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 EDITORIAL US

What’s your style?

It’s not only what you do, it’s how you do it that makes a
difference at work and in life.

c at i on
Lo

Office
Langu
age
Titelillustration: Georg Lechner; Titelfotos: ddp/Capital Pictures (Still aus No Time to Die); iStock.com; Fotos: iStock.com; privat

W
hen I was a kid in New York, I was a huge fan of James Bond films. The blow sb. away (ifml.)
locations blew me away. I had never seen such beautiful places, my , jmdn. umhauen

favorites being those in Europe. Truly, it’s one of the first reasons I run sth.
, hier: etw. leiten, führen
started taking an interest in Europe at a very early age. This month,
we take a look at some top James Bond locations on the continent and beyond, where on the technical end
, hier: was das Technische
you can enjoy business conferences, hotels and activities that will impress your angeht
clients and partners.
get one’s point across
We also take a look, in our cover story, at how you can run a business, at least on , seinen Standpunkt
the technical end. Most people think the cloud is just a place to store music, photos deutlich machen
or documents. But it can do so much more than that, offering almost limitless pos-
sibilities. We look at the cloud, who’s behind it and what this technological revolu-
tion can do for you.
Finally, we give you ten tips to make your office green(er), tools for successful
meetings and language to speak politely and still get your point across.
Live, learn, enjoy (in your own style)!

JUDITH GILBERT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

judith.gilbert@zeit-sprachen.de

EDITORIAL 3/2024 Business Spotlight 3

 CONTENTS
3/2024

TRENDS
6 The Big Picture E
The Maya Train in Mexico

8 Names and News EM

The latest from the business world
10 Bits and Bytes E
News and numbers on the internet

26
Technology
11 Innovation M How to make the
Archaeology and biodesign most of the cloud in
12 Profile M your business
Hafize Gaye Erkan — governor of
Turkey’s central bank
14 Profile M
Imran Ahmed — fighting hate on
the Web

16 Head-to-Head A
Is it time for a cashless society?

18 Travel M
Business destinations Bond style
23 Facts and Figures
Rising credit-card debt in the US
24 New Work M
Ten tips to make your office greener
M

24 New Work
Could your office
26 Technology A
be greener?
Using the cloud at work —
new opportunities
30 Brand Strategies M
When should you adapt your product
to a foreign market?
COMMUNICATION
32 Social Media M
Interview with Laura Whaley on how
to be professional and polite
12 Profile
34 Business Skills M Hafize Gaye Erkan
Tools for successful meetings at the helm of
Turkey’s central bank
CAREERS
37 Odd Jobs E
Caitlin Stegemoller explains her job as
a dialect and accent coach REGULAR SECTIONS
3 Editorial
38 Career Coach M
The art of non-violent communication 50 Quiz M
The world of
LANGUAGE advertising
42 English for... E
51 Preview / Impressum
A book fair
44 Skill Up! M
Event management There is extra audio material related to
this article on Business Spotlight Audio
48 Test E MA You can find exercises related to this
Assess your language skills article in Business Spotlight Übungsheft

4 Business Spotlight 3/2024 CONTENTS

 Other Business Spotlight products:
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exercises based on the current
Business Skills Skill Up! Intercultural

issue. Look for: ÜBUNGSHEFT or

How to run a The language of Quiz on James Bond
successful meeting event management movies and locations

3
—
24

Audio
Business Spotlight Audio
AUDIO

Improve your listening skills —

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to our recordings on the Business
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Interview with Is it time for a Talking about
a dialect coach cashless society? event management

ZEIT für Englisch Newsletter

18 — Ihre 10 Minuten Englisch

pro Woche

38
Our free weekly newsletter with
Travel quizzes, fun language exercises and
Business travel in serious journalism to improve your
style — beautiful
English. Subscribe here: https://
James Bond locations
Career Coach www.business-spotlight.de/
How to avoid conflicts
when communicating Business Spotlight in the Classroom
with your colleagues Our monthly newsletter for business English teach-
ers provides free lesson plans and worksheets. To
receive it by email, write to: B2B@zeit-sprachen.de

More information and exercises online

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and on social media

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Language in Business Spotlight

➻ Articles use the style, spelling, punctuation and pronuncia-
tion of British English unless otherwise marked.
➻ Articles that use American style, spelling, punctuation and
pronunciation are marked “US”.

Approximately Approximately at Approximately at

at CEF level A2 CEF levels B1–B2 CEF levels C1–C2
CEF: European Framework of Reference for Languages
ifml.: informal word or phrase; vulg.: vulgar word or phrase;
UK: chiefly British usage; US: chiefly North American usage

CONTENTS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 5

 THE BIG PICTURE

Train tracks
EASY

MEXICO • Engineers had said it would take 15 years to

build, but a 1,500-kilometre railway line around Mex-
ico’s Yucatán Peninsula has been finished in less than
four. Called Tren Maya (Maya Train), the $28.5 billion
project is expected to bring tourism and development
to the region, and the UN’s development office says it
could lift 1.1 million people out of poverty by 2030.
However, public opinion on the train is split. Con-
servationists worry that the track divides what is Lat-
in America’s second-largest rainforest, devastating the
habitats of jaguars and other native animals. There are
also environmental and safety concerns about what’s
below the track. The underground caves here are one
of the most unspoiled freshwater ecosystems on the
continent. Critics have called the project a “pharaonic
monument” built to please Mexico’s current president,
Andrés Manuel López Obrador. They say it has been
rushed through, so it could be completed before the end
of López Obrador’s presidential term, in 2024.
The rural south-east of Mexico could benefit from
some economic development, but the rush to make the
area accessible to tourists could end up destroying the
very thing that makes this region special.

engineer [)endZI(nIE] devastate sth. , etw. vernichten

, Ingenieur(in)
cave , Höhle
peninsula [pE(nInsjUlE]
unspoiled , unberührt
, Halbinsel
rush sth. through
billion , Milliarde(n)
, etw. eilig vorantreiben
poverty [(pQvEti] , Armut
term , hier: Amtszeit
conservationist [)kQnsE(veIS&nIst]
rural [(rUErEl] , ländlich
, Umweltschützer(in)
accessible [Ek(sesEb&l]
track , Gleis; hier: Eisenbahnlinie
, zugänglich

6 Business Spotlight / TRENDS

 Foto: picture alliance/AP

The very first journey of the

Tren Maya, cutting through the
Yucatán rainforest

TRENDS / Business Spotlight 7

 NAMES AND NEWS

“The future
is not on
your face”

IMRAN CHAUDHRI, 50,

British-American designer,
co-founder and CEO of Humane,
Inc., which created the
AI Pin, doesn’t think much
of mixed-reality headsets

Historical map of co-founder AI Pin

HISTORY Britain’s transatlantic
slave trade in the
A dark past 1600s and 1700s
, Mitgründer(in) , elektronische Brosche mit
Smartphone-Funktionen
CEO (chief executive
officer)
, Geschäftsführer(in)
(AI (artificial intelligence)
, KI (künstliche Intelligenz))

MEDIUM AUDIO

Lloyd’s of London is the world’s leading insurance

marketplace and particularly important for the global
shipping industry. It was founded in the 1680s, in Ed-
ward Lloyd’s Coffee House, in London. At that time,
Britain was an active participant in the transatlantic
insurance [In(SUErEns]
slave trade. Between 1640 and the early 1800s, more , Versicherung
than three million African men, women and children
were transported to the New World on British ships.
shipping industry
, Schifffahrtsbranche
Comparison
In most cases, the enslaved people were insured by found sth. A PROBLEM OF PARTS
Lloyd’s as “cargo”. , etw. gründen
Number of moving parts that typically make up
Along with universities, museums and the Church slave trade the drivetrain of an...
of England, Lloyd’s is among a number of famous , Sklavenhandel

British institutions with uncomfortable historical enslaved , versklavt

ICE vehicle: 2,000+
electric vehicle: about 20
ties to slavery. In 2020, Lloyd’s publicly apologized, cargo , Fracht(gut)
accepting that the legacy of slavery “continues to While the transition to electric vehicles is a
tie , Verbindung challenge for established car makers, it is a far
have a negative impact on Black and ethnically di-
apologize greater threat to many of their parts suppliers.
verse communities today”. The company has created , sich entschuldigen
programmes to train and hire more people from mi- A lot of the companies that have traditionally
legacy [(legEsi] supplied the car industry are trying to reinvent
norities, and it worked with the Johns Hopkins Uni- , Vermächtnis themselves, by acquiring expertise in battery
versity, in the US, to clarify its role in the slave trade. impact , Auswirkung(en) technology, for example.
The historians’ report, in November 2023, found
clarify sth. [(klÄrEfaI]
Fotos: Bridgeman Images; ddp; iStock.com

that Lloyd’s role was “significant”. It profited directly Source: Forbes

, etw. klären
from the slave trade and lobbied against its abolition abolition drivetrain supplier
in the British Empire in 1807. So far, however, Lloyd’s , Abschaffung , Antriebsstrang , Zulieferer/Zulieferin
has resisted pressure to pay financial compensation descendant [di(sendEnt] ICE (internal expertise
to the descendants of slaves. Bruce Carnegie-Brown, , Nachfahr(in) combustion engine) [)eksp§:(ti:z]
Lloyd’s chair, told The Guardian it was not about mon- chair , Vorsitzende(r) vehicle [(vi:Ik&l] , Sachkompetenz
, Fahrzeug mit Verbren-
ey but “the real engagement of individuals in our engagement nungsmotor
market to make a difference to these lives”. , hier: Einbindung

8 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 MARKETING

World of records
MEDIUM AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT

In the 1950s, the boss of the Guinness Brew-

ery had an idea to promote his beer — create
a book full of facts that would settle the most
common arguments people have in pubs. In
1955, the first Guinness Book of World Records
was published and quickly became a hit. By
the 1990s, it was the bestselling copyrighted
book in the world. In 2004, it sold its 100 mil-
lionth copy.
In the digital age, however, people can
look up any record or fact on the internet.
So, the company Guinness World Records
(GWR) had to transform itself. Today, GWR
is less like a publisher and more like a con-
sultancy. For a fee, the company will advise
on choosing, organizing and adjudicating a
record attempt. Whether it’s the fastest hair-
cut (47.17 seconds) or the most people play-
ing Monopoly (733), GWR will be there, and
its media team will film and create the social
media-friendly content.
In a highly competitive media world, mak-
ing a record attempt — or sponsoring one —
is an effective way for brands and influencers
to get people’s attention. And the title of
“world’s greatest” is valuable intellectual
property, which only GWR has the status
and history to award.
PROFILE
Deep dive
EASY AUDIO
In Grebbestad, a little fishing town
on the west coast of Sweden, the
real action happens underwater.
Here, Lotta Klemming goes to work
as the country’s only female profes-
sional oyster diver. “The oysters are
wild and no machines are allowed,”
she told the Financial Times. “We fol-
low the daylight, head out around 10
a.m., dive for oysters till 2 p.m. and
then, come back to clean and pack-
age them.”
In a day, Klemming picks 400–
700 oysters by hand with the water
temperature between zero and 16
degrees Celsius. Her main target is
the Pacific gigas oyster, an invasive
Lotta
Klemming
with her
daily catch
of oysters
species in Sweden that’s found at a
depth of one to three metres. The
business she has created, with the
help of her father and uncle, sup-
plies restaurants in Stockholm, Co-
penhagen and elsewhere.
Klemming, 33, used to work in
the corporate world but says she felt
trapped and that “the ocean was call-
ing for me”. She also organizes trips
to teach people about oysters, which
are normally associated with high
society but are actually very nutri-
tious. “With more knowledge about
how to prepare and cook them, I
think it can be food outside of fine
dining,” she says.

oyster , Auster target [(tA:gIt] in the corporate world nutritious

, Ziel; hier: Beute , in großen Unter- [nju(trISEs]
diver , Taucher(in)
nehmen , nahrhaft
Pacific gigas oyster
head out
[(gIgEz] , Pazifische trapped , gefangen,
, hinausfahren
Riesenauster eingesperrt

The Guinness World of Records Museum in Hollywood

Fotos: picture alliance/Caro; AFP via Getty Images

brewery , Brauerei
settle sth. , etw. beilegen
argument , Debatte
copy , hier: Exemplar
publisher , Verlag
consultancy
, Beratungsunternehmen
fee , Gebühr
adjudicate sth.
[E(dZu:dIkeIt]
, über etw. entscheiden
doxing
competitive Sometimes spelled “doxxing”, this word refers to the act of publicizing
[kEm(petEtIv] online personally identifiable information about an individual or
, wettbewerbsorientiert
group of people without their permission. The word comes from “docs”
brand , Marke
— short for “documents”.
intellectual property
publicize sth. [(pVblIsaIz]
, geistiges Eigentum
, etw. veröffentlichen

TRENDS Business Spotlight 3/2024 9

 BITS AND BYTES
EASY

Not so professional
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional online network. However, 91 per cent of female LinkedIn
users said they had received very unprofessional, romantic advances or sexually inappropriate messag-
es via the platform at least once, according to a survey of more than 1,000 female LinkedIn users from the
US. Nearly a third (31 per cent) of the unwanted advances came via direct messaging.

16,000
litres of water
are needed for
e a c h b i tc o i n
transaction, says
Dutch data scien-
tist Alex de Vries.
Mining crypto requires lots
of computational power, wa-
ter is needed to cool the com-
puters as well as the power
Machine brain
Human brains process huge amounts of
data while using relatively little power.
Computer designers have long wondered
how they do it. The latest attempt to find
out is happening in 2024.
DeepSouth is the name of the super-
computer at the International Centre for

No words plants that generate the large

amount of electricity used by
Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS), in Syd-
ney, Australia. This machine is designed
In 2023, a Canadian court said crypto. According to de Vries’ to implement spiking neural networks,
a thumbs-up emoji could signal estimates, bitcoin used 1.6 tril- copying the way synapses work in the
agreement to a legally binding lion litres of water globally in brain.It is the first time that this has been
contract. Emoji are becoming 2021, which could have risen tried at full scale.
more common in business to 2.3 trillion litres in 2023.
communications, and so are
arguments about what they mean.
advance survey [(s§:veI] thumbs up spiking neural networks
Number of legal cases in the US , hier: Anmache , Befragung , Daumen hoch (SNNs) [(njUErEl]
, gepulstes neuronales
that included disputes about the inappropriate power plant argument , Debatte
Netze
meaning of emoji: [)InE(prEUpriEt] , Kraftwerk
design sth.
, unangemessen at full scale

•• 2016: 25
2023: 200+
trillion , Billion(en) , hier: etw. konzipieren
, in großem Maßstab

drone , Drohne found sth. , etw. gründen

take off , starten; hier: Rwanda [ru(ÄndE]
The rivals den Betrieb aufnehmen , Ruanda

Drone delivery services are already happening in some parts of the world, such as Ireland. Expect them to take off in
more European countries in 2024 and 2025. The African company Zipline is currently the global market leader.

