Ujian Tengah Semester

Program S1 Universitas Prasetiya Mulya

Semester 1 Tahun Akademik 2020/2021

Mata Kuliah : Business Communication 1

Tanggal : 22 October 2020
Waktu : 09:00 – 10:40 (100 minutes)
Sifat Ujian : Open book

Dengan ini saya menyatakan siap dan bersedia mengikuti ujian ini dengan sebaik-baiknya sesuai dengan
kemampuan diri sendiri dan dengan menjunjung tinggi nilai-nilai CHAIN Universitas Prasetiya Mulya.
Sekiranya saya terbukti melanggar nilai-nilai tersebut dengan melakukan kecurangan/plagiarisme dalalm
bentuk apapun, saya bersedia menerima segala konsekuensi akademik yang berlaku.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS
1. This mid-semester exam consists of 4 (four) questions.
2. Answer all questions concisely in English.
3. Type your answer below each question.
4. Upload the answers to Moodle.
5. You have 100 minutes to finish the test.
6. The total score is 100 (one hundred) points.

GENERAL MARKING CRITERIA

1. Task Achievement (read carefully and answer all the questions)
2. Coherence and Cohesion (flow of idea and use of connections)
3. Vocabulary
4. Grammar
5. Punctuation

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I. Directions: Read the article below. Then answer the questions that follow. (Max. 30 points)

WHAT ELON MUSK IS LOOKING FOR IN INDONESIA AND WHY IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO TESLA

By Manish Saini, August 23, 2020

While Elon Musk promised to sign a “giant contract” with the miner who supplies low-cost nickel to Tesla,
minimizing the impact on the environment, the methods used in that industry to dispose of the waste can
make the deal difficult to close.

As Tesla expands by opening its factories in China and Germany, its billionaire owner runs the risk of
becoming increasingly dependent on Indonesia. This Asian country is the largest supplier of nickel used
in the production of batteries for its cars.

Indonesian miners have been harshly criticized for their plans to dispose of waste offshore. That means
Musk and other manufacturers may have to bypass sourcing rules as they try to force the industry to
change its traditional strategies and adopt ones that are greener.

“Nickel projects being built in Southeast Asia will rely on coal, fuel oil or diesel to run their operations and
will leave a very large carbon footprint,” says Sam Riggall, CEO of Clean TeQ Holdings.

“This sort of makes a bit of a mockery of driving a green, sustainable car,” said the expert.

What joke are we talking about?

By 2040, electric vehicles will account for 58% of global car sales and 10% in 2025, Bloomberg NEF
analysts calculated.

Nickel is a key metal that helps accumulate more energy in batteries that cost less and are smaller. For
this reason, electric cars that use them charge faster and cover a greater distance before running out of
power.

Indonesia owns nearly a quarter of all nickel reserves in the world. To meet the demand of electric car
manufacturers, companies in this country are investing in projects that will use acid to process low nickel
ores and produce high-quality chemicals for batteries.

In turn, a large spill that occurred in 2019 as a result of the rupture of a pipe in a mine built in Papua New
Guinea demonstrated the damage that this process can cause to the environment.

“The disposed tailings will have a drastic, non-reversible impact on the ecosystems, marine life and
humankind,” warned Alex Mojon, president of the Swiss Association for Quality and Environmental
Management in a report on the accident, cited by Bloomberg.

In turn, Simon Moores, founder and CEO of the consulting firm Benchmark Minerals, stressed that the
methods used by Indonesian miners to dispose of by-products place them on the same blacklist as the
illegal artisanal cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to human rights concerns.

Several analysts, including Jim Lennon, a senior consultant at investment bank Macquarie Securities,
believe that large companies are unlikely to sign new contracts for nickel projects while prices remain low.

While miners new to the business such as Canadian companies Giga Metals and Canada Nickel are
boasting green credentials and their share prices are rising, it is unlikely that they will be able to produce
enough clean nickel for companies like Tesla, thus putting pressure on the big boys in the mining
industry.

“The industry is focused on these issues because the shareholders, the institutional investors, are very
much focused on it,” Lennon concluded.

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 https://www.revyuh.com/news/business/b2b/elon-musk-looking-indonesia-important-tesla/

1. What is the topic of the article?

2. What issue is addressed? (2 points)

3. What is the writer’s stance about the issue? Is the writer for or against it?
Provide evidence (one sentence from the text) to support your answer. (4 points)

4. Does Elon Musk/Tesla have interest in Indonesia? If yes, what is the nature of his interest? If no, why
not? Explain your answer. (4 points)

5. The writer says, “What joke are we talking about?” What does the writer mean? Why does the writer
think that the situation is a joke? (4 points)

6. Why does the writer mention the 2019 pipe rupture incident in Papua New Guinea? What does it have
to do with Indonesia? Explain your answer. (4 points)

7. What dilemma in the mining industry is being faced by the “big boys” such as Giga Metals and Canada
Nickel? Answer and explain concisely. (4 points)

8. Overall, why do you think the writer chose this topic in the first place? What was the writer’s purpose
(or what did the writer want you to believe)? (4 points)

9. Is price a reliable indicator of quality to the point that the higher the price, the better the quality? Can
that statement (“The higher the price, the better the quality”) be true or is it just a fallacy? Answer and
explain concisely. (4 points)

3
II. Direction: Analyze effective communication in two video clips. (Max. 25 points)

Study the two communications below in which two managers are having a business meeting:

 Effective Communication A: https://youtu.be/pKlx0ftlo-4. In this clip, Palani does not adapt his
communication style to Jesse. These segments have been designed to show an ineffective
approach to communicating to each style.

 Effective Communication B: https://youtu.be/y71AQ6qNh2g. Using the same scenario as Clip A,

Palani adapts his communication style to Jesse.

Analyze each type of communication (A and B) by answering the following questions:

1. What issue is discussed? Explain concisely.

2. How does Palani propose his idea to Jesse in Communication A and in Communication B? Explain
concisely the difference(s).

3. What is Jessy’s reaction to Palani’s idea in Communication A and in Communication B? Does Jessy
agree or disagree? How does he express the (dis)agreement? Explain concisely.

4. What arguments/evidence are proposed by Palani in Communication A and Communication B? Do

you think these arguments are effective? Explain concisely.

III. Directions: Analyze effective communication of two online shopping platforms. (Max. 20 points)

Having effective communication is very important for a company because it strengthens the
connections between a company and its customers. However, the pandemic has forced the traditional
offline business to change into online business. Compare the effectiveness of communication of two
online shopping platforms: http://www.tokopedia.com/ and https://www.shopee.com/.

Your comparison must include the following effective communication aspects:

1. Which of these two online shopping platforms is more user friendly?

2. How does it differ from the other site?

3. Give 2 arguments and support each argument with one or two piece(s) of evidence.

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IV. Directions: Analyze the video. (Max. 25 points)

The following video clip is an interview excerpt with Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Mz-oxsXAs&ab_channel=RezaBayat

Analyze the video clip by answering the following questions:

1. Audience. Who do you think was the audience? Do you think the audience could clearly understand
Jack Ma’s message/advice? Explain your answer. Support your answer with at least a piece of
evidence/reason.

2. Message. What message that Jack Ma wishes to deliver to the audience? Explain in details.

3. Nonverbal communication. Does Jack Ma show positive or negative signals of nonverbal

communication? Explain your answer. Support your answer with at least a piece of evidence/reason to
support your answer.

4. Etiquette. What do you think of Jack Ma’s etiquette? Is it proper or improper for the situation? Explain
your answer. Support your answer with at least a piece of evidence to support your answer.