商务英语阅读 (Business English Reading)

Unit 1 Communication
Section A: Text Reading

Text 1
Vocabulary
 allocate [ˈæləkeɪt] vt. 分配；把……拨给
 automated [ˈɔːtəmeɪtɪd] adj. 自动化的
 bombard [bɒmˈbɑːd] vt. 轰炸；向…提供大量信息
 branch[brɑːntʃ] n. 树枝;分支机构，分店；
 cargo [ˈkɑːɡəʊ] n. 货物，船货
 customs [ˈkʌstəmz] n. 风俗（custom的复数）海关；
 duplicate [ˈdjuːplɪkeɪt] vt. 复制
 dynamics [daɪ‘næmɪks] n. 动态
 identify [aɪˈdentɪfaɪ] v. 识别；发现；认同
 logistical [lə‘dʒɪstɪkl] adj. 物流的
 loyalty [ˈlɔɪəlti] n.忠诚
 repercussion [ˌriːpəˈkʌʃn] n. 令人不满意的后果
 screen [skriːn] vt. 筛选；甄别
 temptation [tempˈteɪʃ(ə)n] n. 诱惑
 withdraw [wɪðˈdrɔː] v.撤回；退出

Read the following questions and underline the key word(s)

 1. What communication problems did Gearbulk have?
 2. How did Gearbulk overcome the problems?
 3. What solutions does Theobald recommend for the above problems?
 4. According to the author, why do staff often receive too many e-mails?
 5. Why weren’t the two government departments communicating in the mid-1990s?
 6. What does the author think about sending people on communication courses?

Communication-it’s much easier said than done

By Clare Gascoigne

(1) Getting staff to talk to each other ought to be the least of your problems, but internal communication can
be one of the hardest nuts to crack in business.

(2) “Communication comes up in every department. The repercussions of not communicating are vast,” says
Theo Theobald, co-author of Shut Up and Listen! The Truth about How to Communicate at Work.

(3) Poor communication can be a purely practical problem. Gearbulk, a global shipping business with
branches around the world, faced language and geographical difficulties, as well as a huge amount of
paperwork. With up to 60 documents per cargo, it was a logistical nightmare to track and monitor jobs,
while tighter security regulations after 9/11meant customs documents had to be ready before a ship was
allowed to sail.
(4) Installing an automated system means data is now entered only once but can be accessed by anyone in
the company, wherever they are.

(5) “Reporting is faster by a matter of months,” says Ramon Ferrer, Vice President of Global IT at
Gearbulk. “An operational team carrying a voyage all the way across the world doesn’t always have to
be talking to each other—and we don’t waste time duplicating the same information.

(6) Given today’s variety of communication tools, it seems strange that we still have a problem
communicating. But the brave new world of high-tech can create barriers—senior managers hide behind
their computers, staff use voice mail to screen calls, and employees sitting next to each other will send
e-mails rather than speak.

(7) “Managers should get up, walk round the office and talk to people,” says Matt Rogan, Head of Marketing
at Lane4, a leadership and communications consultancy. Face to face communication can’t be beaten.”

(8) Theobald recommends checking e-mail only three times a day, allocating a set period of time to deal
with it. “If you leave the sound on, the temptation is as great as a ringing phone. People will interrupt
meetings to check their e-mails.”

(9) Another problem is simply hitting the ‘reply all’ button, bombarding people with information. “We had
unstructured data coming at staff from left, right and center, leaving it up to individuals to sort out,” says
Gearbulk Ferrer. “Our new system has reduced e-mails and changed the way people work. It will remind
you about work flow.” Information overload also means people stop listening. But there may be a deeper
reason why a message fails to get through, according to Alex Haslam, Professor of Psychology at Exeter
University.

(10) “Everyone thinks a failure to communicate is just an individual’s error of judgment, but it’s not about
the person: it’s about the group and the group dynamics,” he says. “Just training people to be good
communicators isn’t the issue.”

(11) The problem is that employees develop common loyalties that are far stronger than the need to share
information. This can even extend the questions of safety.

(12) “In the mid-1990s there were a lot of light air crashes in Australia because the two government
departments responsible for air safety weren’t communicating,” says Haslam. “The government was
trying to save money and both groups felt threatened. The individuals were highly identified with their
own organization and unwilling to communicate with the other department.”

(13) A company is particularly at risk when cost-cutting is in the air. Individuals withdraw into departmental
loyalties out of fear. Sending such people on yet another ‘how to communicate’ course will be pointless.
Instead, Haslam believes that identifying the subgroups within an organization and making sure each
group feels valued and respected can do far more to encourage the sharing of information. ‘The key to
communication’, he says, ‘is trust’.

Text 2
Time for communication to move towards centre stage
by Paul Argenti

The last few years have seen the biggest collapse in confidence in business in almost a century—to the
point where probably the least trusted spokespeople on the planet today are corporate executives. When
intense mistrust prevails, whatever a company does says something about it, everything communicates, and
communication affects everything.

This is changing the definition of communication. Communication today is more of a two-way dialogue and
this has been aided by the rise of social media like Facebook and Twitter and the explosion of
information-sharing online. Today’s best-in-class companies, such as Apple in the US and Philips in Europe,
do not just engage in dialogue. They use the latest technology as a source of ideas, opinions and competitive
intelligence, for product development, employee engagement and media monitoring.

In addition to rethinking the definition of communication, the best companies are rethinking its structure.
There is a greater need for integration, collaboration and partnership among corporate leadership, human
capital, finance, sales and legal teams.

Another change in communication by leading companies is the rethinking of key themes. This was the
main finding of research by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, conducted with Doremus, a
business-to-business communications agency. It found that the best-in-class companies have been guided
by six themes:

a Focus on value and values

Stakeholders（利益相关者）demand value for money when buying goods and services, but they also expect to
see a strong set of corporate values in the companies with which they do business. Walmart, Hyundai （现代
集团）and BMW have used this theme in their advertising and communications.

b Evolve a sense of responsibility

Corporate responsibility today is not just about charity or being green. It is about companies being
responsible across all business practices. Consumers, employees and investors are ready to punish
companies that ignore evolving social values. J. P. Morgan Chase（摩根大通集团）has done a fabulous job
reflecting its corporate responsibility initiatives on its website and in advertising.

c Strategy must drive communication

As Jon Iwata, IBM’s senior vice-president for marketing and communications, puts it: “Lincoln said,
‘Character is the tree; reputation is the shadow.’ I’m afraid too many people in PR, marketing and advertising
spend more time manipulating the shadow than tending to the tree.”

d Shifting from the problem to the solution

Stakeholders are most receptive（乐于接受的）to realistic and optimistic plans, and are often ready to pay
less attention to problems of the past year.
e Not communicating is a communication in itself
You either tell your story or have it told for you.

f Re-evaluate positioning
The crisis has led to disruption in how companies are thought of by constituencies（选民）, which provides a
tremendous opportunity to reposition, rebrand and redevelop.

After-reading questions
Choose the best summary for the whole article.

A. Corporate communication is a specialty that is best left to the PR department and advertising agencies.
B. Everything a company does communicates something about it, and executives are becoming
increasingly aware of this.
C. Whatever a company does, people will always misinterpret its action, and companies just have to try to
limit the damage.
Section B: Language work (Idioms on communication)
Part 1

A) to put it in a nutshell

B) to get straight to the point

C) to hear it on the grapevine

D) to put you in the picture

E) to get the wrong end of the stick

F) to be on the same wavelength

G) can’t make head or tail of it

H) to talk at cross purposes

I) to beat about the bush

J) to get our wires crossed


Directions: complete the following sentences with the above idioms


1. OK, I’ll _____________________. I’m afraid we are going to have to let you go.

2. “You and your boss seem to agree on most things.” “Yes, we are _______________.”

