a MEL bed “People don’t plan to fail. They fail to plan.’ Mark McCormack (1930-2003), sports agent and founder of IMG ee 4 y 7a ; ot Pema en’ acu acu re Proce via ees ecu er esis interrupting and Cece cASE STUDY efit wae a) Media Corporation EEX what do you think about when you plan these things? 1 holiday 2 a special family occasion, for example a wedi 3. an ordinary working day/we 4 your career Which of the following do you use to plan your day or week? Which do you prefer? Why? desk or pocket diary electronic organiser * writing on yourhand * memory ‘= asking someone (e.g. your PA) to remind you * wall chart * smartphone ‘notes stuck on board, desk, fridge, elc. + computer program (e.g. Google calender, iCal) Discuss these statements. 1. Making lists of things to do is a waste of time. You should plan your retirement from an early ag \fyou make a plan, you should stick to it. There are some things you can’t plan forMaking plans See the DVD-ROM forthe -6lossary. UNITS »» PLANNING ‘Match the verbs in the box to the nouns below (1-5). Each word partnership describes a way to plan effectively. Use a dictionary to help you if necessary. collect consider do estimate forecast estimate costs Information 1 a 3 research 4 5 .-options Match the verbs in Box A to the nouns in Box B. Make as many word partnerships as you can. ExampLe: write/implement a plan A arrange implement Keepto meet prepare rearrange write abudget adeadline ameeting aplan report a schedule Amanaging director talks about the planning of a new sales office in the United States. Complete this text with nouns from Exercises A and B. ‘One noun is used twice. Recently, we decided to open a new sales office in New York. First, | arranged a meeting” with the finance department to discuss the project. We prepared a ? with details of the various costs involved. Then we collected ‘about possible locations for the new office. We considered two .........'~onein Greenwich Village and the other near Central Park. After doing some more. * Lwrote a “for the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, we made a mistake when we estimated the 7, as the exchange rate changed, so we didn't keep within our Mle overspent by almost 20 percent. We had to rearrange the * for moving into the building because the office wasn't redecorated in time. The Board of Directors was unhappy because we didn’t meet the for opening the office by December 15. I finally opened in january. However, we forecast 2 of at least $1,000,000 inthe fist year. +4) co2.29 Listen and check your answers to Exercise C. Choose one of these events and tell your partner how you will plan it. ‘Try to use some of the vocabulary from Exercises A-C above. 1. Ateam-building weekend for your department | sports club 2 An event to mark your company’s/organisation 100th anniversary 3 Aparty to celebrate the return of a close friend after two years abroad 4 The opening of a new storeUNIT9 >> PLANNING How important is planning? lan Sanders Watch the interview on the DVD-ROM. To plan or not to plan HEEEeEEer Eee eee +4) 02.30 lan Sanders is a business consultant and the author of Unplan your business. In the first part of the interview, he answers the question ‘How far ahead should businesses plan?’. Listen and complete these notes. + Depends on... ‘© Three-year contracts should have a plan for: 5 © Three years is a long time for. * businesses and new businesses entering the market in the field of _ * lan likes the idea of a * plan, because it's very M = Problem with business planning: it can sometimes be business ....-..!. | +4) c0231 Listen to the second part and complete this audio script. | think the best business plans are ones that are... and. enough to take into account changing markets and changing situations. Any plan that IS 00 ren? ortoo set in “becomes very unwieldy, because it can’t accommodate economic changes, market changes, * changes. Which word in Exercise B refers to the ability to change easily, and which two words or phrases refer to the opposite? +40 c0232 Listen to the final part and answer these questions. 1 Whats it important for entrepreneurs to do? 2_ Ian talks about an entrepreneur he met recently. What business had the entrepreneur set up? 3. Why did the entrepreneur eventually succeed? What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing a business plan? Which of these would you normally find in a business plan? 41 business aims «3. management team 5 staff holidays 2 openinghours «4 financialforecast. «6 assessment of the competition } Read the article on the opposite page and complete this chart. name job/position company type of company location Dan Scarfe David Hieatt Rajeeb Dey Beas Hees Paul Moron Sth eas Read the article again and answer these questions about the four people in Exercise B. How many people did not write a business plan for their present companies? Who thinks that setting fixed aims involves too much time and is not valuable? Who says that some plans don't work because we dor’t know what will