BCOA-001 /2017-18

Business Communication and Entrepreneurship

1.List out complete range of words you are familiar with. Classify them into active vocabulary and
passive vocabulary.
(a) What are words you have added to your vocabulary?
(b) How many words have shifted from the passive list to the active list?

2. Are entrepreneurs born or made? Discuss with examples and reasons.

3. Differentiate between the following:

a) Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship
b) Innovation and Creativity
c) Management and Administration
d) Licensing & Franchising

4. Briefly comment on the following:

a) Entrepreneurship is essential in economic development.
b) Small Scale industries are businesses that require few people to run.
c) Business communication is the sharing of information between people within an organization.
d) Strong leadership in the organization is important for its success.

5. Write short notes on of the following:

a) Feasibility plan
b) Venture capital
c) Listening skills
d) Report writing
 BCOA-001 /2017-18
Business Communication and Entrepreneurship
1.List out complete range of words you are familiar with. Classify them into active vocabulary and
passive vocabulary.
(a) What are words you have added to your vocabulary?
Ans.The English language continues to amaze me. The number of words we have (in comparison to
many other languages) is astounding. So… in honor of your native tongue, add these 10 words to your
vocabulary.As you look over the list, count how many of these words you already know. I’m curious
what percentage of these words are known to the readers of this blog.

Alacrity (noun): eager and enthusiastic willingness.

We accepted the invitation with alacrity.

1. Exigent (adjective): urgent, pressing; requiring immediate action or attention.

In exigent circumstances, law enforcement can enter a building without a warrant.
2. Fulminate (verb): to loudly attack or denounce.
She fulminated against the new political policies.
3. Obviate (verb): to anticipate and make unnecessary.
The politician’s bill was intended to obviate the more widespread changes being discussed by the
other party.
4. Prevaricate (verb): to deliberately avoid the truth; to mislead.
He could not backbite, nor envy, nor prevaricate, nor jump at mean motives for generous acts.
5. Truculent (adjective): fierce and cruel; eager to fight.
The leader delivered a truculent speech against the new government.
6. Penurious (adjective): penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous.
What might be extravagant today, might in half a century become penurious and inadequate.
7. Redoubtable (adjective): awe-inspiring; worthy of honor He was a redoubtable fighter.
8. Dissemble (verb): to disguise or conceal; to mislead.
I will not dissemble what real pleasure his sight afforded me.
9. Obsequious (adjective): exhibiting a fawning attentiveness
Lady Arabella stood a little on one side, and the African, accepting the movement as an invitation,
entered in an obsequious way.

(b) How many words have shifted from the passive list to the active list?
Ans.All language learners have a much wider passive (or receptive) vocabulary (i.e. words they
recognise and understand) than the range of active (or productive) vocabulary that they actually can
(and do) make use of. Generally, as our learning progresses, the words in our passive vocab get
transferred to our active repertoire as we become confident enough to use them. Up to a certain level,
that process seems to be fairly natural; we need and want to talk about things which pushes us to start
using new words. Somewhere around intermediate level though, that process often stalls. You reach a
point where you can communicate most basic ideas adequately, so you just rely on the same old,
familiar words and phrases you've grown comfortable with. It may be that your passive vocabulary
continues to expand as you read more complex texts on a variety of subjects and you 'learn' new words,
but whether those words then get put to use is quite a different matter, because they're often not
strictly needed to communicate.

A fixation with new words:

It strikes me that our approach to vocab teaching often tends to reinforce this. Especially at higher
levels, there seems to be a perception that vocab activities should only contain completely 'new' words,
otherwise learners won't feel like they're learning and teachers won't feel like they're teaching. Many's
the time when I've been writing vocab activities that I've had items vetoed because they were 'too
easy', the students would already 'know' that word, it was covered at B1, or whatever. It's an attitude
that bugs me on a number of levels ...

Firstly, just because you've met a word once doesn't mean you know it. Learning vocabulary is a
complex and gradual process that involves repetition and recycling; you need to encounter a word
repeatedly in different contexts to get a feel for it. Especially at higher levels, you need to understand
how a word's used (its register, collocations, colligation) in order to really get to know it. And of course,
English is a highly polysemous language; a single word can have several different meanings or be used in
different expressions, so you can't just tick a single sequence of letters off a list and say you know it!