Operating in Operating in
7 MARKETS 2 MARKETS
(US, Japan and 5 African countries) (Ireland and Texas)

Deliveries made Deliveries made

900,000+ 150,000+
(in Ireland alone)

Founded Founded
2016 IN RWANDA 2017 IN IRELAND
Fotos: dr

Zipline Manna

10 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 INNOVATION

ARCHAEOLOGY

See the pictures

on the wall
MEDIUM AUDIO

Photogrammetry uses photographs to create

3D models of an object or a person. The over-
lapping images are put together with the help
of clever software. This method has been used
to create highly accurate maps and models of
the earth’s surface, for example. It is also used
in architecture and filmmaking.
More recently, a research team from the
University of Tennessee and the Ancient Art
Archive used 3D photogrammetry when tak-
ing 16,000 photos inside a dark cave network
in northern Alabama. The technology helped
the researchers discover ancient cave draw- An exoskeleton BIODESIGN
ings (called “glyphs”) that are too faint to be helping a worker with
seen by the human eye. These are believed to
be the largest cave artworks in North America,
heavy lifting
A lighter load
scratched into the rock by indigenous Amer- MEDIUM AUDIO

icans sometime between 1,200 and 1,700

years ago. Not everyone works in a comfy office. Many jobs in-
In their report, the researchers wrote that volve hard, physical labour that eventually takes a toll
the use of 3D modelling “promises a new era on the body. Among American workers, back problems
of discovery of ancient cave art”. It reveals make up about 20 per cent of all workplace injuries.
things from the past that we wouldn’t know Now, a technology that’s been seen in science-fiction
were there otherwise. films could help.
Rather than fully automating physical tasks, which
overlapping glyph [glIf] , Glyphe
, (sich) überlagernd
isn’t always practical, a human worker can wear an
faint , blass, undeutlich exosuit, with motors and sensors, to support the up-
research [ri(s§:tS]
scratch sth. into sth. per body, waist and legs. These suits do not give people
, Forschung
, etw. in etw. ritzen
Left: a cave superpowers but could allow them to perform tasks
ancient [(eInSEnt] painting in
indigenous [In(dIdZEnEs] that would otherwise strain muscles and risk causing
, (sehr) alt Alabama;
, indigen
cave network right: with serious injury — all the more important for an ageing
reveal sth. , etw. enthüllen photogrammetry
, Höhlensystem workforce. The German car maker Porsche, for example,
has given some of its workers mechanical boosters that
are worn like rucksacks.
Exosuits were created for people with spinal inju-
ries but, as costs come down, they could also be used
in industrial jobs that involve repetitive movements
or heavy lifting. They could reduce the risks to people’s
Fotos: Jan SImek, Stephen Alvarez; iStock.com

health while raising productivity.

comfy [(kVmfi] (ifml.) exosuit [(eksEUsu:t] booster

, gemütlich , Roboteranzug , hier: Stützkorsett
zur Lastreduzierung
take a toll on sth. waist , Taille
, von etw. seinen spinal [(spaIn&l]
strain sth.
Tribut fordern , Wirbelsäulen-
, etw. belasten
injury [(IndZEri] heavy lifting , Heben
workforce
, Verletzung schwerer Lasten
, Erwerbsbevölkerung

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 11

 PROFILE

“We couldn’t
find a place in
Istanbul. We
moved in with
my parents”

HAFIZE GAYE ERKAN

Known as: former Wall Street banker, fi-
nancial expert and governor of Turkey’s
central bank
Politics: coming a month after Turkey’s
presidential election, in May 2023, her ap-
pointment is seen as a return to conven-
tional economic policy
Seen as: “a financial whiz”, says Kathryn
Wylde, CEO of Partnership for New York
City
appointment CEO (chief executive
, hier: Ernennung officer)
, Geschäftsführer(in)
whiz [wIz] (ifml.)
, Genie

12
 Hafize Gaye Erkan

Turning Turkey
around
Sie leitet als erste Frau die türkische Zentralbank – und kann sich die
Miete in Istanbul trotzdem nicht leisten. Wer ist Hafize Gaye Erkan?

Von SARAH EVANS

MEDIUM

s a child, she wrote operas and sold them to earn mon- Turkish coffee, they taught me C++ and the joy of recursive func-

A ey. Hafize Gaye Erkan has always been clever about

finances. Now, four decades later, she is the governor
of Turkey’s central bank, trying to get hyperinflation
under control and grappling with an economy that has been
in crisis since 2018. Despite her important job, Erkan said she
tions,” she said.
After attending the bilingual (Turkish-German) IELEV Pri-
vate High School, Erkan studied industrial engineering at Istan-
bul’s Bogazici University, before going on to Harvard Business
School and getting a PhD in operations research and financial
and her family had been priced out of the housing market. “We engineering from Princeton University. In 2005, she joined the
couldn’t find a place in Istanbul,” she told the Turkish newspa- US bank Goldman Sachs, becoming a managing director in 2011.
per Hürriyet in December 2023. “It’s tremendously expensive. We Her impressive career had not gone unnoticed. In 2019, she was
moved in with my parents.” This made some of Turkey’s politi- named among the “most powerful women in banking and fi-
cians angry, who noted that her salary as central bank governor nance” by American Banker magazine.
was over 20 times higher than the country’s minimum wage. In 2014, Erkan moved from Goldman to the (now collapsed)
First Republic Bank, eventually becoming co-CEO. The bank’s
Rising interest records show that she received a $10 million severance package
A former Wall Street banker, Erkan took charge of Turkey’s when she left the job, in December 2021 — another reason many
central bank in June 2023, facing an official inflation rate that were surprised by her claim that she couldn’t afford a flat in the
peaked for the year at nearly 65 per cent. Immediately, she began city of her birth.
raising the key interest rate from 8.5 per cent to an astounding
42.5 per cent by the end of the year, reversing President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s controversial monetary policy of keeping in- grapple with sth. , mit lay the groundwork PhD (Doctor of
terest rates low despite high inflation. This was a return to ortho- etw. ringen; hier: sich mit , die Grundlagen schaffen Philosophy)
dox economics after years of chaos that had scared away foreign etw. auseinandersetzen , Doktortitel
credibility
investors and caused a cost-of-living crisis. priced: be ~ out [)kredE(bIlEti] operations research
, durch hohe Preise , Glaubwürdigkeit [ri(s§:tS]
Even as Erkan lays the groundwork to get inflation back
verdrängt werden , Operations Research
down, saving the Turkish lira and repairing the central bank’s role , hier: Position,
(Unterstützung von
housing market [(haUzIN] Funktion
credibility will be a tough task. Erkan is the fifth central bank Entscheidungsprozessen
, Wohnungsmarkt
corporate [(kO:pErEt] mithilfe mathematischer
governor to have the position since 2018. She’s also the first Methoden)
tremendously , Unternehmens-
woman — one of only about a dozen women serving as central , furchtbar
engineer [)endZI(nIE] financial engineering
bank governors around the world. This is Erkan’s first public role, peak , einen Höchststand , Ingenieur(in) , Financial Engineering
having left the American corporate finance world behind, and erreichen (Finanzsteuerung mittels
recursive function komplexer Finanzierungs-
her promising start makes many believe she’s the right woman interest rate , Zinssatz [ri(k§:sIv] techniken)
for the job. , berechenbare Funktion
astounding [E(staUndIN] managing director
, erstaunlich industrial engineering , geschäftsführende(r)
Knowing how money works , Wirtschaftsingenieur- Direktor(in)
Foto: ddp/abaca press

reverse sth. [ri(v§:s]

wesen
Born in Istanbul in 1979, her parents, a maths and physics teach- , etw. umkehren eventually , schließlich
er and an engineer, supported Erkan’s education from an early business school
monetary , Geld- severance package
, wirtschaftswissen-
age. She learned the programming language C++ from neigh- scare sb. away schaftliche Fakultät [(sev&rEns]
bours who ran a software group. “In return for me making them , jmdn. verscheuchen , Abfindung(spaket)

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 13

 PROFILE

Imran Ahmed
Disinformation wars
Seit ein online radikalisierter Rechtsextremist die britische Politikerin Jo Cox ermordete,
kämpft Imran Ahmed gegen Hass im Netz – und hat deshalb mächtige Feinde.

Von RACHEL PREECE

MEDIUM
Foto: privat

14 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 n July 2023, Imran Ahmed found out that he was being sued

I by Elon Musk. Ahmed called his lawyers and his board mem-
bers. Then, he went to the cinema to watch Barbie. “I know
I’m right,” he told the politics podcast EU Scream. It felt like a
vindication for the campaign group he had founded, the Center
for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). X (formerly Twitter) “Screw that! I
claimed that CCDH had cost the company “at least tens of mil-
lions of dollars” in advertising revenue by highlighting hateful
messages that had been published on the platform.
want to make
Writing in The Guardian, Ahmed explained that “CCDH
holds up a mirror to social media platforms and asks them to
consider whether or not they like the reflection they see in it...
the world safe”
Musk didn’t like what he saw in the mirror. But rather than
take responsibility and admit the problem, he is trying to sue
the mirror.”
Ahmed founded his non-profit organization in 2018, after his IMRAN AHMED
friend and colleague, the British MP Jo Cox, was killed by a white
Known as: founder and CEO of the Center
supremacist who had been radicalized online. Her murder came
for Countering Digital Hate
at a time of growing racism and intolerance in the UK, partly a Center for Countering Digital Hate: a
result of the Brexit referendum. watchdog that aims to stop the spread of
Grieving and in shock, Ahmed wanted to create “better online hate and disinformation via research and
spaces that promote truth, democracy, and are safe for all”. He reports
spent three years studying social media platforms, during which What he says: “Information warfare is a
time, he spoke to executives at various social media companies critical part of any war these days”
about the need for change. “The problem is that they weren’t
founder , Gründer(in) watchdog
really listening,” he complained, seeing the need for an inde- , hier: Kontrollinstanz
CEO (chief executive
pendent watchdog.
officer) research [ri(s§:tS]
Ahmed says his can-do attitude comes from his childhood. , Geschäftsführer(in) , Forschung
Born in 1979, as the oldest of seven children, he told CNN that counter sth. warfare , Kriegführung
he had to do a lot of parenting. “Whenever something needed , etw. entgegenwirken
critical , wesentlich
to be done, I’d always go: ‘OK, I’ll do it.’” His family was poor, liv-
ing in the northern English city of Manchester, but Ahmed got
a chance to escape poverty when a teacher helped him attend a
fee-paying grammar school free of charge.
Later, Ahmed began working in corporate strategy for the US
sue sb. [sju:] grieve [gri:v] quit sth. [kwIt] (ifml.)
investment management company Merrill Lynch, in New York.
, jmdn. verklagen , trauern , etw. aufgeben
In the 9/11 terrorist attacks, his Manhattan office was damaged.
board , Vorstand executive [Ig(zekjUtIv] screw that (vulg.)
Shaken, Ahmed quit banking. “I said ‘Screw that!’,” he told the , Führungskraft , scheiß drauf, zur Hölle
vindication
Financial Times. “I want to make the world safe.” damit
, Rechtfertigung watchdog
, hier: Kontrollinstanz pushback (US)
found sth.
Making the world a better place , Widerstand, Gegenwind
, etw. gründen can-do attitude (ifml.)
Cox’s murder made Ahmed reconsider the world he lived in. “I’m , handlungsorientierte revert sb.
counter sth.
really happy that we’ve become more tolerant. I’m really happy Einstellung , jmdn. zurückführen
, etw. entgegenwirken
that the way that women are treated in our society is better than parenting [(peErEntIN] lesser
formerly , früher
, Elternschaft; , hier: minderwertig
when I was growing up,” he told the Canadian Women’s Foun-
revenue [(revEnju:] hier: Übernehmen
dation in a podcast. “But actually, I think that there has been a dedicate sth.
, Einnahme(n) von Elternaufgaben
[(dedIkeIt]
pushback, and there are people that want to desocialize us, to fee-paying , etw. widmen
MP (member of
revert us to an atavistic state where women and gay people and parliament) , hier: Schulgebühren
quote (ifml.) , Zitat
trans people are considered lesser humans.” , Abgeordnete(r) erhebend
arc [A:k]
On CNN, Ahmed explained that he was inspired to dedicate white supremacist grammar school (UK)
, Bogen; hier: Krümmung
[su(premEsIst] , Gymnasium
his life to making the world better by a quote by Dr Martin Lu-
, Anhänger(in) der Theo- bend
ther King Jr: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral corporate strategy
rie von der Überlegenheit , sich biegen, neigen
, Unternehmensstrategie
universe is long but it bends toward justice.” der Weißen

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 15

 HEAD-TO-HEAD
Creative Studio/Stocksy United; privat

Is it time for a cashless society?

