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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The best way to motivate Premiership footballers is....

Football is one of the most popular sport in the world. There are many famous footballers in the world. Their wages are higher than normal people. Some have really high wages. As Premiership footballers, they must have very high wages. So use money to motive them is not good enouth. They are in high level in MOSLW stage, so they probability in self-actualization stage. So become famous and more successful person can motivate them. Also, let them to be captain, give them more responsibility. It's a theory Y. If they buy shares of their the football club, they will get power and can make money. In a word, the best way to motivate is giving responsibility and power to them.

The best leadership style

There are four types of leadership, they are Dictatorial Style, Authoritative Style, Consultative Style and Participative Style.
Dictatorial Style: The leader or manager using this style operates like a dictator. They make all the decisions about what, where, when, why, how things are done, and who will do them by themselves. Employees can only do as leaders tell them. It can make employees to be disciplined, but it can cause early retirement or abdicate. Leaders ignores advice employees give, it's not good for management, production and improve products.
Authoritative Style:When leaders want to make decision, they would like to ask people who they think are the most qualified and experienced. To consider his/her views to be most valid. The weakness of this leadership style is they are often denied opportunities to use or exhibit their skills in decision-making venues. The strength of this style is to produce action when it is needed.
Consultative Style: This style is using the skills, experiences, and ideas of others. However, leaders are still who make decisions.
Participative Style: Team member ideas or equal with the leader. It's good for improving creativity. Usually accept team idea over own, but it takes more time to make a decision.

I don't think there is the best leadership style. Each of them has its weakness and strength. So how to use them in correct way and in right situation is the most improtant thing. For creative people who full of good ideas, we can use participative Style. For people who have skill and experience, we can use consultative Style. For people who are lazy and arrogant we can use dictatorial Style.

A new month coming

My life was so hard in this February. I can't remember anything particularly bad. Just some unlucky things came one to another. And then lose motivation completely. I was trying control myself and motivate myself, but still ......
Next month I will move to a new host family and it sounds good. So it's good news for me, and I will start doing work, and trying to get A in each subject.
I really want to go to top university, so do as I say is the most important thing.

Are motivational theorists still relevant?

To motivate employee is very important to a company. Because of the recession the unemployment is increasing. Many companies cut jobs to reduce costs. So how to motivate employees and increase productivity is very important. So I think motivational theorists are still very useful and it’s necessary to learn it. There are many famous theorists such as Taylor Hertzberg, Mayo, Maslow, Vroom and McGregor. In different situation we should use different way to motivate people. For example, after you cut many jobs in company, employees will under pressure and afraid to loss job(Hertzberg demotivate - pressure). If some people work for money, pay more money is a good way to motivate them(Taylor payment buy results).
In a word, motivational theorists are still useful and helpful for management. The point is if we can use it correctly.

Failure of Nissan

As recession getting worse, many companies make less profit than before. Nissan which is one of the biggest car companies in Japan will cut about 20,000 jobs because its sales keep going down. Net loss for the October-December period amounted to 83.2 billion yen ($904 million), compared with net income of 132.2 billion yen in the year-earlier period. Revenue dropped 34% to 1.817 trillion yen. It expects a net annual profit of 160billion yen, down from 484bn yen a year earlier, and well short of its previous 340bn yen forecast. That’s what happening to this company now.
I think reasons why these happen to this company are:
1. Recession comes, people have lower income and they lose confidence.
2. Higher costs, the growth of wages and more expensive materials make costs going up.
3. Competition, demand of the market is going down, but there are still many competitors. The prices of cars are becoming cheaper. So it difficult to cut the price when costs going up.
So I think, reduce the costs is the best way to survive. Cutting jobs is a good idea, but not too much so that can make sure the company have enough productivity to achieve the market. And keep some jobs is also good for society.
Relocation is another idea, now many big companies are changing place of factories. They are more likely to move to developing countries because labour, land and materials are cheaper there.
Maybe they can find out new product. Such as bike, motorcycle.
Here is some news for you to have a look.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7701398.stm
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/nissan-may-forecast-annual-loss/story.aspx?guid=%7B620762B0-E3C4-4E80-A9A1-365B71372E6C%7D&dist=msr_2

English Speaking Contest of national college students

Her speech is talking about protecting environment. She is a really good speaker, and she won the English Speaking Contest.