3. Some important decisions were taken at yesterday’s meeting. Let me ____________.

4. I think we are ______________________. I mean next month, not this month.

5. He never gives you a straight answer. He’s always _____________________.

6. I _________________________ that he has been fired. Is it true?

7. It’s a very complicated system, but to ____________ it works exactly like a big kettle.

8. If you think our biggest problem is market share then you have ________________.

9. This report makes no sense at all. I ___________________________.

10. Everyone arrived for the meeting at different times. We must have______________.

Part 2

a. air the views

b. be at a loss for words

c. drop a hint

d. give sb. the low-down

e. keep sb. up to date

Directions: complete the following sentences with the above idioms and change the forms of the idioms
where necessary.

1. E-mail me every day to ________________ with the latest developments, will you?

2. When she was told she’d been nominated （提名）Businesswoman of the Year, she
________________.

3. Could you briefly ___________________ on their financial situation before our meeting
this afternoon.

4. Every week in our department there’s a meeting where the administrative （管理的）
staff can _____________ and discuss problems.

5. We can’t be sure, but management _______________ that there might be redundancies
（裁员）.
 Unit 2 International Marketing

Section A: Text Reading

Text 1
Vocabulary
 aspiring [ə'spaɪərɪŋ] adj. 有抱负的；有追求的
 conventional [kənˈvenʃənl] adj. 符合习俗的；传统的
 copy-cat adj. 盗版的；模仿的
 expansion [ɪkˈspænʃn] n. 市场扩张
 franchise[ˈfræntʃaɪz] vt. 给…以特许经营权
 globalize [ˈɡləʊbəlaɪz] v. （使）全球化
 guarantee [ˌɡærənˈtiː] v. 确保；保修
 homogeneous [ˌhɒməˈdʒiːniəs] adj. 同种的；同质的
 launch [lɔːntʃ] v.发起；发行；发射
 license [ˈlaɪsns] n. 执照，许可证 vt. 特许；发许可证给…
 merge [mɜːdʒ] vi. 合并
 novelty[ˈnɒvlti] n. 新颖；新奇的事物
 outlet ['aʊt,lɛt] n.工厂店
 profile [ˈprəʊfaɪl] n. 侧面轮廓；形象
 roll out 推出（新产品，服务等）
 saturate [ˈsætʃəreɪt] vt.使市场饱和
 swallow [ˈswɒləʊ] vt. 吞并
 trial run 试运行

Reading Comprehension
1. What’s the passage mainly about?

A) Starbucks’ adventure stories and Starbucks’ failure in the course of globalization

B) Coffee drinking habits in Latin America and Starbucks’ expansion into this market
C) Coffee consumption in Seattle and Starbucks’ difficulties in their local market
D) Coffee drinking culture in Latin America and Starbucks’ competitors in the global market

2. Identify the country or countries where the statement is true.

A) People in this country would rather drink tea than coffee. _________
B) People in this country would rather drink instant coffee. _________
C) In this country coffee is usually free after dinner in restaurants.__________
D) In this country people drink 345 cups of coffee a year.__________
E) In this country people drink 4kg of whole or ground coffee beans per year._________

3. Where and when did Starbucks begin?

4. How many stores does it own in a) North America? b) the rest of the world?
5. How many stores does it allow others to operate in a) North America? b) the rest of the
world?
6. Which overseas market did Starbucks enter first?
7. In what sort of places can you find Starbucks sales-points?
8. According to the article, what four problems has Starbucks had?
9. How was Starbucks’ performance in Latin America?

Coffee culture comes to coffee-growers

By John Authers and Mark Mulligan

(1) In Chile, they prefer tea to coffee and instant rather than freshly brewed.

(2)In Argentina, by contrast, breakfast is with a frothy cappuccino, a heart-starting espresso,

or a caffe latte. In Brazil, after-dinner coffee is served free at any self-respecting restaurant.

(3)That Latin America is not one great homogeneous culture often surprises travelers.
However, even the most subtle differences in the consumer profile of a Columbian and a
Venezuelan will not have been lost on Starbucks, one of the fastest-growing global brands.

(4)After searches for local partners, and a successful trail run in Mexico City, Starbucks
arrived in South America.

(5)With no conventional advertising, the Seattle-based company opened stores in Lima and
Santiago within 24 hours of each other.

(6)Neither Peru nor Chile has a mass-market caféculture, although European and US-style
coffee houses have begun springing up in the up-market districts of both their capitals.

(7)Despite this cultural peculiarity, a Starbucks survey found that Chileans on average drink
only 150 cups of coffee a year, compared with 345 in the US and more than twice that
number in many European countries. Of the 800g of coffee per capita bought in supermarkets
and from specialty shops each year, 90 percent of it is instant.

(8)In Argentina, per capita consumption is about 4kg a year, mostly in whole or ground
coffee beans. Despite being a coffee-grower, Peru has a similar pattern of coffee
consumption.

(9)The irony is not lost on Julio Gutierrez, head of Latin America at Starbucks Coffee
International. “We’ve been doing business in Latin America for decades,” he says. “We
haven’t had any stores but we’ve been buying Latin American coffee since the beginning.”

(10)“Expansion will depend entirely on how long it takes to find the right partner in each of
those countries,” he says, “If we don’t find anyone, we may think about going in ourselves.”

(11)Anyone who knows the Starbucks story can already visualize potential outlets in the most
fashionable neighborhoods of the region’s capital cities. From a single store in Seattle’s Pike
Place Market in 1971, Starbucks today owns 3,907 stores in North America and licenses a
further 1,378. They also own 437 and franchise 1,180 outlets in the rest of the world.

(12)It first expanded from its home market to Japan in 1996 and is now present in more than
30 countries. Last year alone, the Starbucks’ living-room-in-a-coffee-house format was
introduced to Mexico, Germany, Spain, Austria, Puerto Rico, Greece, Oman, Indonesia and
China. Starbucks “corners”, or mini-outlets, are found in airline offices, sports stadiums,
airports, hotels and bookshops. Copy-cat coffee-bar chains have emerged, only to be
swallowed by Starbucks or forced to merge with competitors.

(13)Fortune and fame, however, have not come without their critics. Some analysts say the
company was forced to globalize because it had saturated its home market. Others say the
Japanese experience has not been a happy one. Security concerns forced the company to
retreat from Israel, and the anti-globalization movement now has Starbucks stores on its hit
list.

(14)In aspiring societies such as Chile and Mexico, American companies are generally well
regarded and any novelty from abroad is guaranteed to arouse curiosity.

(15)Both the Lima and Santiago Starbucks have been packed since opening their doors, and
the company has rolled out 15 stores in Mexico City since launching its first-cleverly located
beside the US embassy-a year ago.

(16)Roman Perez-Miranda, head of Latin America for Interbrand（全球品牌顾问）, agrees.

“Mexico is the closest Latin America to the US, both geographically and culturally,” he says.
“It was an obvious starting-point for Starbucks in the region.”

Text 2
Big names prove worth in crisis
by John Gapper

For companies whose financial value depends heavily on the health of their brands, the
severity and abruptness of the recession（经济衰退）was a challenge. The abruptness with
which many consumers stopped spending, and large companies reduced capital investment,
caused a shock to the system. Many companies experienced not only the financial crisis, but
also a crisis of confidence.

Marketers and advertising agencies preach the gospel（传布福音）that the companies that
emerge best out of recessions are those that maintain their marketing budget and protect
brands when the going gets tough. In practice, few companies were certain enough of the
future to comply. Yet some of the Doomsday scenarios（末日设想）about the value of brands
in the post-recession world have not come to pass. Emerging from the recession, luxury
goods companies and many other consumer brand companies are enjoying a rebound.

