BSI_212

The magazine for business English

HOW TO GET A

JOBBusinessSpotlight

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March –April l Issue 2/2012

Internationalwww.business-spotlight.com

€ 10,85

Business SkillsSay no – andhave success

Head-to-HeadDo Americanswork too much?

ManagementLessons fromSteve Jobs

http://www.business-spotlight.com

New: Business Spotlight InternationalThe magazine for business English

With Business Spotlight International, you can

get up-to-date business news and stories

brush up your grammar and vocabulary

improve your negotiation and presentation skills

Download your free issue here! www.business-spotlight.com/international

http://www.business-spotlight.com/international

2/2012

■ EDITORIAL

Ian McMaster, editor-in-chief

Contact: [email protected]

Welcome to Business Spotlight International, a new

bimonthly digital magazine for everyone who needs English in their

job. The magazine includes not only language topics and tests but also

covers the essential areas of business skills and intercultural commu-

nication. In addition, you will find regular sections on management,

careers and technology, as well as articles and interviews about the

latest business trends and the people in the news.

Business Spotlight International is written by top jour-

nalists from around the world, as well as by leading experts in the

fields of business English and communication. It is the all-English ver-

sion of Business Spotlight, which was first published in 2001 and is

aimed at learners and trainers in German-speaking countries. In 2007,

Business Spotlight was awarded the prize of Germany’s Trade Publi-

cation of the Year in the category “Law, Business and Taxation”.

As well as the magazine, we also have a workbook,Business Spotlight plus, with which you can practise the language and

skills you have learned in the magazine (for details, see page 51). We

look forward to hearing from you and to receiving your feedback.

Good luck with your business English!

Going international

The first issue ofBusiness Spotlight,in 2001 (left), and

our first International issue, in 2012

Practice makes perfect!

You can order Business Spotlight plus here:

www.business-spotlight.com/plus

Together, Business Spotlight plus

and our magazine offer you

the perfect self-study material.

Available for every issue of Business SpotlightInternational

Business Spotlight plus is a bimonthly

workbook. Inside, you’ll find:

20 pages of motivating exercises

based on the articles in the magazine

grammar, business vocabulary,

everyday language and culture

and a test to check your progress

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.business-spotlight.com/plus

4 www.business-spotlight.com 2/2012

WORKING WORLD6 Names and News The latest from the world of business

9 My Working Life Canadian Mountie John Buis

TEST10 Applying for a Job Are you looking for a new job? Let us help you with a special test of the useful terms you will need

GLOBAL BUSINESS16 The Language of War A special report on the important role of interpreters in war zones

22 Head-to-Head Do Americans work too much?

24 Business Press Comments from the world’s media Behind the Headlines Media Watch Language in the news

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION28 Critical Incidents Using case studies, we look at typical communication problems between cultures

34 Dialogue Two wedding planners, one from the US and

the other from India, talk about their business

36 The View from Here The Olympics are changing London’s skyline City File London

BUSINESS SKILLS38 Saying No How to say no without sounding negative Language survival guide to print out and keep

45 On the Line Six “don’ts” for the telephone

46 Meeting Point Effective brainstorming

47 Say It in Style When you don’t understand

CAREERS48 Blogging Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong

55 The Job Doctor Performance reviews

56 My Way Tour operator Marilou Larssen

MANAGEMENT58 Young Businessman Yoganathan Ratheesan of Lebara Mobile

60 What I’ve Learned Apple legend Steve Jobs

62 Business Basics Change management programs

63 Executive Eye Does competition bring out the best in people?

TECHNOLOGY64 Think Pink Reducing theft in construction

66 Language Focus Flight control systems

68 Innovations New product developments

69 Technically Speaking Milestones in engineering

Translating and interpreting is big business, especially inwar zones. A report from the front lines.

■ CONTENTS 2/2012

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There’s a lot to think about when you apply for a job inEnglish. Find out what you need, in our language test.

16Translationservices

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LANGUAGE SECTION

70 Vocabulary The jewellery shop

71 Grammar at Work The passive voice

72 English on the Move Giving a tour of your company

73 Language Cards Print out and practise

75 The Maine Event An office dialogue

76 Short Story Video Games

78 English for... Start-ups

80 Financial English Taxes on goods and services

81 Authentic English Using the passive at work

82 Legal English Dispute resolution

83 What’s New? Products, sites, events

REGULAR SECTIONS

3 Editorial27 Business Spotlight International online84 Feedback / Masthead85 Preview86 The Last Laugh

LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS SPOTLIGHTArticles in the magazine use the style, spelling, punctuation andpronunciation of British English unless otherwise marked.

American style, spelling, punctuation and pronunciationare used in these articles.

Approximately at CEF level A2

Approximately at CEF levels B1–B2

Approximately at CEF levels C1–C2

All articles are marked with their level of language difficulty. CEF stands for the Council of Europe’s “Common EuropeanFramework of Reference for Languages”.

ifml.: informal or slang word or phrasenon-stand.: non-standard word or phraseUS: North American usage

SELF-STUDY WITH OUR WORKBOOKBusiness Spotlight plus, our 20-page work-book, contains useful vocabulary and grammarexercises to practise and improve your busi-ness English skills.

Wherever you see this symbol, you canfind language exercises related to these textsin Business Spotlight plus. For more informa-tion, see page 51.

www.business-spotlight.com■ Sign up for our newsletter for a weekly quiz on topical terms.■ For teachers and trainers: lesson activities and ideas for using

Business Spotlight International with learners.■ For more information, see page 27.

CUSTOMER SERVICEEmail: [email protected]. +49 (0)89 856 81-17; Fax +49 (0)89 856 81-159

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Trying to reach agreement is good, but sometimes youhave to say no. Here’s how to do it diplomatically.

No one likes performance reviews. Yet they can be usefulto both sides. Here’s how to make them successful.

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6 www.business-spotlight.com

■ WORKING WORLD NAMES AND NEWS

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Proud of his roots:top chef and TVstar Vikas Khannais looking for a nice Indian girl

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British exports to Russia rose 63 per cent to £2.1 billion (€2.4 billion) during the first half of 2011.Sources: The Daily Telegraph; Russo-British Chamber of Commerce (www.rbcc.com)

Household income for Americans aged 15 to 24 fell by 15.3per cent last year.Sources: The Wall Street Journal ; U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov)

Vikas Khanna is not an astronomer, buthe knows something about stars. The

40-year-old recently won a Rising StarChef Award, and his New York restauranthas a Michelin Star. Now he’s also a TVstar, as a judge on MasterChef India.

Khanna has come a long way since heleft India for New York in 2000. “I wentto America without a job and withoutmoney,” he told The Times of India. “Ididn’t know anyone. I went to a restau-rant to ask if they needed any help. Theysaid, ‘We need a dishwasher.’ I agreed.”

It was the classic American success sto-ry. “I was living in a shelter home in NewYork when somebody asked me if Icooked. I said yes. That person told me‘we have a party of 200 people and youhave to make one appetizer’, and I madedhokla.” A party guest recommendedKhanna for a job at a restaurant calledSalaam Bombay. This led to his currentposition as executive chef at Junoon.

“Although it’s a high-end restaurant, Ihave always tried to keep simple food init,” he says. Khanna, who is single, sayshis mother wants him to marry an Indiangirl. “All I want is that she be as proud anIndian as I am,” he says. Khanna addsthat he’s not looking for a woman whocan cook well. “I don’t want the compe-tition,” he laughs.

INDIA

Star power

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“I do catnap, but I think while I

nap, so it’s not a waste of time”American businesswoman and television personality Martha Stewart, 70


http://www.rbcc.com

http://www.census.gov


* This symbol marks standard US pronunciation that differs from standard UK pronunciation.

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Rhode Islanders have a long history of self-reliance —theirs was the first of the 13 colonies to declare its in-

dependence from Britain in 1776 — but they know when thetime has come to swallow their pride and accept help.

With an unemployment rate of 10.4 percent, the smallestU.S. state has enthusiastically adopted a work-sharing pro-gram that allows workers to reduce their working days as analternative to lay-offs. Under the program, employers payworkers for four days, and the state unemployment insuranceprovides them with a sum equal to one fifth of what theywould receive under full unemployment insurance.

“You take some hits, but it’s not as bad as if you were laidoff,” says Geoffrey Grove, chief executive of Pilgrim ScrewCorporation, a small company that manufactures screws andfasteners for the aerospace and defense industries.

Pilgrim employs 65 people and, rather than carrying outlay-offs, it placed 11 employees, including the boss himself,in work-sharing. “It hurts, but overall it’s the best thing forthe company,” Grove told The Wall Street Journal. Accordingto Susan Houseman, a senior economist at the W. E. Upjohn

Machinist:saving jobs by

working less

U.S.

Share and share alike

$12,000,000,000Approximate amount that Facebook apps contributed to the US economy in wages and benefits in 2011

Sources: University of Maryland (www.umd.edu); TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com)

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Institute for Employment Research, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,2009 was the worst year of the U.S. recession, with five mil-lion jobs lost across the country. Yet 220,000 of those couldhave been saved if the entire country had been on a work-sharing program, Houseman estimates.

Reuben Hendricks, a 59-year-old machinist, has worked forPilgrim Screw Corporation for 30 years and was also on awork-sharing program in 2009. He sees a number of advan-tages to work-sharing, including the fact that it reduces theneed for retraining. “It would take years for someone else tocome in here and learn this stuff,” Hendricks comments.

fastener [(fÄs&n&r*] a device used to join two things togetherhigh-end [)haI (end] expensive and of very good qualitylay sb. off [)leI (O:f*] to end someone’s employmentlay-off [(leI O:f*] the act of ending someone’s employment

because there is not enough worklong way: have come a ~ to have made a lot of progress[)lQN (weI]nap [nÄp] to sleep for a short time overall [)oUvEr(O:l*] when everything is considered screw [skru:] a thin, pointed piece of metal used to join

pieces of metal or wood togetherself-reliance [)self ri(laIEns] the ability to do things without helpshelter home [(SeltE hEUm] a place where people who have no home

can livestate unemployment the system workers pay into that providesinsurance [)steIt money for people who do not have a job VnIm(plOImEnt In)SUrEns*]stuff [stVf] ifml. thingstake some hits to suffer; to have a painful experience

adopt sth. [E(dA:pt*] to take something over from somebody, suchas an idea or method

aerospace [(eroUspeIs*] involving the production or operation of aircraft or spacecraft

appetizer [(ÄpItaIzE] a small dish eaten at the beginning of a mealapproximate almost accurate, but not quite[E(prA:ksImEt*]benefits [(benIfIts] advantages that you get as part of your job,

in addition to your salary or wagescatnap [(kÄtnÄp] a very short sleepchief executive the person with the highest position in a[)tSi:f Ig(zekjEtIv*] companycompetition someone who is trying to be better than [)kQmpE(tIS&n] someone else; a rivalcontribute sth. to sth. to give some form of help to something, [kEn(trIbjEt tu*] for example, money or timedhokla [(dEUklE] a vegetarian Indian dishexecutive chef a cook who manages a restaurant[Ig)zekjUtIv (Sef]

http://www.umd.edu

http://techcrunch.com



In a difficult economy, many peo-ple are looking for ways to save

money. That’s good news for Re-duced to Clear, a chain of budgetgrocery stores in New Zealand. Thechain was established in 2008with one store, open one day aweek. Nearly four years later, thereare seven stores, open seven daysa week — with more to come.“We’re on track to open six stores [in 2012],” CEO JohnHoneycombe told The New Zealand Herald. Based inAuckland, Reduced to Clear ships all over the country.“We’ve got 5,000 people on our Facebook site and27,000 on our mailing list,” Honeycombe says.

The company is able to keep prices down by sellingproducts that are close to their so-called best-beforedates. “Foods are designed to go beyond that — but not the use-by date,” Honeycombe explains. “We’ll findout from the supplier what the tolerances are in that particular product, and we’ll sell within the recommen-

dations of the supplier.” Co-founder Sean Hills says saving money is just one motivation to buy at Reducedto Clear. Some who could afford to shop elsewhere likethe idea of reducing waste, rather than throwing out foodwhen it reaches its best-before date. “We were seeing so much food product being unnecessarily dumped,even though it was perfectly fine to eat,” Hills writes on the company website. “What’s the point of dumpingperfectly fine food products into the ground whenthere’s a world shortage of food? It just didn’t makesense.”

2/2012

■ WORKING WORLD NAMES AND NEWS

Budget shopping: hard times bring success

Selling like hot cakes very popular and being sold very quickly aboriginal children children of an ethnic group living in a [ÄbE)rIdZIn&l (tSIldrEn] place since the earliest timesbased [beIst] locatedbest-before date the date after which food is no longer of[)best bi(fO: deIt] the highest qualitybudget [(bVdZIt] cheap; inexpensiveCEO (chief executive the person with the highest position in officer) [)si: i: (EU] a companydump sth. [dVmp] to throw away something that you do

not want in a careless and fast waygrocery store a shop that sells food[(grEUsEri stO:]on track: be ~ to be likely to be successful in [)Qn (trÄk] something you are planning to doship sth. to send and deliver something, usually

goodsshortage [(SO:tIdZ] a situation in which there is not enough

of something that is neededuse-by date the date after which food is no longer[(ju:z baI deIt] UK safe to eat

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NEW ZEALAND

Selling like hot cakes

“No wise man

ever wished to be

younger”Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667–1745),

author of Gulliver’s Travels

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10% 25%

Percentage of Canadian children living in poverty

Percentage of aboriginalchildren living in poverty

Sources: Campaign 2000, a national public-awareness group (www.campaign2000.ca); Statistics Canada (www.statcan.gc.ca)


http://www.campaign2000.ca

http://www.statcan.gc.ca

As a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,

this Mountie has an unusual job. KATHLEEN BECKER

spoke to him about his work.


Current job: Staff sergeant major with the Royal Cana-dian Mounted Police in Burnaby, British Columbia. Iwork mostly as an administrator: answering people’squestions or replying to emails, helping to make sureeverything runs smoothly. I also coordinate all the spe-cial events in the city when police officers are required:for example, parades and funerals.

Home life and family: I live in my hometown of NorthDelta, near Burnaby. My wife is a schoolteacher, andwe’ve been married 35 years. Our three children are allat university.

Reasons for choosing this job: I originally trained to bea commercial pilot and wanted to get a job as a pilotwith the police, but unfortunately had an incident atwork in 1979.

Worst day: Here in Burnaby, in 1979. I was working inplain clothes with my partner, and we stopped a stolencar. When we went to arrest one of the people, he pulleda sawed-off shotgun, shot me and then my partner. Wegot through it, but I had seven operations over ten yearsto reconstruct my leg.

Best day: There have been so many. In 1994, I was inCroatia with the United Nations, just after the war,when there were still four separate zones occupied bythe Serbians. One day, we were able to get firewood forone of the schools. They had no oil, and we were ableto get firewood from a great distance away for the en-tire winter.

Work situation: Burnaby has a very diverse populationof about 220,000 people. Any conflict that took placein the world in the last 30 years — we have people thathave escaped from there. The Balkans, Sudan, Ethiopia,Eritrea, Sierra Leone. A large number of refugees arecoming from Afghanistan at this moment. There’s onearea in Burnaby where 100 different languages are spoken.

Hobbies: My involvement in organizing high-schoolbasketball tournaments since 1974 has kept me bal-anced and focused. Less than five to ten per cent of thecommunity are a problem. But because you’re alwaysdealing with the negative side, you get a bit jaded. Thislets me see young people in a different light and doingpositive things. I also cycle and collect Scotch whiskies.

Biggest regret: I played a bit too much basketball at uni-versity and didn’t finish my degree the first time. But Idid go back to school later and finished it in 2000.

Travel opportunities: For us, doing overseas missions isjust an extension of what we do here, trying to make thecommunity better. My last tour was in East Timor. Theisolation was tough, and I’m not sure if I want to gocamping again soon!

Skills needed: Interpersonal skills. You have to like peo-ple. Everybody makes mistakes, and we often see peo-ple at their worst, whether it’s a tragedy or a crime.

Least favourite part of job: The paperwork. But it is partof what happens when you supervise people. There’s gotto be a paper trail: you’re accountable.

Work ethic: Our police work is not law enforcement, it’speacekeeping — making sure the right thing is done atthe right time.

MY WORKING LIFE WORKING WORLD ■

accountable responsible for something and required to [E(kaUntEb&l] explain your actionsdiverse [daI(v§:s] varied; with many differencesfuneral [(fju:n&rEl] a ceremony that is held after someone has diedincident [(InsIdEnt] an unusual, often unpleasant eventjaded no longer interested in something because you [(dZeIdId] have experienced too much of itlaw enforcement the task of making sure that people respect [(lO: In)fO:smEnt] the lawmounted police a special group of police officers who ride [)maUntId pE(li:s] horsespaper trail documents showing that something has[)peIpE (treI&l] been doneplain clothes: in ~ wearing ordinary clothes instead of a special [)pleIn (klEUDz] uniform refugee [)refju(dZi:] sb. who leaves a place to escape from dangersawed-off shotgun a long gun that fires lots of small bullets that [)sO:d Qf (SQtgVn] has been made shorter by cutting off the endsupervise sb. to be in charge of someone at work[(su:pEvaIz]

JOHN BUIS

John Buis:peacekeeper andtop Mountie

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■BSI



TIME FOR A CHANGE

n TEST APPLYING FOR A JOB

Do you need to write a job application in English? In this special test, you can find out whether you

know all the necessary terms and expressions. By CAROL SCHEUNEMANN and HILDEGARD RUDOLPH.

4

all levels

THE SITUATION: Penny James works as an

administrative assistant in

the production department of

Smithson Pumps in England.

She has decided it’s time to

look for a new job. Let’s join

her as she begins her search.

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Penny: I’ve found an interesting a) job ________ . But the company wants to get theb) ________ by email. Will you help me to put my documents in digital form?

Daniel: Sure. Is your c) ________ up to date?

Penny: Well, almost. I have to include my current d) _______ .

Daniel: What about former employers — do you have any as e) _______ ?

Penny: Yes, three previous managers have written positive letters for me.

Daniel: Good. So let’s scan those letters and make PDFs. And have you prepared astandard f) covering _______ ?

Penny: Yes, but I’ll have to adapt it to better match the g) job _______ .

Daniel: Good. Then, let’s begin!

2.

1.

ad n application n CV n description n letter n position n referees

iStockphoto (2)

a) asap = _________________________

b) exec = _________________________

c) exp = _________________________

d) hols = _________________________

e) k = _________________________

f) neg. = _________________________

g) pa (p.a.) = _________________________

h) req = _________________________

i) sal = _________________________

j) yrs = _________________________

k) F/T = _________________________

Getting startedPenny is talking to her friend Daniel about creating digital documents to use whenapplying for a job. Use the words from the box to complete the sentences.

Keeping it shortPenny and Daniel are familiar with most of the abbreviations found in job ads. Are you? Write the words in fullin the space provided.


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The future is now:a new job bringsnew perspectivesto your career

“Your life does not get

better by chance, it gets

better by change”Jim Rohn, US business philosopher



advanced3.

advanced4.

a) An open position that a company wants to fill. 1. vacancy 2. vacation 3. vocation

b) An academic title or rank acquired by successfully completinguniversity studies. 1. degree 2. grade 3. promotion

c) A period of temporary work experience for students.1. workflow 2. workforce 3. work placement

d) A statement from a former employer on how well you performedyour job. 1. attest 2. testimonial 3. testimony

e) Your past achievements or performance.1. inside track 2. track listing 3. track record

f) A measure of your competence in a particular area. 1. preference 2. profile 3. proficiency

g) A type of position that is intended to continue.1. permanent 2. infinite 3. definite

Going online: usekey words for

your job search

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Talking about jobsPenny will also need to know some specific job-related vocabu-lary when applying. Match these key terms with their descriptions.

Reading between the linesHere is the job ad that interests Penny. After reading it, decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F).

Do you have the skills to handle a range of administrative matters in a technical setting? Ralston Engineering isseeking an experienced assistant to the CTO and software department. Your tasks will include managing corre-spondence across product teams, making travel arrangements, processing invoices and coordinating visitors. Theideal candidate will present a proven track record in a similar position. You have exceptional organizational skillsand are able to remain calm under pressure. Specific requirements:

n University degree or relevant trainingn 5+ yrs exp as assistant to C-level execs n Technical background preferredn Proficiency in all areas of Microsoft Office packagen French and German desired

This permanent F/T position requires some weekend and overtime work. Sal neg., up to £30 k pa. Excellent ben-efits package. Apply online only, naming your salary expectations and available starting date. Please quote ref.3732-RE. Testimonials appreciated.

T Fnn nn a) The company is looking for a technology director.nn nn b) The employee will be responsible for booking hotels and flights.nn nn c) “C-level” refers to an educational qualification.nn nn d) The workplace can be quite stressful.nn nn e) The candidate must have technical knowledge.nn nn f) Applicants should state what they would like to earn.



5.

With great interest, I read of your a) job title /

job opening for an assistant in your software

department. My b) qualifications / qualities

and employment c) background / origin

closely match the d) profile / résumé of your

ideal candidate. I am very eager to put my

e) skills / activities to work for your company.

I’ve been an administrative assistant for ten

years. In my current f) position / posting at

an engineering company, I make travel book-

ings, coordinate schedules and organize

meetings for a team of eight engineers.

advanced6.

advanced

4

Keep yourbusiness English up to date!

Improve your vocabulary with our weekly quiz on the language in the news.

Learn business expressions, economic terms and idioms for the workplace.

Test your knowledge of current events and the latest trends.

Sign up for our free newsletter here: www.business-spotlight.com/newsletter

Listing your historyPenny would like to send her CV to the company. Unfortunately, she discovers that the headings are all mixedup. Put the following ones in the correct places.

a) Languages _________: Administrative position where exceptional organizational skills will contribute to the

success of the department

b) Interests _________ and Training: Romford College of Adult Education

c) Computer skills _________: Two-year course in business administration

d) Personal skills _________: Smithson Pumps

e) Objective _________: International Society for Administrative Assistants

f) Associations _________: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.)

g) Current employer _________: Basic French and German

h) Qualifications _________: Judo, sailing, charity work (Oxfam)

i) Education ____________: Organized and efficient

Writing it rightPenny sends a covering letter to RalstonEngineering company. Choose the rightwords to complete the sentences in thisexcerpt.

http://www.business-spotlight.com/newsletter



At the interview:talk about what you can dofor the company

a) I improved _______________________________________________________________.

b) I made sure _______________________________________________________________.

c) I distributed _______________________________________________________________.

d) I discovered _______________________________________________________________.

e) I saved money _______________________________________________________________.

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“Our a) w_rk_ng h_ _rs are 38 hours per week. We offer flexitime, with our b) c_r_ t_m_ being between 10 a.m.

and 4 p.m. After a six-month c) tr_ _l p_r_ _d, our d) w_g_ sc_l_ provides an increase of 1.5 per cent a year.

Up to ten hours of e) _v_rt_m_ are compensated with f) t_me _ff _n lieu (TOIL). Our g) b_n_f_ts include a

private medical- h) _ns_r_nc_ scheme and employer-supported i) ch_ldc_r_. Employees receive low-cost warm

and cold meals in our company j) c_nt_ _n. The company k) c_r p_rk is available free of charge. If you use

l) p_bl_c tr_nsp_rt, the firm pays half of your monthly pass.”

advanced8.

on hotels the minutes after each meeting our time management that money was being wastedour meetings were effective

by sending out the agenda beforehandso everyone’s tasks were clearby negotiating a reduced ratewhen booking hotelsby creating an online diary

Selling yourselfDuring the interview, Penny talks about her achievements and talents. Choose a phrase fromeach column to complete the sentences.

Talking about the workplaceSteven Jones explains the working conditions at Ralston Engineering. Fill in the missing vowels.

“By changing

nothing,

nothing

changes.”

Tony Robbins, US motivational speaker


2/2012

1. Getting starteda) ad/advert/advertisement (job ad,

also: employment ad, US also:help-wanted ad = an official an-nouncement inviting people to ap-ply for a job)

b) applicationc) CV (curriculum vitae, US résumé) =

a written record of your education,qualifications and the jobs you havedone

d) positione) referees (US references) = someone

who gives information about yourexperience and abilities

f) letter (covering letter, US cover let-ter = a letter sent with a CV explain-ing why you are applying for the job)

g) description (job description = a listof all the things that someone mustdo in a particular job)

2. Keeping it shorta) as soon as possibleb) executive = someone in a manage-

ment position in a companyc) experienced) holidays (US vacation)e) 1,000f) negotiable = can be changedg) per annum = each yearh) requiredi) salaryj) yearsk) full-time

3. Talking about jobsa–1; b–1; c–3 (US internship); d–2;e–3; f–3; g–1

4. Reading between the linesa–F (The employee will work for the

CTO, “chief technology officer”.)b–T (Tasks will include “making travel

arrangements”.)c–F (“C-level” refers to managers with

“chief” in their titles.)d–T (The candidate should be “able to

remain calm under pressure”.)e–F (“Preferred” means it is desired,

but not essential.)f–T (Applicants are asked to name their

“salary expectations”.)

5. Listing your historya) Objective b) Educationc) Qualificationsd) Current employere) Associationsf) Computer skillsg) Languagesh) Interestsi) Personal skills

6. Writing it righta) job opening = job vacancyb) qualificationsc) backgroundd) profilee) skillsf) position = job

7. Selling yourselfa) I improved our time management

by creating an online diary. b) I made sure our meetings were ef-

fective by sending out the agendabeforehand.

c) I distributed the minutes after eachmeeting so everyone’s tasks wereclear.

d) I discovered that money was beingwasted when booking hotels.

e) I saved money on hotels by negoti-ating a reduced rate.

8. Talking about the workplacea) working hoursb) core time c) trial period = a fixed time during

which a company can see if you arethe right person for the job or not

d) wage scale e) overtimef) time off in lieu (US comp time) =

extra hours you can take as holidayinstead of getting paid for them

g ) benefits = advantages that you getas part of your job, in addition toyour salary or wages

h) insurance i) childcarej) canteen = a restaurant at one’s

workplacek) car park (US parking lot)l) public transport = buses, trains,

trams, etc.

9. Sending a follow-upa) confirmb) appreciate(d)c) impressedd) mentioned e) contribute f) implement g) look h) contact

Answers

HILDEGARD RUDOLPH is a certified translator and a freelance editor,teacher and book author. Contact: [email protected]

CAROL SCHEUNEMANN is an editor at Business Spotlight with responsibility for language tests and the Technology section. Contact:[email protected]

easy9.

appreciate n confirm n contact n contribute n implement n impress n look n mention

Thank you for talking with me about the position of assistant for the software department. I would like to

a) __________ my strong interest in joining the team at Ralston Engineering.

I b) __________ the friendly welcome and was c) __________ with your plans for opening four more European

branch offices in 2012.

As I d) __________ yesterday, with my experience and relevant skills set, I am sure I can e) __________ towards

managing your office efficiently. I feel that my foreign-language proficiency can help you to f) __________ your

European strategy.

I g) __________ forward to hearing from you. Please h) __________ me if you would like any further information.

Sending a follow-upPenny writes a follow-up email to Ralston Engineering. Complete the sentences with the appropriate forms of theverbs from the box.




THE LANGUAGE OF WAR

Based in Columbus, Ohio, MEP was founded in2004 and is now the US government’s main supplier oftranslators, interpreters and cultural advisers. Accord-ing to the MEP website: “The company has expandedfrom a small business with a handful of employees toan industry leader with prime contracts and delivery or-ders around the world. Company revenue was $6.7 mil-lion in 2005, $185 million in 2008, and $629 millionin 2010.”

How did a small company become an industryleader and increase its revenue so dramatically in justfive years? Every MBA student would like to know theformula. Actually, it’s rather simple: get a major govern-ment contract.

On 7 May 2010, the US Department of Defense an-nounced that it had awarded MEP a contract for $679million to provide “linguist/translation services”. As aresult, MEP now has 8,200 people working in 13countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Eu-rope, and it is hiring more. For example: “Pashto lin-guists are in high demand — making anywhere from184,500–235,500 with full benefits,” says MEP.

To earn up to $235,500 a year with MEP, a linguistneeds to have the right language skills, pass a securitycheck and then do a job that includes interpreting,translating, transcribing and analysing communica-tions. Those are the safe parts of the job. The part that’sdangerous is the “providing of linguist support to USArmy operations in Afghanistan”.

“Since 2007, a total of 77 of MEP’s linguists have beenkilled, 335 have been wounded and 10 are missing,”says Pratap Chatterjee, an investigative journalist whospecializes in human rights issues. Chatterjee, directorof a San Francisco-based corporate-accountabilityorgan ization, CorpWatch, has monitored MEP for

Language specialists are essential in war zones and disaster areas. Interpreters are flown in — or

connected via modern technology to soldiers on the ground. And, as is so often the case, we’re now

finding a use for this military technology in our everyday lives. EAMONN FITZGERALD reports.


■ GLOBAL BUSINESS TRANSLATION SERVICES

On a cold evening in January 2010, Nasir Ah-mad Ahmadi picked up a gun and killedDavid Thompson and Marc Decoteau. Thetwo men were US soldiers at Camp Nunez, amilitary base in eastern Afghanistan that is

used for supporting tactical operations in WardakProvince. Was Ahmadi a Taliban fighter? No. He wasan interpreter who had been hired to work with theAmerican troops.

