- •Introduction
- •Profile: meet James Franklin
- •Welcome to Insead
- •Scientists tell us why we don't like Monday
- •Rush hour etiquette in Tokyo
- •Mr and Mrs Boss
- •The right person for the job
- •Hi, I'm on the plane at 39,000 ft
- •Travel agents or the Internet?
- •Is 'Power tea' the new lunch?
- •How to ... Have a successful business lunch
- •So you want to be a mail order entrepreneur?
- •How to buy almost everything
- •The Book People
- •Too young to manage
- •A new energy drink
- •Older people, new markets
- •The world's most respected companies
- •Krispy Kreme
- •The spam debate
- •Work and play in Dubai
- •'Se habla espanol' isn't enough
- •Applying for business school
- •WeWantWork
- •Innovative difficulties 1.
- •Innovative difficulties 2.
- •Getting ideas across
- •Reaching the smokers
- •Computers as a colour experience
- •Personal time management for busy managers
- •Hope for dying housing estates
- •Starting every day with a song
- •Teamwork and success
- •Negotiating by e-mail
- •The future is mediation rather than litigation
- •A price that’s hard to refuse
- •Sarah to the rescue
- •New products for the cyclist
- •New medical products
- •Literature
The right person for the job
How does a small business become a big business? A company can’t grow unless it employs the right staff to do important jobs. It is easy for companies to make mistakes and recruit the wrong people for important jobs. Sally Thomson is the managing director of Thomson Norton Consultants in Surrey, England.
The company’s annual turnover is £500,000. The company needed a new project manager to work with important clients. It took a long time to advertise the job, check applications and interview and test candidates. Finally Ms Thomson chose the new project manager - but the person left after only six weeks.
How can employers recruit the right staff? Perhaps existing staff have got the right skills for a new position in the company. For example, a marketing person can have good financial skills. The ideal person for the job could already be working in your company.
From FT.com
1. Read the article again and answer the questions.
a) What is Sally Thomson's job title?
b) Which company does Sally work for?
c) Where is the company?
d) What job did the company advertise?
2. Are these sentences true or false?
a) It is easy for companies to employ the right person.
b) The annual turnover of the company is £100,000.
c) The company needed a new sales manager.
d) It took a long time to choose the right candidate.
e) The new employee left the company after six weeks.
Over to you
Put the recruitment steps into the correct order. Can you add any others?
How to recruit a new employee
interview candidates
employ staff
check applications
advertise the job
Unit 4 Travel
The travelling office
Level of difficulty **
Before you read
Look at the words in the box. Tick (•) the things that a person can take on a plane when travelling on business.
Filing cabinet mobile phone desk photocopier laptop palm pilot
|
Reading
Read this article adapted from the Financial Times and answer the questions.
Hi, I'm on the plane at 39,000 ft
What do you do when you are flying on business? How do you use the time? Do you work? Or do you use the journey to relax before a meeting or conference? At the moment it can be difficult for businesspeople to work on the flight. They cannot use the same technology that they have in their office. But that is about to change. New technological developments allow passengers to send and receive
e-mails and text messages on some flights. A new system called Connexion allows travellers to use the Internet, too. “Anything you can do on your computer at home, you can now do in the sky,” says Scott Carson, presidentof Connexion by Boeing. The technology can also help passengers relax by listening to their own music and watching favourite videos.
Why are airlines investing in this technology? Air Canada’s market research shows that business travellers want to work any time, any place. Last year Air
Canada asked frequent fliers what technology they were carrying on flights: 83 percent had mobile phones, 70 percent had laptops and 46 percent had palm pilots. Perhaps we want our office to travel with us everywhere we go.
From the Financial Times
1. Number the paragraph summaries in the correct order.
a) The things people carry on planes
b) New technology helps passengers work and relax on flights.
c) Why business travellers find it difficult to work on planes
2. Use words from the text to complete the sentences. Paragraph l
a) It isn't easy for ………………..to work on a plane.
b) …………………is when you travel from one place to another.
Paragraph 2
c) New technological …………………..can help people to work when they travel.
d) People can ……………by listening to music or watching videos.
Paragraph 3
e) When you want to discover what customers want, it is a good idea to do
some ………………..
f) People who often travel by plane are called……………………. …………..
Over to you
What things do you always take with you when you travel? Do you prefer to relax or work on the journey?
Unit 4 Travel
Travel agents or the Internet?
Level of difficulty ***
Before you read
Match the title with the definition.
1. Mrs a) an unmarried woman
2. Mr b) a single or married woman
3. Miss c) a married woman
4. Ms d) a single or married man
Reading
Read this article adapted from the Financial Times and answer the questions.