The underlying value of any brand—the premium（高价）commanded by products and services

with strong reputations and identities—has not been eliminated by the crisis. Even those
companies that did not invest heavily in their brands in the worst times are regaining some
confidence. ‘Brands outperform in good times and when there is a recession they do go down,
but they come out the other side with a sustainable advantage,’ says Joanna Seddon, chief
executive of MBO（美博集团）, the organisation that compiles the ranking.

The nature of brands continues to evolve. Technology rather than marketing is now
the defining characteristic of seven of the top 10 brands, with Coca-Cola, McDonald and
Marlboro（万宝路）making up the other three. Google remains the world’s most valuable
brand, but edging up close behind it are two other technology companies, IBM and Apple.
Both of these outrank Microsoft, whose brand value was stable during the year. The
resurgence（复兴）in Apple under Steve Jobs, through the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad,
continues unabated（不衰退的）and, on present trends, it could be pressing Google for first
place within a year or two. That is a tribute（表示敬意的礼物）to a company that inspires
devotion among customers.

It may also be a reflection of the value of inspirational leadership, and the way in which
consumers identify some of the world’s most valuable brands, such as Oracle（甲骨文，世界
最大的信息管理软件及服务供应商）and Starbucks, with founders who embody their qualities.
Larry Ellison of Oracle and Howard Schultz of Starbucks are not only the founders but
keepers of the flame. The social media boom led by companies such as Facebook and
Twitter—as well as the rise in smart phones led by Apple—has had a broader impact on the
top 100. It has boosted mobile operators such as Verizon and AT&T.

After-reading questions
1. Decide the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
(1) Recession has a bigger influence on consumer brand companies. ( )
(2) Most companies choose to maintain the marketing budget and protect their brands
during recession. ( )
(3) The value of brands was completely destroyed during and after the recession. ( )
(4) Companies that didn’t invest in their brands have been totally eliminated. ( )
(5) The value of brands goes down during recessions. ( )
(6) Companies with valuable brands do better than those without in the long run. ( )
2. Which of the brand(s) mentioned in the last two paragraphs …
(1) relate to technology-based companies or their products?
(2) relate to non-technology companies?
(3) is technology-based, and below three other technology companies?
(4) have grown because of the value of leadership and brand image?
(5) have grown partly because of the success of other brands?
 Section B: Language work (Editing)
Directions: Read the passage below about international marketing.

 In most of the lines there is one extra word which does not fit. Some lines, however, are correct.

 If a line is correct, put a tick in the space provided.

If there is an extra word in the line, write that word in the space.


Globalization has affected marketing strategies in many ways. In the past, for
example, the best way to enter a market tended to be the main concern.
Today, by the contrast, international marketers ask themselves whether it is better to 1._____
standardize or to adapt a product across different markets. Finding the right 2._____
international mix it has become one of the key questions, and answers vary greatly 3._____
from a company to company and from product to product. Coca-cola, for example, 4. _____
has customized its soft drinks to every market. It is well known fact that 5._____
Coke in Indonesia tastes lot different from Coke in the UK. Such a strategy is in 6._____
stark contrast to Rolex’s. Indeed, Rolex uses the same advertising message and 7._____
positions its watches the same way in the world over. Other companies strike a 8._____
compromise between customizing and standardizing, and opt for a middle-of-the- 9._____
road strategy. Car manufacturers, for example, cannot afford them to design a 10. ______
separate car for each market. However, they do need to think of a country-specific 11._____
differentiating features, as consumer tastes vary enormously from one country to 12. _____
another.
 Unit 3 Job Satisfaction
Section A Text Reading

Text 1

Vocabulary
 aggressive [əˈɡresɪv] adj. 好斗的；积极进取的
 align [əˈlaɪn] vt. 使结盟；公开支持
 business model 商业模式
 crunch [krʌntʃ] n. 困难；危机
 custom-fit adj. 定制的；按客户的要求制造的
 designate [ˈdezɪɡneɪt] vt. 指定
 desperation [ˌdespəˈreɪʃn] n. 绝望 (desperate)
 financial planning 理财
 intervention [ˌɪntəˈvenʃn] n.干预；介入 (intervene)
 pamper [ˈpæmpə] vt. 纵容
 retain [rɪˈteɪn] vt. 挽留
 retention [rɪˈtenʃn] n. 挽留
 revamp [ˈriːvæmp] vt. 改进
 shareholder n. 股东
 shun [ʃʌn] vt. 回避
 unique [juˈniːk] adj. 独一无二的

Reading Comprehension
In which paragraphs are these ideas mentioned?

1. Money is a less important motivator than a caring company. ( )

2. Offering perks may create a non-profitable business model. ( )
3. Giving employees more choices how they organize their time away from work. ( )
4. Creating an atmosphere and culture which employees feel they belong to. ( )
5. Examples of up-market perks offered by technology companies. ( )
6. Companies are offering employees increased benefits for retention. ( )
7. Employees won’t leave if they regard a company as their home. ( )

Perks that work

By Robert Burke
(1) Keeping people happy is an increasingly tough trick. With unemployment at record lows,
‘companies are trying just about anything’ to retain employees, says Jay Doherty of the
New York-based human-resources consulting firm William M. Mercer Inc. Not only are
employees being pampered, they’re getting more money, better benefits and help with
 personal problems such as child care and financial planning. Bosses once shunned such
intervention. Retention ‘is no longer a human resource issue, it’s a business issue,’
Doherty says.

(2) Because technology companies face the tightest labor markets, they have been the most
aggressive in devising ways to keep workers. Herndon-based Net2000 Communications,
for example, puts top performers behind the wheel of luxury cars like a BMW 323i or Z3.
MicroStrategy, a Vienna-based data miner, goes a step further and has hosted all of its
employees on Caribbean cruises.

(3) Such perks are great for the employee, but do they make sense for the company? Maybe.
Doherty says all companies-including technology firms-‘have to be careful they don’t
create a business model that’s not profitable.’ Don’t throw money at workers who want to
leave because pay raises don’t always work. Perks and benefits can be effective, but they
have to be custom-fit to the company and the business sector. Don’t add new perks just
because they seem like hot trends, he says. ‘Too often there’s a desperation sometimes to
just try anything, and it’s very expensive.’ MicroStrategy, which reported lower earnings
earlier this year, has been rethinking its cruises, for example.

(4) Yet companies still face labor crunches that can really hurt. How do you keep workers?
Start by making them feel they’re part of a special place with a unique culture. ‘We want
to hire people that are totally aligned with our values,’ says Tim Huval, general manager
for South Dakota-based Gateway’s 2,200-employee call center and manufacturing facility
in Hampton. ‘Honesty, efficiency, aggressiveness, respect, teamwork, caring, common
sense and fun. Those are values that we live by.’ Richmond-based Xperts also lives by the
value system. Founder and CEO William Tyler pushes pairing quality of life with a sense
of social responsibility.

(5) Workers can designate which non-profit groups Xperts contributes to, for example. A
strong culture makes it hard for people to leave, Tyler says. ‘They don’t have an urge to
leave because they’ve found a home. They are happy.’

(6) Notice this corporate culture stuff doesn’t say much about shareholders or profit. It’s a
decidedly employee-centric approach. ‘If you ask any of them, they’re all going to say,
“Pay me more money.” But that’s not the truth,’ Tyler says. ‘What people are looking for
is, “A place that’s looking out for me.”’

