviewer Advertising and publicity would be really secondary, or. ..
Jogishwar Singh Well, I wouldn't say it's secondary, but I think it is more important, you know, that once...we are not really launching a media blitz until our test machines are out, and we have 6_________ the lessons from the first series of 25 machines. Then, we've been talking to some 7_________ chains, you know, who are very much interested in the product, and they are, they have already confirmed to us that they are willing to make short programmes that they will broadcast on their business news. Now that is all free 8__________ for us, you know. We are counting on the 9___________of the product to get us free time on television, and so that we can concentrate. ..We will also have paid 10___________, but you know, according to our experts, the best advertising we can get is to get people to 11________ the fries, so we prefer to give these machines free for three months for trial, so you know, the operator gets them free for three months, and I think that is a much better advertising 12________.
Interviewer Absolutely. Your publicity strategy got me here. I saw you on the front page of a newspaper...
Jogishwar Singh Which incidentally, I didn't tell the newspaper to put our picture, he seemed to like my turban...
advertising; location; television; colours; novelty; customers; notice; publicity; painted; taste; digested; strategy;
Interviewer How do you expect potential 1_______ to become aware of Fresh Fries? Are they just going to walk down the street and see these machines?
Jogishwar Singh That is correct. You know the machines will be 2________, as you can see from the picture, in very bright fast-food 3__________, which is red and yellow. I’m sure you have to really make an effort in order to miss such a machine if it is placed on the path around which you will be, and you know we will place many of them, even the test machines, we will put them in and around Piccadilly Circus, so I’m sure people will 4______ them.
Interviewer So the 5_______ is important?
Jogishwar Singh It is important, yes.
Interviewer Advertising and publicity would be really secondary, or. ..
Jogishwar Singh Well, I wouldn't say it's secondary, but I think it is more important, you know, that once...we are not really launching a media blitz until our test machines are out, and we have 6_________ the lessons from the first series of 25 machines. Then, we've been talking to some 7_________ chains, you know, who are very much interested in the product, and they are, they have already confirmed to us that they are willing to make short programmes that they will broadcast on their business news. Now that is all free 8__________ for us, you know. We are counting on the 9___________of the product to get us free time on television, and so that we can concentrate. ..We will also have paid 10___________, but you know, according to our experts, the best advertising we can get is to get people to 11________ the fries, so we prefer to give these machines free for three months for trial, so you know, the operator gets them free for three months, and I think that is a much better advertising 12________.
Interviewer Absolutely. Your publicity strategy got me here. I saw you on the front page of a newspaper...
Jogishwar Singh Which incidentally, I didn't tell the newspaper to put our picture, he seemed to like my turban...
Brands and branding
A brand is a name a company gives to its products so they can be easily recognized. This may be the name of the company itself: the make of the product. For products like cars, you refer to the make and model, the particular type of car, for example, the Ford (make) Ka (model).
Brand awareness or brand recognition is how much people recognize a brand. The ideas people have about a brand is its brand image. Many companies have a brand manager.
Branding is creating brands and keeping them in customer's minds through advertising, packaging, etc. A brand should have a clear brand identity so that people think of it in a particular way in relation to other brands.
A product with the retailer's own name on it is an own-brand product (BrE) or ownlabel product (AmE).
Products that are not branded, those that do not have a brand name, are generic products or generics.
Complete this marketer's description of his work using expressions from previous exercise
My name's Tomas. I'm Portuguese, and I've been (1) ________ _______for Woof dog food for the whole of Portugal and Spain since l left business school last summer. The Woof (2)________is owned by a big international group. The market for pet food in Portugal and Spain is growing very fast, as more and more people own dogs and cats, and we're trying to increase (3) ________ _______ of Woof through TV advertisements and hoardings in the street. Research shows that people have very positive ideas about it: it has a very positive (4)________ _______ . But the supermarkets have their (5) ________ _______dog food, usually sold cheaper than our product, which is a problem. There are even (6) ________ _______ sold just under the name 'dog food'. We have to persuade people that it's worth paying a bit more for a (7)_________product like Woof, which is far better, of course.
(Mascull, Bill: Business Vocabulary in Use, CUP 2002)
A brand is a name a company gives to its products so they can be easily recognized. This may be the name of the company itself: the make of the product. For products like cars, you refer to the make and model, the particular type of car, for example, the Ford (make) Ka (model).