The incident at Camp Nunez ended when SergeantSteve Kimsey drew his pistol and killed the 23-year-oldAhmadi. But the story didn’t end when the shootingstopped. If anything, that’s when it really became inter-esting. It’s a story about the industry of war, and a par-ticular part of that industry many people don’t thinkabout: language.

Afghanistan is a country of many languages: Dari,Pashto, Baluchi, Pashai and Nuristani, to name just five. Without trained linguists at their side, US forceswould be unable to talk to Afghans, gather essential in-formation or translate intercepted phone calls thatcould reveal the locations of Taliban fighters or plansfor bomb attacks. This means that there is a huge de-mand for linguists, and this in turn means big businessfor Mission Essential Personnel, better known as“MEP”.

2/2012

benefits [(benIfIts] advantages that you get as part of yourjob, in addition to your salary or wages

corporate accountability the responsibility of a company for its [)kO:pErEt E)kaUntE(bIlEti] actionsDepartment of Defense the US government ministry in charge [di)pA:rtmEnt Ev di(fens*] US of military mattersformula [(fO:mjUlE] a method used to achieve successfound to start a business, especially by pro-

viding the necessary money incident [(InsIdEnt] an unusual, often unpleasant eventintercepted if a phone call is intercepted, someone

secretly listens to itinterpret [In(t§:prIt] to translate spoken words from one lan-

guage into anotherinterpreter [In(t§:prItE] someone who translates spoken wordsMBA (Master of Business a higher (post-graduate) university Administration) degree in businessmonitor sth. to watch and check something over a[(mQnItE] period of timeprime of the highest qualityreveal sth. to make something knownrevenue [(revEnju:] the money that a business earnstranscribe sth. to write something down as it is said

advanced

4

There is a huge demand

for linguists in the world’s

war zones

*This symbol marks standard US pronunciation that differs from standard UK pronunciation.


M. d

i Lau

ro/G

etty

Imag

esHelp: an

interpreter (left)with the US

Army inAfghanistan

2/2012

Despite the deaths and the scandals, the business ofproviding language services for the military is expand-ing, not declining. Indeed, it’s about to get much, muchbigger. On 1 July last year, the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command announced a con-tract worth $9.7 billion over the next five years for thelogistics “necessary to perform language interpretationand translation services” for its military operationsaround the world.

With so much money involved, it’s not surprising thatthe language business is attracting the attention of someof the major players in the security industry. On 14 Au-gust last year, Lockheed Martin announced that it wasintroducing a “virtual capability that connects inter-preters with battlefield troops”. The LinGo Link systemwill provide “reliable, real-time interpreter services”, inthe words of the global aerospace, security and technol-ogy company.

Is LinGo Link today’sequivalent of tomorrow’sStar Trek Universal Transla-tor? Not quite. “It’s a tacti-cal broadband interpreterservice for troops in the fieldusing cellular systems,” saysTodd Fitzgerald, a business-development analyst atLockheed Martin. In non-tech talk, that means “mo-bile phones”.

Lockheed Martin makesa number of claims for Lin-Go Link. For example, itsays that the service “allowseach interpreter to serve a


aerospace involving the production or operation of air-[(eErEUspeIs] craft or spacecraftbroadband a system that makes it possible to send large

amounts of electronic data very quicklycellular [(seljUlE] mobile-phonecombat troops groups of soldiers who are ready to fight[(kQmbÄt tru:ps]decline [di(klaIn] to become less or smallerquote sth. to give the price of somethingrecruit [ri(kru:t] someone who has recently started to work

for an organizationscript a system of letters or symbols used to write

a particular language United States Army US Army organization responsible for ana-Intelligence and Security lysing data of political and military impor-Command US tance and protecting the country from harm


A CLOSER LOOK

The Universal Translatorwas used by the crew of thestarship Enterprise in theclassic 1960s TV seriesStar Trek. The translatorprovided instant translationof any language, which wasvery useful, as the Enter-prise often met specieswith a limited knowledge ofEnglish. The problem withthe Universal Translator isthat it requires telepathy,and Earth’s scientists arestill light years away fromunderstanding exactly howthat works.

4

Meeting place: officer and interpreter with village elders

Dari and Pashto

In Afghanistan, about five million people speak Dari. Itis the language of the Afghan elite, with Pashto being

taught as a second language. Dari is a form of Persianthat is very similar to the Farsi of Iran, although there aresome differences in grammar and pronunciation. It iswritten using a version of the Perso–Arabic script, whichconsists of 32 letters.

According to the Omniglot website, Pashto is the firstlanguage of almost half the people of Afghanistan andhas about 25 million speakers in Pakistan. It is spokenmostly by the Pashtun people, who are also the main eth-nic group in the Taliban movement. Pashto is written us-ing a version of the Arabic script, which has 45 letters.

years and is highly critical of what he sees. When MEPquotes those $235,500 salaries, he points to other sta-tistics. “Most of MEP’s recruits are local Afghans earn-ing $900 a month for 12-hour days, seven days a week,with combat troops,” he says.

DoD

/C. J

ones

/U.S

. Airf

orce



2/2012

front line [)frVnt (laIn] in a war, the place where fighting takes placePeople’s Front of Judea a group of anti-Roman activists in the film Life of Brian[)pi:p&lz )frVnt Ev dZu(dIE]sanitation [)sÄnI(teIS&n] the systems that supply clean water and remove dirty water

4

greater number of users,while supporting multipledialects — all within thesame service center — andwithout putting qualifiedinterpreters in danger”.

In a world where storiesabout dead and woundedlinguists are bad for busi-ness, this should makeLinGo Link an attractivesolution for those who de-pend on language servicesin danger zones.

So, how does the systemwork? LinGo Link connects users (soldiers) with a group of inter-preters in a far-away centre using either commercial mobile or Wi-Finetworks, or Lockheed Martin’s own MONAX broadband commu-nications network. When help is needed, the user calls an interpreter.The two can then exchange audio, video, photos and text during theconversation and the interpreter can also provide “whisper-in-the-ear”cultural information that is meant to help those on the front line un-derstand the traditions and history of the people they are dealing with.

Naturally, sceptics have been quick to point out the weakness-es of the system. What would happen, they ask, if the signal were todisappear when a life-or-death decision is about to be taken? Lock-heed Martin prefers to talk about the positive aspects of LinGo Linkthan to deal with “hypothetical scenarios”, as Todd Fitzgerald says.

There is a famous scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian in whichReg (John Cleese), the leader of the People’s Front of Judea, gives aspeech asking: “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Immedi-ately, and much to his horror, the revolutionaries point out all the pos-itive aspects of the Roman occupation of Judea, including medicine,education, wine, roads and sanitation.

Networking pioneer:US scientistJ. C. R. Licklider

MIT

Despite the deaths and the

scandals, the business of

providing language services for

the military is expanding

Practice makes perfect!



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When they are not protesting against war, some of to-day’s revolutionaries take time out to become tourists,and they can often be found in Rome, enjoying a cap-puccino after a walk along the Appian Way. As they up-load photos of their travels to Facebook, it would notbe polite to mention the central role that armies haveplayed in the history of communication, but like thoseRoman roads, today’s information highway was once amilitary project.

In 1962, Welden Clark and J. C. R. Licklider wrotean article called “On-Line Man Computer Communi-cation”, one of the first descriptions of a networked fu-ture. Licklider was then hired by the Defense AdvancedResearch Projects Agency (DARPA), a group within theUS Department of Defense responsible for the develop-ment of new technology for military use in the ColdWar. He was given the task of interconnecting the de-partment’s main computers. The result was the core network that would become the global internet.

Four decades later, in 2003, DARPA organized thelargest-ever artificial-intelligence project in the historyof the US, with the goal of integrating various technolo-gies for a range of military uses, including voice recog-nition. The project was called CALO, an acronym for“Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes”; thename was inspired by the Latin word calonis, which isthe genitive of calo, meaning “soldier’s servant”.

DARPA invested $200 million in CALO before mov-ing on to newer projects. CALO became a separate busi-ness in 2007 and Apple quietly acquired it in 2010.

Since October last year, many people have been usingApple’s new iPhone 4S, which has a function called Siri,a “voice-driven assistant” that can make telephonecalls, send emails, arrange or cancel appointments, findinformation and generally do all the things that wereonce done by a secretary or a servant. Siri is a child ofCALO.

acquire sth. [E(kwaIE] to buy somethingaffect sth. to have an effect on somethingapology [E(pQlEdZi] a statement in which you say sorry

for sth. you have done wrongcompete [kEm(pi:t] to try to get something that others

want, toocore network the main system of connectionsdaunting task a piece of work that is difficult in a[)dO:ntIN (tA:sk] frightening way ensure sth. [In(SO:] to make sure that sth. will happengrief [gri:f] extreme sadness, especially after

someone you love has diedilliterate [I(lItErEt] unable to read or writeimplication the possible effect or result of sth.instruction manual a booklet that explains how to do or [In(strVkS&n )mÄnjuEl] use somethinglawsuit: file a ~ against sb. to bring a complaint about some- [(lO:su:t] body to courton time at the right timepattern recognition the act of recognizing the structure [(pÄt&n rekEg)nIS&n] of a set of shapesremnants [(remnEnts] the parts of something that remain

after the rest has been destroyedshred sth. to cut or tear something into very

small piecessound healthy, stabletake time out to rest from your usual dutiesunmanned aerial vehicle an aircraft that doesn’t have or need[Vn)mÄnd )eEriEl (vi:Ik&l] people inside for it to flyvast [vA:st] very large

Reconstructing the dog’s dinner

“Teacher, the dog ate my homework” is an excusea schoolchild might give for failing to do some-

thing on time. If America’s Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA) is successful, that excusemight not work any more. The DARPA Shredder Chal-lenge asked computer scientists and puzzle fans tocompete for up to $50,000 by piecing together shred-ded documents. “Today’s troops often confiscate theremnants of destroyed documents in war zones, but re-constructing them is a daunting task,” said DARPA,which gave the prize to a small team from San Fran-cisco. Some people felt that DARPA should simply havegiven the money to the German Fraunhofer Institute forthe rights to its e-Puzzler pattern-recognition technol-ogy, which was developed to reconstruct documentsshredded by the Stasi.


High-techweaponry:

soldierspreparing

a drone

P. B

az/A

FP/G

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es


Voice recognition, with all its potential for managingto-do lists and organizing workflow, is coming to the of-fice. When our desktop computers become connected tothe “cloud”, they’ll be capable of using its vast comput-ing power so that voice recognition will become muchmore intelligent and intuitive.

But the implications for the developing world are evenmore dramatic. There, typical computer users will be ur-ban, mobile, poor and possibly illiterate. They won’t beable to read instruction manuals or write emails, butvoice recognition will replace the need for them to doeither. Instead, they’ll speak to applications, and thesewill talk back to them.

For soldiers, speaking is much easier than typingand it is obvious that, in the near future, a lot of“warfighters”, to use one of the Pentagon’s most pop-ular new words, will be talking to systems like Siri. Howthis will affect the jobs of interpreters and translators re-mains to be seen, but the battlefield trend is moving to-

wards automation. The US military already usesunmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, and ex-perts say the ultimate goal is to create robotsthat can replace soldiers.

Meanwhile, in the human world, the familiesof David Thompson and Marc Decoteau have

filed a lawsuit in North Carolina against Mission Essen-tial Personnel. They accuse the company of not proper-ly testing Nasir Ahmad Ahmadi to ensure he was psy-chologically sound before giving him a job as an inter-preter. MEP’s reaction to the shootings added to theirgrief. No apologies. No condolence letters. No one fromthe company attended either funeral.

“War is what happens when language fails,” says theCanadian writer Margaret Atwood.

■ Omniglot online encyclopedia of writing systems and lan-guages: www.omniglot.com

■ DARPA Shredder Challenge: www.shredderchallenge.com

For more information

EAMONN FITZGERALD is a technology journalist andsocial media consultant based in Munich, Germany.Contact: [email protected]

“War is what happens

when language fails,” says

writer Margaret Atwood

■BSI

Get the most out of teaching with Business Spotlight International

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Free lesson activities, including copy files and role cards.

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http://www.omniglot.com

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anxiety [ÄN(zaIEti] the feeling of being worried and nervousabout something

bank statement a document listing the amounts of mon-ey paid into or out of a bank account

carbon output the amount of carbon dioxide producedby someone or something

clerk [kl§:k*] someone whose job it is to help peoplein a bank, shop or public office

clock up hours to reach a particular number of work [)klA:k (Vp aU&rz*] hoursfeel entitled to sth. to believe you have the right to have[)fi:&l In(taIt&ld tu] somethinggreenhouse gas a gas that traps heat above the earth,

thought to cause the greenhouse effectgross domestic product (GDP) the value of all goods and services[)groUs dE)mestIk (prA:dVkt*] produced in a country in one yearimpact [(ImpÄkt] the influence or effect that a situation

has on someone or somethinglife expectancy the length of time a person can expect[(laIf Ik)spektEnsi] to liveobesity [oU(bi:sEti*] the state of being extremely fatoverstaffed having more workers than necessarypaid sick leave a time when you do not have to work

because you are ill, but still receive payresent sth. [ri(zent] to feel angry about a situation because

you think that it is unfairresource consumption the amount of something, such as oil,[(ri:sO:rs kEn)sVmpS&n*] plants, minerals, etc., that is usedsurvey [(s§:veI] a set of questions that you ask people to

get information about their opinions orbehaviour

throwaway [(TroUE)weI*] intended to be thrown away after useweed sb. out to remove sb. who is not good enough

found that a reduction in American work hours to Eu-ropean levels would lead to a 20 to 30 percent reduc-tion in energy use and carbon output.

Americans work long hours out of a sense of necessi-ty, not choice. Gallup finds that Americans are 20 per-cent happier on weekends than workdays, and surveysshow that the majority of Americans want more vaca-tion time. But most people here live in a great deal of in-security or fear, especially with the economic crisis, highunemployment rates, health care that depends on thejob, and a social safety net that has been seriously re-duced in the past 30 years. They are afraid to complain.

Americans should aim for a work-life balance that iscloser to that of Europeans, who work far fewer hours.We can’t turn this around overnight, but we need tostart taking steps — or we’ll become increasingly over-worked, overstressed, unhealthy, and unhappy.

2/201222 www.business-spotlight.com

■ GLOBAL BUSINESS HEAD-TO-HEAD

DO AMERICANS WORK TOO MUCH?Do Americans have serious health problems because they have to work far too much? Or do they work

long hours because they are unproductive and lazy? TALITHA LINEHAN presents two views.

YES!

JOHN DE GRAAF is director of a campaign to reduce overwork,Take Back Your Time (www.timeday.org), and media director ofThe Happiness Initiative (www.happycounts.org). He is co-authorof What’s the Economy For, Anyway? (Bloomsbury Press).

medium US

Too much work is the point at which work beginsto have a significant negative impact on people’slives. In America, more than 20 percent of em-ployees work excessive hours (over 48 hours a

week, according to the International Labor Organiza-tion), while 30 percent do not receive any paid vacationtime and more than 40 percent get no paid sick leave.

Many Americans work so much that they don’t havetime or energy for a healthy lifestyle. They eat fast foodinstead of taking the time for a proper meal, and sit infront of the TV instead of exercising. Overwork is sure-ly one reason why Americans have nearly twice as muchchance as Europeans of suffering from chronic illness-es, such as heart disease and diabetes, in old age. Wehave the shortest life expectancy among rich nations,and the world’s highest obesity rate.

Long and stressful work hours have a negative impacton mental health as well. Levels of anxiety and depres-sion here are nearly double those in Europe. Americansalso have less time to spend with family and friends thanEuropeans do.

According to the Gallup-Healthways survey, thosecountries that have the best work-life balance andshortest work hours, including Denmark, Norway, andthe Netherlands, tend to have the happiest people. Wehave an enormous gross domestic product (GDP), butour average wage has been stagnant for decades — andwe are far behind Europeans when it comes to manyother quality-of-life measures.

Long work hours are harmful, not just to workers butalso to the environment. To save time, Americans buythrowaway products and drive alone to work, leadingto high levels of resource consumption and greenhousegas emissions. Studies in the U.S. and Sweden have

“Americans

work long hours

out of a sense

of necessity, not

choice”

JOHN DE GRAAF


http://www.timeday.org

http://www.happycounts.org


rich and famous and resent having to work in the mean-time. Instead of complaining about how much theywork, Americans should be grateful that they have ajob, especially in these tough economic times.

I grew up in Canada and lived in Japan for 11 years,before moving to the U.S. in 2001. America ranks be-hind these and other countries when it comes to workethic. Most Americans don’t take pride in their work un-less they own their own business — and are inefficientand unreliable, as a result. If I want someone to do some-thing, I often have to ask them two or three times.

When I moved here, I opened a bank account. Theclerk entered my name incorrectly in the computer. Itold her about the error and she said she would changeit right away. For months, I received bank statementswith the wrong name. I reported the error to the bankrepeatedly, but it was never corrected. I finally closedthe account and went to another bank. This kind of in-competence would be unacceptable in Canada orJapan.

In the past, a lot of companies were overstaffed.When the recession hit, they kept only their most effi-cient workers, while weeding out those who wereclocking up hours but doing very little. My friendTrudy, who works for a publisher, had five peopleworking under her ten years ago, and now they are allgone. She does the work of all of them. If they had allbeen working at capacity, this would not have beenpossible.


Dig

ital V

isio

n

The right work-life balance:

not easy to find

NO!“Americans feel

entitled to wealth

and success

without having to

work for it”

CHARLENE POTTER

A mericans might work long hours, but that doesnot mean that they work too much. Just be-cause you’re at work doesn’t mean that you’reworking. In many cases, Americans don’t work

hard enough. They waste hours in unnecessary and un-productive meetings, take too many breaks, and spendtoo much time sending personal e-mails, chatting totheir colleagues, and surfing online. If they workedharder, they might not have to work so many hours toget the job done.

Studies have found that Americans have poor life sat-isfaction. The reason for this may not be that Americanswork too much but that they don’t get a sense of per-sonal pleasure from the work that they do. One of theproblems is that they feel entitled to wealth and successwithout having to work for it. They are in love with theidea of the American Dream, but that’s all it is for mostpeople — a dream. They sit around waiting to become

CHARLENE POTTER teaches linguistics, French and English asa Second Language at Pasadena City College. She also works asa photographer, as well as buying and renovating houses, whichshe later sells or rents.

■BSI


While some saw Obama’s criticism of a Wall Street re-sponsible for the present financial crisis as a nod to thelanguage of Occupy, he ... [rejected] the language of the 1% and the 99%, instead making an appeal to theaspirations of the middle classes, who, he said, “thecards” had been stacked against in America’s redistri -bution of wealth to the super-rich.

It is on issues such as these that Romney ... is mostvulnerable. ... A wealthy former hedge-fund founder,whose top ten donors are all large Wall Street compa-nies, his offer of a $10,000 “bet” during a Republicandebate has already made him appear out of touch withordinary Americans’ financial concerns. ...

US elections:does anyonestill representthe viewsof America’smiddle class?


■ GLOBAL BUSINESS BUSINESS PRESS

Get

ty Im

ages

Among voters under 30, the group most sympathet-ic to left-wing causes such as Occupy Wall Street,[US President Barack] Obama is favoured over the

leading Republican contender Mitt Romney by a stag-gering 24 points. At the other end of the generationalspectrum, Obama trails Romney among voters in the“Silent Generation” — the group just older than thebaby boomers which is heavily represented among TeaParty supporters — by 13%.

While the road to the Republican primaries has some-times seemed like a grisly beauty pageant for social conservative values, ... their two top concerns are a visceral desire to reduce government and governmentspending, and the economy and employment. Social is-sues are cited as a top issueby only 12%. Obama choseto lay out what was effec-tively his manifesto for re-election in a speech in Os-awatomie, Kansas, where,just over a century before,Theodore Roosevelt, a Re-publican president, laid outhis own vision for a “NewNationalism” in which heargued for a strong federalstate to regulate the econo-my and guarantee socialand economic justice. ...

The first of the Republican primaries marks the start of the race for the US presidency. How do voterssee Obama and his Republican contenders? Who could win the crucial middle-class vote?

The middle-class vote

advanced

The Observer

baby boomer someone born between 1946 and 1964beauty pageant a competition in which judges decide[(bju:ti )pÄdZEnt] who is the most beautiful womancause an aim or belief that people fight forcite sth. [saIt] to mention something as an examplecontender [kEn(tendE] one of several people trying to get some-

thing, such as a job or political officegrisly [(grIzli] extremely unpleasant and frighteninglay sth. out to describe and explain somethingnod a sign of agreement or approvalprimary [(praImEri] US an election at which a candidate for the

main election is chosenstacked: the cards are ~ when somebody has difficulties becauseagainst sb. the situation is unfairstaggering [(stÄgErIN] extremely surprising or shockingtrail sb. to be losing against somebody in an

election or competitionvisceral [(vIsErEl] relating to strong, basic emotionsvulnerable [(vVlnErEb&l] easy to attack or harm

A CLOSER LOOK

The 1% and the 99% is areference to a political slo-gan used by the OccupyWall Street protesters. “Weare the 99%” was the titleof a blog by an anonymousNew Yorker that appearedin the summer of 2011.The blogger said that theincomes and wealth of oneper cent of Americans havegrown out of all proportionto those of the rest of thepopulation: the 99%.


The Guardian

2/2012

You can call it welfare, social security or the safety net, and eachcarries a distinct nuance. But ever since the days of the parishloaf, the basic idea has been ensuring every hungry mouth gets

fed. Until now. The bill wending its way through the Lords under themisnomer of welfare “reform” is in truth more a litany of cuts. Of itsmany objectionable features one stands out — an arbitrary annual capon any family’s total benefits of £26,000. The appeal ... is easy enoughto understand in the context of the Tory conference, which is whereGeorge Osborne ... [declared] that no onewould get more in welfare than the typi-cal working wage. But this sloganisingrests upon confusions ... both deliberateand malign. For one thing, there is themuddle between earnings and disposableincomes, which for working families ofmodest means will include tax creditswhich the coalition are busily cutting. ...The second wilful mix-up is between indi-vidual and household incomes. The samecash ... has to stretch much further with afamily of six than a single wage earner. ...

Help wanted: but will it bethere when they need it?

advanced

AFP

/Get

ty Im

ages

annual cap [)ÄnjuEl (kÄp] the upper limit of an amount of money in a given yearappeal [E(pi:&l] attractionbenefits [(benIfIts] money people can get from the government if they are

unemployed, sick or poorbill a proposal for a new lawchurch parish the part of a community that a priest is responsible for[)tS§:tS (pÄrIS]deliberate [di(lIbErEt] planned or intendeddiet [(daIEt] the food that you eat disposable income the amount of money left after paying your bills[dI)spEUzEb&l (InkVm] and taxes

loaf bread that is baked in one pieceLords: the (House of) ~ UK one of the two parts of the British parliamentmalign [mE(laIn] harmfulmisnomer [)mIs(nEUmE] a badly chosen namemodest means: of ~ having little money to spend[)mQdIst (mi:nz]muddle a confusing situationobjectionable [Eb(dZekS&nEb&l] deserving to be criticizedstand out to be more noticeable or importanttax credit a reduction in the taxes you have to pay welfare [(welfeE] money given by the government to poor people for

their basic needs, such as food and housingwend one’s way through sth. to move slowly from one place to another[)wend wVnz (weI Tru:]wilful [(wIlf&l] (of sth. known to be bad) done intentionally

A CLOSER LOOK

Under the Elizabethan PoorLaw of 1601, people whowere too old or sick to workwere provided with foodand clothing by localchurch parishes. Becausebread was an importantpart of the diet, the provi-sion of food became knownas the parish loaf. The lawwas named after QueenElizabeth I (1533–1603).

WelfarecutsFinancial support isnecessary, but exactlyhow much? The UK government now wantsto cut family benefitsdrastically.

Communicating Internationally

in EnglishUnderstanding –

Being Understood

FROM YORK ASSOCIATES

Bob Dignen with Ian McMaster


in English

The competence-based approach

to success in international

business communication

For upper intermediate and advanced level speakers of English who know

the language and want to know how to use it effectively.

For Business English trainers who want their clients to get results.

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■ GLOBAL BUSINESS BUSINESS PRESS

BEHIND THE HEADLINESHeadlines in English-language media can be difficult to understand. They are often very idiomatic

and full of jargon and wordplay. Also, to save space, words may be left out, which makes it difficult to

recognize the grammatical structure. Here, we look at the meaning of some recent headlines. advanced

Can Euro Zone’s: Normally, one would write “the EuroZone’s”, but articles are often left out in headlines. Notethat the normal British spelling is “eurozone”. In typi-cal US headline style, all the words here start with a cap-ital letter.Word Be Its Bond: This is a reference to the Latin mot-to of the London Stock Exchange, dictum meumpactum, or “my word is my bond”. The idea is that anoral agreement is binding, even without a written agree-ment. The word “bond” here is also a reference to thesuggestion by the European Commission that the euro-zone countries should issue joint bonds, called “stabil-ity bonds” or “euro bonds”. The article questions, how-ever, whether the suggestion can be put into practice.In simple English: Are joint bonds for the eurozone arealistic option?The Economist

Financial Times

Metro

The Wall Street Journal

Blacks: Here, Blacks Leisure, Britain’s leading outdoorretailer.in the red: To be “in the red” means to “be in debt” orto “make losses”. Blacks Leisure was £36 million indebt at the time of the article, and so it had decided toput itself up for sale in order to try to save the business.Also, it made losses of £16 million in the first half of2011 and so it warned that its full-year performancewould be worse than had been expected.In simple English: The British retailing company BlacksLeisure is even more in debt than before.

Pain in the azzurri : This is a play on words. A personor situation that causes a lot of problems or is annoy-ing is referred to colloquially as a “pain in the arse” (US “ass”). The Italian word azzurri is the plural form of azzurro, meaning “light blue”. This was the official colour of Italy’s monarchs until 1946 and thecolour worn by Italian sporting teams, such as its football and rugby teams. The article is about Italy’seconomic problems and how they were made worse bythe country’s prime minister at the time, Silvio Berlus-coni.In simple English: The problems in Italy are being madeworse by its annoying prime minister.

Keystone: This refers to the proposed “Keystone XL”oil pipeline, which would have run from Alberta inCanada to Texas in the US. The business sector and the trade unions supported the project, but environ-mentalists were worried about the greenhouse gases that would be released by extracting gas from the tarsands in Alberta. Keystone was also a US film compa-ny, formed in 1912 and famous for its silent comedyfilms. cop-out: If you “cop out of something”, such as a de-cision, you avoid taking the responsibility for it. Here,“cop-out” is used as a noun. It refers to the fact that the US State Department, which had been investigatingthe pipeline proposal since 2008, put off a decision at the end of 2011. (In early 2012, it rejected thepipeline.) “Cop” is also slang for a police officer, andthe “Keystone Kops” were the incompetent police inmany Keystone comedy films. In simple English: A difficult decision about the pro-posed Keystone oil pipeline has been put off.

be in debt [)bi: In (det] to owe moneyissue sth. [(ISu:] to make sth. officially available to buyoral [(O:rEl] spoken, rather than writtenpain in the arse something that makes people angry [(peIn In Di )A:s] ifml. (arse = a person’s bottom)put off to delay, to cause to happen at a later dateretailer [(ri:teI&lE] a company that sells goods to people to use


BUSINESS PRESS GLOBAL BUSINESS ■

MEDIA WATCH

This is an advertisement for the new Toshiba notebook, the Z830. The advertisement uses aplay on words to talk about one of the characteristics of the product. If you say that an

argument for something is “thin” or “a little thin”, you mean that it is weak and not well found-ed. Here, of course, Toshiba wants to say exactly the opposite to its potential customers. Theadvertisement is making the point that one of the key advantages of its product is that it is sothin (0.83 centimetres) and so light (1.12 kilograms).SE

ENRE

CENT

LY

“There are lies,damned lies and viewson the euro.”

Ian McMasteron business trends

“Too many beggarsand thieves —even for Le Carré.”

Deborah Caprason wise words for work

“We learn muchbetter when we havea positive mindset.”

Robert Gibsonon intercultural issues

OUR BLOGS

www.business-spotlight.comDo you want to keep up to date with the languageof business, the economy and the workplace?

Once a week, we send out a short quiz on wordsin the news.

Here’s an example:

Quiz: “eluders” or “evaders”?“Greece has named its top tax ____.”

The answer to each quiz includes background information on the news story, together with de-tailed explanations on language usage.

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The term “slacktivist” is a play on two words: “ac-tivist”, someone who campaigns for social or politicalchange, and “slacker”, someone who avoids work or ef-fort. The article looks at the charge that people who areactive in social-media campaigns and want to do goodin the world (“do-gooders”) are not active in otherways. For example, they don’t give their time to cam-paigns or donate money. The article says that the evi-dence “belies” this charge, meaning that it doesn’t jus-tify or support it.

“For all his skills at retail politics , Mr Santorum is essentially a creature of the Christian right.

What is left of the party’s establishment knows his nomination would be a disaster.”

