Introduction
A considerable proportion of college students majored in Business English, International Business, and Marketing get a job in different kinds of companies after graduation. He may work there as an administrative secretary, a business assistant, a quality inspector, an assistant translator, or an interpreter. Some of them become administrative directors or even boss some day in the future.
In business area, both bosses and employees are required to know well about the basics of a business organization, including its establishment, management structure， culture, public relations, etc. When starting a business, the first challenges you face include: what type of business are you going to do? What organization form will you take? What kind of management structure will be best for you? Your better understanding of such business issues will open the door for you.
Here in this unit, you are on the way to a good knowledge of such issues by experiencing setting up your own business, naming your company, designing the logo and mottos for the company, introducing the company culture and presenting your company to the public.
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Text 1 Business Organization
Objectives: Knowledge objectives:To know about the characteristics of the three major forms of business organizations. Competence objectives: To be able to design a good name for a company.
Task 1 Business Listening and Speaking
1.1 Business Speaking
Talk about the pictures.3
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Clues:
Tell the names of companies in the pictures and tell other 5 famous company names. Then discuss the importance of a wellknown name to a company.
What are the forms of their business organization?
1.2 Business Listening
1.2.1 Mr. Bob provides advice for people who are starting new businesses. Listen to the dialogue and fill in the blanks or answer the question with what you have heard.
1. When you’re , you have to be very confident. You have to be very . You have to know what it is you’re doing.
2. You need to , the businessor the need to research your competitors and
benchmark .
3. And probably the most important thing is that you need , and that needs to be a business mentor as well as a personal mentor. 4. According to the dialogue, what do you need to start a company? 1.2.2 Listen to the dialogue carefully and fill in the following chart. Date of establishment Location of the headquarters Number of employees Major products Major markets Manufacturing capacity Annual turnover Net profit in last year
Task 2 Business Reading
Prereading questions: 1. Would you like to run business alone or with a partner? 2. How do you understand “sharing the profit means sharing the risk”? An Overview of Business Organization A business is an organization providing goods and services to others who want or need them. Business operates under a variety of forms of business organization. When an individual or a group decides to begin doing a business, a decision must be made early about the right legal form to take.Pro
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The majority of business organizations are sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. A sole proprietorship is owned by a single person, holding the entire operations as his personal property and taking all the profits and risks. This organization is normally a small business, such as the corner grocery. The sole owner, often aided by one or two employees, operates a small shop that frequently caters to a group of regular customers. A good case of it is that nowadays lots of people are setting up their businesses by creating small webbased companies at home.
The sole proprietorship is the easiest form of business to start. The main advantage is that the owner has exclusive control over its operations. As to the disadvantage, it is often difficult for the owner to raise large sums of money owing to the limited ability to repay loans by an individual’s assets.
The general partnership form of organization involves two or more persons and is more complex than the sole proprietorship. Each partner may receive different shares of the profits depending on their investment or contribution. Whenever a member leaves or a new member is added, the firm must be restructured as a new partnership.
Partnership is classified as either general or limited. General partners manage and control the partnership and all partners enjoy unlimited liability. Limited partners have limited liability, that is, their liability is limited to the extent of their investment in the partnership, and they do not participate in the management or control of the partnership and as long as they comply with state law. Limited partners have no control over the everyday management of the partnership, whereas general partners have a voice in the everyday management.
A corporation is more difficult to establish and operate than a sole proprietorship or a partnership. For example, people who want to establish a corporation must meet many legal requirements of the country and local governments.
As a legal entity, a corporation has many of the rights, duties, and powers of a person, which includes buying, owning, and transferring property. Corporations can sign contracts with individuals or with other legal entities. There are many advantages to incorporate a business.
Firstly, shareholders, the owners of the corporation, enjoy limited liability. Corporations in some countries have letters of Ltd. after their names. It stands for limited liability with the meaning that the owners of a business are responsible for losses only up to the amount they invest, which is probably the most advantage of corporation.
