Файл: focus on business english.pdf

11 

3. If you  

a problem, you do something to make sure the 

problem no longer exists. 

4. If you  

a problem, you make it less serious. 

5. If you  

a problem, you find an answer to it. 

6. If you  

a problem, you realise that it may happen and you 

are prepared for it.  

LISTENING 

2.1 Mike Ashton is Senior Vice President of Hilton Hotels International. 

The hotel employs 75,000 people in 65 countries. Listen to the first part of the 
interview and complete the definition of quality Mie Ashton gives. 

Delivering ……. quality is absolutely fundamentally important to any busi-

ness. I believe the best way to define quality is to look very closely at customers’ 

……… and then to look at the ……. of a business to ……. or …….those expec-

tations, consistently.  

2.2  Listen to the second part of the interview. Which of the following does 

the hotel use to measure quality improvements? 

•

Inspecting rooms daily 

•

Contacting team members 

•

Making unexpected visits regularly 

•

Contacting guests 

•

Studying operational standards 

•

Comparing check out times 

2.3 Listen to the third part of the interview. Are the statements true or 

false? Correct the false ones. 

      1.High quality means high cost. 
      2.Investment in high quality helps to build profitability. 

      3.  Delivering  good quality consistently is something that can be done 

without any cost to an organisation. 

      4. Healthy revenues and healthier profits are the results of investment in 

quality. 

READING 

Read the article from the Financial Times and answer the questions. 

Fierce Competition Result in Better Quality

By Jeremy Grant 

South Korean carmakers have long been the subject of jokes about poor 

quality in the US. But yesterday they won the endorsement of US car buyers 

12 

when Hyundai jumped ahead of Detroit and some European carmakers in a quali-

ty survey. The JD Power & Associates ‘initial quality’ survey, which measures 

the number of problems reported by a customer in the first 90 days of new ve-
hicle ownership, showed that Hyundai and Kia Motors had on average reduced 

such problems by 57 percent over the last six years. The number of problems re-

ported on average for the two carmakers dropped from 272 

го

ad problems per 

100 vehicles in 1998   to 117 this year according to the survey, which involved 

51,000 vehicle owners. 

Hyundai performed better than 25 Kia, tying with Honda of Japan for second 

place in the rankings after Toyota. The Koreans now lead European carmakers by 

five problems per 100 vehicles and are  ahead of General Motors, Ford and Chrys-
ler, by six problems, while trailing the Japanese by six problems per 100 vehicles. 

‘A decade ago, as Korean manufacturers struggled with a universally poor reputa-

tion for vehicle quality, no-one would have predicted they could not only keep 

pace, but actually pass domestic 40 carmakers and other foreign imports in terms of 

initial quality,’ said Joe Ivers, Executive Director of quality/customer satisfaction 

at JD Power, based in California.

Toyota again dominated the survey, with the fewest problems reported. How-

ever, GM, Ford and Chrysler had more than the industry average of 119 problems 

per 100 vehicles for the second year running. GM’s Cadillac luxury brand and the 

Jaguar marque owned by Ford both narrowed the quality gap with Lexus, Toyo-

ta’s luxury offering that is the biggest seller in the segment. 

Like last year, the study also showed that carmakers across the 6o board are 

making better quality vehicles amid fierce competition and a drive by Detroit to 

make up ground lost for years to Toyota and Honda. Initial quality problems 

dropped industry-wide by 11 percent from last year. However, the Hummer, 
GM’s massive sport utility vehicle inspired by the US army’s Humvee, came bot-

tom of the list of 37 vehicle brands in terms of the number of problems reported, 

for the second year running. 

From the 

Financial Times

COMPREHENSION 

1. Read through the whole article and match the figures with the things 

that they refer to.

57 percent 

a) the number of quality 

2, 272 

problems per 100 Hyundai 

117 

and Kia cars this year 

51,000 

b) the number of brands 

2nd 

covered in the survey 

119 

c) the number of vehicle 

37 owners 

surveyed 

the average number of quality problems per 100 new cars 

the number of quality problems per 100 Hyundai and Kia 

13 

cars six years ago 

the position of Hyundai and Honda in the survey 

the fall in the number of quality problems with Hyundai 
and Kia cars in the last six years 

2. Are the statements about the expressions in italics true or false? 

‘Korean cars 

won the endorsement

 of US car buyers’ means that US car 

buyers still don’t like Hyundai and Kia cars. 

‘Hyundai 

jumped ahead

  of Detroit and some European carmakers in a 

quality survey’ means that previously Hyundai had worse quality than US and 

European cars, and now they have better quality. 

