unit

6 Risk
at a glance

Lesson 1
Each lesson (excluding
case studies) is about 45 to
60 minutes. This does not
include administration and
time spent going through
homework.
AT A GLANCE
Classwork – Course Book Further work
Starting up
Students look at different types of risk.
Vocabulary: Describing risk Practice File
Verbs and adjectives used in the context of risk. Vocabulary (page 24)
Practice exercises: Vocabulary 1&2
(DVD-ROM)
i-Glossary (DVD-ROM)

Lesson 2 Listening: Managing risks Resource bank: Listening

Students listen to an expert on managing (page 193)
different types of risk.
Practice exercises: Listening
(DVD-ROM)
Reading: Insuring trade risks Text bank (pages 134–137)
Students read an article about business
insurance.
Lesson 3 Language review: Adverbs of degree Practice File
Students look at adverbs such as rather, slightly Language review (page 25)
and extremely and use them in a number of
Practice exercises: Language review 1&2
situations.
(DVD-ROM)
ML Grammar and Usage
(Unit 10)
Skills: Reaching agreement Resource bank: Speaking
Students listen to the language of agreement in (page 181)
a company meeting then put this language into
Practice File
action in a role play.
Survival Business English (page 65)
Practice exercises: Skills
(DVD-ROM)

Lesson 4 Case study: Winton Carter Mining Case study commentary

Each case study is about
11/2 to 2 hours.
A mining company decides whether to proceed (DVD-ROM)
with negotiations about a joint venture in Africa.
Resource bank: Writing (page 209)
Students assess different areas of risk involved
and decide whether to proceed with the joint Practice File
venture or not. Writing (page 26)
Test File: Progress test 2

For a fast route through the unit focusing mainly on speaking skills, just use the underlined sections.
For one-to-one situations, most parts of the unit lend themselves, with minimal adaptation, to use with
individual students. Where this is not the case, alternative procedures are given.

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business brief
All business is built on risk. Operating in politically unstable countries is one of the most extreme
examples of this. The dangers may range from kidnapping of managers through to confiscation
of assets by the government. Company managers may have to face fraud and corruption. But the
fact that companies want to work there at all shows that they think the returns could be very high.
As always, there is a trade-off between risk and return: investing in very challenging conditions is
a graphic, if extreme, illustration of this trade-off.
BUSINESS BRIEF

Companies do not have to go to unstable countries to be harmed by criminal activity. industrial

espionage has existed for as long as there have been industries to spy on, but this can now be
carried out at a distance by gaining access to company computer networks. it security specialists
may try to protect their company’s systems with firewalls (technical safeguards against such
snooping by hackers, and against computer viruses).
So far we have looked at some of the more extreme examples of risk, but even business as usual
is inherently risky. For example, by putting money into a new venture, investors are taking serious
financial risks. Most new businesses fail – some put the figure as high as nine out of ten. Venture
capitalists who put money into such businesses spread their risk so that the payback from the
one or two successful ventures will hopefully more than compensate for the money lost in the
failures. For more on financial risk, see Unit 9 Raising finance.
There is also the risk that even well-established companies, which are seemingly in touch with
their customers, can easily start to go wrong: we can all think of examples in soft drinks, clothing,
cars and retailing, to name a few. Here, the risk is of losing sight of the magic ingredients that
made for success. Some companies are able to reinvent themselves, in some cases several
times over. Others don’t understand what they need to do to survive and thrive again, or if they
do understand, are unable to transform themselves in the necessary ways. The things about
the company that were formerly strengths can now become sources of weakness and obstacles
to change. The financial markets see this and the company’s shares fall in value. Investors
are increasingly quick to demand changes in top management if there are not immediate
improvements. In some cases, companies that were the leaders in their industry can even go
bankrupt: in airlines, think of PanAm.
And then there is the risk of management complacency. Take Toyota. A few production faults
can put a car company at risk through product liability claims following accidents caused, for
example, by stuck accelerator pedals. Product recalls are the worst possible publicity imaginable
for companies, and in the worst cases their image is so damaged that they never recover. This is a
case study in reputational risk: the trust that customers put in a company can be lost overnight.
Another example of a company that destroyed the trust of its clients is the Internet service
provider that announced free access at all times, and then immediately withdrew the offer. One
commentator described this as brand suicide.

