Active vocabulary

What business are you in?

Vocabulary:

business	бизнес, коммерческая деятельность, фирма	His sons have worked in the family business for years.
company	компания, фирма	It is the second largest insurance company in Germany.
firm	фирма	Hanson decided to start his own management consulting firm.
concern	фирма, предприятие	The restaurant is a family concern.
enterprise	предприятие	He is the boss of a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
corporation	акционерное общество; корпорация	IBM is one of the biggest corporations in the world.
multinational	транснациональная компания	The government is stimulating the economy by attracting multinationals.

Task 1. Fill in the gaps in the text with the following words:

enterprise, companies, multinationals, investors, medium-sized companies, nationalized

The economy of Eastern Europe has changed a lot. Twenty years ago, the main industries were completely 1 ___ and many 2 ___ were owned by the state. They did not work well, they were inefficient and bureaucratic. Now governments are trying to privatize them, but it is not easy to find 3 ___. People don’t want to put money into the old companies. However, some people are happy to risk their money on new businesses and there are signs that a new 4 ___ culture is growing. 5 ___ and small businesses are creating new jobs. At the same time we can see increasing competition, as world’s largest 6 ___ are entering new markets.

Task 2. Read the text and say whether the following statements are true or false.

Expansion in a downturn

Expansion in an economic downturn is possible for smaller businesses, says Colin Barrow, director of the business growth and development programme at Cranfield School of Management. The challenges are tougher than in good times but small and medium-sized enterprises can still grow, he says, and some of them may be better placed than bigger businesses. He says owner-managers should focus on customers and finance:

• Hang on to customers and research how much more they could order from the business.

• Concentrate on working capital - 'the smaller the business the worse they are at controlling capital,' says Mr. Barrow. He says that often the money they need is already there: 'Many small companies take 90 days to collect payment. Finding ways to reduce that to 35 days would greatly reduce the cost of capital.'

The area of greatest weakness in most small businesses’ strategic thinking is in finance. 'Most small companies are financed by overdraft, the worst source of money,' he says, and advises building links to other sources of finance.

Active vocabulary

Expansion	расширение	Hang on to	цепляться, держаться
Downturn	спад	Working capital	оборотные средства
Challenge	вызов	Reduce	сокращать
Tough	сложный	Weakness	слабость, слабое место
Customer	клиент, потребитель	Source	источник

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16