(7) What that means is helping employees cope with problems they face outside the office.
‘That is where companies can build employee loyalty,’ says Barbara Bailey of William M.
Mercer’s Richmond office. One popular tool is revamping leave policies to create
‘flexible leave banks’ that put all employee leave into a single category. Employees take
time off when they need it and don’t have to call it a sick day or vacation. ‘Work-life
issues are huge,’ Bailey says. ‘You make them feel as though they’re not interested in
looking elsewhere, because they’re very happy with their life.’

Text 2
A different way of working
by Alison Maitland
Lee Summersgill was initially concerned when he heard that his employer, KPMG（毕马威，
世界顶级的会计专业服务机构）, the professional services firm, wanted staff to volunteer for a
four-day week to help minimise job cuts in the recession. The news coincided with the birth
of his daughter in January last year, and he was worried about a reduction in hours and pay.
Then he considered the benefits of a change to his working week so that he could share the
childcare with his wife, a health visitor. Now he puts away his smart phone every Thursday
night and spends Friday with his two young children.

‘I’ve been doing it for a year and it’s worked really well,’ says Mr. Summersgill, who
advises clients on housing projects. ‘You have to be really disciplined and try to fit
everything into four days. I think it makes you more loyal. Would any other firm have the
same level of flexibility and understanding? In the market I’m in, I don’t think that would
be there. Mr. Summersgill’s experience illustrates two growing trends: fathers wanting
greater flexibility to accommodate family life, and employers using flexibility to keep
employees motivated, improve productivity and avoid large-scale job cuts.

Business leaders around the world have remainedocatlOn about concerned about retaining good
people, even in the depths of recession. A global survey by Hay Group, a consultancy,
concluded: ‘While employees fear losing their jobs, organisations fear loss of top talent and
critical skills.’ Amid signs of economic recovery, but with cost constraints（限制） continuing,
employers are looking at alternatives to financial incentives（激励）. Offering employees
greater control over working time and location is one such option.

KPMG, for example, is examining new approaches, after the success of ‘Flexible Futures’
programme in signing up employees for taking a year off or working reduced weeks. Roughly
85 per cent of the 10,000 UK staff volunteered at the start of last year. Approximately 800
people moved temporarily to four-day weeks. The firm saved £4m last year, or the equivalent
of 100 full-time jobs, says Michelle Quest, UK head of people.

When the programme was re-launched for this year, 71 per cent volunteered. ‘One of the
softer benefits is moving the whole idea of flexible working up the agenda for everybody,’
says Ms Quest. The firm is now considering more active promotion of job sharing, because
t hi s t yp e of arrangement provides all-week cover for clients.

After-reading questions
Decide the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. If not accepting the four-day week, Mr. Summersgill must have lost his job. ( )

2. Lee Summersgill’s new working arrangement has increased his feelings of wanting to do
his best for his employer. ( )

3. Retention of top staff and expertise has been one of the main concerns of business leaders
in spite of economic conditions. ( )

4. Besides financial perks, a more flexible working structure is helpful for people retention.
( )

5. “Flexible Futures” helped KPMG recruit 100 full-time employee last year. ( )

7. A four-day week scheme has some negative effects on customer service and therefore is
not fit for a long-term promotion. ( )
Section B: Language work (Cloze)
Directions: Read the passage below about the changing role of human resources departments.
Choose the best sentence to fill each of the gaps.

Employees are a company’s new ideas, its public face and its main asset. Hiring the
right people is therefore a significant factor in a company’s success. (1) ________. If the
human resources department makes mistakes with hiring, keeping and dismissing staff, a
business can disappear overnight. Many companies now realize that recruiting the best
recruiters is the key to success.
Sarah Choi, Head of HR at Enco plc, believes that thinking commercially is a key
quality in HR. ‘Every decision an HR manager makes needs to be relevant to advancing the
business. (2) _______. That is no longer the case. HR managers have to think more
strategically these days. They continually need to think about the impact of their decisions on
the bottom line. (3) _______. For example, a chief executive will expect the HR department
to advise on everything from the headcount（职员总数）to whether to proceed with an
acquisition（收购案）.’
Why do people go into HR in the first place? Choi has a ready answer. ‘I think most
people in the profession are attracted by a long-term goal. (4) _______. Nothing happens in
the company which isn’t affected by or doesn’t impact on its employees, so the HR
department is a crucial part of any business.’
Not all operational managers agree. An informal survey of attitudes to HR departments
that was carried out last year by a leading business journal received comments such as ‘What
do they actually contribute?’ (5) _______. As choi points out, salaries have never been higher
and, in addition, HR managers often receive substantial annual bonuses.
Despite the financial rewards, HR managers often feel undervalued, and this is a major
reason for many leaving their jobs. (6) _______. However, a lack of training and
development is a more significant factor. ‘These days, good professional development
opportunities are considered an essential part of an attractive package,’ Choi explains.

A. But rising levels of pay demonstrate that the profession’s growing importance is widely
recognized.
B. Other departments and senior executives used to see HR managers as having a purely
administrative role.
C. Since it’s one of the few areas where you can see the whole operation, it can lead to an
influential role on the board.
D. Being seen as someone who just ticks off other people’s leave and sick days does not help
build a sense of loyalty.
E. They therefore need to be competent in many aspects of a company’s operations.
F. On the other hand, recruiting the wrong staff can lead to disaster.
 Unit 4 Team Building

Section A: Text Reading

Text 1
Vocabulary
 attribute [əˈtrɪbjuːt] n. 属性；特质
 assail [əˈseɪl] vt. 攻击；困扰
 bear on 涉及
 betterment n. 改善，改进
 credit [ˈkredɪt] n. 信用；学分；声望
 compromise [ˈkɒmprəmaɪz] v. 妥协，折中
 commitment [kəˈmɪtmənt] n. 承诺，保证；献身
 facilitator [fəˈsɪlɪteɪtə] n. 协调者；促进者
 mould [məʊld] v. 影响；塑造
 vision [ˈvɪʒn] n. 幻想; 展望; 视觉

Reading Comprehension
Directions: Read the following summaries of each paragraph and put down the number of
the corresponding paragraph.
1） It is not easy to be a good team member. ______
2） It is specifically illustrated that team members have certain attitudes. ______
3) Group productivity is more important than individual task accomplishment. ______
4) Being a good team player is the key to career success today. ______
5) Despite cross-cultural barriers, people in a team have a similar life goal. ______
6) It is highly appreciated if the team leader could set an action direction in the very
beginning. ______

None of us is as smart as all of us

By Howard Cant

(1) A good team player has the key to success. Being the smartest, being the brightest, being
the hardest; all of these attributes that worked so well in business in years gone by, now
will not push you up the ladder quickly. How good a team player you are and how well
you share your knowledge with your colleagues is the all-important factor in growing
your career today. If you can build a company culture that does not worry about who gets
the credit for something, think about what you could achieve! To survive in the big bad
tough working environment of today you don’t need to have your own people competing
with each other. It is the commercial ‘enemy’ against whom all their energy should be
focused.

(2) It’s not always easy to be a good team member and compromise your own views for the
good of the whole, but it works for the betterment of the company. You have to believe in
the workings and power of the team and recognize where your own strengths and
contribution fit in. You have to be honest, both with yourself and with your team
members. You will have conflict within the team and as long as this is controlled then it
 can be a very healthy element for both the team and the development of the business.
Research into high-performing teams shows that each member cares for the development
of his team mates. This appreciation of each other’s learning and development is key to
success of a team and the commitment of each member to the other.

