Business : Int: Organisation

Companystructure

Match the words and phrases (1-8) to their definitions (a-h).

1 subsidiary                     a) an of Ace where people answer questions and make sales over the phone
2 factory/plant             b) a building from which goods or supplies are sent to factories, shops or customers
3 call centre             c) a place through which products are sold
4 service centre                d) a place where faulty products are mended
5 headquarters                e) a company which is at least half-owned by another company
6 distribution centre          f) the main office or building of a company
7 warehouse                    g) a building for storing goods in large quantities
8 outlet                            h) a large building or group of buildings where goods are made (using machinery)

What do the following departments do?
In R&D, people research and develop new prodvct.

1 R&D                                   5 Production                  9 Logistics
2 Customer Services        6 Finance                         10 Public Relations
3 Human Resources        7 Administration             11 IT
4 Sales and Marketing     8 Legal

Match these activities (a-k) to the correct department in Exercise C (1-11).Can you add any other activities to any of the departments?

a) deal with complaints                        
b) draw up contracts                                            
c) carry out research                              
d) train staff                   
e) fun advertising         
f) issue press releases     
g) operate assembly lines systems         
h) prepare budgets/ accounts               
i) keep records                                         
j) transport goods and campaigns       
k) install and maintain equipment       

Match these nouns from the article (1-5) to their meanings (a-e).


1 accomplishments (p 2)  a) important new plans to achieve an aim
2 initiatives (p3)                 b) success in doing something
3 autonomy (p 6)     c) giving people the power to do something
4 empowerment (p6)   d) teaching staff
5 faculty (p7)       e) independence/freedom to make your own decisions

Nouncombinations

We can combine two or more nouns in several ways.
1 's possessive: the company's logo
2 one noun used as an adjective: labour costs
3 phrases with of: director of operations
4 compound nouns forming one word: workforce

Match these examples from the article to the categories above. ( 1,2,3,4)
a) Internet company                                               
b) culture of autonomy                                           
c) Google's objective                                               
d) teamwork                                                             

Compound nouns are sometimes formed with a number to make expressions of measurement. Change these phrases to make compound nouns.

1 a plan which lasts for 10 years                          a 10 -year plan

2 a hotel with five stars                                               
3 a budget worth three million dollars                     
4 a presentation that lasts 20 minutes                     
5 a contract worth 200,000 dollars                         
6 an industrial empire which is 150 years old       

Analysing company organisation

listen to Richard Rawlinson, Vice-President of the management consultants Booz & Co. Which four areas does Booz & Co look at when analysing a company's organisation?





listen to the second part of the interview and answer the questions.




1 What do you need to answer on the website orgdna.com?
2 What are your answers compared to?
3 What can the comparison recognise?
4 How does Booz & Co analyse a company in more depth?

listen to the third part and answer the questions.



1 How was the American company organised?
2 What did Manufacturing and Marketing do?
3 What was the company not very good at?
4 How did the consultants want to change the organisation?

listen to the third part again and complete the gaps.

We did a lot of looking at how the business    where products were  where they were  how competitors were  . And we also had to spend a lot of time thinking about whether we needed    or whether every single business unit would report back to the  , er , in the US.

Socialising: introductions and networking

listen to the three conversations. Choose the correct description for each one.

1- 

2-  

3-

a) G reeting someone and talking about the weather
b) Introducing another person
c) Introducing yourself and giving information about your company
d) Greeting someone and talking about the past / changes

Conversation 1 : Conversation 2 : Conversation 3 :

listen to the second conversation again and complete this extract.



Bob Well, we're basically an business. We supply companies and organisations with various services including IT,   , travel and even cleaning services.
Karin I see. And is it a new company?
Bob No, we're well established. The company was   in the mid-1980s, and we've been growing rapidly ever since. It's organised into four  . We have over 7,000   ; we've got our    in London and v  in New York, Cape Town and Sydney - so we're pretty big.