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LEGO

How to survive in business

Intermediate Level:

• Listening: Lego – how to survive • Pronunciation: /l/ • Business Vocabulary: Synonyms • Reading: Lego history

• Grammar: Ability - Will be able to / Can / Could • Functional Language: Width, Length, Height, Depth, Weight • Cultural Awareness: Children in the Office • Role Play: Plan for survival

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INTRODUCTION: Discuss these questions: What do you know about Lego? Is the product still popular?

Business Vocabulary: Synonyms EXERCISE 1: Match the words on the left with their meaning on the right. You will hear them in the listening exercises.

1. Blame a. accuse

2. Loss-making b. slogan

3. Diversify c. fail

4. Deserve d. power

5. Fundamental e. assess

6. Evaluate f. justify

7. Worth g. core

8. Motto h. expand

9. Collapse i. unprofitable

10. Strength j. value

EXERCISE 2: Put the words above (1-10) into the gaps below. 11. The company’s is innovation.

12. You can’t the manager, he was on holiday.

13. Lego too much.

14. The sales team are good and a bonus.

15. Low investment is the cause of our problems.

16. Before making an offer we need to the company.

17. Is the company $100 million?

18. Lego’s is: ‘innovation and quality’.

19. If we don’t fix the problem the company will .

20. The girls’ toys are and we need to stop production.

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Do you know the meaning of these words? You will hear them in the listening: Profitability – bricks – carpenter – wood – blame - motto LISTENING 1:

A spokesman talks about Lego. Answer the questions below.

PRONUNCIATION: /l/

Practice saying these words and sentences with your tutor: Feel - meal - school - bottle - live - life - London - eleven - split - love - little - late -

flight - royal - traditional - full - lot - loss - light - leave - look - left – bill - clean - ill

• A small lion lay on a large island in a lovely lake in the Liberian lowlands

• Eleven local builders looked at the Lego bricks and laughed out loud

• His luggage is light but the professional lawyer’s limousine is late

• Left at the lights and the wheels will lead us to a delicious meal

1. What did the founder of Lego make in the beginning?

2. What does the word ‘Lego’ mean in English?

3. What were the sales figures in 2003?

4. Did Lego make a profit in 2004?

5. What did some people blame?

6.

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Lead-in questions: Is this sentence correct? I am can speak English but last year I could not to speak the language. How do you express ability in the past, present and future?

GRAMMAR PRACTICE – ABILITY Will Be Able To / Can / Could

Could is the past form of Can, and both are followed by the infinitive without to. We can also use was / were able to when we express past ability: Will be able to is used to express future ability. e.g. Last year we could (were able to) see the potential, now you can (are able to) see it. Next year everyone will be able to see the potential. Could is often used as a polite form of Can e.g. Could you pass me the pen please? Will be able to / Can / Could are also used to talk about:

1. Ability and Inability A: When can we speak to the sales team? B: I don’t know C: Will they be able to meet us tomorrow?

2. Possibility and Impossibility A: What can we do to improve the products? B: We could change the size. C: Are we able to do that?

3. Permission and Prohibition A: Could I leave at 3pm? B: When you finish you can leave

4. Request for Action or Information A: Could you repeat that please? B: Can Jane go to the factory and check the products?

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EXERCISE 1: Complete the following with:

will be able to – can - can’t – could - couldn’t – was able to

1. “ you help me?”

2. “ I see the document, please?

3. The company make a profit last year.

4. The airplane is delayed so they be very late.

5. You try asking Paul, to see if he help you.

6. we improve the sales figures next year?

7. When I was young I work 15 hours a day. Now I .

8. Where do you think we sell more toys? China, Japan, USA?

9. Last year we stop the competition copying our products.

10. Lego change its supply chain, and that saved the company.

EXERCISE 2: Use the phrases will be able to, can, can’t, could, couldn’t to replace the underlined words. 11. When you read the report, did you understand it?

12. Do you know how to speak French?

13. Is it possible for you to work next Monday?

14. Is it okay if I open the window?

15. I am unable to finish this report before 6 pm, it’s impossible. Supplement this task with more exercises from a good grammar book.

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Lead in Questions: Do you think Lego bricks are based on any other product? How many bricks have been manufactured since the company started?