Sollte Bargeld abgeschafft werden? Ja, denn das würde die Kriminalität verringern,
argumentieren Befürworter. Ihre Gegner sagen hingegen, Bargeld sei vor allem für die
Schwächsten in der Gesellschaft wichtig.
Fotos: ACTUS

Interviews: MELITA CAMERON-WOOD

XX

ADVANCED AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT

16
YES “Cash fuels fraud, theft,
corruption, organized crime” NO “Losing cash could seriously
affect the vulnerable”

When people prefer to use cash to keep keep track of sth. I deeply believe in an inclusive society. ostracize sb. [(QstrEsaIz]
track of their spending, that means they , etw. nachverfolgen Going cashless wouldn’t just exclude , jmdn. ächten
don’t know how to invest. It’s about in- AI (artificial intelligence) those who prefer cash, it would ostracize unbanked: be ~
tention — people with cash in their pock- , KI (künstliche Intelli- millions of people who are unbanked, , kein Bankkonto haben
genz)
et have an intention to spend. I went cash- with no access to a bank account. Going traceable
free ten years ago, used AI prediction prediction cashless is not an option for them. , zurückverfolgbar
, Prognose;
tools to track my spending and gamified hier auch: Kalkulation Sometimes, people unexpectedly find vital [(vaIt&l]
, (äußerst) wichtig
my investment strategy. My investing that they need cash, too. When a natural
gamify sth. [(geImIfaI]
went up, and my spending decreased be- , etw. gamifizieren disaster strikes and networks are down, shelter , Refugium,
Zufluchtsstätte
cause all my transactions were recorded. trace sth. cash is necessary.
As soon as you move to a cashless so- , etw. zurückverfolgen Cash also offers anonymity. This isn’t victim of abuse [E(bju:s]
, Missbrauchsopfer
ciety, you go into a world of registered cautious [(kO:SEs] just about not wanting your transactions
, zurückhaltend
affect sb. , Auswirkungen
transactions, which can be traced to those to be traceable — there are some special
auf jmdn. haben
responsible. If you’ve got nothing to hide, fuel sth. [(fju:El] cases where anonymity is vital. Shelters
, etw. befeuern;
vulnerable: the ~
why be cautious about a cashless society? for victims of abuse rely heavily on cash , hier: die Schwächsten
hier: Vorschub leisten
When you have a cash economy, you’re flow to allow anonymity for the people der Gesellschaft
fuelling a parallel economy. Just think of fraud [frO:d] living there. Losing cash could seriously
, Betrug
back-office system
the number of countries in which US dol- affect the vulnerable. , hier: Abwicklungs-
child trafficking system
lars are accepted outside of any economic , Kinderhandel
Cash management can be expensive,
structure. Cash fuels fraud, theft, corrup- but costs and time are saved through driver , Treiber
hijack sth.
tion, organized crime, prostitution and , etw. kapern, entführen automation. Cash pay stations and back- low-denomination
, hier: mit geringem
child trafficking, which tend to happen office systems have made handling cash
UAE (United Arab Nennwert
in the world of Bitcoin or cash. Emirates) cheaper than it used to be. Coins are actu-
, VAE (Vereinigte
phase sth. out
In the casino industry, one of the top ally one of the largest drivers of cash op- , etw. nach und nach
Arabische Emirate)
reasons our clients go cashless is safety. If eration costs. If low-denomination coins abschaffen
somebody wins the $1,000 cash jackpot dirham [(dIErÄm] were phased out, those costs would natu-
, Dirham (Währung der
swipe , Durchziehen
and walks out of the casino on a Friday VAE) rally decrease. durch den Kartenleser
night in Bogotá, the chances of that per- In many regions, card-swipe fees are fee , Gebühr
predict sth.
son being shot, killed or robbed immedi- , etw. prognostizieren very costly for businesses. For large retail- retailer
ately increase. ers, this can run into the billions, which , Einzelhändler(in)
Another major factor is the cost of has a significant effect on their bottom bottom line
moving physical money around the world. line. A number of businesses are encour- , Geschäftsergebnis

You need very high security to transport aging cash payments to protect their shrinking , schrumpfend,
money between banks to prevent planes shrinking profits. zurückgehend
carrying millions of dollars from getting Cash isn’t just appreciated by older appreciate sth.
[E(pri:SieIt]
hijacked. generations who feel less comfortable
, etw. wertschätzen
We’re seeing increased talk of digital with digital solutions. In 2023, #cashstuff-
keep track of sth.
currencies. The UAE is currently testing ing, a method of keeping track of your fi- , etw. nachverfolgen
the digital dirham, for example. I predict nances by separating cash into envelopes
that 2025 will be the year when the world labelled with different purposes, has been
goes cashless. The cost of holding and trending on TikTok. With fears of reces-
moving money has become too high, so sion, young people are keeping a close eye
going cashless is the logical way forward. on the money they spend.

EARLE G. HALL is president and MARIE-CARMEN HUGHES is

CEO of AXES.ai and chairman of sales manager, retail checkout Mehr zu diesem Thema
hier kostenlos anhören!
the International Gaming Standards EMEA at Crane Payment Innova- www.business-
Association tions Ltd spotlight.de/
(https://axes.ai) (https://www.cranepi.com/en) audio-gratis/03

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 17

 TRAVEL

Travel like Bond,

James Bond

Ein französisches Château, eine malerische Villa im Norden

Italiens, ein Grandhotel in Tschechien: James Bond ist nicht nur
Action, sondern auch Landschaftsromantik – und die können
Sie auch für Ihr Unternehmen haben.

Von RICHARD MOTE

MEDIUM ÜBUNGSHEFT

18

on-screen
, auf der Leinwand
chase sb.
, jmdn. verfolgen
down sth. (ifml.)
, etw. herunterkippen
seduce sb. [sI(dju:s]
, jmdn. verführen
billion , Milliarde(n)
adjust sth. , etw. korrigie-
ren, bereinigen
spy , Spion(in)
brand , Marke
damning [(dÄmIN]
, vernichtend
track record
, Erfolgsbilanz;
hier: Charakterzüge
elitism [i(li:t)IzEm]
, elitäres Denken
womanizing
[(wUmEnaIzIN]
, Frauen nachstellend
cisgender [)sIs(dZendE]
, cisgender, -sexuell
carbon footprint
, CO2-Fußabdruck
Fotos: Alamy Stock Photo; ddp/Capital Pictures
gen [dZen] (ifml.)
, Generation
release [ri(li:s]
, Veröffentlichung;
hier: Start
box office
, Kino-, Theaterkasse
Villa del Balbianello on
Lake Como, Italy. The Casino tenure [(tenjE]
Royale location can be , Laufbahn; hier: Zeit als
booked for corporate events Darsteller(in)
TRENDS
Bond always
travels in style
ur headline is a reference to one of the
O
best-known phrases in cinema history.
For more than 60 years, Bond has trav-
elled the world on-screen, chasing bad
guys, downing martinis and seducing beautiful
women — all in the line of duty to his country. After
25 official films with six lead actors and nearly $7 bil-
lion in global earnings (adjusted for inflation), James
Bond is one of the most popular and lucrative film
franchises of all time.
Bond is a remarkable spy, of course. No less re-
markable are the strength of the Bond brand and
the fact that he’s still marketable today at all — de-
spite his damning track record of sexism and elitism.
British actor Roger Moore, the third man to play the
role, once described the literary character of Bond as
“slightly fascist”. Since he’s a meat-eating, woman-
izing cisgender white male whose lifestyle creates
an enormous carbon footprint, one might expect
that millennials and Gen Z in particular would have
cancelled Bond long ago for his intolerable political
incorrectness.
Instead, the opposite has happened. Bond may
be a product of a different time (author Ian Fleming
published the first novel of the series in 1953), but
his commercial success continues to grow. In fact,
the latest incarnation of Bond, played by Daniel
Craig, has brought in nearly half the total earnings
of the franchise. The most recent film, No Time to Die,
whose release was delayed by the Covid-19 pandem-
ic, earned more than three-quarters of a billion dol-
lars at the box office. Craig, who has now retired from
the role, was right when he said, in the documentary
Being James Bond: “My tenure is what it is, but it’s only
part of something bigger.”
3/2024 Business Spotlight 19
 Sölden’s gourmet
restaurant Ice Q —
more than 3,000
metres above sea level

Bond for business AUSTRIA

The world of Bond is pure escapism. Who wouldn’t
want to travel to an exotic location and drive up to
a luxurious hotel in a shiny Aston Martin (you can
just pretend there are machine guns behind the head-
lights)? However, even if you are not on His Majes-
ty’s Secret Service, you can give your next business
trip or team off-site a little James Bond magic. Here are
some stunning Bond locations you can visit.
Sölden
Appearing in several of the films, the Austrian Alps
are a must on any Bond-inspired travel itinerary.
FLORIAN GASSER is the ZEIT’s bureau chief in Vi-
enna and one of the hosts of the podcast “Podcasts
Servus. Grüezi. Hallo.” (zeit.de/alpenpodcast). He’s
also a dedicated James Bond fan and this is his tip.
“Parts of the 2015 film Spectre were shot in Sölden, in the Tyro-

Fotos: IMAGO/Bruno Press; privat; GARDEL Bertrand/hemis.fr/ddp; Alamy Stock Photo; action press
lean Ötztal. Bond flies into the valley in a small plane over the
Daniel Craig sprawling mountains, walks through the snow in search of the
as Bond, on psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (played by Léa Seydoux), who
the move in works in a private clinic at the top of the Gaislachkogl mountain.
Skyfall
Villains, wild chases and the quartermaster, Q, appear in the scene
— everything that makes a good Bond film.
You can impress your clients or business partners with a meal at
the original filming location, the gourmet restaurant Ice Q — more
than 3,000 metres above sea level. While you’re there, go next-
door to visit the 007 ELEMENTS installation, all about the world
of Bond. Or you can ride in a helicopter along the breathtaking
mountain ranges, see the glacier road on which Bond escapes and,
for a brief moment, you may actually feel like an urbane secret
agent.”
www.iceq.at/james-bond.html

travel itinerary dedicated , gewidmet; villain [(vIlEn]

[aI(tIn&rEri] hier: begeistert , Bösewicht, Schurke
escapism off-site , Treffen an einem Ort , Reiseroute
[I(skeIp)IzEm] außerhalb des Arbeitsplatzes sprawling glacier [(glÄsiE]
, Realitätsflucht, Flucht vor der bureau [(bjUErEU] , ausgedehnt , Gletscher
stunning , fantastisch, , [wg. Aussprache]
Wirklichkeit
überwältigend

20 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

United Kingdom
Corinthia, London
Bond is at home in London, and you can’t get closer
than the Corinthia hotel. It used to be a Ministry of
Defence property, where Churchill himself stayed
several times. Close to the government offices at
Whitehall, it’s an ideal base from which to explore
other Bond locations, including the National Gallery,
where Bond meets Q in Skyfall, and the Vauxhall
Cross building (MI6 headquarters), which is situat-
ed on the Thames and can be seen in several films.
Whitehall Place, London
www.corinthia.com/en-gb/london

Rules
For an impressive location for a business lunch, go
to Rules. Said to be the oldest restaurant in London,
it was founded in 1798, and it is the MI6 gathering
place where M, Q and Moneypenny meet in Spectre.
35 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London
https://rules.co.uk

Not only the home of Bond villain Zorin — France’s

Château de Chantilly has conference rooms for off-sites

France
Château de Chantilly
About 40 kilometres north of Paris is the Château de Chantilly
estate. With a variety of conference and meeting rooms, it can
be a beautiful stage for any kind of working event or company
celebration. The vast grounds even include a racecourse. The
mansion and stables of the estate were the home of Bond villain
Rules — inside and out, an impressive
location for a meal with clients Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) in the 1985 film A View to a Kill
— Roger Moore’s final adventure as Bond.
60500 Chantilly, France
https://chateaudechantilly.fr/en
Czech Republic
Grandhotel Pupp
This beautiful, traditional hotel has a history that property , Immobilie backdrop , Hintergrund mansion
[(mÄnS&n]
goes back to 1701. It served as the backdrop for the headquarters , Zentrale estate , Landsitz
, Herrenhaus, Villa
casino scenes in Casino Royale — and it’s just four and Thames [temz] vast , riesig
stable , Stall
a half hours’ drive from either Frankfurt or Berlin. , Themse
grounds , Gelände
36001 Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic villain [(vIlEn]
found sth.
racecourse , Rennbahn , Bösewicht, Schurke
www.pupp.cz/en , etw. gründen

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 21

 Bond and his iconic Aston Martin DB5 in Skyfall

Italy
Villa del Balbianello
This stunning Italian villa served as the hospital
where Bond recovers from his injuries, together
with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), in Casino Royale. In a
beautiful setting on Lake Como, the location can be For business trips to Tokyo — the Hotel New
booked for corporate events, including dinners for Otani, from You Only Live Twice

up to 130 people.
Via Guido Delmati, 22016 Monzino CO, Italy
https://fondoambiente.it/luoghi/villa-del-balbianello/affitta
BOND IN NUMBERS
During the course of the 25 films,
Cala di Volpe
With meeting and event rooms, along with 121 guest 150 Bond travels to over 150 locations
in more than 50 countries.
rooms, this luxury hotel, on the coast of Sardinia, of-
fers to help you plan a bespoke corporate event over-
The most common location seen in the
looking the sparkling Mediterranean. This is where
Bond and Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara
3 Bond films is, unsurprisingly, London.
However, other favourite cities include Hong
Bach) stayed in The Spy Who Loved Me. Plus, just a short Kong, Istanbul and Venice, which have each
trip away, you’ll find the beach at Spiaggia Capriccioli, appeared in three films.
where Bond famously drove his Lotus Esprit out of
According to the mapping company
the sea.
Costa Smeralda, 07020 Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy
www.caladivolpe.com
44 Esri UK, Roger Moore is the most
well-travelled Bond, visiting 44 locations, as
well as going into space in Moonraker.
injury [(IndZEri]
Japan , Verletzung
Bond flies planes and helicopters, and
Tokyo
The next time you find yourself on a business trip
corporate , Firmen-
bespoke [bi(spEUk] (UK)
8 rides motorcycles. He even takes the
Tube in Skyfall (in an unconventional way).
to Tokyo, try to watch a sumo wrestling match at , maßgeschneidert, Kun- And in Live and Let Die, he drives a double-
Japan’s national sumo stadium (Ryōgoku Kokugi- denwünschen angepasst
decker bus, although it’s not a double-decker
kan). Bond goes there in You Only Live Twice, where he sparkling by the end. But Bond’s favourite way to travel
, glitzernd
meets the beautiful Japanese agent Aki (Akiko Wak- is surely in an Aston Martin — nearly half the
abayashi). Also in Tokyo is the luxurious Hotel New Mediterranean films feature one. And the classic silver DB5
[)medItE(reIniEn] has appeared in eight films.
Otani, whose exterior served as the headquarters of , Mittelmeer
Fotos: Alamy Stock Photo; dr

Osato Chemicals, a suspicious company that Bond

suspicious [sE(spISEs]
investigates. Situated within a ten-acre garden, the , verdächtig
hotel is not only a lovely place to stay but can also acre [(eIkE]
host a wide range of events. , Morgen (4047 m2)
Hotel New Otani, 4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
host sth. , Veranstal-
https://www.newotani.co.jp/en/tokyo tungsort für etw. sein
course , Verlauf; Tube: the ~ [tju:b]
hier: gesamte Spielzeit (UK ifml.)
, Londoner U-Bahn
mapping
, Kartografie; feature sth. [(fi:tSE]
hier: Datenerfassung , etw. zeigen

22 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 FACTS AND FIGURES

d e bt
s i n g
Ri Die Preise steigen, immer mehr
Menschen verschulden sich – was alles
nur noch teurer macht.
MEDIUM

igh inflation has led consumers in the US and other coun-

H tries to spend down their savings and increase their use
of credit. In late 2023, the total credit-card debt of American
consumers passed $1 trillion for the first time.