Read on
Chris Chapman, Stephen Ward: Project Risk Management, Wiley, 2003
Michel Crouhy et al: The Essentials of Risk Management, McGraw Hill, 2006
Andy Jones, Debi Ashenden: Risk Management for Computer Security, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005
Tony Merna and Faisal Al Thani: Corporate Risk Management, Wiley, 2008

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lesson notes
Warmer
• Write the word Risky on the left of the board and
dashes indicating the number of letters in the words
that come after it, like this (the figures in brackets
indicate the number of dashes to write up):
Overview
• Tell the students that they will be looking at risk.
• Ask the students to look at the Overview section at the
beginning of the unit. Tell them a little about the things
on the list, using the table on page 51 of this book as

LESSON NOTES
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8) a guide. Tell them which points you will be covering in
the current lesson and which in later lessons.
_ _ _ _ (4)
Quotation
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (10)
• Ask the students to look at the quotation and say
Risky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7) what it means. You could ask them to ‘translate’ it
into more normal English, e.g. ‘If you never take risks,
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7)
you’ll never drink champagne.’ Invite comments and
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8) encourage brief discussion.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (11)

• Tell the students that all the missing words are or can
be business-related. They have to guess what they
are. Tell them to call out words they think of.
• If they have trouble, give them clues by showing
particular letters, for example all the Es in the words,
like this:
_____e__
_e__
Starting up
Students look at different types of risk.
A
• Talk about the question with the whole class. Work
on risk-related vocabulary relevant to the discussion
that you have, e.g. cautious, conservative, risk-
averse, prudent versus daring, bold, adventurous,
etc.

___e___e__ B
Risky _ e _ _ _ _ _ • Get the students to work in pairs on the different
types of risk and say which thing is the most and
____e__
least risky in each group. Circulate and assist.
_____e__
• Ask pairs for their findings. Invite comments and
___e_______ encourage discussion. (In the case of travel, don’t get
too bogged down in lugubrious statistics!)
• For words that the students still don’t get, start giving
other letters, or clues to their meaning, for example, • In discussing money, ask the students if anything is
the third one means ‘when you put money into a done in their country/countries to warn of the risks
business activity, or the amount of money you put in’. inherent in particular types of investment. You could
mention health warnings on cigarettes and, on some
• Students should eventually end up with seven typical
investment products in the UK, this ‘health warning’:
combinations, like this:
‘The value of your investment can go down as well
business as up, and you may not get back the money you
deal invested.’ Point out the use of ‘health warning’ in this
financial context.
investment
• Ask if the students think such warnings are a)
Risky lending effective and b) necessary. Also ask: ‘Shouldn’t
project people just be free to indulge in risky behaviour if
they want to?’
strategy
undertaking C

• Point out that the last one has nothing to do with
funerals, and means ‘project’ or ‘enterprise’.
• Get the students to work in pairs on the risks that
businesses face. You could get them to suggest
examples of risks that have actually materialised for
particular companies. Circulate and monitor.

• With the whole class, ask pairs for what they came up
with. Invite comments and encourage discussion.

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Vocabulary: Describing risk Work on the stress of words like sigNIFicant,

subSTANtial, NEGligible and IMMinent.
Students look at verbs and adjectives used in
conjunction with risk. • Point out to students that MINuscule is quite an
‘advanced’ word at this level, and that it is not
A pronounced mini-school.
• Do as a whole-class activity. Write the four verbs
E
predict, meet, assess and manage on the board and
get the students to say which heading the other • Get the students to work in pairs on the four types of
LESSON NOTES

