}
What determines the price of a product
● The price of a product is influenced by the costs. 1
● This is because firms have to charge a price which is greater than costs to make a profit. 2 ● However in the short run a firm may sell a product at a loss. This may be to gain market share or because the product is still at the introduction phase and has high research and launch costs. 3 ● Overall it depends on whether we are considering a short or long term pricing policy. Firms may be willing to make a loss in the short run. It will also depend on the objectives of the firm. Some public sector organisations, . may simply try to cover costs.
Should firms train their employees？
By training their employees firms may be able to increase their profits BECAUSE trained staff are likely to be more productive and make les mistakes. Employees might also be more motivated BECAUSE they might be able to undertake more interesting work and BECAUSE managers are showing that they value their staff (which can satisfy their esteem needs). HOWEVER training costs money and is not always successful. It can also lead to a loss of production while staff are being trained. OVERALL, management will have to weigh up the potential benefits against the costs. If, for example, the firm has the necessary resources, the training is relatively cheap and is likely to lead to significant increases in productivity and profitability the firm likely to invest in it. If, ON THE OTHER HAND, the firm lacks the necessary finance and staff already have the skills required then training is LESS LIKELY.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… Selecting applicants for a job
Working experience Personal qualities ；
Sample 1
I choose topic A-what is important when selecting applicants for a job. As to this topic, as far as I am concerned, there are 3 things to consider.
First, I think working experience is very important when selecting applicants. Applicants who have already had the work experience in the relevant fields will learn the new job easier and
quicker. And it will also save the company a lot of training fees if the applicant has related experience.
Second, we must consider the personal qualities of the applicants, such as personality and health. Companies tend to employ people whose character fits a special job. For example, consulting company tends to employ applicant who is analytical and knowledgeable, but advertising agents like their employees to be energetic and creative.
Third, I believe language is of great importance when selecting applicants. Nowadays, we do business with people from all over the world. Always we buy goods from Africa, and sell our electronic product to Europe; a foreign language especially English is needed if the company
wants to expand to the world. Applicants who can speak one or more foreign languages will have a better chance to get the job.
Sample 2
As we all know, the criteria used by HR professionals in screening and selecting applicants normally include such factors as working experience, personal qualities and communicative skills.
Firstly, we pay a lot of attention to working experience of the applicant. A person with a solid record of related experience is more likely to fit in with a new company. Therefore he or she can be trusted to fulfill the tasks and solve the problems in a more professional and competent way.
In addition to this, we also look at the personal qualities of the applicant. Does he or she has integrity, perseverance or ‘can do’ spirit Surely any organization can benefit from the reliability, devotion and enthusiam of its employees.
[ Finally, good communicative skills such as interpersonal skills and team spirit are also becoming an important precondition in selecting qualified employees.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… Preparing for a job interview
Studying the job advertisement Finding out about the company
Before you go for an interview, you must make preparations so as to face the interviewer with more confidence. They include studying the job advertisement, finding out about the company, preparing yourself psychologically, etc.
Firstly, you should study the job advertisement carefully so that you can match your
knowledge, skills and abilities with the specifications required for the post. You must assure the interviewer that you have all the qualifications required, so you are the right sort of person they are looking for.
^ Secondly, you should know more about the company, such as its profile, structure, existing problems, requirements, campaigns and future plans. As a Chinese saying goes: “know the opponent and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat.”
Finally, you should also prepare yourself psychologically and this will help you combat
stress. Rehearsing the interview with your friends, for example, is a good relaxation exercise that can install confidence in you.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… MANAGING A PROJECT
ENCOURAGING TEAMWORK KEEPING TO SCHEDULE @
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…
CHOOSING PEOPLE TO WORK IN TEAMS VARIETY OF EXPERIENCE PERSONAL QUALITIES
Explain the importance of team work: a. 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. b. 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.
c. 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. d. 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
e.
f. You will get bored quickly if you work on you own. But if you work in a team…
g. 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
a. 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.
b. 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.
c. 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:
a. The basis of the team work is mutual trust and friendly atmosphere
b. Good manners, not too bossy, patient, modest, leadership, good interpersonal skills.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… MANAGING A PROJECT
ENCOURAGING TEAMWORK KEEPING TO SCHEDULE
Key points: Team work, time pressure (keeping to the schedule) ]
Team work: as explained in the teamwork section
Time pressure:
a. 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. b. Time is always of essence for a project.
c. Failure to keep to the schedule will result in/cause late completion.
d. Late completion will lead to: civil litigation, injured party will become entitled to claim
compensation/entitled to sue the breaching company.
e. 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.