Secondly, a skilled management team manages the corporation. The Board of Directors has duty of hiring professional managers, and the owners delegate their power of operating the business to these managers.
Thirdly，a corporation’s ownership, represented by shares of stock, may be bought and sold freely. Shareholders have the right to sell their shares of a corporation’s stock to whomever they please. These shares of ownership can be sold whenever the shareholder desires and at the price
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the buyer is willing to pay. Fourthly，the corporate form of business makes it easier for a business to grow and expand. Through issuing shares, it can get the money they will need for expansion. If a company sold 100,000 shares for ￥RMB 30 each, it would raise ￥RMB 3,000,000, which is such a large sum of money difficult to borrow from the bank.
Yet, there still existed some disadvantages for a corporation. For example, a corporation has to pay taxes on its earnings. When it distributes dividends to its stockholders, they pay tax on those earnings. The corporate setup should comply with many formalized procedures. Incorporation can be very costly as a result. The registration and setup fees for a corporation are much higher than that of a sole proprietorship or a partnership. Government more closely supervises corporations than partnerships or sole proprietorships.
Words and Expressions
1. business organization 企业组织；商业组织；实业组织 2. proprietor n. 所有人；业主 3. sole proprietorship 独资（经营） 4. exclusive n.独家经营 adj. 排外的；独有的；专一的 5. asset n. 资产；有用的东西 6. restructure v. 重建, 重造；改组 7. liability n. 责任；债务 8. limited partner 有限合伙人 9. participate vi.参与，参加；分享 10. comply with 照做，遵守 11. entity n. 实体 12. transferable adj.能转移的；可传送的 13. delegate vt. 委派…为代表 n. 代表 14. shareholder n. 股东；股票持有人 15. dividend n. 股息，股利；红利 16. distribute to 分给；分发 17. formalize vt. 使正式化 18. registration n. 注册，登记；挂号 19. supervise vt. 监督，管理；指导2.1 Answer the following questions according to the text.
1. What are the common forms of business organization? 2. Is a sole proprietorship owned by a single person? Is it normally a large business?Pro
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way does the difference lie? 4. What are the advantages of corporation? 5. What form of business organization do you prefer?
2.2 Translate the following terms into English.
1. 独资企业 2. 普通合伙企业 3. 有限合伙企业 4. 无限责任 5. 董事会 6. 正式手续 7. 注册费 8. 股份 9. 分红 10. 法律实体2.3 Decide whether the following statements are True or False.
( ) 1. The sole proprietor is owned by a single person, with responsibility for all business decision.
( ) 2. The partnership is the easiest form of business to start.
( ) 3. The partnership form of organization is even simpler than the sole proprietorship. ( ) 4. All partners in a general partnership have limited liability.
( ) 5. In a corporation, shareholders hire directors to supervise the firm.
2.4 Try to match the following words in Column B with the definition in
Column A.
Column A Column B
( )1. business which is made up of two or more individuals doing business together A. sole
( )2. being the only one; single and isolated from others B. capital
( )3.governing body (called the board) of an incorporated firm C. partnership
( )4. it can be something physical, such as cash, machinery, inventory, land and building D.Board of Directors
( )5. one’s own or borrowed money invested in a business to generate income E. asset
Task 3 Business Translation
1. 我们遵守有关消防安全的全部条例。（comply with） 2. 图书馆里的藏书按科目分类。（distribute）
3. 去年他被选为年会代表。（delegate）
4. 股份有限公司设董事会, 其成员为五人至十九人。（Board of Directors）
5. 企业的目标是使股东财富最大化。（shareholder）
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exploring new business opportunities, or growing in already developed markets. With more than 150 years’ experience, APL has the knowledge and the expertise to help you negotiate the increasingly complex and everchanging global marketplace.
Task 4 Business Writing
A corporation is set under the laws of the state in which it incorporates. The persons who create the corporation are known as incorporators. Each state sets forth a specific procedure with some requirements. For example, most states require a minimum of three incorporators, the company’s name cannot be similar to the name of another business, and the company name must end in “company”, “corporation”, “incorporated”, or “limited” to show that the owners have limited liability.
