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SUPLIMENTARY FILE TO THE VIDEO FILMS
(Market Leader. Business Leader Briefings.)
You are going to watch an authentic interviews with top-ranking managers from global companies. The interviews were originally filmed for the Financial Times Television ‘Strategies’ programmes. The programmes are introduced by news presenter Ros Childs who highlights and explains the key concepts then expressed in the interviesw that follows. The language learner is given further support both on the video with on-screen questions and key points, and in the Video Supplementary File.
Video 1. Globalisation.
Before you watch._____________________________________________________
‘The world is globalizing and the telecommunications industry is becoming more and more global, and so we feel that we are well-positioned in that market place.’
Dick Brown
1. |
Read the title and the quote above and think over the questions. |
1. |
What do you understand by globalization? |
2. |
Do you think globalisation is the way forward just for telecommunications |
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companies or for companies in general? |
2. |
Read the information about the companies and interviewees in this |
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programme. |
ABB
Percy Barnevik is one of the world’s most admired business leaders. He is recognized as the main ‘architect’ of the global company ABB (ASEA Brown Boveri). Swiss-Swedish ABB describes itself as ‘a globalised technology and engineering company’. Its activities include electrical power generation, transmission and distribution, oil, gas and petrochemicals, industrial products and financial services. It employs around 175,000 people in over 100 countries. It created the phrase ‘Think global, act local’ in late 1980s.
Cable & Wireless
Dick Brown was with Cable & Wireless from 1996-1999 and helped to restructure this UK business to turn it into one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies.
Cable & Wireless is a major global carrier of integrated communications traffic: Internet, data, voice and video, with operations in 50 countries, and 50,000 employees worldwide. The company combines local expertise with global vision and its many customers are themselves major global players.
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Video vocabulary
Match these expressions from the video to the definitions.
a) |
competitive edge |
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the way in which things are done in |
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the workplace; |
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b) |
contradiction |
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the tendency for the world economy |
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to act as one unit, led by large |
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c) |
currency markets |
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international |
companies |
doing |
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business all over the world; |
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d) |
to be customer-driven |
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business in variety of countries; |
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4. |
to consider your buyer first and shape |
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e) |
expanded trade |
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business around your buyer’s needs; |
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5. |
an advantage that makes one |
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f) |
globalisation |
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company better than another; |
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6. |
increased business; |
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g) |
grown organically |
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foreign exchange markets; |
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a difference between two ideas that |
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h) |
multinational accounts |
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means they cannot both be true; |
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9. |
to increase in size by natural growth |
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i) |
working practice |
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not by e.g. merges or alliances. |
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Video on_____________________________________________________________
A. Before you watch each segment, read the questions. Then watch the video and answer the questions.
Segment 1 start – 2.36
1.How has the business world changed over the last twenty years?
2.What examples does Dick Brown give of globalisation?
3.How does Dick Brown view Cable & Wireless place in the global market?
Why is the communications industry so important in a global market?
Segment 2 2.37 – 4.12
1.What did Percy Barnevic do when he become the head of ABB? Why?
2.What does ‘global glue’ mean for ABB? What effect does it have on employees?
3.What two types of leaders does Percy Barnevic mention?
4.What are the three contradictions he talks about?
5.When the three contradictions work well together, what does this give a company?
What are the advantages of being a large company? What are the advantages of being small?
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Segment 3 4.12 – 5.20
1.Does Dick Brown think that all companies will become global companies?
2.What are Cable & Wireless’ goals?
3.How does a company go global? Which three ways does Dick Brown mention?
Which route to ‘globalness’ probably takes the longest?
Segment 4 5.20 – 6. 54
1.Why is it important to have local people in a global organization?
2.What does Percy Barnevik say is the easy thing?
3.For Percy Barnevik, what is the key to successful globalization?
Percy Barnevik talks about ‘national, cultural barriers’. Do you agree that differences in culture can make it difficult for different parts of an international company to work together?
Talking points
B. 6.55 – 7.15
How do companies go global?
What are the benefits of globalization to companies?
How do you make globalization work?