Americans are taking on more unsecured debt just

as higher interest rates have pushed up the cost of
credit.

Percentage of US consumers who have applied to raise

£2,409 is the average
credit- card debt per UK household (as of mid-2023).
their credit-card limit: At the same time, 19 per cent of adults in the poorest
areas of England reported using more credit than

OCTOBER 2022 — 11.2% usual because of the rising cost of living.

OCTOBER 2023 — 17.8%

New fintech providers have increased access to credit but also
the risks it carries. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services are par-
ticularly attractive to young consumers.

Average monthly debt from BNPL services; UK; 2022:

Forever in debt?
18–24 YEARS: £207.84 ⋅ Nearly half of all credit-card holders

25–24 YEARS: £175.12 in the US have “revolving debt” —

meaning they never fully pay off

35–44 YEARS: £152.45 ⋅

their balance.
Nearly one in ten US credit-card
45–54 YEARS: £159.78 users is in “persistent debt” — this
means they pay more in interest and
fees each year than they pay toward
reducing the principal.
Illustrationen: Georg Lechner

spend sth. down (non-stand.) apply sth. revolving , sich drehend; persistent
, etw. aufbrauchen , etw. beantragen hier: revolvierend , andauernd, ständig

debt [det] , Schulden,
Verschuldung
trillion , Billion(en)
interest rate , Zinssatz
fintech [(fIntek] pay sth. off fee , Gebühr
, Finanztechnologie , etw. zurückzahlen, tilgen
principal , Kapital;
access , Zugriff balance , Rechnungssaldo; hier auch: Kreditsumme
hier: Restbetrag
as of... , Stand ...

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 23

 NEW WORK

10 tips
to make your
office greener
Fotos: iStock.com; Christiane Schäffner mit Firefly KI

Mit diesen Nachhaltigkeitstipps schonen Sie nicht nur das Klima,

sondern machen das eigene Unternehmen auch attraktiver.

Von RACHEL PREECE

MEDIUM AUDIO

24 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 esides helping to make the world a better place, there

B are real benefits for companies that lower their cli-

mate impact. Almost three quarters of employees and
jobseekers say sustainability makes an employer more
attractive, and studies show that many consumers prefer to buy
from companies that take corporate social responsibility (CSR)
seriously. Here are ten ideas to make your office greener:

7.
Set targets

1.
Start a conversation
Tim Pardoe is the founder of Joshua Brook, a Ham-
burg-based architecture studio that specializes in sus-
tainability. He told Business Spotlight that, in conversations with
clients, he asks questions like “What are you inspired by? How
willing are you to pursue sustainability?” to gauge the steps that
managers are prepared to take. “Transparency and clear expecta-
tions are crucial,” he says.
The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Direc-
tive (CSRD) was created to increase transparency in
sustainability. Certain businesses must make their CO2 emis-
sions public and, by setting realistic targets, companies can pub-
licize how they’re reducing their impact. If you want to make
a difference, you can become a certified environmentally con-
scious organization (ISO 14001).

8.
Look at your suppliers

2.
Ask an outsider
A fresh pair of eyes can see day-to-day challenges
that employees might not. “Engage a specialist to
critique your office environment,” Pardoe says. “There aren’t
Ask questions and check the ESG ratings of your sup-
pliers to make sure you’re buying from companies
with a sustainable focus.

9.
any cookie-cutter answers for quick and meaningful sustaina- Make your events climate-friendly
ble upgrades.” Food causes a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.
For corporate events, choose caterers who use re-

3.
Change your culture
Create a culture of sustainability by “developing an
internal sustainability strategy for your company and
spreading the word to all staff,” Pardoe says. Create a paperless
gional and seasonal produce. Can the food be vegan? Are printed
menus really necessary? Choose a location that’s easy to reach
by public transport.

10.
office, provide bicycle garages and reuseable containers for get- Give back to the community
ting lunch, subsidize public transport costs — all these things Businesses are part of the community they oper-
help workers make sustainability part of their daily work. ate in. Use those vegetables that employees spent
all summer growing for a picnic for the local community. Organ-

4.
Make the most of your space ize a volunteering day to pick up litter in the area. Raise aware-
Adding indoor plants doesn’t just make the office ness of sustainability in the company and everybody benefits.
look better, it helps to improve air quality, too. If
there’s a roof terrace, maybe it can be transformed into a garden
where workers could team up to grow vegetables. That could be climate impact , Aus- critique sth. [krI(ti:k] tap water
great for team-building. wirkung(en) auf das Klima , etw. rezensieren; , Leitungswasser
hier: beurteilen
sustainability ensure sth. [In(SO:]

5.
Implement technology , Nachhaltigkeit
Even small changes can go a long way. Use LED corporate social
lights and smart plugs that shut down devices; install responsibility (CSR)
, soziale Unternehmens-
filters that improve tap water (to reduce the need for bottled wa- verantwortung
ter) and consider switching to a green energy supplier. “Ensure
founder , Gründer(in)
the office is set up for remote and flexible work,” Pardoe says. “It
pursue sth. [pE(sju:]
saves unnecessary travel.” , etw. verfolgen; hier: sich
etw. zum Ziel setzen
environment
, hier: Umfeld
cookie-cutter (US)
, nullachtfünfzehn
word , hier: Botschaft
subsidize sth. [(sVbsIdaIz]
, etw. subventionieren,
unterstützen
, etw. sicherstellen
remote , hier: virtuell
target [(tA:gIt] , Ziel
ESG (environmental,
social and governance)
, ESG (Umwelt-,
Sozial- und Unternehmens-
führung)

6.
go a long way (ifml.) greenhouse gas
Try office sharing gauge sth. [geIdZ] , viel bewirken können , Treibhausgas
About 70 per cent of US businesses reduced office , etw. beurteilen
smart plug volunteering day
space in the pandemic. Now that many employees crucial , wesentlich , Smart Plug; etwa: , Tag ehrenamtlicher
are returning on varying days, office sharing is potentially a way intelligente Steckdose Arbeit
engage sb. , jmdn.
to become greener and save money at the same time. einbinden, einbeziehen device , Gerät litter , Abfall, Müll

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 25

TECHNOLOGY

Is your head in
the cloud?
 Sie erleichtern die Zusammenarbeit und erhöhen die
Sicherheit: Wie Cloud-Dienste die Arbeitswelt revolutionieren.

Von RACHEL PREECE

ADVANCED US

ver the past decade, cloud computing has revolu-

O tionized global business. Back in 2014, following

his appointment as Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella
predicted that “everything is going to be connected
to [the] cloud.” Forbes declared that “few technological advance-
ments have had as profound an impact as the rise of cloud com-
puting.” And in 2024, spending on cloud infrastructure is set to
top $1 trillion for the first time. But what exactly is the cloud,
and how can it help your business?
Simply put, the cloud is made up of various computing ser-
“If you don’t use the
vices — servers, databases, software, analytics, etc. — that are
available via the internet. Information is not physically stored
in one place, on a hard drive, for example. Instead, the main ser-
capabilities the cloud
vice providers, which include Amazon, Microsoft and Google,
rent out secure and reliable space for this data.
offers, you’ll fall
Companies are moving away from storing their data on in-
ternal hard drives for various reasons. One is flexibility — cloud
storage allows employees to access information from anywhere
behind. It’s a mistake”
in the world (provided they have an internet connection). It’s
no surprise that cloud usage greatly accelerated during the
pandemic.
Diego Peleteiro is technology director at Globant Germany,
a technology services organization that helps other companies
develop digitally. “In the past, CEOs were asking, ‘Is cloud com-
puting part of your strategy?’,” he told Business Spotlight. “And now,
it’s a question of how the cloud is a part of a company’s strategy.
If you don’t use the capabilities and opportunities the cloud of-
fers, you’ll fall behind. It’s a mistake.”
Globally, over 90 percent of companies utilize cloud services,
but things are different in Germany. As of July 2023, just 46.5
percent of German companies used cloud technology. Many be-
predict sth. utilize sth. , etw. nutzen
lieve this is because the largest cloud service providers are based , etw. prognostizieren
in the U.S., and German companies fear data security breaches. as of... , Stand ...
profound
Peleteiro believes that apprehension about the cloud is det- breach , Verletzung
, tiefgreifend
rimental to innovation. “No industry is safe,” he says. “Think trillion , Billion(en)
apprehension
about the automotive industry. Ten years ago, they didn’t see , Besorgnis
simply put
the need to innovate radically, then Tesla came along. Without , einfach gesagt
detrimental: be ~ to sth.
[)detrI(ment&l]
the cloud, you’re not fast enough. If companies are resistant, they
Illustration: Georg Lechner

hard drive , Festplatte , sich nachteilig auf etw.

will lose out.” Peleteiro suggests employing a multicloud strat- auswirken
accelerate [Ek(selEreIt]
egy — i.e. using various cloud service providers — to maximize , sich beschleunigen, i.e. [)aI (i:]
security. He says this approach is safer than relying on local IT zunehmen , das heißt, d. h.
infrastructure, such as internal servers, which is possibly out- fall behind vulnerable: be ~ to sth.
dated and vulnerable to cyberattacks. , ins Hintertreffen geraten , für etw. anfällig sein

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 27

 The cloud is the place to be
As cybersecurity threats intensify, awareness of the benefits and
opportunities of cloud services is rising. The cloud offers better
security than most local networks can manage. According to
one Salesforce study, 94 percent of businesses say they see an
improvement in security after switching to the cloud.
While the initial cost of a switch might be high, the lon-
ger-term ROI makes the investment more viable. Providing
employees with easy remote access to company data saves time
and money. Moreover, most cloud services are pay-as-you-go,
meaning customers don’t pay for unnecessary services. Forbes es-
timates that businesses can save up to 50 percent on data-man-
agement costs when switching to the cloud from internal serv-
ers, as there’s less infrastructure that needs to be maintained.
Big cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS),
Microsoft Azure and Google, guarantee an uptime of 99.95 per-
cent for the majority of their services. Along with availability
comes a high level of reliability. Jeff Barr, from AWS, put this into
perspective: “If you store 10,000 objects with us, on average, we
may lose one of them every ten million years or so.”
Kelsey Hightower, software engineer
Formerly of Google, Hightower is an advocate
for open-source cloud computing infrastruc-
ture. In one interview, he was asked how tech
experts can help to build industry knowledge:
“You share it. That’s the trick. Someone has to share it.”
Betsy Beyer, technical writer at Google
Author and editor of several bestselling books, including the
seminal Site Reliability Engineering, Beyer is considered an import-
ant voice on how Google deals with cloud stability. She began
working at Google after responding to a “random posting on
Craigslist,” and has been making waves ever since.

Looking ahead
THE TOP CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
So, what’s holding companies back? At present, big cloud pro-
viders are increasing their prices. In 2023, for example, Google • Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s
raised the price of its Workspace (a collection of cloud comput- largest cloud service provider, is also the
ing tools) by 20 percent. Also, companies that use one cloud
most profitable part of Amazon, generating
more than $22 billion in sales in the second
provider run the risk of vendor lock-in — a situation in which
quarter of 2023 alone. It controls around a
a company is unable to switch to another provider because of third of the global market.
the high cost and complexity of migrating large volumes of data. • Microsoft Azure is the second most popular
“The first step should be small,” says Peleteiro. “For compa- provider, with around 23 percent market share.
nies starting their cloud journey, one provider makes sense. But • Google Cloud is in third place, with around
then, it’s important to mitigate some risk by adopting a multi- 10 percent of the market.
cloud approach — using different providers to avoid becoming
dependent on one.” Forecasters expect multicloud strategies to
increase in popularity in 2024, enhancing companies’ flexibility.

Leading the industry

Cloud computing is an integral part of our lives, but also feels
abstract to most people. If you stream a film or series on Netflix,
for example, you’re benefiting from AWS, which delivers videos ROI (return on forecaster formerly
investment) , Prognostiker(in) , früher, zuvor
over the internet. Many employees rely on file-sharing software, , Kapitalrendite
enhance sth. advocate
such as SharePoint, and communicate with their colleagues via
viable [(vaIEb&l] , etw. verbessern, [(ÄdvEkEt]
Teams — both of which are cloud-based applications. Who are , rentabel steigern , Verfechter(in)
the movers and shakers in this industry? Here are the most in- uptime application editor
fluencial heads in the cloud. , Betriebszeit, Verfüg- , Anwendung , Herausgeber(in)
barkeit
movers and shakers seminal [(semIn&l]
Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO at Amazon vendor , Macher(innen) , bahnbrechend
, Verkäufer(in)
Vogels has been at Amazon from the early days, CTO (chief technology random
joining in 2004. Often called the “Godfather of migrate sth. officer) , zufällig, beliebig
[(maIgreIt*] , Leiter(in) Techno-
the Cloud,” he was one of the people who have , etw. migrieren, logie
make waves
, Aufsehen erregen
made Amazon one of the biggest e-commerce übertragen
godfather , Pate
platforms in the world. Originally, AWS was a solution to the mitigate sth.
refute sth. [ri(fju:t]
internal problem of growing Amazon’s IT infrastructure. Back [(mItEgeIt*]
, etw. anfechten;
, etw. mindern
in 2006, Vogels refuted that Amazon was a successful online hier: widersprechen
* This symbol marks
bookstore. Instead, he said: “First and foremost, Amazon is a adopt sth.
first and foremost standard US
, etw. übernehmen
technology company.” A man with a vision. , vor allem pronunciation.

