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Grammar

Verb to be

Present simple (presente indicativo) si usa per parlare delle azioni abituali.

Present continuous si usa per esprimere un’azione che si verifica in questo momento.

Past simple (passato remoto) si usa per descrivere un’azione che è avvenuta e si è conclusa in un tempo passato.

Past continuous si riferisce a un'azione che era in corso in un momento specifico del passato.

Present perfect (passato prossimo) si usa per descrivere azioni che sono avvenute in un momento imprecisato del passato recente e che hanno conseguenze sul presente.

Past perfect si usa per chiarire che un evento si è verificato prima di un altro evento nel passato.

Future simple usiamo il futuro semplice con "volontà" per prevedere il futuro.

Future be going to si riferisce ad azioni pianificate in futuro. Sei sicuro che qualcosa accadrà in futuro.

Modal verbs I verbi modali sono verbi speciali che si comportano in modo molto diverso dai verbi normali. Danno ulteriori informazioni sulla funzione del verbo principale che lo segue. Can/can’t.

Conditionals

I condizionali descrivono il risultato di una determinata condizione. La clausola if indica la condizione e la clausola principale indica il risultato di qualcosa che potrebbe accadere (nel presente o nel futuro) o potrebbe essere successo ma non è successo (in passato).

• If it rains, I stay at home.
• If it rains, I’ll go to the park.
• If you studied, you would pass the exam.
• If she had studied, she would have passed the exam.

Passive voice

Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives

Possessive 's si usa per indicare il possesso.

Verb + to + infinitive

Adverbs

Never/ever, hardly ever, sometimes, generally, often, always (prima del verbo ordinario, dopo il verbo ausiliario). Sometimes, normally, usually, frequently (a inizio frase, prima del verbo, a fine frase).

Companies

There are many different types of companies. Most large corporations are public limited or joint-stock companies, which means that shareholders who wish to invest in the company can buy and sell parts of the company on the stock exchange. Many are multinationals with subsidiaries and assets in various different countries and they generally engage in mergers with other companies and acquisitions in order to expand. However, the large corporation is increasingly under threat from the growing number of dotcoms set up by entrepreneurs.

Types of companies

Some types of companies are:

• A multinational corporation, is a corporate organization that owns or controls production of goods or services in at least one country other than its home country.
• A small family business, is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who have both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingness to use this ability to pursue distinctive goals.
• A medium-sized enterprise (SMEs): Small and medium-sized enterprises are businesses whose personnel numbers fall below certain limits. SMEs are defined by the European Commission as having less than 250 persons employed. They should also have an annual turnover of up to EUR 50 million or a balance sheet total of no more than EUR 43 million.
• A high-tech corporation, is a type of business entity that focuses mainly on the development and manufacturing of technology products or providing technology as a service.

Global companies

When a company globalises it tries to choose the best method to enter the overseas markets. Some of the methods are:

• Acquisition/takeover, buying or taking over another company.
• Subsidiary, a company partly or wholly owned by a parent company.
• Licensing, selling the right to a manufacturer’s trademark.
• Franchising, giving someone the exclusive rights to sell products in a certain area.
• Local partner, a person or company who cooperates with a foreign company who wishes to enter the market.
• Joint venture, two or more companies join temporarily to carry out a large project.
• Consortium, a group of companies in similar businesses working together.
• Merger, the integration of two or more corporations into one.

Company structure

Steep (tall) hierarchy: Many levels of management (hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations).

Flat hierarchy: Light organizational structure. More equality and flexibility, less traditional company.

The company is divided into different sectors:

• Information technology: The study or use of systems (especially computers and telecommunications) for storing, retrieving and sending information.
• Human resources: The department of a business or organization that deals with the hiring, administration and training of staff.
• Legal affairs: The department that deals with legal matters.
• Finance: The part of an organization that is responsible for acquiring funds for the firm, managing funds of the organization and planning for the expenditure of funds on various assets.
• Communications: Managing your website and social media updates and engaging with people on your social media channels.

Inside are present:

• President-chairman: The presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. In some organizations, the chairperson is also known as president.
• Board of directors (board of management): A group of people who jointly supervise the activities of an organization.
• Managing director (CEO: Chief Executive Officer): The person who is in overall charge of the running of an organization or business.
• General manager (junior, middle, senior): An executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company’s income statement, known as profit and loss (P&L) responsibility.

A matter of choice

In 1967, John Kenneth Galbraith's The New Industrial State argued that the USA was run by a handful of big companies who planned the economy in the name of stability. These were hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations making long runs of standardized products. They introduced "new and improved" varieties with predictable regularity. That world is now dead. The US's giant corporations have either disappeared or been transformed by global competition.

But where exactly are they taking us? Where is the modern company heading? There are three standard answers to this question:

• The first is that a handful of giant companies are engaged in a "silent takeover" of the world.
• The second school of thought argues almost the opposite: it says that big companies are a thing of the past.
• The third school of thought says that companies are being replaced by "networks". Groups of entrepreneurs form such a network to market an idea.

Another way to look at the future of the company is to focus on the environment that will determine it. That environment is dominated by one thing: choice. Consumers have more choice over where they spend their money. Producers have more choice over which suppliers to use. Shareholders have more choice over where to put their money. With all that choice around, future companies will have to be very flexible in order to quickly adapt to the changing environments if they are to survive where they spend their money.

Synonyms

• For “takeover”: to absorb/to acquire, an acquisition/a purchase.
• For “owns”: to hold/to possess.
• “To market”. Can you think of other English examples of words with more than one value (verb, nouns, adjectives)? Run, break, turn, hand.

Opposites

• Of “traditional”: new, modern.
• Of “flexible”: stiff, hard.
• Of “lower”: high, superior.
• Of “quickly”: quietly, slowly.
• Of “survive”: be forgotten, disappear.
• Of “dominate”: to undergo, to obey, to undergo.

Leadership

The role of a leader is to inspire and motivate staff and to develop talent within an organisation. The management style of leaders varies: some prefer to delegate responsibility to subordinates whereas others prefer to use their authority to control operations directly.

Role of a leader

• To inspire and motivate (staff, players, pupils, students, subordinates).
• To develop talent.
• Management style.
• To delegate to subordinates.
• To use authority.
• To control.

Leadership styles

• By delegating responsibility.
• By directly controlling all operations.
• By giving example.
• By inspiring respect/affection.
• By inspiring fear/terror.
• By providing financial reward.
• By providing non-financial reward (status, respect, etc.).

Managers

The difference between leader and manager can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:

• A leader influences his subordinate to achieve a specified goal, possesses the quality of foresightedness.
• A manager is a person who manages the organization such that he is responsible for planning, organization, direction, coordination and control. They are the ones who get their work done by the employees through several ways and have the authority to hire or fire the employees. There are various types of managers present in an organization such as top level managers, functional managers, project manager, general manager. The role of these managers depends on their nature of work like top level managers are held responsible for the vision and mission of the organization.

People at work

• Management: coach (v.+n.), CEO (chief executive), director, head, supervisor, chairman, president, boss, manager, faculty.
• Subordinates, staff, workers, employees: clerk, secretary, janitor.

Word formation

Affixes are meaningful, dependent elements added both before and after the base form:

• Prefixes precede the base form.
• Suffixes follow the base form.

When to terrorise talent

The nation was in shock. David Beckham, Britain's most beautiful (and skilful) footballer, emerged from his house on Monday morning to allow the world to photograph a wound above his left eye. Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of his then team Manchester United, had lost his temper after a defeat and kicked a football boot, which hit the Beckham eyebrow.

The ability to inspire focuses on how leaders motivate and drive their teams to achieve success.