Financial Times

In this leader about Rick Santorum, a candidate to bethe Republican Party’s challenger in the US presidentialrace in November, the Financial Times says that one ofSantorum’s strengths is “retail politics”. This meansmeeting voters face-to-face, rather than talking to themvia television adverts or debates. A retail company isone that sells to the final customer. Here, the idea is thatthe voters are the customers in the world of politics. Theterm “retail politician” is used to describe politicianswho are good at face-to-facevoter contact.

retail politics

slacktivist

advanced

“This belies the charge that networked do-gooders are

‘slacktivists’ . So too does a study from Georgetown Uni-

versity ... which finds that Americans who back causes

through social media are often active in other ways. ... ”

The Economist

“What happens whenyou learn content in aforeign language?”

Helen Strongon teaching trends

Is your English up to date?


http://www.business-spotlight.com/newsletter

http://www.business-spotlight.com/blogs




WHAT’S GOING ON?Cultural differences are often the cause of embarrassing misunderstandings. ROBERT GIBSON takes a

closer look at cultural factors that could play a role in these international situations and highlights key

communication strategies for dealing with such incidents.


n INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CRITICAL INCIDENTS

When something memorable happens —whether negative or positive — this isknown as a “critical incident”. In intercul-tural communication, some people alsouse the term “cultural moment” to refer

to a situation in which something special happens thatis at least partly triggered by culture. Regional, func-tional and corporate cultures, as well as age, gender andreligion may be just as important as national cultures.

In this article, we present a number of critical inci-dents. Try to decide what cultural factors could be play-ing a role and suggest possible strategies for dealingwith the situations. There will often be more than onepossible answer. A key aspect of intercultural compe-tence is awareness that there may be several explana-tions for what happens. Our comments are thereforesuggestions rather than definitive solutions.

The diagram opposite provides you with a checklistof possible cultural factors. These, together with indi-vidual personality and situation, can influence behav-iour. Key terms from the diagram are explained on thefollowing pages. In the Comments section, starting onpage 32, we also refer to the relevant sections of the di-agram.

1. Communication styleNon-verbal communicationn Body language: which gestures are appropriate?n Eye contact: should it be encouraged or avoided?n Touch: do you kiss, hug or shake hands?n Body distance: how close do you get to people?n Paralanguage: what are the usual voice and intonation

patterns?n Taking turns: how do you structure conversations?Context: do you make your message explicit (low con-text) or expect the other person to “read between thelines” (high context)?Directness or indirectness: is direct communication val-ued or not?Person or task-oriented: is it important to build up a re-lationship before working together, or to start workingon the task very quickly?2. TimePolychronic/monochronic: do you do several things at thesame time (multitasking) or one thing at a time?Past, present and future: do you tend to focus on pastachievements, the present or future benefits?

achievement something that you succeed in doing[E(tSi:vmEnt]appropriate [E(prEUpriEt] correct in a particular situationcorporate [(kO:pErEt] relating to large companiesgender the fact of being either male or femalegesture [(dZestSE] a movement that you make with your

hands, arms or headhierarchy [(haI&rA:ki] a system of organizing people into

levels of powerhug (sb.) to put your arms around somebodyincident [(InsIdEnt] an unusual, often unpleasant eventintonation [)IntE(neIS&n] the rise and fall of the voice while

speakingmemorable [(memErEb&l] worth rememberingparalanguage non-verbal aspects of communication,[(pÄrE)lÄNgwIdZ] such as tone of voicepattern [(pÄt&n] the structure of a set of shapessocialize with sb. to spend time with somebody outside[(sEUSElaIz wID] work, for example, at a partytake turns to organize conversation by allowing

people to speak one after the othertrigger sth. to be the cause of something

medium

4

Linear: do you do things in a clear sequence?Event-related: do you follow a clear plan, or do you dothings as a result of what is going on around you?Cyclical: do you do things according to a cycle, like theseasons?3. SpaceIs there a clear division between work and pleasure?How much do you socialize with colleagues and cus-tomers?4. Uncertainty avoidanceDo you welcome the unknown or see it as a threat?5. Individualism/collectivismDo you tend to make decisions individually or as partof a group?6. Power distanceHow steep is the hierarchy in your organization orteam?7. Universalism/particularismAre rules universally binding, or does application ofthem depend on the situation and your relationship tothose involved?

Critical incidentsRead our descriptions of the following situations andthink about what is happening, as well as what cultur-al factors might be playing a role. Then turn to pages32–33 for our comments.

2/2012


Sorry, what didyou mean?

International misunderstandings

are common

Hem

era

Cultural dimensions

Communication style

Universalism/particularism

Power distance

Individualism/collectivism

Uncertainty avoidance

SpaceTime

Body language

Eye contact

Touch

Body distance

Paralanguage

Turn-taking

Low

High

Low

High

Individualist

Collectivist

Polychronic/monochronic

Past/present/future

Linear

Event-related

Cyclical

Low context

High context

Non-verbal

Context

Directness/indirectness

Person/task orientation

industrial equipment for an assembly line. The meetingwith the Indian customers seemed to be going well, andthey appeared to be interested. But to the surprise of theEuropeans, they kept asking about prices before theyhad said exactly what they wanted.

“To give you a proper quotation we need to analyseyour precise requirements. When we have got this infor-mation and checked with our commercials, we’ll getback to you. If you fill in the Excel sheet with your re-quirements by next Monday, we can make you an of-fer by Friday. Is that OK for you?” said the leader of thesales team. “Yes, that’s fine,” replied the Indian cus-tomer.

The Europeans were disappointed when they didn’tget the information they needed and heard that the cus-tomer was negotiating with a different supplier.QuestionsWhy didn’t the Indian customer provide the sales teamwith the information they required? What can the salesteam do differently next time in order to be more suc-cessful?



British pub:don’t standaround waitingto be served

a) In the pubEveryone in the international team was look-ing forward to this year’s staff meeting, whichwas to be held in London. To get a feeling forlocal culture, one group decided to go to atypical English pub. The porter at their hotelwas quite helpful and recommended a pubthat was popular with locals and not to befound in any of the tourist guides.

The next morning, they discussed their expe-riences. One colleague said: “Everyone was drinking,but they didn’t serve us. We waited at the table and,when no one came after ten minutes, we left. They ob-viously don’t like foreigners.”

Another said: “The bar was very busy and loud. Un-fortunately my English is not very good, so to attract at-tention I signalled with two fingers that I wanted twobeers. The barman looked shocked and turned away.He didn’t seem very friendly.”

Yet another commented: “On the way to the pub, Iwas surprised to see people crossing the road when thepedestrian light was red. It seems rather dangerous andit’s a bad example for children. Don’t the British careabout their children?”QuestionsWhat cultural differences can you find here? Does thegroup need to adapt its behaviour?

b) Negotiating in IndiaThe European sales team was very optimistic abouttheir trip to India, the purpose of which was to sell

“I was surprised to see people

crossing the road when the

light was red. Don’t the British

care about their children?”

E. N

atha

n/A

lam

y


c) Mobile phones in meetingsSeveral members of an international team in Dubai are becoming in-creasingly concerned about the lack of discipline in team meetings. Somecolleagues seem more interested in looking at their BlackBerry messagesthan taking part in the discussions; others see that they have receivedan important message and leave the room to make a call. This makesit very hard to have a focused discussion on topics that some believe re-quire everyone’s undivided attention. The strange thing is that somemembers of the team seem to think that this behaviour is quite accept-able. The dissatisfied team members turn to their manager for help.QuestionsWhat are the reasons for the differences in attitude to the meetings?What can the manager do?

d) The international project teamThe US leader of an international IT project team working in South-EastAsia was puzzled by the unwillingness of the Chinese and Indian teammembers to work together. He tried to solve the problem by giving teammembers clearly defined tasks that they were supposed to do individu-ally before sharing their results with the whole team.

When he walked around the offices, he saw small groups of develop-ers working together on each other’s tasks. He felt that this would slowdown the process and that, if they continued like this, they wouldn’t getall the work done. When it was time to share the results, the Chineseand Indians were not prepared to cooperate.

As efficient cooperation was essential, the manager decided to talkabout the issue in a team meeting. He pointed out the importance ofworking together and praised one of the Chinese who seemed more will-ing than the rest to cooperate. The group looked uncomfortable and fellsilent. When the project manager criticized one person from the Indianteam, the man didn’t even look his manager in the eye but bowed hishead to the floor.

Unfortunately, the situation didn’t improve and the manager noticedthat the two groups wouldn’t even sit together in the canteen. Finally,he invited one of the Indian team members out to dinner — their con-versation helped him to understand the situation better.QuestionsWhat were the underlying problems? What could the manager do to im-prove cooperation in the team and thus reach the targets on time?

e) VladivostokA financial-services company with international operations and HQ inFrankfurt is planning to expand its business to Russia. As the Russian

2/2012

assembly line [E(sembli laIn] a line of machines and workers in a factory along whichthe different parts of a product are made

canteen [kÄn(ti:n] a room in a factory or other workplace where food is servedcommercial a person in a company who is in charge of selling goods or[kE(m§:S&l] UK servicesHQ (headquarters) the place from which an organization, and the people who[)eItS (kju:] work there, are controlledindustrial equipment the machines and tools used in industryissue [(ISu:] problemnegotiate [nI(gEUSieIt] to try to reach an agreement through discussionon time at the right time; punctuallypedestrian light a set of red and green lights that signals to people if they[pE)destriEn (laIt] can walk across the street or notpoint sth. out to tell someone somethingpuzzled: be ~ by sth. [(pVz&ld] confused because you don’t understand somethingquotation [kwEU(teIS&n] estimate; the price that you say a piece of work will costsheet here: a record of data or information in a computer fileunderlying [)VndE(laIIN] not obvious, but basic and important

4

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encounter [In(kaUntE] an occasion in which you experience some-thing or meet somebody

mobile device a small electronic piece of equipment, such[)mEUbaI&l di(vaIs] as a smartphonepalm [pA:m] the inside part of your handprejudice [(predZudIs] an unreasonable opinion or feeling of dis-

like that is not based on experience prospect [(prQspekt] the chance of future successrough [rVf] not exact; approximaterude not politesetting the place or environment where something

happenssingle sb. out to give special attention to sb. in a groupstress sth. to state the importance of sth.withhold sth. [wID(hEUld] to refuse to give something to someone

two fingers in a V sign with the palm of your hand fac-ing you is a rude gesture. Some people say its origins goback to the Hundred Years War (1337–1453), whichwas fought between England and France. Archers whowere captured had their fingers cut off to stop themfrom shooting arrows again. Those who had not beencaptured waved their hands to show the enemy thatthey were still able to fight (communication style: bodylanguage).

In Britain, people often cross the road on the red light.For them, green means “go” and red means “be care-ful”. People decide whether to cross according to the sit-uation and don’t worry about being role models forchildren (particularism). In other countries, such as Ger-many, rules like this are normally more strictly obeyed(universalism).RecommendationsThe group could read up on topics like body languageand people’s attitudes to rules before the trip. Oncethere, they need to observe people’s behaviour moreclosely — are the other people in the pub being served?

b) Negotiating in IndiaIn some cultures, people want a rough estimate of pricebefore they start negotiating. They realize that the

Harmony:essentialin manycultures

iSto

ckph

oto


appeal to sb. [E(pi:&l] to ask sb. to do sth. in a difficult situationapply to sth. [E(plaI tu] to be relevant in a particular situationarcher someone who shoots arrows from a bowarrow a long, thin stick with a sharp endboardroom the room where the people who control a[(bO:dru:m] company meet brief [bri:f] lasting a very short timecapture sb. [(kÄptSE] to catch sb. and make that person a prisonerculture clash a situation in which people from different

cultural backgrounds have problems witheach other because of their cultural differ -ences

deeply ingrained very difficult to change, having existed for a [)di:pli In(greInd] a long time deliberately [di(lIbErEtli] in a way that is planned; not by chance

market is new to them, they decide that the best way tostart is to buy a local company. They select a small buthighly successful company that was founded five yearsago by a young team of Russians with experience in theUnited States.

Although prospects look good, there are some prob-lems. Important information is not being communi-cated to HQ, and the Russians don’t seem to be intro-ducing key processes.QuestionsWhat could be the underlying problems? What can HQdo to improve the communication flow?

Comments (see Critical incidents on pages 30–32)

a) In the pubIn most pubs in Britain, it is normal to get your drinksfrom the bar. If food is available, it might be served, butyou normally go to the bar to order. Gestures have dif-ferent meanings in different cultures. In Britain, waving

It is important to be aware

that negotiating styles

differ in different countries


2/2012

ROBERT GIBSON is a senior consultant for inter-cultural business competence at Siemens AG in Munich, Germany (www.siemens.com) and the author of Intercultural Business Communication(Cornelsen). Contact: [email protected]

BOOKSn Cross-Cultural Dialogues: 74 Brief Encounters with Cultural Dif-

ference, Craig Storti (Intercultural Press)n Cross-Cultural Management: Problem-Solving through Case

Studies, Charles Rarick (Kindle eBook)n International Business Case Studies for the Multicultural Mar-

ketplace, Robert Moran et al. (Taylor & Francis)

WEBSITESn Virginia University, cross-cultural business case studies: https://

store.darden.virginia.edu/subtopic/management-communications/cross-cultural-communication-business-case-studies

n Case study on culture clash in the boardroom provided by Har-vard Business Review blogs: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/case_study_culture_clash_in_th.html


Robert Gibson’s blog is at www.business-spotlight.com/blogswww

price may change, but think that there is no point in go-ing into details if the price is completely out of reach.In other cultures, detailed analysis of requirements isnecessary before a price is named (high uncertaintyavoidance).

The comment “Yes, that’s fine” misleads the salesper-son. It does not necessarily show agreement. In fact, itis more likely to be meant as an attempt to express har-mony and to avoid losing face.RecommendationsIt is important to be aware that negotiating styles dif-fer in different countries. To be successful, you mayneed to change your style: in this case, for example, bygiving a rough estimate before you make a formal of-fer.

When dealing with cultures where communicationstyle is indirect or communication tends to be high con-text, you may need to ask additional questions to findout what a phrase like “Yes, that’s fine” really means.

c) Mobile phones in meetingsThis illustrates a difference in attitudes to multitasking.Perhaps those who are using their mobile devices areuninterested in the meeting. But they may also be frompolychronic cultures in which doing several things at thesame time is acceptable. Those who want mobiles to beswitched off demonstrate behaviour found in mono-chronic cultures.RecommendationsThe manager may decide that it is OK for people to be-have like this. Otherwise, she may need to appeal to theteam using one of several influencing techniques. Shecould get the group to agree to rules for meetings or, especially if she is dealing with people from a high power-distance culture, just use her authority as a man-ager and tell them how meetings will be run.

d) The international project teamA number of cultural factors could be playing a rolehere. The collectivist team members don’t want towork on individual tasks but prefer to support each oth-er. The project manager’s way of communicating is toodirect for the team (communication style: directness).Singling out an individual for criticism, or even praise,in front of the whole group is embarrassing for the col-lectivist team. In some cultures, it is a sign of respect,especially in conflict situations, to look away from thepeople you are talking to (communication style: eyecontact). This is more so in high power-distance cul-tures.

The manager gets more information by changing thesetting of the meeting and inviting a team member to a meal (space: private/public). What he then finds outis that the Chinese and Indians have deeply ingrainedprejudices about each other.RecommendationsThis is, of course, not an easy situation to deal with, butit is necessary sometimes just to accept the facts and find

ways of living with them. In this case, the manager gotthe team working not by asking the two groups to worktogether, but by dividing up the work into two workpackets — one for the Chinese and one for the Indians.They reported their results to him, and he coordinatedactions. This proved to be very successful.

e) VladivostokThis is clearly a complex situation. It is essential to con-sider not only national cultural differences but also oth-er types of cultural influences. These include regionalones (Vladivostok is a very long way from Moscow),age and company culture (perhaps the firm has been in-fluenced by American culture, since its owners have hadexperience in the US).RecommendationsIt is important to find out about the real culture of theRussian company and the reasons for the problems. Arethere differences in communication style, or are the Rus-sians deliberately withholding information in order toremain independent?

The same applies to the introduction of new process-es: do they not know enough about the processes, or dothey simply not wish to make any changes?

The solution may involve more communication, aswell as building trust and relationships through morecontact with each other (communication style:person/task orientation). The benefits for both sides ofbeing part of the new company need to be stressed(for example, new business opportunities). If all elsefails, senior management may simply need to use force(power distance).

www.business-spotlight.com 33

nBSI

https://store.darden.virginia.edu/subtopic/management-communications/cross-cultural-communication-business-case-studies

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/

http://www.siemens.com




JEANNIE UYANIK: Hi, Candice. How did you get into thewedding business?

CANDICE PEREIRA: Hi, Jeannie. I’ve loved weddingssince I was a little girl. My family’s been in the hotel andwedding business for the last 30 years, so I grew up withweddings all around me. After studying hotel manage-ment in Australia and doing my postgrad studies inCanada, I moved back to India and started my ownwedding-planning business. That was five years ago.How did you get into this field?

UYANIK: When I finished my MBA in finance here inNew York, I was planning to start a PhD in economics.But then I realized that many of the women in my pro-gramme were about to be married, and they were verystressed. There weren’t any wedding planners whocatered to professionals back then, especially not toyoung, independent women. Women were starting toearn more, but better jobs also mean you have less timefor planning. To meet this demand, we started our busi-ness in 1999, and the trend has continued since. Whatchanges have you seen in the Indian wedding industry?

PEREIRA: The typical Indian wedding is huge: it has atleast 800 guests, and we’ve done weddings for up to

4,000 people. With weddings like that, you can’t evenremember who your guests were afterwards. But whatwe’ve been seeing a lot lately is that people do the hugewedding to make their parents happy, and then go offwith a group of about 50 people and have another,more private, celebration. And even though arrangedmarriages are still common in India, most of the wed-dings we organize are love marriages.

UYANIK: And what’s the biggest challenge for a weddingplanner in India?

PEREIRA: Managing the family. You don’t just have thecouple and the parents, but the whole extended family,too, and every one of them wants to be involved. Thismeans we’ll often be changing things until the very lastminute. Once, for example, we were doing a destinationwedding and had welcome gift baskets in about 400 ho-tel rooms. Two days before the wedding, an uncle camealong and decided the baskets contained the wrongthings. So, there we were, repacking 400 baskets.What’s the biggest problem you’ve experienced close toa wedding day?

UYANIK: Well, we went through the terrorist attacks of9/11, and that was the hardest thing, by far. In NewYork, we were told to move forward, to continue withlife. But only one out of the three weddings we hadplanned for Saturday, the 15th of September, wentahead. It was a really difficult day. We had to find a veryfine balance between celebrating life and trying to be re-spectful. Not quite so traumatic, but still extremelychallenging, was the volcanic ash cloud in 2010: the flo-ral service from Europe was disrupted, and, for one ofthe weddings we planned, half of the guests couldn’t getthere. One of them was the best man — but we man-aged to arrange audio equipment and do a live feed ofhis speech.

PEREIRA: Well done! Imagine how much stress the cou-ple would have had without you...

UYANIK: Yes, we’re definitely stress savers: it’s good toknow that someone has your back at all times. Also, Ithink it’s a good idea to get advice on how to spendyour budget. In New York City, $250,000 won’t get youvery far, and we only rarely do a wedding for under$60,000 — that’s a lot of money!

WEDDING WOMENMore and more couples are asking professionals to help them to organize their big day. A wedding

planner in New York spoke about her work to a planner in Mumbai. BARBARA HILLER listened in.


■ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION DIALOGUE

Bria

n D

orse

y S

tudi

os(le

ft);

Todd

Fra

nce

“For a wedding in New York City,

spending $250,000 won’t get you very far”

JEANNIE UYANIK is executive director of C&G Weddings inNew York

medium



ahead: go ~ to happenbest man a male friend who looks after the bride-

groom (the man who is getting married)cater to sb. US to provide a particular service for somebodychallenging [(tSÄlIndZIN] difficult to deal withcompetition people or companies that are trying to be

more successful than othersconsultant [kEn(sVltEnt] someone who gives expert advice on a

particular subject decency [(di:s&nsi] morally acceptable behaviourdestination wedding a wedding held at a specially chosen

place, for example, in another countrydisrupt sth. [dIs(rVpt] to prevent something from continuing by

causing a problemdo a live feed of sth. to transmit a recording in real timeeconomics [)i:kE(nQmIks] the study of how the production of goods

and services is organizedexecutive director the person with the highest position[Ig)zekjUtIv dE(rektE] in a companyextended family all the people who are related to you, in-

cluding cousins, aunts, grandparents, etc.floral service the supply of flowersgift basket a container filled with presentsgo all out to do sth. to make a great effort in order to do sth.make ends meet to earn enough money to pay all the billsmetaphorically in a way that creates a mental picture[)metE(fQrIk&li]PhD [)pi: eItS (di:] doctor of philosophypostgrad(uate) studies course after finishing a first university[(pEUstgrÄd )stVdiz] degreeprofessional someone who works in a job for which

special qualifications are neededreferral-based: be ~ to get new customers because previous[ri(f§:rEl beIst] customers have recommended youreticent [(retIsEnt] here: not wanting to do something vulnerable [(vVlnErEb&l] easy to attack or hurt

normal size here — and we have a permanent team offour to six people. We hire consultants and coordina-tors when we need them. How about you?

PEREIRA: We have a full-time team of 12 and add extrapeople on a project basis. The most employees we’vehad for a single wedding is 60, and we usually organizebetween 20 and 30 weddings a year.

UYANIK: And who are your clients?

PEREIRA: We have three types. First, people who livehere in India. They might want to get married here —the beautiful palaces and forts in Rajasthan are a pop-ular choice — or overseas. Thailand, for example, isvery popular for Indian weddings. The second group ismade up of people who are from here but live abroadand are coming back to get married. The third group ismade up of foreigners who love India.

UYANIK: Well, that sounds like an interesting mix. Can-dice, it was great to talk to you.

PEREIRA: Nice talking to you, too. Bye!

PEREIRA: It is. Speaking of costs, what effect has the eco-nomic crisis had on New Yorkers’ wedding spending?

UYANIK: What we notice is not that people have lessmoney to spend, but that they are much more reticentabout spending it, and that they want a lot more forless. But wedding planners who are really good at whatthey do aren’t going to compromise: you get what youpay for. We plan slightly fewer weddings these days.Still, I think it’s rather the lower end of the market, orthe newer planners, who are having a tough time making ends meet. Has the crisis had an effect on you?

PEREIRA: Yes, a little. But on the whole, the wedding iswhat every Indian family wants for their children. Theyplan it for ages, invite everyone and go all out to givetheir children the best. There’s a lot more competitionin New York, though. How do you deal with it?

UYANIK: Well, we are different from other planners inthat we look at what’s good for a couple in the longterm. Finally, when they’ve been to a few weddings, theyrealize that, even though they might not have alwaysknown what we were doing or agreed to everything atthe time, we helped them make the right decisions. Be-yond that, we focus on decency, honesty and quality ofwork. As a result, we are 99 per cent referral-based. Sofar, we’ve done more than 1,000 weddings. We doabout 45 to 60 a year — 200 guests are considered a

Because you can’t see what is happening behindyou, your back is a vulnerable part of your body.In the military, if someone “has your back”, itmeans that person can be trusted to make surethat nothing happens to you from behind — and,if there is any danger, that person will protectyou. The expression is used metaphorically to indicate that someone is looking out for you.Uyanik uses it to show that her clients can re-lax, as she is protecting them from unexpectedevents that could ruin their wedding.

Lan

gu

ag

e p

oin

t

“Weddings are huge in India — we’ve

organized them for up to 4,000 guests”

CANDICE PEREIRA is creative head of Marry Me in Mumbai, India

For exercises on this topic, see Business Spotlight plusplus

■BSI




Every time I take the train to Britain’s capital, Itravel through East London and Stratford. Thearea is being transformed into a futuristic land-scape in the countdown to the 2012 Olympics.

The latest — and tallest — addition to the OlympicPark is the ArcelorMittal Orbit. This 115-metre-high,red tubular-steel sculpture was designed by AnishKapoor and paid for mostly by Britain’s wealthiest man,the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

Closer to the centre, a building has entered the homestraight: “The Shard”. Designed by Renzo Piano, theglass spire rises 310 metres into the London sky. Alsoknown as “Shard London Bridge” or “32 LondonBridge”, this will be the EU’s tallest building. It housesluxury office space, a hotel, luxury residences, shopsand public viewing galleries from which you can nodoubt see the Olympic Orbit in the distance.

But what do these new additions to London’s skylinesymbolize? A vibrant British capital? Or monuments tothe rich and famous? One thing they don’t signify is abuilding boom: the number of new buildings in Britainhas sunk to its lowest level since 1923.

The new buildings will also not improve the lives ofeveryday Londoners. Living costs and rents are risingmuch faster than average wages. And 18- to 21-year-olds are the hardest hit; their real incomes have droppedby five per cent in the past year alone. Unemploymentis rising, and last summer’s riots were a reminder of theanger that many feel.

The Olympics will bring a feel-good factor and an es-timated additional £1.5 billion will be spent by touristsover the period 2007–17. But the original Olympic bud-get of £2.7 billion has soared to £9.3 billion. And Lon-doners have paid most of this.

JULIAN EARWAKER is a British journalist who writeson a wide range of social, political, business and trav-el subjects. Contact: [email protected]

While all eyes will be on the British Olympians thissummer, another important contest will take place be-forehand. Thursday, 3 May, is the day on which thenext mayor of London will be elected. The most pow-erful directly elected politician in the UK, the mayor rep-

resents the hopes of more than 7.5 million Londonersand oversees a yearly budget of more than £3 billion.

What will the new mayor inherit? There is a risk thatprojects such as the Olympic Park and The Shard willhide London’s failings. In 2008–09, London had thehighest growth of the nine English regions. By 2009–10,it was down to third place — with a growth rate of just0.9 per cent. The City, Britain’s financial engine, hasbeen damaged by the global crisis. Important infrastruc -ture projects, such as the proposed high-speed rail linkwith Birmingham or airport expansion, have stalled.

London needs more than just additions to its skyline.It needs investment in its infrastructure, the regenerationof poorer areas and an Olympic legacy that goes beyondthe redevelopment of East London. Whoever wins therace to become mayor of London, and however manygold medals Britain wins, the planning for London’s fu-ture needs to be seen as a marathon, not a sprint.

“The new buildings will

not improve the lives

of everyday Londoners”

A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINTThe London Olympics are taking the city’s skyline to new heights. But will the next mayor of London

remember the people who can’t afford such luxury housing? JULIAN EARWAKER investigates.

■ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION THE VIEW FROM HERE

London’sOlympic Park:symbol of a brighter future?

Reu

ters

advanced

■BSI




addition [E(dIS&n] sth. that you add to sth. elseboundary [(baUndEri] a line that marks the edge of an areaconstituency an area in which people elect represen-[kEn(stItjuEnsi] UK tatives to a parliamentcontest [(kQntest] an event in which people compete

against each other to win somethingest. (estimate) [(estImEt] an amount that you guessforeign-exchange turnover the total value of currency trade [)fQrEn Iks(tSeIndZ )t§:n)EUvE] on a stock exchange over a periodGDP (gross domestic product) the value of all goods and services[)dZi: di: (pi:] produced in a country in one yeargender structure the proportion of males and females[(dZendE )strVktSE] in a populationhome straight the last part of an activity, for [)hEUm (streIt] UK example of a race or a journeyhouse sth. [haUz] to provide a place for somethinginherit sth. [In(herIt] here: to have to deal with a situation

that someone else has left for you

legacy [(legEsi] a situation resulting from events thathappened earlier

mayor [meE] the most important elected official in atown or city

medieval [)medi(i:v&l] relating to the period in Europe roughlybetween the years 1000 and 1500

project sth. [prE(dZekt] to calculate what the size or amount ofsomething is likely to be in the future

property [(prQpEti] a building or a piece of landregeneration [ri)dZenE(reIS&n] the act of developing or improving sth. retain sth. [ri(teIn] to continue to have somethingriot [(raIEt] a violent protest by a crowd of peopleshard [SA:d] a sharp piece of broken glass soar [sO:] to increase or rise very quicklyspire [(spaIE] the pointed top of a high buildingstall [stO:l] to stop working or making progresstubular steel [)tju:bjUlE (sti:&l] steel shaped like a tubevibrant [(vaIbrEnt] dynamic, full of energy

20.8% of London’s population, compared to the national av-erage of 17.7% (June 2010)Religions: Christian 58.2%, no religion 15.8%, Muslim8.5%, Hindu 4.1%, Jewish 2.1%, Sikh 1.5%, Buddhist0.8%, other 0.5% (2010)

CITY FILE: LONDON

Map

: Nic

Mur

phy

Sources: UK National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk ); Greater London Authority (www.london.gov.uk ); Transport for London (www.tfl.gov.uk ); Land Registry (www.landreg.gov.uk/house-prices); HomeLet Rental Index (www.homelet.co.uk/rentalindex/greater-london)

GeneralOfficial name: LondonStatus: capital of England and the United KingdomMain languages: English is the most common language. Thetop ten other languages spoken by London residents areFrench, Spanish, Polish, Hindi, Italian, Urdu, German, Rus -sian, Bengali and Portuguese.Telephone code: +44 20Time zone: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is Central Eu-ropean Time – 1 hourCurrency: pound sterling (£1 = €1.19)

PoliticsCurrent mayor: Boris Johnson (Conservative). The mayor ofLondon is elected once every four years. The mayor heads theLondon Assembly, which consists of 25 elected members. Eleven members represent the whole capital, and 14 areelected by constituencies.

