Business communication

In company

A Describing companies

Ex.1. Fill in the tables below with the different word forms.

Verb (describing an activity)	Noun (for the company that is involved in this activity)	Noun (for the activity or sector that a company is involved in)
to manufacture	manufacturer	manufacture/manufacturing
	producer
to export		export
	designer
to distribute
		supply
to provide		provision
	trader
		publication/publishing
	importer
to retail		retail/retailing
to manage
	insurer	insurance
to market	marketing company, marketer (less frequent)
to sell by wholesale/by the gross/in bulk		wholesale/wholesaling

Ex.2. Fill in the blanks with the correct noun or verb from the above table.

1. (manufacture) The company is a car ____________ in the USA.

2. (retail) Chopard is in the jewellery ____________ business.

3. (import) Europacific Ltd ____________ European shoes into Asian countries.

4. (export) This company is an ____________ of men’s sportswear.

5. (design) Our company is a leading website ____________ .

6. (publish) He works for the company that ____________ reference books.

7. (distribute) European __________ is handled from our centre in the Netherlands.

8. (manage) ____________ consulting is aimed at helping organizations improve their performance.

9. (market) She works in sales and ____________ .

10. ( insure) Allianz is the world’s number two ____________ .

Ex.3. Match these well-known company names with their activities. Use these words in sentences to describe what different companies do.

design of computer software publishing manufacture of consumer electronics motor car manufacture computer hardware manufacture retailing of foods and consumer products advertising oil production broadcasting and Internet

IBM Microsoft Sony Toyota The Economist Group Walmart Aegis Group BP Corporation Ukrtelecom

Ex.4. Read descriptions of different companies. Choose one of the nouns below to describe each company.

Law firm, retailer, wholesaler, importer, finance company, website designer, manufacturer, travel company, bank, exporter, transport company

1. Multimedia Solutions Incorporated has been designing and managing state-of-the-art commercial websites since 1993. The company provides e-commerce solutions for large and small companies in a number of sectors. At present, the company employs 200 full-time Internet consultants and web designers on their permanent staff. They provide consultancy and other services in the following sectors: financial services, insurance brokering and underwriting, travel services, computer retailing, vehicle leasing. The company’s head office is in Guilford, near London. They also have offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as agencies in Dublin, Paris, Rome and Madrid.

2. Established in 1967, Airbus is a leading aircraft manufacturer with the most modern and comprehensive family of airliners on the market, ranging in capacity from 100 to more than 500 seats. Airbus has delivered over 5,000 aircraft to 180 customers world-wide. Airbus is a global company with its central office in Toulouse and design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK , and Spain as well as subsidiaries in the US, China and Japan.

3. Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) regards both Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. In CEE, RBI operates an extensive network of subsidiary banks, leasing companies and a range of other specialised financial service providers in 17 markets. As of 2013, around 55,000 employees served more than 14 million customers via roughly 3,000 branch offices, the great majority of which are located in CEE. The headquarters of the central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group, established in 1927, is in Vienna, Austria.

4. Allen & Overy is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

A member of the UK's Magic Circle of leading law firms, Allen & Overy is widely considered to be one of the world's elite law firms, advising national and multinational corporations, financial institutions, and governments. Since its founding in 1930, Allen & Overy has grown to become one of the largest law firms in the world, both by number of lawyers and revenue. With approximately 5,000 staff and 38 offices worldwide, the firm provides legal advice in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.

5. Marks and Spencer plc (also known as M&S or Your M&S; colloquially known as Marks and Sparks) is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London. It has over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries with 76,250 employees. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products. M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. In 1998, it became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion.

Ex.5. Read the above information about the companies again and make up a company profile chart as shown below.

Company name	Multimedia Solutions Inc
Main area of business
Products/services
Customers
Location: Head office Subsidiaries	Head office in Guilford, near London; offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as agencies in Dublin, Paris, Rome and Madrid
When did it start up?
Number of employees	200 full-time Internet consultants and web designers
Other information

Ex.6. Ask and answer questions about the following companies.

IBM Corporation – Computer hardware, software, IT services and consulting. Founded in June 1911. Headquartes – Armonk, New York, U.S. Area served – worldwide. Employees – 431,212 (2013).

SONY Corporation – Founded 7 May 1946. Headquarters – Minato, Tokyo. Area served – worldwide. Products – consumer electronics, telecommunications, communication & information equipment, films, television, music. Services – financial services, insurance, banking, credit finance and advertising agency. Employees – 146,300 (2013).

Nestlé – Food processing. Founded in 1866. Headquarters – Vevey, Switzerland. Operation – 86 countries around the world. Products – Baby food, coffee, dairy products, breakfast cereals, confectionery, bottled water, ice cream, pet foods. Employees – 333,000 (2013).

FCB – Advertising agency. Founded in 1873 (as Lord & Thomas). Headquarters – New York, Chicago. Number of locations – 96 countries. Services – Marketing communications. Employees – 8,600 (2013).

Ex.7. The following nouns are useful to describe large companies and their parts.

Agency, parent company, enterprise, headquarters, plant, subsidiary, group of companies, branch, department, factory, main office, production facility, warehouse, chain, business, distribution centre, firm, office, multinational, conglomerate, franchise, company, division, head office, sister company, section

Group together the words with similar meaning from the above list.

Model: a company - a business, a firm, an enterprise

a factory -

a warehouse -

a subsidiary -

the head office -

a department -

a multinational -

Ex.8. Complete the description of Nokia Corporation, with one word for each space.

founded partnership employees corporation services headquartered manufacturing facilities

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications (1) __________, which is (2) __________ in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki. Nokia is engaged in the (3) __________ of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries. With over 123,000 __________ in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and global annual revenue of over €42 billion as of 2010, it is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones. Nokia offers Internet (4) __________ such as applications, games, music, maps, media and messaging through its Ovi platform.