verbs should come under, explaining their meanings risk mentioned. Circulate, monitor and assist. Note
if necessary. Work on pronunciation, e.g. of gauge. language points for praise and correction, especially
in relation to the verb and adjective combinations in
predict meet assess manage Exercises A and C above.
anticipate encounter calculate eliminate • With the whole class, praise good language points
foresee identify estimate minimise from the discussion and work on three or four points
that need improvement, getting individual students
evaluate prioritise
to say the correct forms.
gauge reduce
i-Glossary
measure spread
weigh up
Listening: Managing risks
B Students listen to an expert talking about ways of
• Ask the students to work in pairs on the matching managing different types of risk.
exercise, pointing out clues. For example, if there is
impossible to at the end of an item on the left, look A CD2.10
for an infinitive verb at the beginning of the item on • Go through the instructions with the class so that they
the right. know what information they are listening for. (You
could tell them they will hear two types of internal risk
• Circulate, monitor and assist. (An actuary – item 6
and three types of external risk altogether.)
– is a specialist who works for or advises a financial
institution. For example, life insurance companies • Play recording 2.10 once or twice.
employ actuaries to calculate future mortality rates
of policyholders, the payouts that will have to be • Check answers with the whole class. Explain any
difficult words and work on pronunciation, for
made, and their timing.)
example, of mechanism.
• Ask the students for their answers.
Internal risk: injuries to employees within a factory,
1 e 2 f 3 g 4 d 5 c 6 b 7 a fire in a warehouse
External risk: earthquake, tsunami, change in
C – D exchange-rate mechanism
• Get students to work on Exercise C in pairs. Elicit the
answers. B CD2.10
Exercise C • Play the recording again and ask the students to find
the terms missing from the diagram.
1 slight 2 great 3 minuscule 4 considerable
5 potential 6 immediate 7 huge 8 remote • Check answers with the whole class. Work on
9 serious 10 negligible 11 significant pronunciation of difficult words, e.g. typhoon and
12 imminent 13 substantial 14 terrible liquidity.
15 tremendous
1 hurricanes 2 floods 3 employment
• Then group adjectives on the board under the two 4 lack of liquidity* 5 competition
headings with the whole class. 6 availability of new technology
*Means that a company has little immediately
Exercise D available cash, even though it has other assets. Not
1 High: great, Low: slight, minuscule, to be confused with insolvency, where a business can
considerable, huge, remote, negligible no longer operate because it has run out of money
serious, significant, and is unable to borrow more.
substantial, terrible,
tremendous C CD2.11
2 Possible: potential Very near future: • Play recording and ask the students to take notes on
the five key steps to risk management.
immediate, imminent
• Elicit the answers with the whole class.

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1 Recognise strategic objectives for organisation
and key processes
2 Identify risks affecting the organisation (top down
and bottom up)
3 Assess and prioritise risks
4 Mitigate (explain this as reduce) the risk and
deal with it by a) treating it, b) terminating it, c)
tolerating it or d) transferring it.
key words and phrases from audio script
CD2 tRACk 10
…there are two ways of looking at risk. One way of
looking at risk is to divide risks …
…some examples of internal risks include …
Examples of external risks can include …
The other way of looking at risk is to divide up risk

LESSON NOTES
into four categories …
5 Flow actions back to strategic objectives And finally, and most importantly …
• Check answers with the class and explain any CD2 tRACk 11
difficult words. There are five key steps to …
The first step …
D CD2.12
Following on from step one, step two then goes on
• Play the recording and get students to listen out for to …
the three examples of organisations that failed to
Point three: after identifying risk, the next stage is
manage risk.
to …
• Elicit the answers with the whole class. Get pairs Point four …
to report their responses to the whole class. Invite
Firstly …; Secondly …; Thirdly …; Finally …
comments and encourage further discussion.
Two examples could be …
• Banking industry: systematic and reckless CD2 tRACk 12
risk-taking* with massive implications for the A great example involves …
organisations, the banks, their shareholders and
Moving to a lower level of risk, there’s a great
the world in general
example of …
• US-based clothing retailer: lost 45 million credit-card A great example is …
details, losses of $80m and impact on reputation
Students can watch the interview with Steve Fowler
• Video-cassette industry: failed to anticipate changes on the DVD-ROM.
in customer demand caused by new technologies
Resource bank: Listening (page 193)
*Means making investments which will not only have
implications for the parties involved, but also for
the whole industry or market, and done so with a
Reading: insuring trade risks
disregard for the possible negative consequences. Students read an article about business insurance.

• Get students to give other examples of badly A

managed risk, perhaps ones involving oil
companies, car companies, pharmaceutical
• Have a discussion with the whole class on this
question as a quick-fire whole-class activity.
companies or food companies.
B
E
• Ask students to read the article quickly and come up
• Get students to look at the script on page 158–159 of the with the main point of the article.
Course Book in pairs, underlining the structuring language.