Word for word_______________________________________________________
Watch the following clips and complete the interviews.
1. 1.58 – 3.36
Dick Brown: The world 1 _________ __________ and the telecommunications industry is becoming more and more (glo-) global, and so we feel we’re wellpositioned in that market place. You see currency markets are more globally tied, economies are 2 _________ __________, more so nowadays with expanded trade, more and more multinational accounts are doing business in many, many more countries. We’re a company at Cable & Wireless now 3 ______-_______ to carry the traffic and provide the services to more and more companies that now need to get to five countries or twelve countries or twenty countries, we’re often there.
2. 3.25 – 4.12
Percy Barnevik: We have now for ten years after our big merger created a
1 “______-_______” where people are tied together, where they don’t internally compete, but support each other, and you have 2 _________ _________ with global responsibility and your local manager working with their profit centres, and if you have the right, so to say, agenda for these people and the right structure, you can use a scale of economy and your advantages of bigness but being small. We used to say you
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have three 3___________: decentralized and still centrally controlled, big and small, global and 4___________, and, of course, to try to make these contradictions work together effectively, then I think you have a big organizational 5 ________
__________.
3. 4.39 – 5.20
Dick Brown: Well, as you go global and a handful or more of companies are going to really push out, in my view, to be truly 1 _________ ___________, and some of them, maybe all of them, will also work to be local. They’ll be local in chosen markets and
global in their ability to carry their |
2 _________ ________ from continent A to |
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continent B. we want to be one of |
the companies |
that’s both global and local. |
3__________ are one way to be global, it’s not the |
only way to be global: you |
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can 4 __________ your way to ‘globalness’, you can organically grow your way to ‘globalness’, you can have alliances which help you get global quicker, so you take your pick.
4. 5.20 – 5.32
Percy Barnevik: You have to start from the top with local people who understand 1 _________ , __________ and so on, and I think in this global world where the East is coming up now, that’s a 2 ____________ ___________.
5. 5.59 – 6.19
Percy Barnevik: You see, the easy thing is to have the 1 __________, but then to make the systems work, to make people really work together, to 2___________ each other – Americans, European, Asians, to get over these 3 ___________, _______
_______ and create a common glue, ABB, and then make them 4 _______-_______.
Business forum_______________________________________________________
Discuss these questions.
1.What role have the following played in globalization?
a)the removal of trade barriers
b)electronic systems of communication e.g. the Internet
2.Which types of company do you think are most/least suited to globalization?
3.Do you think that global companies have too much power?
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Video 2. Managing people.
Before you watch._____________________________________________________
‘At the end of the day, you have to have an understanding for other people’s way of behaving.’
1. Read the title and the quote above and answer the question.
As a manager, why is it so important to have an understanding for other people’s way of behaving?
2. Read the information about the companies and interviewees in this programme.
BT
BT (British telecom) has grown from a UK telephone business to global communications company. It has a presence in Europe, North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region.
BT carries out employee attitude surveys to get feedback from its people about job satisfaction and how they feel they are managed. Managers use the results to review their management style.
Stafford Taylor was Managing Director of BT Personal Communications from 1993-1997. He developed BT’s major marketing campaign ‘It’s good to talk’.
Sandra Dawson
Professor Dawson is Director of the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Cambridge
University’s business school.
Investor AB
Investor AB is Sweden’s largest industrial holding company and one of the biggest investors in industry, with ownership in Swedish companies such as Ericsson, Saab, Electrolux and ABB. It has 650,000 employees in its companies and is owned and run by the Wallenberg family.
Former Chairman of engineering group ABB, Percy Barnevic is now a Chairman of Investor AB.
Video vocabulary
Look at the expressions in bold from the video and their definitions.
a)best practice: a good example of how a task or activity should be done
b)censure: when you express strong disapproval or criticism
c)to coach: to train, to reach
d)empathy: ability to imagine yourself in the position of another person
e)encourage: to give someone confidence to do something by giving your approval
f)make mistakes: do things incorrectly
g)ownership of decisions: when you feel responsible for your decisions