And then there's knowing and there's knowing. We really need to consider whether we're focusing on a
particular lexical item because we want students to recognise it (as part of their passive vocab) or
whether we expect them to actually start using it as part of their active vocabulary. And we need to
think about how we can shift words from the passive category to the active. When students say they
already 'know' word, we need to challenge them to start using it; to explicitly recognise and encourage
that process of shifting from one set to the other.

A balanced vocab diet:

Oh yes, of course revision and recycling are important, I hear you say, but it's about more than just
revisiting words in another receptive context (although, of course, that's important). For me, vocabulary
activities need to include a smattering of comfortable, known vocab (perhaps working on those tricky
points of usage like dependent prepositions), a handful of genuinely new items (so we all feel like we're
breaking new ground) and then a healthy dose of that in-between category of words that we want to
move from passive to active. And they need to include an appropriate mix of receptive and productive
tasks. Especially when we're looking at those passive-active words, we need to encourage students to
really use them, maybe choosing a handful of words they haven't used before to include a piece of
writing or in an oral presentation.

2. Are entrepreneurs born or made? Discuss with examples and reasons.

Ans.It is a commonly held view that entrepreneurs areborn, not made – that what leads someone to
become a successful entrepreneur has more to do with their personality and innate qualities than
anything learned through formal education. It is a commonly held view that entrepreneurs are born,
not made – that what leads someone to become a successful entrepreneur has more to do with their
personality and innate qualities than anything learned through formal education. The biographies of
entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, Alan Sugar and Theo Paphitis, all of whom left school at 16 to
make their own way in the world of business, add to the impression that entrepreneurs are born not
made.  The idea that certain entrepreneurial traits – such as being able to spot opportunities, think
differently and take risks – may be inherent has even led to a whole new area of genetic research. So, is
it really that simple?  Do entrepreneurs pursue their path because of a genetic predisposition to do so? 
I am not convinced.  Having met many successful entrepreneurs in the course of my work, I can safely
say that they have included an enormous diversity of individuals and personality types – a mix of
introverts and extroverts, natural risk-takers and those with a more cautious outlook, each exhibiting
their own particular strengths in their entrepreneurial endeavours. There isn’t one single type of
entrepreneur, just as there isn’t one single type of business opportunity.  The talent of many
entrepreneurs lies in their ability to align their skills and their passion with potential opportunities –
and, as the next stage on, to develop the skills and attributes they need to maximise those
opportunities. A survey last year by Ernst & Young of 685 entrepreneurial leaders found that experience
is key to people becoming entrepreneurs.  Fifty eight per cent of the respondents were “transitioned”
entrepreneurs who had previously been employees.  Many cited their experience in a corporate
environment as an important training ground for their subsequent entrepreneurial career.
As well as experiences gained through work, another type of experience relevant to entrepreneurial
success is the wider set of life skills which span both our personal and professional lives.  A recent blog
by Nischala Murthy Kaushik highlighted the “33 Life Lessons No School Really Taught Me”, touching on
skills such as; how to deal with change, handling failure, learning when and how to say ‘no’, how to ask
for help, and mastering the art of prioritisation.  All valuable lessons for any entrepreneur. In short,
entrepreneurial skills and attributes can be taught and are something that I believe should be part of
the educational experience of all young people. That is why City College Norwich is at the forefront of
the Gazelle group, which is bringing together like-minded entrepreneurs and college leaders nationally
to create a new generation of entrepreneurial colleges.  Using the inspirational environment of The
StartUp Lounge, we are giving students opportunities to experience what it is like to be part of a
business start-up and to develop the skills of an entrepreneur as a core part of their education. So,
entrepreneurs can be made as well as born… and we can all play our part in helping to make the next
generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.