The Nokia Research Center, (5) __________ in 1986, is Nokia's industrial research unit consisting of about 500 researchers, engineers and scientists. It has sites in seven countries: Finland, China, India, Kenya, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Nokia operates a total of 15 (6) __________ located in Finland, Brazil, Romania, China, Hungary, India, Mexico and South Korea.

On 11 February 2011, Nokia announced a (7) __________ with Microsoft where all future Nokia smartphones will be powered by the Windows Phone (WP7) operating system.

Ex.9. Search for information about a few companies. Prepare to give a short presentation on any of them. The following phrases will help you to order the information.

Introducing yourself	Hello. My name is …, and I’d like to welcome you to my presentation. I’m going to tell you about…
Informing the audience about the structure of the presentation	My presentation consists of … parts. I’ll begin with… Then, I’ll tell you about … I’ll also look at … Finally, I’ll inform you of…
Moving from one point to another	To start with, I’d like to mention … Now, I’ll move on to … As I said before, … In conclusion, I’d like to say …
Concluding	Thank you for your attention. If you have any questions, I’ll be glad to answer them.

B Describing jobs

Remember:

people work for or at a company

they work in an industry, department or team

they are responsible for other staff and for (doing) their work

they are in charge of (managing) other staff

they are responsible to or accountable to their boss/manager

Ex. 10. Read and memorise the following sentences.

I’m a sales manager.

(I’m the Chief Executive Officer)

I work for ATT.

I’m in marketing/banking/insurance.

I’m responsible for handling all projects.

I’m in public relations. I’m in charge of handling the external face of our company to the media and community.

I’m accountable to the General Manager.

Ex.11. Complete the following dialogues.

1) A So, who do you work _____?

B WordStar.

A They’re _____ computers, aren’t they?

B That’s right. I’m _____ product manager. What about you?

A I work _____ Bechtel.

B So you’re _____ the construction business?

A Yes, I’m _____ engineer.

2) А So, you're here on business?

В Yeah. I work _____ a consulting company, Santa Partners.

А And what do you do?

В I'm _____ leading consultant. I’m responsible _____ providing advice and training on the development, administration, and technical aspects.And what company do you work _____ ?

А Inex Chemicals. I'm _____ analyst. My job is to coordinate quality related data from production, service, or process improvement activities.

Ex.12. Read the text and complete the organizational chart of the company.

I think we have a fairly typical organization for a manufacturing firm. We're divided into Finance, Production, Marketing and Human Resources departments.

The Human Resources department is the simplest. It consists of two sections. One is responsible for recruitment and personnel matters, the other is in charge of training.

The Marketing department is made up of three sections: Sales, Sales Promotion, and Advertising, whose heads are all accountable to the marketing manager.

The Production department consists of five sections. The first of these is Production Control, which is in charge of both Scheduling and Materials Control. Then there's Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Engineering Support. Manufacturing contains three sections: Tooling, Assembly, and Fabrication.

Finance is composed of two sections: Financial Management, which is responsible for capital requirements, fund control, and credit, and Accounting.

Ex.13. Read the following job descriptions, then choose the best job title from the list matching each job description.

1. My job is to look after the employees of the company. I am responsible for recruitment and staff training, and also deal with problems related to pay, pensions, promotion, and so on.

2. I’m responsible for sales. I’m in charge of a number of salespeople. I also help to devise the company’s advertising policy, together with the marketing department.

3. I organize the managing director’s appointments, make the arrangements for his meetings and business trips, answer the telephone and greet his visitors. I do some typing – letters, reports, and things like that.

4. I’m on the front desk, greeting visitors, receiving deliveries, and also I answer the telephone.

5. I keep the company’s books. This means records of sales income, expenditure, taxes and so on. I’m also in charge of payroll.

6. I do PR for my company, which involves dealing with the press as well as members of the public. I prepare press releases about things that we are doing, new products, special deals and so on.

7. I take overall responsibility for the company’s accounts, and control money coming in and going out of the company.

8. I am in charge of buying the required items for my company. My aim is to get the best possible deal, so I constantly look for new suppliers and technologies.

9. I help to develop the IT skills of employees. My job is to teach basic PC skills and show people how to use different software packages.

10. I work with computers. I am responsible for installing and repairing hardware and maintaining databases for our company’s applications.

Receptionist; IT Specialist; Sales Manager; PA to the MD*; IT Trainer; External Relations Director; Finance Director; Accountant; Personnel Manager; Purchasing Manager.

*Personal Assistant to the Managing Director

Ex.14. Look at these words which are often found in job titles.

Senior	Sales	Director
Assistant	Managing	Manager
Vice	Personnel	Assistant
Deputy	Marketing	Accountant
Executive	Human Resources Development	Officer
Personal	Financial	Controller
Chief	Customer Services	Executive
Head of	Accounts	Secretary
Director of	IT	Technician
Assistant to	Public relations	Advisor

These words can be combined in different ways to describe different jobs:

Personal Assistant to the Managing Director

Senior Sales Executive

Sales Assistant

Customer Services Manager

Personnel Officer

Head of Human Resources Development

Ex.15. Think about a job you would like to have in the future. Practise explaining your “job” to a visitor or a new colleague. Use the following notes:

I work for __________.

I’m the/a __________.

I’m responsible for __________.

I’m in charge of __________.