- •1. Four basic factors necessary for any business. Give the arguments for (or against) the statement that business is essential for all economies.
- •2. Advantages and risks of entrepreneurship. How would you initiate the business if you were an entrepreneur?
- •3. Similarities and differences between a sole proprietor and a partnership.
- •4. Favorable and unfavorable points of a corporation. Which of the three businesses would you prefer to work for?
- •5. The difference between intermittent and continuous production.
- •6. Which method of production would you choose for a) custom-made goods and b) standard goods? What are the most important factors in these methods?
- •7. What two methods do employers use to select applicants for an interview? Suppose you are to employ a manager for your firm. Which method would you use?
- •8. The functions of the personnel department. Your first steps as the Head of the pd if you happen to be appointed to this post.
- •9. The general concept of marketing, its constituent parts. Types of markets.
- •10. Modern marketing – new principles.
- •11. The function of distribution from the view of a business manager. The role of a middleman in distribution.
- •12. The distribution system from the view of a customer. Different types of retail outlets.
- •13. The concept of promotion, its main activities. What type of advertising would you use for promoting a new kind of product your firm has just launched?
- •14. Personal selling – what way does it differ from other forms of promotion? Try to persuade a foreign firm to buy a new passenger airliner constructed in Russia.
- •15. Two types of sales promotion activities. What would you do to promote a new type of tea or coffee?
- •16. Interdependence of promotion and market situation. What would you do if the market turns out to be saturated with your goods?
- •17. Four aspects of international business. What is the main difference between Smith’s theory and Ricardo’s theory?
- •18. Discuss the activities of an exporting company and the reactions of the country importing products. How should the country protect its domestic industries?
- •19. The importance of computers. Your opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of using computers. The prospective ways of computer development.
- •20. Types of layout. Compare product layout and process layout.
8. The functions of the personnel department. Your first steps as the Head of the pd if you happen to be appointed to this post.
Personnel refers to all the people who work for a firm. Most large companies have special personnel departments which are responsible for employer-employee relations. The most important services which the personnel department provides are recruiting, that is finding new workers or managers for the company, deciding which applicants are most suitable for employment by the firm, and developing and implementing [putting into use] personnel policies and procedures for the benefit of the company as well as the employees.
Some people feel the most important function of the personnel department is the development of personnel policies. For efficiency and fairness, a company should have a specific formal written procedure for dealing with its employees. These procedures should state working conditions, salary scale, and fringe benefits such as paid vacation, paid sick leave, group insurance, pension or retirement plan – all things received in addition to pay. In addition, there is often a procedure for handling grievances [complaints], which an employee can use if he feels that he has been treated unfairly by the employer. All of these items may be part of a union contract between the employer and the employees who are members of a union [an organization that looks after the interests of the workers].
If I was appointed as the Head of the personnel department, I would analyze the current situation in the department first of all. I would consider employees relations with each other and with managers. I would ask them if there are some problems or may be they have some ideas how to improve working conditions. Then, I would inspect productivity and performance of the employees. If I wouldn’t be satisfied with someone’s performance, I would fire this employee. It means that the next step I should do would be recruiting a new employee.
9. The general concept of marketing, its constituent parts. Types of markets.
The terms market and marketing can have several meanings depending upon how they are used. The term stock market refers to the buying and selling of shares in corporations as well as other activities related to stock trading and pricing. The important world stock markets are in London, Geneva, New York, Tokyo, and Singapore. Another type of market is a grocery market, which is a place where people purchase food. When economists use the word market they mean a set of forces or conditions that determine the price of a product, such as the supply available for sale and the demand for it by customers. The term marketing in business includes all of these meanings, and more.
In the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. The producer or manufacturer made a product he wanted to sell. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basically, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion, which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually sold. Distribution consisted of transportation, storage, and related services such as financing, standardization and grading, and the related risks.