Scribd
Upload
1 views

Audio Scripts

Uploaded by

mehrdad anzani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
1 views

Audio Scripts

Uploaded by

mehrdad anzani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

Audio scripts

ENTRY TEST
Track 1

We focus today on four companies we believe could be targets for Oasis Organic Juice International’s
planned expansion. How have they been performing recently?
Let’s start with Zumotina. Last year, it reported strong growth, with sales of $6 million and net profits
increasing by 15.8 per cent. In the three previous years, turnover increased by 51 per cent and profits
by 28 per cent. Zumotina has been very successful. Earlier this year, it introduced new ‘pure juice’
products which have been very popular.
Next, Good Juice, the UK company, is using all organic fruit to make high-end blended juices. Its
main market is the UK but it also operates in the Netherlands. Last year, turnover was $8 million, with
net profits of only $0.2 million. In the three previous years, profits grew by 7 per cent. Good Juice is
planning to open a new plant in the near future.
Kimura Organic Fruit Products is another company Oasis Organic will probably be looking at. This
Japanese company manufactures not only organic juices but also frozen fruit desserts. It also has
several juice bars in Tokyo and Osaka. It could give Oasis Organic the opportunity to expand into
Asia and to develop the juice bar segment of the market. Kimura, with sales last year of almost $9
million and net profits of $1 million, is a tempting target for Oasis Organic. The company grew fast in
the previous three years, with profits increasing by 48 per cent.
Finally, will Oasis Organic go for a company near home? Some say they’re taking a close look at
Hightree Organic, based in Los Angeles, California. Hightree is one of the top manufacturers of
organic juice products in North America; 95 per cent of its sales are in the home market but Hightree
Organic also distributes in the UK. Sales topped $10 million last year, with net profits of $1 million.
Profits have increased by less than 10 per cent in the last three years but the company has a strong
position in the organic juice industry.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman 1


PROGRESS TEST 1
Track 2 (I = Interviewer, HP = Helen Parker)

I How does a company know what kind of training it needs?


HP That’s a good question. In fact, a lot of managers think that their teams need training in
teamwork and a lot of employees think their managers need training. The hardest thing for
any organisation to see is what they don’t know. If you don’t know something – if you don’t
know what’s missing – how can you ask for it?
I I think I see what you mean. So how do you go about figuring out what sort of training to
give?
HP I always go through a needs analysis process. This usually means I visit and observe a
company for a few days. Sometimes I get them to do some activities that help me evaluate
their values and understand their team dynamic.
I What sorts of things do you do?
HP Sometimes I give groups of people case studies to work on. A case study usually presents a
problem or a dilemma in an organisation. There’s no one correct answer or solution to these
problems but it’s always very interesting to see people’s reactions. Sometimes, for example,
people get really emotional and I can see what people are sensitive about.
I What else do you do?
HP Bridge-building and tower-building exercises are a good way to see how teams work together.
I Could you explain those?
HP Well, I give teams some basic supplies like cardboard and glue and I ask them to build
something – a tower or a bridge – to certain specifications in a limited period of time. It’s a
good way to observe how leadership works, how people communicate and so on. I’ve found
that team dynamics are pretty much the same whether people are playing a game or doing
their job.
I Once you’ve seen a company in action, what happens next?
HP Most of the time I set up coaching programmes and sometimes I organise mentoring.
I What’s the difference between coaching and mentoring?
HP Both are ways of working closely with people to improve skills that they already have. I
usually arrange coaching for a fairly short period of time. Mentoring is a much longer-term
process and it tends to require a relatively long-term investment by the person – someone
already within the company – who’s doing the mentoring and obviously it takes a lot of
commitment from the person who’s being mentored.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman 2


PROGRESS TEST 2
Track 3 (BW = Bill Wilson, AB = Alison Bates)

BW Can you spare a minute?


