describing a company

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL - UNIT 1 HIGH BEGINNER

Vocabulary: Describing your company

Getting started

I. Which of these business sectors do you work in? Can you name a company in each sector?

Telecommunications / Media Engineering Retailing Construction Tourism Banking and finance

Transport Vehicle manufacturing IT (Information

Technology) / Electronics Food and drink Pharmaceuticals /

Chemicals Others

II. Complete these sentences bellow with words and phrases from the box.

share price workforce profit turnover subsidiary market share head office

1. The amount of money a company receives from sales in a particular period is its …………………………

2. The money a company makes after taking away its costs is its…………………………

3. A company which is more than 50% owned by a parent company is a……………………………

4. The employees in a particular country or business are the……………………………..

5. The percentage of sales a company has in a particular market is its ………………………………...

6. The main building or location of a large organization is its …………………………………..

7. The cost of a company’s shares is its………………………………

IN COMPANY ENGLISH


III. Complete the extract from a company report with appropriate words or phrases from the box in Exercise I.

Financial Performance

I am pleased to say the company has continued its excellent performance. We are changing, growing and doing well at a difficult time for the industry. ……………… was € 57.2 million, an increase of 15% on last year, and………………….. rose by 5% to € 6.4 million.We are a highly competitive business. We have increased our …………………. to 20%. Consequently our………………….. has risen and is now at an all-time high of € 9.6.Increased production and strong demand have had a positive effect on our cash flow, so we are able to finance a number of new projects. We have successfully moved to our new………………………… in central London. We are now planning to start full production at the recently opened Spanish…………………… in October.Finally, thanks once again to our loyal and dedicated……………………. Our employees will always be our most valuable asset.

IV. Complete the chart below with the information from the box.

Peugeot Benetton container ship operator American Express French Japanese Italian drug and chemical maker drinks supplier

CompanyCisco Systems

Main activityInternet equipment supplier

NationalityAmerican

Car manufacturer

Bacardi Martini Spanish

Travel and financial services provider

American

Bayer German

Clothing manufacturer

Sony Electronic goods maker

IN COMPANY ENGLISH


Ap Moller-Maersk Danish

V. Make sentences about companies. For example:

Cisco Systems is an American IT company. It supplies Internet equipment.

VI. Now talk in the same way about your own company.

Listening Activity

VII. Which of these factors is the most important in a successful company? Choose at least three.

Focusing on how to increase market share

Having strong company culture Having user-friendly packaging

Having good designers who also understand production

Responding to the needs of the workforce

Starting with a business idea easy to understand

VIII. Peter Jelkeby, IKEA’s UK Deputy Country Manager, talks about four factors that make IKEA a successful company. Listen and number the four factors in Exercise I in the order in which he mentions them.

IX. Listen to the second part of the interview and complete these notes.

IKEA manages to stay ahead of the competition by: 1 ………………….. the market and the customer 2…………………… understanding how the 3…………………… are acting being not only about products, but also about 4…………………… to

people’s needs.

X. Which factors are important in the success of your company? Explain.

IN COMPANY ENGLISH


Reading comprehension

I. Discuss the following: what is important for people when they buy cosmetics and things like soap, shampoo or toothpaste?

II. Before you read the article, match the words (1-6) to their meanings (a-f).

1) toiletries2) sophisticated3) revenues4) a range5) biodegradable6) net income

a) a group of products of the same type that a company makesb) the money a company has after paying tax and other costsc) who knows a lot about fashion and the modern worldd) that you can enjoy without making the environment dirtye) things like toothpaste, soap. shampoo, etc.f) money that a business gets from selling goods over a period of time

III. Complete this fact file with the information from the article.

Name:Location:Chief Executive:

Type of products: Number of products:Revenues:

Natura aims to expand internationallyBy Peter Marsh

Natura is a fast-growing Brazilian cosmetics and toiletries company which started as a small laboratory in a garage in Sao Paulo 37 years ago. Today, it is trying to go international. Natura picked France as the first country outside Latin America to try out its ideas.'We wanted to choose a sophisticated market where people want things to be very good,' says Alessandro Carlucci, Natura's Chief Executive. 'We wanted a test that was tough.' Mr Carlucci says

the experiment was successful. Within five years, he says, Natura wants to have 'at least' 10 per cent of its revenues coming from outside Brazil, compared with 3 per cent now.

IN COMPANY ENGLISH


Apart from Brazil and its small operation in France, Natura currently sells its cosmetics in a few other South American countries.It sells a range of 600 soaps, shampoos, skin-care lotions and similar products. All of them are based on about 900 natural ingredients, sourced mostly from farmers in the Amazon rainforest.The company promotes itself as an 'ethical' company that works with growers who harvest their products in an environmentally sensitive way. It also uses biodegradable packaging.'What makes them different from other companies is their corporate values. They really want to make the world a better place,' says Mauro Cunha, Chief Investment Officer at Franklin Templeton Investimentos Brasil.Results are good. In the first nine months, revenues were up 21 per cent to R$2.7bn (US$1.3bn). Net income rose 33 per cent to R$344m.

IV. Answer these questions.

1. Where does Natura sell its products?2. What is the company’s target for the next five years?3. Where does the company get the ingredients for its products?4. What makes Natura an “ethical” company?5. Why did Natura choose France to find out how successfully it could expand

abroad?

V. Match the words (1-5) to the nouns (a-e) to make word partnerships used in the article.

1. a fast-growing2. chief3. corporate4. skin-care5. natural

a) valuesb) ingredientsc) lotiond) executivee) company

VI. Which of the facts of Natura do you find interesting? Why?

IN COMPANY ENGLISH


Audio scripts (Peter Jelkeby)

Part 1

Interviewer: What are the factors that make IKE such a highly successful company?Peter Jelkeby: I think for IKEA, it starts with a very simple, straightforward business idea that is easy to understand, easy to work with, both for customers as well as co-workers actually. Added to that we have a strong culture in the company that links this together. I think that’s one of the big reasons for us being successful worldwide.We have designers who are not only good on designing good-looking products, they understand production, they’re working closely with our trading offices around the world, they’re going into suppliers, developing with suppliers products in the production line. Then, from there on, it’s about the packaging, how we transport, flat packages, how we bring it into the store, easy to put on the shelf; and then of course, for the customer, easy to bring home.

Part 2

Interviewer: How do you stay ahead of the competition in your business?Peter Jelkeby: That again is linked to understanding the market, the customer needs, the trends about that, how people live of course; of course, also understanding how competitors are acting, what is going on in the market, price developments, new ways of meeting the customer and being aware of the, the trends and how we tackle that. But I think by the end of the day, I think IKEA, we are not only about products, we are about offering solutions to people’s needs and understand that actually we can very smart and make it practical and not only again good-looking furniture.

IN COMPANY ENGLISH

describing a company

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