READING: LEGO

EXERCISE: Put the paragraphs into the correct order. 1. In addition to the famous bricks, there are other products, for example Lego

movies, video games, clothes, competitions, and four Lego amusement parks. 2. The Lego Group has released thousands of play sets with different themes.

Examples include, town and city, space, robots, pirates and dinosaurs. 3. The Lego Group estimates that in 50 years it has sold some 400 billion Lego

blocks. Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 20 billion per year. That’s 62 Lego bricks for every person in the world.

4. Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark made wooden toys, and

started the Lego Company in 1934. 5. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such

objects as vehicles and buildings. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects.

6. In 1949, Lego began producing the now-famous interlocking bricks, calling them

"Automatic Binding Bricks." These bricks were based on the design of Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were released in the UK in 1947.

SPEAKING PRACTICE: In pairs, think of companies, services or products that have been around for a long time and seem to be old fashioned e.g. McDonald’s, Rolls Royce, Perrier water. How can these companies adapt so that the customer will continue to buy their products? Present your ideas to the class and answer questions.

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FUNCTIONAL VOCABULARY: Width, Length, Height, Depth & Weight Look at these sentences. The brick is 1cm high. The box is 10cm wide, 20cm deep and 25cm long. These adjectives describe dimension and specifications of objects. Noun Depth Height Length Width Weight Adjective Deep /

shallow High / low

Long / short

Wide / narrow

Heavy / Light

EXERCISE: Complete the following this text with a correct word.

1. The room is 12 metres and 10 metres , but the ceiling is , it

is only 2 metres .

2. The Lego train is 120cm and 2cm .

3. How is Pacific Ocean?

4. The Amazon river is over 1,000km .

5. In the summer, when there is no rain, the lake is very .

6. My 1.83m and my weight is 58 kilos. That is not , it is .

CULTURAL AWARENESS POINT: Children in the Office

In the UK children are sometimes invited to the office to see where their parents work. This is to help integrate families into the company. • Does this happen in your country / culture / company?

• Do you think this a good idea?

• Should children be kept away from the work place?

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Do you know the meaning of these words? You will hear them in the listening: Out of date – Supply chain – fundamental – strengths – diversify – loss-making LISTENING 2:

Listen to the second part of the recording and answer the questions.

ROLE-PLAY

1. What was having a negative impact on profits?

2. What else was causing problems?

3. What generated 80% of it’s sales?

4. How did management reduce operating costs?

5. How did the Lego Group manage to survive?

EXERCISE: Lego needs to diversify but it doesn’t know how?

In small groups decide on a new product for Lego e.g. junior real estate, sponsoring

a construction company building a school, producing real bricks

Discuss your ideas and then present them to the class. Ask questions about the

other group’s ideas

NOTE: You should practice the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation

learnt in this module.

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Audio-script 1 – Lego Intermediate Lego Intermediate level. Lego was founded in 1932 when Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark began by making wood toys. The name Lego comes from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means “play well”. The Lego Group’s motto is “Only the best is good enough”. The Lego Group sold $1.35 billion worth of toys in 2003. These include its famous bricks, video games, and Mindstorms, robots. It has four Legoland amusement parks, in Denmark, England, Germany, and America. However, the Lego Group’s profitability dropped and in 2004 it was in trouble. Sales fell by 30 percent the company made a loss of $250m. How could such a successful toymaker lose so much money? Some people blamed the popularity of video games and the low-cost competitors in China. The management needed to change things and quickly or the company would collapse.

Audio-script 2 – Lego Intermediate

The management looked at the company structure and decided that the supply chain was out of date. Poor customer service and limited product availability were having a negative impact on profits. Another problem was that the company diversified too much. Apart from its famous bricks, the Lego Group was producing video games, TV programs, clothes, amusement parks and retail stores. Introducing new products every year is normally a good thing, but at Lego only 20% of its product list generated 80% of sales. The diversification complicated the supply chain and Lego needed to focus on the areas that were profitable and drop the loss-making products. Management reduced operating costs by cutting manufacturing distances and suppliers, selling 70% of their amusement parks and cutting all Lego products that were non-profitable. It worked hard to make its supply chain more efficient and in 2006 Lego went back into profit. The Lego Group managed to survive because it could identify the problems and was able to transform itself. The company reported a sales increase of 32% in 2007 and made $135 million profit.

