课文听力文本-Unit-6-Visions-of-Business

Unit 6 Visions of Business Part I Getting ready Exercise B Keys Individual proprietorship PartnershipCorporation ScaleSmallSmallBig OwnershipThe proprietor all the property two or more people go into business Investors stock Share ownership Responsibility The proprietorLimited partners full partners A board of directors corporate policies top officers LifetimeLimited LimitedUnlimited Tapescript Businesses are structured to meet different needs One basic difference involves who is responsible for the business Another involves how long the organization can stay in business The simplest form of business is called an individual proprietorship The word proprietor comes from French and Latin words for property owner The proprietor owns all the property of the business and is responsible for it The law recognizes no difference between the owner and the business Most small businesses in the United States are individual proprietorships Another kind of business is the partnership Two or more people go into business together An agreement is usually needed to state how much of the partnership each person controls They can end the partnership at any time But partnerships and individual proprietorships have a limited life They exist only as long as the owners are alive Some states permit what are called limited liability partnerships These have full partners and limited partners Limited partners may not share as much in the profits But their responsibilities to the organization are also limited The most complex is the corporation This kind of business organization is designed to have an unlimited lifetime Investors in a corporation own stock This is a share of the ownership Investors can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business Investors may get paid dividends a small amount of money for each share they own A board of directors controls the corporate policies The directors appoint top company officers The directors might or might not hold any shares in the corporation Not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock The American Red Cross for example is organized as a non profit corporation Part II Michael Dell vs Frederick Smith I Exercise A Keys Michael Dell 1 Chairman 2 CEO 3 Dell 4 tenured CEO 5 computer industry 6 direct to consumer 7 build to order 8 Dell Computer 9 middle man Frederick Smith 1 Chairman 2 President 3 CEO 4 FedEx 5 transportation 6 overnight delivery 7 just in time delivery 8 FedEx 9 FedEx 10 ground delivery Exercise B Keys 1 the quality of service 2 the breadth of the network 3 the unique services needed 4 the cost Tapescript Jeff Greenfield Thank you OK look it s not all that unusually to dream up a business idea while you re in college You know you book the bands for the parties you deliver pizzas to the dorm OK dreaming up a new multi billion dollar industry from the ground up this is a little less usual But it is something both of our guests accomplished even if not everyone realized it at the time When Fred Smith wrote a term paper outlining his idea for an overnight delivery service his teacher gave him a C minus He off and went on to create Federal Express We ll be talking about that and other matters with Fred Smith the Chairman President and CEO of FedEx Corporation a little later in the program But first Michael Dell who dropped out of college after a year to start the business he still heads As Chairman and CEO of Dell Computer Michael Dell happens to be the longest tenured CEO in the entire computer industry He s also the man solely responsible for creating the direct to consumer model that sparked the whole build to order revolution Michael Dell s aim is to eliminate the middle man a home grown philosophy that carries over into his hands on management style Before we get into the specific conversations I want to know something because the two of you have a relationship that customers like Could you exist without a company like Fred Smith s to supply your stuff Could it work if you didn t have adjust in time delivery system to get you your parts for your computers Michael Dell In our case no I mean you know we couldn t exist without FedEx and I don t think FedEx could exist without our distributing We are sort of mutually co dependent here Frederick Smith That s absolutely right Michael understands that his efficacy with his customers depends on delivering exactly as he s told his customer that he s gong to deliver plus his production is just in time so all those parts and pieces from all over the world gotta to come together at the same time Now he may have to for his own reasons use brand X but clearly the best choice is FedEx Greenfield Now you go out you re making a big push into the ground delivery business as well Right Smith Sure Greenfield Michael what would you want from him as a CEO and founder of Dell to make it more tempting for you Dell Well it s pretty straight forward I mean you know you gotta be competitive you ve got to deliver on the things that are important to us which means the quality of service the breadth of the network the you know unique services that we need For example we have a lot of things going on with airlift out of Asia coming in the US and their network is particularly well suited for this And of course they gotta be cost competitive You put all that together and that s the sort of discussion we have there s not a lot of real science to it I mean it s pretty basic nuts and bolts Here s what we need you know and here we need to stay competitive Greenfield Do you have a shot Smith No I ll tell you I ve been listening to the whole lot of it and usually I m doing everything he wants us to do I can tell you that much Part III Michael Dell vs Frederick Smith II Exercise A Keys Efficient information system canA great part of economy will work on supply chain because 1 all the unnecessary costs more applicable 2 the distance between 1 a fast cycle basis a world of choice 2 on a computer customize 3 have it delivered very rapidly Exercise B Keys Michael Motivation The opportunity in the industry in the business Ambitions 1 a leader not only in client computing but also in the enterprise and servers and storage 2 business not just in the United States but all over the world 3 a lot of services that go along with the products Frederick Positive attitude towards future company s future Positive attitude towards work going to work every day compete innovate wonderful people a lot of very exciting business trends Tapescript Greenfield Let me turn now to the first theme we want to talk about and that is this build to order revolution Does it change everything Dell You know I think first of all you gotta look at the supply chain Basically what efficient information flows do is they you know they sort of take out all these costs of transaction and processing that sort of you know add to the ultimate cost of buying something And if you view information as this kind of like vacuum that sucks out that unnecessary cost there are certain products or services where this is far more applicable You know things that have very high mark ups things that depreciate in value at an incredible rate Greenfield What s an example Dell Take the car industry for example Ok Not necessarily fit in small packages yet but you know when you go to buy a car you typically go to a place where there s lots of cars and somebody guessed what kind