28 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 Charity Majors and Liz
Fong-Jones, CTO and field
CTO at Honeycomb.io
Majors and Fong-Jones
believe scalability is a big
advantage of the cloud: in-
creasing or decreasing re-
sources to meet changing
demand. They are also activ-
ists for diversity. Majors co-
founded the software company Honeycomb
in 2016, and Fong-Jones joined in 2019, im-
pressed by the number of women in leader-
ship roles there.

Ryan Kroonenburg, cofounder of A Cloud

Guru
Kroonenburg was turned down for a job
at AWS, after three months of intensive
interviews. He could have attended the of-
ficial AWS training course to improve his
chances of getting a job, but the fees were
expensive, so instead, he set about creating
an alternative learning platform. Within a
year, he launched A Cloud Guru, which has
since provided inexpensive cloud comput-
ing training to more than two million people
around the world. After six years, Kroonen-
burg sold the company for a cool $2 billion.

Heather Adkins, found-

ing member of the Google
Security Team
A cybersecurity expert, Ad-
Illustration: Georg Lechner; Fotos Adrie Mouthaan/De Beeldunie/laif; AILEEN SON/NYT/Redux/laif; privat

kins has been at Google for

two decades. She advocates for strong, reli-
able systems and has coauthored books with
Betsy Beyer to encourage scalable, secure
systems in organizations.

scalability turn sb. down

[)skeI&lE(bIlEti] , jmdn. ablehnen
, Skalierbarkeit
fee , Gebühr

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 29

 BRAND STRATEGIES

Should you change

your product for a What, no passenger?
Business Spotlight asked

foreign market? artificial intelligence to

design a car with lots of
cupholders. Cheers!

ould the size and number of the cupholders in a car

Ein Volkswagen mit 17 Getränkehaltern für die
USA? Immer mehr Unternehmen passen ihre
Produkte anderen Märkten an. Doch dabei ist
Vorsicht geboten.
C
really determine the success or failure of the vehi-
cle’s manufacturer? Cupholders may seem trivial
compared with safety features, fuel efficiency, etc.
For lots of American consumers, however, who spend a consid-
Fotos: Georg Lechner mit Leonardo KI; action press; ddp

erable amount of time in their cars, having adequate places to

Von RICHARD MOTE
secure a hot beverage is a practical (perhaps even psychological)
MEDIUM US necessity. American comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said: “I feel
the cupholder defines our culture.”

manufacturer fuel efficiency beverage

[)mÄnjE(fÄktS&rEr*] [(fju:El E)fIS&nsi] [(bevErIdZ]
, Hersteller(in) , Kraftstoffeffizienz , Getränk

feature adequate
, Merkmal; [(ÄdIkwEt] * This symbol marks
hier auch: Vorrichtung , geeignet standard US pronunciation.

30 Business Spotlight 3/2024 TRENDS

 The German car manufacturer Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest
carmaker, has long struggled in North America, where its market
share is under five percent. Could it be because of the cuphold-
ers? The company isn’t taking any chances — the latest model of
its family SUV, Atlas, a car built and sold only in North America,
has space for seven people but comes with 17 cupholders.
This is an example of the cultural customization of consumer
goods. Previously, Volkswagen had used the advertising slogan
“Das Auto,” suggesting that its vehicles were for all people, re-
gardless of where they lived. But it has since changed its strategy
— consumers are not the same everywhere.

Changes can be risky KFC in China,

When should companies adapt their offerings to a local culture
and when is it better not to? As variations often involve higher
costs, it is mostly in large markets that customization is viable.
Western carmakers offer long-wheelbase versions of certain
models in China, for example. Lots of Chinese car buyers value
extra interior space in the back for older relatives, many of whom
do not drive themselves.
Fast-food chains, who generally pride themselves on being
the same in any location, have also seen advantages to offering
some variation. With over 9,000 stores across China, the U.S. res-
taurant chain KFC has expanded its menu to include items such
as congee, which is a sort of rice porridge. And while coffee made
Starbucks famous in the West, the company offers its Chinese
customers a range of teas.
Even in a big market, however, changing your product isn’t
always the right choice. Not only is it very easy to get things em-
barrassingly wrong in a foreign culture, it may risk compromis-
ing the brand’s distinctive character. This is often the case in the
luxury segment. Most people who buy a Louis Vuitton handbag,
for example, wish to stand out with something that represents
international standards of luxury.
adapted to the
Chinese market The same may be true if your business
is selling an experience rather than a tan-
gible product. The company Norwegian
Cruise Line had invested heavily in cus-
tomizing its cruise ship Norwegian Joy
for the Chinese market — but it went
too far. Wang Jianmin, of the Tourism
Research Center of the Chinese Acad-
emy of Social Sciences, told the Global
Times: “Ships like Norwegian Joy overly
appealed to Chinese customers with too
many Chinese elements.” People who
were looking for a distinctive Western
luxury found the experience all too fa-
miliar. After just one year, the ship was
decommissioned.
As the purchasing power of mid-
dle-class consumers in markets such as
China and India grows, companies are
increasingly willing to make the effort
to meet their needs. In doing so, brands
must consider very carefully which as-
pects of their product and business pro-
cesses may benefit from local character-
istics and when it’s better to stick to the
global standard.

chances: take ~ embarrassingly customize sth.

, Risiken eingehen , peinlich, blamabel [(kVstEmaIz]
, etw. (an Kundenwün-
customization compromise sth.
sche) anpassen
[)kVstEmaI(zeIS&n] , etw. beeinträchtigen
, Anpassung (an Kunden- research [ri(s§:tS]
brand , Marke
wünsche) , Forschung
distinctive
previously [(pri:viEsli] appeal to sb.
, unverwechselbar

“The cupholder , zuvor

viable [(vaIEb&l]
, durchführbar;
stand out with sth.
, mit etw. auffallen,
hervorstechen
, jmdm. zusagen;
hier: auf jmdn. abzielen
decommission sth.

defines our culture” hier: rentabel

long-wheelbase
, mit langem Radstand
tangible
[(tÄndZEb&l]
, materiell
, etw. außer Betrieb
setzen
purchasing power
– Jerry Seinfeld, U.S. comedian item [(aItEm]
, Kaufkraft

, Artikel; hier: Gericht

TRENDS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 31

 SOCIAL MEDIA

Millionen von Followern aus dem

Homeoffice: Die Influencerin
Laura Whaley verrät die Strategie
ihres Erfolgs in den sozialen
Medien.

Interview:
MELITA CAMERON-WOOD
MEDIUM

hen Canadian IT consult-

W ant Laura Whaley began

creating work-related vid-
eos for social media, dur-
ing the pandemic, she didn’t expect that
many people would pay attention — at
the time, she had a total of 30 followers
on TikTok. She was simply looking for
somewhere to share her thoughts about
the challenges of professional communi-
cation and working from home.
Her humorous posts are about how
to handle potential conflicts at work and
express yourself assertively but politely.
Whaley’s videos have become very pop-
ular, and she now has nearly 700,000 fol-
lowers on YouTube, some three million
on Instagram and 3.7 million on TikTok.
This popularity and her brand partner-
ships have allowed Whaley to become
a full-time influencer, with her own
branded merchandise, including cups
and socks with her tagline, “Toodaloo!”,
an informal word for “goodbye”. Whaley
spoke to Business Spotlight about creating
a business on social media.

It’s how Why do your videos focus on remote

workers?
People face loneliness and isolation.
You’ve got to be intentional about how

you say it humorous

[(hju:mErEs]
, humorvoll, lustig

assertively
[E(s§:tIvli]
, durchsetzungsstark,
merchandise
[(m§:tSEndaIz]
, (Handels-)Artikel,
Ware(n)
tagline , Slogan
remote , hier: im
selbstbewusst
Homeoffice tätig
brand
intentional:
Foto: privat

, Marke
be ~ about sth.
, etw. beabsichtigen

32 COMMUNICATION
you spend your social time. There could also be chal-
lenges building soft skills when you’re working re-
motely. It’s harder to shift from a remote setting to an
in-person setting because of the small things that we
take for granted, like meeting etiquette and behaviour,
but remote workers develop their email writing and
time-management skills.
How did your co-workers react when you started
posting?
My co-workers and my manager had actually seen the
videos before my page blew up. I was always very care-
ful not to draw direct parallels between a real work situ-
ation and my content, so no one I worked with ever said:
“Oh! That character is based on me!”
What advice do you have for anyone who wants to
start their own business on social media?
Choose a topic you can make content about for a long
period of time. Be consistent and find what’s sustain-
able for you. Read the comments that people leave —
as long as it’s OK for your mental health. Listen to the
people supporting you and understand what content
really interests people. I studied business, and the skills I
learned are transferable to this industry, so develop your
business skills!
How has increased autonomy changed people’s career
priorities?
As children, most of us are asked what we want to be
when we grow up. But no one really thinks about how
we want to work. What is the right work environment?
Do we want flexibility and autonomy, or structure and
regularity? Do we want to be in an office or work from
home? Do we want to work nine to five or have different
working hours? Such questions will dictate lots of career
decisions. It’s not just about how much a job pays. There
are many variables that people are now talking about.
HOW TO SAY WHAT YOU MEAN — POLITELY
Laura Whaley’s “How to Professionally Say” posts help
people express what they think, in a professional way:
Don’t say: “Why didn’t you ask me for this sooner?”
SAY: “Given the tight turnaround, it would have been
beneficial to have been looped in on this sooner.”
Don’t say: “This is not my problem.”
SAY: “I recommend directing this question to [name], as
they have the proper expertise to assist you.”
Don’t say: “I forgot about your email.”
SAY: “Thank you for your patience.”
Don’t say: “You’re holding everybody up by not
completing this task.”
SAY: “I’m checking in to see if you have an ETA for when
this will be completed. Your task needs to be done in
order for us to continue working on our pieces.”
Don’t say: “This meeting is a waste of everyone’s time.”
SAY: “I recommend we postpone this meeting until we
have a more detailed and structured agenda to discuss.”
Don’t say: “I’m not staying late to deal with this.”
SAY: “My workday ends at five, but I’d be happy to
prioritize this first thing tomorrow.”
Don’t say: “Stop emailing me.”
SAY: “To ensure that information does not get missed,
can you please condense your communications into a
single email where possible?”
Don’t say: “Regardless of what you say, I’m going to do
this my way.”
SAY: “I appreciate your feedback, and I’ll keep it in mind
as we move forward.”
Don’t say: “I can’t work with you hovering over me.”
SAY: “This could be completed more efficiently if I had
the opportunity to work more independently.”

Don’t say: “I have no idea.”

SAY: “That isn’t my area of expertise, but I’ll connect
with my team and follow up with you on that.”

soft skills
, soziale Kompetenz
setting , Umfeld
in-person , hier: mit
persönlicher Anwesenheit
take sth. for granted
, etw. als selbstverständlich
erachten
etiquette [(etIket]
, [wg. Aussprache]
blow up (ifml.)
, explodieren; hier: schnell
Anhänger(innen) finden
topic , Thema
consistent
, konsequent, stimmig
sustainable , nachhaltig;
hier: auf Dauer praktikabel
mental , hier: psychisch
turnaround , Bearbeitungszeit
looped in: be ~ on sth. (ifml.)
, von etw. in Kenntnis gesetzt
werden
expertise [ˌekspɜːˈtiːz]
, Sachkompetenz
check in , sich melden
ETA (estimated time of arrival)
, geschätzte Ankunftszeit; hier:
geschätzte Bearbeitungszeit
postpone sth. appreciate sth.
, etw. verschieben [E(pri:SieIt]
, etw. zu schätzen wissen
agenda [E(dZendE]
, Tagesordnung hover over sb.
, über jmdm. schweben;
prioritize sth. [praɪˈɒrItaɪz]
hier: jmdn. zu sehr kontrollieren
, etw. Vorrang einräumen
folllow up with sb. on sth.
ensure sth. [In(SO:]
, sich bei jmdm. bezüglich etw.
, etw. sicherstellen
wieder melden
condense sth. , etw. kompri-
mieren; hier: zusammenfassen

COMMUNICATION 3/2024 Business Spotlight 33

 BUSINESS SKILLS
Tools for
successful
meetings
Zähe Gespräche und Räume voller Stille lassen sich
vermeiden: Wie Sie jedes Arbeits-Meeting motivierend
und effizient gestalten.
Von KEN TAYLOR
MEDIUM AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT
uccessful meetings play a big
S role in your company’s growth,
in decision-making, and how
goals and targets are reached.
Poorly run meetings waste people’s time
and have a significant financial impact.
Harvard Business Review reports that meet-
ings now take up nearly 23 hours of the
average executive’s working week. In
other words, meetings cost close to half
of your organization’s salary bill. These
eight tools will help you run meetings
effectively.
The agenda
This is the key tool to guide the meeting.
Try to allow everyone some input into
creating the agenda before the meeting,
so that the group “owns” some of the con-
tent. But once the agenda is set, use it to
manage the meeting and keep everyone
focused on the subject.
The safety net
In your first meeting with a group,
the safety net helps everyone to feel
34 Business Spotlight 3/2024
Meetings cost
about half of your
comfortable working together. This in-
salary bill
volves a few simple steps:
1. Everyone thinks about what they need
to trust the group and the process.
2. Each person writes these needs on
cards (one per card) expressed as be-
haviours — “You should not interrupt
another person”, for example, or “Al-
ways have a clear agenda”.
3. These cards are discussed for under-
standing, and similar messages are target [(tA:gIt]
grouped together. , Ziel(vorgabe)
4. Based on the ideas, the group decides impact
on the rules for the meeting. , Auswirkung(en)
As the facilitator, point to the rules to executive [Ig(zekjUtIv]
, leitende(r) Angestell-
remind participants of what has been
te(r), Führungskraft
agreed.
input , Beitrag
Illustrationen: Georg Lechner; iStock.com
Roles agenda [E(dZendE]
, Tagesordnung
Assign roles to others to support you.
own sth. , hier: sich etw.
Here are a few examples:
⋅ Note-taker: writes down key decisions,
who’s to do what, etc.
zu eigen machen
facilitator
⋅
, Moderator(in), Sitzungs-
Meeter-and-greeter: greets people on leiter(in)
the way in. This is useful with partici- assign sth.
pants who don’t know each other. , etw. zuweisen
COMMUNICATION
 “Frankly, I don’t know
why I called this meeting.”