(3) Over 70% of a manager’s time is spent in some form of group activity, often in meetings
with others; relatively little time is spent in the supervising of single individuals or on
one-to-one discussions, thus the need for team building. Indeed, the success of individual
managers depends on how well that manager’s team or teams improve in quality and
productivity on a continuous basis. In reality, group productivity is more important than
individual task accomplishment. The most effective teams are able to solve complex
problems more easily than one person can, for many capable minds are brought to bear on
an issue. However, all teams must be managed well by a capable facilitator who
understands that every team is unique, dynamic and ever-changing. Moreover, teams have
behavior patterns, just as individuals do and, just as children develop into adults, teams
have developmental stages, being more productive and efficient at one stage than another.

(4) It is also extremely desirable for team members to have the following attitudes; ‘I know
what I have to do and the team’s goals are clear’, ‘I am willing to share some
responsibility for leadership’, ‘I am an active participant’, ‘I feel appreciated and
supported by others’, ‘Other team members listen when I speak and I respect the opinions
of others’, ‘Communication is open, new ideas are encouraged and we are having fun
working together’.

(5) Teams soon develop a clear problem-solving approach that can be applied time and again
as long as their leader initially creates a common purpose and vision, pointing the team in
the right direction.

(6) Cross-cultural issues can assail and impact the working of teams, but it is well to
remember that, despite culture, most team members have similar objectives in life.
Objectives that relate to happiness and health, to success and recognition, to love and
being well-accepted by others. The clever team leader recognizes and plays upon these
similarities while moulding the cultural differences to benefit the team. For example, Thai
team members place a greater focus on personal relationships in everything they do while
Western team members are looking more for personal achievement.

Text 2
Capello’s masterclass for on-the-ball Finmeccanica
by Paul Betts

Finmeccanica: （芬梅卡尼卡）意大利最大的工程及航空航天与防御集团，属国家控股公司。
Fabio Capello：（法比奥•卡佩罗）前意大利足球运动员，后成为世界知名的足球教练，曾执教多家顶级球队。

When Fabio Capello flew to South Africa as the England football manager to attend the 2010
World Cup finals, he stopped briefly in Rome on his way to give the Italian defence and
engineering group Finmeccanica a masterclass on leadership. Having previously managed
one of the Italian capital’s football clubs, AS Roma, Mr. Capello was inevitably the centre of
attention. ‘So why are you doing this corporate coaching?’ I asked at one stage. ‘I suppose
because I have widespread international experience having led teams such as Juventus（尤文图
斯）and Real Madrid（皇家马德里）as well as Roma and now England and I know a thing or
two about managing players, creating a team spirit, in 20 short leading,’ he said. Mr. Capello
clearly knows a thing or two about bringing discipline, direction and inspiration to the highest
levels of his business.

Unlike in other countries, such as Brazil, he had to work hard to instill（逐渐灌输）a hunger
among some top English players to pull on an England shirt. Morale was pretty awful when
he took over. Not surprisingly, he was the star at Finmeccanica’s convention attended by
some 3,000 managers from around the world. And probably his biggest fan in the audience
was none other than his counterpart（相对应的）at Finmeccanica, Pier Francesco Guarguaglini.
After all, the Italian group’s veteran（有经验的）boss is also a fanatical（狂热的）supporter of
Juventus, where Mr. Capello once worked his magic.

Finmeccanica under Mr. Guarguaglini has prospered in recent years thanks to clear
leadership and a sense of purpose that previously was sorely lacking. Over the years up to Mr.
Guarguaglini’s appointment, the partly state-owned Finmeccanica had suffered badly from
state interference that lacked any clear industrial vision for the group. More often than not
senior politicians saw Finmeccanica primarily as a convenient place to park friends in top
jobs to the detriment（损害）of its commercial success.

It was the UK that Mr. Guarguaglini chose as his starting point for Finmeccanica's
renaissance（文艺复兴）. Within two years he had acquired full control of Agusta Westland, the
helicopter-maker where previously GKN had been his partner. Then he quickly moved on to
buy out BAE Systems from a joint venture in defence systems. All of a sudden Finmeccanica
was the UK’s second-largest defence contractor（承包商）by sales, employing more than
10,000 Britons.

After-reading questions

1. Why do you think Finmeccanica has invited Capello to give a masterclass on leadership?

________________________________________________________________________
2. What were the problems of England football team when Capello took it over?

___________________________________________________________________________
3. What were the main cause and the resulting reasons for Finmeccanica’s poor performance
before Guarguaglini took over?

__________________________________________________________________________
4. Where did Guarguaglini start to change his company’s future?

___________________________________________________________________________
5. Which two companies did Finmeccanica take over?

___________________________________________________________________________
6. Which two qualities have allowed both Capello and Guarguaglini to succeed?

_________________________________________________________________________
Section B: Language work (Editing)
Directions: Read the passage below about meetings.

In most of the lines there is one extra word which does not fit. Some lines,
 however, are correct.

 If a line is correct, put a tick in the space provided.

If there is an extra word in the line, write that word in the space.
A vital skill for anyone running a business it is the ability to communicate
Effectively. This is particularly important in a meeting where complex arguments
need to be put forward and where it is too vital to get the best out of the situation 1. ______
and those present in as little time as possible. Before calling a meeting, ask 2. ______
yourself if you actually need one, since so many are unproductive results and do 3. ______
not really need to take place. Sending an email or by using another means of 4. ______
communication, such as a simple phone call, might achieve the desired results in 5. ______
half the time. Having established the need for a meeting, so inform those you 6. ______
wish to attend and ask people to be punctual. Concerning the key to a good 7. ______
meeting is an agenda, which needs to be sent out in advance and should state the 8. ______
date, time and location. It should also contain the names of those ones who will 9. ______
be present and set that out, starting with the most important, the points for 10. ______
discussion. Ask in advance for suggestions for items to be discussed about but 11. ______
set a deadline for submissions in order to reduce the amount of time that has to be
spent under ‘Any Other Business.’

 Unit 5 Customer Service
Section A: Text Reading

Text 1
Vocabulary
1. call up 收集
2. convert [kənˈvɜːt] vt. 使转变；转换
3. cut back on 削减（开支）
4. deteriorate [dɪˈtɪəriəreɪt] vt. 恶化
5. execution [ˌeksɪˈkjuːʃ(ə)n] n. 实施；执行(execute)
6. mania [ˈmeɪniə] n. 狂热；热衷
7. mindset [ˈmaɪndset] n. 心态；理念
8. outsourcing [ˈaʊtsɔːsɪŋ] n. 外包
9. privatization [ˌpraɪvətaɪˈzeɪʃn] n. 私有化(private)
10. rationale [ˌræʃəˈnɑːl] n. 原理
11. retailer [ˈriːteɪlə] n. 零售商
12. revenue [ˈrevənjuː] n. 税收收入；财政收入
13. surrender [səˈrendə] vt. 放弃
14. utility [juːˈtɪləti] n. 公共事业机构
15. validity [vəˈlɪdəti] n. 有效性

Comprehension Questions:
Directions: Read the text and decide whether the following statements are true or false?
Put “T” for true and “F” for false.

1. The British utilities are improving their customer service. ( )

2. Some companies need to spend much more on customer service training. ( )
3. Outsourcing always has a negative effect on customer service. ( )
4. The key to business is reducing costs. ( )
5. The bigger the business is, the more difficult it is for them to guarantee the quality of
customer service. ( )

Customers first: the message for this or any other year

By Michael Skapinker

(1) What, the caller from Hewlett-Packard wanted to know, did I think the big business issues
would be this year? Well, I replied, in Hewlett-Packard’s case, I thought the issues should
be that my new HP printer-scanner-copier refused to scan when I bought it and it took me
weeks to sort it out. Also the machine could not print on lightweight card, as it was
supposed to, without jamming.