AB Sure. What’s on your mind?
BW Work!
AB No surprise there! You busy?
BW Yeah, I am but that’s not really the problem.
AB OK, well … what’s on your mind?
BW Well, it’s … it’s Steve.
AB Steve?
BW Yeah, and listen, this conversation is just between you and me, right? I just want some advice.
AB Yeah, sure. Just between you and me.
BW Well, it’s about expenses. Steve and I have been travelling together a lot and when we were in
Seoul last month we were out checking out the displays in some of the international stores in
a big shopping mall and Steve bought an expensive designer handbag while we were there.
AB Right …
BW Well, it’s just that he paid for it with his company credit card, which I noticed. Really it’s
none of my business but he told me the bag was for his wife and he also told me he had a
good budget for client gifts and entertainment …
AB And so he’s buying presents for his wife with his company credit card.
BW Right. And not only that, he basically told me I should do the same thing and he told me how
to submit my expenses so no one would notice.
AB Oh, dear. That’s a tricky one!
BW I know. I mean, in a way, it’s none of my business but, on the other hand, the whole company
is trying to save money and it could really hurt the whole company if everyone used their
company credit card this way. So I have to say, I feel tempted to go to Steve’s manager and
tell him what’s going on.
AB Are you sure you really want to do that?
BW No, I’m not! I think Steve is doing a pretty good job and, if he left the company, it could
really make a mess of things. Clients like him. He has a really good way with people.
AB Exactly. So you really do have to weigh up the pros and cons of talking with his boss. You
might like to be ready for the next time it happens because you’re bound to be in the same
situation again.
BW That’s true.
AB And when he uses his company credit card for something personal, you could tell him you’ve
been thinking about it and you definitely don’t want to use your company card in that way.
The important thing is to avoid lecturing him about it or telling him what he’s doing is wrong.
If it were up to me, I’d raise the topic in a light way and at least get him thinking about what
he’s doing. You know Steve. Maybe he just hasn’t thought through what he’s doing.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman 3


BW Yeah, I think you’re right. I mean, I don’t think he’d steal anything from anyone if he thought
of it as stealing. I’m sure he just thinks it’s a kind of perk.

PROGRESS TEST 3
Track 4 (P = Pascal, K = Kate)

P Kate, how’s it going?


K It’s tough! How about you? Are you having any luck?
P It’s been really tough. I’ve had conversations with people at 12 venture capital firms. They
love the sound of our plan but every time we get to the question of experience and they find
out we have none, that’s basically the end of the conversation. I talked to one guy who said he
wanted to set up a meeting but at the last minute he texted me to say he had to leave for Japan
suddenly and had to cancel the meeting. And I haven’t been able to get back in touch with
him.
K That’s tough.
P Yeah, I’m pretty down about it. What about you, Kate?
K I’ve basically had the same problems. I did manage to talk to one very helpful woman on the
phone. She pointed out that most business angels don’t want to splash out on a new business
until it’s actually making some money. She gave me two pieces of advice. One was to try to
get as much funding as possible from friends and family to cover us until the business starts to
take off. The other – and I think this is going to be really important – is to focus on finding
customers. She says if we can find some good customers who really believe in us, it will help
to convince investors that we have a good basis for the business.
P That sounds like good advice. But do we know anyone with enough money to get us started?
K Well don’t you remember that one of the first things I did was to ask my parents for help and
they offered something like a thousand euros? Anyway, I wouldn’t want to make them give
away that kind of money so close to retirement. I mean, if it went wrong, they just can’t
afford to lose that much.
P Maybe we have to look beyond our parents. We could ask other relatives or friends of the
family. If we each found ten people who could lend us a small amount, that would be a start,
wouldn’t it?
K Yeah, maybe. One thing I was wondering was whether we really need to raise a half million
euros. If we look for less funding, we might be able to find it more easily.
P But how can we cut it back? We spent a huge amount of time on the business plan and
worked out all the costs in detail – we didn’t just dream up the half-million euro figure!
K Let’s take another look. There must be ways to make some cuts. How about office rent? Do
we really need to rent an office? Maybe we could work from home to begin with. Lots of
successful entrepreneurs started out by working from a home office.
P That’s right. And another thing: if we get investors to provide most of the backing – even
supposing we can find people to do it – they’re going to take control of our business. We’ll
have no say in how we run things. I’m not sure I want that.
K I agree. We should keep at least a 50 per cent stake for ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll never
make any money out of it.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman 4