3. Differentiate between the following:

a) Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship
Ans.Difference between Entrepreneur and Intrapreneur – Explained! Of late, a new breed
of entrepreneurs is coming to the fore in large industrial organisations. They are called 'intrapreneurs'.
They emerge from within the confines of an existing enterprise. As both entrepreneur and intrapreneur
share similar qualities like conviction, creativity, zeal and insight, the two are used interchangeably.
However, the two are different, as an entrepreneur is a person who takes a considerable amount of risk
to own and operate the business, with an aim of earning returns and rewards, from that business. He is
the most important person who envisions new opportunities, products, techniques and business lines
and coordinates all the activities to make them real.
On the contrary, an intrapreneur is an employee of the organization who is paid remuneration
according to the success of the business unit, for which he/she is hired or responsible.The primary
difference between an entrepreneur and intrapreneur is that the former refers to a person who starts
his own business with a new idea or concept, the latter represents an employee who promotes
innovation within the limits of the organization.

b) Innovation and Creativity

Ans.The main difference between creativity and innovation is the focus. Creativity is about unleashing
the potential of the mind to conceive new ideas. Those concepts could manifest themselves in any
number of ways, but most often, they become something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste.
However, creative ideas can also be thought experiments within one person’s mind.

Creativity is subjective, making it hard to measure, as our creative friends assert.

Innovation, on the other hand, is completely measurable. Innovation is about introducing change into
relatively stable systems. It’s also concerned with the work required to make an idea viable. By
identifying an unrecognized and unmet need, an organization can use innovation to apply its creative
resources to design an appropriate solution and reap a return on its investment.

Organizations often chase creativity, but what they really need to pursue is innovation. Theodore Levitt
puts it best: “What is often lacking is not creativity in the idea-creating sense but innovation in the
action-producing sense, i.e. putting ideas to work.”

c) Management and Administration

Ans.Difference Between Management and Administration. Management and administrationmay seem
the same, but there are differencesbetween the two. Administration has to do with the setting up of
objectives and crucial policies of every organization. ... Management is used by business enterprises.
 Administration frames the objectives and policies of an organization. Management implements these
policies and objectives.
Management and administration are at times used interchangeably; however, they are two different
levels of the organization. The administration is the top level of the organization with the decisive
functions. They are responsible for determining the policies and objectives of the organization or the
firm. Management, on the other hand is the middle level executive function. They implement the
policies and objectives as decided by the administration. The administration includes the people who
are either owners or partners of the firm. They usually contribute to the firm’s capital and earn profits
or returns on their investment. The main administrative function is handling the business aspects of the
firm, such as finance. Other administrative functions usually include planning, organizing, staffing,
directing, controlling and budgeting. Administration must integrate leadership and vision, to organize
the people and resources, in order to achieve common goals and objectives for the organization

d) Licensing & Franchising

Ans.To understand the difference between licensing and franchising the starting point is to look at
what each term means. Franchising is a way to scale a business once it is successful and proven. ... In
exchange, the franchisee puts up the initial capital for the business, helps to promote the brand and
pays a licence fee.
For a company looking to expand, franchising and licensing are often appealing business models. In
a franchising model, the franchisee uses another firm's successful business model and brand name
to operate what is effectively an independent branch of the company. The franchiser maintains a
considerable degree of control over the operations and processes used by the franchisee, but also
helps with things like branding and marketing support that aid the franchise. The franchiser also
typically ensures that branches do not cannibalize each other's revenues.
Under a licensing model, a company sells licenses to other (typically smaller) companies to use
intellectual property (IP), brand, design or business programs. These licenses are usually non-
exclusive, which means they can be sold to multiple competing companies serving the same
 market. In this arrangement, the licensing company may exercise control over how its IP is used
but does not control the business operations of the licensee.
Both models require that the franchisee/lincensee make payments to the original business that
owns the brand or intellectual property. There are laws that govern the franchising model and
define what constitutes franchising; some agreements end up being legally viewed as franchising
even if they were originally drawn up as licensing agreements.

4. Briefly comment on the following:

a) Entrepreneurship is essential in economic development.
Ans.Waste is possible, because production decisions in the present are based on a forecast of
uncertain future market conditions. If the producer forecasts incorrectly, he will use his capital making
something people do not want. He will also be unable to sell his output at the price needed to cover his
costs.

Entrepreneurs need to use economic calculation if they are to direct factors of production toward their
most valued uses. Market prices allow entrepreneurs to make meaningful comparisons of social value
between different consumers’ and producers’ goods because prices are all expressed in terms of the
same good.  These same objective prices are determined by the subjective preferences of buyers and
sellers:

 If the expected price of a final product is greater than the sum of the prices of the factors of
production, the entrepreneur will produce that good.