$
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… DEALING WITH COMPETITION PRICING POLICIES
ADVERTISING STRATEGIES
WHAT IS IMORTANT WHEN…
SETTING PRICES FOR NEW PRODUCTS
PRODUCTION COSTS COMPETIORS’ PRICES
^
Key points: Pricing; Advertising; Production costs; Competitor’s price; Marketing; a wide range of services and products
Pricing:
a. (For a consumer): all consumers would like to go for higher quality and less expensive
products. It is a common sense.
b. (For a manager): correct pricing policies can capture a large number of consumers in a
short period of time.
c. 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… curry source)
Competitors’ price: a. 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.
b. Competitors’ price will mirror the consumers’ attitude about certain products and the
satisfaction about their prices.
c. ~ d. If you fixed the price higher than your rivals without higher quality of service, you might
soon find yourself in an unfavorable situation.
e. 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:
a. 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. b. Advertising through different media can cover nearly every corner in the world. The main
channels are:
-TV -Radio -Internet -Newspaper ￥
-Bill Board -Poster -Magazine
c. 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, . ABS, double airbags to convince the prospective customers that their cars are safer than others.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… MOTIVATING STAFF
FINANCIAL BENEFITS
CAREER DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
（
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…
INTRODUCING A REWARD SYSTEM FOR STAFF
PURPOSE OF THE REWARD SYSTEM TYPES OF REWARD OFFERED
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…
AIMING TO REDUCE STAFF TURNOVER
{
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES CAREER STRUCTURE
Key points: Financial benefits; Career development/structure; reduce staff turnover Financial Benefits: a. Managers, company owners and supervisors have always been frustrated and
bewildered by employees with little or no motivation.
b. Staff always want reward for their contribution to the company and what they are worth.
Such factors are just like market forces. The fundamental reason of looking for a job is to get pay. Staff do the job what they are paid for. However, quite often, the staff work overtime under their managers’ demand. If the company fails to give proper financial benefits staff might subsequently feel not being fairly treated, and therefore frustrate their enthusiasm for their work.
c. Staff want some sort of recognition for the job that they do. Correct financial benefits
plan will arouse their enthusiasm; otherwise they would feel being ignored.
d. The job that the staff are doing is not always interesting, or the working environment
may not be pleasant, or their colleagues might not be very helpful and cooperative. In this kind of situation/under the kind of circumstance, the staff would become stressful and uninterested in their job. Correct financial benefits can normally distract staff from their dissatisfaction with….
`
Career development/structure:
a. Job-hunting is always a two-way process. On one hand, the employees look for their
ideal jobs, on the other hand the employer, at the same time, look for competitive people. An employer has a number of methods to attract the best people into its business. Such as high pay, traveling opportunities, company cars and training/career development opportunities.
b. Good educational background is not the only element that the future employers will take
into account when they look for someone in the job market. Postgraduate qualifications and professional trainings are equally or even more important than the higher education degrees. When the HR managers only have 30 seconds to go through each applicant’s CV, the sector that will catch their eyes are normally your qualification and professional training experiences, which show whether you suit their vacant positions.
c. Nowadays, very few people would like to go for that kind of job-for-life posts. They all
wish to have their jobs better and better. If an employee is able to get the opportunities to obtain some sort of professional training during the course of employment, this experience will definitely enhance his value in the employment market and therefore benefits his future job-hunting.
d. So in the two-way job-seeking process, while the employer is choosing its favorite people,
the wise future employee will consider the training and career development
opportunities with his/her future employer and try to make himself/herself more competitive in the employment market.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… RELOCATION A BUSINESS
%
LOCAL WORKFORCE AVAILABLE LOCATION OF SITE
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…
CHOOSING RETAIL PREMISES TO RENT
LOCATION
LENGTH OF CONTRACT
￥
Key points: location of the premises; local workforce; rent a premises Local workforce: a. Might technology support and skilful workforce are the two crucial elements leading a
modern enterprises to success. So when locating a business, the management people in the business got to consider local workforce.
b. Skilful workers are just like the hands of a business, they are the direct creators of
company’s profits.
c. The diversity of the workforce’s skills will diversify the quality of the products. (Swiss
watch, Volkswagen cars)
d. Skilful workforce is particularly important to hi-tech oriented companies. The hi-tech
products require the company to maintain a strong research and development team, which are normally the more valuable assets of the company.
e. When locating a business, the managers need to consider whether the local workforce is
capable of producing such a strong R&D team.
f. Moreover, cheap local force will certainly reduce the production costs. (Consider why
many foreign companies choose China as their manufacturing base)
Location of the business site: |
Consider the following issues:
a. Whether it is convenient and easy for raw material supply and transporting out the
products.
b. Whether it is easy to get access to the electricity, water, gas and other supporting energy
supplies.
c. Whether it is convenient for most of staff to go to work d. The property price there e. Environmental issues f. Planning permission g. Tax liabilities
The length of the contract: ~
a. Longer contract would cover issues in more details. The contract should cover certain matter, which are likely to incur, such as assignment, service charges, and rent review clause.
