L’Énergie du Changement

Business English SONATRACH

MANAGEMENT
ACADEMY

Change
 Starting up
A. Which of these situations would find the most difficult to deal with?
1. Moving house 5. Driving abroad
2. Losing a colleague 6. A new boss
3. Moving to another country 7. Getting married (again!)
4. Changing your job 8. New neighbors

B. What has been the most significant change in your life so far?

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 Starting up
C. Which of these business situations would worry you most? Why?
1. You find out that your company will be merging with another company.
2. You keep your job after a merger, but you are in a less powerful position.
3. You keep your job after a merger, but you have to take a salary art.
4. Your company has to relocate to the other side of the city.
5. You are asked to relocate to a foreign country
6. You are promoted, but are now in charge of a hostile workforce.
7. You hare to move from you own office to a large, open-plan office.
8. You have to work with a completely new computer system.
9. You have to decide who to make redundant in your new department after a merger.
10.You company language becomes English.

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 Vocabulary
A. Write the verbs from the box under the correct prefix to make words connected with change. Use a
good dictionary to help you. Some of the words can be used with more than one prefix.

assess centralize date develop grade launch

locate organize regulate size structure train

down de- up- re-

grade

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 Vocabulary
B. Complete these sentences with the correct form of the verbs from the box in Exercise A.

1. Following the merger, the office layout was reorganized to accommodate the new staff.

2. The most successful change in our company was the decision to ………………………………… the company. Now there is more
opportunity tor promotion.

3. It is now so expensive to rent offices in the city center that many companies are …………………… their operations to
purpose-built business parks at the city limits.

4. The company has recently ………………………… its workforce. Reducing the number of
employees is the best way to stay profitable in the current economic climate.

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 Vocabulary
Exercise B / contd.
assess centralize date develop grade launch

locate organize regulate size structure train

5. To improve efficiency the company has introduced new working practices. The HR department will ……….... all
sales staff
6. One of our products hasn't been selling well recently. The marketing team has decided to take it off the market
and ………………………. it next year with a new packaging.
7. The IT department report recommended that the company ………………… the computer system as soon as possible.
8.The CEO thinks that too many decisions are made at Head Office. She wants to ………………………… the decision-
making process so that branch managers are more involved at an earlier stage.
9. The company has finalized the plans to …………… disused car park site. It is going to become a fitness center for
employees.

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 Vocabulary
Exercise B / end
assess centralize date develop grade launch
locate organize regulate size structure train

10. The logo and slogan are very old-fashioned. We need to …........................ the whole image of
the product and bring it into the 21st century.

11. There is a lot of pressure on the government from consumer groups to..……………….. The industry
and remove controls, so customers can benefit from increased competition.

12. Following the report by the legal department and changes in the tax laws, the management
decided to ………………. The situation and delay making a decision on the takeover.

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 Language Review
Past simple and Present perfect

We use the Past Simple for actions at a particular point in the past.
e.g., In 2002, Mercedes suffered o dramatic fall.
Dieter Zetsche became Head of Mercedes in September 2005.
We use the Present Perfect for actions linking the present to a point in the past.
e.g., Since 2005. Mercedes has gone from the worst-performing of the large luxury car makers to the
trailblazer (pioneers)

Exercise:
Which of the following expressions are used with the past simple and which are used with the present
perfect? Which are used with both?

in 2010 since 2009 yet

this week yesterday ever
recently last year six months ago

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 Language Review
Reminder : Frequent Markers of the Present Perfect Tense
A) We use the present perfect to describe an event or personal experience in the past without a specific time. B)
To talk about things that have happened up to now

Just, ever, never, already, yet (/?/) not yet

SINCE /when/ 1995, last month, Monday, ten o’clock, …

FOR /a length of time/ five years, two months, a week, three days, an hour, …

Examples from General English: I am walking home because I’ve missed the bus.
You can’t send that letter because you’ve written it badly.
I’ve phoned the geophysicist three times but he hasn’t answered yet.
We haven’t seen him today. Has he learnt enough English yet?