Wednesday market and Cover market

Today, we visited two markets Wednesday market and Cover market.

Wednesday market is an open market which can buy fruits, vegetables, meet, food, shoes, clothes and so on. Wednesday market is not such a big market and also the quality of products are low. But compared with supermarkers and shops the price is much lower. But I think the quality of fruits are same. Cover market is a market which is inside. Compared with Wednesday market the quality of products in cover market are higher, however the price are little bit higher. Both market don't have a lot of customers, maybe it's because of it's wednesday and it's day time. People got to work at this time. But for cover market, it opens everyday. But wednesday market only open on wednesday, so this is a weedness of this market. And I think people are more likely to by products in cover market, because the quality of products in cover market are higher then wednesday market and also it's cheaper then supermarket. Because wednesday is a open market and it sells food, but it looks not very clean so maybe customers will think about their health so maybe they prefer cover market.

As recession getting worse, people will more likely to go shopping in market which have cheaper products. So this kind of plece is a good place.

ways to use bricks

1.build houses
2.make road
3.use it to fight
4.use it to protect myself when someone attack me
5.when you tired, you can sit on it
6.use it to make a pool
7.use it as a pen, to write on floor when the floor is cement
8.use it to make a parterre
9.to keep a door open
10.to sharpen knifes
11.make it as a sculpture
12.trip someone
13.break nuts
14.use it as dumbbells
15.hit on your head when you feel bad
16.train kung fu
17.make it as an ax
18.use it to kill animals like hunting
19.use it to make BBQ
20.use it to make a bed
21.use it to make a bowl
22.use it in war to attack, such as sling
23.stand on it, you can see further
24.stand on it, you can get something high
25.if you drop the ball in a lake, throw them in lake, let the ball come to bank
26.hit nail into wood
27.after raining, there are some ponds on road, use bricks to pass ponds
28.use it to make wall
29.use them to make a stick stand straight
30.use it as a target

Generation Y

Generation Y is workforce which are younger generations. So as younger people, full of energy, confidence, learn fast, time are their predominances. So Generation Y can bring energy to a company. So how to movative them, train them is very important. Here are some pieces of advice obout movative Generation Y:
They are looking for work/life balance
They want to be heard and valued
They need regular recognition
They want to work somewhere fun
They are motivated by challenge and a collaborative environment

However, i think there are still some problems may happen.
1.Generation Y usually have less experience, and easier to make mistakes.
2.Generation Y are more flippancy, they more likely to change jobs.
3.After spend long time train Generation Y, they may leave the company, it's not good for company.
4.Generation Y sometimes they are too confident, they want high wages but do less work.

YouTube - Barack Obama Pre-Inauguration Speech 2009-01-21

Internet Browser: IE vs Firefox

As we know, Microsoft monopolize many software such as IE, OFFICE, FRONTPAGE... Because most of computers use windows operating system. So customers will default to use the softwares which with this operating system. After customers learn how to use these softwares and can use them easily, they may not want to use others softwares which are have the same fuction. Google has itself Internet Browser firefox. So how google break this monopoly and replace IE?
I've got some ideas, or some ideas which google is trying to do.
1.Make Browser more convenient and more easy to use. As the developing of technology, computer have more and more functions. But customers want it more easy to use and more simple.
2.Make it more safer. Virus is one of the biggest problems of computer, and most of virus are come through Browser. And also can protect customers password. So make it more safer, custumers will more likely to use it.
3.Cooperate with other websites and softwares. If firefox is better than IE, how customers know that? They can Cooperate with other websites and softwares. e.g. In some websites if people want to watch some videos or read something, it must use firefox to read it. In software, they can put firefox and popular software together, after people fix one software, it will ask if they want to fix firefox as well?
4.Advertising. I think advertising is easier for google. Google itself is a big website and it's a good place to advertising, so it have lower cost to advertising.

