Ⅰ Life English

　　Talking about money

　　1.

　　If you have money, you can easily make money.

　　Money makes money.

　　Money begets money.

　　If you are in debt, you lose your self-respect.

　　You lose your motivation.

　　Your debt continues to grow.

　　You start to worry.

　　You need to borrow more money.

　　You get even deeper in debt.

　　2.

　　Money comes.

　　Money goes.

　　But the memory is always there.

　　Money talks.

　　Money rules.

　　Money is power.

　　3.

　　Money burns a hole in your pocket.

　　It goes out as fast as it comes in.

　　You’re a spendthrift.

　　Don’t squander your hard-earned money.

　　Put your savings in the bank.

　　Never live beyond your means.

　　Be a good consumer.

　　Be a smart shopper.

　　Be a clever buyer.

　　Ⅱ Presentation Topics

　　Team Work

　　WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…?

　　MANAGING A PROJECT

　　l ENCOURAGING TEAMWORK

　　l KEEPING TO SCHEDULE

　　WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…?

　　CHOOSING PEOPLE TO WORK IN TEAMS

　　l VARIETY OF EXPERIENCE

　　l PERSONAL QUALITIES

　　Key point: improve working efficiency. This plays a crucial role in the commercial practice in Western world.

　　Explain the importance of team work:

　　Teamwork reflects the combined experiences, knowledge, intelligence and views of a group of people, so it will definitely improve the quality and efficiency of the work.

　　If the participants worked together, it would be easy for them to come up with creative ideas. This is particularly valuable for a relatively complex work, for the people working in a team, if one of them gets stuck on a matter, others/the rest could chip in their ideas and get the problem sorted. But if you work on your own, for instance, you are the sole manager in the department.

　　If people did not work as a team, everyone would have to wait for the decisions made by the manager and it was not easy to get people to take on responsibility for anything.

　　A huge and complicated project is not possible to be completed/done by merely one person. For instance, 3 Gorges project-a huge amount of money, 30 million people have to emigrate to elsewhere, a lot of commercial contracts

　　You will get bored quickly if you work on you own. But if you work in a team…

　　Working in a team can increase personal awareness of abilities and complementary skills in colleague.

　　How to improve teamwork:

　　General ideas; friendly atmosphere; not bossy; patient; good manners; modest; leadership; good interpersonal skills; variety of experience

　　Variety of experience and a broad horizon would help to tackle urgent matters and establish his or her personal prestige. Well-experienced staff are capable of overcoming storms and crises.

　　On coming across problematic issues, new or inexperienced staff usually will feel depressed and even start to panic. One or a number of experienced staff will, in this kind of situation, automatically become the spiritual leaders of the team and can get the issues in question solved quickly.

　　A wide range of experiences are important to a team member, because you never know what kind of problems might suddenly come up to you. Experiences in different fields will enhance the chance of successfully sorting out the problem with your knowledge which is based on your past experience.

　　Personal qualities:

　　The basis of the team work is mutual trust and friendly atmosphere

　　Good manners, not too bossy, patient, modest, leadership, good interpersonal skills.

　　Project Management

　　WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…?

　　MANAGING A PROJECT

　　l ENCOURAGING TEAMWORK

　　l KEEPING TO SCHEDULE

　　Key points: Team work, time pressure (keeping to the schedule)

　　Team work: as explained in the teamwork section

　　Time pressure:

　　A well-designed schedule can clarify yourself to the project. You should ensure that you would be running before the schedule rather than after it.

　　Time is always of essence for a project.

　　Failure to keep to the schedule will result in/cause late completion.

　　Late completion will lead to: civil litigation, injured party will become entitled to claim compensation/entitled to sue the breaching company.

　　When the project is being processed/in the course of carrying out the project, there will be a lot of commercial activities involved. Such as investment banks advance cash; raw material supply, planning permission, sub-contract/outsource. Failure to stick to the schedule will affect above matters.

　　Competition

　　WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…?

　　DEALING WITH COMPETITION

　　l PRICING POLICIES

　　l ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

　　WHAT IS IMORTANT WHEN…?

　　SETTING PRICES FOR NEW PRODUCTS

　　l PRODUCTION COSTS

　　l COMPETIORS’ PRICES

　　Key points: Pricing; Advertising; Production costs; Competitor’s price; Marketing; a wide range of services and products

　　Pricing:

　　(For a consumer): all consumers would like to go for higher quality and less expensive products. It is a common sense.

　　(For a manager): correct pricing policies can capture a large number of consumers in a short period of time.

　　For a newly established company: correct pricing policies are particularly important for newly established businesses. The major task for them at the early stage is to draw the public attention and make their company and their brand known to the public. When a new product is put into market, there may be very few people knowing/who know about it…(e.g.Thai curry source)

　　Competitors’ price:

　　Once a new product is put into market, it will immediately face the competition from rivals. The price war sometimes can be incredibly fierce and crude.

　　Competitors’ price will mirror the consumers’ attitude about certain products and the satisfaction about their prices.

　　If you fixed the price higher than your rivals without higher quality of service, you might soon find yourself in an unfavorable situation.

　　Correct pricing policies could also defeat some competitors in a short period of time. For example: Safeway, Tesco price war against all small bread manufactures. In this case, Safeway and Tesco fixed their price for 7p per loaf, which is 23p cheaper than their competitors’ offer. As a result of this, in 35 days time, most of their competitors went into liquidation.

　　Advertising strategies:

　　The fundamental task for a company is to make its products and itself known to the public. There are many ways to achieve this, advertising is the most important one.

　　Advertising through different media can cover nearly every corner in the world. The main channels are:

　　-TV

　　-Radio

　　-Internet

　　-Newspaper

　　-Bill Board

　　-Poster

　　-Magazine

　　The advantage/point of advertising is not only about propagandizing your company but also competing against/with your rivals. A company, through proper advertisements, can manage to introduce the advantages of their products comparing to their rivals’, and therefore convince the consumers that their products would be the right choice. For instance, Car manufactures can put in their new designs to the ads, e.g. ABS, double airbags to convince the prospective customers that their cars are safer than others.