Business structure

Chairperson of the board of

directors
(President du conseil
d'administration)

board of directors
(conseil d'administration)
Chief Executive Officer
Managing Director
(Directeur Général)

Secretary
General

Sales and
Marketing Chief Financial Human resources Production
manager Officer Manager manager

Read the text and find the French equivalent to the words in Bold

1. I think we have a fairly typical organization for a manufacturing firm. We’re divided into
Finance, Production, Marketing and Human Resources departments. The Human Resources
department is the simplest. It consists of two sections. One is responsible for recruitment and
personnel matters, the other is in charge of training. The Sales and Marketing department is
made up of three sections: Sales, Sales Promotion, and Advertising, whose heads are all
accountable to the marketing manager. The Production department consists of five sections.
The first of these is Production Control, which is in charge of both Scheduling and Materials
Control. Then there’s Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Engineering Support.
Manufacturing contains three sections: Tooling, Assembly, and Fabrication. Finance
department is composed of two sections: Financial Management, which is responsible for
capital requirements, fund control, and credit, and Accounting.

2. Large British companies generally have a chairperson of the board of directors who
oversees operations, and a managing director (MD) who is responsible for the day-to-day
running of the company. In smaller companies, the roles of chairman and managing director
are usually (1) combined. Americans tend to use the term president rather than chairman, and
chief executive officer (CEO) instead of managing director. The CEO or MD is (2) supported
by various executive officers or vice-presidents, each with clearly (3) defined authority and
responsibility (production, marketing, finance, personnel, and so on). Top managers are (4)
appointed (and sometimes dismissed) by a company’s board of directors. They are (5)
supervised and advised and have their decisions and performance (6) reviewed by the Board.
The directors of private companies were traditionally major shareholders, but this does not
apply to large public companies with wide share ownership. Such companies should have
boards (7) constituted of experienced people of integrity and with a record of performance in a
related business and a willingness to work to make the company successful. In reality, however,
companies often appoint people with connections that will impress the financial and political
milieu. Yet a board that does not demand high performance and remove inadequate executives
will probably eventually find itself (8) attacked and displaced by raiders.