Companies

1
Companies

• Presenting your company

2
Multinationals are the most frequent of all
companies

• All multinational companies have subsidiaries
  (smaller companies owned or controlled by another
  firm or company)
• These subsidiaries give multinational companies a
  global reach (they help them in expanding their
  business worldwide)

3
One important thing for the progress of a company
is corporate culture

• The basic beliefs of employees about the business
  they work for
• It refers to companys values, beliefs, business
  principles, traditions, ways of operating and
  internal work environment
• Norms and customs of an organization, also some
  important attitudes which represent business
  principles for employees

4
The corporate culture depends largely on

• The country of origin (of a certain subsidiary)
• Local mentality, which can greatly influence the
  course of a business
• Owner of a company or business (who can find a
  way of promoting his personal ideas and attitudes
  and turning them into business principles)

5
However, prosperity (progress) of small countries
lies in SMEs

• SME (small and medium sized enterprise) is
  usually a business with under 500 employees
• Its turnover (sales) is lower than 50 million
  euro
• This kind of business creates the most jobs and
  has the highest rates of success in business

6
Small business with just a few employees is also
important

• Many governments hope that the small business of
  today will become the multinationals of tomorrow
• Still, many owners of small companies choose to
  work that way because they find it better and
  they dont want to expand
• Small business is less responsability and it is
  easier to control

7
The smallest business is conducted by sole
traders (freelancers)

• It is a one-man or one-woman business
• In the professional world, these sole traders
  have left large corporations and they have taken
  their expertise (professional knowledge) with
  them
• Some sole traders choose to expand thier business
  and they set up a small company (employ a small
  number of people)

8
Larger companies with shareholders aim to

• Have more than survival they want return on
  investment (ROI) which is a profit generated from
  a specific activity
• Maximise the profitability (possibility of
  earning money in business) for investors.
  Normally, shares in the company rise and fall
  depending on how the investors see the future
  progress of a company.

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The profit can be maximised in terms of

• Bigger dividends (payment to shareholders from
  the company, the money you receive based on the
  number of shares you own)
• Rising share price (the value of shares
  monitoring share price is important in business
  knowing when to buy and sell a share is a winner
  in business)

10
In this sense publicly quoted companies must be
mentioned

• Their shares are quoted in public, they are
  listed on a stock exchange (an organised
  marketplace where members gather to trade
  securities)
• These companies offer public insight into their
  business mainly to secure the highest bids
  (offers to buy shares)

11
Other large companies are private

• They choose not to have their shares openly
  bought and sold (they keep their business to
  themselves)
• They might have one big problem how to raise the
  capital when they want to grow and develop?
• Private business is often family owned so the
  transactions are done away form the open market

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All the companies have one thing in common
PROFITABILITY

• It is the key to successful business and a
  measure of business success
• Profitability is the highest return possible for
  resources used or capital employed
• The amount of money that remains from business
  operations

13
There are four important things that employees in
a company pay attention to

• Work environment
• Pay
• Promotion possibilities
• Job security (probability that you will keep your
  job)

14
Work environment

• It is more friendly in a small family business
  (but some family companies are multinationals!)
• Self-employed people working on their own
  sometimes complain about feeling isolated
• You may feel more in control running your own
  company, but if you have employees to look after,
  this can be a big responsibility

15
Pay

• Small family comapnies may or may not pay good
  wages and salaries
• The pay in multinationals depends on the rate of
  unemployment in a specific area (some
  multinationals are known for paying very low
  wages to people in places such as fast-food
  outlets)
• The pay of self-employed people varies enormously

16
Promotion possibilities

• There are fewer opportunities for promotion in
  family companies, especially if family members
  are in key positions
• Multinationals will probably offer more here
  the fast-food worker may become a branch manager
  (however, the examples of plain workers becoming
  top managers are rare)

17
Job security

• Family companies hesitate longer before laying
  people off out of a feeling of responsibility
  towards their employees
• Multinationals have had different attitudes
  towards laying people off, but today, in general,
  the companies are quicker to lay people off than
  before

18
Triumph the reasons for its success

• It has a very strong brand name
• Its first motorcycle model goes back to the early
  1900s
• They invested a lot of money in developing new
  models which attracted peoples attention
• They have always been competitive in the
  motorcycling business

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• They have modernised the bike ( it has a very
  up-to-date look)
• It took them some time to increase the sales
  which are mainly exports
• To have success in exports they created
  subsidiaries in America, Germany and France
• In other markets they have very good distributors

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• Their dealers are very professional at marketing
  so they can present new models with a very strong
  PR campaign
• They are in search of dealers to promote
  motorcycling (they must be enthusiastic about the
  business)
• Over 80 of what they manufacture goes to export
  markets

21
Presenting your company

• Some useful language and tips

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General suggestions

• Find out as much as possible about your audience
• Introduce yourself (name, position, company)
• Outline the structure of your talk
• Refer to your notes as often as possible
• Use clear visual aids
• Summarise your main points

23
Useful language for outlining the presentation

• First, Ill give you some basic information.
• Secondly, Ill talk about our stores in other
  countries.
• Next, Ill talk about career opportunities.
• Last of all, I want to look at our future plans.

