Esame orale di Business English

EMPLOYEES WHO LIKE CHANGE EMPLOYEES WHO AVOID CHANGE

- stay calm in front of rapid changes

- big changes make them nervous

- volunteer for projects that will expand their experience

- adopt new technologies

- suggest new ways of doing things

- don't want to try new technologies

- are not interested in career changes

IMPORTANT VOCABULARIES ABOUT CHANGE:

downgrade, decentralise, upgrade, reassess, downsize, deregulate, upsize, redevelop, update, relaunch, relocate, reorganise, restructure, retrain

READING: MERCEDES

Mercedes is a German automobile brand and a division of Daimler AG. It produces luxury vehicles, trucks, buses, coaches, ambulances.

In 2002 Mercedes had a dramatic fall in quality and its cars kept on breaking down. However, it was able to change so much that the brand became the trailblazer in the luxury car market.

Mr. Zetsche is the person behind this turnaround: he became the boss of Mercedes and he had a very hard approach because he cut a lot

of jobs at the beginning, but then with his excellent management and team work he made Mercedes very successful and there was a big improvement in quality and new models of cars were launched.

The debate on reducing the amount of carbon-dioxide emissions could be dangerous for Mercedes, but for now the brand is launching 20 new fuel-efficient models.

LISTENING: ANNE DEERING

Anne Deering is the Head of Transformation Practice at international management consultants AT Kearney. → this firm works with more than 4200 people in 40 countries and in a lot of different industries, such as automobile and financial services.

The goal of the company is to offer advice to different businesses.

1. AT Kearney helps them understand how to change and how to measure change.
2. It is important to make sure that people are fully engaged in change.

Change is often a problem for companies because it is difficult to make managers and workers engaged and aligned around the change and create passion and enthusiasm.

aboutchange.For example they helped Nokia and Siemens to deal with change.

READING: BRITISH AIRWAYS

British Airways is the largest airline in the UK. It was created in 1974 from four other companies. It had 215 aircraft and 50,000 employees.

In the 1970s the oil crisis reduced the customer base and a lot of jobs were cut and there were huge financial losses. The company developed a reputation for terrible service.

In 1981 Lord King became the new chairperson and decided to increase profits:

• he restructured the entire organization, reducing its workforce
• he eliminated unprofitable routes
• he modernized the fleet
• he created a new marketing strategy

Lord King always communicated honestly with transparency and managed the change successfully.

UNIT 4: ORGANIZATION

Business organization → how businesses are structured and how their structure helps them to meet their goals.

Some businesses focus on generating profit (profit companies), other businesses focus on improving society (not-for-profit)

Basic categories of business organizations in the UK are:

• sole traders
• partnerships
• limited companies

In sole traders and partnerships, individuals are responsible for debts and legal actions, in limited companies individuals are not responsible for debts or legal actions and the business is registered.

COMPANY STRUCTURE VOCABULARY

• SUBSIDIARY → a company that is half-owned by another company
• FACTORY/PLANT → a large building where goods are made using machinery
• CALL CENTRE → an office where people answer questions and make sales on the phone
• SERVICE CENTRE → a place where faulty products are repaired
• HEADQUARTERS → the main office or building of a company
• DISTRIBUTION CENTRE → a building where goods are sent to shops or customers
• WAREHOUSE → a building where goods are stored in large quantities
• OUTLET → a place through which products are sold

CONSERVATIVE ORGANIZATIONS PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONS

bureaucratic caring

centralised

democratichierarchical professionalimpersonal decentralisedDEPARTMENTS IN A COMPANY - R&D → people research and develop new products - Customer services → people talk to customers to answer questions and resolve problems - Human resources → it is responsible for recruitment and training of workers - Sales and Marketing → it controls how and where products are sold, their price, publicity and branding. - Production → it controls the manufacturing of the end product and operates the assembly line - Finance → it raises finances and prepares budgets and accounts - Administration → it provides administrative and technical support to all the other departments - Legal → it deals with legal problems and write employment policies - Logistics → it organizes the distribution and transport of goods - Public relations → it is the face of the company because it has contacts with the media and prepares advertising campaigns - IT → it installs and maintains

READING: GOOGLE

Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google. It is located in California. The number of people who work at Google is over 20,000.

Google offers a lot of perks to its employees: for example free food and trips. The goal is that the staff meet each other, interact outside the office and encourage teamwork.

