Business Vocabulary in Use, Bill Mascull

I work for a large European car maker. I work on car design. In face, I run the design department and I manage a team of designers: 20 people work under me. It's very interesting. One of my main responsibilities is to make sure that new model designs are finished on time. I'm also in charge of design budgets.

I deal with a lot of different people in the company. I'm responsible for co-ordination between design and production: I work with managers at our manufacturing plants.

   

I work for a French supermarket company. I work on the development of new supermarkets. In fact, I run the development and I manage for a team looking at the possibilities in different countries. It's very interesting. One of my main responsibilities is to make sure the new supermarket open on time. I'm also charge in financial reporting. I deal with a lot of different organizations in my work. I'm responsible for planning projects from start to finish. I work closely with our foreign partner, and so I travel a lot.

   

Rebecca lives in London and works in public relations. She leaves home for work at 7:30 am. She drives to work. The traffic is often bad and she worries about getting to work late, but she usually arrives at work at around nine. She finishes work quite late, at about eight. 'Luckily, I'm never ill,' she says. 'I could never take the time off work.' She loves what she does and is glad to be in work. Some of her friends are not so lucky: they are out of work.

   

I'm an office worker in an insurance company. It's a nine-to-five job with regular working hours. I like to be able to go home at a reasonable time.

We all have to clock in and clock out every day.

   

There's a system of flextime in my company, which means we can work when we want, within certain limits. We can start at any time before eleven, and finish as early as three, as long as we do enough hours each month. It's ideal for me as I have two young children.

   

I work in a car plant. I work in shifts. I may be on the day shift one week and the night shift the next week. It's difficult changing form one shift to another. When I change shifts, I have problems changing to a new routine for sleeping and eating.

   

I'm a commercial artist in an advertising agency. I work in a big city, but I prefer living in the country, so I commute to work every day, like thousands of other commuters. Working from home using a computer and the Internet is becoming more and more popular, and the agency is introducing this: it's called teleworking or telecommuting. But I like going into the office and working with other people around me.

   

We also ask the candidates to do written psychometric tests to assess their intelligence and personality.

We shortlist three or four candidates. We check their references by writing to their references: previous employers or teachers that candidates have writing in their application.

   

It's more useful if you train as a scientist and qualify as a biologist or chemist training for a specific job is better.

   

We need good managers, which can achieve through in-house training courses within the company. You know we have put a lot of money into management development and management training because they are very important.

   

Self-starters, proactive, self-motivated, self-driven

Methodical, systematic, organized

Numerate

   

I'm a salesman based in Paris. I get a basic salary, plus commission: a percentage on everything I sell. If I sell more than a particular amount in a year, I also get extra money - a bonus. There are some good fringe benefits with this job: I get a company car, and they make payments for my pension, money that I'll get regularly after I stop working. All that makes a good benefits package.

   

I'm specialist in pay and benefits. Compensation and remuneration are formal words used to talk about pay and benefits, especially those of senior managers. Compensation package and remuneration package are used especially in the US to talk about all the pay and benefits that employees receive. For a senior executive, this may include share options or stock options: the right to buy the company's shares at low prices. There may be performance-related bonuses if the manager reaches particular objectives for the company.

   

Compensation is in the form of a compensation payment, or receive benefits, the payment and the benefits form a severance package.

   

The people who work for a company, all the people on its payroll, are its employees, personnel, staff, workers or workforce.

   

Most employees work in open-plan offices: large areas where many people work together.

Administration or, informally, admin, the everyday work supporting a company's activities, is often done in offices like these by administrative staff or support staff.

   

stoppage, walk-out, go-slow, overtime ban

   

Career paths were clear: you could work your way up the career ladder, getting promotion to jobs that were more senior, with greater responsibilities.

To leave the company, you could resign or hand in your notice.

   

Modco has downsized and delayered. The number of management levels in the company hierarchy has been reduced from five to three, and many managers have lost their jobs. Modco has reorganized and restructured in order to become flatter and leaner.

They did this to reduce costs, and increase efficiency and profits. Employees said the company used words like restructure to make the situation sound positive and acceptable.

Modco has outsourced many jobs previously done by in-house personnel: outside companies clean the offices, transport goods and collect money from customers. This allows Modco to concentrate on its main business activities. Modco uses more freelancers, independent people who may work for several different companies, and they employ people for short periods on temporary contracts. Modco expects flexibility, with people moving to different jobs when necessary, but for many employees, this means job insecurity, the feeling that they may not be in their job for long. The way that they are doing their job is discussed at performance reviews.