work? \Who thinks that planning often leads to doing nothing? \Who provided the finance for the companies themselves? aurune Which of the four is not against business plans?UNIT9 =» PLANNING When there’s no Plan A by Jonathan Moules hie Executive of ment company Dot Net Solution: says that he has never written a busi- + ness plan for the company he Foun Now, it is one of Microsoft's five key partners in the UK and a leading player in the hot new area of cloud computing — and to Scarfe, that is proof that setting fixed objectives isa ‘complete waste of time: “Writing software, or starting ‘anew business is incredibly difficult to plan for," he says. “You're exactly wh line, based on marketing conditions and varying custome: ‘and strategy is vite business plans are less so." Twitter, Facebook and cloud computing wer not even concepts a number of years s ago, Scarfe notes, so there would be no way he could have planned for them, ‘would pay £27 for a T-shitt.” he Perhaps unsurprisi David Hicatt, co-founder of recalls v Scarfe have entirely self-financed Howies, the ethical-clathing manu: Hicatt and his colleagues managed their businesses. Venture capitalists facturer based in Cardigan, claims to rescue the situation by launching a _and private investors do not usually that a business plan is really just catalogue to sell products. Itproved approve of this casual attitude a guess. to be a turning point for Howies. to planning There are some brilliant business “Losingall yourshop accountsin one % To Paul Maron-Smith, Managing plans written, but they faill because ss day is not great for business, but it’s Director of Gresham Private Equity the customer wants to do business probably the best thing we did,” a business plan is rather like a car's differently." he says. "The awful ruth Hicatt concludes. Now,the company dashboard, guiding the entrepreneur is we don't know what will work.” sells 80 per cent of its products along the road to success. He claims that the secret is © be this medium But even he admits that problems flexible ~ although this aften takes a Others arguethatbusiness planning can arise when business plans lotof courage, For example, in 200} s offen a reason for inaction. become too fixed, “The aim of Hieat phoned up all of Howies’ —_Rajeeb Dey launched Entemships.a a business plan is to give the retailers and said he was going to student internship matching service. __ stakeholders a good idea of whe introduce organic cotton. The initial “I never wrote a business plan for % the business is heading,” he says effect of this spurof:the-moment act «6 Enternships,1 just started it" he says “Sure, there are going to be some was disastrous, although he admits that is easier forecasts in there that are not going to ‘Welostallourwholesale accounts for Internet-based businesses to. be accurate, but they area best guess overnight because they said nobody do ths. atthe ti iscuss these questions. I which sectors is it difficult to plan? i How far ahead should you plan? How often should you review plans? ‘What reasons are given for and against havingbusiness plans? What is your opinion of business plans? How useful do you think they are? 85, EEE EES PEE EEE EEE EEE SEE EEE EE aa E EEEUNIT9 > PLANNING MOTT Talking about future plans [cerSssRGGneCRGGReGnIGREEEah 0M ‘+ We can use verbs lke plon, hope, expect, would like and want to talk about future plans, Coca-Cola is hoping to more than double its number of bottling plants in China ‘ver the coming decade and would like to triple the size ofits sales to China's ‘mide class, * We often use going to to talk about more definite plans. ‘We're going to open a new dealership this summer. ‘+ We can also use the present continuous to talk about definite plans and arrangements. |"'m meeting the accountants on Tuesday Grammar reference page 149 The CEO of a large supermarket chain is talking to her managers about the ‘group's future plans in relation to the World Cup. Underline the plans that she mentions. “Well, as you all know, we are hoping that the World Cup spirit will get more customers through our doors. We are planning a wide range of activities to capitalise on our football Links and are expecting to sell more televisions, food and drink. We are also going to sell official merchandise before and during the tournament, We would like to get some big: name endorsements and want to sell stickers and trading cards. Then we are going to launch a digital site to promote our association with football legends. We are hoping to be the supermarket of choice for our country's football fans." ‘Match the verbs (1-3) to their meanings (ac). 