Business Spotlight Meetings: Test your language skills! (Vorschau)

BusinessSpotlight
BusinessSpotlight
Englisch für den Beruf
Mai–Juni l Ausgabe 3/2013
Easy English
Key tips for
telephoning
Careers
Working in
the arts
Meetings
Test your
language skills!
Business Skills
Building
relationships
Profile
Al Gore’s hopes
for the future
Production
All the
vocabulary
you need
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A • E • I • L • P (cont.) • SK: € 13,90

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www.spotlight-verlag.de

■ EDITORIAL
Happy endings
Erweitern Sie Ihren
Business-Englisch-
Wortschatz!
Ask people what part of their jobs
they like least and there is a good chance
that they will reply “meetings”. Regardless
of whether these are formal or informal
meetings, in large groups or one-toone
with line managers or direct reports,
most people’s instinct is to say that meetings
are boring and a waste of time. And
Ian McMaster, editor-in-chief
yet meetings are nothing more than people interacting — face-to-face,
electronically or both. So why not improve your communication skills
so that you can make the most of the meetings you attend and, in the
end, get the results you want? Our special test will help you (p. 38).
Talking of meetings, in our latest Business Skills article,
Bob Dignen argues that we need to develop a sixth sense to make accurate
judgements about new people we meet at work. This helps us
to build effective relationships quickly and, as a result, to be more successful.
Bob says that this skill is a business competence much like the
skills needed for speed dating. To find out more, turn to page 30.
We held a competition in Business Spotlight 1/2003
in which we asked you to finish off a short story — “The Problem in
a Nutshell” — that James Schofield had started. Many thanks to all
of you who took part. Our two winners are Andrea Schrepfer and
Jürgen Hartung. You can read their entries, along with James’s original
ending, by going to www.business-spotlight.de/story. Pro Tag ein englischer Begriff
Meetings:
more fun if
you have
the right
language
Die Business
Spotlight-App:
mit Audio-Datei für das
Aussprache-Training
mit Erklärung und Beispielsatz
auf Englisch
Übersetzung ins Deutsche
iStockphoto
Ian McMaster, editor-in-chief
Contact: i.mcmaster@spotlight-verlag.de
GRATIS!
Über iTunes Store oder Android Market
business-spotlight.de/apps
3/2013

■ CONTENTS 3/2013
16 Al Gore
30 Building relationships
picture-alliance/dpa
Brand X Pictures
WORKING WORLD
6 Names and News
The latest from the world of business
all levels
LANGUAGE TEST
➤ 38 Meetings
Test your knowledge of English for meetings
all levels
GLOBAL BUSINESS
10 Relocation
Helping people to move between countries
14 Head-to-Head
Should we be forced to buy low-energy light bulbs?
➤16 Profile
Al Gore, former US vice president
21 Behind the Headlines
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
22 Culture and Medical Care
Understanding patients’ cultural backgrounds
27 Looking Back
Maja Sirola on changes in Croatia
28 Travel Tips
Derry-Londonderry and a Florida festival
English on the Move Saying goodbye
BUSINESS SKILLS
➤30 Building Relationships
The importance of using your sixth sense
Survival Guide to cut out and keep
36 Toolbox
How to use questions at work
37 Say It in Style
Vague language in spoken communication
advanced
medium
advanced
advanced
advanced
medium
medium
easy
medium
medium
medium
medium
LANGUAGE SECTION
44 Vocabulary Election day
45 Grammar at Work Describing products
➤46 Easy English Successful phone calls
48 Wise Words Deborah Capras on “this, that
and the other”
50 Short Story Cyber romance
52 Translation False friends and more
53 Language Cards Pull out and practise
➤ 55 SKILL UP! The language of production
56 English for… Sea travel
58 Legal English Advising clients
59 Economics and Finance Supply and demand (1)
60 Teacher Talk Interview with Vicky Loras
62 Products What’s new?
CAREERS
➤66 Culture and the Arts
A look at career possibilities in the arts
70 Tips and Trends
On working late and common career regrets
73 Leisure Time
What to do when you are away from your desk
easy
medium
easy
medium
medium
medium
advanced
advanced
advanced
medium
medium
advanced
medium
medium
Multimedia learning with Business Spotlight
Business Spotlight plus
Practise the language in the
magazine with our exercise booklet.
In this issue, we look at classical
music, Coca-Cola and production
problems. See page 20
for subscription details.
plus This symbol indicates that
related exercises can be found
in Business Spotlight plus.
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This six-page supplement for teachers
and trainers provides lesson activities
based on articles in Business Spotlight.
It is free to those who subscribe to the
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schulmedien@spotlight-verlag.de
READERS’ SERVICE
Email: abo@spotlight-verlag.de
Internet: www.spotlight-verlag.de
Telephone: +49 (0)89/8 56 81-16
Fax: +49 (0)89/8 56 81-159

38 Test: Meetings 66 Careers in the arts
iStockphoto
Mauritius/M. Tunger
MANAGEMENT
74 Identities
Three managers discuss their different selves
78 What Happened Next
Coca-Cola’s biggest mistake
79 Executive Eye
Adrian Furnham on the myths about talent
TECHNOLOGY
80 Detroit
IT firms bring new life to a dying city
82 Trends
A polar caravan and avatars
83 Language Focus
Point-of-care testing
PEOPLE
86 My Working Life
Edwin Broni-Mensah, green businessman
REGULAR SECTIONS
3 Editorial
63 Classified Ads
64 SprachenShop
84 Feedback / Impressum
85 Preview
medium
medium
medium
advanced
medium
advanced
easy
➤ Cover topics
55 Production
vocabulary
GUIDE
LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Articles in the magazine use the style, spelling, punctuation and
pronunciation of British English unless otherwise marked.
US American style, spelling, punctuation and pronunciation
are used in these articles.
easy Approximately at CEF level A2
medium Approximately at CEF levels B1–B2
advanced Approximately at CEF levels C1–C2
All articles are marked with their level of language difficulty.
CEF stands for the Council of Europe’s “Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages”.
ifml.: informal word or phrase; vulg.: vulgar word or phrase;
sl.: slang word or phrase; non-stand.: non-standard word or phrase;
UK: chiefly UK usage; US: chiefly North American usage
Cover photograph: Stockbyte
Business Spotlight Audio
Business Spotlight Audio offers more than 70 minutes
of texts, dialogues, language exercises and interviews.
In the current issue, you can practise the language of
meetings and listen to our short story.
This symbol indicates that related texts and exercises
can be heard on Business Spotlight Audio.
Business Spotlight Online
Our website offers activities for even
more language-learning, as well as
news and blogs. Subscribers have
full access to our online content.
www This symbol indicates that related
content can be found on our
website: www.business-spotlight.de
www.business-spotlight.de 5

■ WORKING WORLD NAMES AND NEWS
Happy to be back:
the Opuni family
at home in Accra
Nana Kofi Acquah
BELGIUM GHANA
Welcome, Coming home Gérard!
Julian and Rebekah Opuni are part of a new elite. After
years in Britain, the Opunis have returned to their
homeland in Ghana to work and to build a better life.
Banker Julian, 40, worked for Lloyds TSB in Britain for
nearly 20 years. Now, he has a promising position with
Fidelity Bank in Accra. “It’s a good time for the banking
sector in Ghana,” he told The Guardian. Thanks to an oil
boom, the Ghanaian economy is growing rapidly. “Ghana
has lots of opportunities,” Opuni says, “and there are so
many markets that haven’t been tapped into yet.”
His 28-year-old wife, Rebekah, is a fashion designer. She
grew up in Ghana but moved to Britain after meeting her
husband. “I stayed in the UK because of Julian but I
didn’t like living there. I studied fashion at the University
of Hertfordshire, but it was cold,” she says. “I didn’t make
a lot of friends [and] I didn’t have that much in common
with the people there.” Rebekah is happy to be back in
Ghana, where her designer gowns are selling well.
Julian Opuni says he experienced racism in Britain.“I
knew I could never become CEO of Lloyds TSB.” But that
changed when he returned to Ghana. “One of the first
things my director said to me was: ‘The thing about Ghana
is, you could become CEO one day. Or you could start
your own bank. Or you could become minister of finance.’’
53,000 9,438
Population of the Cayman
Islands
easy
Number of hedge funds
registered in the Cayman
Islands
Sources: Financial Times; Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (www.cimoney.com.ky);
CIA’s World Factbook (www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cj.html)
CEO (chief executive officer) [)si: i: (EU]
elite [i(li:t]
gown [gaUn]
tap into sth. [)tÄp (Intu]
Vorstandsvorsitzende(r)
[wg. Aussprache]
Kleid, Gewand
etw. anzapfen
Getty Images
“If you don’t like bad news,
you should get out of
the leadership business”
Kim Campbell, 66, former Canadian prime minister
6 www.business-spotlight.de

Controversial: offshore oil
rig in New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND
advanced
Too green for oil?
Asked to name New Zealand’s most important
natural resource, most foreigners
would probably suggest sheep. Yet, the country
exports petroleum products and is selfsufficient
in natural gas as a result of the discovery
of the Maui gas field off the coast of the
North Island in 1969.
Now, the government wants to increase its
petroleum exports to 40 per cent of gross
domestic product (GDP) by 2025. To do so, it
is getting the help of foreign oil companies, including Royal
Dutch Shell, the American firm Anadarko Petroleum and OMV
of Austria. Shell currently has two exploration permits in the
Great South Basin.
Environmental campaigners are concerned about oil spills
and the effect that increased petroleum exploration could
have on New Zealand’s green image. “There are alternatives
which have received less meaningful attention and are more
consistent with our nation’s clean, green brand and existing
NGZGO
comparative advantages,” says Rob Morrison, the head of
Pure Advantage, a not-for-profit organization that promotes
green growth.
Nick Hallet, chief adviser for resources policy at New
Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
(MBIE), says that New Zealand would do well to follow
the example of Norway, which has combined domestic oilindustry
profits with strong environmental policies. “Norway
would be a nice target to aspire to,” Hallet comments.
advanced economies
[Ed)vA:nst i(kQnEmiz]
aspire to sth. [E(spaIE tu]
brand [brÄnd]
comparative advantage
[kEm)pÄrEtIv Ed(vA:ntIdZ]
consistent: be ~ with sth.
[kEn(sIstEnt]
exploration permit
[)eksplE(reIS&n )p§:mIt]
gross domestic product (GDP)
[)grEUs dE)mestIk (prQdVkt]
mobile device [)mEUbaI&l di(vaIs]
natural resource [)nÄtS&rEl ri(zO:s]
not-for-profit [)nQt fE (prQfIt]
oil spill [(OI&l spIl]
petroleum [pE(trEUliEm]
self-sufficient [)self sE(fIS&nt]
target [(tA:gIt]
Industrieländer
More and more people are using smartphones and
other mobile devices to shop online. In the US, 24
per cent of online shopping on Black Friday (the
day after Thanksgiving) in 2012 was done via mobile
devices. This is up from six per cent in 2010.
Sources: 2012 “Internet Trends” report (www.kpcb.com/insights/
2012-internet-trends-update); The Guardian
nach etw. streben;
hier: etw. nacheifern
Marke; hier: Image
Wettbewerbsvorteil
mit etw. übereinstimmen
Erkundungsgenehmigung
Bruttoinlandsprodukt
(BIP)
Mobilgerät
Naturschatz
gemeinnützig
Ölteppich, Ölunfall
Erdöl
autark
Ziel; hier: Vorbild
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im Ausland
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The number of women in advanced economies
who work in industry continues to fall, with 85 per
cent now working in services, primarily education
and health.
Source: International Labour Organization (www.ilo.org)
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■ WORKING WORLD NAMES AND NEWS
BRITAIN
No-brainer
advanced
Business jargon can be colourful, but many people
dislike it. In fact, 47 per cent of British
workers say they lose respect for colleagues who
use a lot of jargon.
According to a survey of 1,014 people, 30 per
cent of men said they used jargon to improve their
chances of promotion. Only 12 per cent of women
said they did so. But more women than men said
they used jargon daily — 34 per cent compared
to 30 per cent.
“It is clear the majority of us find jargon unnecessary,”
says Darryl Bowman, a representative of
Wonga.com, the digital finance company that did
the survey. “We would prefer colleagues to be
more straight-talking.”
At the end of the day
Most common business jargon
Phrase
% using it daily
1. It’s a no-brainer 32%
2. Thinking outside the box 30%
3. At the end of the day 26%
4. It’s a win-win situation 26%
5. Touch base 25%
6. Going forward 24%
7. 110 per cent 21%
8. Close of play 20%
9. It’s on my radar 19%
10. Flagging up 19%
Sources: The Daily Telegraph; www.wonga.com
More on this topic on Business Spotlight Audio
Stockbyte
What they said…
“If you see a bandwagon, it’s too late”
Sir James Goldsmith (1933–97), British billionaire industrialist
“Why join the navy if you can be a
pirate?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011), Apple founder
“Every day I get up and look through
the Forbes list of the richest people in
America. If I’m not there, I go to work”
Robert Orben, 86, American comedian and political speechwriter
at the end of the day
[Ät Di )end Ev DE (deI] UK ifml.
bandwagon: if you see a ~,
it’s too late
[(bÄnd)wÄgEn]
(bandwagon
billionaire [)bIljE(neE]
close of play [)klEUz Ev (pleI]
flag sth. up [)flÄg (Vp]
founder [(faUndE]
going forward [)gEUIN (fO:wEd]
it’s on my radar
[Its )Qn maI (reIdA:]
jargon [(dZA:gEn]
navy [(neIvi]
no-brainer: it’s a ~
[(nEU breInE] ifml.
promotion [prE(mEUS&n]
straight-talking: be ~
[(streIt )tO:kIN]
survey [(s§:veI]
think outside the box
[)TINk )aUtsaId DE (bQks] ifml.
touch base
[)tVtS (beIs] ifml.
win-win situation
[)wIn )wIn )sItSu(eIS&n]
im Endefekt, letzten
Endes
etwa: wer einen
Trend erkennt, hat
ihn schon verpasst
Festwagen mit Musikkapelle)
Milliardär(in)
(Geschäfts-)Schluss
auf etw. hinweisen, etw.
durchleuchten
Gründer(in)
künftig, von jetzt an
ich behalte es im Auge
Fachsprache, -jargon
Marine
das versteht sich von
selbst
Beförderung
Klartext reden
Umfrage
nicht nach Schema F
denken
sich mit jmdm. in
Verbindung setzen
Situation, von der alle
Beteiligten profitieren
“Live as if you were to die
tomorrow. Learn as if you were
to live forever”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), Indian activist
www You’ll find more stories online: www.business-spotlight.de/news
3/2013

INDIA
medium
Time for (our) tea
Darjeeling is a luxury brand, the Rolls Royce
of the tea world. But outside the Darjeeling
region in India, wholesalers frequently blend
Darjeeling with less expensive teas while keeping
the Darjeeling name.
Now, Darjeeling growers are campaigning to
limit the use of the name. Like Champagne and
Cognac, the name Darjeeling is protected under
intellectual-property laws. Last year, the EU
agreed to phase out over the next five years
blended teas that include the name Darjeeling.
“Darjeeling tea has always been more expensive,”
says tea industry expert Ranen Datta.
“And we found that sellers all over the world
were selling tea under the name Darjeeling,”
Datta told The New York Times.
Local tea producers say that protecting the
name is essential in order to protect Darjeeling’s
reputation for quality. “The brand name
Darjeeling was being misused,” says Anil K.
Jha, superintendent of the Sungma Tea Estate.
Listen to this text on Business Spotlight Audio
Mauritius Images
WIRTSCHAFT | TECHNIK | SPRACHEN
Exclusive: picking tea leaves
in the Darjeeling region
Can$ 38,840
Amount that the Bank of Canada
spent to promote its new $20 bill.
Promotional spending equalled
1,942 of the new notes.
blend sth. [blend]
brand [brÄnd]
equal sth. [(i:kwEl]
find sth. [faInd]
intellectual property
[IntE)lektSuEl (prQpEti]
phase sth. out
[)feIz (aUt]
superintendent
[)su:pErIn(tendEnt]
tea estate [(ti: I)steIt]
wholesaler [(hEUlseI&lE]
Source: Maclean’s magazine
etw. mischen
Marke
etw. entsprechen
hier: etw. feststellen
geistiges Eigentum; hier:
gewerblicher Rechtsschutz
etw. schrittweise
abbauen
Inspektor(in); hier: Verwalter(in)
Teeplantage
Großhändler(in)
Jetzt
4 Wochen
kostenlos
testen!
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Moving
on
Zieht man aus beruflichen Gründen in eine andere Stadt oder gar ein anderes Land, muss man viele Dinge
bedenken und regeln. Alles kein Problem! Es gibt Firmen, die sich um alles kümmern. MARGARET DAVIS hat
sich mit dem Einsatzleiter des Europäischen Relocation Verbandes unterhalten.
advanced
iStockphoto

RELOCATION GLOBAL BUSINESS n
Moving to another country for work can be
exciting, and it is often an important step up
the career ladder at multinational companies.
But it also involves personal and logistical
challenges. Here’s where relocation
companies come in, whose role it is to help companies and
individuals deal with these challenges. Not surprisingly,
this is a growing industry in the globally mobile business
world.
“The process of being relocated to a new country ranks
right up there with divorce and redundancy as a life
stress,” says Dominic Tidey (see interview on page 12),
operations director at the European Relocation Association
(EuRA). Why do overseas assignments fail? There are
many reasons, but false expectations about the job or the
location, as well as partners and children having trouble
adjusting, are among the major factors.
Interestingly, although one might think that moves to a
completely different culture with a different language
would have the highest failure rate, in fact, the highest rate
is for moves between the US and Britain, Tidey says.
“There is an expectation for American citizens of familiarity
with Europe, as we have a long shared history and
many common societal references such as similar political
systems. But scratch just a little deeper and the commonality
ends. European social democracies work with an entirely
different mindset to the American self-determinist
model.”
of an international
move is the cost of living. Housing prices are
much higher in Europe than in the US, which makes it difficult
to find equivalent accommodation. As a result, companies
moving employees from the US to Europe often
have to provide extra incentives in the form of housing
allowances and other benefits. (The opposite situation is,
of course, that someone moving from an expensive European
city like Paris to an assignment in Omaha will find
that they are able to afford more luxurious accommodation
than they would have done at home.)
For relocation specialists, the job is relatively simple if a
move involves an improved standard of living for an individual
or family — better and cheaper housing, good
schools and so on. It becomes more complicated if the situation
is reversed, Tidey says. In this case, a relocation expert
may have to combine the abilities of “a psychiatrist,
social worker, estate agent, lawyer, marriage counsellor,
linguistics expert, child psychologist, interior designer,
intercultural coach, tour guide, personal shopper and dog
whisperer”.
is the
world’s largest relocation company, offering a variety of
services, including finding and selling houses as well as intercultural
and language training. In its 2012 survey on4
Relocation checklist
If you — or your partner — are about to be transferred to
another country, here are some questions to think about.
n Is this a door-to-door move or will your goods be transported
only as far as the nearest port?
n Does your company’s relocation package include assistance
once you’ve arrived at your new location? For example,
will you receive help with bank accounts, driving
licences or car insurance as well as necessary translations?
Will anyone explain the health-care system to you?
n What about visas and immigration? Will your partner be
permitted to work?
n Does the country you are moving to allow you to bring
your pets? How much will it cost to transport your pet?
Will transporting put the animal’s health at risk?
accommodation [E)kQmE(deIS&n] UK
adjust (to sth.)
[E(dZVst]
assignment
[E(saInmEnt]
benefit [(benIfIt]
car insurance [(kA:r In)SUErEns]
challenge [(tSÄlIndZ]
coach [kEUtS]
commonality [)kQmE(nÄlEti]
divorce [dI(vO:s]
dog whisperer [(dQg )wIspErE]
door-to-door move
[)dO: tE )dO: (mu:v]
estate agent [I(steIt )eIdZEnt] UK
goods [gUdz]
health-care system
[(helT keE )sIstEm]
housing allowance [(haUzIN E)laUEns]
Unterkunft; hier: Zuhause
sich eingewöhnen; sich (an
etw.) gewöhnen
(beruflicher) Einsatz, (befristete)
Tätigkeit
Zusatzleistung
Kfz-Versicherung
Herausforderung
Trainer(in) und Berater(in)
Gemeinsamkeit
Scheidung
Hundeflüsterer(in)
komplett durchgeführter
Umzug
Immobilienmakler(in)
Güter; hier: Umzugsgegenstände
Gesundheitssystem
Wohngeld
housing price [(haUzIN praIs]
incentive [In(sentIv]
interior designer [In)tIEriE di(zaInE]
marriage counsellor
[(mÄrIdZ )kaUns&lE]
mindset [(maIndset]
operations director
[)QpE(reIS&nz dE)rektE]
pet [pet]
redundancy [ri(dVndEnsi]
relocated: be ~ [)ri:lEU(keItId]
relocation company
[)ri:lEU(keIS&n )kVmpEni]
relocation package
[)ri:lEU(keIS&n )pÄkIdZ]
reversed [ri(v§:st]
scratch deeper [)skrÄtS (di:pE]
self-determinist model
[)self di(t§:mInIst )mQd&l]
survey [(s§:veI]
Immobilienpreis
Anreiz
Innenarchitekt(in)
Eheberater(in)
Sichtweise
für den Betriebsablauf zuständige(r)
Direktor(in)
Haustier
Arbeitslosigkeit
versetzt werden
Firma, die den Umzug und
alle Formalitäten erledigt
Leistungspaket bei einem
Standortwechsel
umgekehrt
hier: etwas genauer betrachten
Leitbild, nach dem jeder für
sich zuständig ist
Umfrage, Studie
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 11

n GLOBAL BUSINESS RELOCATION
INTERVIEW
“Eighty per cent of assignments that fail do so because
the family doesn’t settle in the new location”
DOMINIC TIDEY is the operations director
of the European Relocation Association
(EuRA). The organization provides training
and accreditation for companies offering
relocation services.
What are the priorities for companies and individuals in a relocation?
For the company, the most important thing is that the employee goes
from one job to another with very little interruption. Best practice
would be a phased transfer, whereby the employee would be mentored
by the team in the new location before the relocation takes
place. Settling the family is key. Eighty per cent of assignments that
fail do so because the family doesn’t settle in the new location. So
best practice would be that the company would say, “We’re sending
you to New York for five days. You’ll be staying in a hotel in midtown.
We’ll show you the areas you want to live in, where the schools
are, asking what type of school you want.” When the family comes
back for the long-term transfer, the relocation company will offer a
range of services, mainly to do with immigration, legal-compliance
issues, finding the house and settling the children in school.
You say that’s best practice. Does that happen most of the time?
It does. If companies have large, globally mobile populations, it’s
pretty unusual these days for them to run their own relocation programmes.
When I was a child, my family were moved to the US and
then to Central America and then to Asia. My mum would go and
talk to the wife of the last person who had been integrated. That
doesn’t really happen so much now, because it is important for companies
to keep the people who generate income for them. So if you’re
talking about somebody who’s at senior level, who has skills that are
valuable to a competitor, it’s very important that the company handles
their mobility programmes so as not to lose people.
Have you noticed any changes in what companies or individuals expect
today, compared to what they expected in the past?
The trend we have seen over the last five or ten years is for much
lower-funded packages for lower-level, globally mobile people. It is
becoming more common for middle managers to be transferred.
More people are coming out of emerging markets who will be transferred
on shorter assignments to bring skills back or to take skills to
foreign markets. We’re seeing a lot more basic packages being offered
to middle managers coming out of China and India, who are
working for only six months. They won’t get an orientation, and the
family is much less important. If it’s an emerging market and there
are a lot of people in the same sort of position, companies are not
too worried about whether or not they go to a competitor.
Are language and intercultural training the sort of things that relocation
companies offer themselves or do they subcontract them?
It’s a mixture of the two. We’ve got two different types of relocation
companies. There are relocation management companies that hold
big global contracts but don’t do the on-the-ground work: they subcontract
to a destination service provider in the location that the
company is moving somebody to. Large destination service providers
will have intercultural trainers and specialists on their teams. Language
training would probably be outsourced to specialists because
there are so many language schools. If you were moving to a smaller
city, like Ottawa, the destination service providers are small, so
they would outsource intercultural training and language training.
Language training schools normally also offer intercultural training.
global relocation trends, Cartus found that employees
being moved are generally accompanied by a partner. The
locations where they are being sent present their own challenges,
the company says. For example, assignments to
Central and South America raise safety concerns, while
being relocated to China is likely to result in language
problems for employees and their families. Finding acceptable
housing and schools is also a factor for families
relocated to China. In Africa, limited infrastructure and
transportation difficulties are listed as typical problems. In
Central and South America, bureaucracy “adds significantly
to the time needed to relocate employees”, Cartus says.
accreditation [E)kredI(teIS&n]
assignment
[E(saInmEnt]
best practice [)best (prÄktIs]
competitor [kEm(petItE]
destination [)destI(neIS&n]
emerging markets [i)m§:dZIN (mA:kIts]
issue [(ISu:]
key [ki:]
legal compliance
[)li:g&l kEm(plaIEns]
lower-funded [)lEUE (fVndId]
mentored: be ~ by sb.
[(mentO:d]
Akkreditierung
(beruflicher) Einsatz, (befristete)
Tätigkeit
das optimale Verfahren
Konkurrenzunternehmen
Zielort; hier: am Zielort
Schwellenländer
Thema
entscheidend
Einhaltung gesetzlicher
Vorschriften
preisgünstiger
von jmdm. unterstützt und
betreut werden
middle manager [)mId&l (mÄnIdZE]
on the ground [)Qn DE (graUnd]
operations director
[)QpE(reIS&nz dE)rektE]
relocation [)ri:lEU(keIS&n]
relocation company
[)ri:lEU(keIS&n )kVmpEni]
senior level [)si:niE (lev&l]
service provider [(s§:vIs prE)vaIdE]
settle sb. [(set&l]
subcontract (sth.) to sb.
[)sVbkEn(trÄkt tu]
mittlere Führungskraft
hier: vor Ort
für den Betriebsablauf zuständige(r)
Direktor(in)
(beruflicher) Umzug, Standortwechsel
Firma, die den Umzug und
alle Formalitäten erledigt
Geschäftsführungsebene
Dienstleistungsunternehmen
hier: dafür sorgen, dass sich
jmd. einlebt
(etw.) an jmdn. weitervergeben
12 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