The 

‘initial quality

 survey’ relates to the quality of cars over their whole 

lifetime. 

The number of problems 

reported

  by customers is the number of problems 

that they told the people doing the survey about. 

The number of problems 

dropped

 means that there were fewer problems. 

The survey 

involved

 51,000 vehicle owners means that this number of 

people took part in the survey. 

3. Find expressions in the article to replace the expressions in italics. 

Toyota 

were top

in the survey. 

Some of the results were the same 

this year as last year.

Some carmakers had become closer in quality to

Lexus. 

Carmakers 

everywhere

are improving quality. 

There has been 

an effort

by US carmakers to improve quality. 

US carmakers are trying to 

reduce quality differences

in relation to Toyota 

and Honda. 

The Hummer is 

based on

the Humvee. 

The Hummer had the worst quality of any vehicle in the survey. 

FOLLOW UP 

1. Does the survey confirm your opinions of different car makes? Why / 

why not?

2. Make a list of brands for another product category (e.g. washing ma-

chines). Then rank them for 

perceived quality 

UNIT 3 

MARKETING CHANGE 

START UP 

Do companies change their marketing strategies? Why? Give examples. 

14 

VOCABULARY

1. Match the sentence beginnings (1-5) with the correct endings (a-e).  

1. Farms are now more market-oriented  

2. Since the 1980s, Britain has had a much markets at once. 

3. Many market-led growth businesses, it takes. 

4. Lack of investment and market orientation  

5. American TV is a market-driven industry, a such as Microsoft and Sony, 

are in several 

a) more market-led  

b) and the audience decides the direction 
c) led to falling sales and profits. 

d) and less dependent on government money. 

e) approach to economics. 

2. Choose the best word or phrase to fill each gap.  

Our company makes wooden garden furniture  - mainly tables and chairs. 

Sales are much higher this year because we have spent a lot on (

selling / distri-

buting / marketing

).  First we did a survey about customer 

(wants / needs / uses

). 

Then we redesign all our (

a products / benefits / services

)to include the special ( 

goods / profits / features

) that people want. Our (

presenting / promotion / persua-

sion

) included a competition in all the major gardening magazines where the 

prize was a set of our furniture. Most importantly we’ve made sure all our (

a 

price / costs / charges

) are very competitive because our customers want value 

for money. 

3. Complete each sentence by writing the correct word in each gap.  

1. We advertised on TV , but that’s not enough. We need a whole new mar-

keting 

con…. 

2. We need to tell customers about the special 

ben….. 

that our service pro-

vides. 

3. Our company is market-

ori 

….. Everything we do is about giving buyers 

what they want. 

4. The 

pac….. 

doesn’t only protect the goods – it advertises them too. 

5. I’ve been a 

m..k…r 

for many years and I know how to promote any prod-

uct. 

6. People in different parts of the country buy different things, so 

p…e 

is one 

of the four Ps of marketing. 

LISTENING 

 
1. Richard Brown is the managing partner of Cognosis, a management 

consultancy in London which advises companies on organization and change. 
Listen to the first part of the interview and answer these questions. 

15 

1. What four approaches does Cognosis use to analyse a 

business? 

2. How many different business ‘character types’ does Cog-
nosis recognize? 

3. What three things do companies deal with differently, ac-

cording to Richard? 

2. Listen to the second part of the interview. Tick the sentences below 

which are true, according to Richard, and correct those which are false. 

1. The hardest way to change the character of a business is to 

merge it with another company. 
2. When Guiness and Grand Metropolitan merged, they 

wanted to create a business culture which was different from 

the two companies. 

3. The senior managers spent a lot of money training staff in 

the new business methods. 

4. The new culture was only partly successful. 

3. In the first part of the interview, Richard Brown describes three ways in 

which successful companies are similar. Complete the description below. 

First, they are …….     ……….(1): they have a very clear sense of …….   

………   ……..   ………(2). Second, they’re …….-……..(3): they invest much 

time and energy in understanding and ……..  ……..   ………  ………(4). And 

third, they are ……-…….(5). By that I mean that people inside the organization 

are very clear about the values that should …….   …….  …….(6) and beha-
viours. 

READING 

1

. 

Discuss these questions.  

1. Does the way a soft drinks company advertise its products encourage you 

to buy them? 

2. Do you think people prefer to buy “healthy” drinks these days? Why 

(not)? 

2. Read the article from the Financial Times and answer the questions. 

Marketing: Investors Adapt to Consumer Trends 

By Jenny Wiggins 
 

When the world’s biggest soft drink company starts changing its marketing 

tactics, investors should ask why. Coca-Cola, which has traditionally promoted