   

Employees who are made redundant may get advice about finding another job, retraining, etc. This is called outplacement advice.

   

In many organization, women complain about the glass ceiling that allows them to get to a particular level but no further.

   

In the US, affirmative action is when help is given in education and employment to groups who were previously discriminated against. In Britain, affirmative action is known as equal opportunities.

   

The plural of businessperson is businesspeople.

   

An entrepreneur is someone who starts or founds or establishes their own company. Someone who starts a company is its founder. An entrepreneur may found a series of companies or start-ups. Entrepreneurial is used in a positive way to describe the risk-taking people who do this, and their activities. Some entrepreneurs leave the companies they found, perhaps going on to found more entrepreneurs leave the companies they found. Other may stay to develop and grow their businesses.

   

Media magnate, shipping magnate, oil magnate.

Movie mogul, media mogul, shipping mogul.

Property tycoon, software tycoon.

   

In 1970s Britain, there were state-owned or government-owned companies in many different industries such as car manufacturing and air travel. Some industries had been nationalized and were entirely state-owned, such as coal, electricity and telephone service. In the 1980s, the government believed that nationalized companies were bureaucratic and inefficient, and many of them were privatized and sold to investors.

   

PLC public limited company.

   

There may be consumer panels and focus groups, where ordinary people meet to discuss product ideas informally.

Perhaps the researchers will make sales forecasts, estimates of how many products will be sold.

   

Car designers use CADCAM(computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing) to help develop and make products and test different prototypes.

   

Researchers in laboratories may take years to develop new drugs, testing or trialling them in trials to show not only that they are effective, but also that they are safe. Drugs need to be made on an industrial scale before they can be sold.

   

Rollout is the process of making a product available, perhaps in particular places, to test reaction.

   

If far too many things are produced, there is a glut of these things. If not enough goods are being produced. There is a shortage.

   

Stocks have to be financed, stored, and handled. So the company is asking its suppliers to provide components just-in-time, as and when they are needed.

This is part of lean production or lean manufacturing, making thins efficiently: doing things as quickly and cheaply as possible, without waste.

   

The objective of quality control is conformity to specifications, the idea that the product should be made exactly as it was intended, with zero defects: no faults at all. Things should be done right first time so we don't have to correct mistakes later in a process of reworking. We do spot checks every few minutes during production to ensure everything is going well.

   

We are always making small improvement; this is continuous improvement. We refer to it by its Japanese name: kaizen.

   

In retailing, they use mystery shoppers, who pretend to be shoppers to check service in shops. We use mystery travelers to report on the standard of service before during and after the flight.

   

Business process reengineering, BPR. We completely redesigned all our processes in management, administration and customer service. We eliminated three levels of management and installed new computer system.

   

You can also talk about the users or end-users of a product or service, who may not be the people who actually buy it. For example, when a company buys computers for its staff to use, the staff are the end-users.

   

People selling things in the street are street vendors.

   

Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make a profit.

Companies point out how the special characteristics or features of their products and services possess

particular benefits that satisfy the needs of the people who buy them.

   

Product, price, place, promotion, packaging.

 

Placement: when a company pays for its products to be seen in films and TV programs

   

Consumer goods that last a long time, such as cars and washing machines, are consumer durables. Consumer goods such as food products that sell quickly are fast moving consumer goods.

   

Brand awareness or brand recognition is how much people recognize a brand.

   

Generic products, generics

   

The cheapest ones are low-end or bottom-end. The most expensive ones are high-end or top-end products. The cheapest entry-level ones are for beginners. Those in between are mid-range.

You can trade up and move upmarket. Or You can trade down and move downmarket.

   

Product endorsements are when famous people recommend a product.

   

Supermarkets and airlines give loyalty cards to customers.

Cross-promotion is where you buy one product, and you are recommended to buy another product that may go with it.

   

Last year we had two million unique users who generated 35 million hits or page views.

   

E-commerce or e-tailing has even acted as a form of advertising and increased levels of business in our traditional bricks-and-mortar shops. We need a combination of traditional retailing and e-commerce: clicks-and-mortar. This would help to solve the last mile problem, the physical delivery of goods to Internet customers: just deliver from local stores.

