HEAAADERLOGORIGHT

BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

YOUR
COMPANY
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1 Warm up

These three people all work for the same company. Match the person’s answer a-c to the question
1-3 they are answering.

a. I work for a company called b. We supply cakes and c. Our head office is in Crouch
Crouch End Cakes. sweets to businesses across End in the north of London.
the south of England.

1. Where are you based?

2. Who do you work for?
3. What does your company do?

Now in pairs, ask and answer the same questions.

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YOUR COMPANY

2 Focus on vocabulary
Part A: Understanding vocabulary
Match the vocabulary to the definitions.

1. consumer (n) a. related to money

2. competition (n) b. a company that works together with another company

3. customer service (n) c. the department responsible for making products

4. financial (adj.) d. the activity of making a company’s products or services

attractive to customers
5. management (n) e. a company that is in the same business as you and serves the
same markets
6. marketing (n) f. do business with a person or company

7. production (n) g. the department in a company who helps customers with

problems
8. partner (n) h. someone who buys products or uses services

9. deal with (phr. v) i. the people who run a business

Part B: Pronunciation

Underline the stressed syllable for each of the words from Part A.

1. con/su/mer
2. com/pe/ti/tion
3. cus/to/mer ser/vice
4. fi/nan/cial
5. man/age/ment
6. mar/ke/ting
7. pro/duc/tion
8. part/ner
9. deal/ with

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YOUR COMPANY

Part C: Dialogue

Put the vocabulary from Part A into the correct gaps in the following conversations. You may have
to change the form of the words.

A: Which department do you work in?

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B: I work in . We provide a lot of information to our sales teams about what our
2 3
want and we any problems with deliveries and orders.
A: Where is your company based?
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B: Our head office is in Brussels in Belgium which is where senior are and all the
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decisions are made. But I work in a branch in Madrid, the capital of Spain. I
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work in where all of our books and magazines are made.
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A: Who is the main for your company?

B: There are two main companies: one is based in Paris, France, and the other is based in Hong
Kong in China. However, we are talking with the one in China and soon they will become our
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and we will work together.

3 Listening for gist

Listen to three people talking about their jobs and match each speaker to the questions they are
answering.

1. Speaker 1 a. Are there any problems with your job?

2. Speaker 2 b. Which department do you work in?

3. Speaker 3 c. Who are your customers?

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YOUR COMPANY

4 Listening for vocabulary

Look at the vocabulary in the box and check the meanings with a reference if you need to. Use it to
complete the sentences. You may have to change the form of the word.

advise (v) / calm (adj.) / client (n) / expand (v) / profit (n) / software (n) / work all hours (idiom)

1. I work in customer service helping our when they have questions about how our
works on their computers.

2. It’s important to be able to be and really listen to what they are saying.

3. We are both going to Paris together next month to look at our business there.

4. I think we will make a lot of next year.

5. We are able to them about their products.

6. I really enjoy my job in marketing, although I .

Now check your answers with the teacher or by listening to the speakers again.

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YOUR COMPANY

5 Listening comprehension
Complete the table by ticking the correct box.

Who... Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3

a. has to be careful
with what they eat?

b. spends a lot of their

work day talking?

c. says that they really

like their work?

d. gives information to
other departments?

e. is going on a trip
soon?

f. sometimes has to
deal with people who
are not polite?

g. helps other
businesses?

h. works a lot with

numbers?

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YOUR COMPANY

6 Skimming for gist

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. How many branches does your company have?

2. How many people does your company employ?
3. Who are your main customers?
4. Who is the main competition for your company?
5. Do you sell products online?
6. How much money does your company make each year?

Now read the interview on page seven. Which of these questions does Sarah MacDowell answer?
Write them down in correct gaps.

7 Scanning for details

Quickly read the article on page seven and match the numbers to their meaning.

a. 50:

b. 30:

c. 15:

d. 10:

e. 95:

f. 3 million:

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New businesses
Sarah MacDowell – CEO of Comfort-Table

A. Each month we interview someone from a business that has started in the last three years. This month, it’s Sarah
MacDowell.
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B. Most of them are in Europe, though we do deal with a lot of orders in China, Korea and Japan. It seems that the
type of furniture we make is in fashion over there. We’ve also had a certain amount of interest from the Middle
East. The type of wood we use works well in the heat. And they are comfortable because of the design rather
than the material, so our chairs are perfect in high temperatures as they don’t make you feel hot.
2

C. We had around 50 at the beginning of the year, but there are now 80 across all of our branches, so we are
expanding quickly. Around 30% of our staff have come to us straight from university, usually from a design and
fashion background. We have a small factory in the Netherlands of around 15 people. They are responsible for
making our products and ordering the materials needed. Our head office is in Stockholm and we have ten people
based there, including senior management and our Human Resources and financial team.
3

D. I’d say around 95% of our business is done on the Internet. We wouldn’t be able to do so much business without
it. We have two permanent members of staff who look after our website and make sure our deliveries are getting
to the customers. We do have a small shop in the Netherlands next to the factory which is quite popular as we
are able to sell the products a bit cheaper as we don’t have to pay anyone to deliver them. So we have quite a lot
of business there, but it doesn’t compare to the online business we have which is around the world.
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E. Last year, we made almost one million Euros. This year, we have already made 3 million and it’s only August. Our
products are becoming very popular and our main problem is being able to make enough to sell to all the people
that want them. It’s a good problem to have I suppose, but it is a lot of work. Everyone in the company is working
6 or 7 days a week at the moment, but this should change soon as we have a new factory opening up which will
increase our production.

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YOUR COMPANY

8 Reading comprehension

Read the article on page seven and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. Sarah MacDowell sells more products in Asia than in Europe.

2. The chairs which Comfort-Table make are popular because the material they use makes them
comfortable.

3. Comfort-Table is based in Stockholm.

4. It’s less expensive to buy their products online than in their shop.

5. The company’s profits have been increasing.

6. The staff at Comfort-Table are working all hours.

9 Talking point

In pairs, with a new partner, discuss the following questions.

1. Where are you based?

2. Who do you work for?
3. What does your company do?

10 Extended activity/Homework

Write a short description of your company based on the work you have done in the lesson.

Consider the questions you asked and answered in the Talking point and include that information in
your writing. If you prefer, you can write it as though you are giving a presentation to other business
people.

You should:

• Write at least 150 words

• Check your spelling, grammar and punctuation

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