First Insights into Business

Unit 1. Customers

Key Vocabulary:

Companies need customers. Some companies provide goods such as clothes, cars
and food. Other companies provide services, for example insurance, banking, information
technology or training.
Companies want repeat business, in other words, they want customers to buy
from them again and again. To win customer loyalty, many companies have a code of
practice, or set of rules, for customer care. The code of practice explains what the
customer can expect of the company. Customers can complain about the service, or help,
they recieve and the goods the buy.

Customers –

Goods –

Services –

repeat business –

customer loyalty

code of practice

customer care

service -

Unit 2. Companies

Key Vocabulary:

Companies are involved in many activities, for example buying, selling,

marketing and production, in a range of different industries, such as information
technology, telecommunications, film, and car manufacture. Many well-known
companies are multinationals, these are companies which operate in a number of
countries.
Multinationals often have complicated structure. There is usually a parent or
holding company. This company owns other companies or parts of other companies.
These other companies are called subsidiaries.
Buying
selling
marketing
production
information technology
telecommunications
film
car manufacture
multinationals
operate
parent
holding company
subsidiaries

Unit 3. Travel

Key Vocabulary:

Business today is international. Business people often have to travel a lot. They
have to plan an itinerary for a foreign business trip to make good use of their time. On a
business trip people may meet colleagues and business partners for the first time. It is
usuall for colleagues from different countries to experience cultural differences. In
others words, they may be surprised by foreign social conventions, that is the different
ways that other nationalities or different cultures do things.

Itinerary
foreign business trip
colleagues
cultural differences
social conventions
nationalities
cultures

Unit 4. Troubleshooting

Key Vocabulary:

Sometimes companies realise that they are not achieving their goals or objectives
effectively, that is, they are not getting the results they need. In this case they have to re-
plan their strategy. It can be useful to get an outsider, e.g. a management consultant, to
analyse the company’s performance and recommend changes to make it more efficient. A
SWOT analysis can be useful, that is, an analysis of the company’s strengths (S) and
weaknesses (W) and also of opportunities (O) and threats (T) that face the company.
Troubleshooting, or solving problems, is a necessary part of running a company.

Goals
Strategy
management consultant
SWOT analysis
Troubleshooting

Unit 5. Company History

Key Vocabulary:

Companies often include details about their history in their marketing literature,
their annual reports and company presentations, in order to show that they are
established, and have experience in their field. This can include information about the
founder or person who started the company, and key dates and events in the company
history.

Established
Experience
founder
key dates
events

Unit 6. Retailing

Key Vocabulary:

Reatailing is the provision of goods or services to the customer. Retailers by

goods directly from the manufacturer or from a wholesaler, (the ’middleman’), and
make their income from the margin, or difference, between th price they pay for the
goods and the price they sell the goods at to the consumer. A retail outlet is the place
where customers can purchase goods, for example, a supermarket or a department store.
Nowadays, many customers are shopping from home: shopping by the Internet, TV
shopping channels or mail-order catalogues is becoming very popular.

Goods
Services
Retailers
Manufacturer
Wholesaler
Margin
Consumer
retail outlet
supermarket
department store
the Internet
TV shopping channels
mail-order catalogues
Unit 7. Products

Key Vocabulary:

For nearly every type of product there are many similar goods on the market. The
unique selling points (USPs) of a product are the things that make it special and different
from other similar products. A good advertisement, which brings the product to the
public’s attention, should describe these USPs. The marketing department should have a
customer profile in mind, that is the sort of person who will buy the product. When
trying to sell a product, it’s important to give information about the product’s features or
characteristics, and to emphasise the benefits or advantages of the product to the
customes.

Product
unique selling points (USPs)
advertisement
customer profile
features
benefits

Unit 8. People

Key Vocabulary:

Most people work because they need to earn a salary, but money is not the only
motivation or reason why people work. Poeple get job satisfaction from different factors,
such as social interaction with colleagues. Status, that is your professional position, and
achievement, doing something well, can be important. Some companies really value their
employees and see them as the company’s main asset. Managing people well can lead to
better results and higher productivity for the company, but this can be difficult to do.
People respond different styles of management. Some organizations give their workers
freedom to develop their roles and others don’t.

Salary
Motivation
job satisfaction
social interaction
Status
Achievement
higher productivity
styles of management

Unit 9. Business Environment

Key Vocabulary:
 All businesses are affected by their immediate environment. Many factors
influence them, for example, availability of labour (that is, how easy or difficult it is to
find workers); labour costs (how much it costs to employ people) and availibility of raw
materials, such as oil and wood. The amount of money a company has to pay the
government in taxes is another factor. Businesses are also affected by the state of the
economy. In a period of economic recession many businesses suffer, their profits fall and
they have to make cuts. In this climate there will be a rise in unemployment. These
factors can affect sales and prices and change the trend, or direction, they move in.

availability of labour
labour costs
availibility of raw materials
taxes
state of the economy
economic recession
cuts
unemployment
trend

Unit 10. Finance

Key Vocabulary:

Companies and individuals often borrow money, and it is important to find a

favourable interest rate. Rates are variable, and can rise or fall depending on the market.
Many investors, (people who use their money to earn more money), choose foreign or
offshore bank accounts because they are tax-free. Anyone can buy shares in a public
company and become a sharefolder. All public companies in the UK are obliged by law
to publish their financial results at the end of the tax year. They do this in their annual
report to sharefolders. Annual reports include profit and loss accounts which show
turnover, or the total sum of money which is coming into the company.

Borrow
interest rate rise, fall
investors
offshore bank accounts
public company
sharefolder
financial results
tax year
annual report
profit and loss accounts
turnover

Unit 11. Corporate Responsibility

Key Vocabulary:

Market research shows that many consumers are ’ethical consumers’; they expect
the companies they buy from to behave responsibly. Most ethical consumers have high
spending power so companies usually listen to them and will promise, for example, not
to use child labour or to pollute the environment. A recent report showed that many
companies have an ethical policy which covers areas such as payment on time, product
policy and the environment. Some companies have policy of playing ’first world’ prices
for ’third world’ goods from developing countries – they pay more because they think the
workers and the economies of developing countries need support.

’ethical consumers’
spending power
environment
ethical policy
payment on time
product policy
’first world’
’third world’

Unit 12. Competition

Key Vocabulary:

In an open market any number of sellers or competitors can offer goods for sale.
An efficient producer, who keeps costs low, can set a low price for goods that other
companies find it difficult to compete with. All companies try to gain biggest market
share possible, and compete aggressively with their main competitors to do this.
Companies with the biggest market share for a product, the market leaders, may compete
across borders in the global market place to try to enter new markets in countries where
they do not have a presence.

open market
competitors
compete
market share
main competitors
market leaders
global market place
enter new markets