35
 ESSENTIAL PHRASES
The agenda
• Do you have any items you’d like to
add to the agenda?
• What would you like to see on the
agenda of our meeting?
“Thank God, it’s over.” • Is there anything you would like us to
discuss in the meeting?

The safety net

• Let’s go through a simple process to
⋅ Jargon-buster: makes sure the lan-
guage is clear to everyone; explains
our team from realizing its goals?”
Then, follow these steps:
create rules for our meetings.
• Can we define a clear rule from these

⋅
acronyms, in-house jargon, etc.
Timekeeper: keeps an eye on the
⋅ Each person writes down five ide-
as in answer to the question (10
suggestions?
• Let’s agree on these rules for our
clock to ensure each agenda item min.) meetings.
is discussed and the meeting fin-
ishes on time.
⋅ Display all the ideas where people
can see them (5 min.)
Active agreement

Active agreement
When a decision is needed, insist on
active agreement. Bad decisions can
be made when people are too passive.
Later, those people may feel that the
decision was not one they support-
ed, which can cause tension in the
group. Insist that everyone expresses
whether they agree or disagree. This
will help you reach decisions that rep-
resent the views of all.
Brainstorming
Allow everyone to express creative
ideas without fear of criticism. Re-
cord the ideas somewhere and build
on them. Keep the idea generation
moving to collect as many ideas as
possible.
Priority planning
Write a question about the issue to be
resolved, such as: “What’s preventing
⋅⋅Cluster similar ideas (10 min.)
Give each cluster a descriptive
name (5 min.)
⋅
Everyone gives each cluster a
number, indicating the priority it
should be given (5 min.)
⋅Agree on the priority of and action
to be taken for each task (10 min.)
Summarizing
Summarize at regular intervals dur-
ing your meeting. This helps ensure
everyone has the same understand-
ing of what’s being said or agreed.
Is everyone OK?
Regularly ask how people are feeling,
if they need a break, if they’re hap-
py with the way decisions are being
made. This encourages participation
and ownership.
• I’m going to ask everyone in turn what
they think.
• Please tell me clearly whether you
agree or disagree with the proposal.
• I want to hear everyone’s opinion.
Brainstorming
• Let’s use the flip chart to gather ideas.
• Write down every idea without
discussion or criticism.
• Quantity is more important than
quality at this early stage.
Summarizing
• If I understand you correctly, you are
saying...
• I’ll just summarize to make sure we all
understand what has been discussed.
• What we have said so far is...
Is everyone OK?
• How is everyone feeling?
• Are we happy with how the meeting
is going?
• Do you think we need a break?

jargon-buster idea generation cluster sth. item stage

, Artikel; hier: Tages- , hier: Stadium, Phase
, hier: Person, die fach- , Ideenfindung , etw. bündeln, in Gruppen
sprachliche Begriffe erklärt zusammenfassen ordnungspunkt
issue [(ISu:] summarize sth.
ensure sth. [In(SO:] , Problem summarize sth. agenda [E(dZendE] [(sVmEraIz]
Illustration: Georg Lechner

, Tagesordnung , etw. zusammenfassen

, etw. sicherstellen [(sVmEraIz]
resolve sth.
, etw. zusammenfassen in turn , nacheinander break , hier: Pause
item , Artikel; hier: , etw. lösen Diesen Text hier
Tagesordnungspunkt break , hier: Pause kostenlos anhören!
display sth. www.business-
tension , etw. präsentieren, ownership , hier: Gefühl spotlight.de/
, Spannung(en) (auf)zeigen der Mitwirkung audio-gratis/03

36 Business Spotlight 3/2024 COMMUNICATION

 ODD JOBS

Talking the talk

Caitlin Stegemoller bringt Menschen
bei, in anderen Dialekten zu sprechen —
und die Nachfrage ist groß.

Interview: MELITA CAMERON-WOOD

EASY US AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT

“There’s huge demand

s a voice and dialect coach, my job involves making
for an authentic
A people feel confident in the way that they communi-
cate. I work with drama students, actors and private
clients who come to me for accent softening and
communication skills.
There’s huge demand for an authentic American accent in the
American accent”
performing arts in London. Most of my clients are British per-
CAITLIN STEGEMOLLER is
an American voice and dialect
formers who want to sound American. I start with the sounds
coach based in London, UK
that they will have heard before. Lots of people have heard
American sounds from TV. America has many different accents,
but, unless an actor is playing a specific human being, the goal is
usually what the industry calls “general American.”
Rhoticity, which refers to the pronunciation of the letter “r,” eliminate any hint of regionalism are over, but having the option
is one of the things I focus on. When the “r” comes after the last of altering your voice can be a powerful tool in everyday life, too.
vowel in a word, like “car,” the sound is dropped in British Eng- Being a confident communicator comes down to breathing,
lish. However, in U.S. English, you hear the “r” sound in “car.” It’s mindset and feeling free. It’s about conscious interactions with
about identifying these differences in sound. others and transforming your voice to play to your audience, be-
New York or Texan accents tend to be easier for British speak- come a certain character or deliver a message effectively.
ers, because they are more distinct. The hardest American accent
(at least for Brits) has got to be the New Orleans accent because
drama pronunciation hint , Spur
there’s so much cultural influence. , Schauspiel , Aussprache
I also have clients who speak English as a second language alter sth. [(O:lt&r*]
performing art vowel [(vaUEl] , etw. verändern
who want to sound like native speakers. When I work with Ger- , darstellende Kunst , Vokal
come down to sth.
man-speaking clients, for instance, I identify the sounds that performer dropped: be ~ , auf etw. hinauslaufen,
exist in both English and German, and the ones that don’t. For , Darsteller(in), , hier: verschluckt werden ankommen
instance, the “r” sound exists, but it’s further back in the mouth, Schauspieler(in)
distinct mindset
so it’s about bringing it forward. The consonant “v” is also chal- industry , deutlich , Denkweise, Einstellung
, hier: Branche
lenging, so we practice flattening the tongue instead of rounding for instance audience [(O:diEns]
it when this sound comes up. rhoticity , zum Beispiel , Publikum
[roU(tIsEti*]
It isn’t just non-native speakers who want to change their flatten sth.
Foto: privat

, Rhotizität
accent. Those who feel judged because of a strong regional ac- , etw. abflachen;
hier: flach halten * This symbol marks
cent also come to me. Luckily, the days when performers had to standard US pronunciation.

CAREERS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 37

 CAREER COACH

The art of
non-violent
communication Illustration: iStock.com; Foto: Uwe Klössing

Gewaltfreie Kommunikation erleichtert nicht

nur private Beziehungen, sondern auch die
Zusammenarbeit mit Kollegen. Das Beste ist:
Jeder kann es lernen.

Von FRANK PETERS

MEDIUM AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT

38 Business Spotlight 3/2024 CAREERS

 “It has the potential to
resolve many conflicts
before they arise”

f you arrive late to a meeting and a

I colleague says: “My observation is

that you got here ten minutes after
the agreed time. This is frustrating
and annoying. I need you to be more reli-
able. Could you please be on time for the
next meeting?” — how would that make
you feel? Most of the people I’ve con-
fronted with the above statement have
felt attacked. However, its intention is
not off-target. Essentially, the speaker is
expressing something that is important
to them and wants to come to an agree-
ment about how both parties can better
meet their needs in future.
The structure of the statements may
sound familiar to you. Non-violent com- Übungen zu diesem
Thema hier kostenlos
munication (NVC), developed by Amer- anhören!
ican psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg, www.business-spotlight.
de/audio-gratis/03
is a well-known concept and power-
ful communication tool, especially in
conflict-prone situations when emotions
can get the better of us.
annoying , ärgerlich

FRANK PETERS lives Four steps reliable [ri(laIEb&l]

Trying to apply the structure alone, how- , verlässlich
in Cologne and works
as a coach with teams ever, might not be enough. Before we go off-target [)Qf (tA:gIt]
any further, let’s take a closer look at what , vom Ziel abweichend;
and leaders, to make
hier: abwegig
them a successful and it’s all about. In a situation in which a per-
happy team (again) conflict-prone
son has bad feelings because of another
, mit Konfliktpotential
person’s behaviour, non-violent commu-
get the better of sb.
nication comes into play. Basically, it con- , bei jmdm. die Oberhand
sists of four steps: gewinnen

CAREERS 3/2024 Business Spotlight 39

 ⋅ Observation: What’s the behaviour I
have observed?
⋅⋅ Emotion: How do I feel about it?
Need: What is the unmet need that
makes me feel this way?
⋅ Request: What do I want the oth-
er person to do that would meet my
need?
You may have noticed that I wrote “a
person has bad feelings because of an-
other person’s behaviour”. There’s an im-
portant difference between saying “your
behaviour makes me angry” (or even “you
make me angry”) and “I’m angry because
my need for punctu-
ality hasn’t been met”.
Making it clear that
it’s not the other per-
son who is making me
“We’re not used
angry, but the fact that
my need isn’t being
to talking about
met, has the poten-
tial to resolve many
conflicts before they
our feelings and
arise. You’re not saying
“you’re wrong” or “your
behaviour is wrong”.
needs”
This helps explain why a statement like
the one at the beginning of the article of-
ten makes things worse, not better. We
are simply not used to talking about our
feelings and needs, and hearing about the
feelings and needs of others. “He is angry
and blames me for being late. He wants
me to change.” Often, we ask too much of
others in this way.
In conversations with friends, clients
and family members, I have learned
something interesting. It began when I
was trying to use the four steps to give
feedback to a friend of mine who was late
for one of our meetings. I started with: “I
noticed you arrived at 7.50, and we said
we would meet at 7.30.” Then, I was about
to continue with how I felt and what my
needs were and so on. But he jumped
right in, saying: “You’re right. I’m sorry. I
understand that you’re upset. If we agree
on a time, we should be punctual. Next
time, I will take an earlier bus.”
That blew me away. He took the words
right out of my mouth and even told me
what he’d do differently in future. And it
40 Business Spotlight 3/2024
was better than the request I had thought
of (“Shall we meet at eight next time?”).
This got me thinking. Just by stating
the first step, we began a constructive
conversation about needs and feelings
and what needed to be done. Having tried
this in other situations, I’ve developed a
new exercise for the teams I work with.
After explaining how NVC works, I
have the team members practise all four
steps in various situations that they make
up. I randomly assign everyone in the
room a feedback person (another team
member) as their feedback target.
Then, I set a task
for the day. The task
for the first half of the
day is straightforward.
Let’s say Albert has
Betty as his feedback
target. Whenever pos-
sible and appropriate,
Albert should tell Bet-
ty what he’s observed
and see what happens.
While some find
this easier than oth-
ers, everyone found at least one situation
in which they could simply say what they
had observed. And often, the other person
didn’t realize that the first step of NVC
was being applied to them.
An example: In one exercise, Betty was
leading the session. When she interrupt-
ed another participant, Albert simply said:
“Betty, I noticed that Charlene didn’t get
the chance to finish her sentence when
you started talking again.” And Betty re-
sponded: “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t notice.
Charlene, what were you going to say?”
In this case, it worked well. I’m sure it
wouldn’t have worked any better if Al-
bert had said: “Betty, I noticed that Char- resolve sth. assign sb. sb.
, etw. lösen , jmdm. jmdn. zuweisen
lene hadn’t finished her sentence when
jump in target [(tA:gIt]
you started talking again. This upsets , hier: sich zu etw. äußern , Ziel; hier: Zielperson
me because appreciation is important upset straightforward
to me. Can I ask you to let her finish her , ärgerlich, verstimmt , einfach
sentence?” Other participants reported blow sb. away (ifml.) appropriate
similar experiences. , hier: jmdm. den Wind [E(prEUpriEt]
Illustration: iStock.com
aus den Segeln nehmen , passend, situations-
The next day, we went a step further. I gerecht
randomly
had the participants choose which of the , zufällig appreciation
NVC steps they wanted to use during the [E)pri:Si(eIS&n]
day, and I widened the circle from one , Wertschätzung
CAREERS

