Vocabulary: Describing character

A – B

positive:

decisive (indecisive), charismatic (uncharismatic),motivating (demotivating), adventurous (unadventurous), open (closed), informal (formal), passionate (dispassionate), flexible (inflexible), energetic (lethargic), straight (crooked), accessible (inaccessible), moderate (immoderate), balanced (unbalanced), careful (careless), thoughtful (thoughtless)

negative:

ruthless (gentle), uncaring (caring), impulsive (cautious), lunatic (sane), aggressive (unaggressive)

C – D

According to Jack Welch a leader should be passionate, driven, energetic, motivating, open, informal, straight, accessible and on the lunatic fringe. A leader shouldn't be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy.

Listening: Running a large company

A – B 14.1

1 courage, imagination, empathy

2 Leaders who have great business ideas and see them through to fruition.

3 They create business ideas and they see them through.

4 By making sure the company has a clear purpose, and by communicating everything that's going on to the employees.

5 Probably a bit of both, but mostly they're made.

Reading: Leadership qualities

B

Parents’ background /values: factory workers ; children of the depression; believed in saving; very religious; ambitious for their only son

Present position: Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola

Previous job: accountant

Previous boss: Roberto Goizueta

Personal qualities: driven, hard-working, introvert, systematic, determined, straight

Management style/beliefs: big on discipline; encourages employees to set themselves difficult targets; anti-hierarchy; communicates freely at all levels; not in favour of conventional desk jobs; believes business planning should be a continual discussion not an annual ritual; believes in technology; believes in personal contact Achievements at Coca-Cola: helped change the company's operations and capital structure to maximise shareholder value; helped turn Coca-Cola around and become a powerhouse; became CEO and chairman as planned

C

1 Drive: energy, self-motivation, determination; Ivester showed he had this quality as the hardest-working man (Goizueta) had ever met.

2 Ivester's teachers at school.

3 He trained as an accountant, got media coaching, spent three years studying marketing, spent two years working constantly to provide essential support for previous CEO.

4 Always dress appropriately for work.

5 So that, instead of thinking of their office as the place where they work, they will think of their office as the information they carry around with them which they can access anywhere with the support of technology.

6 He communicates freely with people at all levels, conducts business planning as a continual discussion - sometimes via voice-mail - with his top executives and doesn't spend all his time in the executive suite.

D

1 champion wealth creator

2 depression

3 powerhouse

4 driven

5 a straight arrow

6 hierarchy

7 annual ritual

8 thrives on

E

1 to continue to transform the company in order to develop the full potential of the staff, increase sales and maximise profit growth

2 increased competition from outside, resistance to change from inside

Language review: Relative clauses

A

1 which 2 which 3 who 4 who 5 which 6 who

B

1[which/that] where 2 who 3 which 4 who 5 who

C

Carly Fiorina, who has been called America's most powerful business woman, is Chief Executive of the huge Hewlett Packard group, which manufactures computers and printers. Ms Fiorina, who has spent most of her working life in the telecommunications industry, started out as a sales representative with AT&T, where she rose rapidly through the ranks. Later she was a key player in the creation of the equipment and components company Lucent Technologies, where she was in charge of the sales and marketing of networking products. Ms Fiorina now oversees an organisation which is one of the 30 leading companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

UNIT 15 Competition