Mauritius/Alamy
School days:
children often
need help
when they
return to their
homeland
new options
for families. “The challenges associated with many of these
locations — limited schooling options, the need for security
precautions, and often the cost and scarcity of housing
— are leading a growing number of companies to consider
‘split-family’ solutions,” says Cartus executive Ian
Payne. “In these situations a family may reside in a more
developed city in the host country, with the assignee travelling
to the office or plant location, or in some cases the
family may not make the move at all, but remains in the
home location for the duration of the assignment.”
Whether together or apart, families often suffer during
relocation. “My personal feeling is that HR departments
are badly distanced from the people they should care about
assignee [)ÄsaI(ni:]
Person, die versetzt wird
bother to do sth. [)bQDE tE (du:] sich die Mühe machen, etw. zu tun
consulting firm [kEn(sVltIN f§:m] Unternehmensberatung
duration [dju&(reIS&n]
Dauer
executive [Ig(zekjUtIv]
leitende(r) Angestellte(r)
expatriate [eks(pÄtriEt]
dauerhaft im Ausland lebende
Person
generate (money) [(dZenEreIt] (Geld) erwirtschaften
go bad [)gEU (bÄd]
schlecht verlaufen
host country [(hEUst )kVntri] Gastland
HR (human resources) department Personalabteilung
[)eItS (A: di)pA:tmEnt]
HR (human resources) manager Personalleiter(in)
[)eItS (A: )mÄnIdZE]
item [(aItEm]
Posten
let alone [)let E(lEUn]
geschweige denn
neglected [nI(glektId]
vernachlässigt
odd [Qd]
merkwürdig
plant [plA:nt]
Werk
posting [(pEUstIN]
Entsendung; hier: Stelle im Ausland
re-entry [ri(entri]
hier: Rückkehr (ins Heimatland)
repatriation [)ri:)pÄtri(eIS&n] Rückführung
reside [ri(zaId]
wohnen
scarcity [(skeEsEti]
Knappheit
security precautions
Sicherheitsvorkehrungen
[sI(kjUErEti pri)kO:S&nz]
soft issue [)sQft (ISu:]
“weiches” Thema
split-family solution
hier etwa: Zweihaushaltslösung
[)splIt )fÄmli sE(lu:S&n]
spouse [spaUs]
Ehepartner(in)
Returning to the
home country
can feel like
“wearing contact
lenses in the
wrong eyes”
the most,” says expatriate writer
Amanda Carter. “It’s not employees
who make postings go
bad; it’s their families,” Carter
told ExpatExpert.com. “In most
postings, HR managers never
even bother to meet the spouses,
let alone ask them if they actually
want to go on assignments.”
Intercultural relocation expert
Robin Pascoe agrees. When
times are tough, spending on
family support goes down, Pascoe
says. “Cross-cultural training,
a soft issue that costs money
instead of generating it for a
company, is the first item to be cut from mobility budgets.”
to Pascoe, is
repatriation — helping employees and families to readjust
to life in their home countries on their return. During their
absence, their home country has changed, while they remember
it as it was when they left. The company may also
have changed: returning employees may need to adjust to
new management and policies or to a new job. “Re-entry
shock is when you feel like you are wearing contact lenses
in the wrong eyes,” Pascoe writes. “Everything looks almost
right.”
According to a recent survey by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers,
71 per cent of young people say they
both want and expect to have an overseas assignment during
their careers. Dominic Tidey believes it is essential for
companies to meet those expectations. “It sounds like an
odd thing to say when Europe is going through a recession
and we know that in Spain 50 per cent of people under 25
are out of work, but there will always be a massive demand
for highly educated, globally mobile young people,” Tidey
comments. “Companies have to be very clear about how
they support that, or they will lose those people.” nBS
For more information
WEBSITES
n Cartus relocation services: www.cartus.com
n The European Relocation Association (EuRA): www.eurarelocation.com
n Robin Pascoe (ExpatExpert.com) offers online training videos
for relocating families: www.youtube.com/robinpascoe
n “Talent mobility: 2020 and beyond” is a report on relocation
trends by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers:
www.pwc.com/gx/en/managing-tomorrows-people/future-ofwork/global-mobility-map.jhtml
MARGARET DAVIS is a Canadian journalist and is the
editor of the Careers and Global Business sections of
Business Spotlight. Contact her at: m.davis@spotlightverlag.de
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 13

■ GLOBAL BUSINESS HEAD-TO-HEAD
Should we be forced to buy
low-energy light bulbs?
Bedeuten die neuen Sparlampen einen Fortschritt für Mensch und Umwelt oder sind sie nichts weiter als eine
Verkaufsmasche der Beleuchtungsindustrie? VICKI SUSSENS hat von beiden Seiten Argumente eingeholt. medium
NO!
“This is nothing
more than a
marketing trick”
HOWARD M. BRANDSTON
Banning the incandescent light is a declaration of
war. While we need to save energy, this ban hasn’t
been properly thought through. We do not have a
replacement for the traditional light bulb that is
safe, will save energy, provide good light and is reasonably
priced. Early studies show that compact fluorescent lamps
(CFL) and light-emitting diodes (LED) are potentially dangerous
to our health and the environment. We need more
research to remove these concerns. Worse, consumers
haven’t been properly warned about the dangers.
CFLs have high electromagnetic fields, and we don’t
know enough about the health effects of filling our homes
with them. CFLs also contain mercury and are regarded as
hazardous waste, requiring great care in cleaning up a broken
bulb. Few local governments have safe methods to dispose
of them yet, so most CFLs will end up in landfills. We
also need more research on LEDs, which contain arsenic,
lead and other poisonous materials. A French study has
found they harm the sight of young children.
We have been told CFLs and LEDs will save energy and
cut carbon emissions. Yet, in June 2012, the US Department
of Energy found that, on average, CFL manufacturing
is over four times and LED manufacturing eight times
more energy intensive than making the traditional bulb.
Finally, CFLs give an unnatural light. I have designed
lighting for over 2,500 projects in 60 countries, including
the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Petronas Towers
in Kuala Lumpur. The most important part of designing
a lighting system is selecting the right lights, and I cannot
with good conscience recommend CLFs or LEDs to my
clients. Being forced to buy low-energy light bulbs limits my
ability to do good design. I know many lighting experts
who have bought a lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs.
Forcing consumers to buy low-energy bulbs is nothing
more than a marketing trick. It is another example of a
huge business lobby using its close relationship with the
government to help it sell products. This is a symbol of the
times, and of businesses no longer feeling a duty to society.
This is not the first time Osram, Philips, General Electric
and other lighting-industry firms have formed a cartel.
In 1924, they formed the Phoebus cartel, in which they
agreed to reduce the hours a bulb burns and to give each
company exclusive territorial rights. In 1939, antitrust
laws brought the cartel to an end.
The lighting industry developed CFLs and LEDs as a
response to global warming but, despite a huge publicrelations
campaign, the bulbs didn’t sell. So they used their
lighting-industry lobby to help write legislation to ban the
incandescent bulb. We’re now at the mercy of a government-sponsored
cartel that takes away our choices as consumers,
and that no antitrust laws can touch.
HOWARD M. BRANDSTON, the founding partner of the Brandston
Partnership in New York City, holds a Lifetime Achievement Award
from the International Association of Lighting Designers and is the
only lighting designer in the Interior Design Hall of Fame.
antitrust law [)Änti(trVst lO:]
arsenic [(A:s&nIk]
ban (sth.) [bÄn]
carbon emissions [(kA:bEn i)mIS&nz]
compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)
[kEm)pÄkt flO:)res&nt (lÄmp]
consumer [kEn(sju:mE]
department [di(pA:tmEnt]
founding partner [)faUndIN (pA:tnE]
hazardous waste [)hÄzEdEs (weIst]
incandescent light
[InkÄn)des&nt (laIt]
landfill [(lÄndfIl]
lead [led]
legislation [)ledZI(sleIS&n]
light bulb [(laIt bVlb]
light-emitting diode (LED)
[)laIt i)mItIN (daIEUd]
lighting [(laItIN]
mercury [(m§:kju&ri]
mercy: be at the ~ of sb. [(m§:si]
research [ri(s§:tS]
Kartellgesetz
Arsen
Verbot; etw. verbieten
CO 2 -Emissionen
Kompaktleuchtstofflampe,
Energiesparlampe ugs.
Verbraucher(in)
hier: Ministerium
Gründungsgesellschafter(in)
Sonder-, Giftmüll
Glühlicht, Glühlampe
(Müll-)Deponie
Blei
Gesetze
Glühbirne
Leuchtdiode
Beleuchtung, Licht
Quecksilber
jmdm. ausgeliefert sein
Forschung, Studien
14 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

Hemera
The big question: who benefits
most if we change our lights?
YES!
“My test is
simple: does my
wife like these
new lamps?”
PETER HUNT
One often-quoted idea — that the phasing out of incandescent
lamps is removing consumers’ choice
— is wrong. In my 35 years in the lighting industry,
I have never seen so much choice: halogen
lamps, CFLs, LEDs of every shape and cap type. The
choice is actually now so great that there is a real problem
in educating consumers to understand the differences,
correct applications and benefits of each, including the
payback periods for the more expensive types.
Energy costs are rising and will continue to do so. Would
it be right for governments to ignore this and not act
against inefficient technologies that are well over a century
old? By phasing out those inefficient technologies, governments
around the world are encouraging innovation in
the lighting market. The industry has responded with enthusiasm,
developing products that can save nearly 90 per
cent of the energy the old ones consume, while delivering
quality lighting.
Most lighting experts agree that CFLs are a transitional
technology. In Europe, the phasing out of the old bulb has
been planned to give the industry time to develop better alternatives,
which indeed are arriving every day.
Less expensive alternatives are still available in the form
of halogens with improved efficiency. And, yes, they look
great. But for me, why would I want to burn so much energy
and buy a new lamp every 18 months when I can get
what I want for less?
Good-quality LEDs are still relatively expensive but
prices are dropping fast as they sell more, and the market
becomes more competitive. LEDs bring us other advantages.
Their small size and low heat provide new design opportunities,
and lighting can now be installed in places it
could never have been before. The new technology also
brings us colour changing and intelligent controls that can
adjust to our biorhythms, respond to daylight and improve
our well-being. Even our streets can be lit with a bright
white light — no more dull yellow glow.
My test is simple: does my wife like these new lamps?
For years, I’ve been given new lamps to take home and test,
and I do. I put the early CFLs of the 1980s into shaded
lamps without her knowing. But by the time I arrived
home the next day, they had been removed. In recent years,
as CFL technology improved, I changed a few that she
hasn’t noticed yet. The first LED retrofit lamps suffered the
same fate because she didn’t like the cold, blue light. Not
now. I have successfully replaced over 60 lights in our
house with LEDs, and she noticed. They were brighter and
had a better colour; she liked them and they stayed. When
we improved our kitchen this year, the first thing she asked
for was LED lighting. They passed the test.
I have a whole lot of replacement incandescent lamps in
my garage. I can’t bring myself to get rid of them but I
know I’ll never use them.
■BS
PETER HUNT is head of The Lighting Association, Europe’s
largest lighting trade association, as well as a board member of
the European lighting-industry association LightingEurope.
board member [(bO:d )membE]
cap [kÄp]
competitive [kEm(petEtIv]
controls [kEn(trEUlz]
dull [dVl]
often-quoted [)Qf&n (kwEUtId]
payback period [(peIbÄk )pIEriEd]
phase sth. out [)feIz (aUt]
Vorstandsmitglied
Sockel
wettbewerbsbetont
Bedienelemente, Steuerung
matt
oft zitiert
Amortisationszeitraum
etw. allmählich abschaffen,
auslaufen lassen
nachgerüstete Lampe
Schirmlampe
Wirtschafts-, Fachverband
Übergangs-
Wohlbefinden
retrofit lamp [(retrEUfIt lÄmp]
shaded lamp [)SeIdId (lÄmp]
trade association [(treId EsEUsi)eIS&n]
transitional [)trÄn(zIS&nEl]
well-being [)wel (bi:IN]
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 15

Al Gore: warning the world about the
dangers of ignoring the future
Getty Images
Future
Was treibt den globalen Wandel in Wirtschaft, Politik, Gesellschaft und Technologie tatsächlich an?
Welche Rolle spielen dabei Lobbyisten? In seinem neuen Buch geht der frühere US-Vizepräsident Al Gore
diesen und anderen Zukunftsfragen nach. VICKI SUSSENS hat sich mit seinen Visionen befasst. advanced
Al Gore, former US vice president, was often in
the news after his 2006 documentary An
Inconvenient Truth focused attention on global
warming. In the past few years, we haven’t
heard much from him. Now we know why.
Eight years ago, someone asked him what he thought was
driving global change. The next morning, he had a long
flight home and began thinking about answers. Although
he was still a climate campaigner, he became “obsessed”
with the subject. Two years ago, he realized that the question
would not let him go until he had fully answered it,
as he writes in his new book, The Future: Six Drivers of
Global Change. Released in January, with a planned German
version in 2014, it’s become Gore’s new crusade. But
will it end in as much controversy as his climate-change
activism? The first signs suggest that it may.
In particularly bad timing, The Future came out just after
Gore had sold Current TV to Al Jazeera, which is
backed by the Qatar government. The sale of the channel,
which Gore started with businessman Joel Hyatt in 2002,
personally earned him $100 million. So it’s not surprising
that the media have focused more on this sale than on his
book. “The next time you see Al Gore on TV telling us
how evil fossil fuels are, remember this: that fat gold Rolex
on his chubby little wrist was paid for by oil,” wrote one
blogger on The Telegraph website.
This is a pity, because The Future is an impressive
attempt to connect the dots in a world many no longer
back sb./sth. [bÄk]
chubby [(tSVbi]
connect the dots [kE)nekt DE (dQts]
crusade [kru:(seId]
driver [(draIvE]
fossil fuel [)fQs&l (fju:El]
obsessed: become ~ with sth. [Eb(sest]
Qatar [(kÄtA:]
release sth. [ri(li:s]
jmdn./etw. unterstützen
rundlich, plump
Zusammenhänge herstellen
Kreuzzug; hier: Kampagne
Antriebsfaktor
fossiler Brennstoff
von etw. besessen sein
Katar
etw. veröffentlichen
16 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

PROFILE GLOBAL BUSINESS ■
A CLOSER LOOK
Limousine liberal is a term Americans use for rich politicians
on the left, who are seen to be hypocrites because, for example,
they tell people to use public transport while they
themselves are driven around in limousines.
understand. It may be long (374 pages) and dry (it is
packed with information), but it is an important read. The
problem, though, is that Gore the man often gets in the
way of Gore the visionary, as his public life shows.
The young Gore swept to fame at the side of Bill Clinton
in the US election campaign they won in 1992. Wearing
blue jeans and sneakers, the two promised freshness,
fairness and a revitalization of the American dream. Environmentalists
were delighted when Gore, the author of
Earth in the Balance, became vice president.
However, he never seemed comfortable as a politician.
In fact, as The New York Times wrote about him when,
after two terms with Clinton, he campaigned to become
president in 2000: “Deep down he suspects
it is dishonourable to be a politician, and
this can make him a bad one.” He can also
appear unnatural and arrogant. After a TV
election debate in 2000, political analyst
Stuart Rothenberg wrote: “[t]he vice president
... looked and sounded about as
appealing as a case of the flu.” After losing
the election and leaving politics, Gore has remained in the
business of looking after the public’s interests. His main
concern now is warning the world about what he calls “the
almost pathological silence concerning the most important
challenges we face, and a dangerous collective disregard for
the future consequences of our present actions”. However,
he still has to learn the importance of image, and in
particular, if you point fingers at those ruining the world,
you need to be squeaky clean yourself.
When he called on Americans to cut down their
energy bills in An Inconvenient Truth, it didn’t take long for
journalists to discover that his 20-room, eight-bathroom
home in Nashville was using more energy in a month than
the average American household did in a year. Soon, cartoons
appeared showing, for example, Gore’s giant carbon
footprint as a pair of boots stretching halfway across the
globe.
It didn’t help Gore’s case that he pushed very strongly in
2009 for the US government to implement a cap-and-trade
system, which encourages firms to cut the carbon they emit
by giving them carbon credits. These can be traded on
carbon-exchange markets. Gore invested in firms that
would broker these trades, which, had the government approved
the system, could have earned him billions. When
a US senator questioned him about this conflict of interests,
he said he was putting his money where his mouth is. “Do
you think there is something wrong with being active in
business in this country?” he asked. “I am proud of it.”
By the 2012 US election campaign, as Gore laments in
The Future, few questions were asked about climate change.
Now, Gore is again being seen as a “limousine liberal”, with
cartoons showing him “going greener” by filling his pockets
with green dollar bills from Big Oil. But let’s forget for
a moment that Gore may have tried to profit from climate
change. And let’s also forget that he has got rich on the
same system he criticizes in The Future as destroying
democracy. After all, he won’t be the first visionary with
private weaknesses. So what does the book say?
Gore says both capitalism and democracy have
been “hacked”. Powerful, interconnected global corporations,
which he calls Earth Inc., have bought their way into
politics in order to create great wealth for themselves at the
expense of not only the rest of society but also the environment.
Society has changed its incentive system, which once
rewarded hard-working Americans with the promise of the
“The fat gold Rolex on his chubby
little wrist was paid for by oil”
American dream, to one in which short-term benefits are
given priority over long-term rewards. The result is growing
inequality. But also, we are not fulfilling our duty to
protect the fruits of this earth for future generations.
Those who usually report wrongdoing, investigative reporters,
are not doing their job, not only because the print
media can no longer afford well-paid journalists, but also
appealing [E(pi:&lIN]
einnehmend, reizvoll
Big Oil [)bIg (OI&l]
die Ölmultis
billion [(bIljEn]
Milliarde(n)
broker sth. [(brEUkE]
etw. vermitteln
cap and trade
Emissionshandel mit festen
[)kÄp En (treId]
Obergrenzen
carbon credit [)kA:bEn (kredIt] Emissionszertifikat
carbon-exchange market
Emissionshandelsbörse
[)kA:bEn Iks(tSeIndZ )mA:kIt]
carbon footprint [)kA:bEn (fUtprInt] CO 2 -Fußabdruck, -Bilanz
case of the flu [)keIs Ev DE (flu:] Grippeerkrankung
disregard [)dIsri(gA:d]
Missachtung
Earth Inc. (Incorporated)
etwa: die Welt der
[)§:T (INk]
Großunternehmen
emit sth. [i(mIt]
etw. ausstoßen
fame: sweep to ~ [feIm]
auf einen Schlag bekannt werden
hypocrite [(hIpEkrIt]
Heuchler(in)
incentive [In(sentIv]
Anreiz
lament (sth.) [lE(ment]
(etw.) beklagen
limousine [)lImE(zi:n]
Luxuslimousine (mit Chauffeur)
put one’s money where one’s mouth is seinen Worten Taten folgen
[)pUt wVnz )mVni weE wVnz (maUT Iz] lassen
squeaky clean
blitzsauber; hier: ohne Fehl
[)skwi:ki (kli:n] ifml.
und Tadel
suspect sth. [sE(spekt]
etw. argwöhnisch vermuten
term [t§:m]
hier: Amtszeit
wrongdoing [(rQN)du:IN]
Vergehen, Fehlverhalten
4
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 17

■ GLOBAL BUSINESS PROFILE
because powerful interest groups control the media. The
result is that the media no longer have sufficient integrity
and independence to play their essential role in democracy.
At the same time, we have made what Gore calls a “Faustian
pact” with new technologies that excite us now, but
that are being pushed through with little understanding of
their impact. For example, internet users accept a certain
loss of privacy in order to enjoy the benefits of being connected.
However, the growing ability of governments to collect
data on individuals threatens to put into place a Big
Brother mechanism, which is a serious threat to liberty.
The problem, says Gore, is that, while power in the
global economy has moved away from nation states to
private players, we are still applying national policies, regional
strategies and economic measures that are no longer
relevant. For example, by outsourcing and automating
factories and services, businesses have increased their productivity.
Policymakers count this as progress, because
productivity is still regarded as “the Holy Grail of progress”.
Yet, outsourcing and automation are killing jobs
and the power of workers to negotiate good conditions.
The focus on GDP to measure economic success is also
harmful, because it excludes essential indicators of economic
health, such as sustainability and levels of equality.
And with Earth Inc. using its power to make sure policies
“The media no longer play their
essential role in democracy”
serve the market rather than the people, there is a chronic
underinvestment in education, health care and other
public services. Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain, for example,
are being forced to make policy choices based on what
is good for the global marketplace rather than on the
democratically expressed will of their citizens. By the end
billion [(bIljEn]
capital flow [(kÄpIt&l flEU]
compete [kEm(pi:t]
device [di(vaIs]
Faustian pact [)faUstiEn (pÄkt]
GDP (gross domestic product)
[)dZi: di: (pi:]
genetic modification
[dZE)netIk )mQdIfI(keIS&n]
Goliath [gE(laIET]
health care [(helT keE]
Holy Grail [)hEUli (greI&l]
impact [(ImpÄkt]
life sciences [)laIf (saIEnsIz]
negotiate sth. [nI(gEUSieIt]
policymaker [(pQlEsi)meIkE]
privacy [(prIvEsi]
restore sth. [ri(stO:]
sustainability [sE)steInE(bIlEti]
unsustainable [)VnsE(steInEb&l]
Milliarde(n)
Kapitalfluss, -strom
konkurrieren
Gerät
Teufelspakt
BIP (Bruttoinlandsprodukt)
gentechnische Veränderung(en)
[wg. Aussprache]
Gesundheitswesen
Heiliger Gral
(Aus-)Wirkung(en)
Biowissenschaften
etw. aushandeln
politische(r) Entscheidungsträger(in)
Privatsphäre
etw. wiederherstellen
Nachhaltigkeit
nicht nachhaltig
The six forces driving global change
In his book The Future, former US vice president Al Gore
identifies six forces changing the world:
■ The deeply connected global economy, which has developed
a completely new relationship to capital flow,
labour, consumer markets and national governments.
■ Digital communications connecting billions of people,
as well as increasingly intelligent devices, robots and
thinking machines.
■ A new balance of political, economic and military power,
which is moving away from nation states towards
private actors and markets.
■ Unsustainable growth in population and the size of
cities, along with environmental destruction.
■ A revolutionary new set of powerful biological, biochemical,
genetic and material-science technologies.
■ A new relationship between the power of human civilization
and the earth’s ecological systems.
of the book, one hopes for answers, and Gore does, in fact,
identify the reforms necessary for change.
At the top of his list is the need to rebuild confidence in
market capitalism and democracy. He sees the internet as
providing an opportunity to re-establish the healthy public
forums needed for democracy that traditional media no
longer provide. However, it must be protected
from dominance by interest groups. To restore
the usefulness of capitalism, he calls for better
measures of value. They should, for example,
be able to identify “hyper inequality”. Capitalist
incentive systems must be changed to prevent
short-term thinking. And public services
must again be recognized as essential to building a healthy
economy. We also need much stricter controls on experiments
in life sciences, and especially, to make sure the
genetic modification of plants and animals is not being
driven by short-term profit.
But who should make these changes, given the
failure of politics? You and I, it seems. Gore hopes that ordinary
people, using the internet, will force change collectively
— which brings us back to the limousine liberal. Gore
was himself in a position to create change from within the
ranks of power. He says he sold Current TV to Al Jazeera
because it couldn’t compete with the media conglomerates
in the US. Instead of importing Al Jazeera to solve
his problem, he should have used Current TV as a highprofile
case to fight those conglomerates. He had a chance
to play David versus Goliath and he didn’t even try. ■BS
VICKI SUSSENS is a South African journalist and
an editor at Business Spotlight, with a special
focus on man agement and social issues. Contact:
v.sussens@spotlight-verlag.de
18 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