feedback person to everyone — including
people outside our group.
Some interesting things happened at
lunch. One participant said to one of the
waiters: “I like to eat at a clean and tidy
table.” Within seconds, the waiter came
back to clean the table.
Another participant, Melanie, told us
about her experience at the buffet. When
there are several seminars in the same ho-
tel, people often go to lunch at the same
time, causing queues at the buffet. A man
from another group jumped the queue.
Melanie put on a friendly smile and said
to the man: “When I’m hungry, I get angry
a lot quicker than normal. And I like fair-
ness in the food queue. How about you?”
With a mumbled apology and an embar-
rassed smile, he stepped back.
buffet [(bUfeI] jump the queue (UK)
, [wg. Aussprache] , sich vordrängeln
queue [kju:] (UK) mumbled
, Schlange , gemurmelt, genuschelt
CAREERS
In a playful way, the group experi-
mented with NVC and learned more
about it. They also experienced the pow-
er of telling others what they need and
how they feel when their needs are not
met. And they got better at formulating
their requests and questions. At the
same time, they embraced the mindset
of being interested in the feelings and
needs of others as well as their own.
If you are part of a team, or even lead
a team, it might be a good idea to do
this, too. Why don’t you use the next
team meeting as an opportunity to
introduce the concept of non-violent
communication? Have your team
members experiment with the four
steps and learn the skill of holding con-
structive conversations.
apology embrace sth. , sich etw.
, Entschuldigung zu eigen machen
embarrassed mindset
, verlegen , Denkweise, Einstellung
ESSENTIAL PHRASES
THE RIGHT WAY TO INTERRUPT
When discussions and conversations
among colleagues or friends are in full
swing, people may become very ani-
mated and talkative. That can make it
difficult to find the right moment to say
what you want to say.
Sometimes, there’s no other option: you
have to interrupt someone. Here are a
few ways you can do that politely:
• I don’t mean to interrupt, but…
• Do you mind if I jump in quickly?
• May I briefly interrupt?
• Could I just add something here?
• I hate to interrupt, but...
• Sorry, but can I quickly share an idea
that’s just occurred to me?
• Can I quickly add my two cents?
Of course, there’s a good reason our
parents taught us that it’s rude to in-
terrupt people: it’s rude to interrupt
people! But it happens to everyone —
especially in online conference calls. If
you do accidentally talk over someone,
a quick apology will fix it:
• I’m sorry, please go on.
• Sorry, you weren’t finished.
swing: be in full ~ add one’s two cents
, in vollem Gange sein (US) , seinen Senf
dazugeben
animated , lebhaft
rude , unhöflich
talkative , gesprächig
apology
jump in , hier: sich zu
, Entschuldigung
etw. äußern
fix sth. , etw. in Ord-
briefly , kurz
nung bringen
3/2024 Business Spotlight 41
 ENGLISH FOR

w
x

y
U
L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N

an
V
am ao
ak al
X at
W

ap

ar
as aq

bt
Illustration: Mike Ellis

42 Business Spotlight 3/2024 LANGUAGE

A book fair
Mit diesen Vokabeln finden Sie sich auf Buchmessen zurecht
und lernen: Roman ist nicht gleich Roman.
Von HILDEGARD RUDOLPH
EASY AUDIO
1. award(s) ceremony, prize-giving
ceremony , Preisverleihung
literature prize , Literaturpreis
2. speaker at an award(s) ceremony
, Laudator(in)
tribute [(trIbju:t]
laudation [lO:(deIS&n]
, Laudatio, Lobesrede
3. award winner, prize winner, laureate
[(lO:riEt] , Preisträger(in)
award-winning author
, preisgekrönte(r) Autor(in)
award-winning book
, preisgekröntes Buch
4. lectern [(lektEn]
, Stehpult
5. exhibition hall
, Messe-, Ausstellungshalle
6. publisher, publishing house
, Verlag
publisher , Verleger(in)
7. booth
, Messestand
8. counter , Theke
9. exhibition copy
, Ausstellungsexemplar
10. professional/trade visitor
, Fachbesucher(in)
bookseller , Buchhändler(in)
fairgoer , Messebesucher(in)
11. exhibition / trade fair catalogue/
directory , Messekatalog
12. literary agent
, Literaturagent(in)
13. publisher’s representative
, Verlagsvertreter(in)
14. bookshelf (pl. bookshelves)
, Bücherregal
15. spinner display , Drehständer
16. reading (by the author)
, Autorenlesung
17. host , Moderator(in)
18. author , Autor(in)
19. literary translator
, Literaturübersetzer(in)
20. audience [(O:diEns]
, Publikum, Zuhörer(innen)
LANGUAGE
Books and book fairs
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest
trade fair for books in the world. There
are many others, like the London Book
Fair, which takes place in March in 2024.
It began in 1971 and has gained global im-
portance as a marketplace for publishers,
booksellers and literary agents.
What kind of literature people enjoy
is a matter of taste. An important distinc-
tion is between fiction (Belletristik) and
non-fiction (Sachbuch). Literary genres
include picture and children’s books
(Bilder- und Kinderbücher) and novels
(Romane) — purely fictional or histori-
cal ones. Crime stories and mysteries
(Krimis), thrillers (Thriller) and family
WHAT’S ROMAN IN ENGLISH?
The German word Roman is novel in Eng-
lish. It is not Roman, which is translated as
Römer(in) or römisch:
• “Did you like this novel?” – Hat dir die-
ser Roman gefallen?
• “This square is very popular with young
Romans.” – Dieser Platz ist bei jungen
Römern sehr beliebt.
• “The Roman Empire is considered to
have been one of the greatest civiliza-
tions of all time.” – Das Römische Reich
gilt als eine der größten Zivilisationen
aller Zeiten.
Other useful vocabulary
Nouns reading isle/area [aI&l]
, Leseinsel
bookworm, avid reader
review [ri(vju:]
, Leseratte
, Rezension
hardcover
sequel [(si:kwEl]
, gebundenes Buch
, Fortsetzung
paperback
, Taschenbuch
fixed book price Verbs
, Buchpreisbindung browse sth. [braUz]
, in etw. schmökern
sagas of several volumes (mehrbändige
Familiensagas) allow readers to immerse
themselves in books.
The perfect place for a coffee-table
book (Bildband) is, as the name suggests,
on a coffee table, to impress visitors. An-
niversary editions (Jubiläumsausgaben)
are special editions. And self-help books
(Ratgeber) provide all kinds of advice.
L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N
DON’T MIX US UP!
The German noun Auflage is translated
differently, depending on the context:
• Circulation refers to the number of cop-
ies printed or sold, usually of a maga-
zine or newspaper: “This magazine has
a large circulation.” – Diese Zeitschrift
erscheint in einer hohen Auflage.
• Edition is used for the total number of
copies that are published at the same
time: “The almanac was produced in a
limited edition.” – Der Almanach wurde
in einer limitierten Auflage produziert.
• Cushion [(kUS&n] is a soft layer on seat-
ing furniture: “I like the colour of this
(chair) cushion.” – Mir gefällt die Farbe
dieser Sitzauflage.
• Condition refers to a rule that you must
agree to: “She was released on the con-
dition to report to the police daily.” – Sie
wurde unter der Auflage, sich täglich bei
der Polizei zu melden, freigelassen.
Adjectives
immerse oneself in sth.
, sich in etw. vertiefen captivating , mitreißend
publish sth. , etw. her- exciting , spannend
ausbringen, veröffentlichen
gripping
reissue sth. [)ri:(ISu:] , packend, fesselnd
, etw. neu auflegen
limited
scan/skim sth. , beschränkt, limitiert
, etw. überfliegen
out of print , vergriffen
slam sth. (ifml.)
revised [ri(vaIzd]
, etw. verreißen
, überarbeitet
3/2024 Business Spotlight 43
 SKILL UP!
Event management
Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen: Wörter und Redewendungen
aus der Welt des Eventmanagement
Von KAREN RICHARDSON
MEDIUM AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT
L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N
Word bank
Here, we present the essential vocabulary you’ll need to talk about event management.
Nouns
attendee
, Teilnehmer(in)
budget , Budget,
Kostenrahmen
capacity , Kapazität,
Fassungsvermögen
catering , Catering,
Gastronomie, Bewirtung
cloakroom , Garderobe
equipment , Ausstattung
facilities , Einrichtungen,
Räumlichkeiten
guest , Gast
host , Gastgeber(in),
Veranstalter(in)
insurance , Versicherung
invitation , Einladung
itinerary [aI(tIn&rEri]
, Ablaufplan
44 Business Spotlight 3/2024
licence , Lizenz, Konzession
(live) entertainment / music
, (Live-)Unterhaltung/-Musik
noise restrictions
, Lärmschutzvorschriften
outside caterer
, externer Caterer/Gastronom
permit , Genehmigung
schedule [(Sedju:l]
, Zeit(ablauf)plan
seating plan
, Sitzplan, -ordnung, Bestuhlung
security
, Security, Sicherheitsdienst
services , Dienstleistungen
sound and lighting
, Ton und Beleuchtung
vendor
, Verkäufer(in), Lieferant(in)
venue [(venju:]
, Veranstaltungsort
Knowledge check
As a quick warm-up, start with the following exercise.
1. Match the words to make three kinds of business
2. Usually, after a wedding ceremony, a wedding
3. Fill in the missing letters to complete the English
Verbs
arrange (for) sth.
, etw. arrangieren, organisieren
attend sth. , an etw. teilnehmen
book sth.
, etw. buchen, reservieren
comply with sth. , etw. erfüllen
coordinate sth.
, etw. koordinieren
execute sth.
, etw. aus-, durchführen
hire sth. (UK) , etw. anmieten
hold sth.
, etw. abhalten, veranstalten
liaise with sb. (UK) [li(eIz]
, Kontakt zu jmdm. aufnehmen
limit sth. , etw. begrenzen
negotiate sth. [nI(gEUSieIt]
, etw. aus-, verhandeln
offer sth. , etw. anbieten
events.
A. product 1. day
B. team 2. building
C. open 3. launch
is held.
A. result B. reception C. response
word for Gastgeber(in).
h __ __ t
You’ll find the answers on page 47
organize sth. , etw. organisieren
outsource sth. , etw. auslagern
provide sth.
, etw. bereitstellen, liefern
Key phrases
attention to detail
, Detailgenauigkeit, Liebe zum
Detail
audio-visual elements
, audio-visuelle Elemente
behind the scenes
, hinter den Kulissen
bespoke event-management
provider (UK) , Anbieter(in)
eines den Kundenwünschen ange-
passten Eventmanagements
clean and tidy
, sauber und ordentlich
contingency planning
[kEn(tIndZEnsi] , Notfall-
planung, Planung für Eventualfälle
create an event framework
, einen Veranstaltungsrahmen
schaffen
creative, technical and logistical
elements , kreative, technische
und logistische Elemente
ensure (that) everything runs
smoothly [In(SO:]
, sicherstellen, dass alles
reibungslos verläuft
from start to finish
, von Anfang bis Ende
keep everything on track
, dafür sorgen, dass alles nach
Plan verläuft
large scale / small scale
, Groß- / Klein-
legal and safety aspects
, gesetzliche und sicherheits-
Illustration: iStock.com
relevante Aspekte
solid plan , konkreter Plan
workable concept , tragfähi-
ges/umsetzbares Konzept
LANGUAGE

In context
Lin, Jon and Toni are planning a special company
event.
Lin: So, can we all agree that we’ll use an outside
event-management service?
Jon: It certainly makes sense if we want to combine
the annual sales meeting with the product
launch.
Toni: Yes. If we do that, it’ll be too much work to do
in-house – especially as we want to hold it on
the river.
Lin: I agree. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes co-
ordination that we can’t do from here. And I’m
not sure we have the expertise to deal with per-
mits, insurance, and to comply with health-
and-safety standards in French.
Toni: If we outsource the event planning to a local
company, it will cost a bit extra, but I’m sure it’ll
be worth it.
Lin: As I said, I’ve already been in contact with a be-
spoke event-management provider in Paris,
Valerie in Seine.
Jon: Great name, I like her already.
Lin: She says she can get a party boat on the date we
want if we limit the attendees to 60.
Toni: What kind of event-management services
does she provide?
Lin: As well as all the legal and safety aspects, she
deals with the boat hire, the live entertain-
ment, the audio-visual elements and other
technical aspects. She’ll also negotiate a good
deal for us with the outside caterers that she
often uses. And if we want to serve alcohol,…
Toni: …we do…
Lin: …she’ll arrange the necessary licences and
liaise with the vendors, too.
Jon: Sounds great. What’s the next step?
Lin: To come up with a workable concept, she
needs a timeline and budget from us. If we do
that immediately, she’ll create an event frame-
work so we can get the ball rolling.
Toni: It’s great having someone who will ensure ev-
erything runs smoothly from start to finish.
Foto: iStock.com
annual [(ÄnjuEl] expertise [)eksp§:(ti:z]
, jährlich, Jahres- , Fachwissen, Sachkompetenz
launch [lO:ntS] ball: get the ~ rolling
, Markteinführung , die Sache in Gang bringen
LANGUAGE
Grammar check
“If” — the first conditional
We use the first conditional to talk about things that will or
might happen in the future. Usually, the first conditional includes:
“if” + present simple and “will”/“can” + infinitive:
• If we hold the event in June, we will probably have better
weather.
• If we ask Tom to help, we can get everything done quicker.
Or the other way round:
“will”/“can” + infinitive and “if” + present simple:
• They will have to work faster if we want to send out the invi-
tations this week.
• We can go home early if we all agree.
Commas in if-clauses
We add a comma when the if-clause is at the beginning of the
sentence. We don’t need a comma when the if-clause is at the
end of the sentence:
• If we order Champagne, we’ll exceed our budget.
• The boss will be unhappy if we exceed our budget.
Exercise 1 E
The dialogue includes several if-sentences. Match the clauses
to form meaningful sentences from the dialogue.
L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N
1. It certainly makes sense... ■
2. If we do that, ... ■
3. She says she can get a party boat on the date we want... ■
4. If we want to serve alcohol, ■
5. If we do that immediately, ■
A. she’ll arrange the necessary licences.
B. it’ll be too much work to do in-house.
C. she’ll create an event framework so we can get the ball roll-
ing.
D. if we limit the attendees to 60.
E. if we want to combine the annual sales meeting with the
product launch.
You’ll find the answers on page 47
Exercise 2 M
The dialogue includes several if-clauses. Write the correct
form of each verb given in brackets, deciding whether to use
“will” or not.
1. Communication is essential if any changes
up. (come)
2. People early if the speeches go on too long.
(leave)
3. If the venue isn’t available, we for an alter-
native option. (look)
4. The event a success if these logistical prob-
lems are not addressed quickly. (not be)
5. If the weather forecast is bad, we with plan B.
(go)
6. If the guest list the capacity of the venue, we’ll
have to reduce the number of guests. (exceed)
You’ll find the answers on page 47
3/2024 Business Spotlight 45
 Common collocations dinner jacket
Here, we look at some key word partnerships with “event”.

