seria akademicka
business
matters
Elżbieta Jendrych
Halina Wiśniewska
Warszawa 2012
Wydawca
Monika Pawłowska
Redaktor prowadzący
Beata Socha
Redakcja i korekta
EMERALD – Brendan Duffy
Projekt graficzny okładki
Studio Kozak
Zdjęcie wykorzystane na okładce
© iStockphoto.com/Krisztian Miklosy
Skład
Kamila Tomecka
© Copyright for the Polish edition by Wolters Kluwer Polska Sp. z o.o. 2012.
All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-83-264-1587-6
ISBN PDF-a: 978-83-264-3538-6
Wydane przez:
Wolters Kluwer Polska Sp. z o.o.
Redakcja Książek
01-231 Warszawa, ul. Płocka 5a
tel. 22 535 82 00, fax 22 535 81 35
e-mail: [email protected]
www.wolterskluwer.pl
Księgarnia internetowa www.profinfo.pl
Contents
Unit 1. Sectors of the economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
Unit 2. Setting up a business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Unit 3. Company structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Unit 4. Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Unit 5. Business communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Unit 6. Recruitment and selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Unit 7. Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Unit 8. Earning a living. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Unit 9. The market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Unit 10. Market research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Unit 11. Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Unit 12. Pricing and prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Unit 13. Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Unit 14. Promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Unit 15. Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Unit 16. Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Unit 17. International trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Unit 18. Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Unit 19. Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Unit 20. The growth of business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Unit 21. Customer protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Unit 1. Sectors of the economy
9
Comprehension Section
1. Answer the questions.
1.How can you characterize a mixed economy?
2.What industries do you know?
3.How can resources be classified?
4.Do all companies break even?
2. Decide if the sentences are true or false.
1.Land and labour are, to a certain extent, renewable factors of production.
2.Movement of goods is an indispensable aid to trade, both domestic and
international.
3.Good entrepreneurs are not always the most effective people to run a business in the long run.
4.A public company is a company owned by people or other companies, rather
than by the government, or a company whose shares are openly traded.
5.A private company is a company owned by people or other companies,
rather than by the government, or a company whose shares are not openly
traded and can only pass to another person with the agreement of other
shareholders.
6.At present, many experts believe that human resources contribute significantly more to business success than the other resources.
7.When a company does not have enough money to pay its debts, it can be
put under the control of a receiver – a person chosen by the court of law
to be in charge of a bankrupt company.
3. Classify the following from the customer’s point of view
as advantages or disadvantages of a free economy. Try to explain why.
1.Consumers determine what is produced.
2.Competition increases.
3.Big and powerful companies may buy up smaller ones.
4.Everybody who has resources is free to run a business.
5.It is not easy to control air and water pollution.
6.Producers keep costs down.
7.Producers try to be innovative.
8.There may be considerable fluctuations in prices.
10
Business Matters
4. Classify the following from the customer’s point of view
as advantages or disadvantages of a command economy.
1.Large firms cannot control the market.
2.Large firms cannot put up prices.
3.Lack of competition reduces efficiency.
4.Individuals are not free to set up a business.
5.Freedom of choice is lost.
6.Prices tend to be stable.
7.Consumer needs are not responded to quickly.
8.Companies do not invest much in research.
Vocabulary Section
1. Use the words from the pool to complete the sentences.
consumer discretionary • essential goods • consumer durables raw materials • utilities
1.___________ are public services used by everybody, e.g. gas supply or water
supply.
2.___________ or staples are those that are basic to our lives like bread or
water.
3.The ___________ sector includes goods that are not basic to our lives, e.g.
cars, entertainment or electronics.
4.___________ are extracted from the earth.
5.___________ are goods that can be used for a longer period of time, e.g. TV
sets or cars.
2. Complete the sentences.
1.A free market economy is a system in which ______________________.
2.Capital includes not only money but also ______________________.
3.Resources include ______________________.
4.Raw materials are those that ______________________.
5.A command economy may be criticized because ______________________.
6.Some state-owned companies experience difficulties and are unable
to pay their debts; a court of law can even declare they are in the state
of ______________________.
11
Unit 1. Sectors of the economy
3. Match the words to form business collocations.
1. allocate
2. raw
3. command
4. state-owned
5. consumer
6. control
a. goods
b. company
c. pollution
d. economy
f. resources
g. materials
4. Complete the sentences using the correct words from the pool.
Some of the words will not be used, while some may be used more
than once.
state • decisions • services • managers • allocate • materials
profit • allocation • government • resources • taxes • companies
business • machines
1.Most ___________ are limited, that’s why we try not to be wasteful when
allocating them.
2.In a free economy all citizens are free to run a business for ___________ .
3.Communist states make ___________ on the use of ___________ collectively,
usually by the government.
4.Most countries have mixed economies which means that ___________ are
both private and ___________-owned.
5. Complete the sentences.
1.Manufacturing can refer to capital goods, non-durable goods and ___________
goods.
2.State-___________ enterprises are frequently abbreviated to SOEs.
3.The term SMEs stands for small and ___________-sized enterprises.
4.An entrepreneur is a person who knows how to start a ___________ by
bringing together all ___________ and who is not ___________ of ___________
the related risk.
5.A laissez-faire approach means that the government does not ___________
in business; it lets the ___________ mechanisms work freely, without any
___________ on the one hand and without any privileges on the ___________.
6.A ___________ economy means no government ___________ in the business
sector.
12
Business Matters
6. Put the words in the correct order.
1.by individuals / in/ owned and allocated / a market economy / are / resources
2.keep the profits / in a free / they generate / investors / economy / have
the right to / market
3.are / state-owned / generate / to / companies / expected / profits
4.the / the / and other / includes / providing / banking system / financial sector /
financial organizations / financial services / various
5.for instance / capital /deposits / buildings and machines / is anything/as well
as / owned by a company / on bank accounts
7. Explain the meaning of the collocations in English.
1.allocation of resources
2.means of production
3.private sector
4.public sector
5.light industry
8. Word search
Find words hidden in the grid and make collocations related
to the topic of this unit.
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