Wednesday 15 April 2009

homework

2.The agreement has to go to the board for expertise.
3.We have had a retainer working in the office this week to clear the backlog of letters.
4.His overall performance has imprived considerably since he went on a management training course.
5.The salary range for this sort of job is between 17000 and 19000.
6.We hired Mr Smith because of his financial technique.
7.Although the work itself was interesting, there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the organisation and its rules.
8.When he disobeyed the orders he was given, he was dismissed for gross misconduct.
9.There is a lot of friction between the sales and accounts staff which we need to resolve as soon as possible.
10.The company sent her on a management course to help her develop her managerial skills.
11.She has finished university and is now looking for a ratification with a design agency.
13.London is an expensive city, so people working for our company there receive a 2000 London placement in addition to their salary.
14.The management received a lot of feedback on how popular the new pay scheme was proving.
15.The union has threatened an escalation in strike action.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

business vocabulary 3

Objectives and strategy:
Aims:setting a long term objective
Business plan: a report which is about marketing strategy, production costing and financial implications of business start-up.
Copyright: It’s a legal protection against copying from others’ writing.
Corporate objectives: The goals of the whole enterprise.
Corporate plan: It’s the document that sets out how business strategy is to be implemented.
Entrepreneur: a person who has flair for business opportunities and risk taking.
Flotation: the term given to the launch of a company on to the stock market by the offer of its shares to the public.
Goals: targets that act as a focus for decision-making and effort.
Limited liability: owners/shareholders are financially only responsible for the amount they have invested in the company rather than their personal wealth.
Share: a certificate entitling the holder to dividends and shareholders’ rights in proportion to the number of shares owned.
Patent: the right to be the sole user or producer of invention of a new process or product.
Partnership: a form of business organization where two or more people trade together.
Private limited company (ltd): a small to medium-size business that is usually run by the family that owns it.
Public limited company (plc): a limited liability business with over £50 000 of share capital and a wide spread of shareholders.
Short-termism: a phrase describing the state of managers for whom rapid results are the top priority.
Sole trader: an individual who owns and control the business, but he may or may not employ other people.
SWOT analysis: It’s the assessment of a product, division or organization in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Tactics: are measures adopted to deal with a short-term opportunity or threat.
Unlimited liability: means that, the owner of a business is liable for all the debts it may incur.

Saturday 28 March 2009

business vocabulary 2

External influences:
Bank rate: the interest rate set by MPC
Business cycle: regular pattern of upturns and downturns in demand and output.
Capacity: the maximum amount of products a company can produce in a period time
Competition policy: government’s approach to ensuring that competition is active enough to provide consumers with goods and services that are high quality and fairly priced.
Consumer durables: goods which for households use but can use it for a period of time or long time.
Consumer protection: a type of law to protect the right of customers
Cycle unemployment: the consequence of an economic downturn.
Deflation: it’s a period of falling demand and prices.
Ethics: decisions which we making should follow moral
Excess capacity: having more production potential than they will use in the future.
Exchange rate: the price of one country’s currency expressed in terms of another.
Inflation: a sustained rise in the average prices of goods within an economy.
Interest rates: percentage of cost of borrowing money.
Investment: use capital to make future returns.
Market: to describe the meeting place between customers and suppliers.
Market economy: economy which allows markets to determine the allocation of resources.
Monopoly: single producer control a market.
Oligopoly: a market which is demand more than supply.
Resistance to change: refuse to change, mistrust of the motives of proposing change, and worried about loss of job security.
Stakeholder: people who interest in an organisation’s performance. (e.g. employees shareholders, customers, suppliers, financiers and local community)
Structural unemployment: happens when there is a change in demand or technology which causes long-term unemployment.
Unfair competition: firm use methods that harmful to the interest of other producers and consumers.

business vocabulary 1

Unit 1:
Accounting and finance:
Break-even point:When total revenue equal to total cost.
Budgetary control: By comparing actual with budget for revenues and expenses. Analyzing the divergences to cope with the unexpected.
Cash flow: cash inflow minus cash outflow
Cash flow forecast: predict a firm’s cash inflow and outflow detailed.
Contribution: total revenue minus variable costs.
Cost centre: a department to distribute the specific costs.
Factoring: a company let someone else to collection debt instead. Get 80% of the value of invoiced sales as cash advance from them.
Fixed costs: a type of cost of company which not change. (e.g. land, machinery
)
Overdraft: a firm spends more then it own, borrow money from bank and It has maximum limit for any period time.
Profit: total revenue minus total cost
Profit centre: a department of a company that has been given authority to run itself as a business within a business.
Safety margin: difference between demand and break-even.
Sale and leaseback: a contract to sale firm and at the same time buying back on a long-term lease.
Share capital: total value of invest from shareholders.
Variable cost: A type of cost which change along with output.
Variance analysis: analysis differences between actual and budget
Venture capital: risk capital,
Working capital: current assets – current liabilities
Zero budgeting: setting budget at zero, demanding that managers should give a full justification for every pound of budget they request.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Using computers in business

Using computers in business is very common nowadays. Because use computers can improve working efficiency. It's really a good tool for communicating, organisation and do some research. So it can save a lot of time and it cost very low, basically it's fix cost.
However, using computers is also a skill. So companies may need to spend money train employees. That's cost money and spend time.

TQM improve management and profit

TQM is a type of Japanese management which stand for total quality management. It means that the whole workforce has to be committed to quality improvements.
Many companies only pay attention to the quality of products. TQM is to improve quality of every part of business like selling, production, communication, finance and so on. So it improves management.
As TQM improve the quality of production, therefor it can reduce the waste therefor costs will be lower. The quality of products will be improved by TQM as well, so products are likely to be inelastic, so we can make selling price higher. Because of the high quality, so products are less likely to be given back and customers are less likely to complain. After TQM companies may easier to communicate with supplier. So it can reduce the cost, keep stock level low and make sure have enough material for production. All these benefits can either reduce costs or increase selling price. So TQM can improve profit.

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Vocal Smoke Alarm

Unlike conventional ‘whistling’ smoke alarms, the signal one safety vocal smoke alarm is presently the only alarm that allows a parent or carer to record an emergency vocal message, Research suggests that this is more effective than smoke alarm tones.

This is a good idea, because when smoke alarm ring some people may don’t know what happened or what to do. Instead of strident conventional ‘whistling’, this sounds much better, and can tell people exactly what to do. But this product is not difficult to produce. So if the product is successful, this company may face many competitions in the future. So they can apply patent. For a new product, even it's a good product, how can people know this product? So choose the right way to advertise and sell products is very important.