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BUSINESS PRESS GLOBAL BUSINESS ■
Behind the headlines
Headlines in the English-language media are often difficult to understand because they use jargon and
wordplay, and leave out words. Here, we look at the meaning of recent business headlines.
advanced
Financial Times
The Economist
Gone fission: This is a play on the fixed phrase “gone fishing”,
which means “taking a break from something”. Here,
it refers to investors taking a break from investing in
nuclear power plants, which are now seen as uncertain investments.
The word “fission” is used because it is a
nuclear term (“nuclear fission”) and sounds like “fishin’”,
an American way of saying “fishing”.
In simple English: Moving away from nuclear energy.
International Herald Tribune
Chips off the old block: This is a play on words. If someone
is a “chip off the old block”, they are just like one of
their parents. The idiom refers, literally, to a wood chip
taken from a block of wood. Note that one normally does
not use “chip” in the plural form in this idiom. Here,
“chips” refers to electronic chips and is the key to what the
story is about: the electronic devices available for parents
to track their children.
In simple English: Electronic child-tracking devices for
parents.
The Wall Street Journal
German automakers: Here, the German carmakers Daimler,
BMW and Volkswagen are meant.
cash in on: If you “cash in on” something, you get some
form of reward for an action you have taken. Here, the reward
is financial and comes from selling cars.
push: This means a “big effort to make something happen”.
to woo: If you “woo” someone, you do something to win
that person’s support. German carmakers won support for
their business in America by continuing to produce cars
there at a time when other carmakers moved their factories
to cheaper countries, such as China.
U.S. drivers: Car owners in the United States.
In simple English: German carmakers are selling well in the
US after a big effort to win the support of car owners there.
bond [bQnd]
Anleihe
break [breIk]
hier: Auszeit
cash in on sth. [)kÄS (In Qn] ifml. aus etw. Kapital schlagen
chip [tSIp]
Span; Computerchip
device [di(vaIs]
Gerät
fission [(fIS&n]
Spaltung; hier: Kernspaltung
literally [(lIt&rEli]
wörtlich
mortgage debt [(mO:gIdZ det] Hypothekenschuld(en)
nuclear power plant
Atomkraftwerk
[)nju:kliE (paUE plA:nt]
track sb. [trÄk]
jmdm. nachspüren; hier: jmdn. orten
treasury [(treZEri]
Schatzamt
woo sb. [wu:]
jmdn. umwerben
word string [(w§:d strIN] Wörterkette
Fed: This is the informal name of the US central banking
system, the Federal Reserve.
bond buying: This refers to the buying of bonds in a programme
started by the Fed in September 2012. The idea
was to add to their bond portfolio by buying mortgage
debt.
risks cuts: The word string “buying risks cuts” is hard to
interpret because each of these three words can be both a
noun and a verb. In this case, “buying” is a gerund, so
“Fed bond buying” is the subject. “Risks” is the verb and
“cuts” is a noun (the object is “cuts to treasury payout”).
This programme is risky because the Fed may have to sell
bonds later at a loss.
Treasury: The US Treasury.
payout: This refers to the profits earned by the Fed, which
are paid into the US Treasury.
In simple English: The Fed’s bond programme risks losing
money for the US Treasury.
www Are you confused by the language in the press? Keep your
English up to date at www.business-spotlight.de/news
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 21

A good start: medical workers
must be open to other cultures
Healthy
communication
Für die einen bedeutet Krankheit der Befall von Keimen, für die anderen ein Ungleichgewicht zwischen Yin
und Yang. ROBERT GIBSON erklärt, warum Ärzte und Pflegepersonal auch über interkulturelle Kompetenzen
verfügen sollten, um Patienten aus aller Herren Länder wirksam behandeln zu können.
advanced
Fuse

CULTURE AND MEDICAL CARE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION ■
As the patient population becomes ever more diverse
in many countries, health practitioners
must learn to treat their patients in a culturally
sensitive way. This is often difficult, as there
are major cultural differences in attitudes to
health, illness and health care around the world. Because
of the diverse nature of the US population, it is not surprising
that many approaches to intercultural health care have
been developed there.
The differences begin with the definition of what constitutes
health. While in Western countries, health might be
defined as the absence of harmful bacteria, commonly
known as “germs”, in China, the definition is traditionally
more likely to involve harmony between yin and yang.
While in some cultures, it is considered healthy to be slim,
in others, being overweight is seen as a sign of affluence
and well-being.
A question of attitude
Attitudes to treatment differ, too. While some patients will
expect to be given medicine when they visit a doctor, others
may view this as unnecessary and even as a sign that
they don’t trust in fate or in God’s power to heal them. In
Western cultures, fitting the mouth with braces is a standard
dental procedure to correct the
position of a child’s teeth; in other
cultures, this is seen as a form
of cruelty.
Medical journalist Lynn Payer
writes in Medicine and Culture
(see “For more information”,
page 26) that low blood pressure
is viewed as a sign of health in the US but as a sickness in
Germany. The cure for a German with low blood pressure
could simply be to move to another country!
Attitudes to death also vary widely across cultures. In
some societies, it is considered normal to talk about death
in a direct way, while in others, this is not only undesirable
but it is also believed that it can even speed up the loss of
life.
The Institute of Medicine in the US reports that racial
and ethnic minorities tend to receive a lower quality of
health care than other groups, even when patients’ insurance
status and income are considered. The institute
claims that stereotyping, bias and uncertainty on the part
of health-care workers all contribute to this unequal treatment.
Problems occur when doctors and nurses insist on
their own approach rather than considering the different
attitudes of their patients.
Doctor and patient
A key area in which cultural differences are important is
the relationship between the doctor and the patient. Communication
is often the first problem. Patients may have
difficulty expressing themselves in a foreign language or
have a way of talking about their symptoms that is different
from what their doctor is used to. People learn to express
symptoms in ways that are acceptable to other
members of their own culture. People have different associations
with symptoms and causes in different cultures.
For example, some people connect headache with stress,
while for others, stress is connected to stomach pains. Even
Attitudes to health, illness and treatment
vary widely across cultures
if patients speak the foreign language, they may not know
the medical vocabulary needed to talk about their condition
or to understand the diagnosis provided by the doctor.
When it comes to treatment, doctors should keep in
mind that patients may not follow medical advice, either
because they have not understood it or because they do not
trust their doctor. Doctors also need to be aware that their
advice could be misinterpreted. For example, when a doctor
says, “Take one pill”, is this a single action or does it
affluence [(ÄfluEns]
Wohlstand
attitude [(ÄtItju:d]
Einstellung
bias [(baIEs]
Vorurteil(e)
mean “one pill per day”? As in all intercultural encounters,
braces [(breIsIz]
Zahnspange(n)
it pays to make your message more explicit than you
constitute sth. [(kQnstItju:t]
etw. ausmachen
cure [kjUE]
Heilmethode
would when dealing with people from your own culture.
encounter [In(kaUntE]
Begegnung
It is also important to give and get more feedback than you
germ [dZ§:m]
Keim
might normally do in order to make sure that you have understood
your patients and that they have understood you.
health care [(helT keE]
medizinische Versorgung
health practitioner
Mediziner(in), medizinische
[(helT prÄk)tIS&nE]
Fachkraft
In cultures with a high level of respect for hierarchy, the
hierarchy [(haI&rA:ki]
[wg. Aussprache]
doctor’s decision may not be questioned as easily as in a
insurance status [In(SUErEns )steItEs] Versicherungsstatus
occur [E(k§:]
auftreten
culture with lower power distance (see Business Spotlight
pay: it ~s to do sth. [peI]
es lohnt sich, etw. zu tun 2/2013). In high power-distance cultures, nurses may expect
to be given very precise instructions by their superi-
power distance [(paUE )dIstEns]
Machtdistanz
sensitive [(sensEtIv]
einfühlsam
slim [slIm]
schlank
ors and may not take the sort of initiative that might be expected
of nurses in cultures with flatter hierarchies. superior [su(pIEriE] Vorgesetzte(r) 4
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 23

■ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CULTURE AND MEDICAL CARE
Key concepts
Person- and task-orientation
When you work with people, you are inevitably involved
with both people and tasks. Different cultures differ
in their focus. While members of some cultures tend to
focus first on the task and later on the person involved,
people in other cultures need to spend time building
relationships before they focus on the task at hand.
Neither of these concepts is good or bad in itself, but it
is important to know about the preference of the person
or group you are dealing with and to adjust your behaviour
accordingly. If task-oriented people are faced with
someone who spends a lot of time trying to get to know
them (for instance, by using small talk or going out for a
meal together before doing the work), they may see
this as a waste of time and be frustrated. If someone is
person-oriented and their business partner wants to
get down to business too quickly, they may be disturbed
by what they see as a lack of interest in them personally
as well as in the relationship.
Person or task?
Acceptable? Does his culture
permit a woman to touch him?
In person-oriented cultures (see “Key concepts”, this page),
patients may expect doctors to spend time building up a
relationship by making small talk or talking about their
families rather than just concentrating on the medical aspects
of the diagnosis or treatment. In task-oriented cultures,
doctors tend to see themselves as neutral professional advisers
who concentrate on the facts, even in the case of lifethreatening
diseases. Examples of communicating bad
news to geriatric patients from different cultures are to be
found on the website of Stanford University’s School of
Medicine (see “For more information”, page 26).
Different attitudes to intimacy and modesty also have to
be taken into consideration. Is it acceptable for a Muslim
woman to undress in front of a male doctor? Can a patient
Alamy/Mauritius
adjust sth. [E(dZVst]
get down to business
[)get )daUn tE (bIznEs]
inevitably [In(evItEbli]
modesty [(mQdEsti]
etw. anpassen
zur Sache/zum Geschäftlichen
kommen
unweigerlich
Sittsamkeit
24 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

Two pills a day: or was it
one pill twice a day?
iStockphoto
Health professionals need to be aware of the cultural
background of their patients, while avoiding stereotypes
in a hospital ward be examined in public with doctors,
consultants and junior staff? These questions need to be
considered if patient satisfaction is to be guaranteed.
Normal?
What is considered to be “normal” differs widely across
cultures. What some people consider to be hysterical behaviour
will seem quite normal to others. Of course, this
is of particular importance when dealing with patients with
psychological complaints. People in different cultures have
different attitudes to pain. While the British are often
bring sb. up [)brIN (Vp]
hospital ward [(hQspIt&l wO:d]
impending [Im(pendIN]
junior staff [)dZu:niE (stA:f]
leave sth. up to sb. [)li:v (Vp tu]
midwife [(mIdwaIf]
painkiller [(peIn)kIlE]
stiff upper lip: have a ~ [)stIf )VpE (lIp]
terminally ill [)t§:mIn&li (Il]
jmdn. erziehen
Krankenstation
bevorstehend
Arzt/Ärztin im Praktikum,
Assistenzarzt/-ärztin
jmdm. etw. überlassen
Hebamme
Schmerzmittel
Haltung bewahren
todkrank
brought up not to complain about pain and to have a “stiff
upper lip”, many Americans are used to being open about
their symptoms. A midwife reports that the loud screams
accompanying childbirth, which were the cultural norm
for the patient, were interpreted by hospital staff in another
culture as an urgent need for strong painkillers.
Role of family members
The extent to which family members are involved in caring
for a patient also varies widely. In some societies, health
care is largely delegated to the state or to private institutions,
while in others, the primary responsibility lies with
the family.
What does the hospital provide and what is left up to
friends and family members to offer as support? For example,
are meals served by the hospital or is it the responsibility
of the relatives to arrange for them? What role
should the family play when caring for a terminally ill patient?
How should the impending death of the patient be
communicated?
4
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 25

n INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CULTURE AND MEDICAL CARE
Culture clues
The University of Washington Medical Center provides a
number of suggestions to help doctors treat patients from
different cultures (see “For more information”, below).
Here are some of them:
n Help your patients to feel comfortable. This may include
explaining the health-care system to them. Involve an
interpreter, if necessary. Involve family members in care
and in decisions as appropriate.
n Establish a relationship with your patients. Treat them as
they want to be treated, not how you would want to be treated.
Ask your patients how they would like to be addressed
(first name or family name?).
n Provide health information in ways your patients accept.
Find out about religious or spiritual beliefs that might have
an impact on health care.
n Maintain good communication with patients. Respect
your patients’ interpretation of their illness. Use open questions
(instead of yes/no questions) to check that you have
a common understanding.
n Show your patients respect. This involves understanding
their cultural norms: beliefs about the causes of illness, the
appropriate physical distance to be maintained, eye contact,
touching, decision-making, birth customs, food,
clothing.
Avoiding stereotypes
When treating patients from different cultural groups, it is
very important for health professionals to avoid stereotyping.
Just because people come from a particular culture or
ethnic group doesn’t necessarily mean that they are typical
members of that group. It is essential to keep three key
questions in mind when treating a patient:
n In what ways is this patient like all human beings?
n In what ways is this patient like some human beings (for
example, other members of the same culture)?
n In what ways is this person like no other human being?
Solutions
Just as people working in international business need intercultural
competence to be effective in their work, health
professionals need to be aware of the cultural background
of their patients, while at the same time avoiding stereotypes.
Sometimes, it is necessary to have help from
someone who can translate not only the language
of the patient but also the culture. Especially in
serious cases, a medical-cultural mediator can be
appropriate [E(prEUpriEt]
clue [klu:]
edit sth. [(edIt]
end-of-life care sheet
[)end Ev )laIf (keE Si:t]
family physician [)fÄmli fI(zIS&n]
health-care system
[(helT keE )sIstEm]
health professional [(helT prE)feS&nEl]
impact: have an ~ on sth.
[(ImpÄkt]
interpreter [In(t§:prItE]
resource [ri(zO:s]
senior consultant [)si:niE kEn(sVltEnt]
angebracht, situationsgerecht
Hinweis, Tipp
etw. herausgeben
etwa: Ratgeber für Sterbebegleitung
Hausarzt/-ärztin
Gesundheitswesen, medizinische
Versorgung
Mediziner(in)
eine Auswirkung auf etw.
haben
Dolmetscher(in)
hier: Informationsquelle
leitende(r) Berater(in)
essential for effective treatment. For those working under
extreme pressure and with a wide range of different
cultures, all this can be a considerable challenge. It is not
surprising that more and more training programmes for
doctors and nurses are including modules in interculturalcompetence
development.
nBS
For more information
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
n “Intercultural Competence in Health Care: Developing Skills
for Interculturally Competent Care”, Rohini Anand, Indra
Lahiri, in The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence,
edited by Darla K. Deardorff, Sage Publications, Inc.
n Medicine and Culture, Lynn Payer, Henry Holt and Company
Ltd.
n Understanding Culture’s Influence on Behavior, Richard
Brislin, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers
WEBSITES
n “Culture Clues” and “End-of-Life Care” sheets provided
by the University of Washington Medical Center:
http://depts.washington.edu/pfes/CultureClues.htm
n Management Sciences for Health site: http://erc.msh.org
n Video case studies on intercultural health care provided
by the Stanford University School of Medicine: http://
geriatrics.stanford.edu/video
n Web-based resources for cross-cultural medicine are provided
by the journals of the American Academy of Family
Physicians: www.aafp.org
Listen to Robert Gibson on Business Spotlight Audio
plus You’ll find a related quiz in Business Spotlight plus
www Read Robert Gibson’s blog at www.business-spotlight.de/blogs
ROBERT GIBSON is a senior consultant for intercultural
business competence at Siemens AG in Munich
(www.siemens.com) and the author of Intercultural
Business Communication (Cornelsen). Contact:
gibson.rob@siemens.com
26 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

LOOKING BACK INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION ■
“Croatians are often critical of everyone and everything
— especially of those in power”
MAJA SIROLA ON PEOPLE AND POLITICS IN CROATIA
medium
We are our
worst enemy!
In dieser Kolumne berichten unsere Mitarbeiter über ihre Heimatländer.
MAJA SIROLA wirft einen Blick auf die Politik und Wirtschaft Kroatiens und
die Zustände im Land vor dem EU-Beitritt im Laufe dieses Jahres.
Shortly before Croatia’s last parliamentary
elections, in December 2011,
I visited Dubrovnik. In a country of
just 4 million people, I counted more
than 100 parties, representing interest
groups as diverse as peasants, pensioners,
minorities and various regions.
An alliance of four centre-left parties
won the election. The alliance
calls itself “Kukuriku” because it was
founded in a restaurant of the same
name near my home town, Rijeka.
“Kukuriku” is the sound a cock
makes at dawn. Was this meant to be
symbolic of a new beginning?
Croatia’s economy has been hit
hard by the recession. Unemployment
is currently 22 per cent, and the country’s
credit rating has been downgraded
to “junk”. The average wage
is around €700 a month, most of
which is spent on food and rent. To
alliance [E(laIEns]
charge [tSA:dZ]
credit rating [(kredIt )reItIN]
dawn: at ~ [dO:n]
downgrade sth. [)daUn(greId]
embarrassment: be an ~ to sb. [Im(bÄrEsmEnt]
entry [(entri]
extended family [Ik)stendId (fÄmli]
found sth. [faUnd]
Hague: The ~ [(heIg]
junk [dZVNk] ifml.
peasant [(pez&nt]
reshuffle [(ri:)SVf&l]
resign [ri(zaIn]
tribunal [traI(bju:n&l]
reduce living expenses, over 20 per
cent of Croatians live in an extendedfamily
household.
While in Dubrovnik, I could see how
fresh the wounds still are from the
War of Independence (1991–95).
Candles were lit everywhere in memory
of the fallen. It was the 20th anniversary
of the Battle of Vukovar —
a town in eastern Croatia that was
destroyed by Serbian forces. And, last
November, General Ante Gotovina,
who was commander of the military
operations that put an end to the
war, was given a hero’s welcome in
Zagreb. He had just been cleared of
all charges by the war-crimes tribunal
in The Hague. In his short speech, he
called on all citizens of Croatia, regardless
of their nationality and religion,
to live together in peace.
Bündnis
Anklage, Beschuldigung
Kreditwürdigkeit, Bonität
bei Tagesanbruch
etw. herabstufen
jmdm. peinlich sein
Beitritt
Großfamilie
etw. gründen
Den Haag
Ramsch
Bauer/Bäuerin
Umbesetzung, Umbildung
zurücktreten
Gericht(shof)
There is a tendency among Croatians
to be critical of everyone and
everything — especially of those in
power. This attitude can also be seen
in sports. If we are winning or successful,
then we are the best in the
world. But as soon as we don’t do as
well as expected, we are simply useless.
And then there are Croatia’s football
hooligans, whose nationalism and
racism are an embarrassment to the
whole country. As my brother often
says: “We are our own worst enemy!”
AFP/Getty Images
National pride: football is more than just a sport
Since the last election, the Kukuriku
alliance has come under pressure.
There have been personal arguments
and scandals, including one involving
a former minister, Radimir Čacic, ˇ ´
who had to resign after having caused
a car accident in Hungary, in which
two people were killed. A recent ministerial
reshuffle is a step in the right
direction, but much more is needed to
prepare Croatia for a smooth entry
into the EU on 1 July. ■BS
MAJA SIROLA was born in Croatia but
went to school in Italy, Croatia and England,
and to university in Slovenia. She
settled in Germany in 1991 and has
since taken German citizenship.
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 27

n INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION TRAVEL TIPS
Where to go and what to do
medium
Sie planen eine Geschäfts- oder Urlaubsreise? SARAH GOUGH empfiehlt Ihnen Orte und Ereignisse, die
Sie nicht verpassen sollten, und gibt Ihnen noch weitere interessante Informationen.
What’s on?
n All eyes are on Northern Ireland. The
1,400-year-old walled city of Derry-
Londonderry, once a hotbed of the
Troubles, is UK City of Culture 2013.
The town’s history, culture and people
will be celebrated with a year of exhibitions,
films, theatre, dance, music
and sporting events. One of the many
highlights will be the Fleadh Cheoil
na hÉireann, a national festival of
Irish music. This is the first time since
its creation, in 1951, that the yearly
event will take place in Northern Ireland
(11–18 August). www.cityofculture2013.com
Idyllic: Lough Erne
Resort in Enniskillen
Also in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister David
Cameron will host the 39th G8 summit at the beautiful
Lough Erne Resort, in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh
(17–18 June). The resort has a championship
golf course. www.lougherneresort.com
n The year-long Viva Florida 500 festival celebrates Florida’s
“discovery” by explorer Juan Ponce de León in
1513, who claimed the land for Spain. The organizers
want to show “Florida’s native heritage and 500 years
of influence by peoples from Spain, France, Great
Britain, Africa and the Caribbean”. For more information,
go to www.visitflorida.com/viva
Luxury flat: all the comforts of home
Places to stay
Exclusive
The idea is simple: to live
like a local while abroad by
staying in someone else’s
home. The rental company
onefinestay offers luxurious
properties in London and
New York, in a wide variety of locations. You can choose a
flat with a terrace, a loft or a house with garden, and enjoy
maid service and other comforts. www.onefinestay.com
Budget
Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards are “best of” lists
put together from users’ ratings. In the budget category,
some of this year’s winners are Lauriston Court Hotel in
Llandudno, Wales; Clark’s Sunny Isle Motel in Summerside
(Prince Edward Island, Canada); and the Sea Coast Inn in
Hyannis (Cape Cod, Massachusetts). www.tripadvisor.com
28 www.business-spotlight.de
DID YOU KNOW?
Have you heard of the global greeter network? These
enthusiastic, friendly volunteers will take you around
their city, showing you their favourite places. Choose
a themed tour or let the greeter know what you are especially
interested in. The idea was born in New York
in 1992 and the network now has greeters in 45
places, from Adelaide, Australia, to Chicago, Illinois.
The tours are free. www.globalgreeternetwork.info
Caribbean: the ~ [)kÄrE(bi:En] die Karibik
championship golf course Meisterschaftsgolfplatz
[)tSÄmpjEnSIp (gQlf kO:s]
claim sth. for sb. [(kleIm fO:] etw. für jmdn. beanspruchen
exhibition [)eksI(bIS&n]
Ausstellung
greeter [(gri:tE]
hier: Fremdenführer(in)
host sth. [hEUst]
Gastgeber(in) von etw. sein
hotbed [(hQtbed]
Brutstätte, Nährboden
inn [In]
Gasthaus
maid [meId]
Hausangestellte
native heritage [)neItIv (herItIdZ] Vermächtnis der Urbevölkerung
property [(prQpEti]
Immobilie
rating [(reItIN]
Bewertung
summit [(sVmIt]
Gipfel(treffen)
themed [Ti:md]
thematisch ausgerichtet
Troubles: the ~ [(trVb&lz] Unruhen in Nordirland
volunteer [)vQlEn(tIE]
ehrenamtliche(r) Mitarbeiter(in)