These initiatives have a powerful effect. For example, at Google Italy 100% of employees think that it is a friendly place to work.

Furniture at the office wants to give employees a sense of fun: lamps, scooters, table-tennis, massage chairs...

Moreover, working at Google is very challenging and interesting and that engages staff. Employees have a lot of independence (for example, working hours and how they do their jobs) → they have freedom, authority and empowerment.

READING: SAMSUNG - A COMPANY THAT INNOVATED

Samsung's strategic goal is: "good design is what differentiate us from the competitors". Samsung focused on design to...

Become one of the most innovative companies in the world. The problem was that, in South Korea, the culture does not allow employees to express their opinions. Samsung wanted to solve this problem so it created some Design Centres, where there was no dress code and employees were encouraged to express their opinions and contradict their superiors.

In order to listen to new ideas, a Chief Design Officer was established and employees could participate in developing new ideas and innovations.

READING: BLOCKBUSTER - A COMPANY THAT HAS FAILED

Blockbuster was a store where people could rent video games and movies and it reached its peak in 2004 when it had 85,000 employees and almost 10,000 stores.

It failed because it was not able to transition to a digital model, so it went into bankruptcy in 2010.

In 2000 Blockbuster missed an opportunity: Netflix wanted to buy Blockbuster for 50 million but the CEO was not interested in this proposal because Netflix was a very small company at the time.

UNIT 5:

ADVERTISING BARILLA Barilla was created as a bakery shop in Parma in 1877, and it became a pasta factory in 1910. The main goal of the company was to transform pasta into an important product which would give people an immediate sense of family and of a quality product. Barilla has always invested a lot on advertising campaigns and on publicity by collaborating with important artists. In the 1980s, one of the ads was directed by the famous Italian film director, Federico Fellini. TYPES OF ADVERTISING: TRADITIONAL MEDIA - TV, cinema, radio commercials - Celebrity endorsements (George Clooney for Nespresso) - Product placement - Outdoor (billboards, street furniture) - Free samples - Point of sale: it is a sales promotion that is found near a checkout. They are intended to get customers' attention to products which may be new products, or on special offer, and are also used to promote special events. - Sponsorship - Newspaper and magazine advertisingas a part of the App Store are required to ask for permission to track user data. This has affected the effectiveness of targeted advertising on platforms like Facebook. - Ad-blockers: Many internet users install ad-blockers to avoid seeing online advertisements. This reduces the visibility and reach of online ads. - Ad fatigue: With the increasing number of ads being displayed online, users are becoming immune to them. This means that advertisers need to constantly come up with new and creative ways to grab users' attention. - Ad fraud: There are instances of fraudulent activities in online advertising, such as fake clicks or impressions. This can lead to wasted advertising budgets and inaccurate performance metrics. Overall, new media advertising offers a wide range of options for reaching target audiences, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. Advertisers need to stay updated with the latest trends and technologies to make the most out of their advertising campaigns.

On Apple must ask users for permission to track their activities. Many users have chosen not to be tracked. This change reduced Meta revenue.

TikTok ads: This new social media platform has 1 billion users and almost 45% of its advertising audience are between 18-24. They are especially females. Videos are 60 seconds' long and many are musical performances or funny/silly content. TikTok is focused on user-generated content, so brands that post professional advertising videos are not very popular. Sometimes advertisers choose in-feed adverts or images.

SLOGAN: It is a short, memorable phrase used in advertising. (example: I'm lovin' it - McDonald's)

SPONSORSHIP: A company pays to be associated with a specific event or sport team.

READING: HONDA

A lot of people don't like to watch traditional television advertising, so Honda had a new and original idea. They made a live advertisement which was more than 3 minutes long with stuntmen who jumped from a plane while shaping the

brand's name with their bodies. On Sky and other platforms users can skip ads, so this innovative idea wanted to keep the viewer's attention and create something unmissable. The slogan was "difficult is worth doing". This ad went on youtube, so that it became viral through word-of-mouth.

LISTENING: MARCO RIMINI

Marco Rimini is the Head of Communication at Mindshare media agency. He says that for a good advertising campaign it is important to understand the goal of the campaign and what the client is paying for. It is not always about selling more products, sometimes it is about changing the image of a company or changing people's behavior. The typical stages of a campaign are:

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