 When entrepreneurs reap a profit, they do it precisely by providing those goods that people
value the most in the least costly manner.

One cannot neatly sever the components responsible for economic expansion from one another and
find a single key that explains economic progress:

 A highly developed division of labor would be impossible without the accumulation and use of
capital goods.

 Likewise, the entrepreneur must invest real capital in the production process and if he errs in his
market forecast, he can indeed reap large losses.

 At the same time, capital per se never guarantees economic progress either, because it must be
wisely utilized.

Economic progress is the happy consequence of a highly developed division of labor, taking advantage
of an increasing capital stock wisely invested by entrepreneurs.

b) Small Scale industries are businesses that require few people to run.
Ans.Small scale industries play a vital role in the economic development of our country.
This sector can stimulate economic activity and is entrusted with the responsibility of realising various
objectives generation of more employment opportunities with less investment, reducing regional
imbalances etc. Small scale industries are not in a position to play their role effectively due to various
constraints. The various constraints, the various problems faced by small scale industries are as under:

(1) Finance: Finance is one of the most important problem confronting small scale industries Finance is
the life blood of an organisation and no organisation can function proper у in the absence of adequate
funds. The scarcity of capital and inadequate availability of credit facilities are the major causes of this
problem. Firstly, adequate funds are not available and secondly, entrepreneurs due to weak economic
base, have lower credit worthiness. Neither they are having their own resources nov are others
prepared to lend them. Entrepreneurs are forced to borrow money from money lenders at exorbitant
rate of interest and this upsets all their calculations. After nationalisation, banks have started financing
this sector. These enterprises are still struggling with the problem of inadequate availability of high cost
funds. These enterprises are promoting various social objectives and in order to facilitate then working
adequate credit on easier terms and conditions must be provided to them.

(2) Raw Material: Small scale industries normally tap local sources for meeting raw material
requirements. These units have to face numerous problems like availability of inadequate quantity,
poor quality and even supply of raw material is not on regular basis. All these factors adversely affect t e
functioning of these units. Large scale units, because of more resources, normally corner whatever raw
material that is available in the open market. Small scale units are thus forced to purchase the same raw
material from the open market at very high prices. It will lead to increase in the cost of production
thereby making their functioning unviable.

(3) Idle Capacity: There is under utilisation of installed capacity to the extent of 40 to 50 percent in case
of small scale industries. Various causes of this under-utilisation are shortage of raw material problem
associated with funds and even availability of power. Small scale units are not fully equipped to
overcome all these problems as is the case with the rivals in the large scale sector.

c) Business communication is the sharing of information between people within an

organization.
Ans.Business communication is information sharing between people within and outside
an organization that is performed for the commercial benefit of theorganization. It can also be defined
as relaying of information within a businessby its people.
Business communication (or simply "communication," in a business context) encompasses topics such
as marketing, brand management, customer relations, consumer behavior, advertising, public
relations, corporate communication, communityengagement, reputation management, interpersonal
communication, employee engagement, and event management. It is closely related to the fields
of professional communication and technical communication.
Media channels for business communication include the Internet, print
media, radio, television, ambient media, and word of mouth.
Business communication can also be said to be the way employees, management and administration
communicate in order to reach to their organizational goals.
Business communication is a common topic included in the curricular of Undergraduate and Master's
degree programs at many colleges and universities.
There are several methods of business communication, including:
 Web-based communication - for better and improved communication, anytime anywhere...
 Video conferencing - which allow people in different locations to hold interactive meetings;
 Reports - important in documenting the activities of any department;
 Presentations - very popular method of communication in all types of organizations, usually
involving audiovisual material, like copies of reports, or material prepared in Microsoft
PowerPoint or Adobe Flash;
 Telephone meetings, which allow for long distance speech;
 Forum boards, which allow people to instantly post information at a centralized location; and
 Face-to-face meetings, which are personal and should be succeeded by a written followup.
·Suggestion box: It is primarily used for upward communication, because some people may hesitate to
communicate with management directly, so they opt to give suggestions by drafting one and putting it
in the suggestion box.
The sharing of information between people within an enterprise that is performed for the commercial
benefit of the organization. In addition, business communication can also refer to how a company
shares information to promote its product or services to potential consumers.

d) Strong leadership in the organization is important for its success.

