Find a word or phrase from the text that has a similar meaning

A Word
search

1. Find
a word or phrase from the text that has a similar meaning.

a) movement
of money into and out of a company’s bank accounts (sum-

mary)

cash f..low

b) passing
tasks to an external company (summary)

о

c) individuals
who are self-employed and work independently (summary)

f.

d) describes
a large company that produces everything it needs internal-

ly(paral)

v i

e) external
companies that provide products or services to an
organisa-

tion(paral)

о s

f) parts
of a company that operate independently as separate profit
cen-

tres(para2)

i u

g) where
price and quality are the main factors for doing business (para 3)

о m

h) something
large companies can achieve by doing things in big vol-

umes(para
4)

e of s

2 There
are many words that can be used instead of’company’. Four other words
are used in the text. What are they? Is there any difference in
meaning be­tween them?

В
Understanding expressions

Choose the
best explanation for each phrase from the text

1. ‘the
days of the big corporation are numbered’.

1. big companies
   will become less important in the future;

2. companies
   will have to improve their financial controls.

2. ‘control
is being passed down the line’.

1. nobody in the
   company wants to take decisions —

2. some
   decisions will be taken at lower levels in the company.

3. ‘what
underlies this trend?’.

1. is this trend
   really true?

2. what are the
   reasons for this trend?

4. ‘in
essence’.

1. basically;

2. necessarily.

5. ‘organisations
shrink’.

1. they become
   smaller;

2. they
   disappear completely.

6. ‘the
economic equation changes’.

1. things become
   cheaper because of the Internet;

2. there is a
   move in favour of decentralization.

С
Complete the sentence

Use an
appropriate verb and preposition to complete each sentence.

1. Large
multinationals still exercise considerable power o..ver

many people
around the world.

2. It’s
a difficult problem. It will take time to w о the

best way to
solve it.

1. In a
   traditional, hierarchical company, employees are expected to с о the
   orders of their superiors.

2. To improve
   flexibility and speed of reaction we have decided to b the company
   u into separate business units.

3. Our policy is
   to t business only w companies

that have a
strong environmental policy.

6. The
speed at which you can get information from the Internet is
some-

times a b the time of day.

Speaking
tasks

A Prepare a
short summary of the article (7-10 sentences) В
Retell the article pointing out as many details as possible

Learning
by heart

Learn all
unknown words and word combinations for you from the article

PART
2 CULTURAL ISSUES

Unit 7
Corporate
cultures

Reading
tasks

A Read the
text, write out all the unknown words with transcription from the
article

В
Understanding main points

Read the text
on the opposite page about the merger of two companies and their
corporate cultures and answer these questions.

1. Which company
   is bigger-Asda or Wal-Mart?

2. What are
   employees at Asda called?

3. Which two
   countries are Asda and Wal-Mart from?

4. Which
of these statements best summarises the corporate cultures of

Asda
and Wal-Mart?

• We must keep
  costs as low as possible.

• We value the
  contribution of every employee to the success of the company.

• Everyone in
  the company is considered equal.

5. What
extra financial benefit do Wal-Mart employees have?

6. Allan
Leighton mentions three things needed to get the deal ‘to
work

culturally’. What are they?

С
Understanding details

Mark these
statements T (true) or F (false) according to the information in the
text. Find the part of the text that gives the correct information.

1. Asda and
   Wal-Mart have very similar corporate cultures. T

2. Asda is the
   biggest supermarket group in the UK.

3. Wal-Mart is
   the biggest retailing group in the US.

4. Asda had
   financial problems in the 1980s.

5. Many of
   Asda’s employees are over 65.

6. Allan
   Leighton is sure the merger of Asda with Wal-Mart will succeed.

7. Wal-Mart
   plans to impose its corporate culture on Asda.

8. Creating a
   corporate culture cannot be planned in theory only.

D
Understanding meanings

1. Choose the
best explanation of the phrase ‘there are few who really be­lieve
putting Asda into the Wal-Mart network will result in anything but
success¹

1. most people
   think the combination of Asda and Wal-Mart will succeed;

2. not many
   people think the merger will succeed.

2. What does
Allan Leighton mean when he says ‘it all boils down to peo­ple in
the end’ (line 81).

1. the number of
   people in the new organisation will need to be reduced;

2. people are
   the most important element in a merger or takeover.

TRANSPOSING
A CULTURE by
Peggy Hollinger

Not to be
taken for granted

Asda and
Wal-Mart should be the perfect merger, given that the former has
deliberately set out to copy the US retailing giant’s style. But Asda
is keenly aware of the pitfalls.

You could not
hope to find a neater fit, said the commentators when Wal-Mart, the
world’s biggest retailer, agreed a J6.7bn takeover deal with Asda,
the UK’s number three supermarket group.

It had long
been known that the team which was brought in to rescue Asda from
collapse in the mid-1980s had deliberately set out to copy virtually
every aspect of the giant US discount group that could be replicated
in the UK.

So Asda stores
have ‘colleagues’, not employees. They have people in the parking
lots to help drivers to park. They have old-age pensioners wearing
col­ourful name badges, standing at the door to say hello and ask
customers if they need help. In the Leeds headquarters no one has an
individual office, not even the chairman. Finally, store staff get
actively involved in promoting individual product lines, and are
rewarded when their efforts lead to tangible sales im­provements.