Brand awareness or brand recognition is how much people recognize a brand. The ideas people have about a brand is its brand image. Many companies have a brand manager.
Branding is creating brands and keeping them in customer's minds through advertising, packaging, etc. A brand should have a clear brand identity so that people think of it in a particular way in relation to other brands.
A product with the retailer's own name on it is an own-brand product (BrE) or ownlabel product (AmE).
Products that are not branded, those that do not have a brand name, are generic products or generics.
Complete this marketer's description of his work using expressions from previous exercise
My name's Tomas. I'm Portuguese, and I've been (1) ________ _______for Woof dog food for the whole of Portugal and Spain since l left business school last summer. The Woof (2)________is owned by a big international group. The market for pet food in Portugal and Spain is growing very fast, as more and more people own dogs and cats, and we're trying to increase (3) ________ _______ of Woof through TV advertisements and hoardings in the street. Research shows that people have very positive ideas about it: it has a very positive (4)________ _______ . But the supermarkets have their (5) ________ _______dog food, usually sold cheaper than our product, which is a problem. There are even (6) ________ _______ sold just under the name 'dog food'. We have to persuade people that it's worth paying a bit more for a (7)_________product like Woof, which is far better, of course.
(Mascull, Bill: Business Vocabulary in Use, CUP 2002)
EfBS Unit 9 Products listening 2b Listen and complete missing word
Interviewer Jogishwar Singh, I recently read a newspaper article in which one of your business partners announced, 'We are going to 1________ the whole world with a revolutionary product that is going to be more popuIar than McDonalds.' Could you explain exactly what this product is?
]ogishwar Singh This product is crisp, hot, fresh french fries, which will be 2________ by a vending machine. All 'that the customer has to do is choose the number of portions, one, two, three or four, pay the 3________ amount which he can see on the machine because the amount will vary according to the country, put the money in, wait 64 seconds for the first serving, and then eat the chips which will come out nicely in a very beautiful looking, striking 4________, a cup.
Interviewer So this machine can be installed in the street, as well as in restaurants, or cafés ...
]ogishwar Singh Well, the idea is to install it in public places, you know, not so much inside restaurants, but, you know, anywhere where people 5________ you can install the machine: airports, railway stations, football stadiums, sports centres, service stations, cinema ha Us, anywhere, literally anywhere where people want a nice cup of french fries.
Interviewer And these fries are made from powdered, a powdered potato mixture?
]ogishwar Singh That is correct. They are made from 6________ potato powder, to which we add certain ingredients, you know, which are subject, well, which are secret, which we keep to ourselves.
Interviewer So this is a vending machine; there are no plans to make a smaller version, to put in your kitchen?
Jogishwar Singh There is. We are, after the proper launching of the 7________ machine, the inventor is already working on what he calls a table-top machine, you know, which will be for kitchens or for kiosks or smaller places, yes.
Interviewer And could you talk perhaps about all the various stages that come between an inventor - this is an American inventor ...
Jogishwar Singh Yes, Mr Richard Sorensen.
Interviewer... having the idea and then now your company 8________ this product?
Jogishwar Singh Well, the inventor had the idea and he did the first, I mean he developed obviously his ideas, he's been working on it for the last eight or nine years. He got into touch with people who subsequently became 9________ in the 10________ company Tégé, and he went through a series of at least five prototypes, each time modifying the design because, you know he found new, not really inventions, but new technical support to improve the functioning, to reduce the time of delivery, and the problem is basically financing, you see. It's extremely difficult for an individual to finance such a major project. So he was looking for partners. And we have put, you know, experts and engineers at his 11________. This is important because an inventor is not an industrial engineer, you know. He might be a 12________ inventor but he doesn't have much of an idea, well in this case of industrial production, and the economics of the whole project. So we surrounded him with very capable people who are costing us a 13________, and the machine will be manufactured by Zanussi, one of the two leading vending machine manufacturers in Europe and the world.
Interviewer So for you the technological 14________ is the machine, rather than the product, because powdered chips sounds quite revolutionary as well?
]ogishwar Singh That is correct. It's the machine; it's the time in which you can deliver the chips; it's the crispiness and the quality with which you can deliver the chips; and more than these things it's the 15________. You see, if we can manage to deliver the same product in 180 countries in the world, I think that's where the success of this project will lie.