Task: Suppose you are going to have your own company, design a name for it.
Task 5 Career Activity
Situation: You are going to establish a company with a whole asset of￥RMB50,000. After market research, you choose the right line. Task: Name your own company and explain why you choose such a name.
Supplementary:
Tips of Naming your Company 1. Quantity and diversity yield quality.Naming is a matter of satisfying many competing constraints. An ideal name is relevant, positive, memorable, reasonably short, not too generic, not too similar to a competing name, associated with an available domain name, and distinctive enough to bring your web page to the top of search engine results. A good metaphor for the naming process is evolution through variation and natural selection.
2. Selection is as important as creation.
In all evolutionary processes, selection is more important than the initial causes of variation. So it is with naming. It doesn’t matter how you come up with your ideas for names, as long as you
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have some great ones to choose from. It’s important to realize that evaluating your name ideas and choosing the one that really works is as important to the naming process－and takes as much work－as coming up with name ideas in the first place.
3. Use collective intelligence.
Another good way to diversify your pool of name ideas is to have lots of people contribute. They can help both by suggesting names and by critically evaluating others’ name ideas.
4. Use linguistic resources.
What goes for names also goes for the raw linguistic material that you use to create names. It’s unlikely that just the right word is going to pop into your head to serve as the basis for a blend, a compound, or some other type of puttogether name. It helps to have lots of relevant words presented to you quickly so that you can select from among them. A thesaurus helps a lot. You might use a fancy online tool like the Visual Thesaurus, but a good old copy of Roget’s does very nicely.
5. Pictures are important, even when you’re just thinking of words.
Ideas are more interesting and easier to remember when they’re associated with sensory, especially visual, experience. That means when you’re coming up with name ideas, sometimes it’s best to start with a visual image and then think of the language that goes with it.
6. Avoid embarrassment in other languages, and ask the experts.
There’s simply no way to get around asking native speakers. If this is an issue and you can’t afford to hire a naming firm to screen the name for you, try to identify the main languages you’re concerned about (start with the ones with the most speakers in your market, obviously) and find speakers yourself. Try friends of friends. Try online social networks. Try a university with international students.
Discussion:
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Text 2 Establishment of a Company
Objectives: Knowledge objectives: To know about the procedures of establishing a company. Competence objectives: To be able to design a proper logo for your own company.Task 1 Business Speaking and Listening
1.1 Business Speaking
Talk about the following pictures. Clues: What are the company logos about? How important is a wellknown brand logo to a company? Can you think of some other famous global brands logo?1.2 Business Listening
1.2.1 You will hear five sentences. Repeat for the first time you hear. Pay attention to the stresses and tones. Then listen again and write them down. Check your answers when you listen for the third time.1. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________.
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2. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________. 3. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________. 4. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________. 5. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________. 1.2.2 Listen to the following conversation and finish the exercises.
Part 1 Answer the following questions with what you have heard in the conversation. 1. Who are the founders of McDonald’s? 2. Where is the birthplace of the first McDonald’s restaurant? 3. What is the annual sale of McDonald’s restaurants? 4. What is the annual net income? 5. Which day is the opening date of the first McDonald’s in Beijing? Part 2 Listen to the conversation again and decide whether the statements are true or false. Write “T” for true and “F” for false.
( ) 1. When the first McDonald’s was opened in the U.S., customer could eat inside the restaurant. ( ) 2. There are no other company supplying soft drink to McDonald’s besides Coca Cola. ( ) 3. Almost half of McDonald’s customers are not in the U.S. today. ( ) 4. McDonald’s opens nearly 5 new restaurants in the U.S. every day. ( ) 5. The man knows the McDonald’s very well because he work there.
Task 3 Business Reading
Prereading questions: 1. Is it easy for you to run a business? Why or why not? 2. In your opinion, what steps should be taken when you start your own business? How are corporations created?Many people have their dreams of having a corporation. However, the birth of corporation may differ from country to country. In spite of the distinctions, it’s beneficial that one who wants
