Appunti testi inglese b2

Inglese orale B2

Unit 1: Microfinance and its impact

About Mr De Lasseps and Blue Orchad

Why microfinance raises sense and how Blue Orchad makes its money. (To fight pernicious activities and terrorism).

About microcredit loans

Up to $10,000 – no collateral – only 5% of loans are not paid back.

The business of microfinance

The need to make a profit.

A practical example of microcredit success

An illustration of successful microcredit application.

How Blue Orchad makes money

Rates of interest higher than LIBOR.

Unit 2: Mission to accomplish

A project is a complex series of tasks that have to be completed within a specific time period and with limited financial resources. Successfully managing a project involves estimating and controlling the resources, budget, and time schedule necessary for a positive outcome. Starting with the specifications of a project, project managers put together a project plan which will enable them to complete the work on time and on budget.

Glossary

• Stint: Period of work
• Plague: Cause continual trouble
• Bump up: Suddenly increase something
• Corner cutting: Doing things badly or cheaply
• Spin-off business: New company that emerges from a larger enterprise

Testo: Up up and away

The text talks about how difficult it is to project and build airports, specifically focusing on Heathrow Airport in Britain. Sometimes big construction implies special problems such as tricky building techniques and the need to interface with other transport links. The man in charge is Mr. Tony Douglas, who ran BAA’s supply chain for 3 years and then took over as project manager: he has a big responsibility because if the project isn’t completed on time and on budget, it could take the whole company down. He thought that the project manager group cost too much and that it was better if as much as possible of the construction would take place offsite.

But the biggest novelty is the T5 agreement, a contract with the project’s main suppliers, companies, and subcontractors, aiming to minimize the conflicts and cost-cutting that usually plague big building works. The effect has been to change the whole pace and culture of the project, allowing people from different suppliers to work together. If T5 works so well, why isn’t BAA building airports elsewhere? Success will surely point to a spin-off business that can build other big projects safely and cheaply.

Unit 3: The stuff teams are made of

Teamwork, or the ability of a group of people to work well together to accomplish a common goal, is one of the fundamentals of the world of work. Professionalism and efficiency are often measured in terms of how good one is as a team player or how much one contributes to team spirit. Successful teams accomplish their objectives because they are committed, respect the various roles within the team, and meet their deadlines.

Teams spend a large part of their working lives in meetings. It is therefore important to make sure that every meeting is positive, informative, and a necessary use of the team’s time. The chairperson or facilitator plays a key role in coordinating the team’s work and keeping everyone focused at meetings.

Glossary

• Tedious: Boring
• Hog the floor: Dominate the discussion
• Scepticism: Doubting the truth of what other people say
• Mould: Form

Think before you meet

Meetings are the basic building blocks of corporate existence, but sometimes they don’t work as they should, they don’t achieve what they set out to do. For this reason, lots of companies are offering help! We see how the meetings that happen in the corridor are more useful than others because people are spontaneous, and they don’t feel the pressure of big meetings. Meetings tend to be held either to share information or to solve problems. In the first case, Roger New suggests using problem-solving so at the end of the meeting people will remember what they heard, and they will pay attention to putting solutions into practice. Mr. Bradford, a professor at Stanford Business School, also often thinks meetings waste huge amounts of time and that the way to get good decisions is to frame the question carefully.

Unit 4: The real-time economy

Information is a key resource for modern businesses and in...