Most of these
ideas came straight from Bentonville, Arkansas, home to one of the
world’s most unusual retailers. For Wal-Mart’s corporate culture has
become a legend in retailing.

The company’s
employees chant the Wal-Mart cheer before store meet­ings. They
benefit from a share ownership scheme which is one of the most
widespread in the industry. Top executives share rooms when on
business trips, and pay for their coffee and tea from vending
machines like the lowliest sales assistant.

Given the
similarities, there are few who really believe putting Asda into the
Wal-Mart network will result in anything but success. But, says
Asda’s Chief Executive, Allan Leighton, this is no reason to be
complacent. Failing to bring together corporate cultures, even those
as similar as Asda’s and Wal-Mart’s, could lead to the downfall of
the most logical mergers. ‘When acquiring or merging with a business,
getting the cultures to fit is fundamentally important,’ he says.
Half-way houses, where compromises are made, never work, he
be­lieves, and nor does imposing one culture on another. ‘A
company calling their colleagues colleagues and treating them like
staff is not the answer,’ he says.

The
key to getting the deal to work culturally rests on a few fundamental
issues, he believes. The first and most important is terminology, he
says. ‘Busi
nesses
have their own language. You have to get everyone aligned so that
when someone uses a word it means the same thing to everyone.’

Middle
management comes next. ‘Initially, everything is done at the top of
the organisation,’ he says. ‘But most of the work is done in the
middle.’ If middle management is not incentivised, a deal can go
horribly wrong. ‘It all boils down to people in the end. And what
motivates people? Unless you can demonstrate very quickly that their
influence in the organisation is at least the same if not better than
before, then people will get concerned about it,’ he says.

Third
comes getting to know each other. Asda and Wal-Mart have spent the
last few weeks swapping store managers and IT systems staff. ‘We will
go out there, look and bring back,’ Leighton says. ‘That way we will
have owner­ship of the changes as opposed to having them pushed
on us.’

It
will always be hard to determine whether a merger or takeover has
failed because the cultures simply did not fit. But success is more
likely to elude those who do not really believe in the cultures they
are trying to create. ‘This all comes from the heart,’ says Leighton.
‘You do not get it from textbook manage­ment or instruction. You
have to create an environment where people feel com­fortable in
expressing themselves in a different way.’

FINANCIAL
TIMES

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Progress
Check – 3

V – 1

I.
Find the word with the same or similar meaning.

Example: dull – c)

                a) original        b) fascinating       c) boring

1. to report

   a) to borrow             b) to inform               c) to explain

2. advertisement

   a) commercial          b) review                c) quiz

3.  headline

   a)  article    
      b) 
title            c) conclusion

4. quality

   a) popular           b) original         c) serious

5. handbook

   a) manual           b) guidebook      c) encyclopedia

6. fascinating

   a) gripping           b) brilliant        c) amusing

II.
Complete each sentence with one of the words or phrases below.

     whenever         wisdom                  tabloids                     events                         celebrate                     prove

                     book               broadcast               issue                         suggested

 1. … contain a lot of photographs 
and have a more sensational reporting style.

2. Smoking is bad. Can you … it?

3. Local newspapers give information on different … happening in the
local area.

4. I’d like to … tickets for a group of students to London.

5. Series is a long drama or comedy or documentary that is … in parts,
usually at a certain time of day.

6. The first … of the newspaper “The Daily Courant” was published in London in 1702.

7. … you ask for help, I’ll help you.

8. My uncle … making green tea as it is very good for the health.

9. Mikhail Lomonosov was known as a man of great … .

10. How did you … the turn of the century?

III.  The word in capitals above each of the
following sentences can be used to form a word that fits suitably in the blank
space. Fill each blank in this way.

Example:  MANAGE

               He is the manager of a popular singer.

1. DAY

  … newspapers are published on
every day of the week except Sunday.

2. COMMENT

  Who is your favourite TV … ?

3. COMMUNCATE

  Pamela thinks that the Internet
is the most useful means of … .

4. CULTURE

  I prefer to read articles about
… affairs in our town.

5. PRINT

  I think CD books will be much
more popular with teenagers of my generation than … books.

IV.
Complete the sentences. Choose the correct variant.

Example: I’ve got a lot of …
(work/ works) to do for the weekend. –

                I’ve got a lot
of  work
to do for the weekend.

1. What  (is/ are) her progress in
English?

2. (Is/ Are) there any news from Andy?

3. Where (is/ are) Granny’s glasses?

4. (Is/ Are) these goods from America?

5. I got a lot of useful (information/ informations).

6. Do you eat much (fruit/ fruits)?

7. I like any kind of (weather/ weathers).

V.
Complete the sentences. Choose the correct variant.

Example:  My mother disapproved of … (to read/ reading)
thrillers. —

                 My mother
disapproved of  reading thrillers.

1. I have never dreamed of (to win/ winning) a competition.

2. My sister always enjoys (to go/ going) for a walk.

3. The angry neighbour told the teenagers to stop (to speak/ speaking)
too loud.

4. Do you think she’ll manage (to pass/ passing) her Maths exam?

5. My mum is always at home. She quitted (to work/ working) last year.

6. The teacher reminded us (to bring/ bringing) some flowers to decorate
the classroom.

7. Linda suggested me (to drink/ drinking) a cup of tea now.

Find the words in the text which have a similar meaning to the following.

various

worldwide

to start

information

weather

to tell again

a problem

amusing