Books
Detroit’s tech renewal is the subject of our article on pages 80–81. But a lot
of the downtown area still lies in ruins. Here is a selection of photography
books featuring the “ruin porn” discussed in the article: The Ruins of Detroit
by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre (Steidl); Detroit: 138 Square Miles by
Julia Reyes Taubman (D.A.P.); Detroit Disassembled by Andrew
Moore (Damiani); and Lost Detroit by Sean Doerr (History Press).
Detroit City Is the Place to Be, by Mark Binelli (Henry Holt), describes
the city’s history since the 1950s.
alliance [E(laIEns]
disassembled [)dIsE(semb&ld]
feature sth. [(fi:tSE]
fixed rate [)fIkst (reIt]
make a move [)meIk E (mu:v]
ruin porn [(ru:In pO:n] non-stand.
rush [rVS]
rush hour [(rVS aUE]
scatterbrain [(skÄtEbreIn]
school run [(sku:l rVn]
stay over [)steI (EUvE]
tech renewal
[(tek ri)nju:El]
walk sb. (to a place)
[(wO:k]
Bündnis
zerlegt, demontiert
etw. behandeln
Festpreis
sich auf den Weg machen
Bilder des Verfalls
sich beeilen
Hauptverkehrs-, Stoßzeit
zerstreute Person, Schussel
Fahren der Schulbusse
über Nacht bleiben
hier: Erneuerung durch
Technologie-Gründerzentren
jmdn. zu Fuß (zu einem Ort)
begleiten
App
Atlas by Collins: Download
interactive themed globes
for offline use. There are
satellite and 3D physical
maps but also energy,
communications, political and population maps. Click
your way through a wide range of information, including
migration trends, birth rates, mobile-phone usage, energy
use, political alliances and historical maps. For
iPad2, iPhone4 and above. http://atlasbycollins.com
English on the Move
Saying goodbye
Die Verhandlungen sind beendet. Sie verabschieden sich und
nehmen ein Taxi zum Flughafen. KEN TAYLOR hilft Ihnen dabei.
easy
BranX pictures
Sabine: I know I’m a scatterbrain but I’m not that bad!
Mark: Sorry! I take three kids to school every morning before
work and you know what they’re like. Let me walk you to the
taxi.
At the end of the meeting
Mark: That was a really good meeting, don’t you think?
Sabine: It certainly was. And I know the Hamburg office will
be pleased with the results.
Mark: Do you have time for a coffee before you leave?
Sabine: I’m afraid not, Mark. I’ll miss my flight. I’ve got a taxi
ordered for a quarter past four and it’s almost half past now!
Mark: Don’t worry. The traffic shouldn’t be too bad at this
time of day. It’ll take you about 30 minutes to get to the airport
from here.
Sabine: Hasn’t the rush hour started yet?
Mark: It’s just starting now. But the school run is over. That’s
almost as bad.
Sabine: OK. I should make a move.
Mark: Have you got everything — coat, hat, laptop… ?
At the reception
Receptionist: Ms Braun? Your taxi is waiting outside. It was
to Terminal One, wasn’t it?
Sabine: Yes, that’s right. And it’s a fixed rate, isn’t it?
Receptionist: It’s £40 plus any tip you want to give.
Sabine: About ten per cent?
Receptionist: That would be fine.
Mark: I’ll say goodbye here, then.
Sabine: Thanks so much. Hope to see you in Hamburg soon.
Mark: You’ll be back here in a couple of months, won’t you?
Sabine: That’s right.
Mark: Well, next time, if you stay over, come and have dinner
with June and me.
Sabine: Great, I’d love to. Thanks. I’d better rush! Bye for
now!
nBS
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 29

A sixth
sense
Beim schnellen Aufbau von beruflichen Beziehungen zu Menschen, die wir
nicht näher kennen, hilft oft ein sechster Sinn. Entscheidend ist aber auch
das ganz konkrete Vorgehen, wie BOB DIGNEN erklärt.
medium
Mauritius Images

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BUSINESS SKILLS n
In the increasingly complex global business world, we
have to interact with more and more people, but
often less frequently and only superficially. At the
same time, we have to deliver results together to tight
deadlines. Building effective working relationships
quickly has therefore become both more necessary and
much more challenging.
Indeed, we need to develop a completlely new talent —
a kind of sixth sense for people. This includes an ability to
figure people out fast, whether it’s in a project meeting, on
the phone or during a brief chat in the corridor. Being able
to suss people out quickly is a business competence close
to the skills of speed dating. We need to understand other
people’s mindsets, talents, prejudices and needs fast. We
then have to decide how to communicate and interact as
effectively as possible with them.
In this article, we explore this sixth sense and how to
connect to others quickly. Before you read further, think
about how you would answer the following questions:
n What aspects should we observe in other people in
order to understand them better?
n What different styles of thinking and communicating
are there?
n What strategies can you use to build good relationships
with others?
n How can we encourage people to be open with us,
so that we can learn about them more quickly?
As you read on, compare your answers with the points that
are made in the article.
A learning cycle
Many people love to play the role of amateur psychologist,
analysing their colleagues and clients. But developing a
sixth sense is not about making these kinds of judgements,
which are often too confident and categorical. Human beings
are highly complex, and most of us struggle to understand
even ourselves, let alone other people. So although
we often need to make quick judgements, we also have to
recognize that these are superficial — and should therefore
commit to the following four-step learning cycle:
Interact
¬
¬
Observe
A
learning
cycle
Strategize
¬ ¬
Assess
Step 1: Observe
To understand others, we first need to observe them and
to collect information. But what should we observe? A useful
image is that of an iceberg, which is frequently used in
intercultural training. Some aspects of other people’s behaviour
and personality are clearly visible, for example, the
words they use, their tone of voice and their body language.
But many aspects — possibly, like with an iceberg,
the majority — are less obvious, such as their beliefs or
motivations.
If we think of other people as icebergs, we can create a
framework of questions to discover more about their invisible
depths (see box below). And as we observe more
closely, ask questions and listen carefully, we can begin to
draw some initial conclusions. 4
Visible aspects
Invisible aspects
Framework of questions
QUESTION
What do they say?
How do they say it?
What do they do?
How do they do it?
What don’t they say?
What do they think?
What do they feel?
What do they want?
What do they believe?
Who are they?
amateur [(ÄmEtE]
assess (sth./sb.) [E(ses]
attitude [(ÄtItju:d]
brief [bri:f]
challenging [(tSÄlIndZIN]
commit to sth. [kE(mIt]
figure sb. out [)fIgEr (aUt]
framework [(freImw§:k]
initial conclusions: draw some ~
[I)nIS&l kEn(klu:Z&nz]
learning cycle [(l§:nIN )saIk&l]
let alone [)let E(lEUn]
mindset [(maIndset]
mood [mu:d]
objective [Eb(dZektIv]
paralinguistic
[)pÄrElIN(gwIstIk]
prejudice [(predZudIs]
strategize [(strÄtEdZaIz] US
superficially [)su:pE(fIS&li]
suss sb. out [)sVs (aUt] UK ifml.
visible [(vIzEb&l]
ASPECT
Verbal behaviour
Paralinguistic
behaviour
Actions and
skills shown
Working style
Non-verbal
behaviour
Opinions and
attitudes
Emotions and moods
Objectives, needs
and motivations
Values, principles
and beliefs
Sense of identity
[wg. Aussprache]
(etw./jmdn.) beurteilen, einschätzen
Einstellung
kurz
schwierig
sich auf etw. einlassen
sich ein Bild von jmdm.
machen
Rahmen; hier: Katalog
erste Schlüsse ziehen
Lernzyklus
ganz zu schweigen von
Mentalität
Stimmung, Laune
Ziel(setzung)
paralinguistisch, sprachbegleitend
Vorurteil
eine Strategie entwerfen
oberflächlich
jmdm. auf den Zahn fühlen
sichtbar
Hemera
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 31

n BUSINESS SKILLS BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Forming an opinion: try to
judge others accurately
Step 2: Assess
After observing people, we need to be
able to assess them in a quick and effective
way. To do so, it is useful to have
some kind of model or framework. In
professional settings, many psychometric
models are used to profile people,
such as the Myers-Briggs or Team Management
System (TMS) models (see
“For more information” on page 34).
But such complex frameworks don’t
really help us to assess others when we
meet them briefly and there is no opportunity
to get them to complete a detailed
questionnaire.
One simple tool is the “Diversity Icebreaker”,
developed by Bjørn Z. Ekelund of Human Factors
in Norway (see “For more information” on page 34).
Ekelund is a psychologist who has worked for more than
25 years in management consulting. The tool identifies
three fundamental styles of thinking and communicating
— called “Blue”, “Red” and “Green” — with the following
characteristics:
Blue
cautious
concrete
fact-oriented
logical
practical
precise
organized
loyal
Red
easy-going
emotional
empathetic
harmonious
sensitive
sociable
warm
Green
creative
impatient
independent
philosophical
provocative
visionary
Source: Human Factors AS (www.human.factors.no)
Ekelund says that, although everyone has all three styles
inside them and is capable of using them all, one style normally
dominates. Test your own ability to assess people using
this model. Decide which type of person — Blue, Red
or Green — is most likely to do each of the following. Then
compare your answers with those in the key on page 34.
a) Act independently to come up with a strategic plan
b) Say in meetings that the discussion needs to focus more
on the current situation
c) Argue and defend their position quite aggressively
d) Ask if others would like some coffee
e) Point out that it’s time for the next item on the agenda
f) Insist that research is done before a decision is taken
g) Fall asleep when figures are discussed in detail
h) Give positive feedback
i) Stress the impact of changes on the team
j) Ask what happens next and when
Judging people too quickly is risky. We have different
moods at different times and we each have our own psychological
and cultural filters. We often see the positive in
people who comfort our own sense of identity, and feel aggressive
towards those who threaten it. A few simple rules
will help you to improve your ability to judge accurately:
n Know what mood you are in when assessing others (bad
moods don’t lead to accurate judgements).
n Manage negative perceptions carefully (you may be guilty of
“projection” — blaming others for the faults you don’t
want to admit in yourself).
n Be wary of positive perceptions (you may like the person
simply because they are like you).
n Back up initial perceptions (by asking for second opinions).
Step 3: Strategize
Now comes the hard part: to come up with a strategy for
communicating and interacting with others in a way that
engages and motivates them — and helps us to deliver the
agenda [E(dZendE]
argue sth. [(A:gju:]
back sth. up [)bÄk (Vp]
cautious [(kO:SEs]
come up with sth. [)kVm (Vp wID]
diversity [daI(v§:sEti]
easy-going [)i:zi (gEUIN]
empathetic [)empE(TetIk]
engage sb. [In(geIdZ]
impact [(ImpÄkt]
item [(aItEm]
management consulting
[(mÄnIdZmEnt kEn)sVltIN]
perception [pE(sepS&n]
point sth. out [)pOInt (aUt]
questionnaire [)kwestSE(neE]
research [ri(s§:tS]
sensitive [(sensEtIv]
setting [(setIN]
sociable [(sEUSEb&l]
stress sth. [stres]
wary: be ~ of sth. [(weEri]
Tagesordnung
für etw. argumentieren
etw. untermauern
vorsichtig
sich etw. ausdenken
Verschiedenheit, Vielfalt
locker, unkompliziert
empathisch, einfühlsam
jmdn. beteiligen
Auswirkung(en)
(Tagesordnungs-)Punkt
Unternehmens-, Managementberatung
Wahrnehmung
auf etw. hinweisen
Fragebogen
Recherche(n)
sensibel
Rahmen, Umfeld
kontaktfreudig, umgänglich
etw. betonen
vor etw. auf der Hut sein
Stockbyte
32 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

50
43
42
41
9/ 1
40
Joe DiMa gio Highway
46
Gr enwich Str et
Hudson Str et
West Broadway
Church Str et
Pike Str et
38
St.
Mo t St.
famous for?
America
Mulbe ry
47
Varick Str et
37
Bowery
39
Orchard St.
Mo t St.
Mulbe ry St.
Gr enwich Str et
Eleventh Avenue(West Side Highway)
34
Broadway
Lafaye te Str et
1st Avenue
Avenue A
Avenue B
Avenue C
Avenue D
Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive
36
3
35
3rd Avenue
2nd Avenue
Fifth Avenue
Park
32
1st Avenue
Broadway
24 05
31
30
26 29
Park Avenue
Lexington Avenue
park
28
Eighth Avenue
R osevelt Drive
Twelfth Avenue
Broadway
26
25
Seventh Avenue
27
Fifth Avenue
Madison Avenue
Park Avenue
Lexington Avenue
3rd Avenue
2nd Avenue
Franklin D.
1st Avenue
21st Str et
24
23
2
Eleventh Avenue
Tenth Avenue
Ninth Avenue
20
21
18
Eighth Avenue
17
15
19
16
14
0
Broadway
9
1
Central Park West
10
48
Lexington Avenue
12
13
The
Lake
3rd Avenue
2nd Avenue
1st Avenue
York Avenue
4
Broadway
2
8
Museum Mile
1
3
Madison Avenue
Park Avenue
6
7
Riverside Park
5
West End Avenue
Amsterdam Avenue
Columbus Avenue
Central Park West
We
1st Avenue
3rd Avenue
2nd Avenue
Museum Mile
desired results. This does not necessarily mean simply being nice to someone
or accepting their behaviours and values. Here are some strategies you
can use:
Spielend New York
entdecken und
Englisch lernen!
a) Adapt. This is the approach usually recommended by management trainers.
There is a strong logic to adapting: being flexible is an attempt to make
others feel more comfortable and more motivated to cooperate. Look at
the following opposites drawn from the Diversity Icebreaker model. In
which direction on each dimension do you need to show more flexibility
to the different people you work with?
cautious
harmonious
logical
practical
precise
sociable
impatient
provocative
emotional
philosophical
visionary
independent
b) Blend. Blending means developing a communication style that keeps the
best dimensions of your natural style, while integrating components from
other styles. For example, you might prefer to state the truth clearly and
directly. Honesty is likely to be a shared value and should thus be retained.
But in some situations, you may need to adapt your style so that you don’t
seem rude or disrespectful. Instead of saying, “You’re absolutely wrong”,
you could say, “I understand your point of view but the facts are very different”.
In other situations, it may be all right for you to be direct, as long
as others understand that your directness is an expression of honesty.
c) Co-create. This involves discussions with others in order to develop a
common communication and working culture, with agreed norms. This
sounds attractive, but it can be very difficult in practice. It works best if
you keep the number of agreed norms to a minimum and check regularly
to make sure that everyone is practising what they agreed.
d) Divide. This could be a spoken or unspoken agreement to vary the way
things are done. For example: “We do it your way in your country. We do
it my way in my country.” Or: “In finance meetings, we talk detail. In marketing
meetings, we try to look at the big ideas.”
e) Enforce. It can happen that people upset others at work, don’t listen, act
selfishly, deliver late and shirk responsibility. Many forms of behaviour,
attitudes and values can be destructive in the workplace. Unfortunately,
4
FINANCIAL
DISTRICT
High Str et
5
Wa l Str et
Br oklyn Bridge Park
6
North
Cove
Marina
Wa l Str et &
NYSE
South Str et Seaport
Water Str et
7
C
Memorial
Fulton Str et
Br oklyn Bridge
Manha tan Bridge
Vesey Str et
0 1 km
South Str et Viaduct
8
Statue of
Liberty
City Ha l
9
Chambers Str et
Park Row
Madison Str et
QUESTIONS
What is the street ca led Broadway
famous for?
a) having the ta lest buildings in
America
b) its large number of theaters and
playhouses (Schauspielhaus)
c) dividing the city between uptown
and downtown
QUESTIONS
D
Che ry Str et
Governors Island
CHINATOWN
East
Broadway
A
TRIBECA
Canal Str et
Lafaye te Str et
East Broadway
Madison Str et
LITTLE
ITALY
Orchard Str et &
Tenement
Museum
© 2010 Gru be Media GmbH
©
Canal Str et
QUESTIONS
What is the street ca led Broadway
a) having the ta lest buildings in
b) its large number of theaters and
playhouses (Schauspielhaus )
c) dividing the city between uptown
and downtown
What is the street ca led Broadway
famous for?
a) having the ta lest buildings in
America
b) its large number of theaters and
playhouses (Schauspielhaus)
c) dividing the city between uptown
and downtown
What was once located at Manha tan’s
“Ground Zero”?
a) New York’s first bank
b) a large lake
c) the World Trade Center
What was once located at Manha tan’s
“Ground Zero”?
a) New York’s first bank
b) a large lake
c) the World Trade Center
What was once located at Manha tan’s
“Ground Zero”?
a) New York’s first bank
b) a large lake
c) the World Trade Center
Canal Str et
LOWER EAST
SIDE
Grand Str et
E lis Island
Br oklyn-Ba tery
Tu nel
Grand Str et
Ho land Tu nel
Canal Str et
Br ome Str et
Wi liamsburg Bridge
E
Delancey St.
SOHO
Spring Street
B
Broadway-
Lafaye te St.
Prince Str et
East Houston Str et
West Houston Str et
LOWER
MANHATTAN
Bl ecker Str et
East 4th Str et
EAST VILLAGE
F
ANSWERS
b) its large number of theaters and
playhouses
Some 17 miles (27 kilometers) long,
Broadway is one of the longest streets
in Manha tan, and it continues on
into the Bronx. The part of Broadway
between 41st and 53rd Streets is the
Theater District, which has more than
40 theaters.
c) the World Trade Center
This important center of international
business was destroyed in the te rorist
a tacks on September 11, 2001. Genera
ly, “ground zero” is a place where a
big explosion has happened.
Hudson River
Christopher St.
4th Str et
Tompkins
Square Park
Washington
Square Park
St. Mark’s
Place
Christopher Str et
GREENWICH
VILLAGE
Gr enwich Avenue
Subway
(ausgewählte Linien)
Lines A & C
Lines 4 & 5
Line F
Roosevelt Island
Tramway
C
Roosevelt Island is a quiet spot
in New York City, lying between
Manhattan and Queens in the
East River. The aerial tramway,
which was built by a Swiss company,
looks like a big cable car.
I takes commuters (Pendler(in) )
and tourists from Manhattan to
Roosevelt Island and back. For
the same price as the train, the
four-minute trip offers a fantastic
view of the Manhattan skyline
and the East River.
M
2
1 | Bronx Zoo &
Botanical Garden
H
8
Gansev ort Str et
6th Avenue
14th Str et
East 14th Str et
15 | Roosevelt Island
Tramway
G
Union Square
14th Str et
West 14th Str et
MEATPACKING
DISTRICT
GRAMERCY
PARK
East 18th Str et
Union Square
West 18th Str et
Flatiron
Building
0 1 km
D
East 23rd Str et
CHELSEA
Hotel Chelsea
Madison
Square
Park
NEW YORK CITY
H
Chelsea Piers
West 23rd Str et
Avenue of the Americas
East River
BROOKLYN
E
High Line
Madison
Square
Garden
West 30th Str et
Empire State
Building
East 34th Str et
34th Str et
Pe n Station
34th Str et
I
West 34th Str et
GARMENT
DISTRICT
Qu ens-
Midtown Tu nel
Macy’s
Long Island Expre sway
F
Port
Authority
Bus
Terminal
West 40th Str et
West 42nd Str et
Avenue of the Americas
Grand
Central
Station
Chrysler
Building
United Nations
Jackson
Avenue
Lincoln Tu nel
THEATER
DISTRICT
Times
Square
MIDTOWN
TURTLE
BAY
MoMA PS1
J
Intrepid Sea, Air &
Space Museum
Twelfth Avenue
Rockefe ler
Center
Saks Fifth Avenue
Waldorf-
Astoria
& St. Bart’s
QUEENS
G
47th–50th
Str ets
East 50th Str et
MoMA
Radio City Music Ha l
St. Patrick’s
You take the Metro-North
train from Connecticut and
arrive at Grand Central Station.
Starting point:
Grand Central Station
East 53rd Str et
STATEN
ISLAND
West 50th Str et
Vernon Blvd.
21st Str et
Coney 49 10 km
Island
Brighton Beach
NYC
Pa senger
Ship
Terminal
R osevelt
Island Tramway
Silvercup Studios
K
West 53rd Str et
East 57th Str et
Carnegie Ha l
Trump
Tower
Plaza
Hotel
Ti fany & Co.
59th
Str et
Qu ensboro Bridge
FAO
Schwarz
East 59th Str et
R osevelt
Island
H
West 57th Str et
Central Park South
59th Str et
Columbus Circle
A ple Store
Lexington
Avenue
63rd Str et
Bl omingdale’s
BROOKLYN
John F. Ke nedy
International Airport
Lincoln
Center
East 65th Str et
L
(East River Drive)
R osevelt
Island
Central Park Z o
UPPER
EAST
SIDE
I
West 6th Str et
Central
Park
Flushing
Meadows
Corona
Park
QUEENS
UPPER
WEST
SIDE
East 72nd Str et
MANHATTAN
Frick Co lection
Bethesda
Fountain
West 72nd Str et
M
The Apo lo
LaGuardia
Airport
Strawbe ry Fields
& The Dakota
Franklin D. R osevelt Drive
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ARRIVAL
H
6
Carlyle
Hotel
7th Str et
J
East 79th Str et
Yank e Stadium
American
Museum of
Natural
History
1
The Cloisters
Bronx Z o &
Botanical Garden
Metropolitan
Museum of Art
YORKVILLE
THE
BRONX
81st Str et
2
East 86th Str et
Gracie Mansion &
Carl Schurz Park
K
3
West 86th Str et
Jacqueline
Ke nedy Ona sis
Reservoir
Gu genheim
Museum
4
East 96th Str et
5
L
96th Str et
97th Str et
6
West 96th Str et
7
103rd Str et
East 106th Str et
8
9
M
adapt [E(dÄpt]
approach [E(prEUtS]
blend [blend]
component [kEm(pEUnEnt]
deliver [di(lIvE]
enforce sth. [In(fO:s]
retain sth. [ri(teIn]
rude [ru:d]
selfishly [(selfISli]
shirk responsibility [)S§:k ri)spQnsE(bIlEti]
upset sb. [)Vp(set]
sich anpassen
Herangehensweise
hier: verschiedene Kommunikationsarten
vermischen
Element
hier: Vorgaben erfüllen
etw. durchsetzen
etw. beibehalten
unhöflich
eigennützig
sich vor der Verantwortung drücken
jmdn. aufregen, verärgern
JETZT BESTELLEN!
www.sprachenshop.de/spiele
oder im Buch- und Spielwarenhandel
3 29,95 (UVP)
Ebenfalls lieferbar:
3/2013

n BUSINESS SKILLS BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Digital Vision
some of the people involved are immune to feedback or
coaching. One solution, if you have the authority, is simply
to enforce your own expectations on them. This is not
pleasant but it is an approach that may be necessary at
times.
Step 4: Interact
Next, you have to use your selected strategy to communicate
with colleagues, and to see how they respond. Do people
react positively to your style? Do they listen and take
your ideas on board? Do they understand your priorities
and needs? Do they deliver on agreed targets? If you are
getting a significant number of negative answers to these
questions, there are a number of possible explanations:
n Your assessment of the other person could be incorrect. You
need to observe them more closely, understand their communication
style and develop a new strategy.
n Your assessment was correct but your strategy is not working.
Perhaps your calculated flexibility is seen as superficial or
weak. Maybe your intended toughness is seen as disrespectful.
Think again and try something different.
n There could be hidden factors driving this person’s behaviour
— psychological, cultural or organizational. People may
appear open and collaborative, yet in reality, live in a very
different world. This dissonance may become clear only
over time. Cultural differences can also appear suddenly.
Globally, we use common terminology, such as “leader”,
“decision” and “urgent”. But words mean different things
to different people and in different places. Finally, you may
be underestimating the negative influence of other people
in the background, such as the other person’s boss.
Knowing me, knowing you
Getting to know others is a challenging process. But we
can make the task easier if we model the openness and
transparency we wish to see. If we make ourselves easier
to know and to trust, we may inspire others to be more
transparent with us about who they are, how they think
and feel, and how they best like to work together. Here are
four ideas for how to inspire openness in relationships:
n Show your competence. If people understand what you are
good at, they are more likely to respect and trust you.
For more information
Teamwork: talk about things you have in common
n Talk about things you have in common with other people.
Beginning with safe ground allows you to approach aspects
of problematic diversity more confidently at a later
date.
n Offer support for people. If others sense that you care about
them, they are more likely to confide in you.
n Don’t keep secrets. Share information and your inner
thoughts freely. This can encourage others to show their
feelings and share their insights.
n Ask for feedback about your communication style. This encourages
others to think about your working relationship.
Modern organizations throw people together in the most
challenging and contradictory circumstances. Other people
can be puzzling, fascinating, inspiring and frustrating.
The trick is to observe, assess, work with different strategies,
interact and try to keep learning. As you do this, you
will develop a sixth sense for people that allows you to
build relationships and take smart decisions faster nBS
BOOKS
n The Art of Profiling: Reading People Right the First Time,
Dan Korem (International Focus Press)
n Figuring Out People: Reading People Using Meta-Programs,
L. Michael Hall, Bob G. Bodenhamer (Neuro-Semantic
Publications)
WEBSITES
n For more information about the “Diversity Icebreaker” model,
see: www.diversityicebreaker.com
n Find out about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators: www.
myersbriggs.org
n Learn more about Team Management Systems (TMS):
www.tms.com.au
n Read about David Kolb’s learning theory, which inspired
some of the ideas in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
David_A._Kolb
approach sth. [E(prEUtS]
assessment [E(sesmEnt]
circumstances [(s§:kEm)stÄnsIz]
collaborative [kE(lÄbErEtIv]
confide [kEn(faId]
contradictory [)kQntrE(dIktEri]
insights [(InsaIts]
model sth. [(mQd&l]
on board: take sth. ~ [)Qn (bO:d] ifml.
puzzling [(pVz&lIN]
safe ground [)seIf (graUnd]
smart [smA:t]
target [(tA:gIt]
an etw. herangehen
Beurteilung, Einschätzung
Umstände
kooperativ
vertrauen
widersprüchlich
Einsichten; hier: Gedankenwelt
ein Beispiel für etw. geben
hier: etw. annehmen
rätselhaft
sicheres Terrain
klug
Ziel(vorgabe)
Do exercises on this topic on Business Spotlight Audio
www Watch our Business with Bob series of videos for more tips on
how to improve your communication skills: www.businessspotlight.de/videos/bob
BOB DIGNEN is a director of York Associates
(www.york-associates.co.uk), which specializes in language,
communication and intercultural training. He
is the author of many business English books, including
Effective International Business Communication
(Collins). Contact: bob.dignen@york-associates.co.uk
Answers to “Assessing people”, p. 32: Blue: b, e, f, j; Red: d, h, i; Green: a, c, g
34 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

