Тексты для экзамена 2-й семестр

TEXT 1

BOOTS – LEADING THE HEALTH AND BEAUTY MARKET

BOOTS

Boots The Chemist is the UK’s leading retailer of health and beauty products. It has more than 1,400 stores in the UK, from small pharmacies to large city centre department stores, and one in three people in the UK shops at Boots every week. It sells mainly medicines, toiletries, cosmetics, baby products. More than 50% of its sales are of Boots own-brand products.

INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

Since 1997 Boots has expanded overseas and now it has more than 55 stores outside the UK. In Thailand, it has opened 52 stores since 1997 and it plans to open 100 more. In Tokyo, Boots has three stores at present and it believes its business there will expand in the future because Japan is the world’s second-largest market for health and beauty products in the world. In April 2000 it opened its first store in Taiwan.

FUTURE E-BUSINESS

Boots has created a new TV/ Internet company with Granada Media, Europe’s leading commercial TV production company. They hope it will become Britain’s no.1 e-business for health, beauty and fitness. It offers customers a choice of access – digital TV, PC, laptop or mobile phone. It will be a two-way, interactive channel so it will be possible for customers to get information about products and advice on all questions about health, beauty and fitness.

TEXT 2

CONTRACT TERMS

Mr. Petrov has come to London to continue talks with Mr. Black. He contacts Mr Black and at 10 o’clock he is in Mr. Black’s office.

BLACK	Good morning, Mr Petrov.
PETROV	Good morning, Mr. Black.
BLACK	How are you?
PETROV	Just fine, thank you. And how are you?
BLACK	Very well, thank you. Are you enjoying your stay in London?
PETROV	Yes, my stay here is very pleasant. The weather is fine.
BLACK	We have a few matters to discuss. First comes the problem of delivery terms. As far as I remember you prefer FOB terms.
PETROV	You’re quite right.
BLACK	These terms are acceptable to us.
PETROV	What’s your idea of FOB price?
BLACK	It’s £1,200 per unit. If you buy on CIF terms, the price will be £1,500.
PETROV	Well, I suppose FOB terms suit us. But will you give a discount if we buy, say, 50 machines?
BLACK	In this case we can give you a 10% discount.
PETROV	So, the problem has been settled. When can you deliver the machines?
BLACK	Well, we can dispatch the machines in two equal lots of 25 machines each. We can promise to deliver the first lot in April.
PETROV	And can the second lot be delivered in July?
BLACK	Yes, I think we can meet these delivery dates.
PETROV	Fine. It seems to me we have settled all the problems and we can sign the contract now.
BLACK	We’ll do it as soon as the secretary types it. You’ll have to wait a little... TEXT 3

THE HISTORY OF THE NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY

The history of the Nissan Motor Company started in 1925 when 3 small companies merged and formed the Dat Jidosha Seizo Company. The new company produced the first Datsun car in 1932. In 1934 the company got a new name and became “The Nissan Motor Company Ltd”. They opened their first plant in Yokohama and in 1936 introduced mass production methods. But in 1938 the company stopped producing passenger cars and concentrated on manufacturing trucks (lorries). In 1947 Nissan started producing cars again. A Datsun 210 won the Australian Rally in 1958. The company developed its production and in 1966 they set up their manufacturing operations in Mexico. The cooperation between Nissan and Volkswagen started in 1981 when they signed an agreement to produce their Santana cars in Japan. The period between 1992 to 1994 was very successful for the company as they expanded their business activities and entered new overseas markets.

TEXT 4

The term “national economy” covers three principal fields: industry, commerce and direct services.

Industry provides energy, raw materials and goods. The extractive industry produces coal, oil, gas, iron ore and a number of other metals and minerals from the ground or seabed. These are needed by the manufacturing industry for the production of machines and all those goods, which are bought by the customers.

However, we do not get these goods direct from the factory but buy them in shops or department stores. They are transported there and delivered to our homes by railroad, sometimes by ship or air, especially if they were imported.

Another field of economy is commerce. It can be divided into home trade and the service industries. Trade is the buying and selling of any commodity. It can be divided into home trade and foreign trade.

A television set is transported several times before we can turn it on in our living room. Transport is, of course, a service which is used by industry, trade and consumers.

Industry and commerce depend on up-to-date information, which could not be provided without highly developed communication services like the telephone and post. And all these sectors of a national economy are linked up by banking.

TEXT 5

WHAT DOES ECONOMICS STUDY?

What do you think of when you hear the word “economics”? Money, certainly, and perhaps such things like business, inflation and unemployment. The science of economics studies all of these, but many more things as well. Perhaps you think that economics is all about the decisions that governments and business managers take. In fact, economics study the decisions that we all take every day.

Resources are limited, but our demand for them certainly is not. They are material things such as food, housing and heating. There are some resources that we can not touch. Time, space and convenience, for example, are also resources. Just think of a day. There are only 24 hours in one, and we have to choose the best way to spend them. Our everyday lives are full of decisions like these. Every decision we make is a trade-off. If you spend more time on your work, you make more money. However, you will have less time to relax. Economists study the trade-offs people make. They study the reasons for their decisions. They look at the effects those decisions have on our lives and our society.