EconomyGDP per head: £40,432 (2008)Unemployment: 9.7%, compared to a national average of8.3% (Sept. 2011)Housing: the average property price in the capital is£340,308, compared to an average for England and Walesof £159,999 (Oct. 2011)Average property rental: £1,158 per calendar month (Oct.2011), 8.8% higher than in Oct. 2010

PeopleName: Londoners (or “Cockneys” for those born in the city’sEast End)Population: 7.83 million in Greater London (July 2010 est.)Population growth: population is projected to increase to 8.87million by 2031Gender structure: male 49.8%; female 50.2%Age structure: 0–15 years: 19.6%; 16–64 years: 68.9%; 65years and over: 11.5%. The 18–30 age group represents

For exercises on this topic, see Business Spotlight plusplus

DID YOU KNOW?■ A million Londoners speak a first language other than

English (more than 300 languages are spoken in Lon-don).

■ The City, London’s financial district, is also known asthe Square Mile because it retains its square-milemedieval boundaries. The City has a 37 per centshare of the global foreign-exchange turnover.

■ In July 2011, the London Underground carried thehighest-ever number of passengers in a four-week pe-riod, when 90.6 million customers used “the Tube”.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk

http://www.london.gov.uk

http://www.tfl.gov.uk

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/house-prices

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/house-prices

http://www.homelet.co.uk/rentalindex/greater-london



Saying no to a business partner doesn’t have to mean the end of a business relationship — but

only if you say no in the right way, and at the right time. BOB DIGNEN explains how and highlights the

advantages and disadvantages of each approach. medium

■ BUSINESS SKILLS SAYING NO

Standing your ground keeping the same opinion or plan,even when sb. is trying to change it

approach [E(prEUtS] a way of doing somethingchallenge sth. [(tSÄlIndZ] to question whether something is

right or goodcircumstances [(s§:kEmstÄnsIz] the conditions that influence sth.contradiction [)kQntrE(dIkS&n] here: the act of saying that something

someone said is wrong or not truedumb [dVm] stupidinsight [(InsaIt] an understanding of somethingreject sth. [ri(dZekt] to refuse to accept somethingself-esteem [)self I(sti:m] belief and confidence in your own

abilities, character and talentsenior [(si:niE] in a higher-ranking positionsensitively [(sensEtIvli] without hurting people’s feelingstrigger sth. to cause sth. to happen or existwin-win solution a solution that is good for everyone

STANDING YOUR GROUND

■ I agree with the idea in principle, but at the moment,the circumstances are not right.

■ I agree with the idea, but my boss wouldn’t.■ I wasn’t listening to what you said, and I’m actually

disagreeing with something else. ■ What you said is too threatening to my own identity

to accept at this point in my life.■ I am a senior manager with authority.■ I’m angry.■ I know you’re right, but please just listen to me.■ Yes.

Clearly, people use and interpret the word “no” in verydifferent ways. For the speaker, it may just be a simplecontradiction, an attempt to correct a misunderstand-ing of facts. Listeners, however, often hear a personal at-tack, triggering emotions that start a destructive, aggres-sive and defensive cycle.

2. How saying no can help usIt is important to understand the psychological dimen-sions of saying no. It can connect deeply to our ideas ofprofessionalism and self-esteem. This means that “no”has to be articulated sensitively, in the right way and atthe right time. Otherwise, its benefits may be lost, anda conversation may turn into an interpersonal conflict.Because the point is that there are real bene-fits to saying no, to disagreeing with, resistingand rejecting what others are proposing. Thethoughtful and strategic use of the word “no”can deliver real advantages:

a) “No” forces us to rethink things. The greatthing about disagreement is that it can supportcritical thinking, particularly in groups orteams. It can force further reflection, whichleads to more thoughtful arguments, alterna-tive points of view and fresh insights. For tru-ly creative thinking, we need to challengeideas that at first seem logical and plausible. Saying nocan release a diversity of perspectives and help us to findcreative solutions.

b) It helps us to set goals. Many people are overloadedand overstressed at work. Effective time management isessential, both for setting the right goals and achieving


M uch of the literature on international com-munication focuses on the need to buildconsensus and find win-win solutions.But this is only part of the story in the realworld. Sometimes, it is essential to be able

to say no — to managers, colleagues and customers.In this article, we investigate the art of disagreeing and

of rejecting requests. We also look at some of the dif-ferent approaches to saying no. Before you read on,think about the following questions. Then, as you readthe article, compare your ideas with ours:

■ What are the risks of saying no?■ How can saying no help us to achieve goals

more effectively?■ What are the different ways of saying no?

1. The risks of saying noWhat exactly does “no” mean? That may seem like adumb question but, like many dumb questions, it givesus important insights. Once you start thinking about it,the list of possible answers becomes very long and veryinteresting. Below are some possible meanings of “no”.You may be able to think of even more:

■ I disagree with that idea 100 per cent.■ I don’t respect you, your ideas or your culture.■ I partly agree, but let’s have more of a discussion

about this.

4


iSto

ckph

oto

Saying no: an important part

of business life

Clearly, people use and

interpret the word “no” in

very different ways

2/201240 www.business-spotlight.coms


Dig

ital V

isio

n“I just don’tagree!”: maybenot, but try tobe constructive

high-quality results. Accepting every request for sup-port, every additional project responsibility and everydeadline is not sustainable. The ability to understandone’s priorities, explain these to others and decline re-quests when necessary is a core competence at work.

c) It helps us to build respect. Stress often arises fromfeelings of being out of control. This loss of control canresult from pressure applied by managers who wantquick results. Individuals who have the forcefulness toinfluence, dominate and even bully colleagues can alsogenerate feelings of powerlessness in others. Saying nois one method of taking control, and it can be the basisof sustainable and ethical working relationships. Oth-er people may never fully respect us until we say no.

3. How to say noTo enjoy the advantages of saying no, we have to do itthe right way. There are many different possible ap-proaches, depending on the context and your relation-ship to the people involved. Each approach has poten-tial advantages and disadvantages. In the SurvivalGuide, on pages 43 to 44, you will find suggestions forthe sort of language you could use for each approach.

a) The simple reasoning approach. This is the first choicefor many people. We say no and then simply list the rea-sons why. These may be subjective, based on our ownprofessional experience or “proven” by more objectivedata. Possible advantage: Expertise and objective data arehard to refute. Possible disadvantage: This can be seen as being inflex-ible and lacking in creativity.

b) The clarification approach. This approach is basedupon the idea that people tend to answer too quicklyand often end up disagreeing with a point that wasn’tbeing made. So, take the time to understand preciselywhat the other person is saying before contradictingthem or rejecting their request. This clarification tech-nique is particularly important when communicating ina foreign language across cultures. Possible advantage: Clarification will enable you to sayno to the right thing. Possible disadvantage: Your questions may make peo-ple think that you are procrastinating.

c) The recognition approach. When we say no, we maytrigger feelings on the part of the other person of irri-tation, anger or frustration, which can be either con-scious or subconscious. With this approach, you try toshow respect and appreciation for someone, even whenyou are saying no to them. It also helps if we show in-terest in the person’s view of our counterproposals. Inthis way, we open ourselves to feedback and show apossible willingness to compromise.Possible advantage: This approach helps to maintainrelationships.Possible disadvantage: Some people may see this ap-proach as tactical.

d) The negotiated approach. Things are seldom blackand white in (business) life. The word “no” is often con-ditional rather than absolute. The level of disagreementshould be clarified by highlighting areas of agreementbefore moving to the real point of dispute. This alsoserves to create a climate of solidarity, as opposed to oneof conflict. The negotiated approach is also particular-ly important when tasks are being delegated to you.

To enjoy the advantages

of saying no, we have to do

it the right way

http://www.business-spotlight.coms

2/2012

appreciation [E)pri:Si(eIS&n] understanding and recognitionbeat around the bush to talk about something for a long time without saying [)bi:t E)raUnd DE (bUS] what you really want to saybully sb. [(bUli] to force sb. to do sth. by using power or violencechallenging [(tSÄlIndZIN] showing disagreement; difficultclarification [)klÄrEfI(keIS&n] the act of making something clearer or easier to understandcommitment [kE(mItmEnt] a promise to do somethingcontradict sb. [)kQntrE(dIkt] to say that you disagree with somebodycore competence [)kO: (kQmpItEns] an essential skill needed in a particular jobcounterproposal something that you suggest as an alternative to[(kaUntEprE)pEUz&l] someone else’s suggestiondecline sth. [di(klaIn] to say no to a request or offer in a polite waydispute: point of ~ [dI(spju:t] something people disagree aboutforcefulness [(fO:sf&lnEs] the ability to express your opinions strongly and in a

way that influences peoplehierarchically minded having the attitude that the opinions of people at[haI&(rA:kIk&li )maIndId] a higher level in a company must not be questionedhighlight sth. [(haIlaIt] to emphasize something that is importantinevitable: the ~ [In(evItEb&l] something that cannot be avoidedinsubordinate [)InsE(bO:dInEt] refusing to obey or respect sb. in a higher positionirritation [)IrI(teIS&n] the state of feeling angry, annoyed or impatientmaintain sth. [meIn(teIn] to cause something to continuenegotiate sth. [nI(gEUSieIt] to discuss sth. to reach agreementopposed: as ~ to [E(pEUzd] in contrast to; here: instead ofpostponement [pEUst(pEUnmEnt] the act of arranging for an event to take place at a later

timeprocrastinate [prEU(krÄstIneIt] to delay doing something, to put something offrefute sth. [ri(fju:t] to say or prove that a statement is not correctstraight talking [streIt (tO:kIN] saying what you really thinksustainable [sE(steInEb&l] able to continue at the same level for a long time

Refusal can be combined with a counterproposal, so that you end up of-fering a “minimal yes” rather than simply saying no.Possible advantage: This enables you to find a middle way that works forboth parties. Possible disadvantage: You still end up agreeing to do something youdon’t want to do.

e) The coach approach. Psychologically, it can be better if the other per-son reflects on the reasons why what they are saying could be difficult forus to accept. This is a coaching insight: people will often change their per-spective and find their own solutions if they are forced to answer ques-tions. For example, if a task is delegated to us, we can ask some simple,but challenging, questions — such as, “Does this have higher priority thanwhat I am doing at the moment?” If we are smart with our questions, theother person should realize that their request was unreasonable in the faceof the current workload and priorities.Possible advantage: This gets the other person to accept responsibility forbeing unreasonable. Possible disadvantage: This could be seen as insubordinate to managerswho are more hierarchically minded.

f) The postponement approach. It can sometimes be difficult or even dan-gerous to say no to a senior manager immediately. In such cases, a post-ponement approach may be useful. For example, you can say that youneed to consult other people before making a commitment, or that yousimply need to reflect a bit more on the consequences. Possible advantage: This approach gives you the time to develop the rightcounterarguments.Possible disadvantage: This may just postpone the inevitable and createmore pressure later.

g) The authority approach. Straight talking works with some people andin some situations. So, why beat around the bush? If you mean no, then4


in EnglishUnderstanding –

Being Understood

FROM YORK ASSOCIATES



in English

The competence-based approach

to success in international

business communication

For upper intermediate and advanced level speakers of English who know

the language and want to know how to use it effectively.

For Business English trainers who want their clients to get results.

ISBN 978-1-900991-28-5

In cooperation with

Available from

www.york-associates.co.uk

€19.95






assertive [E(s§:tIv] behaving in a confident waydepart from sth. to behave in a way that is different

from usualdisobedience [)dIsE(bi:diEns] the refusal to obey the rules or some-

one in authorityfierce [fIEs] showing very strong feelings, such as

anger and aggressionfutile [(fju:taI&l] pointless, uselessinvisible [In(vIzEb&l] impossible to be seenmassage the truth to say things that make a situation[)mÄsA:Z DE (tru:T] ifml. look better than it ispadded covered with soft material; here: done

in a way that avoids conflictpet favouritepreserve sth. [pri(z§:v] to keep sth. as it is, to uphold sth.rely on sth. [ri(laI Qn] to depend on somethingsuppress sth. [sE(pres] to prevent something from becoming

knowntopic a subject that you write or talk about urge sth. from sb. to recommend very strongly that [(§:dZ frQm] somebody does something

BOB DIGNEN is one of the directors of York Associates(www.york-associates.co.uk), which specializes in language, communication and intercultural training.Contact: [email protected]

■ kill a “pet” project early rather than watch it fail ata later stage;

■ refuse to accept challenging projects without thebudget to make things succeed.

Susan Scott, the author of Fierce Conversations (see boxbelow), supports this need to move to more honest con-versations, in which the word “no” is not just possiblebut desired. Overcareful or “padded” conversationsmean that our relationships will never be fully truthful,and the probability of success will be lower. We should“recognize that the best way to be nice is not to benice”, says McGannon.

This is a powerful message, and it points to a funda-mental problem with communication in many organi-zations. Too often, communication is driven more by ir-rational self-interest than by a professional desire to dothe best thing for the organization. Yet, the good of ourorganization is ultimately what should be guiding ourdecisions to say yes or no. This means that you shouldconstantly ask yourself the following questions:

■ Why do I want to say no? ■ Is “no” the right answer for the organization? ■ Which style of “no” will help the organization to get

the best results?

These may seem like simple questions, but they can helpto make the way we do business with each other morehonest and efficienct.

say so, and say it confidently and be assertive. This con-fidence will sometimes come from real power — for ex-ample, when you have a veto on the decision. But thereis also a more natural authority that comes from with-in, a strength of character and belief that can convinceothers you are right and that further discussion is futile. Possible advantage: Confidence convinces.Possible disadvantage: You may be seen as disrespectful.

h) The network approach. In modern organizations, weneed to build extensive networks with people whoseknowledge and skills can help us to achieve our goals.In times of crisis, when the pressure is on, we may needto rely on this network. For example, if somebody asksyou to do something, it can be helpful not just to sayno but to suggest someone else from your network whocould help instead. Possible advantage: You support your organization toget the job done.Possible disadvantage: Your behaviour may be viewedas not accepting responsibility.

4. A new way to do businessIn his article “Intelligent Disobedience: The Differencebetween Good and Great Project Managers” (see “Formore information” opposite), Robert McGannon writesabout the importance of saying no in today’s businessworld. He says that too many managers who are lead-ing projects have become used to suppressing problemsand conflicts — and “massaging” the truth — in orderto preserve the illusion of operational efficiency. McGannon urges intelligent disobedience from projectmanagers, or what he describes as “knowing when andhow to depart from the norm in opinions, cultural stan-dards and processes”. McGannon proposes the follow-ing ideas for project-management practice:

■ challenge the status quo via new alternatives;■ break rules and guidelines that prevent success;


BOOKS■ Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success in Work and in Life,

One Conversation at a Time, Susan Scott (Piatkus Books) ■ How to be Assertive in Any Situation, Sue Hadfield, Gill Has-

son (Prentice Hall Life)■ The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris, Daniel Simons

(HarperCollins)

WEBSITES■ An article by Robert McGannon on intelligent disobedience:

www.projectsmart.co.uk/difference-between-good-and-great-project-managers.html

■ Seven ways to say no: http://zenhabits.net/say-no ■ Tips on how to be assertive and how to say no: www.impact

factory.com/gate/assertiveness_skills_training_saying_no_too_nice/fungate_1741-4102-18850.html

You can find exercises on this topic in our special workbook, Business Spotlight plus. Find out more atwww.business-spotlight.com/plus

plus

■BSI

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/difference-between-good-and-great-project-managers.html

http://zenhabits.net/say-no

http://www.impactfactory.com/gate/assertiveness_skills_training_saying_not_too_nice/fungate_1741-4102-18850.html


http://www.york-associates.co.uk



a) The simple reasoning approachUsing your own experience■ I don’t agree with this because, in my experience, ...■ I don’t think this will work. We had the experience in my

last company that...

Using objective data■ It’s not possible to develop the product in five weeks. It

takes over three months to test...■ This idea is unrealistic. Benchmarking studies show

that...

b) The clarification approach■ Just to clarify, are you asking me to... ?■ When you say you want me to rework the report, this

means that...■ So, you think that we need to...■ Before I answer, can I just ask if it is your intention to... ?

c) The recognition approach■ I can see why this is important for you. However, ...■ I appreciate that you think that this is the way forward.

My own feeling here is that...■ I recognize that it’s essential to..., but...■ I totally accept what you’re saying. I just feel that, at this

point in time, we need to...■ What do you think of my proposal that we should... ?

d) The negotiated approachStressing common areas■ I partly agree. But...■ I agree that it’s important to... But I think that...■ I think we both agree that... However, my own view is

that we need to...■ Where we agree is that... I think where we disagree is

how to...■ I couldn’t agree more that we need to..., but I would like

to do this differently.

Bargaining■ I can’t do that, but I might be able to... ■ That’s going to be difficult. But I could do ... instead.■ It might be possible, assuming that we can...■ That would be conditional upon...

e) The coach approachTalking about time■ So, how much time do you think it will take me to com-

plete this project?■ To what extent does this have priority over what I’m do-

ing at the moment, which is to... ?■ So, do you think I should be devoting less time to... ?

Discussing possible problems ■ If we did this, do you think that it could lead to any se-

rious problems?■ Which stakeholders might disagree with this? Who do we

need to talk to?■ What problems could we have with this approach?

Discussing other solutions■ What other possible solutions are there? ■ What else might work if this is too difficult for me?■ Who else could help with this project?■ Have you thought about any other possible solutions?

f) The postponement approach■ Before committing to this, I need to check with Peter,

as he is the expert on sales. ■ Let me sleep on it. I need to think through the conse-

quences that this would have on…■ Can I give you a call tomorrow to discuss this? I think

we need to look at this more closely.

This section provides useful phrases for saying no at work. Remember, however, that these are just sug-gestions. You should use only language and approaches that you feel comfortable with — and that willwork for you in your specific context.

2/2012 www.business-spotlight.com 43

SURVIVAL GUIDE BUSINESS SKILLS ■

SAYING NOPrint this page out and use it to prepare for saying no effectively in business situations

medium

appreciate sth. [E(pri:SieIt] to understand the importance of sth.approach [E(prEUtS] a way of doing somethingassuming that [E(sju:mIN DÄt] if; supposing thatbargain [(bA:gIn] to try to reach an acceptable agree-

ment through discussion benchmarking study a project that examines a company’s [(bentSmA:kIN )stVdi] performance by using another com-

pany’s performance as a standardclarification [)klÄrEfI(keIS&n] the act of making something clearer

or easier to understandcommit to sth. [kE(mIt tu] to promise somethingconditional upon: be ~ sth. to depend on something[kEn(dIS&nEl E)pQn]devote time to sth. to spend time doing somethingnegotiate sth. [nI(gEUSieIt] to discuss sth. to reach agreementpostponement the act of arranging for an event to[pEUst(pEUnmEnt] take place at a later timesleep on it to wait until the next day to decidestakeholders people affected by the success or

failure of somethingstress sth. to state the importance of sth.

4

✂



■ BUSINESS SKILLS SURVIVAL GUIDE

bear sth. in mind to remember an important fact whenthinking about something

hierarchical [haI&(rA:kIk&l] arranged in a system of rank or statusissue [(ISu:] a problemit’s a matter of principle it involves a basic rulelong-term [)lQN (t§:m] having an effect over a long timepeer [pIE] someone who has the same social sta-

tus or who is at the same level in acompany as you

rejection [ri(dZekS&n] a refusal to accept somethingsave face to avoid embarrassment or humiliationstable calm and reasonable, not easily upset

g) The authority approach■ I can’t agree with that at all. That would cause us a lot

of problems.■ We can’t do this. It’s a matter of principle.■ That’s absolutely out of the question. ■ That wouldn’t be right for the organization.

h) The network approach■ I don’t think I’m going to have time to do this, but Jack

may be able to help. I’ll email him.■ I think we need to ask Barbara about this and see what

she says.■ Maybe marketing could help with this because...

You can find exercises on this topic in our special

workbook, Business Spotlight plus. The exercises are

based on the articles in this magazine. Find out more

at www.business-spotlight.com/plus

plus

Getting the style rightWhen selecting an approach for saying no in any particu-lar situation, we always need to bear in mind three key di-mensions: individual personality, culture and the businesscontext. Ask yourself the following questions:

■ How stable are the people we are communicating with?How emotional are they? Can they take rejection?

■ What is their communication style? Will they respondbetter to directness or indirectness?

■ Is their thinking hierarchical? Would they need to hearno from a leader, or will they accept it from a peer?

■ Is saving face an issue? How acceptable is it to say noto this person in front of colleagues and managers?

■ What’s the best long-term approach? Should I say no tothis person or coach them to understand the problems?

■ What is the business situation? How risky is it for prof-its to say yes? Is it essential to say no?

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try to put some energy into your voice. Emphasize keywords and sentences.

4. Sounding negativeBecause we are worried about our language skills, wesometimes try to lower the expectations of our listen-ers. We use words like “unfortunately” and negativephrases, such as “I’m sorry, but...”, “I don’t know if...”,“I’m not sure whether...” or “I can’t...”.

Sounding positive is much more effective. Here’s asimple rule: whenever you have something negative tosay, follow it up with a positive statement. For exam-ple: “I’m afraid a meeting next week is not possible. ButI could come the following Tuesday, if that’s OK.”

5. Sounding stressedIt’s more difficult to multitask when working in a sec-ond language. In our own language, we may be able totalk on the phone, make notes, check the computerscreen and signal across the room to a colleague. If wetry to do all this while speaking a second language, wecan easily miss important pieces of information. We alsosound stressed. Focus on your English and on whatyour partner is saying.

6. Sounding ungratefulAt the end of a call in a foreign language, we are some-times so glad it’s over that we simply finish withoutthanking the other person. So, don’t forget to thank peo-ple for their time, their information or their suggestions.

Do any of these “don’ts” sound familiar? If they do,then use this article as a simple checklist for your nextinternational call.


lighten sth. [(laIt&n] to make sth. less serious or severelower sb.’s expectations to make somebody expect something to [)lEUE )ekspek(teIS&nz] be badmultitask [(mVltitA:sk] to do several things at the same timeovercompensate to do too much when trying to correct a[)EUvE(kQmpEnseIt] problemswallow sth. [(swQlEU] to make something go down your throat

ON THE LINE BUSINESS SKILLS ■

SIX DON’TSDo you feel so nervous when you make a phone call in a foreign language that you make

mistakes? KEN TAYLOR lists six common ones you should avoid. easy

KEN TAYLOR is the director of Taylor ConsultancyLtd., an international communications consultancyin London, and the author of 50 Ways to ImproveYour Telephoning and Teleconferencing Skills(Summertown). Contact: [email protected]

Oscar Wilde once said: “Experience is the name wegive to our mistakes.” We all make mistakes some-

times. What is important is that we learn from them.Here are six common mistakes to learn from:

1. Sounding deadly seriousWhen we are working in a foreign language, there is ex-tra pressure to sound professional. As a result, we mayovercompensate. This makes our business partnersthink we are very serious. So, smile occasionally. Thislightens your voice.

2. Sounding unclearIf you are not quite sure of how to pronounce a word,you may swallow it and make it unclear. You need tospeak clearly, even if you pronounce the word incorrect-ly. The other person will probably understand what youmean from the context. If not, they will interrupt you,and you can say you’re not sure how to pronounce theword X. Either way, the meaning is then clear.

3. Sounding boredIt is often difficult to get the right intonation in a foreignlanguage. As a result, you may speak in a flat monotone.This makes you sound bored and tired. To avoid this,

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Do you know the difference between pronunciation, intonation and emphasis? To pronounce words, youmake sounds using your lips, tongue, teeth, throat andso on. Intonation means raising and lowering your voice so that you don’t speak in a flat monotone. To emphasize a word or part of a word, you say it moreloudly than the rest.

■BSI




■ BUSINESS SKILLS MEETING POINT

add value to sth. to improve somethingappoint sb. [E(pOInt] to give sb. a job or position of

responsibilitybuild sth. to create somethingcompetitive [kEm(petEtIv] trying to be more successful than

othersevaluation [i)vÄlju(eIS&n] a judgement about how good

something isfacilitator [fE(sIlEteItE] someone who helps a group of

people to discuss something in away that is likely to achieve a result

follow sth. up to do something in addition towhat you have already done

impact [(ImpÄkt] the effect that a situation has onsomeone or something

implement sth. [(ImplIment] to use an ideainternal and external customers people from inside or outside [In)t§:n&l End Ik)st§:n&l (kVstEmEz] the company who buy or use the

company’s products or servicesrecorder someone who writes down what is

being saidtotal final numberurgency [(§:dZEnsi] the need to deal with something

quickly

In 1953, Alex FaickneyOsborn wrote Applied

Imagination (Iyer Press), abook that is still in print to-

day. Osborn was the first todefine what “brainstorming”

is and to provide rules for brain-storming sessions. He wrote that

brainstorming is a group-creativity ex-ercise in which a team of people try to find

a solution to a problem by spontaneously gatheringa list of ideas.

Brainstorming remains a useful tool for facilitators atmeetings. It can be used to generate ideas, but it can alsostimulate interest in a particular subject. It gets peopleoff their seats and activates them. It can be fun.

Alex Faickney Osborn’s rules for good brainstormingsessions are as true today as they were in 1953. So, whatare they?

1. Give the teams a clear subject or teamwork problemIn brainstorming, the group needs to concentrate onfinding solutions to one problem only.2. Appoint a recorderIt’s usually best if the group stands in front of a flipchart. One person is appointed as a recorder to quick-ly write down all the ideas that come up during the ses-sion. This should be someone who feels comfortablewith the language being used.

The best brainstorming sessions are fast-paced, spontaneous and fun. But

you have to keep to the rules, too. KEN TAYLOR explains. medium

KEN TAYLOR is the director of Taylor ConsultancyLtd., an international communication consultancyin London, and the author of 50 Ways to ImproveYour Business English (Summertown). Contact:[email protected]

3. Do not criticize or evaluateEvery suggestion is written down without any discus-sion about its worth. Once you have collected all theideas that have been suggested, you can follow up thesession with an evaluation phase.4. Concentrate on generating as many ideas as possibleQuantity is more important than quality at this point.5. Try to make your ideas as wild as possibleThe facilitator should encourage the group to generatewild ideas, as well as serious ones.6. Build on other people’s ideasRules 4 and 5 are important because they stimulate thegroup to add value to each other’s ideas by building in-teresting and unusual connections between differentsuggestions.7. Keep the idea generation moving as fast as possibleThe facilitator should try to create a sense of urgency,energy and fun — even a sense of excitement. The groupshould be continually encouraged to generate more andmore ideas.

So, how might a brainstorming session work in prac-tice? Let’s imagine you have a meeting with 12 partici-pants. First, the facilitator defines the question to be an-swered. For example: “What can we do to impress ourinternal and external customers?” Then, the facilitatorgoes through the rules for brainstorming with thegroup. The meeting is then divided into two brainstorm-ing teams, with a flip chart for each group.

Allow a specific length of time for the session — nottoo long — perhaps ten minutes. Each team chooses itsrecorder. You might want to make it competitive fun.The team with the most ideas wins! At the end of theagreed time, get each team to give their totals and de-cide on the winning team.

Here’s how to follow up the generation of so manyideas. Get each team to decide and report on:■ the three ideas we could implement tomorrow;■ the three ideas with the biggest impact;■ the craziest idea.

Besides being a way to generate ideas, brainstormingis also a good technique for building team spirit. Try itat your next international meeting.

BETTER BRAINSTORMING

iStockphoto

For more about meetings, see Business Spotlight plusplus

■BSI





In the globalized world of business, most of us havebecome used to speaking and listening to people from

a wide range of linguistic backgrounds. Communicat-ing with both native and non-native speakers can be dif-ficult. Native speakers often speak faster and use id-iomatic language that learners are unfamiliar with —and they are often unaware of doing so. Look at this dialogue between Alan, a British-English speaker, andBeate, his German colleague:

Alan: You know that planning permission we’ve appliedfor? I’m afraid we’ve come up against a brick wall.

Beate: A brick wall?Alan: Yes. That planning inspector, Jones, or whatever

his name is, he’s so hard-nosed.Beate: Hard-nosed?Alan: Yes. Bloody-minded. Pig-headed. To put it in a

nutshell: we got turned down flat. Beate: Eh??!

As you can see, Beate has no idea what Alan is talk-ing about. But, instead of stopping him and asking himto explain, she lets him go on and on. What could shehave said? Here are some useful phrases:

■ Sorry to interrupt, but I’m not quite sure what you’retrying to tell me.

■ I’m a bit confused. Would you mind explaining that?■ Sorry. What does “hard-nosed” mean?

SAY IT IN STYLE BUSINESS SKILLS ■

We’ve all been there. Someone is using vocabulary you don’t know

or talking in an accent you don’t understand. How do you solve such

communication problems? ANNA HOCHSIEDER provides tips.