(2) The man from HP laughed nervously. Were there any other big business issues I would
 like to mention? No, I said. If HP took care of those small ones, the big ones would take
care of themselves.

(3) I could have talked for longer, but I had to call Powergen. I should not have been using
the FT’s time to sort out my electricity difficulties but no one had answered the 24-hour
Powergen helpline the previous evening. This time I got through and, after a few false
starts, they sorted out my problem.

(4) Why is it so hard for companies to get things right?

(5) The British utilities seem to have surrendered all their post-privatization customer-service
improvements. Some have gone back to their tricks of 20 years ago, including not turning
up at the appointed time and then claiming to have rung the doorbell and found no one
home.

(6) Many banks, retailers and the rest are no better. Some seem to have cut back on the
essentials of customer service training: please, thank you- that sort of thing.

(7) I know this is not just a British phenomenon: every time I write about deteriorating
customer service, many of you from elsewhere with the same complaints.

(8) What is the problem? Some of it is industry-specific: either there is insufficient

competition or dissatisfied customers cannot be bothered to change because they doubt
they will find anything better. But I sense a deeper problem: many companies seem to
have forgotten what business is about.

(9) They think it is about cutting cost: hence the mania for outsourcing. I am not attacking
outsourcing as such; it is not, on its own, responsible for deteriorating customer service.
Rather, the problem is the mindset that so much outsourcing represents: the idea that a
startling reduction in employment costs is all you need to succeed.

(10) Costs do matter. If they exceed revenues, you have no profit—and no company, or
individual, can carry on for long without profits.

(11) But making a profit, essential though it is, is not the purpose of business either. It is its
consequence. As Peter Drucker wrote: “Profit is not the explanation, cause or rationale of
business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity.”

(12) The purpose of a business is to provide something that a customer wants at a price he
or she is prepared to pay. In Prof Drucker’s words: “It is the customer who determines
what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a
service converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods.”

(13) It is a simple idea. You provide goods or services that customers are pleased with—so
pleased that they come back, and tell all their friends to buy from you too. You then sell
more. Result: happiness.

(14) Carrying this out, of course, is less simple. Others may have found a way of providing
 the same goods at far lower prices, in which case costs will have to be looked at again and
you may have to move jobs to low-wage countries.

(15) There is also the difficulty of execution: the bigger your business becomes and the
more widespread your supplies and customers, the harder it is to deliver.

(16) You may need information technology systems to keep track of supplies and to ensure
that when your customers call, it takes you no more than a few seconds to call up the
information you need.

(17) But when the new IT system has been installed, or the foreign factory built, or this or
that activity put out to contract, there is only one test of whether it was worth it: are the
customers happy?

(18) It is with the customer that all business decisions should start and end.

Text 2

Do you want to be friends with a brand?

by Tim Bradshaw

When first faced with the prospect of marketing on social networks, many people ask a
reasonable question: how many people want to be friends with a brand? The answer
surprisingly, perhaps is: millions do, on a daily basis. More than 10m people each day
become a ‘fan’ of a brand on Facebook. The world’s largest social network—with well in
excess of 400m members globally—plays host to more than 1.4m branded fan pages on
Facebook. BrandZ（全球最具影响力品牌榜）Top 100 brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks,
along with other smaller brands such as Adidas have each ‘befriended’ millions of people.

Social media have matured rapidly in recent years. Sites such as You-Tube, Facebook and
Twitter offer scale and reach to rival Google—still the most dominant single site for online
advertising—and many television channels. The best advertisers use social media alongside
these traditional channels for a combination of brand-building, direct sales, customer service
and PR. The worst simply ignore them, until they realize the complaints and accusations that
unhappy customers are telling other would-be consumers.

‘Social media have given consumers a voice to respond, as well as hundreds of channels
through which to do so,’ says Debbie Klein, joint chief executive of Engine, a UK based
agency group.’ These websites have fundamentally transformed marketing from a monologue
to a dialogue. Brands cannot hide.’

Eurostar （ 欧 洲 之 星 火 车 ） , for instance, recently faced criticism for ignoring Twitter

messages—which, unlike most Facebook posts, are usually made public for anyone to read
from angry customers trapped on trains between Paris and London. Eurostar had failed to
grab its brand name on Twitter, and its main presence on the site—named ‘little-break’ to tie
into a wider marketing campaign—was still showing special offers rather than information on
the disrupted service for some hours after the problems began.
In the fast-paced, ‘real-time’, environment of Twitter, just a few hours is long enough for
such criticism to spread widely, be chewed over by its users and if it reaches a certain volume,
be picked up and amplified（放大）further by the mainstream media. Kevin Smith, a film
director, caused a similar Twitter storm when he complained to more than 1m followers that
Southwest Airlines threw him off a flight for being overweight. Southwest later made two
public apologies on its blog.

After-reading questions

1. What do the three numbers 10m, 100m, 1.4m in paragraph respectively refer to?

_______________________________________________________________________
2. What is the right attitude of advertisers towards the fast development of social media?

_______________________________________________________________________
3. Why were Eurostar and Southwest Airlines trapped in public sentiment?

___________________________________________________

Section B Language work (Idioms on customer service)

1. pass the buck

2. get to the bottom of the problem
3. it was the last straw
4. got straight to the point
5. slipped my mind
6. ripped off
7. talking at cross purposes

Directions: Use the idiomatic expressions to complete the sentences appropriately.

1. She was very helpful. She promised to ______ and find a solution.
2. He is the person responsible. He shouldn’t try to ______ and blame others for his
mistakes.
3. Several customers have complained about our service contract. They say
they’ve paid far too much and feel they have been ______.
4. I meant to send him a brochure but we were very busy and it ______.
5. They wanted to place a larger order. I thought they wanted a bigger discount. We
were______.
6. They ignored my complaints, but ______ when they refused to refund my
money.
7. I saw no point in arguing with him. I ______ and said I wanted my money back.

 Unit 6 Crisis Management
Section A: Text reading

Text1

Vocabulary
1. abort [əˈbɔːt] vt. 使中止
2. benchmark [ˈbentʃmaːk] n. 基准；标准
3. curtail [kɜːˈteɪl] vt. 缩减；限制
4. defect [dɪ'fekt] v. 背叛
5. detect [dɪˈtekt] v. 查明；识别
6. desertion [dɪ'z ɜːʃn] n. 抛弃
7. formidable [ ˈfɔːmɪdəbl] adj. 可怕的；艰难的
8. high-profile n. 惹人注目
9. hostile [ˈhɒstaɪl] adj. 怀敌意的
10. outweigh [ˌaʊtˈweɪ] vt. 比……重；比……重要
11. persistent [pəˈsɪstənt] adj. 持续的，反复出现的
12. rival [ˈraɪvl] n. 竞争对手
13. score over 驳倒；挫败
14. transparency [trænsˈpærənsi] n. 透明
15. trivial [ˈtrɪviəl] adj. 琐碎的，微不足道的
16. trivialize [ˈtrɪviəlaɪz] vt. 使平凡；使琐碎

Comprehension question:
What are the principles of dealing with customer service failures according to the text?

Keeping your client relationship afloat

By Morgan Witzel
1. The passengers of the Aurora had every right to be angry. The round-the-world cruise
for which they had paid thousands of pounds was cancelled after persistent engine
problems.

2. Yet there was little anger among the passengers. While the ship was held off the south
coast of England, the passengers remained calm and even cheerful. Though many
expressed regret as they finally disembarked, they were not hostile towards the ship’s
operators, P&O. This may have been due to the company’s management of the crisis.