PROGRESS TEST 4
Track 5

The Critical Path Method is a technique for modelling projects and it’s a fantastic tool for managing
any kind of project. It’s a type of mathematical analysis and it’s commonly used in software
development, research, engineering, plant maintenance, aerospace, … just about anything you can
think of.
How does CPM work? To develop a model, you need three things. First, you need a detailed list of all
of the activities that have to be done for the project to be completed. If you’re building a house, this
would include designing the house, putting in the foundations, doing the brick work, adding plumbing
and electrics, and so on. Second, you need to know how much time each activity will take. The design
phase might take six months, it might take a week to put in the foundations, and it may take a week
for the electricians to do the first fix of the wiring. Finally, you need to know which activities depend
on other activities. For the house-building project, you need to put the foundations in first, then build
the frame on top of that, then add plumbing and electrics and so on.
Now we’re ready to apply CPM. Given the values I just spoke about, CPM calculates the longest path
of project activities from start to finish. It also determines the earliest that each activity can begin and
the latest it can finish. This shows which activities are ‘critical’. A critical activity is one that will
affect the whole project if it’s delayed. It also shows which activities have ‘total float’. If an activity
with ‘total float’ is delayed, it won’t affect the completion date of the project.
So what’s the ‘critical path’? It’s the sequence of activities required to complete the project and it
shows the shortest possible time needed to complete the project. Any delay in an activity on the
critical path will directly affect the end date of the project.
The usefulness of this model is obvious. It gives project managers the ability to prioritise activities,
shorten their duration – we call this ‘fast-tracking’ – and apply resources to them for the maximum
benefit of the project.
So what does a critical path actually look like? How can this information be displayed so it isn’t too
dense or complex? One way is a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart. It can have dates
running along the top of the chart and a breakdown of project elements in a list at the left-hand side.
For tracking work in progress, many Gantt charts include a vertical ‘today’ line so everyone can see
exactly where the project stands.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman 5


EXIT TEST
Track 6

I’d like to welcome you today to the newly-refurbished Daisy Hill Factory which you’re going to get
up and running over the next ten days.
At Talbot, it’s not so much what we do as how we do it. There’s a culture of excellence in this
company. The firm is no longer owned by the Talbot family but for half of the nineteenth and most of
the twentieth century it was. The Talbots didn’t believe in standing still and, in a highly competitive
market, there’s no room for complacency. We’ve always actively looked for ways of improving, have
always asked ‘Is our organisation running as smoothly as it should? Could we do more to improve the
dialogue we have with our customers? Could we improve services?’ Those are the questions we have
to keep answering to keep moving forward and those are questions that we think everyone in the
company should be thinking about every day. Often the best ideas for how to improve efficiency have
come from the men and women on the factory floor because you’re the ones who really know what’s
going on.
So where is Talbot going? What’s the goal we’re all trying to reach? We have three main targets that
we’re always trying to hit. One is to develop and maintain long-standing relationships with our
customers. We have to work closely with them or we can’t develop products for them. The best work
often comes from two companies sharing ideas and expertise rather than a client just coming to us
with an order to make something. In fact, that’s one way we differentiate ourselves in the market: the
way we involve customers in our R and D. This means you can expect frequent visits from clients so
they can see what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.
Another target we never lose sight of is the need to manage production costs, keeping in mind that
people are a huge part of that. As our equipment gets older and becomes less efficient we at times
need to move production from one factory to another. The key to managing the human side of this is
not to show up one day and say ‘Sorry, we’re closing your assembly line next week, you have to
leave.’ We’re often looking ahead ten years to equipment replacement and this sort of planning helps
us manage the human resources angle of closures.
The third target we have is to become more multinational. Currently, 40 per cent of our sales go
outside the UK. But there are huge markets out there. Look at China. There are more than a billion
people there, some of whom could be using our products in ten years’ time – if we play our cards
right. Part of the plan is to build plants in India and China. We already have joint ventures with local
partners and more are in the planning stages. Does this mean eventually outsourcing your jobs to
Asia? No, it doesn’t. We have expertise here in the UK that we are committed to maintaining. Some
of you will have the opportunity to work for periods of time in our new facilities abroad as part of
training up workers there in our culture of excellence.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman 6

You might also like