20. Task Card
Staff Retirement
Your company wants to introduce a program to help staff prepare fully for retirement.
●What practical preparations staff need to make for their retirement
●What the advantages and disadvantages are to a company of staff retiring
21. Task Card
Working from Home
Your company is considering allowing some employees to work from home for part of the working week. Your managing director has asked you to write a report on this proposal.
●Which employees this system would be most suitable for
●How technology could help to make the system of working from home effective
22. Task Card
Export Office
Your company has decided to open an export office in order to deal with an
increase in orders from abroad. This office will be responsible for the company’s exports and will be visited by foreign representative. ●What kinds of jobs will be available in the new office ●What training will be needed for these jobs
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23. Task Card
New Factory
Your company is expanding and wants to open a new factory in another area. You have been asked to consider where the best place would be to locate it. ●What factors need to be considered in choosing a good location ●Which of these factors are the most important to consider
24. Task Card
Business Presentation
A local college has asked your company to give a short presentation to a group of young business students about the work of one of the departments in your company. You are in charge of organizing the presentation.
●Which department would be the most interesting for the students to hear about ●Which methods or aids could be used to make the presentation interesting for young people
25. Task Card
Staff Turnover
The managing director of your company is keen to reduce the number of staff leaving after a short time. You have been asked to suggest ways of encouraging staff to stay in the company.
●What kinds of incentives might help to retain staff ●How to ensure that staff satisfaction is maintained
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Part 2 Presentation回答示范（TRACY备注：这些参考答案长短不代表“考试时候的标准答案，主要是给大家提供一些思路和串儿。然，TRACY强烈建议大家多采用GOOGLE找串，因为，那样找到的串儿，都是最符合你自己的思维方式的，基本可以过目不忘。） 3. The importance of making customers feel valued
A: In my opinion making your customers feel valued is very important. //First, It can maintain the customer’s loyalty to your products so that you can further strengthen your company’s customer base. //Second, valued customers often pay their attention to your company’s development and they would like to give you some advice or suggestions which you can use to further promote the quality of your company’s products or services. This will in turn help you to attract more customers and make them feel valued. //Therefore I believe that making your customers feel valued is of great importance. 4. The importance to a company of controlling expansion
A: it is very important for a company to control its expansion, because, firstly, expansion needs a large initial investment. If your company cannot afford the long term drain on financial resources, it’s probably better to wait. Secondly, personnel and systems. If a company expands too fast, they may not have enough time to get the management team in place, and they have little time to adjust their operating systems and controls to suit the changing needs. Only when a company keeps itself at a reasonable size can the business be organized. Last but not least, controlling expansion allows us enough time to research on the markets and design new products to answer the specific needs of the changing market. 5. How to ensure that agents maintain a high level of effectiveness when
representing a company
A: there are several methods we can use in order to make our agents maintain a high level of efficiency. First, we can build an incentive system in our company to encourage our agents to maintain high level of effectiveness. Of course those who are unwilling to work hard will be punished or even fired. Second, we can train those who are lacking of experience or skills to improve the level of their effectiveness. Third, we must enhance our agents’ awareness that they are parts of the company and what they do and say when representing our company is of great importance to the development and benefits of the company.
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6. The importance of planning work time effectively
A: first an effective timetable planned by the company can avoid unnecessary time-consuming work which will have to be done by more staff than necessary. Therefore individual efficiency can be achieved. Second, an effective timetable explains in detail every step the staff members need to follow to finish the work and the exact time they will spend, which will enable the staff to get clear idea about the time limitation and to finish every step before deadline. Therefore the production or service of the company will go at a fast pace. 7. How to ensure inter-departmental co-operation on new projects
A: to ensure inter-departmental co-operation on new projects the first thing we should do is to set up a clear objective among all departments. Everyone in every department should know exactly what the company will do with these new projects, what the company expects from the new projects and what each department should do during the inter-departmental co-operation. Second, an intra-net should be built in the company so that every department will have the chance to communicate with others about their plans on the new projects. In addition, different ideas can be discussed and final decision can be made on net. Third, a sound environment of teamwork should be encouraged and special attention should be paid to establishing inter-departmental teamwork spirit. 8. How to evaluate and select new products
A: the evaluation and selection of new products should be based on two aspects. First, we can evaluate and select new products according to their performances in market. We can carry out an investigation on how customers like these new products. The results can be used to help to establish the guideline under which new products are evaluated and selected. Second, we can make a trial purchasing of the new products and test their qualities to see if they meet our demands. If the result of the test is fine then we just go ahead to make large orders with the producers and if not we just stop and won’t suffer any loss. 9. The importance to a company of having well motivated staff
A: It’s crucially important for a company to have well-motivated staff. First, staff’s morale represents a company’s image. If the employees are low-spirited, the customers won’t trust the brand at all. Second, well-motivated staff can maintain a high level of effectiveness. It’s had to believe that a company full of low spirited employees can have good performance. Third, well motivate staff can
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also help create a sound environment of mutual help and mutual understanding within the company and stimulate their colleagues’ morale, which will definitely improve the efficiency of the company. Therefore it’s very important for a company to have well motivated staff.
10. How to decide whether to purchase or rent company premises
A: first we should see to it that we check the financial situation of our company before we decide whether to purchase or rent company premises. As we all know we will have to spend much more money in purchasing premises than renting them. Therefore we should check our company’s financial situation to see whether we now have enough money to purchase premises. Any ignorance of current financial situation will break company’s cash flow or even undermine the company’s normal production.
Second we should ask ourselves the aim that makes us purchase or rent premises. Do we want to set up our headquarters for a long-term investigation which will definitely need us to purchase buildings or just build a branch for a short-term project which requires only some rented houses?
After all these careful studies we can make our decision.
11. How to ensure that price levels for new products are set appropriately
A: first we should consider the cost of our new products before we put them into the market. The price level we set should at least include all the cost and investment and make us gain some margins. Using advanced cost analysis software is usually necessary in this step. Second we should carry out an investigation or market research in the target market to see what price level can be accepted by our potential customers. What’s worth mentioning is that we must make sure that the research results are accurate. We will also have to study the consumer’s habits and the popularity of our new products in the target market. Only through these comprehensive investigations can we ensure the appropriate price levels of our new products.
12. The importance of foreign language training for selected employees
A: companies often select some of their employees and appoint them as representatives to deal with foreign trade, export and other international businesses. Therefore it’s vital for companies to give selected employees foreign language training. First in order to do international business well sales persons should know different cultures of different countries in which people are doing business with each other. The most effective way to understand these is through foreign
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