3. Dealing with a service failure is a formidable task for any marketing manager. If
poorly handled the consequences can be bad public relations, desertion by customers
and even lawsuit. The Aurora story shows how managers, if they move quickly, can
avoid some of the worst effects of service failures.

4. While high-profile cases are still relatively rare, companies everywhere may regularly
suffer small service failures. Plumbers fail to fix leaking drains, restaurant meals are
 often undercooked or holidaymakers find their hotel room is directly above an
all-night disco. Every failure is bound to create a dissatisfied customer, which in turn
creates other problems for the company.

5. Unhappy customers tend to tell others of their experience. Studies in the US have
shown that dissatisfied customers tend to tell around ten other people of their bad
experience; even worse, they can take their stories to the press.

6. Dissatisfied customers also defect to rival businesses. Although every service failure
will be different, some basic principles can assist in recovery. The first is early
recognition of the problem. In P&O’s case this was easy: everyone involved knew
that the large ship was not going anywhere. Other failures are harder to detect,
especially when management is asleep at the wheel.

7. The second principle is accepting responsibility. Many companies prefer to argue

with customers over where responsibility lies, without realizing that damage is being
done regardless of who is at fault. Although there are limits to the responsibilities
companies should accept—such as accidents and injuries that were not the company’s
fault—there is usually little profit in scoring moral victories over customers. Hence
clothing retailers often have a no-question-asked policy on returned goods, believing
that the harm done by the occasional dishonest customer is more than outweighed by
the satisfaction created among the rest.

8. Once responsibility is accepted, the two most urgent needs for the company to address
are communication and compensation.

9. Transparency is vital. Academic studies have shown that when faced with product or
service failure, companies that communicate truthfully and promptly with their
customers receive a favorable response. These customers feel that their concerns are
actually being addressed and taken seriously. In the Aurora case, senior P&O
managers were often on hand to provide information to passengers, who regarded this
as a positive feature.

10. Compensation must be carefully matched to the customer’s dissatisfaction. Too small
an amount trivializes the customer’s experience and can give offence, but it is also
possible to go too far the other way. Researchers in the US found an example of a
hotel chain that had a policy of instantly refunding the full room rate to any guest with
a genuine complaint, no matter how trivial. Yet many customers—against
expectations—found it embarrassing to be given hundreds of dollars in compensation
when they had merely complained about a faulty light fixture or a dripping tap.

11. Service industries often have their compensation benchmarks. In the holiday sector,
the standard was set by the 19th-century inventor of the package holiday, Thomas
 Cook, who made it his policy to refund in full the money paid by any customer whose
holiday was curtailed or cancelled, and offer a discount on their next booking. P&O’s
policy would have pleased Cook—the company reportedly offered the same level of
compensation to the passengers of the Aurora. Not every package holiday company
follows this example.

12. Following these simple principles should please most customers most of the time.
Research across a wide variety of service industries over the past 20 years confirms
that a successful service recovery operation reduces or even eliminates any consumer
dissatisfaction.

13. The aborted cruise of the Aurora was disappointing for P&O passengers. But the
consequences could have been far worse. Many of the passengers said they planned to
travel on a P&O cruise in the future.

Text 2
How our leaders get to grips with a scare story
by John Kay

Do you remember swine flu（猪流感）? Or the millennium bug（千年虫）? The dangers of

salmonella（沙门氏菌）in eggs or of cheese made from unpasteurized（未经消毒的）milk? These
scare stories played for a time and were then forgotten, but cost large amounts of money and
caused anxiety and loss to many individuals. Some scares catch on; others do not. It is
nonsense to claim that the dangers of the credit expansion（信贷扩张）of 2003-2007 could not
have been foreseen; those who did foresee problems could not attract public attention or
political support for their views.

Successful promotion of a scare requires that some interest group benefits. Sometimes this is
the scare-promoters themselves. Scientists have learned that exaggerated claims are a route to
a media profile and research funding. There is little downside in predicting disaster: if it does
not materialise they can claim to have been instrumental（有帮助的）in staving it off. Scares
that thrive, such as the millennium bug and swine flu, have commercial interests that benefit
from their propagation（蔓延）. Naysayers（反对者）in the credit boom, by contrast, were
ignored in the rush to share the riches available to those who denied or disregarded the
dangers.

The regulator（监管者）, or politician, confronted with warnings of danger faces twin pressures
of commercial interest and public opinion. Industries are a permanent lobbying（游说）
presence. Public concern, by contrast, is fickle: it may be strong when aroused, but unless
supplied with a string of newsworthy event—dead bodies, corporate collapses, scandalous
exposures—it soon fades.

When public and commercial interests operate in the same direction, the outcome is clear, but
not when they conflict. That is why swine flu produced an exaggerated response but no action
was taken to restrain the credit boom. Public anger at bankers is now so great that it threatens
to overwhelm even their legendary lobbying capabilities.
 We want our experts to talk certainties, not assess probabilities. The explanation ‘we thought
an event might occur but underestimated its likelihood or severity’ is never acceptable: but
that outcome does, and should, happen often to people who make decisions in complex
environments. The political and regulatory incentives are either to downplay risks or
exaggerate them — or to do each at different times.

After-reading questions

1. Why haven’t the dangers of credit expansion of 2003-2007 been avoided according to
paragraph 1?

_____________________________________________________________________
2. How can a scare promotion be guaranteed successful according to the second paragraph?

________________________________________________________________________
3. Why does the writer believe that prediction of disasters is almost faultless?

______________________________________________________________________
4. Compared with commercial interests, what characteristics does public concern have?

_______________________________________________________________________
5. Why wasn’t the credit boom crisis restrained according to paragraph 4?

_______________________________________________________________________

Section B: Language work (Cloze)

Is the hotel and tourism industry in crisis?

however while/although despite

moreover/furthermore
• The hotel and tourism industry has been suffering in the last few years due to world events.
The general economic downturn has reduced the industry’s growth rate. (1) ______, the
worldwide covid-19 epidemic has had a very negative effect on the industry. (2) ______
some journalists have suggested that the tourism industry is in crisis, other commentators
have been more positive in their analysis.

• Promotional campaigns undertaken by the tourism industry to reduce the negative effects of
the crisis have worked. (3) ______, they have had a much greater effect on leisure tourism
than on business travel. (4) ______ business travelers accounting for no more than one fifth
of travelers, they contribute nearly half of the industry’s revenue. (5) ______, the revenue
from this source could be even greater in the future as many airlines are targeting this
segment of the market.
 Unit 7 Takeovers and Mergers
Text 1

Vocabulary
 acquisition [ˌækwɪˈzɪʃ(ə)n] n. 收购 （acquire）
 administrative [ədˈmɪnɪstrətɪv] adj. 行政的；管理的
 confidential [ˌkɒnfɪˈdenʃl] adj. 保密的
 conglomerate [kənˈɡlɒmərət] n. 大公司；企业集团
 dictatorial [ˌdɪktəˈtɔːriəl] adj. 独裁专政的
 flattering [ˈflætərɪŋ] adj. 奉承讨好的
 humility [hjuːˈmɪləti] n. 谦逊
 implementation [ˌɪmplɪmenˈteɪʃn] n.执行 (implement)
 integrate [ˈɪntɪɡreɪt] v. 使…成为整体；整合
 integration n. 整合
 manipulate [məˈnɪpjuleɪt] vt. 操纵
 redundancy [rɪˈdʌndənsi] n. 裁员
 revival [rɪˈvaɪvl] n. 复活；复兴
 symbolism [ˈsɪmbəlɪzəm] n. 象征

Comprehension questions
Directions: Match the experts quoted in the article to their opinions about mergers.
1. Michelle Bligh a) ‘Respect the other company even if your
company is stronger
2. Charles Hampden b) ‘You need to pay special attention to the
different ways that companies do things’
3. Roger Pudney c) ‘You need to act quickly in the post-merger
period.’

