11. A delicate situation. You are going on a very important business trip to negotiate a large contract with a new supplier. What will you do if:

• you miss your flight;

• you lose your luggage;

• your supplier is ill;

• your supplier can't speak English, and you don't know any other language;

• your supplier's price is too high;

• your supplier offers you a bribe?

Project Timing

• Mr Kemble, I'm phoning about the timing for the Vienna project.

• Right, we've got a starting date for that, haven't we?

• Yes, we begin a pilot study on 5th November.

• I see. How long is that expected to last?

• We should finish the study in three weeks.

• Good. What's the next stage?

• Well, we've got a meeting with the contractor scheduled for the 1st of December. If everything goes according to plan, we'll sign the contract then. And work can be started at the beginning of January.

• Construction work is to begin on 5th of March. We are on a pretty tight schedule. So what's the first stage?

• Well, excavation will begin in January and is due to finish by the middle of February. Now, after that we could have a problem.

• What's that?

• You remember we've sub-contracted the German firm to do the foundations. They promised to start in the middle of February. They are now saying they can't.

• All right. I'll get on to them. When are they due to finish the four dations?

• In the contract, it says by 28th of February.

• I see, and then?

• All the work has to be done in March and April.

• OK. I see the problem. I'll phone you back in the afternoon at about three. Bye.

• Good-bye.

* * *

• What does the project planner include?

• It includes: preliminary study, contract negotiation, feasibility study, training, installation, implementation date.

• What stages must you take into account while timing your project?

• Pilot study, meeting with contractors, excavations, foundations and construction.

A New Project

• Let me tell you about our new project. We plan to build the Reef Hotel near Sydney. We are going to open it in two years.

• What about the building? How high is it going to be?

• We intend to build 8 floors and 248 rooms.

• I see. It's not in the city, so how are people going to get there?

• We plan to provide bus and taxi services from Sydney.

• Great!

• We are also going to build a swimming pool and 4 tennis courts. Beside there are going to be 4 bars and 3 restaurants.

• How about conferences?

• Oh, yes. The hotel is going to have all conferences facilities, including personal computers, telex and fax services.

• It sounds great.

• Thank you. The Hotel is going to be the top hotel in Australia. It's going to cost 125,000,000 doll.

Report

on the completion of -the project

I guess it's everybody's knowledge that our company completed a big project last year, in Viena.

It was a construction project on the one hand and setting up a new joint venture, on the other.

To achieve our objectives we had to solve a number of problems relating to ...

While realising the project, we were faced with some difficulties which, I'm pleased to say, we successfully overcame in the final analysis.

I .wouldn't say it took us very long to put our project plan into practice. We began our work in November 1992 with a pilot study, followed by negotiations with contractors, excavations, foundations and construction.

All in all it took us 2 years and a half.

As our partner we had Rauma Repola Co (Finland) known as forest products manufacturer.

Now we intend to launch a new project. This time it's going to be a product development project.