Interviewer And you're aiming at 180 countries?
]ogishwar Singh Oh, yeah, yeah. Doubtlessly, certainly. Over. .. Not immediately, but I am sure we will see our vending machines with the same logo, the same colour scheme, whether you are in Bangladesh or Taiwan or the US or Europe or wherever, Africa, I mean, you know, it might take us some time getting to Rwanda but we will get there.
Interviewer Jogishwar Singh, I recently read a newspaper article in which one of your business partners announced, 'We are going to 1________ the whole world with a revolutionary product that is going to be more popuIar than McDonalds.' Could you explain exactly what this product is?
]ogishwar Singh This product is crisp, hot, fresh french fries, which will be 2________ by a vending machine. All 'that the customer has to do is choose the number of portions, one, two, three or four, pay the 3________ amount which he can see on the machine because the amount will vary according to the country, put the money in, wait 64 seconds for the first serving, and then eat the chips which will come out nicely in a very beautiful looking, striking 4________, a cup.
Interviewer So this machine can be installed in the street, as well as in restaurants, or cafés ...
]ogishwar Singh Well, the idea is to install it in public places, you know, not so much inside restaurants, but, you know, anywhere where people 5________ you can install the machine: airports, railway stations, football stadiums, sports centres, service stations, cinema ha Us, anywhere, literally anywhere where people want a nice cup of french fries.
Interviewer And these fries are made from powdered, a powdered potato mixture?
]ogishwar Singh That is correct. They are made from 6________ potato powder, to which we add certain ingredients, you know, which are subject, well, which are secret, which we keep to ourselves.
Interviewer So this is a vending machine; there are no plans to make a smaller version, to put in your kitchen?
Jogishwar Singh There is. We are, after the proper launching of the 7________ machine, the inventor is already working on what he calls a table-top machine, you know, which will be for kitchens or for kiosks or smaller places, yes.
Interviewer And could you talk perhaps about all the various stages that come between an inventor - this is an American inventor ...
Jogishwar Singh Yes, Mr Richard Sorensen.
Interviewer... having the idea and then now your company 8________ this product?
Jogishwar Singh Well, the inventor had the idea and he did the first, I mean he developed obviously his ideas, he's been working on it for the last eight or nine years. He got into touch with people who subsequently became 9________ in the 10________ company Tégé, and he went through a series of at least five prototypes, each time modifying the design because, you know he found new, not really inventions, but new technical support to improve the functioning, to reduce the time of delivery, and the problem is basically financing, you see. It's extremely difficult for an individual to finance such a major project. So he was looking for partners. And we have put, you know, experts and engineers at his 11________. This is important because an inventor is not an industrial engineer, you know. He might be a 12________ inventor but he doesn't have much of an idea, well in this case of industrial production, and the economics of the whole project. So we surrounded him with very capable people who are costing us a 13________, and the machine will be manufactured by Zanussi, one of the two leading vending machine manufacturers in Europe and the world.
Interviewer So for you the technological 14________ is the machine, rather than the product, because powdered chips sounds quite revolutionary as well?
]ogishwar Singh That is correct. It's the machine; it's the time in which you can deliver the chips; it's the crispiness and the quality with which you can deliver the chips; and more than these things it's the 15________. You see, if we can manage to deliver the same product in 180 countries in the world, I think that's where the success of this project will lie.
Interviewer And you're aiming at 180 countries?
]ogishwar Singh Oh, yeah, yeah. Doubtlessly, certainly. Over. .. Not immediately, but I am sure we will see our vending machines with the same logo, the same colour scheme, whether you are in Bangladesh or Taiwan or the US or Europe or wherever, Africa, I mean, you know, it might take us some time getting to Rwanda but we will get there.
EfBS unit 8 listening 2b
Alan Severn I'm Alan Severn, I'm the Quality Manager at Arcam, and my responsibilities are exactly that, for the quality of the product, the quality of the services, and the quality of all interfaces which involve the customer and our customers.
The word 'quality' is a very easy one that slips off the tongue, it's quite easy to say but it means an awful lot of things. I have a department of three people, but in essence, everybody in the company works for me, because everybody works for the word 'quality'. Quality starts and must start at the conception of everything and go through every department within the company. You can't pack quality into a box at the end of the line. You have to implant it at the start of a process; and it knocks on through every process until it goes into a box, into your home, into your living room, and you switch it on and you're a happy person.