Marketing
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… AIMING TO REACH NEW MARKETS MARKET RESEARCH ADVERTISING
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… |
ADVERTISING A NEW PRODUCT
TARGET MARKETS CHOICE OF MEDIA
Market research: a. Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and
services from producer to consumer or user.
b. Marketing research is always the first step before the company gets into the market. c. The fundamental goal of marketing is the satisfaction of consumer needs. No
organization can survive for long without meeting consumer needs. People will simply not purchase a product or service that they do not need.
d. Thus, any organization, if it is to be successful, must proceed from the goal of customer
satisfaction and adjust its programs to deliver an offering meeting consumers’ needs. e. . foreign medium and high range car manufacturers did not attempt to enter into the
Chinese market until recent years, because following market researches, they discovered that Chinese consumers, in general, could not afford to buy and maintain expensive cars. … f.
g. . Pizza, Pasta…
h. Talking about Market Research
The company has done a lot of market research for the product. Can you tell me how a company starts selling a new product Do you often carry out/conduct market research What’s objective of market research
One of the purpose of market research is to find out whether there’s a market for the product.
We did a detailed market analysis.
Market research is actually an analysis of a specific market for a particular product.
We have to run the market test for two months.
!
We have a wide product range.
The stock market is uncertain at the moment because interest rates are falling.
—
Advertising:
a. Advertising is the most useful way to propagandize a company’s products and make
them known to the public. Advertising is also the way to get the products orientated. . whether the products are for female/male market, high earning people or low earning people. Sports shoes… perfume)
b. When advertising a new product, it is essential to consider the target markets.
Consumers’ needs in the target market. c. Choice of media: see Advertising Strategies. ;
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… EXHIBITING AT TRADE FAIR
QUALITY OF DISPLAY STAFF SELECTED
Key issues: Quality of display in trade fairs; Staff selected for trade fairs; Quality of display in trade fairs:
a. The quality of display will affect the public image of the company.
b. Trade fairs are the irreplaceable means of propagandizing products. They provide the
manufacturers with the formal stages to display their products.
c. ) d. A trade fair is an important link and activity in commercial sale. Before a trade fair takes
place, there normal are a lot of propagandas about it, and the organizer always tries to attract as many customers as possible to attend the trade fair.
e. Consequently, a trade fair will have massive influence on the public and market. And
most of visitors to a trade fair will be the genuine buyers or at least would like to take interests in the companies and the products on the trade fair. And therefore a high
quality of display in a trade fair would be the best opportunity for an ambitious company
to promote its newest products and built up its good image. （第7单元）
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN… ENTERTAINING CLIENTS
TYPES OF ACTIVITIES COST > Types of Activities:
a. Entertaining client is done by way of a series of activities. Such as a sightseeing tour, a
football match, a ballroom party, an orchestra performance, a ballet show, a fashion show, playing tennis and a formal meal, etc.
b. The activities that you choose will constitute a part of the first impression that you will
give to your clients. So you should be careful when choosing the type of activities. You need to consider the client’s age, educational and cultural backgrounds and do some research about your clients’ characters and hobbies.
c. For well-educated clients, they may expect some high class-associated activities, such as
ballet, ballroom parties, and orchestra performances. If you fulfill their
expectation/standard, your efforts will put a lot of weight on your credibility.
d. For some young clients, you may wish to take them to some more fashionable activities,
such as a music bar, a pop music show, a fashion show. e. For those sporty clients-football, tennis
f. However, you should always end up all kind of activities with having a formal meal. You
don’t want to talk about business with your clients in the tennis court or theatre; they are just the warming-up activities for the key matter-business. After a whole day or a few days’ entertainment, you may find the distance between the two sides are much
narrower than the beginning, and there might be a lot of things that you both want to talk about.
The costs of entertainment
a. Not always the essential thing. Depending on the nature/characteristics of the
transaction or the size of the deal.
b. Should consider the profit issue. If the company is expecting to make big gain/profits out
of a specific client, it should at least put in proportional investment to entertain/please its clients. .….
c. If the company foresees that the client is not very lucrative, then….
d. The ideal plan would be spending as little money as possible to get the deal done. But
you must not offend your clients. You should make them feel being welcomed.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT WHEN…
DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS FROM CLIENTS
OFFERING AN APOLOGY
SUGGESTING A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM
a. Offering an apology is the very basic level.
b. When the clients think that they have received unfair treatments, the first thing that the
company should do is to calm them down and try to keep the client.
c. An apology is the first step and a useful method to maintain control of the situation. d. Offering an apology is an important gesture to show that the hosting company is fully
aware of the situation and would like to take the potential responsibility for its mistakes. e. The complaining clients would feel that their complaints are being paid attention and
may therefore be happy to proceed to the transaction with the hosting company. f. It is necessary to suggest a solution to the problem as well.
g. The clients want to enter into the transaction in a good mood and with a reliable and
trustworthy business partner. Apart from an apology, the client would want to have the problems and misunderstanding solved before their communication moves to the next level. If the hosting company failed or refused to suggest a solution, its sincerity of entering into the transaction would be put into doubt.
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