UNIT 1 

: COMPANY STRUCTURE
I. INTRODUCTION

A company is a voluntary association formed and organized to carry on a business

with the aim of making profit. Types of companies include sole proprietorship, partnership,
private and public limited company. You may need to present your company to visitors, potential
investors or partners, or new suppliers and clients. Here is some useful English vocabulary to learn
that will help you talk clearly, concisely and positively about what your company does.

II. DEFINITION OF A COMPANY STRUCTURE

A clearly defined structure helps the company avoid breakdown of communication, low morale,
and business losses. That is the company effectively pursuit its goals.

Most large profit- making organisations like France Telecom, Samsung, Société Générale and -
for- non profit organisations like Unicef, Université de Cocody and CHU de Treichville to have
similar corporate structures, which often include a marketing department, finance department, HR
department, Research and Development , legal and IT departments.

ORGANIZATION CHART FRAMEWORK

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 EXAMPLE OF ORGANIZATION CHART

II- Description:

At the top of the company hierarchy is the Board of Directors (BOD), headed by the Chairperson
or President. The Board is responsible for policy decisions and strategy. It will usually appoint a
Managing Director (MD) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who has overall responsibility for the
running of the business. Senior managers or Company officers head the various departments or
functions within the company, which may include the following:

a. Marketing
b. Public Relations
c. Information Technology or IT
d. Personnel or Human Resources
e. Finance
f. Production
g. Research & Development (R&D)
h. Logistics

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 Activities

a) Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers,

for the purpose of selling that product or service.

b) Public Relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an
individual or an organization and the public. The aim of public relations is to persuade the
public, prospective customers, partners and employees to maintain a certain point of view about
it.

c) Information Technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications

equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data.

d) Personnel or Human Resources (HR) is typically responsible for a number of activities,

including employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and
rewarding.

e) Finance department includes:

- Book keeping procedures.

- Creating a balance sheet and profit and loss account.

- Providing management information and
- Wages and salaries

f) Production department is responsible for turning inputs into finished outputs through a
series of production processes.
g). The research and development (R&D), is to develop new products, in other word is to discover
and create new knowledge about scientific and technological topics for the products, processes,
and services.

h) Logistics Department is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and
the point of consumption in order to meet some requirements, of customers or corporations. It also
consists of material handling, warehousing, information, transportation, packaging and inventory.

i) Legal. The Legal team consists of lawyers and other advisers with a wealth of experience, capable of
assisting on a wide range of matters.

III- VOCABULARY USEFUL ENGLISH PHRASES

A-Company structure

- At the head is the President, or CEO.

- Below the President is the Managing Director, who has overall responsibility for the day-to-
day running of the company.
- The company is divided into different departments, each with its own director. The Marketing
and Sales department consists of the sales team, and customer services. The Administration
department also includes Human Resources.
- We employ more than 2000 people worldwide.

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 C-Giving the history of your company

- We were founded / set up / established in 1981.

- We merged with X company in 1990.
- We set up a subsidiary in the UK.
- The subsidiary was sold off two years after and the remaining company was split into five
different divisions.
- We floated on the stock exchange last year, and we are now listed on the London Stock
Exchange.

D-Talking about your products and services

- We make / produce packaging material.
- We manufacture car engines.
- We supply paper products.
- We launched a new washing powder last month. It has revolutionised the washing process.
We have pioneered new ways of reducing energy costs in domestic appliances.
- We are researching new products for the home entertainment industry. We hope to roll them
out early next year.
- We are developing new software for the internet. Our R&D department is working closely
with our international partners.

E-Company performance
- We are the market leaders in three countries.
- We have expanded our operations.
- Our company has grown by one-third.
- We make annual profits of £1 million.
- Our turnover is in excess of £2 million.

F- Responsibilities

- I report to the Marketing Manager.

- I deal with customer enquiries.
- We work closely with the sales team, who are in charge of customer accounts.
- We co-operate with our offices worldwide.
- We have more than one branch in some countries.
- We are responsible for our own markets.

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ASSIGNMENT 1

Choose a company of your choice and answer the following questions.

1. Which company do you work for?

2. Which company are you with?

3. Who do you represent?

4. I work for …………Company.

5. I'm with ……...

6. I represent (the) ……… (company).

7. What is the name of your company?

8. Where are you located?

9. The name of our company is . . . .

10. Our company is located in . . . .

11. Our headquarters is in . . .

12. What (type of business) do you do?

13. What business are you in?

14. We are in the computer business.

15. We're in computers

16. We sell . . .

17. We produce . . .

18. We manufacture . . .

19. Our major products are . . .

ASSIGNMENT 2

Company Departments

MARKETING
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
SALES

CUSTOMER
HUMAN
FINANCE PRODUCT DELIVERY RESOURCES 8
DEVELOPMENT
 Fig: Company departments

The company consist of / is made up of / is divided into several departments. Which departments
does which job? Match each job from the column on the left to a company department from the
column on the right.