Shortcut Guide: How to start your own £100,000 a year internet business

This report is talking about how to start internet business.
1. The most important web-wealth is market, focused on market not products.
2. what to sell?
● Find the right market and marketing methods.
●You should be fanatical about what you sell.
●We’re looking for niche markets here, not vast worldwide markets.
●your product must be easy to mail or deliver.
●Targeting people who want health/wealth/happiness. They are a large market and hungry for products too.
●Don’t even think about a product until you have the market, then make the product fit the market.
3. how your website should look?
●Corporate, slick and glitzy are your enemies.
●To be absolutely clear, here’s what to avoid:
• Logos
• Drop-down menus
• Fancy graphics
• Animations
• Sound
●pictures: 1. A product shot, if it needs one.
2. A head and shoulders shot of you, the honest-to-goodness proprietor. (But not in a suit, make it a warm, ‘I’m a normal bloke/woman’ sort of shot.)
●SHORTCUT SAYS:
When it comes to what your website looks like, you need to take into account the ‘Ten Golden Rules for KillerWebsites’...
a. NO LOGO! Nobody gives a monkey’s about your logo apart from you.
b.Mainly text.
c. No graphics. No animations.
d. No menus if possible.
e. NOTHING which leads them away from the text of your message.
f.Your sales message are what carries them through to the sale at the end.
g. Neutral background.
h. Not full width lines – too long to read.
i.Two colours maximum.
j. ALWAYS black for the ‘body text’.

4. who should design your website?
Not yourself!
SHORTCUT SAYS: Stick to your guns and make sure you find a designer who is willing to do exactly what you want them to do, keep it simple, and keep it cheap.
And remember, it is always better to get someone in – it frees your time up for working out the more important stuff.

5. How many products to sell?
One !
SHORTCUT SAYS: When you have a designer, just point them to this site and say “That’s what I want!”

6. Why do people use the internet?
People using the internet don’t want to be sold something; they want information... and THEN they might end up buying something if there isn’t a heavy sell. You MUST get your head around this because when you do, you’ll be poised to scoop out your share of internet profits.
SHORTCUT SAYS: The standard formula is ‘headache – aspirin’. The first part of your pitch talks about their ‘headache’ and sympathises with their problem. It offers some practical guidance and help. That’s the take-home content.

7. The landing page and credibility.
●Internet businesses which fail ALWAYS do so for two simple reasons:
a. Not enough traffic being driven to the website.
b. The traffic being driven to the website is not converted into a sale effectively.
SHORTCUT SAYS: Remember why your visitor came to your site in the first place. Think about the process which got them there. What KEYWORDS did they enter? They have a problem they want to solve, so they entered a keyword in a search engine or responded to a small classified advert or an email advert in an opt-in ezine. They saw your pay per click ad and clicked on it. And now here they are on your landing page.
●There are two things the internet is starved of:
• Informational Content
• Real Contact
8. How to drive traffic to your website?
● Here are the six ways we can achieve this:
1. Pay for an advert (like a Google AdWords) to appear on peoples’ searches.
2.Manipulate the search engines so that our website gets in the top spots for FREE when people
search for something. This is also called ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and it’s why you need a decent web designer and not Glynis Jones from 43b, RubyTerraces who’s doing it as a little hobby.
Your web designer will know exactly how to get your website as close to the top of the search engines as possible. This takes more time (often several months) than buying your way in – but it’s free!
3.Tiny adverts in classified sections of newspapers. These are low cost, simple adverts which contain a headline and a website address.
4. Create your own opt-in e-zine, which has solid information but also has slots for adverts.This is how a lot of internet millionaires have managed to get where they are.
5. Put those same adverts in other people’s opt-in e-zines. But bear in mind, they will want a cut of your profits!
6. Send someone an email which persuades them to go to your website. This is email marketing, not SPAM.
●Remember to always be genuine.
There are two ways to be genuine:
1. Email list rental – Use only opt-in email lists.This would be where you rented the email list from a company which has its own email list of people who asked to receive emails on a certain topic (e.g. health). Most of the time, these lists are very unresponsive as the people who are on them usually just forgot to un-tick a box somewhere in the small print and ended up on the list.When they get an email they think they’re being spammed (even though they aren’t really). Double opt-in list rental is slightly better.This is a better quality list to rent and quite rare.This is where the person has been put on an ‘opt-in’ list but also, they have been sent a confirmation email which asks them once again if they want to be sent email messages. So they have, in fact, opted in twice. However, there’s something even better than this...
2. Create you own list –This is the best one of all.What your ultimate aim in all this should be is to build your own email database of customers as quickly as possible.Your own email list who know you and trust you (providing you’ve earned that trust!).

