Unit 3

What is strategy?

Strategy comes from the Greek word, strategia meaning generalship. It was about outsmarting your enemy and winning the battle. For organizations, strategy is finding ways to gain competitive advantage.

Key areas for biz strategies

• Market position

• Innovation --- R&D

• Human resources

• Finance, profitability

• Physical resources

• Social responsibility

What makes them successful?

1. Advertising

2. Customer loyalty

3. Corporate culture

4. …

Now suppose you are the manager of a small company. Your company has been selling fewer of its products recently. And you have decided to lay off one of your staff members for high efficiency.

The person I will fire is _______

My reason: _____________________

Sample: I would fire Tim, the foreman. He is nice as a person, but he is not a good worker. A foreman should set an example for his fellow workers. Besides, he is already 50. I would prefer to have some young staff in the company.

What will a good manager do?

To fire an employee is the last thing to do.Identify the problem

– Lack of job training– Lack of motivation– Personal problems– A matter of character

List options to improve– More job training– A change in duties

to rise/a riseto increase/an increaseto grow/ a growthto go upto reach a peak

to fall / a fall to drop / a drop to decline / a decline to hit / fall to the lowest point to go down

to remain the same to remain / stay constant to remain stable

A sudden, large change: sharp/sharply; dramatic/dramatically;considerable/considerably;significant/significantlysteep/steeply

A very small change: slight/slightly

A regular change: steady/steadily gradual/gradually

Graph 1The graph shows the fluctuation in a company’s

sales to South Asia over a period of 12 months. According to the graph, sales to South Asia increased steadily from 7m dollars in January to 10m dollars in May. After this, sales fell dramatically, hitting the lowest point in June at 6m dollars. There was then a slight increase in July. B/t July and September sales stayed constant at a little over 6m dollars, there was then a sharp rise b/t Sep and Nov with a peak of 11m dollars in Nov. After Nov sales declined significantly to 8m dollars.

Discussion

It is often said that in competitive situations only the fittest survives. Now work in pairs to discuss whether the statement is true or not.

Words and Phrases You May Use:

fierce competition, cooperation, the market economy, law of the jungle, go bankrupt, the disadvantaged, prosperous, outdo, key to success, innovation, adapt to, all walks of life

Business lessons from the rainforest

Rainforests are more productive than any businesses in the world. It is true that the needs of every business are often in conflict with environmental policies. But business would be more productive and ecologically benign if it would be managed and operated according to the principles of nature. The lessons we learn in the rainforest include:

to structure our business into a learning organization and run it more like a living system;

to be unique (develop unique quality products); to cooperate (engage in cooperative joint

ventures); to be a good fit (find where we best fit and fulfill

the social responsibility of business).

Vocabulary

Para 5: To be agile and creative, we must structure our company so that we are learning organization. Not top-down, but bottom-up. Not centralized, but decentralized. Not limited by rules, but motivated by objectives.

centralize --- decentralize1) “de” is negative or opposite;The secret documents were intercepted and decod

ed.The famine endured for generations, threatening at

times to depopulate the continent.2) “de” means “remove…from…”; The king was dethroned and went into exile.Defrost the fridge regularly to keep it running at ma

ximum efficiency.3) “de” means “reduce”.Economic theory suggests that the devalued poun

d will boost the economy.If a plane window breaks, the cabin will rapidly dec

ompress.

Para 11: Differentiate. Be yourself, be unique. In the rainforest, conformity leads to extinction. If two organisms have the same niche, only one survives. The other adapts or dies.

Para 13: Don’t kill our competitors or be killed by them --- sidestep them instead. Only then is it time to reduce costs and grow more efficient.

It’s no good sidestepping reality.

We are not to sidestep responsibility.

Only half the time have the parents apologized for what their children did.

Structure ( noun clauses)What I learned changed my life as a corporate

executive. (ll. 7-8)When I visited the rain forest, I realized that it was a

model of the perfect learning organization, a place that excels by learning to adapt to what it doesn’t have. (ll. 26-28)

Second, based on what we see, we must take action… (ll. 40-41)

What is valuable about the rainforest is not the trees, which we can remove. What is valuable is the design, the relationships…

What l learned from the rainforest is easy to understand. (l. 91)

More examples:

1) How the book will sell depends on the reviewers. (subject)

2) I can’t imagine what they want with your address. (object)

3) The problem is who will water my plants when I am away. (subject complement)

4) Your original question, why he did not report it to the police earlier, has not yet been answered. (appositive)

5) I’m not sure which she prefers. (complement)

6) I asked on what they based their predictions.

National Stereotypes and Business Behavior

What is the stereotype of the Chinese?

Sample

The Chinese are diligent, creative, intelligent, polite, hospitable, trustworthy, modest and shy. They are business-minded and are very successful businessmen as we can see in many foreign countries. They sometimes lack independent thinking and like to follow the general trend. They are traditional and dwell too much on their past glory.

Questions on Comprehension

1. What are the five “Fs” that Western businessmen need to be sensitive to?

Family, face, fate, favors, friends.

2. What are the two interpretations of “face”?

One is literal—Asians like to do business face-to-face. The other is “respect”--- to show the “proper respect” according to the age and the social position.

3. What does “fate” mean?

Asians are more willing to accept things they can’t change.

4. Paraphrase the saying “If you’ll scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”.

If you do something for me, I’ll do something for you in return.