Ans.Good leadership is essential to business, to government and to the numerous groups and
organisations that shape the way we live, work and play. Leadership is an important factor for making
an organisation successful. Here we are concerned with the manager as a leader. Leadership transforms
potential into reality. Leaders are a key human resource in any organisation. We generally think of
companies competing by means of their products, but they probably compete more by means of their
leaders than their products. Better leaders develop better employees and the two together develop
better products. The importance of leadership in management cannot be overemphasized. To get things
done by people, management must supply leadership in the organisation. Team-work is essential for
realising organisational goals. Managers must influence the team for work accomplishment through
leadership. Secondly, leadership aids authority.
There are limits to the use of authority in obtaining high performance amongst subordinates. Authority
alone cannot generate a favourable attitude for improved performance. Because of its main reliance on
influence, leadership is essential for obtaining successful work accomplishment.
Thirdly, if management fails to provide able leadership, informal leadership will develop which will
eventually regulate the behaviour of the employees and may come into conflict with managerial
leadership. If management cannot provide leadership, people will be forced to rely on informal
leadership. Lastly, management is transformed into a social process through leadership action. It is the
social skill of leadership which accomplishes organisational goals by utilizing the potential of the people.
The leader must be a ‘hero’.

5. Write short notes on of the following:

a) Feasibility plan
Ans.Feasibility Planning. A feasibility study is a brief formal analysis of a prospective business idea. The
goal of a feasibility study is to give the entrepreneur a clear evaluation of the potential for sales and
profit for a particular idea.
A feasibility study is a brief formal analysis of a prospective business idea. The goal of a feasibility study
is to give the entrepreneur a clear evaluation of the potential for sales and profit for a particular idea.
Therefore, feasibility analyses focus on the market size and shares, competing products or services, the
pricing structure and, given the three of these, the likely sales and profits of the prospective business. 

These are designed to be done in a few days, and aim to provide "go-no go" decisions. Fortunately,
most of the feasibility analysis is used in the business plan. 

b) Venture capital
Ans.Venture capital is financing that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses that are
believed to have long-term growth potential. For startups without access to capital markets, venture capital is an
essential source of money. Risk is typically high for investors, but the downside for the startup is that
these venture capitalists usually get a say in company decisions.
Venture capital generally comes from well-off investors, investment banks and any other financial
institutions that pool similar partnerships or investments. Though providing venture capital can be risky
for the investors who put up the funds, the potential for above-average returns is an attractive payoff.
Venture capital does not always take a monetary form; it can be provided in the form of technical or
managerial expertise. For new companies or startup ventures that have a limited operating history,
venture capital funding is increasingly becoming a popular capital raising source, as funding through
loans or other debt instruments is not readily available.

c) Listening skills
Ans.Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are
easily misunderstood. As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can
easily become frustrated or irritated. If there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then
listening is it.

Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees.
This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer
satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, and increased sharing of information that in turn
can lead to more creative and innovative work.

d) Report writing

Ans.There are many different types of reports - scientific lab reports, business reports, systems analysis
reports, management case study reports, feasibility studies, client case work reports. All of these
different reports have their own formats and conventions.In this tutorial you can examine a sample
first-year management case study report. The report received a grade of High Distinction. Comment is
made by the subject lecturer and Language and Learning staff on the structure, presentation, and
expression used in the report, and improvements are suggested. In your field of study, you will need to
find out exactly what the accepted report conventions are. Note that these conventions may vary from
one subject to the next. A report is written for a clear purpose and to a particular audience. Specific
information and evidence are presented, analysed and applied to a particular problem or issue. The
information is presented in a clearly structured format making use of sections and headings so that the
information is easy to locate and follow.  When you are asked to write a report you will usually be given
a report brief which provides you with instructions and guidelines. The report brief may outline the
purpose, audience and problem or issue that your report must address, together with any specific
requirements for format or structure. This guide offers a general introduction to report writing; be sure
also to take account of specific instructions provided by your department.