The two aspects of quality are that we must reproduce, must, sorry, design to reproduce excellent hi-fi equipment, and that must be a design which has got quality built into it in terms of the performance of the product, but also must have the ability to be produced in volume. Er, now, that means the designers have to have restraints put on them, and that restraint means that they must work to quality standards to ensure that their designs are reproducible in volume. They must design for manufacture. Now that's one part of the quality aspect and that's where it starts within Arcam, the ability to have (a) a perfect design and (b) that the design is reproducible.
They hand that information on to our manufacturing departments. Now the manufacturing departments have the same, em, the same message, the same cause in life, to then, to make sure that the designs that are now designed for manufacture are designed, sorry, are manufactured, for production. Now that may sound a bit daft, but when you move in to the next stage you have to productionize the designs, you have to ensure that the things will go together every time on the line. And that's a function of design, it's a function of manufacture, that when two pieces of metal come together, that they go together every time, five hours a day, ten hours a day, 28 days in a month, etc., etc.
And to that end we have to then implant into our suppliers, and our manufacturing people, the quality standards which will achieve that aim, our goals. So, our message spreads then from our designers into our manufacturers and our subcontractors who make the metalwork, who make the printed circuit boards, who assemble the printed circuit boards, etc., etc.
Quality's a very well-worn word and in this business, certainly in Arcam's business, it is an ongoing activity within the company, and it's called TQM, Total Quality Management, that we improve our qua1ity on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. So we never stop refining the process. Erm. ..we don't know when we're going to arrive there because we don't know what the ultimate quality is. I guess the ultimate quality is that we build a thousand units, we ship a thousand units, and we don't get any of them back, and they last for ten years. That I think is probably. ..you've arrived.
Engljsh for Busjness Studjes Second Edition@ Carnbridge University Press 2002
Find the words described below in the text:
1 a situation, way, or place where two things can come together and have an effect on each other
2 how good or bad something is
3 to fix an idea or image in someone's mind so that they cannot forget it
4 to make a copy of something
5 control over something
6 to make large quantities of goods, using machines
7 still happening, continuing to happen
8 to join other people somewhere to make a group, or to bring people together into a group
Alan Severn I'm Alan Severn, I'm the Quality Manager at Arcam, and my responsibilities are exactly that, for the quality of the product, the quality of the services, and the quality of all interfaces which involve the customer and our customers.
The word 'quality' is a very easy one that slips off the tongue, it's quite easy to say but it means an awful lot of things. I have a department of three people, but in essence, everybody in the company works for me, because everybody works for the word 'quality'. Quality starts and must start at the conception of everything and go through every department within the company. You can't pack quality into a box at the end of the line. You have to implant it at the start of a process; and it knocks on through every process until it goes into a box, into your home, into your living room, and you switch it on and you're a happy person.
The two aspects of quality are that we must reproduce, must, sorry, design to reproduce excellent hi-fi equipment, and that must be a design which has got quality built into it in terms of the performance of the product, but also must have the ability to be produced in volume. Er, now, that means the designers have to have restraints put on them, and that restraint means that they must work to quality standards to ensure that their designs are reproducible in volume. They must design for manufacture. Now that's one part of the quality aspect and that's where it starts within Arcam, the ability to have (a) a perfect design and (b) that the design is reproducible.
They hand that information on to our manufacturing departments. Now the manufacturing departments have the same, em, the same message, the same cause in life, to then, to make sure that the designs that are now designed for manufacture are designed, sorry, are manufactured, for production. Now that may sound a bit daft, but when you move in to the next stage you have to productionize the designs, you have to ensure that the things will go together every time on the line. And that's a function of design, it's a function of manufacture, that when two pieces of metal come together, that they go together every time, five hours a day, ten hours a day, 28 days in a month, etc., etc.
And to that end we have to then implant into our suppliers, and our manufacturing people, the quality standards which will achieve that aim, our goals. So, our message spreads then from our designers into our manufacturers and our subcontractors who make the metalwork, who make the printed circuit boards, who assemble the printed circuit boards, etc., etc.
Quality's a very well-worn word and in this business, certainly in Arcam's business, it is an ongoing activity within the company, and it's called TQM, Total Quality Management, that we improve our qua1ity on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. So we never stop refining the process. Erm. ..we don't know when we're going to arrive there because we don't know what the ultimate quality is. I guess the ultimate quality is that we build a thousand units, we ship a thousand units, and we don't get any of them back, and they last for ten years. That I think is probably. ..you've arrived.