   

e-procurement. B2C, B2B, B2G

   

Variable costs(change when production goes up or down - materials, cost of goods sold(the variable costs in making particular goods)

   

Gross margin

   

We reach break-even point.

   

The company also benefits from the experience curve or learning curve: as it produces more, it learns how to do things more and more quickly and efficiently.

   

They are given trade credit, a period of time before they have to pay, usually 30 or 60 days.

But with some customers, especially ones we haven't dealt with before, we ask them to pay upfront, before they receive the goods.

   

Amortization(depreciation)

For example, when we buy new computers, we depreciate them or amortize them over a very short period, usually three years, and a charge for this is shown in the financial records: the value of the equipment is written down each year and written off completely at the end.

The value of an asset at any time is its book value. This isn't necessarily the amount that it could be sold for at that time.

   

When a company's results are presented in a way that makes them look better than they really are, even if it follows the rules, it may be accused of creative accounting or window dressing.

   

Shareholders receive periodic payments called dividends.

The total amount of debt that a company has is its indebtedness.

The sum of money borrowed is the principal.

Lending to companies is often in the form of bonds or debentures, loans with special conditions. One condition is that the borrower must have collateral or security: that is, if the borrower cannot repay the loan, the lender can take equipment or property, and sell it in order to get their money back.

   

The company, over the years, has distributed some profits or earnings to shareholders, but it has also kept profits in the form of retained earnings and built up its cash reserves; it is sitting on a cash pile or cash mountain. These reserves may be used for investment or to make acquisitions.

   

Debt rescheduling, debt restructuring

   

It may ask a court to give it time to reorganize by filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors.

If the company cannot be saved, it goes into liquidation or into receivership. Receivers are specialists who sell the company's assets and pay out what they can to creditors. When this happens, a company is wound up, and it ceases trading.

   

When you reach an agreement, you can talk about clinching a deal or closing a deal.

People who get what they want in a negotiation are said to drive a hard bargain.

   

Your concession may be a goodwill gesture: a concession that you make hoping that the other side will see this as friendly and make a concession in return.

   

Let me sum up. Firstly, we looked at technical skills, secondly, at management skills and last, but by not means least, at interpersonal skills. In my view the secret of success in the future is going to be interpersonal skills. That brings me to the end of my presentation. Are there any questions?

   

That's fair point. That's not really my field.

Well, I think that goes beyond the scope of today's presentation.

I think that's good place to stop. Thank you for listening.

   

That's not really how I see it.

I can't really go along with you there.

   

Would you like to open the discussion, Kook?

Get the ball rolling?

   

Chairperson should also try to avoid digressions, where people get off the point.

   

Extraordinary general meeting: a shareholders' meeting to discuss an important issue such as a proposed merger.

   

He was rambling and kept wandering off the point.

The paper got stuck and the machine jammed.

   

Can we leave it open for the time being?

   

There is a culture of presenteeism: being at work when you don't need to be.

   

Causal Fridays.

   

Canteen culture: the ways that people in an organization such as the police think and talk, not approved by the leaders of the organization.

   

A leader may be described as a visionary, someone with the power to see clearly how things are going to be in the future. People often say leaders have drive, dynamism and energy.

   

Before, leaders were distant and remote, not easy to get to know or communicate with. Today, managers are more open and approachable: you can talk to them easily. There is more management by consensus, where decisions are not imposed from above in a top-down approach, but arrived at by asking employees to contribute in a process of consultation.

   

Encouraging employees to use their own initiative, to take decisions on their own without asking managers first, is empowerment. Decision-making becomes more decentralized and less bureaucratic, less dependent on managers and systems. This is often necessary where the number of management levels is reduced.

To empower employees, managers need the ability to delegate, to give other people responsibility for work rather than doing it all themselves.

   

Many people want to get away from the rat race and the treadmill, the feeling that work is too competitive, and are looking for lifestyles that are less stressful or completely unstressful, a more relaxed ways of living, perhaps in the country. Some people work from home to be near their family and have a better quality of life, such as more quality time with their children: not just preparing meals for them and taking them to school, etc. Choosing to live and work in a less stressful ways is downshifting or rebalancing.

   

Don't aim for perfectionism when there is no need for it. Try to balance time, cost and quality.