ANNA HOCHSIEDER teaches English and contributesregularly to Business Spotlight and Business Spot-light plus. She also writes our vocabulary definitions.Contact: [email protected]

Notice that thesesentences containsoftening language— “sorry”, “a bit”,“not quite”. This isa common methodfor stating unpleas-ant facts.

PROBLEMATIC ACCENTSThe situation is slightly different when the person youare having trouble understanding is a non-native speak-er or talks with a regional accent. You may need a lit-tle time to get used to their pronunciation. In the mean-time, here are some polite ways of asking for help:

■ Pardon (me)?■ Sorry, could you repeat that, please?

If the problem continues, it may be necessary for youto take the blame for the communication problem:

■ I’m afraid my English isn’t very good. Could you saythat again more slowly, please?

And if all else fails, you can ask:

■ Could you write that down for me, please?■ Sorry, I didn’t understand that word. Could you spell it

for me, please?

ASKING FOR CONFIRMATIONA good method to use when you are unsure whetheryou have understood something correctly or not is toask for confirmation of your understanding:

■ Does that mean that you didn’t get the job?■ So, in other words, are you saying that they said no?■ Just to check that I haven’t misunderstood anything:

was the answer yes or no?

IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND SOMEONE

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apply for sth. [E(plaI fO:] to make an official request for sth.bloody-minded UK ifml. refusing to be helpfulbrick wall: come up against a ~ to be unable to continue because of

a difficulty that stops youconfirmation the act of saying that something is

true or correctget turned down flat to be refused a requesthard-nosed wanting to succeed and not being in-[)hA:d (nEUzd] ifml. fluenced by emotionsin a nutshell: to put it ~ to say it simplypig-headed [)pIg (hedId] refusing to change your mind, even

if there are good reasons to do soplanning inspector someone whose job is to decide if [(plÄnIN In)spektE] UK one will get permission to build sth.planning permission official permission to build[(plÄnIN pE)mIS&n] UK somethingsoftening [(sQf&nIN] making something sound less harshtake the blame for sth. to say or accept that you are [)teIk DE (bleIm fO:] responsible for a problem

■BSI




acquire sth. [E(kwaI&r*] to get sth., for example, by buying itassume an identity to use a name that is not your own [E)su:m En aI(dentEti*] and to pretend to be that persongo off to explodegraduate [(grÄdZuEt] sb. who has a university degreehilariously funny [hI(leriEsli*] extremely funnyhonors degree a higher university qualification than [(A:n&rz di)gri:*] the ordinary degreeoverachiever sb. who is very successful at school/ [)oUvErE(tSi:v&r*] work and for whom this is importantpack one’s desk to leave one’s jobpostpartum depression a medical condition in which a[poUst)pA:rtEm di(preS&n*] mother feels very unhappy after her

baby’s birthrant about sth. to complain angrily about sth.revenues [(revEnju:z] the money that a business earnssevere [sI(vI&r*] extremely bad or serioussqueamish [(skwi:mIS] easily made to feel sick by unpleasant

things

Follow these steps to become an online legend beforethe age of 40:

Step 1: Create your own blog.

Step 2: Write critical things about your employer inyour blog.

Step 3: Get fired for Step 2.

Step 4: Stop blogging, acquire a husband and a dog,and move to Utah.

Step 5: Restart the blog, write about your husband,dog, baby, and postpartum depression.

Step 6: Attract 100,000 visitors a day to your Website, 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and enor-mous advertising revenues.

Step 7: Assume the identity of Heather Armstrong, thecreator of dooce.com, one of the most popularpersonal blogs on the Internet.

Easy, right? Well, no. There’s only one bloggerlike Armstrong, and that’s the 36-year-old her-self. Hilariously funny, she can also write lov-ingly about her two daughters (one aged eight,the other aged two), her husband, and her

dogs. Her descriptions of pregnancy, birth, and child-hood illnesses are not for the squeamish. She is openabout her battle with depression, and the medicationsshe continues to take to deal with it.

Armstrong was a single Web designer in Los Angeleswhen she started blogging in February 2001, just to stayin contact with friends living in other parts of the coun-try. A recent graduate of Brigham Young Universitywith an honors degree in English, she had grown up inthe Mormon faith. Her break with the Church and itsbeliefs had been emotional and painful, and soon shewas ranting about it on the blog. She never imaginedthat any member of her family would read it, but herbrother discovered it in September. “It was like a bombwent off,” Armstrong told Forbes. For months, no onein her family would speak to her.

Early in 2002, the next bomb exploded, whenan anonymous e-mail informed her employers thatArmstrong had been making negative comments abouther managers and colleagues on her blog. Despite the

MOM’S THE WORD

fact that no one was named, she was told to pack herdesk and go — a traumatic experience for a womanwho had been an overachiever since childhood. “Myboss was in tears. I felt like the worst human being onthe face of the earth,” she told Forbes.

Armstrong stopped blogging temporarily, andshe and her husband moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.They lived in her mother’s basement while they savedmoney for a house of their own. Soon, Armstrong wasblogging again, and she was surprised to find that evenmore people were following her online. Numbers in-creased further when she wrote about her pregnancyand the birth of her daughter.

Since young adulthood, Armstrong has suffered fromdepression, which requires regular medical treatment.During her pregnancy, she stopped taking the pills, butafter baby Leta’s birth in 2004, she suffered such severepostpartum depression that she became suicidal. “I

Problems with your boss? Depression after a pregnancy? Pour your heart out in a blog and your friends

are guaranteed to post some kind words, useful advice or critical comments. MARGARET DAVIS describes

how a former Web designer became one of America’s best-known bloggers.

2/2012

■ CAREERS BLOGGING

medium US

4


Our headline, Mom’s the word, is a play onthe idiom “mum’s the word”, meaning “don’tsay anything about it” or “keep it secret.” InU.S. English, “mom” is a short form for“mother.” In British English, “mum” is theusual short form. Heather Armstrong is oftenreferred to as a “mom blogger” or “mommyblogger.” She is also a mom whose wordshave become very powerful.

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Smart and funny:mom blogger

Heather Armstrong

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Heather Armstrong’s blog attracts

100,000 visitors a day, plus

enormous advertising revenues


thought about suicide every day during those months,”she says in the book she wrote about the experience, ItSucked and Then I Cried (see “For more information”on page 53). “I thought about how I would do it; per-haps I would hang myself with the dog’s leash, or maybeI’d grab every single pill we had in the medicine cabi-net and drown them with a couple of shots of tequila.I wanted to do something, anything to stop the pain.”

After six months, Armstrong checked herselfinto a mental hospital. She says the concern of a hospi-tal doctor and new medication helped her get back tonormal. That and dooce.com, because she continued toblog during this period. “Dooce probably saved mylife,” Armstrong told The New York Times. “The writ-ing and [the] voice I had let me hold onto part of theoriginal and old Heather, something that being a moth-er and the depression couldn’t take away.” Commentsfrom her ever-growing audience also showed her thatmany outsiders were also following her story, and thatthey cared about what happened to her.

While Armstrong was at home with the baby, her hus-band, Jon, had a demanding job with a software com-pany. He was working on a major project, and his em-ployer would not give him time off to care for his wife.“So here he is going to work, working on this projectand knowing that his wife is at home thinking aboutkilling herself,” Heather Armstrong told CNN. “And he

2/2012

bear with me [)beE (wID mi:] be patient with medaring [(derIN*] willing to do dangerous thingsdemanding needing a lot of effort, skill or patiencedemeaning [di(mi:nIN] lowering someone’s dignity destiny [(destEni] what will happen to you in the future,

especially things you cannot changegrab sth. to quickly take hold of something with

your handleash [li:S] a long strap for controlling a dogliberal arts subjects of study that develop general [)lIb&rEl (A:rts*] US knowledge, but not technical skillsmake a living at sth. do a particular kind of work in order to[)meIk E (lIvIN Ät] earn money to live onshot a small amount of an alcoholic drinkspouse [spaUs] a husband or wifesuck US ifml. to pull at something with your lips to

take in liquid; here: to be very badtake a sick day to spend a day away from work because

you are ill, usually with full payterms: come to ~ with sth. to accept something unpleasant by

learn ing how to deal with it


can’t even take a sick day.” She says this experience mo-tivated her to support family-friendly employment andflexible working hours. In 2010, she took part in theWhite House Forum on Workplace Flexibility.

By 2005, the Web site was making enough moneyfrom advertising that Jon Armstrong was able to quithis job and become dooce.com’s business manager.Now the Armstrongs had the workplace flexibility theywere seeking, but the arrangement meant they spent alot more time together. Perhaps the strain of twospouses working together was one reason why the cou-ple announced, in January of 2012, that they were sep-arating, at least temporarily. Jon Armstrong has left thefamily home in Salt Lake City and is no longer involvedwith their business. Heather has asked her readers to“bear with me” while the family comes to terms withtheir new situation. Hundreds of them have left com-ments to tell her that they will.

As a mother who blogs, Armstrong falls into the gen-eral category of “mommy blogger” or “mom blogger.”It’s a term some people find demeaning, but Armstrongsays she has no problems with it. “I’m quite proud tobe a member of this movement, this revolution ofwomen determining their own destinies,” she writes in

Other successful bloggersAndrew Sullivan: British, gay, Catholic, this popular and influ-ential blogger lives in Washington, DC. Sullivan started blog-ging after 9/11. He has been making a living at it for sevenyears now. He has always blogged under the umbrella of amagazine: The New Republic, The Atlantic, Newsweek (TheDaily Beast). http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com

Jason Kottke: This blogger is always entertaining and informa-tive. He has been blogging since 1998 and describes his siteas “a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0.” Kottke invites visi-tors to send him “questions, concerns, or interesting links.”And people do, all the time. http://kottke.org

Megan McArdle: This is another example of a blogger using amagazine, The Atlantic in this case, as a platform. McArdleblogs about the global economy, and her move from being awriter at The Economist in London to being a blogger in Bostonshows how ambition, determination, and ability can produceunexpected results. www.theatlantic.com/megan-mcardle

John Gruber: His blog, Daring Fireball, is a must-read for thosewho need (as millions do) expert, well-written, easy-to-readanalysis of everything to do with Apple. Daring Fireball won’twin any prizes for design or multimedia integration, but Gru-ber posts regularly day after day after day after day, as blog-gers must if they are to survive. The business model is spon-sorship. http://daringfireball.net

4


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Lots of advertising: the site draws big-name clients


http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com

http://kottke.org

http://www.theatlantic.com/megan-mcardle

http://daringfireball.net


Practice makes perfect!And there’s no easier way to practise than with Business Spotlight plus.

Business Spotlight plus is a bimonthly workbook based on the articles in our magazine. Inside, you’ll find:


grammar, business vocabulary, everyday language and culture


Together, our magazine and Business Spotlight plus offer you theperfect self-study material. Published six times a year.


Available for

every issue of

Business Spotlight

International



Sponsorship is another model for the site. In 2010,when the Armstrongs moved to a larger house, their of-fice renovation was sponsored by Verizon Wireless.Armstrong’s fans were mainly supportive, but some ac-cused her of selling out. Armstrong says she under-stands the concerns, but after the Verizon sponsorshipended, she pointed out that “it’s sponsorships like thisthat make our business possible: the hosting for themain Web site, the hosting for the community, videoservers and bandwidth, and the freelance programmerswho have stepped in and helped develop some of thefeatures of the entire thing.”

Other business models, although they have workedfor some bloggers, have been less successful for Arm-

strong. Merchandising of dooce.com clothing,for example, has been discontinued. Becausethe Web site regularly gives space to posts andphotos about interior design, Armstrong wasasked by HGTV to develop content for thecable-television network. But Armstrong saystelevision is time-consuming and not how shesees her brand. She spent a year on the proj -ect, but she hasn’t renewed her contract.

appliance [E(plaIEns] a piece of electrical equipment used inpeople’s homes

bandwidth [(bÄndwIdT] the amount of information that can becarried through a computer connection

break out a camera ifml. to suddenly start taking photographsbully [(bUli] someone who forces sb. to do sth. by

using power or violence business venture a business project that involves [(bIznEs )ventS&r*] taking riskscall sb. out on sth. make someone explain a mistake they

have madecharity [(tSÄrEti] an organization that collects money and

helps people in needclass: in a ~ of one’s own unique, better than the otherscorporation a large companycrap ifml. nonsenseepic [(epIk] a long story or poemeyeballs ifml. the whole round ball of the eyes; here:

people who look at something feature [(fi:tS&r*] an important or typical part of sth.foreword [(fO:rw§:d*] a short introduction to a book

freelance [(fri:lÄns*] not employed by a particular companygo through the roof ifml. to increase very quicklyhosting [(hoUstIN*] the provision of computer space for Web

sites interior design the art of decorating and furnishing the[In)tIri&r di(zaIn*] inside of a houseirreverence [I(rev&rEns] a lack of respect, especially for some-

thing that others usually respectlaundry [(lO:ndri] clothes and linen that need to be washedmerchandising the sale of products related to a [(m§:tSEndaIzIN] popular thing or eventmonetize sth. [(mA:nItaIz*] to earn money from somethingraw [rO:] in its original formreveal sth. [ri(vi:&l] to make something knownrun through: be ~ sth. to be examined by somethingsalty [(sO:lti] amusing, honest, often relating to sexsell out to give up your beliefs and principlesshitty ifml. badstep in to help someone in a difficult situationwomen’s shelter a house where women who have been

badly treated can stay and receive help


the foreword to Mom Blogging forDummies (see “For more informa-tion” on page 53). “That sounds dra-matic because, well, it is.”

Mommy bloggers are popularwith advertisers because their audi-ence is made up mainly of womenwith children. “When you have chil-dren in the household, your spendinggoes through the roof,” blogger andsocial-media expert Charlene Li toldThe San Francisco Chronicle.

With her huge advertising rev-enues, Armstrong is in a class of her own, however. “She is the gold standard,” says Matthew DiPietro of Feder-ated Media, an agency that finds advertising sponsorsfor bloggers. Dooce.com has had advertisements frommajor companies, including Disney, Weight Watchers,and BMO Financial Group. The site has also lost adver-tisers as a result of Armstrong’s salty language, althoughthis is not happening as frequently as it once did. “Ithink advertisers are beginning to understand that peo-ple come to my Web site because I do that — the rea-son I have eyeballs is because of my irreverence,” shetold The New York Times. “It’s really raw and unfil-tered, not run through a committee of 12 people whoneed to approve what you say. It’s the real deal.”

Winning smile:Marlo (alias

Baby Rambo)and dog Chuck

“Dooce.com probably saved

my life. It allowed me to hold on

to part of the old Heather”


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Meanwhile, dooce.com often demonstrates the pow-er of the blogosphere. In June, July, and August of 2009,Armstrong blogged repeatedly about her problems withthe Maytag appliance company. Thanks to terrible ser-vice, the family waited weeks for a part for their brand-new washing machine. With a new baby, dirty laundrywas piling up. An increasingly desperate Armstrong fi-nally tweeted about the problem, advising her then onemillion Twitter followers not to buy a Maytag.

The machine was finally repaired, but not be-fore a representative of rival Bosch offered to give Arm-strong a free washing machine. Acting on the suggestionof one of her Twitter followers, Armstrong accepted theoffer and gave the Bosch to a women’s shelter.

Like many of her posts, the Maytag story resulted inlots of visitor comments. Perhaps surprisingly, a num-ber of them were negative. “Because I guess calling outa huge corporation on their shitty service is somehowbeing a bully,” she wrote in August 2009.

Not everyone understands Armstrong’s humor andher views often polarize opinion. So, after the Maytagproblem, she set up a separate site called MonetizingThe Hate (“Making money from the crap people say”),where she reprints some of the negative comments. Ad-vertising clients include Amazon and DeutscheTelekom.

Many people ask how the Armstrong childrenreact to appearing in the blog. At two, Marlo istoo young to take much notice, but eight-year-old Leta is not. Armstrong blogged in August2010 that Leta “expressed displeasure at havingher picture taken several months ago, and nowshe actually runs out of the room when I breakout a camera. ... For the last several months, if Ihave mentioned Leta here, I have most likelyasked her if I could do so.” Jon Armstrong re-sponds to the question about what Heather reveals about their family by saying: “This iswhere Heather has become a master. She has theability to take a single episode and turn it into an epic, and then, if you go word by word andask, ‘What did she reveal?’ it’s not really verymuch,” he told The New York Times. “DavidSedaris once said that his stories are ‘trueenough.’ Blogs, the ones that last, are also ‘trueenough.’”

As dooce.com enters its 11th year, Arm-strong has a number of business ventures to lookback at. In addition to the blog, she is in demandas a speaker on mental health and work-life bal-ance. She has written several books: The latest,appearing in April, is a collection of letters to herdaughter Leta, all of which were originally pub-lished on the blog. She also supports charities,particularly those that benefit women and chil-dren. Armstrong is even in the Urban Dictionary:

“To be dooced” means “to be fired because of somethingyou wrote on your blog.” Being dooced was probablythe best career move Heather Armstrong ever made.

Additional reporting: Eamonn Fitzgerald and Sarah Gough

BOOKS■ Dear Daughter: The Dear Leta Letters, Heather Armstrong

(Gallery Books), April 2012■ It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown,

and a Much Needed Margarita, Heather Armstrong (GalleryBooks)

■ Mom Blogging for Dummies, Wendy Piersall, with a forewordby Heather Armstrong (Wiley)

WEB SITES■ Heather Armstrong’s Web site: http://dooce.com■ Armstrong provides tips for starting your own business:

http://dooce.com/2011/08/22/tips-starting-your-own-business■ Monetizing The Hate: http://dooce.com/hate/page/44


MARGARET DAVIS is a Canadian journalist and editorof the Careers and Global Business sections of BusinessSpotlight. Contact: [email protected]

2/2012

■BSI

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In theory, the formal performance review is valuable:It provides useful feedback and a rational basis forpay and promotions. In practice, though, perfor-

mance evaluations often leave the employee feeling un-fairly judged and demotivated.

Bosses don’t like doing formal reviews either, as theyrequire much preparation and paperwork. Anotherdisadvantage: Bosses may feel a yearly review can re-place ongoing, informal feedback. In fact, ongoingfeedback — managing by walking around — is usuallymore useful. Here are some tips for bosses and em-ployees to make the performance review more effective.

If you’re the bossIf you think there’s a problem with an employee, startwith tact and good listening. For example: “John, I’venoticed that your reports haven’t been great. AnythingI can do to help, or is there something I need to under-stand that explains it?”

Then, listen carefully — there may be a reasonable ex-planation. If possible, instead of imposing a solution ora punishment, it’s wise to ask: “So, what, if anything,do you propose we do?” Even if you don’t fully agree,or you doubt this will solve the problem, it’s usuallywise to say: “Fair enough. Let’s try it.” If that is insuf-ficient, you can always later offer suggestions, a

structure for accountability, or, if absolutely necessary,termination. Dismissing an employee demands muchstressful effort: months of written documentation ofpoor performance and contentious meetings to discussan improvement plan. The whole process may hurt per-formance, and even cause the employee to sabotageyour business — and/or start legal action.

It’s often wiser to advise the employee to move on:“As you know, it’s been a bit of a struggle. You have realstrengths, which aren’t being made best use of in thisjob. How’d you like me to try to help you find a better-suited position in, or perhaps outside, the company?”Many people who perform poorly in one job could dobetter with different responsibilities, or with a differentboss or co-workers.

If you’re the employeeCollect a goody file: examples of praise and lists of ac-complishments, especially those that have made moneyfor the company. Send it to your boss, saying you hopethese will be considered in the review.

Many employees make a negative evaluation worsewith their response. Even if you’re furious, don’t re-spond right away. Say something like: “I appreciate thefeedback. Of course, it’s difficult to accept, so I’d liketo take a few days to think about it.”

If you think your boss’s concern is legitimate, youmight ask for help in improving. That would increaseyour boss’s investment in you.

Employee evaluations are often dreaded, by employeesand employers. But handled carefully, a performance re-view can be among the most useful components of amanager’s job, and of real benefit to employees.

MARTY NEMKO is one of America’s top careercoaches. The author of Cool Careers for Dummies(Wiley), he has been advising clients for more than20 years. He is based in Oakland, California.Contact him at: [email protected] or atwww.martynemko.com

THE JOB DOCTOR CAREERS ■

Employees fear them, and bosses don’t enjoy them

either. But both sides can benefit from performance

reviews, as MARTY NEMKO explains.

Pho

todi

sc


accomplishment something difficult or remarkable [E(kA:mplISmEnt*] that you succeed in doingaccountability [E)kaUntE(bIlEti] responsibility for your actionsappreciate sth. [E(pri:SieIt] to be grateful for somethingcomponent [kEm(poUnEnt*] an individual part of somethingcontentious [kEn(tenSEs] causing a lot of argument dismiss sb. [dIs(mIs] to remove somebody from a jobdread sth. [dred] to be worried about or afraid of

something that is going to happenevaluation [i)vÄlju(eIS&n] a judgement about how good sth. isgoody file ifml. a list of positive thingsimpose sth. to force people to accept sth.legitimate [lI(dZItEmEt] fair or reasonableongoing [(A:n)goUIN*] continuingperformance review an examination of how well or[p&r(fO:rmEns ri)vju:*] badly someone does a jobperform poorly [p&rfO:rm pUrli*] to work badlypromotion [prE(moUS&n*] a move to a higher-ranking posi-

tion in a company or organizationstart legal action to start the process of having a

disagreement settled by a court termination the act of ending an employment

Both sides now:time for manager andemployee to listen

PERFORMANCEREVIEWS

advanced US

■BSI


http://www.martynemko.com


accommodation [E)kQmE(deIS&n] a place where people can staybanquet server [(bÄNkwIt )s§:vE] someone who serves food at large,

formal dinner partiescome up with sth. to think of a plan or ideacommute [kE(mju:t] the journey between home and workcredit union [(kredIt )ju:niEn] a bank owned by its membersdeafening [(def&nIN] so loud that it is impossible to hear

anything else freak out [)fri:k (aUt] ifml. to become extremely frightenedgrocer’s shop [(grEUsEz SQp] a shop that sells foodhustle and bustle noisy activity of a lot of people in [)hVs&l En (bVs&l] one placeland crab [(lÄnd krÄb] sb. with no experience of the seareassigned: have oneself ~ to request a different job or duty[ri:E(saInd]recruit sb. [ri(kru:t] to find people to work somewheresalmon farm [(sÄmEn fA:m] a place where salmon are bredsurroundings [sE(raUndINz] everything around sb. or sth.

Marilou Larssen was only six years old whenher family emigrated to Canada from thePhilippines — which is about double thedistance she would travel many years lat-er, when she followed the love of her life

to the far north of Norway. In the 1970s, it was workthat caused her first big move: Canada was recruitingpeople from overseas, and Marilou’s father moved thefamily to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

After finishing high school, Larssen stayed in Win-nipeg to study history and art history while working asa banquet server at the Radisson hotel. “It was likeworking for the UN,” she says. “Winnipeg is very mul-ticultural.” Her next job was at a credit union for tele-phone workers. She was soon offered a full-time posi-tion there and accepted it, dropping her universitycourses one by one.

She still might have finished her degree, hadit not been for a holiday in 1992. Marilou and twofriends decided to flee from the cold Manitoba winterto Cancún, Mexico, for two weeks. At a restaurantthere, she met Andrè from the island of Seiland in Finn-mark, Norway’s northernmost region. Countless letterscrossed the Atlantic after that, and expensive calls ap-peared on phone bills. Three visits later, it was clear thatone of them would have to move. “Andrè and his fatherwere running a salmon farm,” Larssen says. “So, I wasmore mobile. I was also the more adventurous of us, soI thought: ‘Right, I’ll try!’”

The first thing she noticed about the island, which hasa permanent population of about 100, was the silence,something she was not used to from living in a big city.“One time, I went up to the lakes to fish and, sudden-ly, it just got really, really quiet. There was no wind. Icouldn’t hear birds. There was absolutely no sound,”Larssen says. “And you know what? I freaked out! Fora minute there I thought, my God, I’m totally alone inthis world. You could say the silence was deafening.”

Seiland lies above the Arctic Circle, meaningthe sun does not rise for a few months during mørketi-den, the dark Norwegian winter. Larssen fights thedarkness by sitting in front of an artificial day lampwhile having breakfast. Staying active is also very im-portant. “We have this women’s group,” she says. “Weborrow the school gym two times a week and do Zum-ba — or at least, we try to!”

Once Larssen could speak Norwegian, she startedworking at the Larssen family’s salmon farm. “It was abig shock,” she says. “I was used to a warm office, notto my fingers being frozen from working in cold waterall day.” In 1997, the aquaculture company Stolt SeaFarm bought up the business. Andrè started working forthem, and Marilou joined him after completing anaquaculture course in Honnigsvåg, about 200 kilome-tres away.

At first, her job was to feed the baby salmon, orsmolt. She drove a six-metre plastic boat equipped witha water cannon, and had to lift 25-kilogram bags of fish

ARCTIC ADVENTURESWhen she was six, Marilou Larssen and her family emigrated to Canada from the Philippines. Today,

she lives on a small island in the far north of Norway with her husband and their three children. She

spoke to BARBARA HILLER about her journey and her life in the Arctic.


■ CAREERS MY WAY

medium

Lan

gu

ag

e p

oin

t

The Arctic Circle is an imagined line around theearth near the North Pole. The region north of thiscircle is the Arctic.

Arctic charr, cod, halibut, monkfish, red snapper,trout and wolf fish are species of fish. The singu-lar and plural of fish species are usually the same:we say “a trout”, for example, and “two trout”.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are the Englishnames of the three Baltic States. This group ofcountries got its name from the Baltic Sea, whichseparates them from Scandinavia.


The main season for fishing is from April toSeptember, but, because of high demand, people havebeen coming earlier and staying later. The accommoda-tion is usually booked out a year in advance. “We haverepeat guests who have been coming here since we started,” Larssen says. “Most of our guests are fromGermany, the Czech Republic and Poland, but we arenow also getting people from Latvia, Estonia and Lithua-nia.”

While visitors to Seiland love the quiet surroundings,Larssen’s idea of a holiday involves a big city and lotsof action. “I need to have the hustle and bustle,” shesays. In Seiland, it’s hard to get away, but at the mo-ment, Larssen is busy enough with her three sons,Gabriel (13), Noah (9) and Lucas (3). “Seiland is a per-fect place for families,” she says. “The children are ba-sically free to do what they want here.”

On a visit to Canada a few years ago, however, herchildren suddenly found themselves forced to stay intheir grandparents’ garden. “Mamma,” the oldest ofthem said to her, “Seiland is the best place in the wholeworld!” And although it’s still too early to tell, Larssenis guessing that, some day, Gabriel might be just the oneto take over the family business.


■BSI

Marilou Larssen

Date of birth: 4 October 1966

Nationality: Filipino, Canadian

Current position: founder and owner of Seiland Explore(www.seiland-explore.com) in Norway, with her hus-band, Andrè Larssen

Work experience: banquet server, bank employee,salmon farmer

Education and training: university courses in historyand art history, course in aquaculture

Languages: English, Norwegian, some Tagalog, basicFrench

Hobbies: hiking, fishing, Zumba, theatre, movies, art

Gone fishing:Marilou Larssenwith a verylarge salmon

food onto it every day. “Stolt didn’t have all the equip-ment they have now,” she says. “Also, now there are al-ways two people per boat.” As long as the weather wasfine, she didn’t mind. But when there were storms, shestill had to go out — even though her job includedjumping back and forth between the salmon cage andher boat. Larssen soon had herself reassigned. “I’m aland crab,” she explains. “I can’t even swim!”

When their contracts with Stolt ended in 2002, Mar-ilou and Andrè had just had their second son and need-ed a family income. Andrè’s father died a year later,leaving them with a small grocer’s shop and two emp-ty apartments. But as the town of Hammerfest, with itsgrowing oil and gas interests, is no more than a one-hour commute by ferry and car, it was clear that therewas no local interest in renting.

Luckily, the couple found another option in2004. “We took a course about starting up a business,”Larssen says. “We brainstormed for a weekend andcame up with Seiland Explore.”

Seiland Explore offers tourists accommodation on theisland and equipment for various activities. “Our lakesare filled with trout and Arctic charr — and in the ocean,there’s cod, monkfish, halibut, red snapper and, the mostpopular, wolf fish,” she says. At first, they had twoapartments and one boat. Now, there are seven boatsand four living areas. “Basically, we’ve just been buy-ing little bits at a time: one boat here, one boat there,”she explains.

http://www.seiland-explore.com



Yoganathan Ratheesan was only 25 when heco-founded Lebara. Ten years later, the busi-ness of selling cheap international mobilephone calls to migrant workers in Europe andAustralia is snowballing.

The firm has three million active customers and operations in nine countries. It had revenues of about€1 billion in 2011. Staff numbers rose last year from500 to 1,400. But Ratheesan says modestly: “I’m not anentrepreneur. I don’t consider myself to be a business-man at all. I’m just very good at running things.”

At 35, he still looks almost boyish, and would ratherbe seen as a corporate newcomer than the creator of ahugely successful money-making machine. “It’s almostscary what has happened in the last ten years,” he says.“How did we do it? I have no idea.”