Engljsh for Busjness Studjes Second Edition@ Carnbridge University Press 2002
Find the words described below in the text:
1 a situation, way, or place where two things can come together and have an effect on each other
2 how good or bad something is
3 to fix an idea or image in someone's mind so that they cannot forget it
4 to make a copy of something
5 control over something
6 to make large quantities of goods, using machines
7 still happening, continuing to happen
8 to join other people somewhere to make a group, or to bring people together into a group
What is Management?
Complete the text using these verbs:
analyse; improve; select; communicate; measure; train; contribute; commercialise; understand; divide; perform; use;f orm; risk; work out
You want me to explain what management is? Well, I guess I can manage that! Actually, management as we (1) …………….. . it today is a fa idy recent ideao Most economists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, wrote about factors of production such as land, labour and capital, and about supply and demand, as if these were impersonal and objective economic forces which left no room for human action. An exception was Jean-Baptiste Say, who invented the term "entrepreneur", the person who sees opportunities to (2) …………..resources in more productive ways.
Entrepreneurs are people who are alert to so~far undiscovered profit opportunities. They perceive opportunities to (3) ………….. new technologies and products that will serve the market better than it is currently being served by their competitors. They are happy to (4) …………….their own or other people's capital. They are frequently unconventional, innovative people. But entrepreneurship isn't the same as management, and most managers aren't entrepreneurs.
So, what's management? Well, it's essentially a matter of organizing people. Managers, especially senior managers, have to set objectives for their organization, and then (5) . ……………. how to achieve them. This is tme of the managers of business enterprises, government departments, educational institutions, and sports teams, although for government services, universities and so on we usually talk about administrators and administration rather than managers and management. Managers (6) ……………. the activities of the organization and the relations among them. They (7) ……………. the work into distinct activities and then into individual jobs. They (8) ……………. people to manage these activities and perform the jobso And they of ten need to make the people responsible for performing individual jobs (9) ……………. effective teams.
Managers have to be good at communication and motivation. They need to (10) .……………. the organization's objectives to the people responsible for attaining them. They have to motivate their staff to work well, to be productive, and to (11) ……………. something to the organization. They make decisions about pay and promotion.
Managers also have to (12) ……………. the performance of their staff, and to ensure that the objectives and performance targets set for the whole organization and for individual employees are reached. Furthermore, they have to (13) ……………. and develop their staff, so that their performance continues to (14) …………… .
Some managers obviously (15) ……………. these tasks better than otherso Most achievements and failures in business are the achievements or failures of individual managers.
(MacKenzie, Ian:Management and Marketing, LTP Business, Hove 1997)
Complete the text using these verbs:
analyse; improve; select; communicate; measure; train; contribute; commercialise; understand; divide; perform; use;f orm; risk; work out
You want me to explain what management is? Well, I guess I can manage that! Actually, management as we (1) …………….. . it today is a fa idy recent ideao Most economists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, wrote about factors of production such as land, labour and capital, and about supply and demand, as if these were impersonal and objective economic forces which left no room for human action. An exception was Jean-Baptiste Say, who invented the term "entrepreneur", the person who sees opportunities to (2) …………..resources in more productive ways.
Entrepreneurs are people who are alert to so~far undiscovered profit opportunities. They perceive opportunities to (3) ………….. new technologies and products that will serve the market better than it is currently being served by their competitors. They are happy to (4) …………….their own or other people's capital. They are frequently unconventional, innovative people. But entrepreneurship isn't the same as management, and most managers aren't entrepreneurs.
So, what's management? Well, it's essentially a matter of organizing people. Managers, especially senior managers, have to set objectives for their organization, and then (5) . ……………. how to achieve them. This is tme of the managers of business enterprises, government departments, educational institutions, and sports teams, although for government services, universities and so on we usually talk about administrators and administration rather than managers and management. Managers (6) ……………. the activities of the organization and the relations among them. They (7) ……………. the work into distinct activities and then into individual jobs. They (8) ……………. people to manage these activities and perform the jobso And they of ten need to make the people responsible for performing individual jobs (9) ……………. effective teams.
