Lesson 3. Company Portfolio
Warm up
I.What should you include in company portfolio? Make a list if things.
II.What information about a company is the most/the least demonstrative? Prove it.
III.Take a company and give a short description of it without naming it. The rest should guess the name of the company. Express your attitude to it.
A. Posts and departments
I. Remember all posts and departments in a company.
| 1. | Accounts Dept. | n. department responsible for administering a company’s financial affairs |
| 2. | A.G.M.UK | abbr. Annual General Meeting of a company’s shareholders |
| 3. | Board of directors | n. group of people chosen to establish policy for and control a company |
| 4. | ChairmanUK | n. person who heads a Board of Directors; head of a company; chairperson |
| 5. | Director | n. a member of the board of directors |
| 6. | Executive officerUS | n. person managing the affairs of a corporation - chief executive officer (CEO)n. |
| 7. | Headquarters | n. a company’s principal or main office or centre of control |
| 8. | Manager | n. person responsible for day-to-day running of a dept.; executive officerUS |
| 9. | Managing directorUK | n. senior director after the chairman responsible for day-to-day direction |
| 10. | Marketing Dept. | n. department that puts goods on market, inc. packaging, advertising etc |
| 11. | organisation chart | n. a table or plan showing a company’s structure graphically |
| 12. | Personnel Dept. | n. department responsible for recruitment and welfare of staff or employees |
| 13. | PresidentUS | n. the highest executive officer of a company; head of a company |
| 14. | Production Dept. | n. department responsible for physical creation of product |
| 15. | Purchasing Dept. | n. department responsible for finding and buying everything for a company |
| 16. | R & D Department | n. department responsible for Research and Development of (new) products |
| 17. | reception | n. the place where visitors and clients report on arrival at a company |
| 18. | Sales Department | n. department responsible for finding customers and making sales |
| 19. | Shareholder | n. person who holds or owns shares in or a part of a company or corporation |
| 20. | Vice PresidentUS | n. any of several executive officers, each responsible for a separate division |
II. Explain the words in bold:
The management structure of companies or corporations is rather complex. The simplest is that envisaged by English, Belgian, Italian, and Scandinavian law, by which the shareholders of the company periodically elect a Board of Directors who collectively manage the company’s affairs and reach decisions by a majority vote but also have the right to delegate any of their powers, or even the whole management of the company’s business, to one or more of their number. Under this regime it is common for a managing directorto be appointed, often with one or more assistant managing directors, and for the board of directors to authorize them to enter into all transactions needed for carrying on the company’s business, subject only to the general supervision of the board and to its approval of particularly important measures, such as issuing shares or bonds or borrowing. The U.S. system is a development of this basic pattern. By the laws of most states it is obligatory for the board of directors elected periodically by the shareholders to appoint certain executive officers, such as the president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. The latter two have no management powers and fulfill the administrative functions that in an English company are the concern of its secretary; but the president and in his absence the vice president have by law or by delegation from the board of directors the same full powers of day-to-day management as are exercised in practice by an English managing director.
Jeremy Fitzerald, Management, Black Cat Publishing, 2001, p. 74
B. Description of a company
I. Read this description and complete the information below:
Micropol AT is a highly profitable software company with a workforce of over 1,000 and an annual turnover of $300 million. Its main products are applications programs for industry as well as for educational institutions. Its many customers include small and medium-sized companies, government departments as well as students.
The company was founded in Santa Monica, California, in 1978. The original founders, Karen Sawyer and Lee Heng, were still students when they went into business. Their idea was only to earn some extra money. Micropol began to grow rapidly and by 1980 turnover was over $4m.
Initially the company worked on the area of Software Consulting. However, in 1982 Sawyer and Heng introduced the first version of the Adword word-processing program. It was an immediate success. Students liked it because it was easier to use than other programs on the market.
In 1985 Lee Heng left Micropol and set up his own company, Intertrack. Karen Sawyer is still Company President and thinks that Micropol has a bright future. The company has ambitious plans. There are plans for a joint venture with Katio, the leading Japanese computer firm.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Name of Company ________________