LESSON PLAN – LEGO – Intermediate Key objectives – to practise aural and oral Business English INTRODUCTION: Ask the students what they know about Lego. Teacher (T) – Students (SS) 3 mins BUSINESS VOCABULARY – Ask the students the lead in questions and go through the exercise about business modifiers and softeners. (S) – (T) 5 mins LISTENING 1: Next tell students they are going to hear a spokesman talking about Lego. They need to answer the questions at the end. Play the listening and ask students the questions. (T) – (SS) 10 mins PRONUNCIATION: Ask the students to pronounce the words. Drill where necessary. (T) – (SS) 5 mins GRAMMAR Introduce the target grammar, and do the exercise that follows. Ask students to read the questions and answers out loud. (S) – (T) 10 mins READING: Ask the lead in question. Go through the reading and ask students to put the correct answer with each question. Engage the students in the speaking practice that follows. Encourage them to use the grammar and the functional vocabulary. (S) – (T) 15 mins FUNCTIONAL VOCABULARY: Ask lead-in question and do the exercise (T) – (SS) 10 mins CULTURAL AWARENESS POINT: – read the text and discuss the cultural differences. (SS) – (T) 10 mins LISTENING 2: Tell students they are going to hear the 2nd part of the listening. Play the listening and students answer the questions (SS) – (T) 10 mins ROLE PLAY: Go through the instructions and begin the role-play. Make sure they practice the grammar and vocabulary learnt in the lesson and to try and use the case study material in their argument. Get the other students to discuss and offer feedback. (SS) – (SS) 20 mins

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EXERCISE ANSWERS BUSINESS VOCABULARY – exercise 1 1. Blame – accuse 2. Loss-making – unprofitable 3. Diversify – expand 4. Deserve – justify 5. Fundamental – core 6. Evaluate – assess 7. Worth – value 8. Motto – slogan 9. Collapse – fail 10. Strength – power Exercise 2 11. The company’s strength is innovation 12. You can’t blame the manager, he was on holiday 13. Lego diversify too much 14. The sales team are good and deserve a bonus 15. Low investment is the fundamental cause of our problems 16. Before making an offer we need to evaluate the company 17. Is the company worth $100 million? 18. Lego’s motto is: ‘innovation and quality’ 19. If we don’t fix the problem the company will collapse. 20. The girls’ toys are loss-making and we need to stop production. LISTENING 1: 1. Wooden toys 2. Play well 3. $1.35 billion 4. No, it made a loss of $250 million 5. Video games and low-cost competitors in China GRAMMAR EXERCISE 1: 1. “Can you help me?” 2. “Could I see the document, please? 3. The company couldn’t make a profit last year. 4. The airplane is delayed so they could be very late. 5. You could try asking Paul, to see if he can help you. 6. Will we be able to improve the sales figures next year? 7. When I was young I could work 15 hours a day. Now I can’t. 8. Where do you think we could / can sell more toys? China, Japan, USA? 9. Last year we couldn’t stop the competition copying our products. 10. Lego was able to change its supply chain, and that saved the company. EXERCISE 2: 11. When you read the report, could you understand it? 12. Can you speak French? 13. Will you be able to work next Monday? 14. Could I open the window? 15. I can’t / won’t be able to finish this report before 6 pm, it’s impossible. READING EXERCISE: Correct paragraph positions 1. Ole Kirk Christiansen … company in 1934. 2. In 1949, Lego …the UK in 1947. 3. Lego bricks can be … make other objects. 4. The Lego Group has … pirates and dinosaurs. 5. The Lego Company estimates that … person in the world. 6. In addition to … four Lego amusement parks.

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FUNCTIONAL VOCABULARY: 1. The room is 12 metres long and 10 metres wide, but the ceiling is low, it is only 2 metres

high. 2. The Lego train is 120cm long and 2cm wide / high. 3. How deep / wide is Pacific Ocean? 4. The Amazon River is over 1,000km long. 5. In the summer, when there is no rain, the lake is very shallow. 6. My height 1.83m and my weight is 58 kilos. That is not heavy. It is light. LISTENING 2: 1. Poor customer service and limited product availability 2. It was diversifying too much 3. Only 20% of its product list 4. By cutting manufacturing distances and suppliers, selling 70% of their amusement parks

and cutting all Lego products that were non-profitable. 5. Because it could identify the problems and was able to transform itself.

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