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Introducing new information

• Heres some basic information.
• Let me add a few figures.
• Lets have a look at some statistics.
• What are our strengths?

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Ending the persentation

• To conclude, I want to tell you about our future
  plans.
• Finally, a few words about our new project.
• Thanks very much for listening to my talk.
• Thanks for coming to my presentation.

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Presenting a company Tara Fashions

• Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming to my
  presentation. My name is Marta Rodriguez and Im
  Personnel Director of Tara Fashions.
• Im going to talk to you today about our company.
• First, Ill give you some basic information about
  Tara Fashions.

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• Then Ill talk about our overseas stores. After
  that Ill outline the strengths of the company.
  Next Ill talk about career opportunities with
  Tara. And finally, Ill mention our future plans.
• Let me start with some basic facts about Tara.
  The company started in 1978. we are a familiy
  owned business and our head office is in Cordoba,
  Spain.

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• We sell clothes for men and women, and our
  customers are mainly fashion-conscious people
  aged 20 to 35. we have 15 stores in Spain.
• Right, those are the basic facts.
• Let me add a few figures. We have an annual
  turnover of about 260 million euro. Our net
  profits last year were approximately 16 million
  euro. We have a workforce of just over 2000
  employees. So those are the numbers.

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• Now about our overseas stores. We have 4 large
  stores in France and another 10 in other European
  countries.
• What are our strengths? We keep up with fashion
  trends. If we spot a trend, we can bring out a
  new design in 15 days. And we get it to the
  stores very quickly.
• Ok, now what about career opportunities?

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• Its quite simple. If you are ambitious and
  fashion conscious, we have opportunities in all
  areas of our business. We will welcome you with
  open arms.
• Finally, a few words about our new project. We
  are planning to open a new store in New York next
  year. This will give us a foothold in the US
  market.

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• We are very excited about this new development.
• Well, thanks very much for listening to my talk.
  Are there any questions?

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Verb-noun combinations

• Past simple and past continuous

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1 Match the verbs and nouns below

• Exploit
• Extend
• Win
• Make
• Enter
• see

• An award
• An opportunity
• A range
• A market
• An opening
• A breakthrough

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2 Match the verbs and nouns below

• Save
• Fill
• Meet
• Solve
• Protect
• Enhance
• Reduce

• Waste
• Status
• A gap
• A problem
• A need
• Time
• The environment

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Complete the text with the correct expressions
from 1 and 2

• Great ideas are generated in different ways.
  Sometimes an idea may simply be when a company
  _______ an opportunity to _______ the product
  range, to offer more choice to existing
  customers. Or a great idea could allow a company
  to _______ a market which was closed to it before.

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• Companies which are prepared to spend a lot on
  RD may _______ a breakthrough by having an
  original idea for a product which others later
  copy, for example Sony and the Walkman.
• On the other hand, some products are developed in
  response to customer research. They come from
  customer ideas. These products _________ a real
  need.

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• Or the product does something similar to another
  product, but faster, so it ______ time. Some
  people will buy new products because the pruduct
  _______ their status makes them feel more
  important.
• Other people will buy any green product which
  ________ waste or ________ the environment, even
  if it is more expensive.

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• If an idea is really good perhaps the product
  ________ a gap in the market it may
  even________ an award for innovation.

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Past simple

• Form
• I worked. He/she/it worked. They worked.
• I didnt work. Did I work?
• Use
• -we use the past simple to talk about states
  and actions which finished
• (He left for Australia yesterday.)
• (When I was young, I wanted to be a pilot.)

40

• -the action can be short, long or repeated
• (They took a taxi to get there.
• The flight lasted 10 hours.
• I took the same train every day.)

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Past continuous

• Form I was working. He/she/it was working. You
  were working.
• They were working.
• I was not working. Was I working?
• Use we use the past continuous to
• - talk about actions that continued over a
  period of time in the past

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• (At that time, we were still trying to solve
  our recruitment problems.
• I was talking to him on the phone when I heard
  an explosion.)
• - refer to situations that were changing over
  time in the past
• (At that time we were coming out of recession
  and things were improving.)

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• - We dont use the past continuous with verbs
  that describe opinions and thoughts
• (What did you think of her proposal?
• What exactly did she mean?
• He didnt know that I knew what he was doing.)

44
Complete with past simple and past continuous
tense

• Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, was born
  in England in 1942. In the 1960s, she _______
  (train) as a teacher in England and ________
  (work) for the United Nations in Geneva. She then
  ______ (decide) to adopt a hippie lifestyle and
  ______ (begin) to travel extensively.

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• While she _______ (travel) around the world, she
  _______ (learn) many different customs and
  rituals from many different countries and _______
  (become) interested in anthropology. In 1971, she
  married Gordon Roddick. They ran a small hotel
  and restaurant in Brighton, but after three years
  they decided they ________ (want) a different way
  of life for themselves and their two children.