Examples from Technical English: She has had a lot of trouble with the log analyst this week.
Have you already analyzed that oilfield well cementing? He hasn’t tested the well since eight thirty.
Has he ever discovered oil in this area? // They have never checked the asphaltene deposit.
Dialogue: A. He’s going out.
B. But he’s just (only just) arrived! (To express surprise).

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 Useful Language

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 Reading
Short Texts: Briefing Notes
1. Performance-related pay
Following changes to the bonus system, sales staff in stores now receive monthly bonuses according to
their individual sales. Unfortunately, while the new system is popular with staff, it has led to many
complaints from customers about sales staff ‘fighting1 over customers in order to secure sales and
therefore bonuses.
Question: Is the system making staff too competitive?

2. Stock control
Managers at many outlets are reporting problems with the system of organizing and lending items for
customers in the stock rooms. This is causing delays and causing frustration for both staff and
customers.
Question: The main question seems to be how to organize the stock

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 Reading
Short Texts: Briefing Notes

3. End of Clothing Allowance

Sales staff in stores currently receive a clothing allowance, which takes the form of a 50% discount on
Young Scene clothes, which staff then must wear at work. One suggestion is to cut this to 10%, or stop
this completely and introduce a compulsory company uniform.

4. Staff meetings
The current practice is to open all stores two hours later one day a week in order for the store
manager to hold a meeting with all the staff. It has been suggested that this meeting be held after
hours in future to maximize opening hours.

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 Reading
AN INVITATION TO THE DCS (Distributed Control System)

Recent developments in computing allowed a much better control over production plants. One such computer
programme is called the DCS.
The DCS is an « advanced control » as opposed to the « classical control » used in some production plants. The DCS
is a good reason for modernization of your plant. It analyses recent problems in all plant areas (production area,
utilities, maintenance, personnel, etc.). All this is done through a computer network. It also analyses and evaluates
future plans.
The assessment of the current state of the running of the production plant is also handled by the DCS. Time has
come for Algeria to exploit such a system for a better production plant efficiency.

1. What is the DCS?

2. What does it differ from the classical system of control?
3. What does the DCS analyse in the production plant?
4. Name some plant areas where the DCS can be used.
5. How does this computer network operate?

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 Reading
Some interesting aspects of the DCS.

1. Job Modernisation:  Analysis and evaluation of recent and future plans.

 Assessment of resources availability.
 Cost estimation.
 Clear definition of production objectives.
 Estimation of work involved at work site.

2. Control Room:  Safety considerations.

 Utilities requirements.
 Reliability and swift response.
 Improved controls and better accuracy.
 Alarm summary.

3. Others:  Calibration of field instruments.

 System capacity.
 Facility for functional (operational) testing.

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 Business Vocabulary: financial verbs
This exercise gives you practice using five ‘financial’ verbs:

afford a.fford afford borrow bo.rrow borrow

to have enough money to be

to take something from someone while
verb able to buy something
agreeing to return it at a later time or
often used with the verb ‘can’:
verb date.
can afford something; can’t
afford something;
can / can’t afford to borrow something; borrow something
how to use do something
how to use from somebody.
1. I can’t afford to buy the car –
it costs $10,000 and I only have 1. We borrowed money from the bank.
$8000.
2. Can I borrow $10, John? I’ll pay you
2. We can’t afford new office
examples furniture. examples back next week.

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 Business Vocabulary: financial verbs
lend lend lend
invoice in.voice invoice

to give something to someone with

the agreement that he/she will to send a bill to someone in the form of

verb return it after a certain time verb an invoice

lend something to someone; lend

someone something invoice for something; invoice someone (for
how to
how to use irregular verb: lend, lent, lent use something)

1. We lent £1000 to John and 1. We invoiced them $40 for the books.
£2000 to Peter. 2. We haven’t invoiced you for the goods
examples 2. The bank lent me $12,000. examples yet.

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 Business Vocabulary: financial verbs

owe owe owe

to have to pay for something which has already been

verb given or done

how to use owe something to someone; owe someone something

1. They owe us more than €50,000.

examples 2. He owes us an apology.

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 L’Énergie du Changement

MERCI POUR VOTRE SONATRACH

ATTENTION MANAGEMENT
ACADEMY

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