TEXT 6

MONEY AND ITS FUNCTIONS

All values in the economic system are measured with money. Our goods and services are sold for money, and that money is in turn exchanged for other goods and services. Coins are adequate for small transactions, while paper notes are used for general business. But there is a wider sense of the word “money”, it covers anything, which is used as a means of exchange. Originally, valuable metals (gold, silver or copper) served as a constant store of value. As gold has always been a very valuable metal, national currencies were for many years evaluated in terms of the so-called “gold standard”.

Then valuable metals were replaced by paper notes. National currencies are considered to be as strong as the national economies, which support them. Paper notes are issued by governments and banks, and are known as “legal tender”.

The value of money is basically its value as a medium of exchange, or its “purchasing power”. The purchasing power depends on supply and demand. If too much money is available, its value decreases, and it does not buy as much as it did, say five years earlier. This condition is known as “inflation”.

TEXT 7

WHAT IS MARKETING?

Marketing is not the same as selling. Effective marketing is about creating a product and a product image that the sales force can sell. It is both a creative and a strategic function. Engineers create devices and marketers create products. One of the best books on this is “Marketing High Technology” by William Davidow.

Marketing concept includes various elements, such as planning, research, new product development (development of new products), sales, communications, advertising, etc. Marketing starts with production and later studies all its stages: before, during and after production. In the sales area marketing provides forward demand for information about the company’s products or services, helps to find and promote demand for products and services.

Marketing planning is an integral part of the marketing mix (four Ps) and it depends on the thorough analysis of the situation. When the situation is analyzed, it is necessary to consider controllable and uncontrollable factors. The controllable ones are four: product, price, place and promotion. Uncontrollable factors are mainly environmental factors.

TEXT 8

SHOPPING ON-LINE

A lot of people are doing their shopping on-line these days. In fact, buying and selling over the Internet have become very popular lately. E-tailing or e-commerce, as it is called, now involves millions of shoppers who spend billions of dollars every year. Who are these shoppers? What are they buying? Why don’t they just go to the shop?

Men and women make purchases on-line almost equally. At first, men made more on-line purchases in all categories of goods than women did. Now, the balance has shifted somewhat; and women spend more money than men on buying some categories of goods on-line. Men buy more computer software and hardware, while women buy more books and music items. Sales of clothing, food, gifts, airline tickets and automobiles have increased rapidly.

On-line shopping has some advantages. By shopping on-line, both men and women can make their purchases when it is convenient for them. A lot of

e-commerce takes place after 8 p.m., when stores are usually closed. The on-line consumer may, if he/she likes it, buy at 3 a.m. Shoppers also save time and energy and often money to research products. Once they have made a decision, they may buy over the Net; or they can then go to a store to make their purchase.

Will e-commerce replace shop cruising? Probably not. Many people still prefer shopping in stores – to see, to touch, to feel the goods they want to buy. However, more and more people prefer to buy on-line.

TEXT 9

WHAT IS A MANAGER?

A number of different terms are often used instead of the term “manager”: “director”, “administrator” and “president”. The term “manager” is frequently used in profit making organizations, while the others are used more widely in government, universities and hospitals.

So, who do we call a “manager”? In its broad meaning the term “manager” applies to the people who are responsible for making and carrying out decisions in a certain system. A personnel manager directly supervises people in an organization. Financial manager is a person who is responsible for finance. Sales manager is responsible for selling goods.

Almost everything a manager does involves decision-making. When a problem exists, a manager has to make a decision to solve it, and there is always some uncertainty and risk in decision-making.

Managing is a responsible and hard job. He/she has to do a lot within a relatively short period of time. In all types of organizations managerial efficiency depends on the relationship between the manager and the staff and his/her hard work.

Managers are responsible for leading their subordinates. To do this successfully, they must use their authority. Managers often delegate authority. It means that they let their subordinates use their initiative and make decisions themselves.

TEXT 10

LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT

Every organization can be presented as a three-story structure or a pyramid. Each story corresponds to one of the three general levels of management: top managers, middle managers, and first-line managers.

A top manager is an upper-level executive who guides and controls the overall activities of the organization. Top managers are usually responsible for the organization’s planning , they develop the firm’s strategy and policy. They are president, vice president, chief executive officer (CEO), and members of the Board.

A middle manager implements the strategy and major policy developed by the top level of the organization. Middle managers develop tactical plans, policies and standard operating procedures, they coordinate and supervise the activities of first-line managers. The titles at the middle-management level include division managers, department head, plant manager, and operations manager.

A first-line manager is a manager who coordinates and supervises the activities of the operating employees. They spend most of their time working with employees and solving day-to-day problems. Most first-line managers are former operating employees. Owing to their hard work and potential they were promoted to management positions. They have very good career opportunities. Common titles for first-line managers are office manager, supervisor , foreman and project manager.

Operating employees are not managers, they are qualified and non-qualified people working for the organization. They get salaries or wages for their labour. These people are the work force of the organization.