A Training 1 Puts the product into boxes

B Production 2 Pays wages and salaries
C Purchasing 3 Looks after the equipment
D Personnel or Human Resources 4 Deals with complaints
E Packaging 5 Is responsible for manufacturing the goods
F Sales 6 Sends invoices to customers
G Payroll 7 Buys equipment and the things the company needs
H Distribution 8 Talks to journalists and presents the company to the
public
I Quality Control 9 Sends products to the customer
J Customer Service 10 Buys media space, deals with new product launches
K Marketing & Advertising 11 Deals with recruiting new staff
L Maintenance 12 Sends representatives to visit customers
M Accounts 13 Helps to develop new skills
N Public Relations 14 Tries to develop new products
O Research & Development or 15 Deals with the use of electronic computers and computer
R&D software to store, analyse and send out information
P Information Technology or IT 16 Checks goods and makes sure the standards are
maintained

ASSIGNMENT 3

Read the text, in which Bernard Levesque describes the organisation of MTS Paris.
Do exercises that follow.

‘My name's Bernard Levesque and I'm the Technical and Quality Manager at MTS in Paris
and work within the MTD - the Materials Testing Division, which makes equipment used by
industrial firms to test the strength and durability of materials like plastics, metals and so forth.

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We're a subsidiary of MTS Systems Corporation, an American firm based in Minneapolis. MTS
employs roughly 2,200 people worldwide and is a leading supplier of mechanical testing and
simulation equipment. Our major development and manufacturing operations are located in the
US, France and Germany, and we have sales and service offices around the world.

Before I describe the organisation of my department, I'll outline the structure from the top,
starting with Werner Ongyert, our CEO, who oversees all aspects of our activities here. Just below
him is the General Manager, Jacques Mordelet, who is my immediate superior.Then there's
Sylviane Villaret, the Human Resources Director, and Genevieve Cornetti, the GM's Secretary,
who also report directly to him. We have a management team that includes myself, Dominique
Faurieux, the Sales Manager, Jean-Francois Reinauld, the Finance Manager, and of course,
Jacques Mordelet, who is also the Marketing Manager. There are also two new departments -
Customer Service and NVD, the Noise and Vibration Division - headed by Louis Regnier and
Patrick Dhommee respectively.

Now, getting back to the way my department is organised, I'm responsible for operations,
so I'm in charge of Purchasing and Planning, R&D and Quality. The Purchasing and Planning
Department schedules production based on orders provided by the sales team and forecasts from
the Marketing Department. In R&.D, there are three sub-departments - Mechanical Engineering,
Electronics, and Software Engineering - which are involved in developing new products and
modifying existing products to meet customer demands. They receive technical specifications
from the Marketing Department and provide drawings, a parts list and assembly instructions.
Nathalie Launay works closely with me on Quality - an area that takes up nearly a third of my
time. And finally there's the head of Shipping, as well as the person in charge of Assembly, who
also report to me.’

Notes:

MTD -the Materials Testing Division

CEO – chief executive office

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1. Complete the information.

1. The name of the company _____________.

2. Its head office is based in _____________.
3. The company specialises in _____________.
4. Its factories are located in _____________.
5. Bernard Levesque works in _____________.
6. He is _____________.

2. Match the names of the managers with their titles.

1. Louis Regnier a) the CEO

2. Domenique Faurieux b) the Sales Manager
3. Jacques Mordelet c) the Customer Service Manager
4. Werner Onguert d) the Technical and Quality Manager
5. Bernard Levesque e) the General Manager
6. Jean-Francois Reinauld f) the Manager of the Noise and Vibration Division
7. Silviane Villaret g) the GM’s Secretary
8. Genevieve Cornetti h) the Finance and Marketing Manager
9. Patrick Dhommee i) the Human Resource Director

3. Translation

Provide the French equivalent of the following:

1. the CEO a)

2. the Sales Manager b)

3. the Customer Service Manager c)

4. the Technical and Quality Manager d)

5. the General Manager e)

6. the Manager of the Noise and f)

Vibration Division

7. The GM’s Secretary g)

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8. the Finance and Marketing Manager h)

9. the Human Resource Director i)