SURVIVAL GUIDE BUSINESS SKILLS n
Building relationships
Here are some suggestions for the language you could use to build relationships. However, you
should use only the language that you feel comfortable with in your work situations. medium
1. Using questions to learn about others
Asking questions is an excellent way to discover more about
what is important to other people.
Finding out opinions and feelings
n What’s your opinion on this?
n How do you feel about this?
n Is this idea convincing to you or do you still have doubts?
Understanding motivation, values and principles
n What’s the most important part of this for you?
n What really matters to you here?
n To what extent is this a question of principle for you?
Clarifying work objectives
n What is the main objective for you here?
n What is your priority: cost or quality?
n What do you want from all this?
Negotiating working processes
n How would you prefer to do this?
n Who should do what?
n Shall we begin by… ?
2. Inspiring openness in others
If others feel intimidated by too many questions, try giving
information about yourself to encourage them to be open
towards you.
Showing competence
n I have some knowledge in this area. I was responsible for…
n I have quite a bit of experience in this from my time at…
achievable [E(tSi:vEb&l]
agenda [E(dZendE]
anxious [(ÄNkSEs]
approach [E(prEUtS]
big picture: the ~
[)bIg (pIktSE]
brief sb. on sth. [(bri:f Qn]
clarify sth. [(klÄrEfaI]
commonality [)kQmE(nÄlEti]
grounded: be ~ [(graUndId]
intimidated [In(tImIdeItId]
negotiate sth. [nI(gEUSieIt]
objective [Eb(dZektIv]
target [(tA:gIt]
update [(VpdeIt]
erreichbar, praktikabel
Tagesordnung
besorgt
Herangehensweise
Gesamtperspektive, das
große Ganze
jmdn. (kurz) über etw.
informieren
etw. klarstellen
Gemeinsamkeit
gute Sachkenntnisse haben
eingeschüchtert
etw. aushandeln, über etw.
verhandeln
Ziel(setzung)
Ziel(vorgabe)
hier: neueste Informationen
Identifying commonalities
n That’s interesting. I have also worked in…
n I think we have the same approach here.
n I agree with you that…
Offering support
n If you need any help with…
n Would you like me to… ?
n Just let me know if you need help.
Sharing information and feelings
n Can I just brief you on… ?
n I’ve received an update on…
n I’m feeling worried/anxious/confident/frustrated about...
Asking for feedback
n How are you finding the team so far?
n Is there anything you need me to change to make your life
easier?
n How do you feel about the way we work together?
3. Applying the Diversity Icebreaker model
Learn to communicate effectively with different types of
people.
“Blue” type
Be grounded, practical and well prepared. Talk about details
and achievable targets with a clear cost-benefit focus:
n I’ve prepared a detailed agenda.
n The real benefit of this idea is…
n To be more specific, the actual cost is…
“Red” type
Be personal and enthusiastic. Focus on people and relationships.
Show consideration and trust:
n How do you feel about this?
n I’m interested to hear your opinion about this.
n I think your idea is really good because…
“Green” type
Give positive feedback on new and alternative ideas. Allow
others time to reflect on the big picture without focusing too
quickly on details:
n That sounds like a good idea. Tell me more.
n How could we do this differently?
n Shall we take a few minutes to brainstorm? nBS
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 35

n BUSINESS SKILLS TOOLBOX
Three questions about questions
In dieser Rubrik nutzt KEN TAYLOR seine Erfahrungen, die er in vielen Organisationen und in
verschiedenen Ländern sammeln konnte, und beantwortet häufig gestellte Fragen zur
Kommunikation im internationalen Geschäftsleben.
medium
iStockphoto (2)
1. Is it better to use open or closed
questions in social conversation?
It depends on what you want to ask.
Open questions are useful for moving
the conversation along and for creating
an active dialogue. For this, we often use
the “w” question words: Why? When? What?
Which? Where? Who? And hoW? These questions offer
your partner the chance to give a fuller answer. This
will provide you with more information on which to
base your next question:
n What are your plans over the weekend?
n Where did you go on your holiday?
n How did you find out about our company?
Closed questions are useful for checking or confirming
information:
n Did you arrive this morning?
n Are you staying at the Grand Hotel?
n Have you been here before?
However, be careful about asking too many questions
— it can make social conversation feel like a police
interrogation! Break up the questions by offering information
about yourself in the form of statements.
You can do this directly (“I’ll be playing golf this weekend”)
or more indirectly (“I have to leave by five
tomorrow, as I’m picking up one of my kids from
football practice”). Social conversation should be a
two-way street.
2. Why should I use rhetorical questions when giving
a presentation?
The rhetorical question is a versatile linguistic tool for
the presenter. You can use a rhetorical question to
make your audience think and to get them involved in
the presentation process:
n “What are the first things that come into your head
when I say the word ‘Britain’? [Pause to let the audience
think.] The queen? Football? We all have a picture
of what Britain is like. But let’s have a look at a
survey that shows us how the British see themselves.”
You can also use a rhetorical question to emphasize a
point:
n “We all know that, recently, the dollar has got weaker,
but what does that mean for our export strategy?
[Pause to let the audience think.] It is likely to have
the following implications…”
3. When should I use a question mark in writing?
Use it at the end of a direct question like this:
n Did you speak to John yesterday?
Also use it when the question is in quotation marks:
n David said, “When will you be arriving?”
Do not use a question mark in indirect questions:
n David asked us when we would be arriving.
appropriate [E(prEUpriEt]
audience [(O:diEns]
by [baI]
closed question
[)klEUzd (kwestSEn]
consultancy [kEn(sVltEnsi]
emphasize sth. [(emfEsaIz]
implication [)ImplI(keIS&n]
interrogation [In)terE(geIS&n]
open question
[)EUpEn (kwestSEn]
presenter [pri(zentE]
quotation mark [kwEU(teIS&n mA:k]
survey [(s§:veI]
two-way [)tu: (weI]
versatile [(v§:sEtaI&l]
richtig, entsprechend
Zuhörer(innen)
bis spätestens
Entscheidungsfrage (eine
mit „ja“ oder „nein“ zu
beantwortende Frage)
Beratungsfirma
etw. hervorheben
Auswirkung
Verhör
nicht mit „ja“ oder „nein“
zu beantwortende Frage
Vortragende(r)
Anführungszeichen
Studie, Erhebung
zweiseitig; hier auch: wechselseitig
vielseitig
Do not try to make a statement into a question by
putting a question mark at the end:
n You’re coming next week?
You can do this in speech by lifting your voice at the
end of the sentence. In writing, it is much clearer to put
the sentence into the appropriate question form:
n Are you coming next week?
KEN TAYLOR is the director of Taylor Consultancy
Ltd, an international communication consultancy in
London, and the author of 50 Ways to Improve Your
Telephoning and Teleconferencing Skills (Summertown).
Contact: KTaylor868@aol.com
nBS
36 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

SAY IT IN STYLE BUSINESS SKILLS ■
Clear communication: not always
the ideal method
Vague
language
If you are absolutely precise in your spoken communication,
this can sometimes seem pedantic or too direct to a
native English speaker. This is important to remember
when doing business in English-speaking countries. Vague
expressions serve as softeners and allow us to sound
friendly and informal. Vague language is used not only in
small talk, but also in everyday conversation. In the following
dialogue, Jim and Paul are making arrangements to
meet. Compare the two versions of their exchange:
Photodisc
Es ist nicht immer nötig, sich präzise
auszudrücken. Ganz im Gegenteil: Eine
ungenaue Ausdrucksweise kann häufig
durchaus angebracht sein, wie Ihnen
medium
ANNA HOCHSIEDER erläutert.
other the chance to make alternative suggestions. Especially
if they do not know each other well, the speakers in the
second version might be seen as unfriendly. Of course,
some non-native speakers of English might find the second
version, without all the vague language, easier to understand.
This is important to remember when communicating
internationally with other non-native speakers.
Vague expressions are often used when talking about
numbers, as you can see in the next dialogue:
Jim: I was wondering if I could drop by some time.
Paul: Sure. How about tomorrow?
Jim: Tomorrow’s a bit difficult. Friday might be better.
Paul: Morning or afternoon?
Jim: Would around three be good for you?
Paul: Maybe a little later. Around four?
Jim: I was wondering if I could drop by.
Paul: Sure. How about tomorrow?
Jim: Tomorrow’s difficult. Friday is better.
Paul: Morning or afternoon?
Jim: Would three be good for you?
Paul: A little later. Four?
The vague expressions used in the first dialogue are not
a sign of weakness or indecision, but of politeness. By using
vague language, the speakers signal to each other that
they are making suggestions, not demands, and giving each
admin (administration) [(ÄdmIn] UK ifml. hier: Bürokratie
drop by [)drQp (baI]
vorbeikommen
give or take [)gIv O: (teIk] ifml.
plus/minus
location scout
Locationscout (Person, die
[lEU(keIS&n skaUt]
Drehorte ausfindig macht)
softener [(sQf&nE]
abschwächende Formulierung
somewhere in the region of
so ungefähr
[)sVmweE In DE (ri:dZEn Qv]
stuff like that [)stVf laIk (DÄt] ifml. solche Sachen eben
this, that and the other
alles Mögliche
[)DIs )DÄt En Di (VDE] ifml.
unit [(ju:nIt]
Einheit; hier: Stück
Liz: The price per unit is around €30. We’re going to
need something like 50 units, give or take a few.
Sue: So the whole thing is going to cost us somewhere
in the region of €1,500, right?
Once they reach the point of having to make a decision,
Liz and Sue will use more precise language. But until then,
they soften their exchange by remaining vague.
In the last dialogue, Rob is telling Jan about his career:
Jan: So, how did you get into the film business, Rob?
Rob: I had a friend who was a sort of location scout, and
she needed someone to deal with the admin, that
sort of thing.
Jan: And how long have you been in the business?
Rob: About 20 years. Basically, just doing this, that and
the other. Hiring equipment, stuff like that.
Now imagine this second dialogue without all the vague
expressions. Do you notice how the tone of the conversation
changes? Which version of the conversation do you
prefer?
■BS
www Learn more phrases at www.business-spotlight.de/skills
ANNA HOCHSIEDER is a Munich-based teacher of
English as a Second Language and also writes on language
issues in Spotlight and Business Spotlight.
Contact: a.hochsieder@googlemail.com
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 37

Stockbyte
What’s our
agenda?
Sitzungen und Besprechungen sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Arbeitsalltags. Mit den Übungen, die
HILDEGARD RUDOLPH und CAROL SCHEUNEMANN zusammengestellt haben, finden Sie heraus, wie gut Sie den
verschiedenen Sitzungsszenarien auf Englisch gewachsen sind.
all levels
Time to talk: meetings allow
an exchange of ideas and opinions

MEETINGS LANGUAGE TEST n
Time
Room
Subject
Participants
Remarks
9.15 a.m. –
1 p.m.
R 4
purchase of test
equipment
purchasing, R&D, test engineer,
test-equipment manufacturer
coffee break 10.45
THE SITUATION:
9.30 a.m. –
1 p.m.
10 a.m. –
1 p.m.
1 p.m. –
3 p.m.
1.30 p.m. –
4.30 p.m.
R 5
R 3
R 1
R 2
customer-support
contracts
quarterly report
theme for trade fair
kick off of “Delicious
Squish” project
customer service,
technical support
sales managers: UK, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy
marketing, product managers,
sales reps
Crunchy and Tasty project
teams
teleconference
brainstorming
presentation
Based in Manchester, UK,
Squish Plastics makes soft
plastic products for the
home. They have offices in
Germany, Switzerland and
Italy. Today is Wednesday.
Let’s have a look at the room
planner at headquarters to
find out what meetings are
scheduled for the day.
1.
What’s the purpose? (4 points)
The receptionist, Cheryl Scott, is assigning rooms for the day. She needs to know about the different
types of meetings so that she can plan seating and materials needed. Match each meeting type to its
purpose.
easy
MEETING TYPE
a) board meeting n
b) team meeting n
c) brainstorming n
d) kick-off meeting n
PURPOSE
1. To coordinate tasks within a team.
2. To get everybody involved at the beginning of a new project.
3. To get directors together to develop strategies and take decisions
on company operations.
4. To solve problems or to generate new ideas spontaneously.
2.
Talking about schedules (9 points)
medium
Michael Rollins, the test engineer, is talking to Karen Barber, head of purchasing, about a schedule conflict.
Complete the dialogue with words from the box.
agenda
attend
cancel
confirm
items
pencil
postpone
reschedule
suit
Michael: Karen, I’m afraid I won’t be able to a) __________ the 9.15 meeting on Wednesday.
I’ve got a customer appointment. They’re having serious product-test problems.
Karen: Michael, if you can’t come, we’ll have to b) __________ the meeting altogether!
Michael: Could we c) __________ the meeting until late afternoon? Or perhaps we could
change the d) __________. I could e) __________ my appointment for eight o’clock.
Karen: I suppose we could pull a few f) __________ forward. That might also g) __________
Anton, who has to leave a bit early. I’ll h) __________ you in for 11 o’clock, OK?
How soon can you i) __________?
4
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 39

n LANGUAGE TEST MEETINGS
Listen: make sure
you understand
what is being said
3. Your opinion, please (10 points)
medium
Karen would like to hear the participants’ views on buying the test equipment versus having the tests
performed externally. Complete the questions below with words from Box 1 (“Asking for views”) and the
responses with words from Box 2 (“Giving opinions”).
Digital Vision
1. ASKING FOR VIEWS
do you see
do you share
do you stand
do you think
your opinion
Karen: Please choose either external testing or buying — no middle ground!
a) So, Anton, what _____________?
b) As far as I _____________, external testing seems to be more flexible.
c) And, ___________ this view, Nyla?
d) Hm, yes. I ___________ external testing is better.
e) How ___________ it, Rafael?
2. GIVING OPINIONS
can see
convinced that
feel that
in favour
no question that
f) I’m ___________ buying is the best option.
g) Where ___________ on this, Leigh?
h) There’s ___________ we should buy the equipment!
i) What’s ___________, Michael?
j) I’m ___________ of buying, too.
4. Key roles (9 points)
easy
In large meetings, each person is responsible for a specific task. Unscramble the words in brackets to
create terms for key roles that are played in meetings.
a) A meeting is managed by the __________ (hacir).
b) People who attend the meeting are called __________ (stricappaint).
c) The minutes are written by the minute-__________ (ekrat).
d) What is said during the meeting is summarized on a flip chart by the __________ (sibecr).
e) Translations of what is said are provided by the __________ (iprenteretr).
f) Participants are limited in their speaking time by the __________ (keemipeter).
g) A talk may be given by the guest __________ (peakser).
h) Food and drink may be served by a(n) __________ (tacingre) service.
i) Technical equipment is supplied by the __________ (iantechinc).
40 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

5.
Better understanding (8 points)
advanced
In meetings, you want to make sure that participants understand everything that’s been said. Match each of the
following explanations (a–h) to a phrase that could be used in this situation (1–8).
a) Somebody is speaking too fast. n
b) You didn’t quite understand something. n
c) You want somebody to say something again. n
d) Somebody isn’t speaking loudly enough. n
e) Someone uses an expression you don’t know. n
f) You want to give your opinion on something. n
g) You want to summarize a statement. n
h) You want to stop an interruption. n
1. So you’re saying that...
2. Could you repeat that, please?
3. Could you speak up a bit?
4. Could you slow down, please?
5. Please let me finish what I was saying.
6. Sorry, I didn’t catch that.
7. Could I make a point here?
8. Could you explain that to me, please?
6.
Teleconference behaviour (7 points)
easy
Before the meeting with the sales managers begins, the chair,
Miranda Anthony, talks about good teleconference behaviour.
Unscramble her sentences.
Miranda: The main goal of this teleconference is to talk about firstquarter
results. Let’s quickly go over some rules together first.
a) mobile / your / switch off / phones
Please __________________________________________________.
b) emails / no / also means / or text / messages
This ____________________________________________________.
7.
How to interrupt
(10 points)
medium
Particularly in teleconferences, if you
have to interrupt someone, it helps the
other listeners when you make it clear
that this is what you are doing. The
verbs are in the wrong sentences. Put
them in the right places.
c) by going / to / start / introduce ourselves / the table / round
We’ll ___________________________________________________.
d) your full / about / title and / add a sentence / yourself / name, your
Give ____________________________________________________.
e) you all / loudly and / could / speak / clearly
__________________________________________________, please?
f) should try / slowly / the native speakers / to speak / of English
And ___________________________________________________ .
g) a time / possible, / at / far as / please speak / one
As ______________________________________.
a) Can I just (excuse) _______ in here?
b) Sorry to (add) _______.
c) I’d like to (respond) _______ a remark here.
d) Could I (speak) _______ something?
e) May I (come) _______ to that statement?
f) I’d like to (say) _______ up another point.
g) May I (interrupt) _______ on that?
h) Can I (comment) _______ you there for a
moment?
i) (stop) _______ me.
j) Sorry, I’ll have to (bring) _______ out of
turn here.
4
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 41

n LANGUAGE TEST MEETINGS
8.
Be creative! (5 points)
easy
Jill Smith is head of marketing. She’s holding a brainstorming
meeting to generate new ideas for the next trade fair. Choose
the correct words to complete the sentences.
a) Welcome, everyone. Here are today’s brainstorming _______.
1. headlines 2. guidelines
b) We’ll start with a warm-up _______.
1. activity 2. action
c) Our _______is to come up with five ideas.
1. objection 2. objective
d) We’d like to _______ as many ideas as possible.
1. generalize 2. generate
e) We’ll work _______ in one group for 30 minutes.
1. everyone 2. together
9. Negative to
positive (5 points)
KILLER PHRASES
In brainstorming meetings, participants
should encourage new ideas, and not
judge them. Instead of using negative
language, be positive! For each of
these negative-sounding phrases, find
a more positive-sounding one.
a) It can’t possibly work. n
b) My boss won’t accept that. n
c) We haven’t done that before. n
d) It’s a waste of time. n
e) We’ll never finish. n
“DEVELOPING” PHRASES
advanced
1. How can we convince our managers?
2. There’s a chance that might work.
3. How can we do this effectively?
4. It may be time to try something new.
5. It will be a long-term project.
Photodisc
10. Are you with me? (10 points)
advanced
Agreement and disagreement are a part of most meetings.
Here, members of the Crunchy and Tasty project teams use
some idiomatic expressions. Mark each sentence with “A” (if
it is a way of agreeing) or “D” (if it is a way of disagreeing).
Do you agree? There are many
ways to give your opinion
a) I’m with you there. n n
b) I couldn’t have said it better myself. n n
c) I couldn’t agree more. n n
d) I can’t go along with that. n n
e) We see eye to eye on that. n n
f) I’m not comfortable with that. n n
g) No way! n n
h) Are you kidding? n n
i) You’re quite right. n n
j) I’m against that. n n
A
D
42 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

