new insights into business teachers book (835558), страница 31
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H e is willing to try to convince w orkers to acceptcom prom ise in the short term.M s Peaslev will look into the availability and cost of special executive training courses and willthen meet w ith M rs Banks to discuss the possible funding of these.D ate of next meeting - 2nd of April at 10.30 in the boardroom .© Pearson Education Limited 2000PHOTOCOPIABLEU nit 13 - Writing m odelDirect Marketing LetterForevefAfterP O Box 48Leeds LS 22 8MSDear John,Congratulations on your new career. You must be happy to be earning somereal money at last. No more tight student budgets. Time to relax and enjoybuying all those things you dreamed of but couldn’t afford as a student.Wouldn’t it be awful to return to those days of watching everything youspend? Wouldn't you like a guarantee that you’ll never have to worry aboutmoney again? We, at ‘ForeverAfter Insurance’ may have the answer.Our company protects your future by offering a retirement plan at low costwith high returns.
We don’t expect you to make huge sacrifices. Just theequivalent of one less night club a month means you can look forward to thetime when your dancing days are over.Just complete the attached form and send it back to us. You’ll never regretthe most important financial decision you have had to make so far.SincerelyStevt- MoLou^fvUwS McLoughlinMarketingPearson Education Limited 2000U nit 15 - Lesson materialArticlesOil Firms, Citing Competitive Pressures, Plan Cuts Over 5 YearsBEIJING — China’s two largest oil companies said onThursday they planned to cut almost 1 million jobs over thenext five years, illustrating the country’s dilemma as it takeshalting steps to open to foreign competition but grappleswith a mounting unemployment problem.China National Petroleum Corp.
and China Petrochemical( Group) Corp. said they would cut a total o f about 976,000workers.‘China’s petroleum industry faces very serious challengestoday,’ said Liu Yan, director at the petroleum division ofChina’s State Administration o f Petroleum and ChemicalsIndustries. ‘Our state oil companies have many inefficientunits and very high costs of operations.’The planned job cuts come amid on-again, off-again talkson China’s possible entry into the World Trade Organization.Membership in the organization would require Beijing toopen markets, cut import tariffs and make companies moreefficient.
China’s state oil companies would have to competewith sources o f cheaper oil imports, and oil companiesaround the world are merging to slash costs.China National Petroleum, also called CNPC, plans toslash its workforce by one third in five years, from 1.5million workers today, said Luo Yingjun, vice president at thecountry's largest oil company.China Petrochemical, known as Simopec, plans to reduceits number o f workers to 714,000 from 1.19 million today.88Last year the company said it would cut its staff by a quarterin the next five years.‘CNPC’s most serious problem today is high costs,’ MrLuo said. ‘We’re cutting costs to survive and be competitive.’‘We want to cut our workforce by a third in three to fiveyears' time,’ he said.
‘We can’t do it too quickly, or there willbe a lot o f social problems.’‘The job cuts could save the company as much as 4.76billion yuan ($575 million) a year in wages, based on anaverage annual wage in the industry o f 10,000 yuan perworker,’ Mr Li said. That figure does not take into account thecost of severance payments.The prospect o f so many job losses will add to a concernthat rising unemployment could threaten China’s socialstability.China’s urban unemployment rate at the end o f last yearstood at 3.1 %, unchanged from the year before, according toofficial statistics. But economists and analysts say the actualfigure could be much higher.The Chinese authorities are now delaying plans tocompletely deregulate domestic oil prices for fear that anearnings decline at state oil companies could slow thecountry’s economic growth.‘Our plans to completely deregulate domestic oil priceswill have to be delayed until next year,’ Mr Liu said.Bloomberg News© Pearson Education Limited 2000PHOTOCOPIABLEUnit 15 - Lesson m aterialUNext Travel Stop for Branson: Outer SpaceBy Tom Buerkle,May 12, 1999.ONDON — Richard Branson, theBritish entrepreneur who foundedVirgin Atlantic Airways and failed in hisquest to circle the globe in a hot-airballoon, has set his sights on a newfrontier - space.Mr Branson has registered the nameVirgin Galactic Airways as a potentialbrand name for space flights and heldtalks with Rotary Rocket Co., anAmerican company that is trying todevelop a re-usable rocket forcommercial uses including tourism.‘I wouldn’t want to get too carriedaway; it’s still a matter of years,’ PaulMoore, a Virgin Atlantic Airwaysspokesman, told Bloomberg News.
‘ButI think it’s now a matter of when, not if.’Lest anyone dismiss the item as amere publicity stunt, the report comes asefforts to take tourism out of this worldare intensifying. A joint study by theNational Aeronautics and SpaceAdministrationandtheSpaceInternational Herald Tribune,L© Pearson Education Limited 2000Transportation Association, a privateU.S. group, concluded last year thatprospects for space travel and tourismwerefundamentallypromising.Representatives of more than two dozencompanies seeking to launch a new erain vacations are expected to gather inWashington next month for theassociation’s first conference on spacetourism.Bob Haltermann, who heads theassociation’s space travel and tourismdivision, predicted that companieswould begin offering suborbital flightsto the general public in three to fiveyears and orbital flights in five to tenyears.At least one U.S.