Perhaps Lebara’s biggest achievement has been mak-ing the international calls business respectable. Careful-ly chosen sponsorship has played its part, including in-ternational cricket and the MOBOs (Music of BlackOrigin awards).

Lebara does not own telephone masts, but rentsspace from networks such as Vodafone and then sellspay-as-you-go SIM cards for customers to put in theirown mobile phones. Its London call centre employs 270staff, who receive up to 80,000 calls a week, answeringeach one in about 30 seconds. Ratheesan checks this byphoning in from his car most days. The company’s Lon-don hub serves all its European operations in 25 lan-

Ten years ago, three Sri Lankan immigrants established a mobile telephone company. Without borrowing

even one cent, they turned the company into a billion-dollar business. JULIETTE GARSIDE reports.

2/2012

■ MANAGEMENT YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR

CALLING THE WORLDadvanced

guages officially, 32 unofficially. With 50 nationalitieson its staff, Lebara would seem to be the definition ofdiverse, but Ratheesan sees it differently. “I don’t muchagree that we are a multicultural organization,” he says.“All my management team are from Europe, apart fromme.”

Non-European middle managers have therefore beenasked to pick a mentor from the top team and will befast-tracked up the ranks. The idea is to find leaderswho, like its chief executive, have life experiences sim-ilar to those of their customers.

Ratheesan arrived in the UK at the age of 15,his family having escaped from Sri Lanka’s civil war. Hewas educated at boarding school in India from the ageof eight. For the first two years in England, he saved hispocket money, hoping to buy a ticket back to India tosee his former headmaster’s family, who had allowedhim to stay with them during the school holidays. “Atthe beginning, I found it extremely difficult in England,”he says. “The only person in my circle who could speakEnglish and explain my studies was my uncle, whoworked for the Bank of England. I would wait for himall day and ring him up at 8 p.m.”

His father, who worked at a clothing factory in Lon-don, wanted Ratheesan to take a degree, and he choseaeronautical engineering “because it had more numbersin it than any other subject”. He says he was not verystudious, but took a year out to earn the £8,000 need-ed to pay for a master’s degree.

accountant [E(kaUntEnt] someone whose job is to keep or checkfinancial records

aeronautical engineering the study of how aircraft and spacecraft [eErEU)nO:tIk&l )endZI(nIErIN] are designed and builtboard [bO:d] the people who control a companyboarding school a school where children live during the

school yearcall-time card a prepaid telephone cardchairman the person in charge of an organizationcharity [(tSÄrEti] an organization that collects money and

helps people in needchief executive the person with the highest position[)tSi:f Ig(zekjUtIv] in a companycorporate [(kO:pErEt] relating to large companiesdistribution the supply of goods from a central place

to shops or customersdonate sth. [dEU(neIt] to give something in order to help othersentrepreneur [)QntrEprE(n§:] someone who starts or runs a business,

especially one that involves taking risksfast-track sb. up the ranks to move someone to a job at a

higher level very quickly

figurehead [(fIgEhed] someone who is seen as the leader of anorganization

foundation an organization created in order to pro-vide money for a particular purpose, forexample, to help people

hub the central, most important place wherean activity takes place

launch sth. [lO:ntS] to start something, for example, a busi-ness or a project

mobile carrier a company that provides a mobile [)mEUbaI&l (kÄriE] telephone servicepay-as-you-go relating to a system of paying for a ser-

vice as you use itrevenues [(revEnju:z] the money that a business earnsshare one of the equal parts of a company that

you can buy to invest moneysnowball [(snEUbO:l] to grow very quicklystudious [(stju:diEs] spending a lot of time studyingtalk sb. through sth. to explain something to someone in detailwithdraw from sth. to stop taking part in something[wID(drO: frQm]



He worked in a bar by night and in a shop selling call-time cards during the day. When the boss came downfrom head office, Ratheesan told him the company waslosing money on calls because of a miscalculation. Acouple of days later, the boss rang back, with his ac-countant on the line. Ratheesan talked him through it.“He was screaming for half an hour, and then said, ‘Iwould like you to come and work at head office.’”

Ratheesan said he would come for six months andthen return to his studies, but stayed for four years, run-ning the pricing department and working in sales andmarketing. The company, ICS, was run by another SriLankan, Subaskaran Allirajah, who also founded theprepaid calling-card company Lycatel.

At ICS, he made friends with two other Tamilcolleagues, who later became his business partners.Rasiah Ranjith Leon had worked in Norway, andBaskaran Kandiah came from the Netherlands. Lebara— a combination of the names Leon, Baskaran andRatheesan — was from its beginning in 2001 a Euro-pean concept.

First, they founded a call-card distribution business inthe Netherlands, selling to independent phone shops. In

2004, they launched their first virtual net-work, in the Netherlands, selling pay-as-you-go SIM cards and renting space frommobile carrier Telefort. They made a sim-ilar deal with Vodafone in Spain and thenin the UK in 2007, and this was soon thecompany’s largest market. The market inFrance, which was launched in 2010, is al-ready almost as big as the UK.

While his partners concentrated on salesand marketing, Ratheesan became the ad-ministrator and the corporate figurehead.Unusually, Lebara has never received out-side financing, even in the form of a bankloan, and each founder owns a third of theshares. Without a chairman or a board,Ratheesan had to invent one. “I have animaginary boss in my head,” he says. “I’m still scared if I’m late coming in towork. Everybody else has someone to drive them: I had to find that disciplinewithin myself.”

Lebara’s internal culture is stronglyegalitarian. Ratheesan spent a lot of mon-ey on chairs, after deciding that every em-ployee should sit on the same model as the

boss. All managers spend one day every three weeksdealing directly with customers, working on stands orselling to phone shops. All except the chief executive:“Leon and Karan have never allowed me to put up aposter, hand out a leaflet or sell a SIM card. They seethat as their role.”

The three are good friends, and their next big ambi-tion is to expand their charity, the Lebara Foundation,which is already building a community with homes, aschool and a clinic for children in Chennai, in southernIndia. To finance it, they plan to donate half theirwealth to the foundation. They hope this will lead to asale of the company at around £650 million.

The problem is that the founders want to sell so thatthey can do charity work full-time. Buyers are not sureLebara can continue without them. Vodafone has al-ready withdrawn from the sale, having made an earlylow offer for part of the business.

Ratheesan’s co-founders are a little older and readyfor a change, and the three do not want to be separat-ed. However, he might stay with Lebara if pressed. “Ifwe did sell and there was a role for me, I would do it,”he says. “I spent my life building this organization.”

© Guardian News & Media 2012

“I have an imaginary boss

in my head. I’m still

scared if I’m late to work”

On call: YoganathanRatheesan has built

a successfultelecom business

■BSI


products in front of customers, they would continue toopen their wallets.

My model for business is The Beatles. They were fourguys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendenciesin check. They balanced each other... That’s how I seebusiness: great things in business are never done by oneperson, they’re done by a team of people.

Recruiting usually requires more than you alone can do,so I’ve found that collaborative recruiting and having aculture that recruits the “A” players is the best way. Anyinterviewee will speak with at least a dozen people inseveral areas of this company, not just those in the areathat he would work in. That way ... the current employ-ees can veto a candidate.

My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to makethem better.

At Apple we gave all our employees stock options veryearly on. ... I took away most of the cash bonuses andreplaced them with options. No cars, no planes, nobonuses. Basically, everybody gets a salary and stock...It’s a very egalitarian way to run a company thatHewlett-Packard pioneered and that Apple, I would liketo think, helped establish.

It’s painful when you have some people who are not thebest people in the world and you have to get rid ofthem; but I found my job has sometimes exactly beenthat — to get rid of some people who didn’t measure upand I’ve always tried to do it in a humane way. Butnonetheless it has to be done and it is never fun.

You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true foryour work as it is for your lovers. Your work is goingto fill a large part of your life, and the only way to betruly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.And the only way to do great work is to love what youdo.

“A” players: the ~ [(eI )pleIEz] the best workersCEO [)si: i: (EU] the person with the highest position in(chief executive officer) a companycheck: keep sth. in ~ to keep sth. under controlcollaborative [kE(lÄbErEtIv] done by several people working togetherdownsize [(daUnsaIz] to reduce the number of people working

in a companydozen [dVz&n] twelvedwell on sth. to think about a subject (often one that

causes unhappiness) for a long timeearly on [)§:li (Qn] at an early stage easy: be ~ on sb. to treat someone in a gentle wayget sth. ifml. to understand somethinginterviewee [)IntEvju(i:] someone who is interviewed for a joblayer [(leIE] a quantity of something that lies over a

surface or between two surfacesmeasure up [)meZEr (Vp] to be good enoughpeel sth. off sth. to remove the skin of a fruit/vegetablepioneer sth. [)paIE(nIE] to be the first to do something R&D [)A:r En (di:] the area of work in a company in which(research & development) products are developed and improvedrecruit sb. [ri(kru:t] to find new people to work somewherestock option the right to buy shares, often at a

cheaper rate, in a firm where you work wallet [(wQlIt] a small, flat case for carrying money in

STEVE JOBSYou can do great work only if you love what you do. It’s not about the money, it’s about the people.

Such strong beliefs were the key to his success and made him a legend.


■ MANAGEMENT WHAT I’VE LEARNED

STEVE JOBS (1955–2011) co-founded Apple in 1976. He leftin 1985 after a power struggle. In 1986, he became CEO of PixarStudios. Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 and became permanentCEO in 2000. Apple is the world’s largest technology company.Steve Jobs died on 5 October 2011.

medium

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dol-lars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBMwas spending at least a hundred times more on R&D.It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have,how you’re led and how much you get it.

When you first start off trying to solve a problem, thefirst solutions you come up with are very complex, andmost people stop there. But if you keep going, and livewith the problem and peel more layers of the onion off,you can often arrive at some very elegant and simple so-lutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or ener-gy to get there. We believe that customers are smart andwant objects which are well thought through.

I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good,then you should go do something else wonderful, notdwell on it for too long.

People think focus means saying yes to the thingyou’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means atall. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideasthat there are. ... I’m actually as proud of the things wehaven’t done as the things I have done.

A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, andmaybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a dif-ferent path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great

© Extracts from I, Steve: Steve Jobs in his own words, George Beahm(ed.) (Hardie Grant Books).

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http://www.sprachenshop.de/blatt/d_spl_produkt&_knv_dok_nr=112940466

S. S

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“Great things in business

are never done by one

person, they’re done by a

team of people”

buy-in [(baI In] the fact of accepting an idea because youagree with it

change management the process of organizing how a new way[(tSeIndZ )mÄnIdZmEnt] of working is introduced into a businessdevise sth. [di(vaIz] to create something in your mindenlist sb. [In(lIst] to persuade someone to help youexecute sth. [(eksIkju:t] to put a plan into actionincentive [In(sentIv] sth. that makes you want to do sth.mindset [(maIndset] the attitudes or ideas that someone hasmitigate sth. [(mItEgeIt*] to make something less harmfulnon-negotiable not possible to change through [)nA:n nI(goUSiEb&l*] discussionsperceive sth. [p&r(si:v*] to understand or think about something in

a particular waypredict sth. [pri(dIkt] to say what something will probably be like

in the futureturnaround a situation in which something changes [(t§:nE)raUnd] completely veer off course to suddenly change the direction[)vI&r O:f (kO:rs*] in which you are going


■ MANAGEMENT BUSINESS BASICS■ MANAGEMENT BUSINESS BASICS

Cor

bis

Introducing new processes requires sensitive and intelligent handling. DARRELL RIGBY explains what

you need to know to implement change management programs successfully.

DARRELL RIGBY, a partner in the Boston office ofBain & Company, heads Bain’s global retail and glo -bal innovation practices. He produces Bain’s Manage-ment Tools: An Executive’s Guide, a booklet that de-scribes 25 of the most popular management tools.www.bain.com/management_tools

WHAT ARE...

1. Description

Change management programs allow companies tocontrol the installation of new processes and so reachtheir business goals more efficiently. These programs in-volve devising change initiatives, generating organiza-tional buy-in, implementing the initiatives as smoothlyas possible, and generating a repeatable model for fu-ture changes. The programs allow leaders to help peo-ple succeed, showing where and when trouble is likely,and creating a strategy both for mitigating risks andmonitoring progress.

2. Methodology

Change management programs require managers to:■ Focus on results. A goal-oriented mindset is created

establishing clear, non-negotiable goals, and design-ing incentives to ensure that these are met.

■ Identify and overcome barriers to change. Companiesidentify the employees most affected by change andtry to predict, measure, and manage the risks.

■ Communicate simple, powerful messages. In times ofchange, leaders change the frequency and methods oftheir communication to manage the way that employ-ees perceive and react to information.

■ Ensure sponsorship throughout the organization.Companies enlist multiple sponsors to provide all in-dividuals with the influence of a sponsor.

■ Reorganize decision-making. Firms develop a systemfor identifying, making, and executing key decisions.

■ Continuously monitor progress. Companies monitoreach change initiative to see whether it is followingthe intended path or veering off course.

3. Common uses

Companies can use a change management program to:■ Implement major strategic initiatives to adapt to

changes in markets, customer preferences, technolo-gies, or the competition’s strategic plans.

■ Focus an organization when it is going through a ma-jor turnaround.

■ Implement new process initiatives.© Bain & Company, Inc., 2012

advanced US

* This symbol marks standard US pronunciation that differs from standard UK pronunciation.

The leading globalmanagement consultingfirm BAIN & COMPANY has

partnered with BusinessSpotlight to explain themost important currentmanagement ideas.

CHANGE MANAGEMENTPROGRAMS?

■BSI

http://www.bain.com/management_tools



accomplish sth. [E(kVmplIS] to succeed in doing something difficultchallenge [(tSÄlIndZ] a difficult situation that you need a lot of skill to

deal withcompete against sb. to try to be more successful than sb.competition [)kQmpE(tIS&n] the activity or state of trying to be better than otherscompetitive [kEm(petEtIv] having the desire to be more successful than otherscompetitiveness [kEm(petEtIvnEs] the desire to be more successful than othersconspiracy [kEn(spIrEsi] a secret plan by a group to do sth. illegal or harmfuldistinction [dI(stINkS&n] a difference between two thingsdrive [draIv] a strong desire to satisfy a needinadequacy [In(ÄdIkwEsi] a lack of talent, ability or necessary skillsindiscriminate [)IndI(skrImInEt] done without choosing carefullyin moderation [In )mQdE(reIS&n] not too muchmisery [(mIzEri] great suffering or unhappinessrepress sth. [ri(pres] to prevent or control something by using forceself-esteem [)self I(sti:m] belief and confidence in your own abilities, character

and talentsour sth. [(saUE] to make something less pleasantsurvival [sE(vaIv&l] the state of continuing to livetime sb. to measure how long it takes for somebody to do

somethingvicious cycle [)vISEs (saIk&l] a situation in which one problem causes another

problem, which then makes the first problem worse

growth of what many people see asan unethical elite, and our disillu-sion with the free-market model,are currently souring our views.

A distinction has been made his-torically between healthy and un-healthy competition. The very firstexperiment in social psychology (in1897) involved competitiveness.Norman Triplett, a psychologist atIndiana University, showed that cy-clists rode faster if they were com-peting against other cyclists than ifthey were being timed on their own.This is an example of what is seenas good competition: the drive toaccomplish a goal. This sort ofcompetition brings out the best inindividuals and even helps them un-derstand themselves.

In the 1930s, however, German–American psychoanalyst KarenHorney worried about the evils ofhypercompetitiveness in Americansociety. Horney described it as “anindiscriminate need to compete andwin and avoid losing at any cost”.This kind of competitiveness —which she said was primarily maleand central to American culture —involved manipulation, aggressive-ness and the harming of others.

Horney also regarded it as destruc-tive to an individual’s development.

Competitive individuals tend tobe ambitious, achievement-orientedand dominant. In moderation, noneof these qualities are bad. But hy-percompetitive people usually haveall kinds of inadequacies, includingpoor interpersonal relationships.

Competitiveness is also regardedas being “domain-specific”. Onemay be highly competitive on thesports field, but not in the class-room or at work. And while allsports are competitive, the motiva-tion of a footballer appears to bevery different from that of a long-distance runner. One is team-based,and the other is individualistic.

Some national cultures tend to beindividualistic, while others (such asthose in most parts of Asia) tend tobe more collectivist. The challengefacing international managers, whooften have to lead multiculturalteams, is to encourage the optimallevels of competitiveness for theirspecific purposes.

EXECUTIVE EYE MANAGEMENT ■

“Competition can bring out the best in products.

But does it bring out the best in people?”

ADRIAN FURNHAM ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT

Is competitiveness a dangerousdrive that must be repressed inschool and at work, or is it the es-sential motivator of success andeven survival?

Views on competition changeover time. In the 1960s, we weretold that competition led to winnersand losers and that this was unfair.The losers would lose self-esteem,starting them on a vicious cycle offailure. Competition was seen as acapitalist conspiracy that set peopleagainst each other in a Darwiniansurvival-of-the-fittest battle thatcaused nothing but misery. Compe-tition, we also were told, led toconflict and wars.

It was usually forgotten that com-petition between firms also led tocheaper prices, innovation and con-stant product improvements. Evenif it was admitted that competitioncould bring out the best in prod-ucts, it wasn’t seen as bringing outthe best in people. The focus was onprotecting losers rather than encour-aging talented people to develop.

Are we now seeing a return of the1960s idea that competitiveness ismorally evil and dysfunctional? The

ADRIAN FURNHAM is a professor of psy-chology at University College, London. Heis a chartered organizational psychologistand author of 60 books, the latest ofwhich is Managing People in a Downturn,(Palgrave Macmillan).

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Competition: not alwaysa positive force

Test your reading comprehension in Business Spotlight plus

plus

medium

■BSI



Not even the children’s character Bob theBuilder ever used a Barbie-pink digger on hisbuilding site — but real-life construction crewscould soon be doing just that. Research atBirmingham City University Business School

in the UK shows that painting machines and equipmentin uncommon colours would help builders solve a hugeproblem in the construction industry: machinery theft.

Professors David Edwards and Gary Holt began theirresearch project after spending years in the building in-dustry. Edwards, professor of industrial innovation atBirmingham City, started his career as a bricklayer, thenworked his way up to management before entering aca-demic life. Holt worked as a construction manager inthe building industry and civil-engineering industry be-fore doing the same. But it wasn’t until the academicshad a meeting with the Plant Theft Action Group — anorganization of representatives from the plant industry,insurance companies, the police and government — thatthey learned of the scale of building-site theft in the UKand began looking at ways to stop it.

Edwards says that theft from building sites is verycommon. Machines are stolen not only by individualthieves, but also by gangs of organized criminals. Headds that the gangs may be using the money they earnto finance prostitution, drugs and even terrorism.Thieves also seem to find it relatively easy to send stolenmachines overseas: “Much stolen plant is broken downfor resale as parts, in this country and abroad.”

Despite the scale of the problem, few buildingfirms take serious anti-theft measures. “Most machin-ery found on building sites has a high resale value, so itoffers thieves fast, easy and high returns,” explainsHolt. He says that a 20-tonne excavator can cost up to£100,000, and yet stealing one and selling its parts ispossibly easier than stealing a £5,000 second-handfamily car. It’s difficult to calculate the exact cost ofplant theft in the UK, but Edwards and Holt suggest itis between £1.1 million and £1.5 million a week.

There are costs to society, too. Edwards mentions thatstolen plant is frequently used for other crimes — forexample, tearing cash dispensers out of walls. In No-vember 2000, a London gang attempted to steal DeBeers diamonds worth £350 million from the Millenni-um Dome using a JCB digger. The gang crashed throughthe gates of the Dome and reached the area where thediamonds were — but were then stopped by the police.

Thieves and organized gangs of criminals won’t even stop at stealing huge construction machinery.

That’s why two professors have come up with a clever idea to prevent them. LUCY TOBIN reports.


advanced

■ TECHNOLOGY CONSTRUCTION

THINK PINK

academic [)ÄkE(demIk] sb. who teaches at a universityanecdotally [)ÄnIk(dEUt&li] according to reportsassets [(Äsets] everything of value that sb./a company ownsboiler suit a single piece of clothing consisting of trou-[(bOIlE su:t] UK sers and a jacket, worn for doing dirty work break sth. down to divide something into partsbricklayer sb. who builds walls for houses, etc.building site a place where something is being builtcash dispenser a machine from which you can get [(kÄS dI)spensE] money using a special plastic cardcivil engineering the design and building of roads[)sIv&l endZI(nIErIN] and bridges, etc.construction crew a group of people working together to build[kEn(strVkS&n kru:] somethingconstruction manager someone whose job is to control a building[kEn(strVkS&n )mÄnIdZE] projectcontractor [kEn(trÄktE] someone who organizes a building projectdeter sb. [di(t§:] to stop someone from doing sth.deterrent [di(terEnt] sth. that stops people from doing sth.digger [(dIgE] a large machine used for digging and

moving earthexcavating arm the long part of a digger or excavator excavator [(ekskEveItE] a large machine used for digging and mov-

ing earthgood cause [)gUd (kO:s] an aim that people supportinsurance company a company to which you regularly [In(SUErEns )kVmpEni] pay money and from which you receive

money if something bad happensmachinery [mE(Si:nEri] machines plant large machinesrecovery [ri(kVvEri] the act of getting something back that was

lost or stolenreturn the amount of profit you get from somethingscale the size or level of something suspend sth. from sth. to attach something to a high place so that[sE(spend frQm] it hangs downtower crane a large, tall machine for lifting heavy thingstrack sth. to find out where something is

Having recognized the serious cost of plant theft andthe importance of helping the industry to deal with theproblem, Edwards and Holt began in 2006 to workclosely with firms whose equipment had been stolen,machine manufacturers and makers of anti-theft sys-tems. They also looked at case studies of thefts, toanalyse how the crimes were carried out and to help un-derstand the “method” of plant thieves. They also con-sidered how theft might be prevented and ways that thestolen goods might be found.

Their studies show that one good deterrent totheft is locking machines in unusual positions — for ex-ample, with excavating arms extended. Other methodsinclude adding company logos — and painting machin-ery Barbie’s favourite colour. “Painting a machine pinkis not expensive, but has proven anecdotally to be a



Pretty in pink:and less likely to

be stolen, too

Despite the scale of the problem,

few building firms take

serious anti-theft measures

strong deterrent,” says Holt. Some tool companies arealready trying this with their products. The generous useof company logos and colours that match them aregood for marketing campaigns and product recognition,he adds, and also a psychological anti-theft measure.

But at the moment, the valuable equipment on build-ing sites looks surprisingly plain. “Most plant users andowners can be quite apathetic towards their assets be-ing stolen,” says Edwards. “There’s an illusion that theinsurance company will cover all costs, but people arebecoming more aware of the problem.” Some of thelarger contractors and insurance companies now requireplant to be fully protected from theft, or for it to be pos-sible to track stolen equipment. But recovery rates arevery low, particularly when one considers the scale ofthe problem, because there aren’t enough police re-sources for finding and getting back the stolen machinesand parts.

That’s where pink is useful. “Bright, identifyingcolours psychologically deter a thief,” says Edwards. Headds that it also becomes much more difficult for themto sell stolen parts because these would have to be re-painted first. “Why steal a pink machine when thou-sands of yellow ones already exist and provide a read-ily available second-hand market?”

The academics admit that the method could becomeless effective if it were widely used. “If everyone start-ed to ‘paint it pink’, then no longer would pink machines

look out of place,” he says. But he adds that, by mak-ing plant as noticeable as possible and using specificcolours that match your company logo, you are effec-tively making the thief look elsewhere.

The academics advise building-site managers to usetheir common sense when trying anti-theft measures.Holt says he had heard of one construction site wherethieves had regularly stolen portable generators. “At theend of the working week, the site manager decided totie the generators together and suspend them from thesite’s tower crane — ‘that will stop them,’ he thought.”But when the manager returned to the site the follow-ing Monday morning, says Holt, the tower crane —worth over £2 million — had disappeared, too. It hasnot been seen since.

According to the anecdote, the gang wore boiler suits,which made them appear trustworthy, and they had putmagnetic signs on their vehicles to show that they werefrom a hire company. “Nobody questioned them andsecurity even made them a cup of tea,” says Holt. Heand Edwards believe that theft might have been avoid-ed if the equipment had been painted pink. They’re aim-ing to get their message out across the construction in-dustry, and are even thinking about how they could dorelated marketing — for example, using the image ofpink machines to promote breast-cancer campaigns.“Not only might we prevent theft, but also contributeto a good cause,” they add.

© Guardian News & Media 2012

Birmingham City University

■BSI


To fly an aircraft, you have to control its move-ments. The pilot can alter the position and direc-tion of the plane, raise the undercarriage aftertake-off and lower it for landing.

The aircraft’s direction is changed by adjusting the attitude of control surfaces on the wings and tail — theailerons, the elevators, the rudder — and, in the case ofa helicopter, the rotors. There are two different types offlight control systems that are used to do this. One is hydraulic, and the other is mechanical.

Hydraulics — using the pressure of a liquid to dowork — is a very old principle, and it is used in varioustypes of machines and systems: in building equipmentand in car steering, for example. Through the use of hy-draulics, a small force can be turned into a larger force.Oil is the liquid most commonly used inside hydraulicsystems. The exact properties that are needed (for ex-ample, how easily the liquid flows or how fire-resistantit must be) depend on the type of machine and the op-erating temperature.

To use an aircraft’s hydraulic controls, the pilot activ-ates a system that pumps the fluid into a closed cylin-der with a piston inside it. As the fluid flows into thecylinder, it pushes the piston outwards and the controlsurface attached to the other end of the piston moves.Then, the hydraulic fluid is pumped into the oppositeend of the cylinder, the piston is pushed back in and the

control surface returns to its original position. If youlook out the window of an aeroplane during landingand take-off, you see the trailing edge of the wing altering its shape. The control surfaces are being movedhydraulically.

Control surfaces can also be moved using mechanicalconnections called “linkages”. These metal connections,which can be in the form of tubes, cables and solid rods,physically connect the pilot’s controls in the cockpit tothe control surfaces. The linkages are usually made ofaluminium. This results in a system that is much lighterand cheaper than hydraulics.

Modern aircraft use a combination of mechanicallinkages and hydraulic pistons. Recent developments in-clude “fly-by-wire” (FBW) systems, in which comput-ers handle some of the flight control functions by send-ing electrical signals directly to the control surfaces.

In a smaller aircraft, a pilot moves the rudder controlswith his feet. He physically pulls or pushes the rudderinto the position he requires by means of metal linkages.These are attached to the foot controls in the cockpit atone end, and go through the aircraft to the rudder at theother end. When the pilot moves the joystick, he push-es and pulls the ailerons and elevators into position. Thetension must be adjusted to make sure there is accuratecontrol and to avoid damage to the linkages, althoughin general, they are easy to repair and replace.

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■ TECHNOLOGY LANGUAGE FOCUS

Ready for take-off! An aircraft is a complicated piece of technology, and there are a lot of things a

pilot needs to do to get the plane safely from A to B. NICK REGAN has the technical details. advanced

FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEMS

Take-off: howare pilots able to

steer planes?

■BSI



Useful vocabulary

Key verbsactuate sth. [(ÄktSueIt] to make something operatebuckle to twist and/or deform under pressureenergize sth. [(enEdZaIz] to supply energy to somethingretract sth. [ri(trÄkt] to bring sth. back to its original position

Essential parts and materialsaileron [(eIlErQn] a control surface on the trailing edge of

an aircraft’s main wingscontrol surface the moveable part of one of an aircraft’s

flight surfaceselevator [(elIveItE] control surface on the aircraft’s horizontal

tailplanefluid [(flu:Id] a liquid or gasgroove a channel cut in a hard materialhollow a body that contains empty spacejoystick the pilot’s main controllateral axis an imaginary line passing through an [)lÄt&rEl (ÄksIs] aircraft from wingtip to wingtiplinkage [(lINkIdZ] a metal rod, tube or cable that transfers

movement between parts of a systemlongitudinal axis an imaginary line passing through an [lQNgI(tju:dIn&l] aircraft from nose to tail piston [(pIstEn] a moving component inside a cylinderpulley (wheel) [(pUli (wi:&l)] a wheel around which a moving belt runsreservoir [(rezEvwA:] a place where oil or another fluid is storedrudder a control surface on an aircraft’s vertical

tailplanesolid rod a long metal component which transfers

movement from one part of a system toanother

trailing edge the rear edge of a control surface tube [tju:b] a long, hollow rod or cylinderundercarriage / landing gear the wheels that support the aircraft[(VndEkÄrIdZ / (lÄndIN gIE] on the ground valve [vÄlv] a component that controls the flow of

fluid through a systemvertical axis an imaginary line passing through an [)v§:tIk&l (ÄksIs] aircraft from top to bottom

The technology flight control system the combined system of controls that

alters the movement of an aircraft in flightfly-by-wire (FBW) an electronic/digital system for moving [)flaI baI (waIE] an aircraft’s control surfaceshydraulic [haI(drO:lIk] moved by the force of a fluidproperty [(prQpEti] characteristicpsi (pounds per square inch) unit of pressuretorque [tO:k] twisting forcetwist [twIst] to deform due to a turning force

The science of flying air resistance the stopping force acting against an [(eE ri)zIstEns] object as it travels through the airaltitude [(ÄltItju:d] height above the groundatmospheric pressure the force of air on a point of the earth’s [ÄtmEs)ferIk (preSE] surfaceattitude [(ÄtItju:d] the combined orientation of an aircraft on

its lateral, longitudinal and vertical axes drag air resistancepartially/fully extended in the partly or completely out/in position[)pA:SEli /)fUli Ik(stendId]pitch the orientation of an aircraft on its lateral

axissuction [(sVkS&n] the flow of fluid into an area of low pres-

sureyaw [jO:] the orientation of an aircraft on its vertical

axis

EXERCISES

Answers: 1. a) raise; b) pump; c) adjust; d) alter; e) activate 2. a) adjust the ten-sion; b) activate the system; c) raise the undercarriage; d) pump hydraulic fluid; e) alter the shape 3. a) T; b) T; c) F; d) T; e) F

BOOKS■ English for Mechanical Engineering in Higher Education

Studies, Marian Dunn, David Howey, Amanda Ilic, withNicholas Regan (Garnet)

■ Take-off: Technical English for Engineering, David Morgan,Nicholas Regan (Garnet)

■ Technical Pocket Dictionary, English–German, Henry Freeman(Max Hueber Verlag)


1. Steering basics Choose the verbs to complete the phrases from the text.

activate ■ adjust ■ alter ■ pump ■ raise

a) ________ the undercarriage

b) ________ hydraulic fluid

c) ________ the tension

d) ________ the shape

e) ________ the system

NICK REGAN is a writer for English for Academic Pur-poses (see “For more information” above) and ateacher trainer. He is also a TEFL tutor at the Univer-sity of Birmingham. Contact: [email protected]

2. Taking flightComplete the sentences with the phrases from Exercise 1.

a) There are regular checks to _______ of the cables.

b) Press the green button to _______ in an emergency.

c) After take-off, the pilot will _______.

d) A piston moves when you _______ into a cylinder.

e) When you _______ of the wing, the air flows around

it differently.