How did you do?
Excellent (70–77 points): You understand the language
of meetings and can express yourself well.
Well done (60–69 points): You know most of the
terms and expressions you need in meetings.
Good (50–59 points): You may need to practise some
terms and vocabulary before your next meeting.
Nice try (49 points and fewer): You could use more
practice in the language of meetings.
For more information
ARTICLES
n Meetings: “All in the mind”, Business Spotlight 2/2011,
pp. 38–44.
n Conference calls: “Calling for success”, Business Spotlight
2/2010, pp. 40–46.
n Kick-off meetings: “Making a start”, Business Spotlight
3/2009, pp. 40–46.
n Regular sections in past issues of Business Spotlight with
useful expressions for meetings include Meeting Point and
On the Line. Also look for helpful language tips in our new
Toolbox section.
Do more exercises on this topic on Business Spotlight Audio
www Find related exercises at www.business-spotlight.de/skills
ANSWERS
1. What’s the purpose?
a–3 (Vorstandssitzung)
b–1 (Teambesprechung)
c–4 (Brainstorming)
d–2 ((Projekt-)Eröffnungsbesprechung)
2. Talking about schedules
a) attend (attend sth. = an etw. teilnehmen)
b) cancel
c) postpone (postpone sth. = etw. verschieben)
d) agenda = Tagesordnung
e) reschedule (reschedule sth. = etw. (zeitlich)
verlegen)
f) items = (Tagesordnungs-)Punkte
g) suit (suit sb. = jmdm. passen)
h) pencil (pencil sb./sth. in = jmdn./etw.
vormerken)
i) confirm = hier: seine Teilnahme bestätigen
3. Your opinion, please
a) do you think
b) can see
c) do you share
d) feel that
e) do you see
f) convinced that
g) do you stand
h) no question that
i) your opinion
j) in favour
4. Key roles
a) chair = Vorsitzende(r)
b) participants = Teilnehmer(innen)
c) minute-taker = Protokoll führer(in)
d) scribe = Schreiber(in)
e) interpreter = Dolmetscher(in)
f) timekeeper = Zeitnehmer(in)
g) guest speaker = Gastredner(in)
h) catering (catering service = Party-, Gastronomieservice)
i) technician = Techniker(in)
5. Better understanding
a–4; b–6; c–2; d–3; e–8; f–7; g–1; h–5
6. Teleconference behaviour
a) Please switch off your mobile phones.
b) This also means no emails or text messages.
c) We’ll start by going round the table to introduce
ourselves.
d) Give your full name, your title and add a
sentence about yourself.
e) Could you all speak loudly and clearly,
please?
f) And the native speakers of English should
try to speak slowly.
g) As far as possible, please speak one at a
time.
7. How to interrupt
a) come (come in here = an dieser Stelle etw.
sagen, eingreifen)
b) interrupt
c) add (add sth. = etw. hinzufügen)
d) say
e) respond
f) bring (bring sth. up = etw. zur Sprache bringen)
g) comment
h) stop
i) Excuse
j) speak (speak out of turn = außer der Reihe
das Wort ergreifen)
8. Be creative!
a–2; b–1; c–2; d–2; e–2
9. Negative to positive
a–2; b–1; c–4; d–3; e–5
10. Are you with me?
Agree: a (Da stimme ich Ihnen/dir zu.); b; c (Da
kann ich Ihnen/dir nur zustimmen.); e (Darüber
sind wir einer Meinung.); i (Sie haben / Du hast
völlig recht.)
Disagree: d (Ich kann dem nicht zustimmen.);
f (Mir ist nicht ganz wohl dabei.); g (Keineswegs!,
Nie im Leben!); h (Ist das Ihr/dein
Ernst?); j
CAROL SCHEUNEMANN is responsible for language
tests and the Technology section at Business Spotlight.
She also coordinates Business Spotlight Audio.
Contact: c.scheunemann@spotlight-verlag.de
HILDEGARD RUDOLPH is a certified translator and
a freelance editor, teacher and book author.
Contact: bs.lektorat@spotlight-verlag.de
THE SOUND OF BUSINESS!
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the easy way — with Business Spotlight Audio. Try
our special offer: download the current edition for
free, with no obligation!
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and exercises build your confidence for dealing
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GRATIS
confidence [(kQnfIdEns]
obligation [)QblI(geIS&n]
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[)stÄnd E)lEUn (pÄkIdZ]
(Selbst-)Vertrauen
Verpflichtung
eigenständiges Paket
Jetzt gratis downloaden: www.spotlight-verlag.de/audio-test

■ LANGUAGE VOCABULARY
easy
Election day
In dieser Rubrik präsentieren wir nützliche Begriffe aus der Arbeits -
welt. Von CAROL SCHEUNEMANN
1
13
2
12
14
15
17
19
4
10
9
8
11
16
18
3
7
6
5
Ken Raut
1. polling/election day Wahltag
[(pEUlIN/i(lekS&n deI]
(US Election Day)
2. constituency [kEn(stItjuEnsi], Wahlbezirk
electoral district (US voting
precinct [(pri:sINkt] / district)
3. poll clerk [(pEUl klA:k] Wahlhelfer(in)
(US poll worker, election
inspector)
4. presiding officer Wahlvorstand, Ab-
[pri)zaIdIN (QfIsE]
stimmungsleiter(in)
(US chief election officer)
5. poll card [(pEUl kA:d] Wahlbenachrichtigung
(US voter registration
card)
6. electoral roll [i)lektErEl (rEUl] Wählerliste, -kartei
(US voter registration list,
poll book)
7. ballot box Wahlurne
8. slot Schlitz (in der
Wahlurne)
9. ballot paper [(bÄlEt )peIpE] Stimmzettel
(US ballot)
10. vote, cast your ballot/vote (für eine(n) Kandi-
[)kA:st jE (bÄlEt/(vEUt] daten/in) stimmen
11. political party [pE)lItIk&l (pA:ti] politische Partei
12. candidate [(kÄndIdeIt] Kandidat(in)
13. polling station Wahllokal
(US polling place)
14. polling hours Öffnungszeiten des
Wahllokals
15. voter turnout Wahlbeteiligung
[)vEUtE (t§:naUt]
16. queue [kju:] (US line) Schlange
17. polling booth [(pEUlIN bu:D] Wahlkabine, -zelle
(US also: voting booth)
18. voter Wähler(in)
19. election regulations/rules/ Wahlordnung
procedures [prEU(si:dEz]
Exercise: Voter instructions
Complete the sentences with words from the list.
On a) ____________, take your b) ____________ to the
designated c) ____________. Show your document to
one of the d) ____________. He or she will check
that your name is in the e) ____________ for your
f) ____________. Then, he or she will give you a(n)
g) ____________. Go in to one of the h) ____________.
You may i) _____________ for one j) _____________ only.
Make an “X” in the box next to the person’s name.
Then fold the paper once and put it in the
k) ____________ of the l) ____________.
Answers on page 62
44 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

medium
GRAMMAR AT WORK LANGUAGE ■
Describing products
Produktbeschreibungen enthalten gewöhnlich zahlreiche Adjektive, die detailliert über das Produkt
informieren. ANNA HOCHSIEDER nimmt ihre Bildung genauer unter die Lupe.
Wild & Free is an online store that specializes in outdoor equipment.
Below is an excerpt from its latest catalogue. As you
read it, pay attention to the words marked in bold.
“Featherlite” rucksack
This ultralight rucksack has a double-layered base and features
adjustable shoulder straps, expandable side pockets
and an innovative ventilation system to keep you cool and
comfortable.
“FOREST RANGER” JACKET
A classic three-in-one jacket to keep you warm in all weather.
It has a water-resistant, windproof shell and a detachable
fleece lining, deep pockets and a zip-off hood.
“POWERBITE” ENERGY BAR
Healthy, nutritious and mouth-watering: take your pick from
our large selection of fruit and nut bars. All are protein-rich
and lactose-free, and they contain no artificial flavouring.
Exercise
Complete the sentences with compound adjectives, using
the words from the box.
English ■ five ■ free ■ oven ■ part ■ proof
speaking ■ star ■ sugar ■ time
a) Do you have any _____-_____ fruit juices?
b) I’m looking for a(n) _____-_____ job.
c) Is Nigeria a(n) _____-_____ country?
d) This pan has a plastic handle, so it’s not ___________.
e) My boss always insists on staying at _____-_____ hotels.
Add the correct suffixes to create four adjectives.
You’re very (f) care_____. It’s (g) danger_____ work, so why
aren’t you wearing a (h) protect_____ hat? Don’t be so
(i) irrespons_____!
Answers on page 62
Explanations
Many common English adjectives have just one syllable
and there is no particular form that helps to
identify them as adjectives (“cool”, “warm”, “deep”,
“large”, etc.). Longer adjectives are often formed from
other words.
■ Adjectives can be created by adding a suffix to a
noun or verb. A very common adjective suffix is
-able. When added to a verb, this often means that
something “can be done”. For example, adjustable
means “can be adjusted”, and expandable means
“can be expanded”.
■ Other examples of adjective suffixes that can be
found in the text are -al (artificial), -ic (classic),
-ive (innovative), -ous (nutritious) and -y (healthy).
Further common adjective suffixes include -ible
(visible), -ish (foolish), -ful (careful), -ical (economical)
and -less (useless).
■ Adjectives can also be created by linking two or
more words. Such compound adjectives are often,
though not always, connected by a hyphen. Most
of these compound adjectives end in an adjective
(ultralight, protein-rich, windproof), a present
participle (mouth-watering) or a past participle
(double-layered). Phrases such as three-in-one or
zip-off can also function as adjectives.
Adjectives can help to communicate a lot of information
in few words. This is a typical feature of product
descriptions. Advertising, in particular, makes very
creative use of adjectives and keeps coming up with
new compounds that later become used in everyday
language.
■BS
Do an exercise on this topic on Business Spotlight Audio
plus Find related exercises in Business Spotlight plus
www More exercises at www.business-spotlight.de/grammar
ANNA HOCHSIEDER is a Munich-based
teacher of English as a Second Language
who writes regularly on language issues in
Spotlight and Business Spotlight. Contact:
a.hochsieder@googlemail.com
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 45

n LANGUAGE EASY ENGLISH
Telephoning:
often the
quickest way
to get a reply
Successful
phone calls
photos.com
Im zweiten Teil unserer neuen Business-Englisch-Sparte geht es um das Führen von Telefongesprächen.
An einem Beispiel zeigt Ihnen MIKE HOGAN, wann ein Telefonat sinnvoll ist und gibt Ihnen nützliche Tipps,
Vokabeln, Grammatik und Redewendungen zur Hand.
When communicating with business partners, it is important
to choose the best channel. In Business Spotlight
2/2013, we looked at the advantages of emails, particularly
for complex messages or when you need a written
record. In contrast, the fastest way to communicate is usually
by telephone. So the next time you want to send an email,
ask yourself whether it would be quicker just to give the other
person a call.
1. Making a phone call
Look at the dialogue below of a call between Claudia Müller
and one of her business partners, Peter Wilson. As you read
it, think about the answers to these questions:
n Why did Claudia call Peter?
n What two files does Claudia need from Peter?
n Why did she choose to make a phone call rather than write
an email?
Peter: Good morning. VG Electronics. Peter Wilson speaking.
Claudia: Hi, Peter. It’s Claudia Müller here. Do you have a
minute?
Peter: Sure. What can I do for you?
Claudia: Well, I’m calling to ask you if we can change the time
of our meeting on Thursday. It’s quite urgent. A key customer
has a problem and I need to visit him.
Peter: Yes, that’s no problem. Why don’t we postpone it until
Friday?
Claudia: Actually, it would be helpful to have our meeting before
I visit our customer. Could we bring it forward to Tuesday
at ten o’clock?
Peter: One moment. I need to check. Yes, that’s fine.
Claudia: Great. Thanks. Do you have the product presentation
slides for the JY49k project? Could you send them to me?
Peter: Yes, I do. I’ll send them to you right away. You should
have them in a few minutes.
Claudia: Thanks. And could you send me the technical specification
sheet, too? I really need it as soon as possible.
Peter: Don’t worry, you’ll have that in a few minutes as well.
Claudia: Thanks for your help, Peter. I’ll see you on Tuesday.
Peter: OK, I’ll see you then. Goodbye.
Claudia: Bye.
Here are the answers to the three questions:
n Claudia called Peter to change an appointment for a meeting
and to ask for specific information to be mailed to her.
appointment [E(pOIntmEnt]
bring sth. forward )brIN (fO:wEd]
channel [(tSÄn&l]
Do you have a minute?
[)du: ju )hÄv E (mInIt]
file [faI&l]
postpone sth. [pEUst(pEUn]
slide [slaId]
technical specification sheet
[)teknIk&l )spesEfI(keIS&n Si:t]
Termin
etw. vorverlegen
(Kommunikations-)Weg
Haben Sie/Hast du einen
Moment Zeit?
Datei
etw. verschieben
Folie
technisches Datenblatt
46 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

easy
n She needs the product presentation slides and the technical
specification sheet for the JY49k project.
n It was faster and easier to make a phone call. Claudia urgently
needed to make the appointment change and get the
files, and Peter was able to act immediately.
2. Preparing to make a phone call
For your calls to be successful, you should first think about
why you are calling and what result(s) you want. This will help
you prepare the language you will need. Look at the notes that
Claudia Müller wrote when getting ready to call Peter:
Call Peter Wilson
Why?
l Change the time of our meeting
l Ask him to email me the product presentation slides
and the technical specification sheet for the JY49k
project
Language
l I’m calling to ask you if we can change…
l Do you have the product presentation slides?
l Could you send me the… ?
l I really need it as soon as possible.
3. Useful telephone phrases
a) Making a call
n Hello, this is Claudia Müller.
n Hi, Peter. It’s Claudia here.
n Could you put me through to… ?
n I’d like to speak to…
n Do you have a minute?
b) Saying why you are calling
n I’m calling to let you know that…
n I am calling about… / to ask you...
n I’d like some information about…
c) Answering a call
n Good morning. VG Electronics.
Peter Wilson speaking.
n Hi, this is Peter. How can I help?
d) Taking and leaving a message
n Can I take a message?
n Can I leave a message?
e) Making and changing an appointment
n How about Tuesday at ten o’clock?
n Could we change the time of our appointment?
n Could we postpone our appointment?
n Could we bring the meeting forward?
f) Reacting to problems
n Could you say that again, please?
n Could you spell that, please?
n Could you speak slower/louder, please?
n I don’t know at the moment. I need to check.
g) Getting a written record
n Can you send me an email to confirm what we’ve agreed?
n I’ll write up my notes and email them to you later.
h) Ending
n Thanks for your call/help. Goodbye.
n I’ll talk to you on Thursday. Bye.
Can you spell well?
Be sure you know how to
say and spell your email
address in English. Try to
refresh your knowledge of
the alphabet so you can
spell words more easily.
Can you spell these?
a) Jagdstrasse
b) Müller
c) Yellowcage GmbH
d) p.wilson@kq-uv.de
Answers on page 62
GRAMMAR: could and would
When asking people to do things, you can make your request more polite by using modal verbs, such as “could” and
“would”. Compare the direct sentences on the left with the ones Claudia uses when speaking to Peter, on the right.
n I want to have the meeting before I visit our
customer.
n Send the slides to me.
n Send me the technical specification sheet, too.
n It would be helpful to have our meeting before I visit our
customer.
n Could you send the slides to me?
n Could you send me the technical specification sheet, too?
nBS
confirm sth. [kEn(f§:m]
leave (a message) [li:v]
put sb. through to sb.
[)pUt (Tru: tu]
refresh [ri(freS]
spell sth. [spel]
take (a message) [teIk]
write sth. up
[)raIt (Vp]
etw. bestätigen
(eine Nachricht) hinterlassen
jmdn. zu jmdm. durchstellen
etw. auffrischen
etw. buchstabieren
(eine Nachricht) entgegennehmen
etw. schriftlich zusammenfassen
Do exercises on telephoning on Business Spotlight Audio
plus Find related exercises in Business Spotlight plus
MIKE HOGAN is a communication-skills trainer and
head of training and development at the LTC Language
Training Center (www.ltc-online.de). His publications
include Business English for Beginners A1
and A2 (Cornelsen). Contact: m.hogan@ltc-online.de
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 47

■ LANGUAGE WISE WORDS
“Three words can create a catchy rhythm and an image to
express an idea more effectively than any single word”
DEBORAH CAPRAS ON LANGUAGE IN THE NEWS
This, that
and the other
Drei ist auch rhetorisch eine magische Zahl.
Politiker, Werbetexter und selbst die Kirche
verwenden einprägsame, dreiteilige Ausdrücke,
wie DEBORAH CAPRAS zeigt.
Presidents, prime ministers and journalists love it. It’s
found in religion, literature and advertising. You’ll hear
it in speeches, you’ll read it in the news and you’ll come
across it in business. It’s the rule of three. This rule is simple,
powerful and memorable. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can
make use of it.
Why three? It’s a well-known rule of rhetoric that groups of
three are easy to remember. And they’re everywhere. In Christianity,
it’s all about the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost) and how we might end up in Heaven, Hell
or Purgatory. In Ireland, I learned how to curse with a cry of
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph”. Groups of three seem to give us
a feeling of completeness, comfort — or satisfaction.
As children, we read about The Three Little Pigs,
Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Musketeers.
We learn from an early age that three is something special.
A CLOSER LOOK
We use “Tom, Dick and/or Harry” to mean “anyone” or
“everyone”. Today, “Harry” is sometimes replaced with “Harriet”
to include women in the idea. The origins of the expression
are unknown.
sions can create a catchy rhythm and an image to express
an idea more effectively than any single word ever could.
In advertising, you’ll find the rule of three in many shapes
and forms. Back in the 1930s, Kellogg’s created the trio
“Snap, Crackle and Pop” to advertise its breakfast cereal
Rice Krispies. Today, children still listen out for the snap,
crackle and pop when they pour in the milk. In the UK, the
chocolate company Mars has used the same slogan, again
and again, since the 1950s: “A Mars a day helps you work,
rest and play”.
Sound bites
In politics, the rule of three can have a powerful effect. In
the US Declaration of Independence, it appears in a statement
about basic human rights (“life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness”). On inauguration day, US presidents swear to
“preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States”. They then go on to make a speech about their plans
— and create new groups of three for sound bites to be used
by the press the next day.
breakfast cereal [(brekfEst )sIEriEl]
catchy [(kÄtSi]
constitution [)kQnstI(tju:S&n]
crackle [(krÄk&l]
Goldilocks [(gEUldilQks]
Holy Trinity: the ~ [)hEUli (trInEti]
inauguration day [I)nO:gjE(reIS&n deI]
love, honour and cherish sb.
[)lVv )QnEr En (tSerIS]
memorable [(memErEb&l]
pop [pQp]
preserve sth. [pri(z§:v]
Purgatory [(p§:gEtri]
pursuit of sth. [pE(sju:t Qv]
snap [snÄp]
sound bite [(saUnd baIt]
Frühstücksflocken
eingängig
Verfassung
knistern
Goldlöckchen
die Dreieinigkeit
Tag des Amtsantritts
jmdn. lieben, achten und
ehren (im Ehegelöbnis)
einprägsam
(auf)platzen
etw. erhalten
Fegefeuer
Streben nach etw.
schnappen, knacken
kurzes, prägnantes Zitat
Powerful images
Later in life, some of us move on to “sex, drugs and rock ’n’
roll”, or we meet someone who is “tall, dark and handsome”,
who promises us “the sun, moon and stars” and to “love,
honour and cherish” us until we die (until they hear “earth
to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”). Whatever stage of
life or situation we find ourselves in, three words or expresiStockphoto
48 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

medium
This year, Barack Obama spoke about climate change and
“raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful
storms”. He spoke about the need for equality for “our wives,
our mothers, and daughters”. He could have used one word,
“women”, but his speech wouldn’t have sounded so personal
if he had.
In one particularly moving part, Obama and his speechwriters
used the rule of three to remind people of the schoolchildren
who were shot and killed in Newtown, Connecticut,
at the end of 2012 — and of the need to protect all
the children across the US. Obama used a group of three
within a group of three: “Our journey is not complete until
all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of
Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they
are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron used the method
in his controversial speech on his plan to hold an in-out referendum
on the EU by 2017. He reminded people that the
British are an island nation: “independent, forthright and
passionate in defence of our sovereignty”. He didn’t have
one, or even two, questions about membership in the EU.
He asked three: “How? Why? To what end?” He’s still waiting
for the answers.
IN THE NEWS
BlackBerry aims for work,
rest and play
The Telegraph
This headline refers to Mars’s advertising slogan to show
that BlackBerry is hoping that people will use its new
smartphone in their private lives — and not just for work.
a hop, skip and a jump
[E )hQp )skIp En E (dZVmp]
(skip
Appalachia [)ÄpE(leItSiE]
bait [beIt]
crippling [(krIp&lIN]
deputy editor [)depjUti (edItE]
drought [draUt]
forthright [(fO:TraIt]
hook, line and sinker
[)hUk )laIn En (sINkE]
(sinker
in-out [)In (aUt]
lane [leIn]
lock, stock and barrel
[)lQk )stQk En (bÄrEl]
(stock
(barrel
raging [(reIdZIN]
sovereignty [(sQvrEnti]
toil [tOI&l]
To what end? [tu )wQt (end]
ein Katzensprung
Hüpfer)
Appalachen-Region
Köder
lähmend, erdrückend
stellvertretende(r) Chefredakteur(in)
Trockenheit, Dürre
direkt, geradeheraus
voll und ganz
Bleigewicht)
hier: über Verbleib oder Austritt
Gasse
mit allem Drum und Dran
Schaft)
Lauf)
wütend, lodernd
Souveränität
große Mühe
Wozu das?
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
You can make your own groups of three, but you can
also use these common fixed expressions, too.
beg, borrow or steal
To do whatever it takes to get something:
■ Beg, borrow or steal, I’m going to get myself a ticket!
blood, sweat and tears
A lot of hard work. Winston Churchill originally said “I
have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”
in a speech he made after replacing Neville Chamberlain
as prime minister in 1940. In popular speech, it
has been shortened to three words:
■ This project is the result of five months of blood,
sweat and tears.
calm, cool and collected
In control:
■ Despite the terrible results, she remained calm, cool
and collected.
hook, line and sinker
Completely. When you believe something that is false
without questioning it, you fall for it hook, line and
sinker. This phrase refers to fish taking bait:
■ She fell for his story hook, line and sinker.
a hop, skip and a jump
A short distance. Originally used to describe the triple
jump:
■ It’s only a hop, skip and a jump to the restaurant from
here.
lock, stock and barrel
Including everything. This expression refers to all the
main parts of a gun:
■ She sold the company, lock, stock and barrel, to
investors from China.
ready, willing and able
Wanting to do something and being in a position to do it:
■ He’s ready, willing and able to lead the team.
this, that and the other
Various unspecified things:
■ I’ve been busy doing this, that and the other.
Do a related exercise on Business Spotlight Audio
plus
For exercises on on this this topic, topic, see see Business Spotlight Spotlight plus
DEBORAH CAPRAS is the deputy editor of Business Spotlight.
You can read her blog, Wise Words, and do her online language
exercises at www.business-spotlight.de/blogs
■BS
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 49