of car you know you were going to buy And you know that s there s tens of billions of dollars in assets tied up in those guesses and what usually happens is you end up buying not the car exactly that you wanted but the car they happened to have And then the signal back to the factory that that car that you just bought you know is selling really well so let s build some more And the person who sold it to you gets a commission for selling you something that you didn t quite exactly want to buy And so you got capital tied up you got costs tied up and what information systems can do is essentially shrink the distance between the source of demand and the source of supply Smith There s a lot of work that s been done in the academic realm about this issue supply chain that you re just talking about The latest figure that I ve seen which was done by one of the schools in the Midwest that has a good transportation and logistics practices And about 40 percent of businesses today are operated on a fast cycle basis that Michael and Wal Mart and so forth pioneered Now there s certain types of items that are very low in terms of unit costs like groceries or gasoline you put in your car or commodities of one sort or another or where form and fit may meet make the customers wanna go look at it personally like putting on a coat or something But I think other than that almost everything will be presented to you on a computer and you ll have a world of choice and you can customize it and have it there very rapidly For a car it might be four days for a Dell computer it might be overnight or if you want to shorten the delivery three days or whatever But I think a great part of the economy will work that way Greenfield It s now time for the next generation of business leaders we hope to ask their questions of our guests Please be sure to tell us your name and then your questions Sir Munan Ok good afternoon My name is Munan I m just curious what keeps you guys going and personally what you guys have left to accomplish Dell You know what keeps me going again is the opportunity that I see in our industry in our business You know this is a business that continues to grow the IT industry is right at the fulcrum of the economy The industry is expanding around the world We want to be a leader not only in client computing but also in the enterprise and servers and storage And we want to do it not just in the United States but all over the world And we want to add a lot of the services that go along with those products so we have we think a great start but we think there is tremendous opportunity going forward Smith Well I m truly excited about my company s future I love going to work every day it s great fun I love to compete I love to try to innovate come up with a new idea Work with a lot of wonderful people and sit right in the middle of a lot of very very exciting business trends and I can t think of anything I d rather be doing Part IV More about the topic The Business Plan Exercise A Keys 1 the most fundamental 2 business plan 3 large 4 small 5 having a business plan 6 a reality 7 essential 8 a map 9 where you re going to go 10 get started 11 go from A to Z 12 how much money 13 how many people 14 prediction where the business may go 15 position yourself 16 use the least amount of money 17 more critical 18 budding entrepreneurs 19 use the limited resources Tapescript A woman has a great idea for a business She s joined a women s business association and talked with several entrepreneurs She wants to get started What s the next step In today s women in business report Sarah Long tells us that one of the most fundamental steps toward a successful business is the business plan The idea for a business may be large or small A manufacturing plant with lots of employees or a one employee company based in the home It s not the size of the business that matters What does matter according to experts is having a business plan to make the idea a reality I only have myself and my full time office manager and I m hiring a third person I do a business plan every year Betty Stehman has her own accounting firm Along with a full range of accounting and tax services her company helps entrepreneurs develop business plans She believes a plan is essential for any business including of course her own I review where my plan was last year I measure myself against it Then I look at where I want to go That gives me direction for the full year If I don t have that direction it s like going on a trip without a map and you re not sure where you re going So the business plan to me is essentially a map for your business as to where you re going to go Entrepreneur T W Fitzgerald agrees that a business plan is the very best way to get started When you do a business plan it s almost your guarantee that your business will succeed because you go from A to Z in figuring out every aspect how much money you need how many people you ll need whether you ll need people It gives you a way of predicting where the business may go so you can position yourself to respond intelligently and use the least amount of money Ms Fitzgerald says that if a budding entrepreneur doesn t have much money a business plan becomes even more critical by helping to use the limited resources in the very best way She points out that about 46 percent of businesses in the United States operate without a business plan These she says are the companies at greatest risk of failing And in an increasingly global marketplace she says one person s great idea today maybe ten other people s great idea tomorrow Those using business plans are most likely to beat out their competitors Part V Do you know Exercise A Keys Paragraph 1 1 80 2 100 Paragraph 2 1 oldest 2 largest 3 fastest 4 growing 5 1919 6 school 7 hours 8 organized 9 operated 10 forming 11 Local Paragraph 3 1 developed 2 shares 3 materials 4 produced 5 profits 6 owned 7 business 8 operate Paragraph 4 1 1974 2 classrooms 3 programs 4 5 5 18 6 2700000 7 85 000 Paragraph 5 1 5 2 11 3 Volunteer 4 main 5 rules 6 organized 7 made 8 sold 9 economy 10 money 11 industry 12 trade 13 families 14 communities Paragraph 6 1 12 2 14 3 business 4 expert 5 Project 6 economic 7 theories 8 supply demand 9 corporations 10 world trade Paragraph 7 1 12 2 14 3 Economics 4 leaving 5 completing 6 continuing 7 game 8 jobs 9 education 10 money 11 get 12 earn 13 need 14 want 15 high 16 school Tapescript An organization in the United States has been teaching young people about the American business system for almost 80 years Now we operate in more than 100 other countries Junior Achievement is the world s oldest largest and fastest growing economic educational organization It began in 1919 in Springfield Massachusetts The group s first program was for high school students after school hours Its goal was to show young people how businesses are organized and operated The students learned by forming their own companies Local business people advised them First the students developed a product Then they sold shares in their company They used this money to buy the materials needed to make the product They produced the product and sold it Finally they returned the profits to the people who owned shares in the company The Junior Achievement Company Program was very successful It continues to teach young people about American business by helping them operate their own companies In 1974 Junior Achie