company, ZeagrahmSpace Voyages, has begun takingdeposits for suborbital space flights at$98,000 a shot.‘There are quite a few companies outthere,' said Brian Berger of Space News,a U.S. weekly.‘Some of them are crackpots, andsome of them aren’t. What makesBranson intriguing is, he’s got capital.’PHOTOCOPIABLEA recent survey conducted for theSpace Transportation Associationestimated that some 55 millionAmericans would be ready to pay forspace travel, including 4 million willingto part with S100,000 or more for a twoweek ride on a space shuttle with theamenities of a cruise liner. A contest inJapan that offered credits toward fiveseats on Zeagrahm flights as prizesattracted 630,000 entries.Mr Branson’s interest in space may bea logical extension for a man w ith a flairfor adventure and self-promotion. Butthe news did little to excite passengers ofhis Virgin Rail Group, which continuesto suffer from the greatest number ofcomplaints among Britain’s privatizedrail companies.‘His reputation on the trains isn’tgood,’ said John Scott, assistantsecretary of Britain’s Rail Users’Consultative Committee.
But heacknowledges that Mr Branson’s railexperience would not preclude successin space. ‘He’s not going to be inheriting40-year-old rolling stock,’ said Mr.89■ Unit 15 - Lesson m aterialMales Boost Use of Cosmetics in EuropeJohn Willman, FT, June 25,1999.Growing use by men of skin care products, fragrances and other toiletries and a return tocolour cosmetics by women have contributed tothe biggest growth in sales for the European cosmetics industry since the beginning of the1990s.Sales of cosmetics and toiletries reached43.7bn euros ($45bn) in the European Union lastyear, 6.4% up on 1997, according to Colipa, theEuropean industry body.Country-by-country figures provide materialfor those fond of national stereotypes. TheFrench, for example, are the highest spendersper capita, buying 140 euros of cosmetics andtoiletries a year, compared with an EU averageof 117 euros. This puts them on a par withAmericans and only slightly behind theJapanese, who are the highest spenders globally.French consumers spend a higher proportionthan the average European on perfumes, cosmetics and skin care.
But they spend less than average on hair care and general toiletries such assoap, shower gels and deodorants.Despite the unromantic view of the English,UK consumers also spend more than average at121 euros per head a year. The British spend ahigher proportion on cosmetics and toiletries butless than average on perfumes and skin care.Germany is the biggest European cosmeticsmarket, with sales of 9.7bn euros, which puts itthird globally behind the US and Japan.
ButGermans spend a lower proportion on fragrances and decorative cosmetics than averageand more on general toiletries.Bottom of the league table are Portugal andGreece, spending an average of 71 euros and 88euros a head last year. Scandinavian countriesalso spend less than average in the Colipa figureswhich exclude only duty free sales, moreimportant in these high indirect tax countriesthan elsewhere.EU per capita spending on perfumes, cosmetics, skin and hair care products and other toiletries mirrors growth in income and hasreached the same level as that on bread, saysColipa.‘Most consumers now see such purchases asan essential part of the weekly shopping basket,’says Udo Frenzel of the German Industry, whoheads the Colipa taskforce that collects the data.Growth last year was the highest since thestart of the decade, when the reunification ofGermany boosted sales.
It was similar to theincrease in the US market, which is now worthslightly less than the combined EU total.The market is dominated by large companiessuch as L’Oreal of France, Unilever, Procter andGamble and Wella of Germany. But theEuropean cosmetics industry also includesabout 2,500 small and medium-sized enterpris-BMW says future growthdepends on reviving RoverUta Harnischfeger FT, June 25,1999BMW, the German automative group,yesterday said its future growth andprofitability as an independent carmakerdepended on whether it could revive Rover,its loss-making UK subsidiary.The company, which has announced a£3.3bn ($5.3bn) investment package forRover, said sharply increased output in theUK was crucial to achieving its target oflifting total BMW production by 40% toalmost 1,7m units a year.Joachim Milberg, BMW chairman, said:‘We are not allowed to gamble since thefuture of BMW is at stake.’In one o f his first interviews sincebecoming BMW chairman, Mr Milbergstressed the German group was committedto being a multi-brand car producer with astrong presence in the mass market and thesports utility segment.Controversy over that strategy and thefuture of Rover led to a managementupheaval at BMW this year, prompting theresignations of Bemd Pischetsreider aschairman and his deputy, Wolf Reitzle.Mr Milberg, who succeeded MrPischetsreider in February, said the group’sinvestment in Rover ‘confirmed thestrategy of BMW to be a fullline supplier in brands and products fromthe Mini to Land Rover, and from BMW toRolls Royce’.90He also reiterated the goal of makingRover profitable within the next two years.That would help lift BMW's total return onsales from 3.3% to 4.3% over the next sixyears.Excluding Rover, BMW’s profit marginwas 9% last year.Mr Milberg said future margins would beenhanced by an overhaul of its corporatestructure, designed to deliver savings ofbetween DM 500 million ($265m) and DM1bn a year.BMW’s emphasis on Rover to help liftvolumes and improve margins has surprised some analysts given its mountinglosses in recent years.O f the volume targets, Mr Milberg saidBMW would contribute about 800,000vehicles a year an increase of 14%.
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