1 hope a) believe something will happen 2. expect b) decide in detail what you are going to do 3 plan ©) wish something would happen Asalesperson is talking about the end-of-year bonus. Complete this conversation with the verbs from Exercise B in the correct form. Pm to get a bonus at the end of the year, but | haven't met all my sales targets, 50 I'ma litle worried. My colleague Jan has met all her targets and she is toget good bonus. She is already. * to go on an expensive holiday abroad and has got lots of travel brochures. Tell each other about your plans and expectations for 1-6 below. EXAMPLE: What are you going to do after this lesson? : Yon hoping/planning to ... What about you? A: Oh, Tm hoping to... after this lesson tomorrow this weekend ‘on your next holiday in your career when you retireMeetings: interrupting and clarifying INTERRUPTING. Could | say something? Could | just comment on that? Hold on a minute. Sorry to interrupt, but UNIT9 >> PLANNING +49 ©0233 Listen to a meeting in which members of a planning group discuss relocating their head office. in which order are these points mentioned? 8) the cost of moving Oo b) when to move © the advantage of using a specialised firm oO «) whether to use thelr own transport department oO ©) how to communicate with staff oO ) which transport company to use Oo Look at these extracts from the planning meeting in Exercise A. Decide whether each expression in italics is a) interrupting, or b) clarifying. 1B: | think July would be the best time. it's very quiet then, isn’t it? You mean, we don't do too much business then? Could | just say something? In my opinion, we should do it department by department. : How do you mean exactly? : We've contacted two companies, National Transport and Fox Removals. ‘Sorry, could | just comment on that, Mark? + You know, there’s another possibility. We could get our own people todo the moving. z What? You think our transport department could do the job? Role-play this situation. A group of international VIPs is going to visit your ‘company /organisation for three days. You need to plan the programme for the visit, Discuss these questions with other managers in the department. 1 Where will the VIPs go, and what will they see? (eg. inside the company/organisation, local sights, etc.) ‘Who do they need to meet? ‘Where will hey stay? How will they move around? (e.g. transport) What sort of farewell event/dinner will you have onthe final evening? 2) Will you have food? What? (e.g. smacks? a meal?) 1) Will there be a speech? Who will make it? © Who will attend? (e.g, special guests?) ® 6 What sort of gifts will ou give the visitors? here be any entertainment? 7 What else do you need to plan? (e.g. the it jerary- will they have any free time?) DEALING WITH INTERRUPTIONS: CLARIFYING IF you'l just let me finish . How do you mean exactly? Just a moment, please. What exactly do you mean by ..? Td like to finish if| may, ‘Are you saying ..? Sowhat you'r saying is that .. 87Se) Case study EUROPEAN PRESS AND NV iD UCO)s Ola alO)\ PCR eu aM Geet TUUEL CT Porat! re eee eee ue cur eee eee SRW R ue uu ue a Ruhr ee Me cuca ccd DOU RU Ru uA ur RUE eau CR en cae ee er ee et Several teams within the company are preparing a pla for the new magazine. The team with the best ideas will receive a substantial cash prize eer) Pee as SS ae eee ee et ee i eet enters nee ere MCL CagedUNITS» PLANNING | Consider these questions and note your answers. What ae the aims of the new magazine? Whois the target consumer? What willbe the magazine's name? numberof pages? cover price? How often will it appear? (once a week? twice a month? once a month?) What will be the proportion of content to advertising? 80%/20%4? more? less? ann wn Will it have any special design features? 49 02.34 Now listen to two senior managers, who will choose the best plan for the new magazine. Note down the key points they discuss. ‘The marketing department is considering these promotions for the first issue of the magazine. In your groups, discuss the promotions and decide which Is the best one for the first issue. ‘Suggest other ways of promoting the new magazine. * Include a free 20-page supplement with four healthy diets, © Sell the first issue at half price. © Add a mini magazine with diet and fitness plans. © Offer a 25% discount for an order of six issues. © Give a full refund ifa customer orders 30 issues but is not happy at the end of that period. © Senda selection of body lotions and eau de cologne if a customer orders 30 issues, Work in your groups. You are all members of the EPMC planning team. 1. Agree on a plan for the first issue. Use the key questions below ta help you. 2. Present your plans for the first issue and for the new magazine as a whole to the other groups. 3. Choose the best plan for the new magazine. Take a vote ifnecessary. Key questions + What sections and topics wil the fistissue include? © What special features will it have? ‘© What will the front page ofthe first issue look li ‘© How will the magazine be promoted? ‘© What will be on the website? Will the website be free? ee a eee Writing {As the Editor of the new health-and-fitness magazine, write a letter to a famous person asking them for an interview. At the start of the letter, introduce yourself and give brief details of the new magazine and its aims. Dear . Lam writing to you as Editor of EPMC’s exciting new health-and-fitness magazine.