Managers have to be good at communication and motivation. They need to (10) .……………. the organization's objectives to the people responsible for attaining them. They have to motivate their staff to work well, to be productive, and to (11) ……………. something to the organization. They make decisions about pay and promotion.
Managers also have to (12) ……………. the performance of their staff, and to ensure that the objectives and performance targets set for the whole organization and for individual employees are reached. Furthermore, they have to (13) ……………. and develop their staff, so that their performance continues to (14) …………… .
Some managers obviously (15) ……………. these tasks better than otherso Most achievements and failures in business are the achievements or failures of individual managers.
(MacKenzie, Ian:Management and Marketing, LTP Business, Hove 1997)
EfBS Unit 2 listening The Retail Sector
3a Listen the tape and complete the missing words or phrases
So, as the store manager in Cambridge, which is probably the fortieth largest of the 1__________ we have got, I am responsible for the day-to-day running of the store. All the 2__________to me in predescribed quantities, and obviously I'm responsible for 3__________ that merchandise to its best advantages, obviously I'm responsible for 4__________ the staff to actually sell that merchandise, and 5__________the day-to-day 6__________ of the operation. Much more running stores is about the day-to-day operation, and ensuring that that's safe, and obviously because of the 7__________that we would normally have working here it's ensuring that they are well 8__________, that they are well 9__________, and that the environment they work in is a pleasant one, that they are treated with respect, and that they are 10__________ to the company's principles.
The Retail Sector Listening 3b
Try to complete the missing parts
A they get the same appearance and type of looking store , B as a business , C we have a corporate statement D the environment in which you're working , E they will feel confident in what they're doing , F within their jobs to make decisions themselves, G not only the staff but supervision and management would follow
Interviewer How much freedom do those people have 1………………..? How much delegation is there of responsibility down the chain?
Steve Moody We would, 2……………….., like to encourage as much accountability and delegation as possible. Of course that does depend on the abilities of the individuals, 3……………….., and the time of year. With 282 stores we have a corporate appearance in the United Kingdom's high streets. It is quite important that when customers come into Marks & Spencer's Cambridge 4……………….. and the same level of service that they would expect if they went into Marks & Spencer's Edinburgh in Scotland, for example, and it's very important that 5……………….. that customers understand. So, there are obviously parameters and disciplines that, you know, 6………………... Within that, in terms of development and training, training is obviously an investment for all staff. If staff are trained to do their job well and they. Understand it, 7……………….., that in turn will give a better service to the customers, obviously from Marks & Spencer's point of view it could well lead to increased sales.
3a Listen the tape and complete the missing words or phrases
So, as the store manager in Cambridge, which is probably the fortieth largest of the 1__________ we have got, I am responsible for the day-to-day running of the store. All the 2__________to me in predescribed quantities, and obviously I'm responsible for 3__________ that merchandise to its best advantages, obviously I'm responsible for 4__________ the staff to actually sell that merchandise, and 5__________the day-to-day 6__________ of the operation. Much more running stores is about the day-to-day operation, and ensuring that that's safe, and obviously because of the 7__________that we would normally have working here it's ensuring that they are well 8__________, that they are well 9__________, and that the environment they work in is a pleasant one, that they are treated with respect, and that they are 10__________ to the company's principles.
The Retail Sector Listening 3b
Try to complete the missing parts
A they get the same appearance and type of looking store , B as a business , C we have a corporate statement D the environment in which you're working , E they will feel confident in what they're doing , F within their jobs to make decisions themselves, G not only the staff but supervision and management would follow
Interviewer How much freedom do those people have 1………………..? How much delegation is there of responsibility down the chain?
Steve Moody We would, 2……………….., like to encourage as much accountability and delegation as possible. Of course that does depend on the abilities of the individuals, 3……………….., and the time of year. With 282 stores we have a corporate appearance in the United Kingdom's high streets. It is quite important that when customers come into Marks & Spencer's Cambridge 4……………….. and the same level of service that they would expect if they went into Marks & Spencer's Edinburgh in Scotland, for example, and it's very important that 5……………….. that customers understand. So, there are obviously parameters and disciplines that, you know, 6………………... Within that, in terms of development and training, training is obviously an investment for all staff. If staff are trained to do their job well and they. Understand it, 7……………….., that in turn will give a better service to the customers, obviously from Marks & Spencer's point of view it could well lead to increased sales.
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