■ LANGUAGE SHORT STORY
Cyber romance
I’m watching
you: whether you
like it or not
Es ist einfach unglaublich, welch ungeahnte und wunderbare Möglichkeiten im Cyberspace
auf uns warten — eine Liebesbeziehung inbegriffen. Von JAMES SCHOFIELD
Photodisc
The feeling I got when I finally managed to leave my physical
body and upload myself into the internet was better
than anything I had ever felt before. It was like that moment
when you dive into water. Suddenly, your body is weightless
and you can twist and move any way you want. But I
could swim through the entire world at the speed of light.
That’s all I did for a while, internet surfing like nobody has
ever done before. Of course, like any place, there are areas
of the web where you shouldn’t go if you don’t want trouble.
But I was quick to learn and soon, I could travel nearly anywhere,
find out about anybody and — and this is the fun part
— do almost anything.
You see, this networked world makes so much possible. The
person who controls the internet controls the world. If you
don’t believe me, here are a couple of examples. Remember
when all those laws were passed to stop smoking in public
places in Europe? That was me. It was so easy. I just sent
emails from insurance companies to governments, got in to
Big Tobacco’s secret statistics on smoking-related death and
diseases and then sent the information to the press. Hey
presto! It was done, and even the French had to stop trying
to kill themselves with cigarettes. Or what about gun control
in the US? They said it couldn’t happen, but I arranged it.
And then I gave the FBI the names and addresses of those
crazy doomsday preppers who hadn’t turned in their weapons
when they were supposed to.
So, I think you’ll agree that I’ve done some pretty cool
things. Unfortunately, I may have crossed some kind of moral
line now. You see — I probably sound like a teenager here,
but — I’m in love. And you’re allowed to do anything when
you’re in love, right?
Her name’s Helen and when I first saw a photo of her on
her blog, it was such a shock to my system that I sent a small
wave through the internet, causing a crash on the Nikkei Index
and two large banks to fail. Anyway, one look and I was
hooked. I read her posts about art, which I didn’t understand.
They just made me feel stupid. But then I realized I didn’t
have to concern myself with her brain. I could just watch her
on TV.
Helen works in an art gallery in Manhattan, so most of her
day is spent within range of a security camera somewhere. Of
course, I wanted to be with her at home, too, so I sent an order
from Homeland Security to the FBI telling them to install
cameras around her house while she was out. People might
dive into water [)daIv IntE (wO:tE] kopfüber ins Wasser springen
fail [feI&l]
scheitern; hier: pleite gehen
gun control
Reglementierung von
[(gVn kEn)trEUl]
Waffenbesitz
Homeland Security
Heimatschutzbehörde
[)hoUmlÄnd sI(kjUrEti*] US
hooked: be ~ (on sb./sth.) [hUkt] Feuer und Flamme sein
insurance company
Versicherungsgesellschaft
[In(SUErEns )kVmpEni]
line: cross a ~ [laIn]
eine Grenze überschreiten
networked [(netw§:kt]
vernetzt
pass a law [)pA:s E (lO:]
ein Gesetz verabschieden
turn sth. in [)t§:n (In]
etw. abgeben
upload sth. [)Vp(lEUd]
etw. hochladen
* This symbol marks standard US pronunciation that differs from standard UK pronunciation.
50 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

medium
call this stalking, but I think that’s too judgemental. I meant
her no harm. I just wanted to be with her. And those evenings
in her flat, just the two of us relaxing together on her couch
and watching a film, those were the times I liked best.
However, I’m a reasonable man. I was happy for her to have
other people in her life. OK, I admit that I had to get rid of
one idiot who wanted Helen to go on a date with him and
wouldn’t take no for an answer. After the third time, I took
matters into my own digital hands and organized a car crash
“You’re allowed to do
anything when you’re in
love, right?”
for him. I just changed two sets of traffic lights to green at
the same time and … bam! Problem solved. As long as her
other men friends were gay and the women were like her
friend Francine, who created computer-based art, I didn’t get
involved, even if Helen stayed overnight at Francine’s place
a few times, after their girls’ nights out.
Anyway, after about six months, I decided we should meet.
I created this cool avatar for myself with all the best bits from
my favourite film stars, plus my personal hero, Steve Jobs.
Then one day, when Helen was writing her blog, I walked into
her screen, said hi and told her everything about me.
She freaked out. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I had got
this kind of reaction with depressing regularity when I was a
physical being, too. Anyway, she smashed her computer,
found and tore out two of the cameras, but she missed the
ones hidden behind the bathroom mirror and inside the lamp
in the living room.
Then she left the building. I followed her using security
cameras on the streets and thought about getting the police
to bring her back, but decided that would just make her hysterical.
So for two weeks, I left her alone, until one evening,
depressing regularity
[di)presIN regju(lÄrEti]
duty nurse [(dju:ti n§:s]
engineer [)endZI(nIE]
foot [fUt]
freak out [)fri:k (aUt] ifml.
gay [geI]
judgemental [dZVdZ(ment&l]
lesbian [(lezbiEn]
life-support system(s)
[(laIf sE)pO:t )sIstEm(z)]
multiply [(mVltIplaI]
novel [(nQv&l]
smash sth. [smÄS]
spider [(spaIdE]
take no for an answer: not ~
[teIk )nEU fEr En (A:nsE]
traffic lights: set of ~ [(trÄfIk laIts]
tweet [twi:t]
erdrückende Regelmäßigkeit
diensthabende(r) Pfleger(in)
Ingenieur(in); hier: Entwickler(in)
Fuß (30,48 cm)
ausflippen
schwul
wertend; hier: verurteilend
Lesbe
lebenserhaltende Geräte
sich vermehren, vervielfachen
Roman
etw. zertrümmern
Spinne; hier: Spider, Webcrawler
ein Nein als Antwort nicht
gelten lassen
Ampelanlage
Twitter-Nachricht
when she sent out a tweet saying she was going online again
and wanted to talk to me.
The first thing that surprised me as I activated the cameras
was that Francine was there and the flat had lots of new computer
equipment and several screens. Francine was working
at one of the computers and Helen was standing next to her,
looking as beautiful as always. “Is it ready?” she asked.
Francine nodded. “Then start it.”
“Good evening, ladies!” They both jumped about a foot in
the air as my avatar appeared on all the screens.
“Hi,” said Helen. “Thanks for coming. You’re just in
time.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She smiled, and then, far away, I felt something. At first,
little scratches at the distant edges of the internet that were
multiplying fast and began to feel like holes being burned in
my memory. My avatar must have shown discomfort.
“Feel that?” said Helen. “My girlfriend is doing that to you.
Those are millions of search-and-destroy spiders hunting you
down everywhere on the web.”
Girlfriend? Spiders?
I wasn’t sure which was harder to believe, that Helen was
a lesbian, or that Francine had pumped this poisonous code
into me. Then Helen leaned forward and kissed Francine on
the mouth, which made at least one thing clear, so I decided
it was time to leave before…
On the other side of the Atlantic, in a hospital in London, the
duty nurse picked up her phone.
“Dr King? It’s about the coma patient in room ten… Yes,
that’s right, the software engineer… Yes, well, his lifesupport
systems have just stopped showing any activity. Do
you want to call the relatives, or shall I?” ■BS
Language point
bam (Bums, Krach) The sound of a hard hit.
This type of word imitates sound.
Big Tobacco A negative term to refer to the
(power of the) tobacco industry.
doomsday preppers People who prepare for a
catastrophe on earth. They usually have extra
supplies of water and food and an additional
source of heat or electricity. “Doomsday” also
commonly refers to the Last Judgement.
hey presto, US presto (Voila) An expression
used after a successful magic trick, or when
something is so easy it seems like magic.
You can listen to this story on Business Spotlight Audio
JAMES SCHOFIELD is currently working on a novel.
If you’d like to follow his creative progress and read
more of his stories in English, see his blog at
http://jrtschofield.blogspot.de
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 51

n LANGUAGE TRANSLATION
medium
False friends
You mean… You should say… Don’t say… As this means…
Mappe folder map Landkarte;
Sie finden die Bewerbungen You’ll find the applications in Stadtplan
in der grünen Mappe.
the green folder.
konkurrieren compete concur übereinstimmen
Keiner kann mit unserer
No one can compete with our
Technologie konkurrieren.
technology.
sensibel sensitive sensible vernünftig
Das ist ein sensibles Thema. It’s a sensitive issue.
You can find more false friends on Business Spotlight Audio
Don’t confuse...
Complementary and complimentary
n Two or more things that improve each other when combined
or used together are complementary (einander
ergänzend): “We have very different, but complementary,
talents.” The British expression complementary
medicine (Komplementärmedizin) refers to health-care
practices that are not considered part of conventional
medicine: “Complementary medicine, such as acupuncture,
can help people with a bad back.”
n If something is complimentary (gratis), it is free: “You
will receive two complimentary tickets (Freikarten).”
And when you express praise (Lob) for something, you
are being complimentary (sich schmeichelhaft äußern):
“Their design was highly original, but not everyone was
complimentary about it.”
Tricky translations by MIKE SEYMOUR
How do you say “treat” in German?
The verb “treat” refers to how someone behaves towards
someone else: “He treats her like a slave.” This is best
translated as behandeln or umgehen mit: Er behandelt sie
wie eine Sklavin. It can also refer to things: “Please treat
this as confidential.” Here, the word can be translated as
ansehen/betrachten als: Bitte betrachten Sie dies als vertraulich.
In medical English, we treat (behandeln) an illness
or injury to make it better: “We can treat it with antibiotics.”
— Wir können es mit Antibiotika behandeln.
If you do or buy something special for someone, you
“treat that person to” it: “I treated myself to a manicure.”
Here, it’s translated as jmdm. (sich) etw. gönnen/kaufen:
Ich habe mir eine Maniküre gegönnt. “It’s my treat!” is
used to say that you will pay for something, such as a
meal: Ich lade Dich ein! or Das geht auf mich!
In technical English, when you “treat something”, you
apply a special substance to it to protect or preserve it
(behandeln, bearbeiten, aufbereiten).
How do you say verraten/Verrat in English?
In the context of people, verraten describes disloyal behaviour
that harms or disappoints someone who trusts you:
Er hat seine Freunde verraten. Translate it here as betray:
“He has betrayed his friends.”
In a more serious context, it can mean being disloyal to
your country, for example, by giving away military secrets
to an enemy: Der Agent wurde des (Landes-)Verrats
beschuldigt. This specific kind of betrayal is translated as
(high) treason: “The agent was accused of (high) treason.”
Treason is used to mean “disloyalty to a country”, not to
a person or an organization.
Generally, verraten refers to revealing information or
facts, often things that you have been asked to keep secret:
Sie hat uns den Plan der Konkurrenz verraten. There
are several possible translations, including tell, reveal or
give away: “She told us our competitor’s plan.” Informally,
we can translate Wer hat das verraten? with: “Who let
on?” If you want to warn people not to say anything
(Nichts verraten!), you can say: “Mum’s the word!”
Exercise 1 Translate the following sentences.
a) Japanese companies treat their staff very well.
Exercise 2 Translate the following sentences.
a) Er hat mir schon verraten, wie der Film ausgeht.
b) Please treat this information as confidential.
b) Er wurde wegen Landesverrats verurteilt.
Answers on page 62
52 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

y DEBORAH CAPRAS
CARDS LANGUAGE ■
Grammar
Grammar
Which is missing: the adverb or the adjective?
“Am I suitable/suitably dressed for the
opening event?”
Which adverb is correct?
“Peter has been really busy late/lately.”
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Translation
Translation
Translate this sentence into English.
Könnten Sie dazu eine
Stellungnahme abgeben?
Translate this sentence into German.
“Marie was seriously ill, but she’s
out of the woods now.”
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www.business-spotlight.de
Word choice
Word choice
Which word is correct?
“You may have jumped/run the gun.”
Which word is correct?
“Sandra will have to hit the ground
jumping/running.”
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www.business-spotlight.de
Business talk
Business talk
What does the speaker mean?
“There’s been a crackdown on corruption.”
What does the speaker mean?
“Isn’t there a paper trail?”
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www.business-spotlight.de

■ LANGUAGE CARDS
“Peter has been really busy lately.”
The adverbs late and lately have different
meanings. Late means “after the expected or
agreed time”, and lately means “recently”.
late = spät, zu spät
lately = kürzlich
“Am I suitably dressed for the opening event?”
As we are describing how someone is dressed,
we need the adverb suitably. We would need the
adjective suitable to describe a noun: “Is this
dress suitable for the opening event?”
angemessen
BS 3/2013 BS 3/2013
Marie war schwer krank, aber jetzt ist sie
über den Berg.
If someone is out of the woods, that person is
out of danger or a difficult period. Don’t use the
expression “over the hill” here. This is an
informal way to say that someone is old (seine
besten Tage hinter sich haben).
BS 3/2013
“Could you comment on / give your opinion on
this matter?”
If we want to know what certain people
think about something, we can ask them to
comment on it or to give their opinion on it.
BS 3/2013
“Sandra will have to hit the ground running.”
Hit the ground running means “start working
extremely fast and with a lot of energy or
enthusiasm”.
durchstarten
“You may have jumped the gun.”
The expression jump the gun literally means
“start running before a race has officially
begun”. The speaker is saying that someone has
done something too soon.
etw. überstürzen
BS 3/2013 BS 3/2013
A paper trail refers to documents that can be
used to show what someone did or what
happened. The speaker is asking if there is a
written record of something.
A strong action that someone in a position of
authority takes to put a stop to something is
called a crackdown. The speaker is saying that
someone has taken action to stop corruption.
Papier-, Datenspur
scharfes Vorgehen gegen etw.
BS 3/2013
BS 3/2013

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4/2012 3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 55

■ LANGUAGE ENGLISH FOR...
Farstad Shipping ASA
Sea travel
Auf den Meeren herrscht reger Schiffsverkehr, von Öltankern
und Frachtern bis zu den Kreuzfahrtschiffen. PAUL KAVANAGH
befasst sich mit einigen wichtigen Aspekten des Seeverkehrs.
On the move: we could not
do without ships
According to the International Maritime Organization, the
amount of cargo transported over sea routes today is four
times greater than in 1970. More than 90 per cent of the
world’s internationally traded products are carried by ship.
The air-travel industry may impress us with its large carriers
such as the 73-metre-long Airbus A380, but this is small
compared to many ocean-going vessels, like the Eleonora
Maersk. This container ship is nearly 400 metres long and
has the largest internal-combustion engine ever built — as
powerful as 1,000 family cars. Such large container ships
benefit from economies of scale, meaning that because they
can transport large volumes of goods, the cost per piece
shipped is reduced. Reports suggest that cruise ships are also
weathering the current economic storm well.
Quiz: Maritime knowledge
Complete each sentence with the correct answer.
a) The Eleonora Maersk is among the largest ______
ever built.
1. cruise ships 2. container ships 3. sailing
ships
b) The Far Solitaire uses less ______ than other ships
its size.
1. fuel 2. speed 3. cargo
c) Shipping companies are working to reduce ______.
1. economies 2. emissions 3. freight
d) Private security teams protect ships from ______.
1. risks 2. explosions 3. attacks
Answers on page 62
Concerns about the environment also encourage innovation
in the design and development of vessels. Rolls-Royce and
Farstad Shipping, which is based in Norway, have developed
a new ship. Called the Far Solitaire, it has a hull that cuts
through the waves instead of riding them. This is significant,
as it means the ship needs less fuel because it can move at
a constant speed and the engine can work more efficiently.
Although the shipping industry contributes just three per
cent of global carbon emissions, many shipping companies
are trying to lower pollution and costs. For example, “cold
ironing”, also called shore-to-ship power, is when a ship connects
to an energy source in a port. This allows the vessel to
shut down all its engines, greatly reducing the amount of fuel
needed as well as the port pollution caused.
The high level of activity on the world’s oceans is governed
by maritime law, which regulates international trade at sea.
This does not include what is commonly called the “law of
the sea”, which is an international agreement that defines
navigational rights and the use of ocean resources.
Piracy remains a threat to sea travel and commerce. The
ocean regions off the eastern coast of Africa, Somalia in particular,
and parts of South East Asia present the highest risks.
Most cruise ships avoid these areas, but some commercial
vessels must pass through them. A number of shipping companies
now employ private security teams to guard their ships
and prevent possible attacks. As most of the guards carry
weapons, any critical situation could quickly escalate. Risk
managers in the maritime sector would like to see the creation
of a system of standards for security teams on ships.
carbon emissions [(kA:bEn i)mIS&nz]
cargo [(kA:gEU]
carrier [(kÄriE]
cold ironing [)kEUld (aIEnIN]
Seeschifffahrts-
Piraterie
(Umwelt-)Verschmutzung
etw. verschiffen
Schifffahrt-; Seefracht-
Schiff
etw. überstehen
cruise [kru:z]
economies of scale [i)kQnEmiz Ev (skeI&l]
fuel [fju:El]
hull [hVl]
internal-combustion engine
[In)t§:n&l kEm)bVstSEn (endZIn]
maritime [(mÄrItaIm]
piracy [(paI&rEsi]
pollution [pE(lu:S&n]
ship sth. [SIp]
shipping [(SIpIN]
vessel [(ves&l]
weather sth. [(weDE]
CO 2 -Emissionen
(Schiffs-)Fracht
Transporter; hier:
(Passagier-)Flugzeug
Landstromversorgung aus
dem Hafennetz
Kreuzfahrt
Größenvorteile
Treibstoff
(Schiffs-)Rumpf
Verbrennungskraftmaschine
56 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

advanced
Sea terms
■ marine [mE(ri:n] / maritime [(mÄrItaIm]: related to or
found in the sea (marine biology), or to shipping and
other commercial activities at sea or on the coast
(marine/maritime insurance; maritime security)
■ nautical [(nO:tIk&l]: related mainly to navigation at sea
(nautical mile)
■ naval [(neIv&l]: related to the navy, the branch of the
military responsible for defence at sea (naval operations)
Equipment
compass [(kVmpEs]
gauge [geIdZ]
life jacket [(laIf )dZÄkIt]
log [lQg]
quadrant [(kwQdrEnt]
Kompass
Pegel
Rettungs-, Schwimmweste
Log-, Bordbuch
Quadrant
Types of vessel
bulk vessel [(bVlk )ves&l]
container vessel [kEn(teInE )ves&l]
cruise ship [(kru:z SIp]
ferry [(feri]
lifeboat [(laIfbEUt]
liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier
[)lIkwIfaId )nÄtS&rEl (gÄs )kÄriE]
ocean liner [)EUS&n (laInE]
raft [rA:ft]
reefer (refrigerated) vessel
[(ri:fE )ves&l] ifml.
roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) vessel
[rEUl )Qn rEUl (Qf )ves&l] UK
trawler [(trO:lE]
tug, tugboat [tVg, (tVgbEUt]
whaling vessel [(weIlIN )ves&l]
Ship to shore
disembark [)dIsIm(bA:k]
embark [Im(bA:k]
jetty [(dZeti]
marina [mE(ri:nE]
mooring [(mUErIN]
port [pO:t]
wharf [wO:f]
Navigation
fathom [(fÄDEm]
headwind [(hedwInd]
knot [nQt]
league [li:g]
lee [li:]
nautical mile [)nO:tIk&l (maI&l]
tailwind [(teI&lwInd]
veer [vIE]
yaw [jO:]
Trouble on board
abandon ship [E)bÄndEn (SIp]
cabin fever [(kÄbIn )fi:vE]
distress signal [dI(stres )sIgn&l]
hijack (a ship) [(haIdZÄk]
kidnap sb. [(kIdnÄp]
man overboard [)mÄn (EUvEbO:d]
mutiny [(mju:tEni]
piracy [(paI&rEsi]
shipwreck [(SIprek]
Massengutfrachter, -schiff
Containerschiff
Kreuzfahrtschiff
Fähre
Rettungsboot
Flüssiggasschiff
Ozeandampfer, Hochseeschiff
Floß
Kühlschiff
RoRo-Schiff
Fischtrawler, Fangschiff
Schlepper, Schleppschiff
Walfangschiff
von Bord gehen
an Bord gehen
Mole, Landungssteg
Jacht-, Segelhafen
Liege-, Anlegeplatz
Hafen
Kai; Werft
(nautischer) Faden
Gegenwind
Knoten
Wegstunde
Lee(seite), Windschatten
Seemeile
Rückenwind
fieren, (ab)drehen
gieren, vom Kurs abweichen
ein/das Schiff verlassen
Bordkoller
Notsignal
(ein Schiff) kapern
kidnappen
Mann über Bord
Meuterei
Piraterie
Schiffbruch
Shipping
cargo [(kA:gEU]
customs [(kVstEmz]
deadweight [(dedweIt]
flag of convenience
[)flÄg Ev kEn(vi:niEns]
freight [freIt]
Parts of ship
aft [A:ft]
bow [baU]
bridge [brIdZ]
bulkhead [(bVlkhed]
cabin [(kÄbIn]
galley [(gÄli]
gangway [(gÄNweI]
helm [helm]
hull [hVl]
keel [ki:&l]
port [pO:t]
rudder [(rVdE]
starboard [(stA:bO:d]
stern [st§:n]
People
captain [(kÄptIn]
crew [kru:]
dock worker [(dQk )w§:kE]
purser [(p§:sE]
quartermaster [(kwO:tE)mA:stE]
sailor [(seIlE]
For more information
Schiffsfracht
Zoll
Bruttotragfähigkeit
Billigflagge
Fracht(gut)
achtern
Bug
Brücke
Schott, Rumpfspant
Kajüte
Kombüse
Gangway, Landungsbrücke
(Schiffs-)Steuerrad, Ruder
(Schiffs-)Rumpf
(Schiffs-)Kiel
Backbord (links)
(Steuer-)Ruder
Steuerbord (rechts)
Heck
Kapitän(in)
Besatzung, Crew
Hafenarbeiter(in)
Zahl-, Proviantmeister(in)
Steuermannsmaat
Matrose/Matrosin
BOOK
■ Maritime Economics, Martin Stopford (Routledge)
WEBSITES
■ International Chamber of Shipping: www.ics-shipping.org
■ International Maritime Organization: www.imo.org
■ Marine Society: www.marine-society.org
■ The Nautical Institute: www.nautinst.org
plus Do more exercises on this topic in Business Spotlight plus
www More job vocabulary at www.business-spotlight.de/vocabulary
PAUL KAVANAGH is the head of Englisch in Arbeit,
which provides specialized English training. He lives
in Bremen. Contact: info@englisch-in-arbeit.de
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 57

■ LANGUAGE LEGAL ENGLISH
advanced
Advising clients
Wendet man sich bei Unstimmigkeiten an einen Anwalt, benötigt
dieser zunächst Informationen. MATT FIRTH zeigt, wie ein erstes
Gespräch zwischen Anwalt und Mandant verlaufen könnte.
For lawyers: speaking and listening the WASP way
The structure of lawyer-client conversations often follows
the WASP method (Welcome; Acquire information; Supply
information and advise the client, Part):
■ Welcoming the client, or “meeting, greeting and seating”,
helps the client to relax.
■ The lawyer acquires information by asking general questions
to find out why the client needs legal advice, and specific
questions to get a clear understanding of the subject.
■ The lawyer supplies information and advises the client.
The lawyer explains any first thoughts on the case, the services
needed, the fee structure and what the next steps are.
■ Before the client parts (leaves), the lawyer will review and
confirm what has been said.
building company [(bIldIN )kVmpEni]
damages [(dÄmIdZIz]
demolish sth. [di(mQlIS]
dispute [dI(spju:t]
fee structure [(fi: )strVktSE]
go to trial [)gEU tE (traIEl]
part [pA:t]
purchase price [(p§:tSEs praIs]
pursue sth. [pE(sju:]
semi-detached house
[)semi di)tÄtSt (haUs] UK
settle [(set&l]
settle out of court [)set&l )aUt Ev (kO:t]
survey [(s§:veI]
unreasonable [Vn(ri:z&nEb&l]
Comstock
Bauunternehmen
Schadensersatz(zahlung)
etw. abreißen
Rechtsstreit
Honorarordnung
vor Gericht gehen
hier: sich verabschieden
Kaufpreis
etw. weiterverfolgen
Doppelhaushälfte
einen Vergleich schließen
sich außergerichtlich einigen
Gutachten
unangemessen, überzogen
Exercise: What was said when?
Decide which step of an interview each of these statements
is from (W, A, S or P).
a) Until then, how had the relationship been between
the two of you? ______
b) Of course, the quickest solution would be to settle
out of court. ______
c) Could I just quickly confirm some of the points
we’ve discussed? ______
d) Nice to meet you! Would you like coffee? ______
Answers on page 62
A typical lawyer-client dialogue
(W/A) Lawyer: Thanks for coming in. Could you take
me through the current dispute?
Client: Yes. Last year, we bought a newly built semidetached
house. The problem is it’s extremely loud
when the neighbours go up and down the stairs.
We’ve complained to the building company, but they
said the house was built according to standards.
Lawyer: OK. Have you had the work checked?
Client: The company paid for a survey. They sent us
a report that supports their position. Here’s a copy.
(S) Lawyer: Thanks. Hm… This might actually help
you. These building standards refer to flats — the
requirements for houses are much stricter.
Client: Really?
Lawyer: Yes, I had a similar case last year. The company
settled, and my clients got back damages of
eight per cent of the purchase price.
Client: Well, that’s good — but ideally, they’d just fix
the stairs.
Lawyer: That might be difficult. It could well mean
demolishing and rebuilding the house, and would
probably be considered unreasonable.
Client: It’s not what I want, either. So now what?
Lawyer: Well, if the company isn’t willing to change
their position, we might do our own survey. We can
then show that the noise levels are not within the
standards for houses, if that’s the case.
Client: I see. Could you let me know how much it’s
likely to cost?
Lawyer: Of course. You’ll find the details of my fee
structure in this letter.
Client: Right, OK...
(P) Lawyer: So, you could possibly get ten per cent of
the purchase price back if this goes to trial, less if
we settle out of court. Would you like me to pursue
this for you?
Client: I think so. Yes.
■BS
MATT FIRTH teaches legal English at the University
of St Gallen, Switzerland. He is also secretary of
the European Legal English Teachers’ Association
(EULETA). Contact: matthew.firth@unisg.ch
58 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

advanced
ECONOMICS AND FINANCE LANGUAGE ■
Supply and demand (1)
Preise werden bekanntlich von Angebot und Nachfrage bestimmt.
IAN MCMASTER veranschaulicht diese wechselseitige Beeinflussung.
Digital Vision
Supply and demand are two of the most important concepts
in economics. But how do supply, demand and
prices fit together? And why do we sometimes see more of
a good being bought even though its price has risen?
To analyse this, economists assume that the higher the
price, the less consumers will normally want to buy, but the
more producers will normally want to sell. This can be seen
in Figure 1. The supply curve (S) slopes upwards from left
to right, showing that at higher prices, producers will want
to supply more. The demand curve (D) slopes downwards
from left to right, showing that the lower the price of a good,
the more consumers will want to buy of it. We assume here
that all other things — incomes, tastes, production costs,
the price of competitor products, etc. — are constant.
Figure 1: Supply and demand
Price
P 1
D S
The prices we pay: supply and demand are the key
A fall in incomes would shift the demand curve to the left
(D3). So would a fall in the price of a competitor good, making
the new price (P3) and amount bought (Q3) lower. ■BS
Figure 2: Shifts in demand
Price
D 2
D 1
D 3
P 2
P 1
P 3
Q 3
Q 1 Q 2
S
Quantity
The intersection of the two curves shows the price (P1) at
which supply and demand are equal (Q1). Economic theory
assumes that, via “market forces”, the price will move towards
this equilibrium. At higher prices, there is “excess
supply”; at lower prices, there is “excess demand”.
A key factor is the slope of the curves. The steeper they
are, the less supply and demand respond to price. This is
known as the “price elasticity” of supply and demand. In
general, demand is more elastic when the product is not essential,
and when there are many competitor products.
But how can we observe both higher prices and higher demand?
In theory, it is possible that the demand curve could
slope upwards to the right, showing that a good is more attractive
to customers if it is more expensive. In the case of
a few “ostentatious” goods, this may be the case.
But normally, there is a different explanation. So far, we
have looked at movements along the demand curve: the
price changes but everything else is constant. But an increase
in incomes, or an increase in the price of a competitor
product, would normally shift the demand curve to the
right, from D1 to D2 in Figure 2. The new equilibrium price
(P2) and the amount bought (Q2) are now both higher.
Q 1
Quantity
Finance
What are “dim-sum bonds”?
A dim-sum bond is one that is issued outside China but
denominated in renminbi, the Chinese currency. The
name comes from dim sum, a form of Chinese food
made up of bite-sized portions.
Supply and demand [sE)plaI En di(mA:nd] Angebot und Nachfrage
assume that [E(sju:m DÄt]
davon ausgehen, dass
bond [bQnd]
Anleihe
competitor product [kEm(petItE )prQdVkt] Konkurrenzprodukt
consumer [kEn(sju:mE]
Konsument(in)
currency [kVrEnsi]
Währung
equilibrium [)i:kwi(lIbriEm]
Gleichgewicht
excess demand [)ekses di(mA:nd] Übernachfrage
excess supply [)ekses sE(plaI]
Überangebot
intersection [)IntE(sekS&n]
Schnittpunkt, -stelle
issue sth. [(ISu:]
etw. ausgeben
ostentatious [)Qsten(teISEs]
protzig; hier: als Statussymbol
dienend
slope [slEUp]
Hang; hier: Neigung
slope downwards [)slEUp (daUnwEdz] abfallen
slope upwards [)slEUp (VpwEdz]
ansteigen
IAN MCMASTER is the editor-in-chief of Business
Spotlight. You can read his blog on topics relating to
global business at www.business-spotlight.de/blogs
Contact: i.mcmaster@spotlight-verlag.de
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 59