3. Making connectionsMark the statements true (T) or false (F).

a) Hydraulic fluid enters cylinders underpressure.

b) Linkages are usually made out of metalcomponents.

c) Linkage systems are more difficult to re-pair than hydraulic systems.

d) Control surfaces on small or light aircraftare relatively easy to move.

e) Hydraulic control systems are mainlyused for steering smaller aircraft.

T F

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Anybody out there?

With increasingly high-powered space

telescopes, scientists expect to discov-

er thousands of distant planets in the coming

years. Astrobiologists in the US and Puerto

Rico have proposed a system for estimating

the chances of life on “exoplanets” — those

beyond our solar system — and their moons.

First, the scientists would classify planets on

an Earth Similarity Index (ESI), a ranking of

how “earth-like” a planet’s environment is.

But because life could be possible under dif-

ferent conditions, they would also use a Plan-

etary Habitability Index (PHI). This describes

physical and chemical conditions, such as at-

mosphere or surface temperature, that could

allow some form of life, including those not

known to us. The most likely candidates for

habitability are the planets orbiting Gliese

581, a star some 20.3 light years away.

■ TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS

ant-roach [(Änt rEUtS] a fantasy creature, a combination of ananteater and a cockroach

avian flu [)eIviEn (flu:] a type of influenza found among birdscompressed air [kEm)prest (eE] air kept under pressuredeflate sth. [)di:(fleIt] to let air out of somethingfabric [(fÄbrIk] a soft material used for making thingshabitability [)hÄbItE(bIlEti] the state of being suitable to live ininflate sth. [In(fleIt] to fill something with airinfluenza (flu) [)Influ(enzE] an infectious disease like a very bad coldorbit sth. [(O:bIt] to circle around a planetstrain [streIn] a particular type of bacteria or virus


Commonly used medicines are

becoming less effective

against new strains of influenza.

But soon, shrimps may help to

protect us from the flu. How?

Through the use of a modified

polysaccharide called “chitosan”.

This is made from chitin, a sub-

stance found in the shells of

shrimps and in certain other sea

creatures, as well as in insects.

During an infection, the viral pro-

tein hemagglutinin (HA) attaches

to carbohydrate chains in a person’s cells. But if the virus

comes into contact with fabric that has been treated with chi-

tosan, it becomes caught there instead. In experiments led by

Xuebing Li at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, scien-

tists were able to use the fabric to catch an H5N1 avian-flu

virus in water. Li also hopes to develop a fabric that is effective

against flu viruses in the air. This could be used for face masks

or other air-filter systems as an effective way to prevent the

virus from spreading.

Life chances:searchingfor suitability

A new formof influenza?

Shrimpsmay help

Nasa

Robots are familiar partners in factories and, increas-

ingly, at home. But they still tend to be heavy and

expensive. Now a team of tech gurus at Otherlab in Cal-

ifornia has begun experimenting with “pneubotics” to create

robots that are made of fabric and filled with compressed air.

These air-filled robots can be easily transported and inflated

at their destinations. And because they are light and soft, they

are safer for humans and better at handling breakable objects.

The team calls its bright blue prototype an “Ant-Roach”,

Riding on air

Catch me if you can

because of the long “nose” and “tail”. The Ant-Roach weighs

just over 30 kilograms, but it can carry more than 450 kilo-

grams. With its low-tech parts, it costs less than $1,000 to

build. Signals can be sent from a laptop to a microcontroller

on the robot to inflate or deflate small pockets on the legs so

that the robot can walk, or even swim.

iSto

ckph

oto

■ TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS

“Ant-Roach”: a new, lighterform of robot

advanced



cradle [(kreId&l] a bed for a baby; here: a structure shaped like a cradledamper a piece of equipment that stops a movement from being

too strongdesigner [di(zaInE] someone who plans how something will look and workdiamond jubilee here: the date 60 years after the queen came to the [)daIEmEnd (dZu:bIli:] thronedismantle sth. [dIs(mÄnt&l] to divide something into its separate partsembarrassing [Im(bÄrEsIN] making you feel ashamed fit sth. to sth. to add sth. to sth. else by attaching itfix a solutionharmonic absorber a piece of equipment that stops a movement from being [hA:)mQnIk Eb(zO:bE] too strongmicrobubble small bubbles used as a contrast agent for ultrasound [(maIkrEU)bVb&l] imagingscale the size or level of somethingstrut [strVt] a piece of metal or wood that is used to support part of a

structuresunken [(sVNkEn] lower than the level of the surrounding landultrasound imaging a method used in medicine to examine the inside of [)VltrEsaUnd (ImIdZIN] a person’s bodywobbly [(wQbli] not stable, moving from side to side

It was a symbolic moment whenQueen Elizabeth II officially openedTate Modern, a gallery for interna-tional modern art, in London on 11 May 2000. The old BanksidePower Station, which used to sup-ply energy to British industry, wasnow the home of works by Picasso,Warhol, Matisse and Dalí.

A month later, Queen Elizabethwas back on Bankside to officiallyopen the Millennium Bridge, thefirst new Thames crossing in morethan 100 years. Around 90,000people used the bridge on 10 June,and as the crowds walked betweenSt Paul’s Cathedral and Tate Mod-ern, they noticed something unusu-al: the 370-metre-long steel struc-ture was vibrating.

All bridge builders plan for vi-bration caused by traffic or wind,but the designers of the MillenniumBridge were not prepared for thescale of the sideways movements,caused by so many people walkingacross the Thames. Two days afterit opened, the Millennium Bridgehad to be closed. And the “wobblybridge”, as Londoners named it,stayed closed for an embarrassing,expensive two years.

that can convert waves into cleanenergy. Cameron said that Britainseemed to have forgotten the con-tribution of engineers to society; asa result, too few young people nowsee it as an attractive career option.

“This is the country that gave theworld the Industrial Revolution.Our engineering changed the world.And it’s not just part of our past.We are very good at it today.”

As an example of what British en-gineers can do, Cameron mentionedthe Olympic Stadium in East Lon-don. This extraordinary structure isa sunken bowl surrounded by acradle of struts that will seat 80,000people during the Olympic Games.The entire cradle can be dismantledafter the Games, leaving a smaller,25,000-seat arena in the bowl.

The engineering work was carriedout by Buro Happold, which ismore British than it sounds. Thefirm was founded by Sir EdmundHappold and has its head office ina very British city: Bath. On 27July, the London 2012 OlympicGames will be declared open — byQueen Elizabeth.

EAMONN FITZGERALD is a technology jour-nalist and social media consultant based inGermany. Contact: [email protected]

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING TECHNOLOGY ■

“Two days after it opened, the Millennium Bridge had

to be closed. An engineering fix was needed”

EAMONN FITZGERALD ON THE LATEST TRENDS advanced

An engineering fix was needed,and 89 dampers, also known as“harmonic absorbers”, were fittedto the bridge to control its horizon-tal and vertical movements. On 22February 2002, the MillenniumBridge reopened and it hasn’t wob-bled worryingly since.

February and June, then, are keymonths in the history of this struc-ture. They are also importantmonths in the life of the queen. On6 February 1952, Elizabeth Alexan-dra Mary of the House of Windsorbecame Queen Elizabeth II. And tocelebrate the royal diamond jubileeand the queen’s 86th birthday,Britain is throwing a four-day par-ty in June. Among the highlightswill be a parade of 1,000 boats onthe Thames. A million people areexpected to watch from the river-bank.

The prime minister, DavidCameron, announced an additionaldiamond-jubilee event, at London’sScience Museum: the Queen Eliza-beth Prize for Engineering. Thisglobal award is worth £1 million. Itis open to individuals or smallteams working on anything fromthe microbubbles used in ultra-sound imaging to giant sea turbines

The troubledbridge over London’s water

iSto

ckph

oto

■BSI




■ LANGUAGE VOCABULARY

23

Ken

Rau

t

8

EXERCISE: What’s missing?Complete the sentences with words from the list.

Jack Hazel is a a) __________. When he arrived at

his shop this morning, he was shocked to discover

that thieves had stolen most of the b) __________. He

noticed that the c) engagement __________, includ-

ing one with a very large d) __________, were gone.

Also, a 20-cm-long e) pearl __________ and a pair of

matching f) __________ were missing. So was a long,

24-carat gold g) __________ that had a round

h) __________ for a photo. Jack then saw that two

wide i) __________ made of pure silver were gone.

The thieves had also stolen some men’s jewellery: a

pair of j) __________ and two gold k) tie __________,

one of them with a red l) __________ and the other

with a blue m) __________. And the box for a

$10,000 Rolex n) __________ with a black leather

o) __________ was empty, too.

1. jewellery [(dZu:Elri] ornaments that people wear on their body(US jewelry)

2. chain an ornament worn around the neck3. jeweller [(dZu:ElE] someone who makes jewellery

(US jeweler)4. clasp [klA:sp] a device used to join things together5. necklace [(neklEs] an ornament worn around the neck6. bracelet [(breIslEt] an ornament worn on the wrist or arm 7. tie clip an object that holds a tie in place8. locket [(lQkIt] a small case worn on a chain, used

to hold things of sentimental value9. brooch [brEUtS] an ornament fastened to clothing with a pin

10. diamond [(daIEmEnd] a colourless precious stone11. ruby [(ru:bi] a red precious stone12. sapphire [(sÄfaIE] a blue precious stone13. engagement ring a ring you wear to show that you have

agreed to marry someone14. emerald [(em&rEld] a green precious stone15. gem(stone) a precious or semi-precious stone16. ear studs [(IE stVdz] straight, thin metal ornaments worn in your

earlobes17. earrings ornaments worn in your earlobes18. cufflink [(kVflINk] an object used for fastening the cuff of a

man’s shirt19. platinum [(plÄtInEm] a precious metal20. pendant [(pendEnt] an object worn on a chain21. pearls small, round white jewels that grow inside

the shell of an oyster22. (wrist)watch a small clock worn on your wrist23. watch strap a piece of leather or cloth used for holding

(US watchband) a watch on your wrist

4

5

6

7

9

1516

1817

1019

14

20

13

11

12

3

22

1

Answers on page 83

easy

THE JEWELLERY SHOP

2

21

On this page, we present useful vocabulary from the businessworld. By CAROL SCHEUNEMANN



FormPassive sentences contain the verb be + past participle:■ The heat is controlled with this switch.■ The problem will be solved immediately.

Note that be is not always the inflected verb:■ The oil should be checked weekly.■ He doesn’t like being told what to do.■ She expects to be promoted to assistant manager.■ I’m honoured to have been chosen for this task.

If it is important to mention who does the action, use by,followed by the agent:■ Our accounts are audited by an external company.

Passive sentences can also be formed with get + past par-ticiple. This is more common in informal, spoken English:■ Mark got stopped for speeding.The get-passive is not used with state verbs:■ The files are kept (not: get kept) in room 208.

UseThe passive is often used when the emphasis is on what hap-pens, rather than who does it. This is typical in scientifictexts, legal documents or business reports: ■ The study was conducted over a period of two years.■ Payment shall be made 30 days from receipt of invoice.■ Sales were not affected by the cuts.

The passive is often used to describe processes:■ Cement is mixed with water, sand and gravel to make con-

crete.■ The cream has been tested by dermatologists.

Rules and regulations are often described in the passive:■ The form must be completed in block letters.■ Smoking is not permitted.

In written reports, the passive is often used with verbs suchas believe, expect and predict — followed by to + infinitiveif a fact is thought to be true:■ The economy is expected to grow by three per cent. ■ He is believed to be the best candidate.

With certain verbs, you can use an introductory it, followedby a passive verb and a that-clause. This is common whenreporting or expressing a general feeling or decision:■ It was felt that this was not a wise decision.■ It has been agreed that it is too early to sign a deal.

THE PASSIVEBusiness reports, technical processes and important regulations are often written or described inthe passive. ANNA HOCHSIEDER has the details.

GRAMMAR AT WORK LANGUAGE ■

ANNA HOCHSIEDER teaches English and contri-butes regularly to Business Spotlight and BusinessSpotlight plus. She also writes our vocabulary defi-nitions. Contact: [email protected]

Some verbs are normally used only in the passive:■ She was born in Delhi in 1952.■ The applicant was deemed unsuitable for the job.■ We were stranded at the airport for two days.

The passive allows you to avoid mentioning the agent, whomight be unknown, obvious or unimportant:■ The truck must have been stolen last night.■ He was fired after only six months.■ The new parts will be delivered tomorrow.

Also, it may sometimes be more diplomatic not to mentionthe agent — for example, when making a complaint:■ The items seem to have been damaged during shipping.■ Some people said that they were being treated unfairly.

The agent can be added if you want to say who does/did theaction, but it is often better to use the active voice:■ The project will be finished by us tomorrow. ■ We will finish the project tomorrow.

Sometimes, the passive allows you to highlight the agent:■ I was taught Chinese by a native speaker.■ These photographs were taken by Robert Capa.

medium

Answers on page 83

For more grammar exercises, see Business Spotlight plusplus

EXERCISERewrite these sentences in the passive voice.

a) Someone showed us how to control the machine.

b) You must sign the application form in blue ink.

c) Many people predict that sales will drop in the next quarter.

d) We check all our products for quality.

■BSI





The reception area

Sheila: We’ve got some time before the meeting, Dieter.Have you had a chance to look round our new building?

Dieter: No, I haven’t. That would be interesting.Sheila: Well, as you can see here from the reception, the of-

fices are all around a large atrium on four floors.Dieter: It’s very modern — all glass and open-plan offices.Sheila: And it uses natural light, too. You can see some of

our people with customers in that room to the left of themain entrance.

Dieter: What else is on the ground floor?Sheila: The staff canteen. I’ll take you there at lunchtime.

And our sales and marketing departments are here, too.

The offices

Sheila: This is where I work. On this floor, you have threeopen-plan areas surrounded by smaller and larger meet-ing rooms. And each floor has a coffee area where we cantalk and relax a bit. Human resources and administrationare also on this floor.

Dieter: How many people are in each open-plan area?Sheila: Between 20 and 30.Dieter: I work in an office with just one other person. Isn’t

it noisy when you all sit together?Sheila: A little bit. But do you see those smaller rooms with

just a desk and a chair? You can go in there to make a tele-

■ LANGUAGE ENGLISH ON THE MOVE

canteen [kÄn(ti:n] a room in a factory or other workplace wherefood and drink is served

cashier [kÄ(SIE] someone who receives and gives money in a shop, bank, etc.

human resources (HR) the department in a company that employs[)hju:mEn ri(zO:sIz] and trains peopleID card: put money to put money onto a prepaid card that has youron one’s ~ name on it (ID card = identity card)open-plan office a large room where many people work at desksoperator [(QpEreItE] someone who uses and controls a machinepartition a thin dividing wallprivacy [(prIvEsi] the state of not being seen or heard by othersproduction line a line of machines and workers along which

the parts of a product are maderaw material substances or things before they are used[)rO: mE(tIEriEl] in the production of somethingshift coordinator someone who organizes the people and activi- [(SIft kEU)O:dIneItE] ties during different periods of workstore sth. [stO:] to keep something in a place for later use

medium

You have to show some important visitors around your workplace.KEN TAYLOR presents the vocabulary you will need.

Sto

ckby

te

KEN TAYLOR is the director of Taylor ConsultancyLtd., an international communication consultancyin London, and the author of 50 Ways to ImproveYour Business English (Summertown). Contact:[email protected]

GIVING A TOUR

phone call or if you just need a quiet space for thinking.Let me show you my workspace and introduce you to someof my colleagues.

Dieter: Great!Sheila: As you can see, there are some partitions, so I do

have a bit of privacy. But I can also easily talk to my col-leagues when I need to. Not everyone likes the open-planlayout, but I do. It seems you either love it or hate it!

Dieter: I’d probably hate it!

The production area

Dieter: So, this is your production area.Sheila: Yes. We have just three small production lines here.

All three are fully automated and centrally controlled. Doyou see those glass windows high up on the back wallthere? That’s where the shift coordinator sits with a cou-ple of engineers.

Dieter: Who are these other people on the production floor?Sheila: Some are operators, and some are quality-control

people who stand at the end of each line.Dieter: What’s through those swing doors there?Sheila: That’s where the raw materials are stored and trans-

ported to the production lines.Dieter: It’s all very well organized.Sheila: Yes. We’re very proud of the quality of our products

and also of the production process.

The canteen

Sheila: Are you hungry? Dieter: Actually, yes!Sheila: Our canteen is as well organized as our production

line! We’ve got a catering company, and they are verygood.

Dieter: There seem to be several choices.Sheila: Yes. You have several serving areas, for hot or cold

meals. And you also have a large self-service salad buffetwith all sorts of things.

Dieter: We have something similar. I can pick what I wantand then pay the cashier.

Sheila: Is your payment system similar, too? We can putmoney on our ID cards.

Dieter: Yes, we have the same system.Sheila: The food’s good, too — including vegetarian meals.Dieter: Sounds great.Sheila: So, let’s eat! ■BSI



Grammar

Definition Definition

Word choice Word choice

Business talk Business talk

www.business-spotlight.com www.business-spotlight.com

www.business-spotlight.comwww.business-spotlight.com


www.business-spotlight.com www.business-spotlight.com


Grammar

“See” or “seeing”?

“I’m looking forward to ______________ you on Tuesday.”

“Too” or “either”?

a) “I’m not sure about that, ________.”b) “I, ________, am not sure about that.”

What does this expression mean?

“I’d like to take out a loan.”

What does this expression mean?

“I’m sorry, but this seat is taken.”

Which word is correct?

“Good point. I’ll make/take a note of it.”

Which word is correct?

“Did you make/takenotes during his speech?”

What does the speaker mean?

“I haven’t got time for the whole story. Could you give me an executive summary, please?”

What does the speaker mean?

“We have to close all tax loopholes.”

CARDS LANGUAGE ■Create cards by printing these two pages on the front and back of one piece of paper.

by KATHRIN ENKE









“I’m looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday.”

“Look forward to” is followed by an -ing form or by a noun object (“I’m looking forward to your

visit on Tuesday”).

a) “I’m not sure about that, either.” b) “I, too, am not sure about that.”

This is a question of word order. If the word fallswithin the scope of negation (in other words,

comes after “not”), either is used; if it’s outside(before) the negative element, too is correct.

To take out a loan is to borrow a sum of moneyfrom a bank.

If a seat is taken, it has been reserved forsomeone.

“Did you take notes during his speech?”

When you write down things as someone istalking, you take notes.

“Good point. I’ll make a note of it.”

If you make a note of something,you make sure to remember it for next time.

A loophole is an exception that permits you to getout of a duty or a contractual obligation. The

speaker is saying that no one should be able toavoid paying their fair share of taxes.

An executive summary is a shortened version ofa report, containing its most important points,

for top managers who don’t have enough time toread the whole thing. The speaker is probably

saying, in an ironic way, that the other person istalking too much.

BSI 2/2012BSI 2/2012

BSI 2/2012 BSI 2/2012

BSI 2/2012BSI 2/2012

BSI 2/2012 BSI 2/2012

■ LANGUAGE CARDS


Glitches and other disastersMalcolm: Jeff, any idea when our server will be up and work-

ing again? I’m feeling purely decorative right now.Jeff: Uh, sorry, Malcolm, there’s been a little glitch. But it

shouldn’t take more than another hour or so.Malcolm: You know, Jeff, I don’t like the word “glitch”. Not

at all.Elaine: Did someone say “glitch”? Please tell me I heard

that wrong.Malcolm: No, you didn’t, I’m afraid, Elaine. I think I’m go-

ing to ban that word from now on. The last little glitch costus two whole days.

Elaine: You do know that, if we don’t finishthe big proposal for Arco today, we’ll losethe contract?

Jeff: I know. I know. But perhaps I could worka bit faster if you two took your panic else-where...

Malcolm: OK, fair enough. Elaine and I willbe in the kitchen — sharpening our knives.

Jeff: Good to know.Malcolm: Let’s leave him to it. Elaine, is

everything ready so that we can at least getthe proposal out as soon as the server is up again?

Elaine: Yes — I’ve put fresh paper in both printers, got theartwork organized and labelled, got the envelopes ready,and made sure the courier is on standby.

Malcolm: Well, then, we’re all set — except for that tiny lit-tle G-word.

Elaine: Perhaps we could use this opportunity to talk aboutthe, er, the W-word.

Malcolm: The W-word. Work? Wireless?

Elaine: Close, but I meant “wedding”.Malcolm: Oh, that! I still can’t believe Pat’s going through

with it.Elaine: Well, if she does, we’ve got one week to get her a

present.Malcolm: Whatever it is, let’s make sure it’s returnable. As

a conservative investor, I’d much rather put my money inGreek bonds.

Elaine: You know, Malcolm, I agree, but we should reallymake an effort to see the good in that relationship, evenif it is a bit heavy on the drama. Pat deserves our goodwishes and support.

Malcolm: You’re right. I should stop thinkingthat she doesn’t know what she’s doing. So,what should we get her?Sandra: Oh! There you are. You’re not talk-ing about Pat’s wedding, are you?Malcolm: What else could we be talkingabout on such an unproductive day?Sandra: Any news on the server?Malcolm: Well, Jeff is working on it. But I mustwarn you: the word “glitch” was mentioned.Sandra: Oh, dear. Are we going to make ourArco deadline?

Malcolm: Well, if we don’t, Jeff will be in deep trouble.Sandra: Poor Jeff. The last thing he needs is more stress.Elaine: What do you mean?Sandra: From what I’ve heard, he tried to talk Pat out of the

wedding, and it didn’t go well. Malcolm: My goodness! That certainly took courage!Sandra: So now he’s lost his best friend and he’s in deep trou-

ble at work. Things don’t get much glitchier than that!

THE MAINE EVENTThe team at the London event agency is having problems withthe computer server — and a few other things. By KATHRIN ENKE

THE TEAM:Malcolm Maine (A), the boss, English, 56.Sandra Pope (B), event manager, American, 39.Elaine Stevens (C), customer relations manager, English, 52.Jeff Bennett (D), systems administrator, American, 41.Rodrigo Perez (E), graphic designer, Spanish, 40.

OFFICE TALK LANGUAGE ■medium

“I could

work faster

if you took

your panic

elsewhere”

A

BC

D E

ban sth. to say that something is not allowedbond an official document that promises to pay

back a loan, plus a fixed rate of interest,at a specific time

contract [(kQntrÄkt] a written agreement between two partiesstating what each must do

deadline: make a ~ to finish a job by a specified timeglitch [glItS] a small technical problemgo through with sth. to do something as plannedlabel sth. [(leIb&l] to write information on sth.returnable [ri(t§:nEb&l] able to be taken back to a shopstandby: be on ~ ready to do something as soon as it [(stÄndbaI] becomes necessary

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Elaine says: “You do know that ... we’ll lose thecontract?” This is an example of the auxiliary verb“do” being used purely for emphasis. Elaine ismaking sure that Jeff knows there will be seriousconsequences if the computer problems continue.

Sandra says that Jeff tried to “talk Pat out of thewedding”. This means that he wanted to make Patbelieve it would be better not to get married. Youcan also “talk someone into doing something”.

■BSI


Roddy looked at the silver object in his hand. It was heavyand powerful. He hoped that he could do this quicklyand that he would feel nothing. He looked for one last

time at his familiar reflection in the mirror and lifted the ob-ject to his head, hand shaking… then put it down again,breathing fast.

But he knew he had to do it. He, Roddy Baldwin, junior librarian from the British Library in London, had been sentto work in the Department of European Library Institutions(“DELI”, for short) in Brussels. What he needed now was towin a competition against his colleagues from the other na-tional libraries of the European Union. Again, he raised theelectric hair clippers to his head and, this time, began toshave off his hair.

The competition had started a month earlier, when the headof the department, Mr van Groop, informed them that the Eu-ropean Commission wanted to make a film about DELI’s work.The film team would focus on one person in the departmentand follow him or her around for a week.

“What kind of person are they looking for, Mr van Groop?”asked Roddy.

“Oh, somebody to make libraries look exciting and fun, Ibelieve. I’ll make a recommendation to them next monthwhen they visit,” he replied before continuing the meeting.

During the coffee break, they all laughed at the idea.

“Fun?” said Florian, an authority on medieval manuscriptsfrom the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. “There are more seriousthings to focus on in Europe today, no?” Everybody agreed —then they all went home and began plotting how to win thiscompetition.

Björn, a document-storage expert from the National Libraryof Sweden in Stockholm, used a scientific method. He spenta weekend analysing videos produced by the Commission andmade a list of the most frequent character types. On Monday,it was clear that something awful had happened to him. Hiscool Scandinavian suits, open-necked white shirts and quietintellectual personality had been replaced by somethingmuch more colourful. That evening, Roddy took him to a near-by pub for a drink.

“Well, yes, thank you kindly,” Björn said, slapping him onthe back. “I don’t mind if I do. I’ll have a pint of Guinness,that I will!” As they stood at the bar waiting for their drinks,Björn loosened his emerald-green tie, which was covered inlittle gold harps. “Sure, Roddy, and it’s a fine man you are,”Björn continued when the drinks arrived. He looked aroundand said in a cheerful voice: “Do you think we might have asing-song in here later?”

“Björn,” said Roddy, “you don’t like Guinness, you neversing and you are wearing a truly ugly tie. Why are you pre-tending to be Irish? You aren’t even any good at it!”


■ LANGUAGE SHORT STORY

VIDEO GAMES

Looking tough:but sometimesyou can’tjudge a bookby its cover

Libraries can be exciting and fun! Atleast, this is the new image a film teamis trying to create. But who is the bestperson to play the starring role? ByJAMES SCHOFIELD

Dig

ital V

isio

n



medium

bald head [)bO:ld (hed] a head with little or no hair on itconsultant [kEn(sVltEnt] someone who gives expert advice on a

particular subject cute [kju:t] attractive, often in a sexual waydocument storage the job of keeping documents in a [(dQkjumEnt )stO:rIdZ] special place where they can be found

again when neededemerald green [(em&rEld] bright greengo pink to become red in the facehair clippers a tool for cutting your hairharp a large triangular musical instrument

with many strings stretched over a frameI don’t mind if I do (expression) used to say that you accept[)aI dEUnt )maInd If aI (du:] something you have been offeredjunior librarian someone who works in a place where[)dZu:niE laI(breEriEn] people can borrow books and who does

not have a lot of responsibility in this jobmedieval [)medi(i:v&l] relating to the period in Europe roughly

between the years 1000 and 1500open-necked [)EUpEn (nekt] with the top button not closedplot sth. to make a secret planrover [(rEUvE] someone who travels around without a

purposeslap sb. on the back to hit someone on the back in a

friendly waytie [taI] a long, narrow piece of material that

men wear around the neck, over a shirttough [tVf] physically and emotionally strong

JAMES SCHOFIELD teaches business English atSiemens. He is co-author of the Double Dealing se-ries and has published several business short stories.His most recent one is Double Trouble (Summertown).Contact: [email protected]

Björn looked around to see if anybody was listening. “I’vedone my homework,” he whispered. “The Irish have totalcontrol of the European Commission — 78 per cent of allpeople interviewed in the 289 videos I watched are Irish! So,my chances of being the star of this video are statisticallymuch better if I act Irish, too. Slainte!”

Roddy shook his head sadly, drank his beer and wenthome. As he left, Björn was singing “The Wild Rover”.