• Go round the class and assist where necessary. Suggested answer

Risk is becoming more complex.
• Bring the class to order and get students to call out
the expressions they found. Do as a quick-fire whole- C – D
class activity.
• Get students to look at the three questions and the
instruction in D and get them to read the article
individually or in pairs.

• Go round the class and assist where necessary.

• Bring the class to order and elicit the answers.

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Exercise C
1 It started when fourteenth-century shipowners
wanted to protect the increasing value of their
ships and cargoes.
2 Reinsurers provide a secondary market where
insurance companies can place risks.
3 Because the attack on the World Trade Center
took place in a developed country, it was well
LESSON NOTES
covered by insurance. However, the tsunami of
2004 affected mainly underdeveloped countries
who had little or no insurance, so the cost to
individuals was much higher.
• With the whole class, get students to suggest
their summaries.
• Check and compare answers with the whole class.
E – F
• Do these exercises as quick-fire whole-class activities.
• Work on pronunciation and stress, e.g. caTAStrophe.
Exercise E
1 liability 2 damages 3 portfolio
4 accumulation 5 catastrophe
Exercise F
1 damages 2 liability 3 catastrophe
4 portfolio 5 accumulation
G – H
• Encourage the students to find and underline the
word partnerships in the article so that they can see
them in context and quickly refer back to them.
• Give students time to do both exercises and then
bring the class to order and elicit the answers.
Exercise G
1 b 2 c 3 e 4 a 5 d
Exercise H
1 spring to mind 2 pave the way
3 bear the brunt 4 spread the risks
5 meet a need
I the handouts were very useful.
• Depending on time available, do as a quick-fire whole-
class activity or get students to work in small groups
and then report their findings to the whole class.
Text bank (pages 134–137)
Language review: Adverbs of degree
Students look at adverbs such as rather, slightly and
extremely and use them in a number of situations.
• Go through the explanations with the whole class.
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08_ML_Upp_Int_TRB_LN_U6_5.indd 56
A
• Get students to work on the exercise in pairs.
Go round the class and assist where necessary.
• Bring the class to order and elicit the answers.
Strengthen: entirely, exceptionally, extremely, fully,
highly, increasingly, totally, very
Soften: a bit, fairly, moderately, quite, rather,
reasonably, slightly, somewhat
• Work on pronunciation and stress, for example
enTIREly, exCEPTionally.
B
• Get the students to complete the dialogues. Ask
them which adverbs are possible in each sentence
and which are not. For example, in question 1,
exceptionally, extremely and very are possible, but
the other adverbs from the same group would be
very unlikely. Tell the students there are no ‘rules’
about this: it’s a question of learning the typical
combinations.
Suggested answers
1 Extremely/Exceptionally/Very 2 highly/very
3 increasingly/exceptionally/extremely
4 fully/very 5 Quite/Fairly/Reasonably
• In parallel pairs, get students to read the dialogues
using correct intonation and stress.
• Then get individual pairs to give performances for the
whole class.
C
• Get the students to work in pairs, each pair working
on four or five phrases. (For example, half the pairs
could work on situations for the first five phrases and
the other half on situations for the last five.) Each
pair should make up mini-conversations like the ones
in Exercise B above.
S1: What did you think of the presentation?
S2: Fascinating. And the speaker was incredibly well-
prepared. All the equipment worked first time and
• Circulate and monitor, but this time don’t make notes
of all language points. Concentrate on the intonation
of the adverb expressions. Encourage the students to
exaggerate slightly, but not to go too far over the top!
• Get pairs to give performances of the situations
in front of the whole class. One performance for
each situation will probably be enough. Work on
intonation of adverb expressions as necessary.
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 unit 6 •• RiSk

Skills: Reaching agreement One-to-one

Students listen to the language of agreement in a This role play can be done one-to-one. Don’t forget to
meeting called in order to organise a sales conference. note language points for praise and correction afterwards.
They then put this language into action in a role play.
Resource bank: Speaking (page 181)
A CD2.13
• Remind students of the context of the brainstorming
meeting from Unit 2. Play recording 2.13 once right

LESSON NOTES
through and then once or twice more, pausing at
convenient points.

• Elicit the answers with the whole class.