2008 a remarkable year for China

How best to fight the recession? +my comment

"Fears that the power of interest rates to boost the economy is failing have left The Times Monetary Policy Committee sharply split over how the Bank of England should react today.Worries that banks’ refusal to lend means that the cost of all borrowing is becoming less relevant have opened divisions over the best next move on rates.Most members of the independent panel of economic experts are warning of the mounting threat to the economy from the lending drought and on the need for aggressive and unconventional action by the Bank and Treasury to tackle the issue.But The Times MPC is deeply divided over the implications for today’s decision on interest rates, which is expected to involve a cut to under 2 per cent, a level not reached since the Bank was established in 1694.Three members call for the Bank to cut rates by a full percentage point to 1 per cent, in what would be its third drastic reduction in three months. Yet such action is opposed by three other members, who argue that rate cuts have become an irrelevant distraction. This faction calls for radical alternative steps to force more bank lending and to boost the flow of credit to businesses. It is suggested that these could include extended guarantees for the banks and perhaps direct public lending to companies.Even The Times MPC members backing a big rate cut today call for this to be coupled with unorthodox moves through so-called “quantitative easing” – pumping money into the economy and driving down commercial interest rates through the Bank buying up existing debt.Sushil Wadhwani, a former member of the Bank’s MPC, who called for a full percentage point cut in rates, said: “Rates need to get close to zero quickly and the Bank should then shift to unorthodox measures.”Bronwyn Curtis, of HSBC, agreed and also backed a one-point rate cut: “If the Bank has to go down the path of using unconventional measures, it is better to cut rates sooner rather than later to pave the way for it.”A more modest half-point rate cut was advocated by Geoffrey Dicks, of RBS, Charles Goodhart, a founding member of the Bank’s MPC, and Sir Alan Budd, former chief economic adviser at the Treasury. Professor Goodhart said that uncertainty over the state of consumer demand and new wage deals, and the weakness of the pound, justified a more cautious move.Two panel members – Sir Steve Robson, former Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, and Rupert Pennant-Rea, former Bank Deputy Governor – said that there was little point in cutting rates at all. Their stance was backed by Martin Weale, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, who said that this meant there was also little point in voting for any rate change and opted to abstain.Sir Steve said that “it is pretty clear that cutting rates is having little effect other than to destabilise sterling in a worrying manner”. He argued that the focus should be on the “crux of the problem”, which he said was banks’ “deleveraging” and resulting lending curbs, as well a “major loss of confidence” in many parts of the economy . . . The authorities need to address these issues directly . . . this would point to actions such as open-ended guarantees for the liabilities side of banks’ balance sheets or lending directly from the Government’s balance sheet.”Mr Pennant-Rea agreed. “The best option is for the Government to guarantee bank loans, for specified purposes and for a limited period. It is high time the monetary debate concentrated on the banks.”
Source: The Times today

When recession comes, who can be the saver, to save the world? I think maybe government can lead people go out of the recession. When recession comes, usually government will cut the interest rate. Therefore people will more likely to spend money or invest than keep money in bank. So that can raise cash flow and boost the economic growth. Government should also support and encourage people to start up new business, therefore more jobs can be created. So that can reduce the unemployment. On the other hand, government should also support jobless people the be trained and help them to get a new job.