Directions: Complete the definition with the most suitable answer.

1. big-picture questions (para 1) are:
a) very important b) very difficult c) very expensive
2. ground rules (para 8) are:
a) complicated rules b) strict rules c) basic rules
3. the nitty-gritty (para 8) is:
a) problems b) details c) advantages
4. Buy-in (para 8) is:
a) acceptance b) disagreement c) enthusiasm
5. shop floor (para 9) is:
a) where the goods are stored b) where the goods are made
c) where the goods are delivered
6. steam-rollered (para 10) is
a) Invited to do something b) paid to do something
c) forced to do something
 Making a Corporate Marriage Work
By Stefan Stern

1. Bringing two companies together is an enormous task. There are grand, big-picture
questions that need to be resolved, such as the new group’s strategy and direction. There
are also administrative, logistical and technical challenges. Will new contracts of
employment be required? Where should the headquarters of the combined operation be
located? How can the companies’ information technology systems be integrated?

2. ‘It takes a certain humility to make a merger work,’ says Charles Hampden-Turner,
co-author of Building Cross-cultural Competence. ‘It doesn't follow that your company is
a better one simply because it has taken another company over. It just means that you
have got more money and have been prepared to pay,’ he says.

3. Work on bringing the partners together should start well before the deal becomes public
knowledge. But how can executives start planning integration without the news leaking
out? Some use a so-called 'clean room', where both sides to a deal can meet and discuss
future plans confidentially. Computer manufacturers Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, for
example, adopted this approach in their $25bn (£13.3bn) merger.

4. Speed is of the essence. Roger Pudney of the UK's Ashridge business school says: 'There
is often a tendency for companies to relax once the deal is signed, but this is precisely the
point at which speed of implementation becomes crucial. Successful Mergers &
Acquisitions companies stress the importance of quick wins as a way of demonstrating
that the new combination is already producing added value.'

5. HP and Compaq ran a series of 'Fast Start' seminars for their staff as soon as the deal was
announced, to provide reassurance and a sense of direction—seminars that had been
planned in advance in the clean room. Offering employees detailed information is
essential at the early stage. An internal human resources website set up for HP and
Compaq staff received 2m hits on the day the merger was unveiled.

6. Managers will inevitably be occupied with practical, administrative changes, such as

establishing new terms and conditions and pushing through any redundancies. Yet dealing
with the cultural issues in a merger is more subtle and challenging. And when things go
wrong in this context they can go wrong very quickly.

7. Michelle Bligh, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, California, has suggested

measures leaders should take to avoid the worst consequences of mergers. After studying
a merger of health organizations in the US, Prof Bligh advised leaders to avoid taking a
dictatorial, top-down approach or micro-managing the transition. They need to respond as
the new situation demands, she says, and must ‘help followers negotiate, modify and even
manipulate cultural similarities and differences in the post-merger environment’.

8. Prof Bligh identifies a few simple ground rules. Managers should recognize cultural
differences between the companies, for example, by learning about the history of the new
partner. They should give employees reasons why change is necessary, and find practical
ways of communicating. As one manager told her: ‘When you sit down and start showing
employees the nitty-gritty, you get buy-in a lot quicker.’
9. Symbolism matters too. ‘Instead of making great speeches,’ Dr Hampden-Turner suggests,
‘why not start acting differently and providing a lead that way? Words are too easy, but
actions will be noticed.’ Even apparently simple gestures can count. Discussing
employees’ new working conditions and being visible on the ‘shop floor’, for example,
may reassure staff that management has an interest in their well-being. One manager in
Prof Bligh’s study said: ‘We have to start with the little things: they really matter to
people.’

10. How do the most successful acquirers handle the process of merger integration? General
Electric, the US engineering conglomerate, has made more than 400 acquisitions in the
past 20 years. But it is still learning how to make these deals work better. When GE
bought Amersham, the UK bioscience company, for $9bn, it made a big effort to reassure
the acquired business that it would not be steam-rollered.

11. Talk of a revival in merger and acquisitions activity is on the rise. Investment bankers and
management consultants are once again seeking out potential deals and making flattering
noises as they lead candidates to the altar. But marriages succeed or fail in the years
following the wedding. Even before the hangover had worn off, the hard work has to
begin.

Text 2
Japan’s Rakuten（乐天株式会社）poised for overseas expansion
By Robin Harding in Tokyo, Kathrin Hille in Beijing and Song-Jung-a in Seoul

In its 13 years of existence, Japan’s Rakuten has expanded from online shopping into
everything from credit cards and stockbroking（股票经纪）to golf reservations and even a
professional baseball team. So when president Hiroshi Mikitani says that he plans to expand
into 27 foreign markets—10 of them by the end of this year—he deserves to be taken
seriously. Rakuten’s overseas push is part of a growing trend by Asian Internet companies to
expand abroad as their domestic growth starts to slow down. But in spite of the ambitions of
Asia’s young Internet billionaires, cultural barriers and entrenched local competition may
prove impossible to overcome. There have been a series of deals so far this year. In addition
to Rakuten’s tie-up with search engine Baidu to launch a Chinese version of its shopping site,
Republic of Korea’s largest search engine NHN has bought the Japanese Internet access
portal （门户网站） Livedoor, and China’s Tencent has invested $300m in Digital Sky
Technologies of Russia.

Kentaro Hyakuno, the head of Rakuten’s international business, says his company stayed
domestic on purpose while building up the ecosystem of merchants that use its e-commerce
site. Now it is ready to expand abroad and, Mr. Hyakuno says, ‘Japan is growing old, with
less children, and if you want to keep growing as a corporation then you need opportunity.’

Republic of Korea, whose Internet companies began to venture abroad in the early 2000s,
provides some evidence. Its portals and search engines have struggled to make inroads into
other countries, but its online game makers have become serious contenders（竞争者）in
overseas markets such as China, Japan and the US.
Daum, the country’s largest portal, took over Lycos of the US in 2004 and had struggled to
turn around the loss-making US business as it could not compete effectively with bigger
rivals such as Google and Yahoo. ‘They face high entry barriers to offer portal and search
services in foreign countries because such services are already dominated by big local
players,’ says Wayne Lee, analyst at Republic of Korea’s Woori Investment and Securities.
‘Language and culture are very important for Internet access portals and search services,
compared with online games. And it is not easy for foreign player to do well in offering such
services based on local languages.’

For Rakuten, as it contemplates（盘算）its international blitz, the answer is to look for markets
where infrastructure（基础设施）such as broadband（宽频通讯）, credit cards and delivery
logistics are improving but the market is not yet saturated with established player. ‘We
evaluated about 50 countries, we grouped them, and then we worked out the best approach,’
says Mr. Hyakuno. So far that has included launches in China and an acquisition in Thailand.
India—a huge potential market—may be next on the list.

After-reading questions

1. The examples of a series of international deals at the end of paragraph 1 are to demonstrate
______.
A. the determination of Rakuten to expand abroad
B. the importance of domestic markets
C. the growing trend of overseas expansions
D. the difficulties exploiting the foreign markets
2. Did Rakuten intend to expand abroad earlier? Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________________
3. Is the experience of Korean Internet companies abroad typical?
_______________________________________________________________________
4. What are the two reasons for Daum’s difficulties in making a success of Lycos?
_______________________________________________________________________
5. Which two countries has Rakuten already entered? What were Rakuten’s concerns while
making such decisions?
________________________________________________________________________

我也是有底线的 Don’t step on my bottom-line.

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