1 Florence 2 interactive quiz

3 banquet-style buffet in hotel 4 January

B
• Go through the expressions in the Useful language
box. Get individual students to read them out,
completing them as if they were contributing to the
meeting they have just listened to, for example:
Does anyone have strong feelings about the
location? (They should not use exactly the same
expressions as they heard on the recording.)

• Ask the students to work in pairs on expressions

1–13. Tell them they can look at the audio script on
page 159 to check the context if necessary, and that
some expressions go under more than one heading.
Circulate and assist.

Asking for opinions: 5, 6, 9

Giving opinions: 2, 4, 11
Agreeing: 3, 12, 13
Disagreeing: 10
Making suggestions: 7, 8, 11
Summarising: 1, 3, 9

• Ask pairs for their answers, and to give their

reasoning for them.

C
• Present the situation to the whole class and make
sure they understand it.

• Put the students into threes or fours and start the

discussion.

• Circulate and monitor, noting language points

for praise and correction, especially in relation to
discussion language.

• When the students have completed their meetings,

call the class to order. Ask each three what they
decided.

• Praise good language points from the discussion and

work on three or four points that need improvement,
getting individual students to say the correct forms,
especially for discussion language. (Be especially
strict with expressions with agree. For example,
correct students who say I am agree.)

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case study
Winton Carter Mining
A mining company decides whether to proceed with • Go through steps 1 and 2 in the task with the whole class.
negotiations about a joint venture in Africa.
Background
• Tell the students to read the Background section
CASE STUDY
for themselves. While they are doing this, write the
points on the left in the table below on the board.
When the students have finished reading, elicit
information to complete the table.
Company Winton Carter Mining (WCM)
Based in Canada
Value C$85 million
Structure Going public next year (=shares being
made available to outside investors
for the first time)
Activity Mining copper, cobalt and bauxite
Areas where Politically stable African countries
active
• Ask students to talk about the discussion question
in groups of four or five. (To pre-empt confusion, you
could point out that the adjective unstable relates to
the noun instability.)
• Go round the class and assist where necessary.
• Bring the class to order. Ask a representative of each
group to report its findings.
• Get students to read quickly through the article and
check understanding by asking some comprehension
questions.
A difficult decision
• Get students to read through the text and explain
joint venture to them if necessary: when two
companies work together on a particular project.
• Ask students to talk about the discussion questions
quickly in the same groups of four or five again.
• Bring the class to order and ask for their opinions.
(Students might mention that WCM will probably run
into trouble with the stock market authorities where
they issue their shares if they don’t mention the
project in the prospectus, and then go ahead with it!)
CD2.14
• Get students to focus on the background to the
recording and the two questions and then play it.
(Point out that CFO stands for chief financial officer.)
• Elicit the answers: they decide to wait for the report
from the New Business department. It’s probably a
good idea to have as much information as possible
before making the decision.
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task
• Allocate roles in each group of four or five, ensuring
that each student knows which role they have.
• Start the activity. Go round the class and monitor the
language they are using.
• When most groups have evaluated the risks, bring
the class to order.
• Go through steps 3 and 4. Then appoint a strong
student as chair of the meeting of the whole class.
• Get the chair to ask a representative of each group
what their evaluations were and write the results on
the board.
• The chair should then ask the whole class to vote on
whether to continue negotiations with ATZ or not.
• Praise good language points from the group and
whole-class discussions and work on three or four
points that need improvement, asking individual
students to say the correct forms. Refer especially to
their use of language from the Skills section if they
studied it earlier.
One-to-one
Stages 1 and 2 of the case study can be done one-
to-one as a discussion between teacher and student.
In the role play, take the part(s) of one or more of
the directors and get your student to take one of
the other parts. Then get them to take the decision
in point 4 of the task. Don’t forget to note language
points for praise and correction after the activities.
Praise and correct your student’s use of language as
appropriate, and highlight some of the language you
chose to use as well.
Students can watch the case study commentary on
the DVD-ROM.
Writing
• Ask the students to do this collaboratively in
class or individually as homework. Remind them
that they should outline the risks and give the
final recommendation as to whether to continue
negotiating with ATZ or not. Also remind them that
this writing task should follow the format of a report,
as in the Writing file, page 131.
Writing file, page 131
Resource bank: Writing (page 209)
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