“event” + noun
event budget event management event organization
, Veranstaltungsbudget , Event-, Veranstaltungs- , Event-, Veranstaltungs-
management organisation
event coordination
, Koordination von event marketing event planning
Veranstaltungen , Event-, Veranstaltungs- , Planung von Veranstal-
marketing tungen
event logistics , Event-,
Veranstaltungslogistik
smoking

Hey Sally
has been work-
ed to give yo u a qu ick update. Our team is falling into
I just want everything
ent planning, and rted
ing hard on the ev will be a huge success. We’ve also so
place. I’m confiden
t it we’re alr dy
ea
of ou r ev en t m arketing strategy, and ent in the
out the details e your involvem
sponse. I appreciat very helpful.
getting a positive re s be en
– your input ha
event coordination
be a great
ard to se ein g yo u there. It’s going to False friends
I’m looking fo rw
night for everyone!
L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N

Many words in German and English seem similar

but have very different meanings.
Best
John
What’s Smoking in English?
Smoking = dinner jacket (UK),
tuxedo [tVk(si:dEU] (US)
fall into place
, Gestalt annehmen
appreciate sth.
[E(pri:SieIt]
, etw. (zu) schätzen
input , Beitrag
look forward to sth.
• The invitation says that men should
wear dinner jackets to the event.
sort sth. out , etw. klären , sich auf etw. freuen
(wissen)
It’s not “smoking”!
smoking = Rauchen

Cartoon • Smoking is not allowed inside the venue.

“We fired our Events Manager, he couldn’t

Fotos: iStock.com; Shutterstock.com; Cartoon: Erdward McHenry via cartonnstock.com

organise a push-up in a gym.”
A “gym” is a place where people go to exercise, so it
shouldn’t be difficult to find someone there who can do
a push-up. The phrase implies that this events manager
wasn’t very good, having failed to do even the simplest
task. However, in this situation, the more commmon
expression for British English speakers would be “he
couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery”. A “piss-up”
is an occasion when a lot of alcohol is consumed — it
would be ironic to use this expression about a person
who actually worked in a brewery. As the word is a little
vulgar, an alternative might be “booze-up”.

push-up , Liegestütz brewery [(bru:Eri]

, Brauerei
piss-up (UK vulg.)
, Besäufnis booze-up , Saufgelage

46 Business Spotlight 3/2024 LANGUAGE

 MARKTPLATZ – MARKETPLACE

Sprachkurse und Sprachferien

Typical mistake
Learn English in Cornwall
Can you correct the common error(s)
in the following sentence? ONLINE COURSES
NOW AVAILABLE
“We’re looking for a venue
www.learnenglishincornwall.co.uk
in the near of Stuttgart.” Julie Tamblin MA - 0044 (0) 1208 871 184

Studitalia Sardinien
You’ll find the answer below
Italienisch lernen
Sprachferien in Olbia
www.studitalia.com
(0039)3332133760 infotiscali@studitalia.com
Sizilien – Sprache und Kultur leben!
Italienisch Intensivkurs und Kochkurs in familiärer Atmosphäre
mit erfahrener Lehrerin. Unterkunft und Verpflegung

L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N
in kleinem Ort an der Küste in der Nähe von Palermo.

Progress check Tel: 0039-32 76 99 52 24 e-mail: rb.sicilia@hotmail.com

Replace each German word or phrase below

(in italics) with its correct English equivalent.

1. Luckily, the
(Veranstaltungsort) is in a very central location.
2. This year, we are going to use
(externe Caterer).
3. We’ll display the
(Sitzplan, -ordnung) near the entrance.
4. Have you sent out the
(Einladungen) yet?
Nächste
You’ll find the answers below
Anzeigentermine:
Ausgabe Anzeigenschluss
04/2024 23.02.2024
ANSWERS 05/2024 22.03.2024
Knowledge check 4. The event won’t be a success if 06/2024 19.04.2024
1. A-3 (product launch = Markt- these logistical problems are not
einführung eines Produkts); B-2 addressed quickly.
(team building = Teambildung); 5. If the weather forecast is bad,
C-1 (open day = Tag der offenen we will go with plan B. Kontakt für Anzeigenkunden
Tür) 6. If the guest list exceeds the
2. B. reception
3. host
capacity of the venue, we’ll have
to reduce the number of guests.
+49-89/85681-131
Grammar check ZEIT SPRACHEN GmbH – Ihr Ansprechpartner
Typical mistake
Exercise 1 “We’re looking for a venue near für Beratung und Verkauf
1–E; 2–B; 3–D; 4–A; 5–C Stuttgart.”
Exercise 2 sales@zeit-sprachen.de
Progress check
Illustration: iStock.com

1. Communication is essential if
any changes come up. 1. venue
2. People will leave early if the 2. external/outside caterers
speeches go on too long. 3. seating plan
3. If the venue isn’t available, we 4. invitations
will look for an alternative
option.

LANGUAGE 47
 TEST

Test your
language skills!
Testen Sie nun Ihre sprachlichen Kompetenzen.
Die Übungen auf diesen zwei Seiten basieren
auf Artikeln dieser Ausgabe.

Von DAGMAR TAYLOR

EASY MEDIUM ADVANCED
L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N

1. What does it mean? M 2. A greener office E

The profile on Hafize Gaye Erkan, “Turning Turkey around”
(pp. 12–13), contains many useful expressions. Decide
whether the following statements are correct or incorrect.
Correct Incorrect
In “10 tips to make your office greener” (pp.
24–25), you can read about how companies
can reduce their climate impact. Match the
words (1–5) from the article to their
definitions (A–E).

1. A person or organization with credibility 1. device

has courage and confidence. ■ ■ 2. environment
3. greenhouse gas
2. Groundwork is a principle or an idea that
4. litter
something is based on and that it grows from. ■ ■
5. tap water
3. Housing market refers to the type, cost and
number of houses and apartments available A. a vapour that causes the greenhouse effect,
in a particular area. ■ ■ especially carbon dioxide
B. a piece of equipment, such as a phone or
4. An interest rate is the rate at which prices
computer, that can be connected to the
increase over time, causing the value of
internet
money to fall. ■ ■
C. small pieces of rubbish that people have left
5. A severance package is the pay and other lying in a public place
advantages that an employee receives when D. liquid supplied through pipes to taps in a
Fotos: eyetoeyePIX/Stock.com

their employment is ended by the management. ■ ■ building

6. Someone who is described as a whiz has a E. the conditions that you live or work in and
very high level of skill or knowledge in a the way that they influence how you feel
particular subject. ■ ■
1– ■; 2– ■; 3– ■; 4– ■; 5– ■

48 Business Spotlight 3/2024 LANGUAGE

 3. A festival of books E 4. Cloud computing M

In the English for... section (pp. 42–43), we In “Is your head in the cloud?” (pp. 26–29), you can
present useful words and phrases relating to read about the rise of cloud computing. Choose the
books and book fairs. Complete this dialogue correct option to complete each statement.
with the English translation of the German
words in brackets. 1. Fewer than 50 per cent of companies in Germany use
cloud technology due to their fear of data security
.
Nell: I can’t wait for the Book Festival to A. beaches B. breaches
start. I’ve been going there every 2. Diego Peleteiro, technology director at Globant Ger-
year for 20 years now, and there’s many, believes that about the
always such an exciting variety of cloud is bad for innovation.
(1) (Autoren) and events. A. apprehension B. attention
Darcie: Oh, yes! I love it. I go every year, too. 3. Most expect multicloud strat-
I remember last year, I went to a(n) egies to increase in popularity in 2024, enhancing
(2) (Autorenlesung) by companies’ flexibility.
the author Michel Faber. I got a signed A. forecasters B. prophets
(3) (Ausgabe) of Listen, his 4. The software engineer Kelsey Hightower is an
first (4) (Sachbuch). I’ve for open-source cloud com-
enjoyed reading it so much — it’s very puting infrastructure.
funny. A. advocate B. attorney
Nell: Oh, yes! I wanted to go to that event, but 5. Many employees rely on cloud-based

L A N G UAG E S E C TI O N
it clashed with something else. I’m more such as SharePoint for file sharing, and Teams for
interested in (5) (Belletris- communicating with colleagues.
tik), to be honest. But I have read some A. aberrations B. applications
great (6) (Rezensionen)
about Listen.
ANSWERS
Test your language skills!
5. Express yourself! A 1. What does it mean? 4–C (litter = Abfall, Müll)
1. Incorrect. A person or organ- 5–D (tap water =
In “It’s how you say it” (pp. 32–33), you can ization with “credibility” can Leitungswasser)
be believed or trusted. (credi-
read about Laura Whaley’s work-related vid- bility = Glaubwürdigkeit) 3. A festival of books
eos for social media. Complete the sentences 2. Incorrect. “Groundwork” is 1. authors
below using the words from the list. work that is done as prepara- 2. reading
tion for work that will be done 3. edition
assertively | merchandise | setting | soft skills | later. (lay the groundwork = 4. work of non-fiction /
tagline die Grundlagen schaffen) non-fiction book
3. Correct (housing market 5. fiction
= Wohnungs-, Immobilien- 6. reviews
1. Laura Whaley’s funny posts are about how
markt)
to handle potential conflicts at work and 4. Incorrect. An “interest rate” 4. Cloud computing
express yourself but politely. is a certain percentage of the 1–B (breaches = Verletzungen)
2. Whaley is now a full-time influencer, with amount someone borrows 2–A (apprehension = Besorgnis)
from a bank or saves with a 3–A (forecasters = Prognosti-
her own branded . ker(innen))
bank over a year. (interest
3. Fans can buy cups and socks with her 4–A (advocate = Verfechter(in))
rate = Zinssatz)
, “Toodaloo!” — an informal 5. Correct (severance package 5–B (applications= Anwendun-
way of saying “goodbye”. = Abfindung(spaket)) gen)
4. Whaley’s videos focus on remote workers 6. Correct (whiz (ifml.) = Genie)
5. Express yourself!
because she thinks they could have difficulty 1. assertively = durchsetzungs-
learning . stark, selbstbewusst
5. She says that it’s harder to shift from a remote 2. A greener office 2. merchandise = Ware(n),
to an in-person setting 1–B (device = Gerät) (Handels-)Artikel
2–E (environment = 3. tagline = Slogan
because of things like meeting etiquette and 4. soft skills = soziale
hier: Umfeld)
behaviour. 3–A (greenhouse gas = Kompetenz
Treibhausgas) 5. setting = Umfeld

LANGUAGE 3/2024 Business Spotlight 49

 QUIZ

The world of
advertising
Alles nur Propaganda? Testen Sie in
unserem Quiz Ihr Wissen über Werbung.

MEDIUM

dvertising is an unavoidable What do the letters “PPC” stand for? Which of these is a “CTA”?

A
2. 7.
part of life. Ad agencies are a) pay-per-click a) Buy now!
becoming more and more b) public policy campaign b) Privacy policy available here
creative about how to present c) pre-production costs c) a metric showing the percentage of
advertising and where — a Japanese mar- users who click
keting firm once paid young women to 3. WPP is the world’s largest advertising
promote companies by wearing stick- group. What does “WPP” stand for? 8. When did the first billboards appear?
er adverts on their thighs, for example. a) Web and Print Publicity a) 1970s
Some estimates suggest Americans see b) Wire and Plastic Products b) 1950s
up to 10,000 ads a day. Test how much c) World Premium Publicizing c) 1830s
you know about the world of advertising
in our fun quiz. 4. Which city has banned outdoor 9. Since November 2023, Europeans
advertising? have been able to use Facebook and
1. The term “ad creep” was first used in a) San José, Costa Rica Instagram without ads. How much
the 1990s. It refers to... b) São Paulo, Brazil does a monthly subscription cost?
a) an advert that isn’t popular at first, but c) Grenoble, France a) €1.99
becomes famous over the years. b) €5.99
b) subtle advertising on social media. 5. What’s the most expensive commer- c) €9.99
c) the growing number of ads in places cial ever made?
that used to be ad-free. a) Baz Luhrmann’s Chanel commercial 10. What do the letters “CAC” stand for?
with Nicole Kidman (2004) a) creative advertising campaign
b) Chrysler ad with Eminem, celebrating b) customer acquisition cost
ad(vertising) agency privacy policy
, Werbeagentur [(prIvEsi] Detroit (2011) c) compliance and consent
, Datenschutzrichtlinie c) Amazon’s Alexa loses her voice, with
advert (UK ifml.)
, Anzeige metric , Messgröße voices from Cardi B, Gordon Ramsay
thigh , Oberschenkel billboard and others (2018)
, Werbetafel
customer, including advertising expenses
subtle [(sVt&l] 8. c); 9. c); 10. b) The total cost to acquire a new
, subtil subscription 6. In advertising, what is meant by invitation for a user to carry out a specific act;
, Abonnement “impressions”?
make; 6. b); 7. a) A “call to action” is an active
publicize sth. baskets; 4. b) and c); 5. a) It cost $33 million to
, etw. publik machen compliance a) the public’s reaction to an ad
Foto: iStock.com

company started out producing wire shopping

, Übereinstimmung
ban sth. , etw. verbieten b) the number of times an ad is shown to time a user clicks on one of its ads; 3. b) The
marketing whereby a company pays each
consent a potential customer
commercial [kE(m§:S&l] Answers: 1. c); 2. a) “PPC” is a form of digital
, Zustimmung
, Werbespot c) particularly successful adverts

50 Business Spotlight 3/2024 FREESTYLE

 ISSUE 4/2024

To be(e) or not?
Around the world, the number
of bees is declining. The causes
include climate change, habitat
loss and pesticides. We look at
what this means for you, the
food supply and the economy.

Work after crime

Leonardo DiCaprio played
him in a hit Steven Spielberg
film. Frank Abagnale was one
of the world’s most success-
ful conmen. Today, he advises
companies and the FBI. He
talks to Business Spotlight about
his new life and work.

...and more!
⋅ How to answer difficult
questions

Die n
ächste
be vo
n
⋅ Around the World: A report
from Mauritius
Ausga
Busines s Spo
tlight
int am
⋅ The business of sleep
technology
ersch
28. M
e
ärz 20
24
To be(e) or not to be(e). We look at
⋅ Dress codes at work

how the death of bees worldwide

is affecting the planet

impressum leserservice
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3/2024 Business Spotlight 51
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