And so it continued: Florian grew a little consultant’s beardunder his bottom lip and invested in a smartphone; Petra,from the National Library in Helsinki, began wearing make-up, contact lenses and shorter skirts; only Roddy couldn’tfind a new image — until one evening at the cinema, whenhe saw Bruce Willis.

Yes! he thought. That should be the new look for librari-ans! Tough, sexy and definitely exciting. The next morning,Roddy shaved off his hair.

He arrived slightly late for the ten o’clock departmentmeeting, and the people from the film company had gone outto get coffee. His colleagues were already sitting in the meet-ing room. Roddy’s bald head caused a sensation. And to hissurprise, they suddenly all seemed to believe he would winthe video role.

“Wow!” said Florian. “We don’t have a chance!” “Yeah!” added Björn, as he took off his green tie. “No

chance!”“The Bruce Willis look — brilliant! He’s...,” started Petra. “Well, well!” said Mr van Groop as he entered the room,

followed by two strangers, a man and a woman. “This is whyyou are called Roddy BALDwin, yes?”

Everybody laughed politely. “But please,” continued Mr van Groop. “My guests,” he

waved his hand at the people who were clearly from the filmcompany “are here to select our star, and so we...”

Competition refers to an activity in which peo-ple try to win a prize, or be in first place. Thisis also called a “contest”, and the people whotake part are “contestants”. In business,“competition” generally refers to rivalry in aparticular market: “Flat-screen producershave strong competition from Korea.” Rivalsare called “competitors”: “We introducedvoice technology before our competitors did.”(See Executive Eye, page 63.)

A sing-song (UK ) is an informal gathering inwhich people sing traditional or popular songsfor fun.

Slainte! [(slA:ntS] is what people in Irelandand Scotland say when they raise their glassto drink. “Slainte” means “health”. The Eng-lish expression is “Cheers!”.

The guests had been whispering to each other, but then thewoman leaned forward, looked at Roddy and said:

“You. You’ve got just the right look for the central charac-ter. Even your name’s great.”

Roddy went pink with pleasure. They were talking abouthim — tough, sexy and exciting!

“Thank you,” said Roddy. “That’s wonderful. But I’d liketo suggest another name for my character in the video.”

“Let’s hear it.”“Well, what about Bruce?”“Like Bruce Willis!” began Petra again. “He’s so…” “Bruce...,” the woman said slowly. “Bruce. Yes, that

could work. Bruce the Bookworm!”There was a moment’s silence. Florian, Björn and Petra

seemed to stop breathing. “Bruce the... the... who?” asked Roddy quietly. “Bruce the Bookworm,” she answered. “I was telling your

colleagues just before you arrived. This video is for children,so we need somebody fun and friendly. We have this brightred worm costume made out of latex — and with your wholehead painted red, I think you’re going to look really...”

“Cute,” said Petra. “Just like Bruce Willis.”

“The new look for

librarians should be tough,

sexy and exciting”

Lan

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■BSI



Is there ever an ideal time to start a business? Surprisingly,a recession can provide excellent opportunities to launch a

new company. It’s a time when many existing firms are goingout of business, money lenders are seeking entrepreneurswith ambitions and strong qualifications, and governmentsmay be offering generous financial support in an effort to getthe economy moving again. One key tip for a successfulstart-up is to get in while the going is good.

Of course, starting a business requires a certain way ofthinking. Only those with energy and confidence, a desire totry something new and the ability to stick with it are likelyto succeed. A large percentage of new businesses do fail,but the statistics are not as discouraging as they may seem.

According to the US government’s Small BusinessAdministration (SBA), seven out of ten new companies existat least two years and 51 per cent at least five years.

Having a good idea for a product or service is the essen-tial first step, but it is important to learn as much as possi-ble about your potential market. Will there be enoughdemand for the product, and who might also be sellingsomething similar? Has someone else had the same ideaalready? Talking with potential customers and gatheringfacts and statistics online will provide the needed informa-tion and help in developing a marketing strategy.

This information will be included in the business plan, adetailed description of business goals that also includesfinancial details, such as cash-flow analysis and an esti -mated break-even point. A good business plan is essential inthe process of getting money to finance the idea, whetheryou are trying to borrow money from the bank, are hoping toattract venture capital (VC) or are pitching the idea to a so-called business angel. Once financing has been acquired,the chances of a start-up succeeding can be improved byusing the services of a business incubator — a support pro-gramme that can shorten the time it takes to get the com-pany’s products or services to market.

However, entrepreneurs should always know what theiralternatives are and have an exit strategy ready. It’s notenough to create a business worth a fortune — there shouldalso be a means of getting the money back out again if thesituation changes. The commonest way of doing this is tosell the business to someone else. One key tip here is: getout while you’re ahead!

START-UPS The first step to a successful business is a good idea.But what else do you need to start a new business? TOM SMITH has some answers.


■ LANGUAGE ENGLISH FOR...

QUIZ: Business basicsChoose the correct answer for each question.

a) Which is the best country to do business in? 1. New Zealand 2. US 3. Singapore

b) Sir James Dyson is famous for vacuum cleaners. Whatwas his first invention? A new type of... 1. clock radio 2. wheelbarrow 3. aquarium

c) What percentage of new businesses in the US have noemployees? 1. 25 2. 50 3. 75

d) In which BBC TV show do entrepreneurs pitch theirideas to investors? 1. Money Tigers 2. Shark Tank 3. Dragon’s Den

e) What gives you exclusive legal rights to published orrecorded material? 1. patent 2. copyright 3. licence

break-even point the stage in business when income equals[)breIk (i:v&n pOInt] costsbusiness incubator a company that helps people to start[(bIznEs )INkjubeItE] a businessentrepreneur someone who starts or runs a business, espe-[)QntrEprE(n§:] cially one that involves taking financial risksexit strategy a plan for ending your involvement in a[(eksIt )strÄtEdZi] businessget in while the going to start doing something while the opportunityis good lastsget out while you’re to end your involvement in something at the ahead right time (while you are still successful)launch sth. [lO:ntS] to start sth., such as a business or projectpitch sth. [pItS] to try to sell sth. by saying how good it isstart-up [(stA:t Vp] a new businessventure capital (VC) money invested in a new type of business[(ventSE )kÄpIt&l] that is considered to be very risky

Answers on page 83

Entrepreneurs wanted

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land

TOM SMITH is a language consultant and businessEnglish materials writer living in southern Germany.He is co-author of Business Proficiency (Klett).Contact: www.executive-english.biz

http://www.executive-english.biz



Strategy and growthacquisition [)ÄkwI(zIS&n] the buying or obtaining of a companybusiness plan a written document that states a com-

pany’s goals and how to reach themcompetitive advantage something that helps a company to be [kEm)petEtIv Ed(vA:ntIdZ] more successful than othersexit plan/strategy a plan for ending your involvement in a[(eksIt )plÄn/)strÄtEdZi] businessfeasibility study a detailed examination of a new project[fi:zE(bIlEti )stVdi] to decide if it is likely to be successfulgoing concern a business that is expected to continue [)gEUIN kEn(s§:n] to make a profitpatent application a formal request for the legal rights to[(peItEnt ÄplI)keIS&n] sth. that has never been made beforepitch (sth.) to try to sell something by saying how

good it is plough back profits to reinvest the money you have earned[)plaU bÄk (prQfIts]product life cycle (in marketing) the four stages of the [)prQdVkt (laIf )saIk&l] typical sales process of a product:

introduction, growth, maturity, declinerisk analysis the process of identifying risks and [(rIsk E)nÄlEsIs] developing ways of dealing with themstart-up [(stA:t Vp] a new business

Financing assets [(Äsets] everything of value that a person or

company ownsbreak-even point the stage in business when income[)breIk (i:v&n pOInt] equals costsbudget projection a statement or calculation of how [(bVdZIt prE)dZekS&n] much money you will need and have

available in the futurecapital injection an investment made when a company[(kÄpIt&l In)dZekS&n] is in urgent need of extra cashcash flow [(kÄS flEU] the movement of money into and out

of a businesscollateral [kE(lÄt&rEl] sth. of value that you promise to give a

creditor if you cannot pay back moneyyou have borrowed

debt [det] money that is owedequity [(ekwEti] the money a company gets by selling

sharesexpenditure [Ik(spendItSE] the amount of money spentfunding [(fVndIN] money provided for a particular pur-

poseliabilities [)laIE(bIlEtiz] the amount of money a company or

person owesoverdraft facility an agreement with your bank that [(EUvEdrA:ft fE)sIlEti] allows you to spend money when you

have no money in your accountraise capital to collect money that you need to start[)reIz (kÄpIt&l] or run a businesssavings [seIvINz] money that you have saved, not spentseed capital/funding money invested at the start of a project[(si:d )kÄpIt&l/)fVndIN] or companyventure capital (VC) money invested in a new type of busi-[(ventSE )kÄpIt&l] ness that is considered to be very riskyworking capital money that is needed for the day-to-[(w§:kIN )kÄpIt&l] day operations of a business

Marketing and salesdemand for sth. the need or desire for a product or [di(mA:nd fO:] servicegap in the market an area of business in which few or no[)gÄp In DE (mA:kIt] companies operate but where profits

can be madeniche market a specialized area of industry that sells[(ni:S )mA:kIt] a particular product or service wanted

by a small number of peopletarget market the people to whom a company is [(tA:gIt )mA:kIt] trying to sell its products or services

unique selling proposition a feature of a product or service that(USP) [ju)ni:k (selIN makes it different from all othersprQpE)zIS&n]


Company structurescooperative a business owned in equal parts by the[kEU(QpErEtIv] people who work for itflotation / initial public the process of offering a company’s offering (IPO) shares for sale for the first timego public (of a private company) to offer shares

to the public for the first timeincorporated (Inc.) US an official company with legal statuslimited company (Ltd) a company whose owners are responsi-[)lImItId (kVmpEni] UK ble for paying only a limited amount of

the company’s debtpartnership a business owned by a group of profes-

sional people who work togetherself-employment the state of working for yourself and [)self Im(plOImEnt] not for an employersleeping partner someone who has invested money in a

company and shares in its profits butdoes not work in the company

small and medium-sized businesses that do not have more enterprises (SMEs) than 500 employees, often family-runsole trader [)sEUl (treIdE] a person who owns a business and is

the only person who is legally responsi-ble for it

The vocabulary list below is in British English unless otherwise marked.

BOOKS■ The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up 2012, Sara

Williams (Financial Times / Prentice Hall)■ Oxford Dictionary of Business and Management, Jonathan

Law (ed.) (Oxford University Press)■ Starting Your Own Online Business, Kim Benjamin (Crimson

Publishing)

WEBSITES■ Business Link: www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home■ startups: www.startups.co.uk■ The US Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov

medium

Peoplebusiness angel a private person who invests money in[(bIznEs )eIndZ&l] a new businessconsultant [kEn(sVltEnt] someone who gives expert advice on a

particular subject creditor [(kredItE] a person, bank or company to whom

money is owedentrepreneur someone who starts or runs a business,[)QntrEprE(n§:] especially one that involves taking

financial risksloan shark [(lEUn SA:k] someone who lends money, but charges

high interest rates, often illegally serial entrepreneur someone who starts one business after[)sIEriEl )QntrEprE(n§:] anothertax adviser a financial expert who gives others [(tÄks Ed)vaIzE] formal advice on tax matters

Find exercises on this topic in Business Spotlight plusplus

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home

http://www.startups.co.uk

http://www.sba.gov




■ LANGUAGE FINANCIAL ENGLISH

There are all kinds of taxes for all kinds of products and services. The individual tax rates differ, too. IAN MCMASTER

presents an overview.

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TAXES ON GOODS AND SERVICES

IAN MCMASTER is the editor-in-chief of BusinessSpotlight. You can read his blog on topics relating toglobal business at www.business-spotlight.com/blogsContact: [email protected]

Taxes on goods and services go back at least 4,000 yearsto the taxes on specific commodities, such as cooking

oil, in Egypt. Today, these taxes take many forms. Customsduties, or tariffs, are taxes on the import (or export) of prod-ucts. Excise duties, on the other hand, are typically fixedamounts that are levied on the production or distribution ofcertain goods. Typical excise duties are those on tobacco andalcohol (“sin taxes”), but they have also been levied, for ex-ample, on salt and even windows.

In addition to specific taxes, there are also general taxeson products. The most common one is value added tax (VAT),used in almost every developed country except the US. Insome countries, such as Canada and Australia, it is knownas Goods and Services Tax (GST).

VAT is levied as a percentage rate. Most countries have astandard rate and a lower rate for certain products, such asspecific foods or drinks, books or certain products relatingto children. Many eurozone countries, including Italy, Greeceand Ireland, have increased their standard rates of VAT toreduce their budget deficits.

VAT is levied at each stage of the production process, in-cluding the sale to the final consumer. Each firm has to remit to the government the VAT that it charges on its prod-ucts, minus the VAT it has paid on its business purchases.The net amount of VAT remitted therefore represents a taxon the value that the firm has added.

Imagine, for example, that the standard rate of VAT is 20per cent. If a car manufacturer buys components that havea net price of £5,000, it will have to pay £1,000 in VAT ontop, making a gross price of £6,000. If these componentsare used to build a car that has a net price of £20,000, the

manufacturer will add VAT of 20 per cent (£4,000), mak-ing a final selling price of £24,000.

The car manufacturer doesn’t, however, have to remit tothe government the full £4,000 that it receives in VAT: itdeducts the £1,000 of VAT that it paid on the components.The firm therefore remits £3,000 in VAT, which is 20 percent of the value added (£15,000) by the manufacturer (thedifference between the £20,000 net price of the car and the£5,000 net price of the components).

In the US, there is a different type of tax on goods andservices, called a sales tax. This is not a federal tax but islevied separately by most of the 50 states, as well as by cer-tain counties and cities. The main difference between thissales tax and VAT is that the sales taxes are levied only onthe sale to the final consumer (or business), not at eachstage of the production process. But firms can apply for exemptions if they are reselling the products they purchase.

Taxes on products make them more expensive, which typ-ically leads to a decrease in the amount bought. Indeed, theidea behind specific product taxes is often not just to raisemoney but also to change consumers’ behaviour — for ex-ample, to discourage them from smoking and drinking.

commodity [kE(mQdEti] a product or raw material that can bebought and sold

component [kEm(pEUnEnt] one of several parts needed to make sth.county an area within a state that has its own

government to deal with local matterscustoms duty a tax that must be paid to the government[(kVstEmz )dju:ti] when bringing goods into a countrydeduct (a sum of money) to take away an amount from a total[di(dVkt]distribution the activity of making products available [)dIstrI(bju:S&n] to customersexcise duty a tax on certain goods produced or sold [(eksaIz )dju:ti] within a countryexemption [Ig(zempS&n] permission not to pay something that you

would normally have to paygross [grEUs] before any taxes or costs are taken awaylevy a tax on sth. [)levi] to officially collect a tax on somethingnet remaining after any taxes or costs have

been taken awayremit (a sum of money) to send a payment[ri(mIt]sales tax a tax that you have to pay in addition to

the cost of something you buy sin tax a tax on goods considered bad or harmfultariff [(tÄrIf] a tax that must be paid on goods coming

into or going out of a countryvalued added tax (VAT) a general tax on goods and services

Taxes on specific

products go back at

least 4,000 years

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The passive voice is often used when people want to de-scribe processes and procedures at work. For a more de-

tailed discussion of the passive, see the Grammar sectionon page 71. Here, we look at some authentic examples ofthe passive voice being used.

1. Procedures: the “be”-passive In this dialogue, Ann is training a new employee, Meg, andexplaining how to handle invoices and other documentation.The “be”-passive is used in a number of cases here becauseit is the procedure that is important, not who does it:

Meg: I wanna ask you about things I wasn’t sure about sort-ing — bills of lading?

Ann: That comes with every order and it can be thrownaway.

Meg: OK.Ann: I don’t know if I explained this already or not, but the

stuff that’s already been paid COD, which is indicat-ed by that little green stub, is not that high of a pri-ority to code and enter until around the end of themonth, and if something has to be put off...

Meg: ...and we leave it for last.Ann: That’s why GM and West Farm and Tree of Life, and

some other miscellaneous pay things, are always at theback of the pile.

Meg: OK.Ann: Because they’ve already been paid.Meg: OK. Ann: That’s the most important thing.Meg: Right. So, the priority is... the things that still need to

be paid.

The passive voice is often used to explain how things are done.But that’s not all. If you want to be more diplomatic, choosethe passive, too. ALMUT KÖSTER presents authentic examples.

AUTHENTIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE ■

bill of lading [)bIl Ev (leIdIN] a list of goods sent somewhereCOD (cash on delivery) a system in which you pay for goods as[)si: EU (di:] soon as you receive themcome across sth. to find something by chanceemphasize sth. [(emfEsaIz] to give special importance to somethingenter sth. to write sth. in a book or computereventually [I(ventSuEli] at some time, in the endhang on to sth. to keep somethinginvoice [(InvOIs] a document stating how much you have

to pay for somethingmiscellaneous (of a group of things) of various types [)mIsE(leIniEs] and from various, unconnected sourcesprocedure [prEU(si:dZE] a way of doing somethingput sth. off to do something at a later timerevert to sth. to start doing something again that [ri(v§:t tu] you did in the pastrun the wheels here: to let a machine do its workstock size the standard sizestub [stVb] the part of a piece of paper that you keep

to show you have paid for something

ALMUT KÖSTER is a senior lecturer in English at theUniversity of Birmingham and author of InvestigatingWorkplace Discourse (Routledge) and Workplace Dis-course (Continuum International).

USING THE PASSIVE

2. The “get-passive” and “have something done”Sometimes, we form the passive with “get” instead of “be”.This is more informal and used mainly in spoken language.Ann uses this variant when Meg shows her a document:

Ann: That’s for the Save the Earth stuff. It will eventuallyprobably get thrown away, but if you haven’t comeacross a packing list for Save the Earth products, hangon to it.

Another construction is “to have something done”. This isoften used to talk about getting a supplier to do a job for you:■ I had some envelopes made by J.G. Mark’s the other day,

and it took a couple of weeks.

3. Explaining your services If we want to emphasize who is doing something, we oftenprefer to use the active voice. In the next example, Ian, arepresentative from a paper supplier, uses “we” and an ac-tive verb to describe a production procedure. He wants toemphasize the services that his company provides:

Ian: So, what we’re doing is... we run the wheels until we’vegot enough paper made for you. And then we make, youknow, a few hundred sheets extra, and then we just revert to stock sizes.

4. Being diplomaticThe passive is also commonly used when people want to bediplomatic and avoid blaming someone directly:

Maria: How come that wasn’t done much sooner?

Maria uses the passive (“How come that wasn’t done...?”)because the active would have sounded more aggressive(“How come you didn’t do that much sooner?”).

medium

Describing aprocedure:the passivecan help you

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For related exercises, see Business Spotlight plusplus

■BSI




Many legal disputes can be settled through an out-of-court settlement between the parties. If the disputing

parties are unable to reach agreement, they have several op-tions. The traditional choice is litigation, but various formsof alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are also available.

Litigation refers to taking action in court against someoneusing the judicial process. In the UK, most of the work thattakes place before a trial is done by a solicitor. Indeed, mostcases are also settled by solicitors. Should the case go tocourt, clients will be represented by barristers before thecourt. The role of the solicitor during a trial is usually limit-ed to giving the barrister instructions on what to present inthe client’s case. In the US, attorneys (also called “lawyers”)can take the case from its initial stages all the way throughthe trial, including representing the client before the court.

Commercial disputes are often resolved by arbitration.This process involves referring the dispute to a neutral per-son chosen by the disputing parties. Before they begin, theparties must agree to accept the result of arbitration. Theywill have the opportunity to present their cases, and the arbitrator then decides the case.

Another form of alternative dispute resolution is media-tion. This also involves an attempt to settle a dispute with

Not every dispute has to end up in the courts in front of ajudge. MATT FIRTH suggests some alternatives.

2/2012

■ LANGUAGE LEGAL ENGLISH

MATT FIRTH teaches legal English at the Universityof St Gallen, Switzerland. He is also secretary of the European Legal English Teachers’ Association(EULETA). Contact: [email protected]

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EXERCISE: Finding a solutionChoose the words that best complete the text.

a) Arbitration / Litigation / Mediation is the process oftaking a case to a court of law for an official decision.Most cases are actually b) proceeded / reached / settledout of court. Where this isn’t possible, disputing partiesmay avoid the c) optional / judicial / intellectual processby using alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Usually,d) dispute / clauses / mediation in matters such as di-vorce is quicker, cheaper and less stressful than litiga-tion. e) Arbitration / Litigation / Mediation is particular-ly suited to commercial disputes, where any decisiontaken by a court is f) neutral / involved / binding.

alternative dispute resolution (ADR) ways of settling a problem out[O:l)t§:nEtIv dI(spju:t rezE)lu:S&n] of courtarbitration [)A:bI(treIS&n] an official process of trying to

settle an argument with the helpof someone who is not involved

attorney [E(t§:ni] US a lawyerbarrister [(bÄrIstE] UK a lawyer with the right to argue

cases in higher courts of law confidential [)kQnfI(denS&l] intended to be kept secretlegal dispute [(li:g&l dI)spju:t] a serious disagreement about a

legal right or dutylitigation [)lItI(geIS&n] the process of taking a legal dis-

pute to a court of lawmediation [)mi:di(eIS&n] the activity of trying to end a

disagreement between people,groups or countries

model clause [)mQd&l (klO:s] part of a written legal documentthat can be copied for use byothers

settle sth. [(set&l] to end a disagreementsolicitor [sE(lIsItE] UK a lawyer who gives legal advice

to peopletrial [(traIEl] a legal process in a court of law

the help of a neutral third party. The purpose of mediationis to make discussion between the parties possible, with the aim of helping them to find a solution acceptable toeveryone. One advantage of mediation is that all parties areactively involved in the decision-making process. But in con-trast to arbitration, the results are usually not binding.

The process of mediation is also confidential, unlike liti-gation (the details of which are often reported by the me-dia). Mediation is generally favoured for disputes betweenneighbours or families and disagreements between coun-tries, as well as for certain commercial disputes.

Arbitration in business

As litigation takes time, is expensive and can lead toa breakdown in business relationships, disputes over

international commercial contracts are often settled us-ing arbitration. This takes place according to the rulesof international institutions and rule-making organiza-tions, such as the International Chamber of Commerce(ICC). The ICC has published a set of model clauses forparties to include in their contracts. These clauses statethe type of disputes to be settled under the ICC rulesrather than through litigation, as well as the methods forchoosing arbitrators, the place at which arbitration willtake place and the rules under which arbitration will beheard. Other organizations also offer alternative disputeresolution for specific industries or fields.

Answers on page 83

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

A fair fight: oneway to settlelegal disputes

■BSI



83Business Spotlight4/20052/2012

WHAT’S NEW LANGUAGE ■medium

CEF [)si: i: (ef] Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

executive [Ig(zekjUtIv] a person with a high position in a com-pany

illuminating making things clearer and easier to[I(lu:mIneItIN] understandin-depth [)In (depT] very detailedinvisible [In(vIzEb&l] impossible to be seenlab (laboratory) a place used for scientific experimentsoffshore platform a structure built above the sea, used by

people who are working to get oil or gaspunctuation marks such as commas, full stops, etc., [)pVNktSu(eIS&n] used between words in written textsresearch [ri(s§:tS] the study of something in order to dis-

cover new information about itspelling writing or naming the letters of a word

in the right ordervocational education training for a particular occupation, [vEU)keIS&nEl )edju(keIS&n] profession or skill

Vocabulary (page 70): a) jewel(l)erb) jewel(le)ryc) ringsd) diamonde) necklacef) ear studs, earringsg) chainh) locketi) braceletsj) cufflinks

k) clipsl) ruby m) sapphire n) (wrist)watch o) watch strap (watchband)

Grammar (page 71):a) We were shown how to con-

trol the machine.b) The application form must be

signed in blue ink.

c) Sales are predicted to dropin the next quarter.

d) All our products are checkedfor quality.

English for... start-ups (pages 78–79):a–3 (Source: Word Bank’s “DoingBusiness 2011” report)b–2 c–3

d–3e–2

Legal English(page 82):a) Litigationb) settledc) judiciald) mediatione) Arbitrationf) binding

SOLUTIONS

BOOKS

The Joy of EnglishIs it “full time” or “full-time”, andwhen do you use “compare with” andwhen “compare to”? This book isaimed at anyone who has to write inEnglish for business or simply wants to know what’s rightand wrong in English. These “100 illuminating conver-sations about the English language” deal with grammar,spelling, punctuation, word order, common errors andthe differences between British and American English.Jesse Karjalainen (How To Books)

India InsideGlobalization means that Western govern-ments and organizations increasingly need tolook East, in particular, to the growing abili-ty of Indian companies to innovate. The au-thors, both professors at London BusinessSchool, describe the “invisible innovation”that is already happening in India today. They

write about the problems and the future of Indian inno-vation, as well as opportunities for multinational compa-nies. Their writings are based on research and in-depthinterviews with executives of international companieswho work in India. Nirmalya Kumar, Phanish Puranam(Harvard Business Review Press)

BOOKS WITH AUDIO CDs

Cambridge English for ScientistsAre you studying for a career in sci-ence, or do you already work in scien-tific research? Subjects discussed inthis book include describing experi-ments, comparing and contrasting ex-perimental results, writing lab proto-cols, organizing and understanding re-search presentations, and preparing data for statisticalanalysis. On the CDs, you can hear realistic language formeetings and discussions with colleagues. Explanations ofcommon and specialized terms from scientific research areincluded in the glossary at the end of the book. TamzenArmer (Cambridge University Press)

Intelligent Business: Coursebook(Advanced Business English)This coursebook is written for learnerswho already know the basics of busi-ness English and who now want to in-tensify their language skills. The unitsexplain specialized vocabulary and id-iomatic usage, as well as provide skillssections focusing on advanced lan-guage and communication work. It includes authentic ma-terial from The Economist. Tonya Trappe, Graham Tullis(Pearson Longman)

www.business-spotlight.com 83

BOOK WITH CD-ROM

English for the Oil IndustryThis is another coursebook from thePearson Longman Vocational Englishseries for CEF levels A1–A2. It offersspecialist language for the oil businessand can be used in vocational educa-tion, as well as for training employees.Subjects include developments in theoil industry, equipment and tools, lifeand work on offshore platforms, and health and safety in-structions. Interactive glossaries in British and US Englishare provided on a CD-ROM. Evan Frendo with David Bonamy(Pearson Longman)


http://www.thejoyofenglish.com/

http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/product_detail.seam;jsessionid=37D918A835C6A4AA9E2DEA99DF121F7A?E=2312176&R=12801-HBK-ENG&conversationId=312355

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/vocationalenglish/oil_industry/index.html

http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521154093

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/intelligent_business/

Your feedbackWe hope you have enjoyed reading the first issueof Business Spotlight International. Whether youare a business English trainer, need English inyour job or are a student at university, we wouldbe interested in your comments. We look forwardto hearing from you.

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3/2012 PREVIEW ■

Language testPersonal appearance can be very important in busi-ness. For example, what do your clothes say aboutyou — and about your organization? With our speciallanguage test, you can discover how well you know thevocabulary relating to this key subject.

Doing business with SpainIn spite of its current economic problems, Spain is an importanttrading partner within Europe. And building personal relationshipsis key to doing business with the country. We provide you withtips in our next Intercultural Communication article.

Telephoning at workDespite the increasing use of email and other forms of electronic correspondence, it is essential to be ableto communicate well at work on the telephone. OurBusiness Skills article shows you what to do to improveyour fluency and effectiveness.

In the next issue

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In the next issue...

I N T H E N E X T I S S U E

BUSINESS SKILLSKey telephoning phrases

CULTURE CORNERA Spanish flavour

READING COMPREHENSIONUnderstanding legalese

Practise the language and skills you have learned in our magazine with our 20-page workbook

BusinessSpotlight International 3/2012 is on sale from 11 April 2012

BusinessSpotlightplusInternational





■ THE LAST LAUGH

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2011

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Selling shoes

A large US shoe company sends two sales representatives to an island that

has a primitive civilization. Their mission is to find new customers.

Some time later, the company receives messages from both salespeople.

The first message says: “No business here... the natives don’t wear shoes.”

The second message says: “Great opportunity here... none of the natives

have shoes!”

Whose mistake?

One day, an employee angrily shows

her payslip to her boss:

Employee: Sir, this amount is £100

less than my salary!

Boss: I know. But last month, you were

overpaid £100, and you didn’t com-

plain about it.

Employee: Well, I really don’t mind an

occasional mistake, but this seems to

be happening quite regularly now!

It’s not who you know, it’s

whom you know

Letting the

cat out of the

bag is a

lot easier

than putting it

back in

easy©

Ran

dy G

lasb

erge

n w

ww

.gla

sber

gen.

com

cubicle [(kju:bIk&l] a small enclosed areain a room, such as inan office

let the cat out of the bag to tell a secretlitigator [(lItIgeItE] a lawyer who takes a

claim to courtpayslip UK a piece of paper that

shows how much anemployee has beenpaid

room-mate US someone who shares aflat or house withothers

http://www.dilbert.com







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