■ LANGUAGE TEACHER TALK
A good blend
Wird die Nachfrage nach Englisch für den Beruf weiter zunehmen? Welche Rolle spielen
soziale Medien dabei? Über diese Fragen sprach DEBORAH CAPRAS mit Vicky Loras, einer
Trainerin für Business-Englisch, die in der Schweiz ein Spracheninstitut betreibt.
Who is Vicky Loras?
Vicky Loras runs her own
school, The Loras English Network,
with her sister Eugenia in
Zug, Switzerland. As well as
specializing in business English
and teacher training, her school organizes
children’s events. Vicky writes a blog, in which she
focuses on professional development, language
learning and poetry. She has published an article,
“Multiculturalism in the classroom”, in English
Teaching Professional (no. 50, May 2007) and has
worked on the editorial board of The ETAS Journal,
by the English Teachers Association Switzerland.
Websites
Vicky Loras’s blog: http://vickyloras.wordpress.com
The Loras English Network: www.lorasnetwork.com
Contact: vickyloras@yahoo.ca
Twitter: @vickyloras
Current position
Co-founder of the language school The Loras English Network,
in Zug, Switzerland. Zug is a small, but lovely town in
central Switzerland. Because it has the lowest taxes in the
country, it’s the home to many global companies. That
makes it a very international place.
Why and when did you choose to go into business-English
teaching?
I started teaching business English in 2001, in my third year
of teaching English as a Second Language. I was teaching one
businessman then. In the beginning, I didn’t think that I
would be able to do it. As I got more into it, though, I enjoyed
it more and more. Plus, I was learning business terminology
with him! I still am and I love it.
Languages spoken
Apart from English, which is my native language, as I was
born in Canada, I am also fluent in Greek — my parents were
born in Greece. I speak Italian and German at a basic level,
too. At the moment, I am learning Turkish, after my latest trip
to Istanbul.
How will teaching business English change in the next five
years?
Over the past two years, there has been a boom in business-
English teaching and I believe the industry will expand even
more. I also think that the media of teaching will change.
Every day, we see that more and more teachers are teaching
students online, either because they do not have the time to
attend their lessons face-to-face or because the world of social
media has changed a lot of things. I teach people who
have found me via social media — and because they live in
other countries (for instance, in Greece and France), I teach
them via Skype.
What do you offer that makes your classes stand out from the
crowd?
One of my favourite activities is “the word of the week”. It
all started when I saw the sentence “it was going to be a staycation”
in a newspaper. I told my bankers about “staycation”,
and the discussion we had and the language that was produced
were phenomenal — with very low TTT (teacher talking
time). I just popped in occasionally to make corrections
or contribute. Nothing else that I had planned for the rest of
the lesson was used, but it was one of the best lessons ever.
“Can I bring you one of these blended words every week?” I
asked. They loved the idea! I usually find new words in online
dictionaries: for example, under the category buzzwords
in the Macmillan Dictionary online.
blend sth. [blend]
buzzword [(bVzw§:d]
co-founder [)kEU (faUndE]
contribute [kEn(trIbju:t]
editorial board [edI(tO:riEl bO:d]
face-to-face [)feIs tE (feIs]
industry [(IndEstri]
poetry [(pEUEtri]
pop in [)pQp (In]
stand out from the crowd
[stÄnd )aUt frQm DE (kraUd]
staycation
[steI(keIS&n] ifml.
etw. (ver)mischen; hier:
(neu) zusammensetzen
Mode-, Schlagwort
Mitbegründer(in)
einen Beitrag leisten; hier:
sich einbringen
Redaktion(steam)
persönlich
Branche
Dichtkunst, Lyrik
kurz vorbeischauen; hier:
sich einschalten
sich von der breiten Masse
abheben
Urlaub zu Hause (aus
„stay“ und „vacation“)
60 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

medium
Choose, filter, blend:
a perfect combination
“We have the luxury to
choose and filter what is
good for our students”
Ingram Publishing
What can learners do on their own to improve their language
skills?
With so many opportunities online, they can use a lot of
resources, and luckily, for free. There are thousands of podcasts
online, which they can download on to various devices
and then listen to them on their way to work. People without
access to technology can find material in a wealth of books.
There is so much material available right now that we have
the luxury to choose and filter what is good for our learners.
How important is grammar?
I do not go about correcting every single mistake my students
make, as that can be demotivating. With my Swiss students,
however, I make an exception. They insist on that and I respect
it.
How important is it to speak English correctly?
Especially in the business world, it is very important, so that
one can establish clarity and accuracy in transactions. A tiny
mistake can mean that a deal can fall through, regardless of
someone’s position in the company.
Has any new kind of technology made a difference to how students
learn?
I see more and more of my students using their smartphones
to look up words or to find articles that come up during our
discussions. I love how easily they use them and how much
better they feel when they can find something there.
Ambitions and dreams
My dream is to do a master’s in linguistics some day and then
a PhD after that. I hope I can achieve both!
A must-read ELT (English Language Teaching) book
Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom by Zoltán
Dörnyei. If there is a person who knows about motivating students,
it is definitely Zoltán.
access [(Äkses]
accuracy [(ÄkjErEsi]
achieve sth. [E(tSi:v]
Aeschylus [(i:skElEs]
clarity [(klÄrEti]
come up [)kVm (Vp]
dessert [di(z§:t]
device [di(vaIs]
educator [(edjukeItE]
fall through [)fO:l (Tru:]
go about doing sth.
[)gEU E)baUt (du:IN]
menu [(menju:]
nephew [(nefju:]
niece [ni:s]
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy): do a ~
[)pi: eItS (di:]
quote [kwEUt]
resource [ri(zO:s]
season: be in ~ [(si:z&n]
wealth [welT]
A must read non-ELT book
Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk, my favourite
writer. It is an autobiography that shows the
strong connection between the writer and
his city — and his great love for it.
Favourite quote
Aeschylus: “It is always in season for old men to learn.” Professional
development never stops!
Who inspires you?
Many people. My family. My niece and my nephew. I am very
lucky to be inspired by educators all over the world that I have
connected with via social media.
What language or intercultural mistakes have made you or
your learners laugh out loud?
I was in a restaurant in Switzerland when a waitress asked me
something in Swiss German. I understood Guetzli (“biscuits”),
so I thought she’d asked if I’d wanted a dessert and
said yes. I waited, and waited, but she didn’t come back with
the menu. In the end, I paid and left. A friend later told me
that she had probably said Isch es guet gsi?, which means:
“Was it [the food] good?”
■BS
Zugang
Genauigkeit
etw. erlangen, schaffen
Aischylos
Klarheit
aufkommen
Nachspeise
Gerät
Lehrer(in)
nicht zustande kommen
sich daranmachen, etw.
zu tun
(Speise-)Karte
Neffe
Nichte
promovieren
Zitat
(Informations-)Quelle
Saison haben; hier: die
richtige Zeit sein
hier: Fülle
More for teachers at www.business-spotlight.de/teachers-zone
www
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 61

■ LANGUAGE PRODUCTS
medium
What’s new?
Sie wollen noch tiefer ins Englische eintauchen? Wir
haben uns für Sie nach neuen Produkten umgesehen.
Books
Marketplace 3.0: Rewriting the
Rules of Borderless Business
The author of this book is the
founder of Rakuten, one of the
world’s leading e-commerce
companies, based in Japan and
operating worldwide. His experience
in building international
corporations provides lessons for other global businesses.
Hiroshi Mikitani (Palgrave Macmillan), €19.89
Improve Your Global Business English
This book aims to make you aware of
the cultural, social and professional
environments of your business partners.
The authors examine a variety of
situations in which writing skills are
needed. Case studies are taken from
multinational companies. Fiona Talbot, Sudakshina
Bhattacharjee (Kogan Page), £14.99
Books with audio CDs
English for the Automobile Industry
This book is for anyone who works in
the automobile industry. It provides key
phrases and technical terms, while developing
the reader’s communication
skills for dealing with English-speaking
colleagues, business partners and customers.
Subjects include technical areas such as car components,
materials, specifications and safety features. The book
also looks at marketing factors, for example, design and
branding. For learners at CEF levels B1/B2 and above. Marie
Kavanagh (Cornelsen), €21.95*
The Book of Pronunciation
Using the right words and phrases is often
not enough to make yourself understood
in English. The pronunciation as
well as the rhythm and intonation of a
sentence are important, too. This book
for English-language teachers focuses
on the central role these elements play
in both teaching and learning. It also includes classroom activities.
Jonathan Marks, Tim Bowen (Delta Publishing),
€24.95 ■BS
*These products are available at www.sprachenshop.de
Audio CDs
Business Talk Hörkurs
This audio course from the Englisch
ganz leicht series is for learners at all
levels. It includes four CDs covering
small talk, phone calls, how to deal with
international business partners and talk
to customers at trade fairs. The dialogues
and exercises are based on authentic business situations.
The booklet contains dialogue transcripts and
translations. Barry Baddock et al. (Hueber), €14.99*
mit Sitz in...
Markenentwicklung
GER (Gemeinsamer Euro-
päischer Referenzrahmen
für Sprachen)
Bauteil
Unternehmen
Umfeld
Gründer(in)
Satzmelodie
Ausdruck, Formulierung
Aussprache
Sicherheitsmerkmal
technische Daten
Fachbegriff
Messe
based in... [(beIst In]
branding [(brÄndIN]
CEF (Common European Framework
for Languages) [)si: i: (ef]
component [kEm(pEUnEnt]
corporation [)kO:pE(reIS&n]
environment [In(vaI&rEnmEnt]
founder [(faUndE]
intonation [)IntE(neIS&n]
phrase [freIz]
pronunciation [prE)nVnsi(eIS&n]
safety feature [(seIfti )fi:tSE]
specifications [)spesEfI(keIS&nz]
technical term [(teknIk&l t§:m]
trade fair [(treId feE]
SOLUTIONS
Vocabulary (p. 44):
a) polling day, election day
b) poll card
c) polling station
d) poll clerks
e) electoral roll
f) constituency, electoral district
g) ballot paper
h) polling booths
i) vote, cast your ballot/vote
j) candidate
k) slot
l) ballot box
Grammar at Work (p. 45):
a) sugar-free; b) part-time;
c) English-speaking;
d) ovenproof; e) five-star;
f) careless; g) dangerous;
h) protective i) irresponsible
Easy English (pp. 46–47):
a) Jagdstrasse [dZeI, eI, dZi:, di:, es,
ti:, A:, eI, )dVb&l (es, i:]
b) Müller [em, ju:, i:, )dVb&l (el, i:, A:]
c) Yellowcage GmbH [waI, i:, )dVb&l
(el, EU, (dVb&lju:, si:, eI, dZi:, i:,
next word, dZi:, em, bi:, uppercase
eItS]
d) p.wilson@kq-uv.de [pi:, dQt,
(dVb&lju:, aI, el, es, EU, en, (Ät
()saIn), keI, kju:, haIf&n, ju:, vi:,
dQt, di:, i:]
Translation (p. 52):
1. a) Japanische Unternehmen behandeln
ihre Mitarbeiter sehr
gut.
b) Bitte betrachten Sie diese Information(en)
als vertraulich.
2. a) He already told me how the
film ends.
b) He was found guilty of (high)
treason.
English for... sea travel
(pp. 56–57):
a–2; b–1;
c–2; d–3
Legal English (p. 58):
a) A; b) S;
c) P; d) W
62 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

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Franz Marc Frei
For the
love of it
Die Kunst ist für Künstler und Kulturbeauftragte ein weites,
spannendes Feld mit steinigen Wegen. MARGARET DAVIS hat
sich von Kunstschaffenden und Experten berichten lassen,
von welchen Faktoren der Erfolg oft abhängt. advanced
High on dance:
street performer
near the Louvre

CULTURE AND THE ARTS CAREERS ■
Children everywhere dream of joining the circus.
Christina Hiller actually did it. The 24-year-old
trained physiotherapist recently spent nine
months working and travelling all over Australia
with the Circus Royale, even developing
her own solo act. “For the first two months, I only helped
out,” Hiller explains. She worked in the office, taking
bookings and selling tickets, as well as helping with props,
putting up the tent and driving trucks. “After the two
months, my solo act was hula hoops. I started with one,
then progressed to two and three and 30 at the end. I was
part of quite a few other supporting acts as well — little
dances or carrying things or holding the camel.”
Extensive travel is also part of Alison Balsom’s working
life (see interview page 68). The British trumpet virtuoso’s
job takes her all over the world, now mainly in the company
of her three-year-old son. Balsom
says she enjoys being able to spend time
with her child and to do the job she
loves, making music. But the globetrotting
life is not all glamour. “As any freelancer
— anyone who works for themselves
— will tell you, you never switch
off from it. At the moment, that is my
main problem. I never really switch off. I’m seeing an email
about a concert that’s in three years and I can’t resist getting
involved, even if I’ve said to myself, ‘No, it’s 11.30 at
night, just leave it.’”
not all of them
involve performing. The internet has increased opportunities
for graphic and web designers, as well as for video producers
and video journalists. Other cultural careers include
archivist [(A:kIvIst]
arts administrator
[(A:ts Ed)mInIstreItE]
assume sth. [E(sju:m]
audience [(O:diEns]
chief executive [)tSi:f Ig(zekUtIv]
director [dE(rektE]
donor [(dEUnE]
earmark (funding) [(IEmA:k]
fee [fi:]
freelancer [(fri:lA:nsE]
funding [(fVndIN]
implement sth. [(ImplIment]
inject sth. [In(dZekt]
kick in [)kIk (In]
music supervisor
[(mju:zIk )su:pEvaIzE]
negotiate sth. [nI(gEUSieIt]
on-demand: …-~ [Qn di(mA:nd]
prop [prQp]
recovery [ri(kVvEri]
script writing [(skrIpt )raItIN]
slump [slVmp]
supporting act [sE)pO:tIN (Äkt]
trumpet [(trVmpIt]
vulnerable [(vVlnErEb&l]
Archivar(in)
Kulturdezernent(in)
von etw. ausgehen
Publikum, Hörer(innen)
Firmenchef(in)
Regisseur(in)
Geldgeber(in)
(finanzielle Mittel) bereitstellen
Gebühr, Honorar
Freiberufler(in)
Finanzierung
etw. umsetzen
etw. injizieren; hier: wecken
anlaufen, in Gang kommen
(Film-)Musikberater(in)
etw. aushandeln
…auf Bestellung
Requisite
Erholung; hier: wieder erstarkte
Konjunktur
Schreiben von Drehbüchern
starker Konjunkturrückgang
Nebendarbietung
Trompete
anfällig
photography, being a museum curator or archivist as well
as script writing.
For those who enjoy both music and film, a career as a
music supervisor could be an option. Music supervisors
like Alexandra Patsavas, in Los Angeles, help directors
choose music for their film or television soundtracks. Their
influence in introducing performers to new audiences is
growing, particularly in the case of successful films or TV
series, many of which are later marketed as DVDs.
the music
supervisor has moved from the side to the centre of marketing
meetings and publicity plans,” Patsavas told the
Financial Times. Detailed discussions with TV and film directors
and producers are part of the job. “We go through
the script page by page and talk about where a director
Careers in the arts are varied and do
not always involve performing
may see songs,” Patsavas says. The music supervisor is also
responsible for getting rights to songs and negotiating fees.
Arts organizations are particularly vulnerable to recessions
and other financial crises. In the US, they are mainly
dependent on wealthy donors, while in Britain, the arts
are financed with a combination of private and public
funding; in other parts of Europe, arts organizations are
more dependent on public funding.
“Private and public money are hit by recession at different
times. Private money tends to disappear the moment
a slump happens, but reappears fairly quickly once recovery
kicks in,” says Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts
& Business, a British consultancy involved in arts sponsorship.
“Government cuts, meanwhile, can take years to be
implemented but once they are there, they stay for a long
time before fresh funding gets earmarked,” Tweedy told
the Financial Times.
Financial restrictions are forcing arts administrators to
cut costs. At the same time, at least some of them have developed
innovative ways to market their products. Peter
Gelb, general director of the Metropolitan Opera (the Met)
in New York, is one of these innovators. His “Live in HD”
programme was developed to bring live opera performances
from the Met directly to cinemas around the
world. The Met also has a 24-hour radio channel
and an opera-on-demand app. “In the 1980s
and 1990s, the Met wrongly assumed there was
always going to be an opera public,” Gelb told
the Financial Times. “It’s an ageing art form, so
positive actions have to be taken every day to
inject excitement and get a new audience.” 4
3/2013
Circus act: Christina Hiller with
one of her many hula hoops
www.business-spotlight.de 67

■ CAREERS CULTURE AND THE ARTS
INTERVIEW
“You need a lot of luck and determination
as well as talent”
picture-alliance/dpa
Award-winning British trumpeter
ALISON BALSOM, 34, performs
worldwide and has made a number
of recordings. Her latest CD is Kings
& Queens (EMI). The mother of a
small boy, Alison Balsom spoke to
Business Spotlight about being a
working parent and other challenges
of life as a performer.
What’s it like travelling with your little boy?
It’s wonderful that I am lucky enough to do that. Many other
people’s jobs mean that it’s impossible. We have lots of
time together and I also get to continue doing the thing I love.
It’s a tightrope — all working mothers know that — but when
you manage not to fall off, it’s a great feeling.
You’re a guest professor at the Guildhall School of Music &
Drama in London. As a young person yourself, do you have
any trouble getting the students to take you seriously?
First, I’m not that young. It’s been about 12 years since I left
the Guildhall, so I’ve got 12 years over them. And also, I’ve
had amazing teaching myself. One of my greatest teachers,
[Swedish trumpeter] Håkan Hardenberger, gave me so many
fantastic ideas of how to learn and what to do to get better.
And I set my students some really fiendishly difficult exercises
that they have to do in front of each other, because that
happened to me at the Paris Conservatoire.
What’s it like to have your schedule booked years in advance?
I love it, actually, because when I was younger, I played as a
freelance orchestral musician and as a session player. And I’d
think, “Oh, I’m free on Sunday. Brilliant!” and then the phone
would ring. I hated that, because I was looking forward to that
day off. Or you never know when you’re going to get called
next. Because there have been so few classical trumpet
soloists, I feel now that I’m forging my own path. Everything
I do can go as far as I want it to go. If I need to take my foot
off the pedal, then I will. And if I suddenly have an inspiration
to do a huge project that’s going to take up every
waking moment of my life, then if I put enough passion into
it, it just might get off the ground.
Clearly, you are extremely talented. Is talent enough to be successful
as a musician?
Well, I think you need a lot of luck and a lot of opportunities,
and a lot of determination as well as talent. You need to have
great mentors, guides and teachers — and I’ve been so lucky
in that respect.
Do you have any advice for a young person who hopes to have
a career in music?
You have to have a great and deep love for the music and that
will get you through every other challenge. Otherwise, it’s very
hard to keep your eye on why you’re doing it. But if you have
that, and it’s a real, authentic love, then everything else will
slip into place.
Still, despite the restrictions, Michael Kaiser, president of
the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, says
that being an arts administrator is “the best career in the
world. My job as an administrator is solely to make artistic
people’s dreams come true,” he told Harvard Magazine.
More and more universities are recognizing that students
want to develop financial and management skills for arts
careers. “Culture and the arts is a fully fledged economic
sector that requires specialist know-how and expertise,”
says Laure Kraemer, head of marketing and commercial
development at Drouot auction house in Paris. “After my
studies in the history of art, I felt that enhancing my management
and marketing skills would enable me to broaden
my horizon and go a step further in my professional
path,” Kraemer told the Financial Times. She completed a
master’s in Management of Cultural and Artistic Activities
at the business school ESCP Europe. The one-year course
in Paris and Venice combines the history of art and culture
amazing [E(meIzIN]
enhance sth. [In(hA:ns]
expertise [)eksp§:(ti:z]
fiendishly [(fi:ndISli]
forge one’s own path
[)fO:dZ wVnz )EUn (pA:T]
(forge
freelance [(fri:lA:ns]
fully fledged [)fUli (fledZd] UK
get off the ground [)get )Qf DE (graUnd]
in advance [)In Ed(vA:ns]
keep one’s eye on sth.
[)ki:p wVnz (aI Qn]
fantastisch
etw. verbessern
Fachwissen
höllisch
seinen eigenen Weg gehen
schmieden)
freiberuflich
eigenständig
in Gang kommen
im Voraus
etw. nicht aus den Augen
verlieren
pedal: take one’s foot off the ~ [(ped&l]
performing arts [pE)fO:mIN (A:ts]
professional path [prE)feS&nEl (pA:T]
schedule [(Sedju:l]
session [(seS&n]
slip into place [)slIp )IntE (pleIs]
solely [(sEUlli]
take up (time) [)teIk (Vp]
tightrope [(taItrEUp]
trumpet [(trVmpIt]
trumpeter [(trVmpItE]
waking moment: every ~
[)weIkIN (mEUmEnt]
das Tempo zurückfahren
darstellende Künste
berufliche Laufbahn
Terminplan
für Aufnahmen, im Studio
sich fügen
(einzig und) allein
(Zeit) in Anspruch nehmen
Balanceakt
Trompete
Trompeter(in)
jede (freie) Minute
68 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

Franz MArc Frei
“Culture and the arts is
an economic sector that
requires specialist
know-how and expertise”
The play’s the thing: on stage in London
with practical management experience, as well as internships
at organizations such as Christie’s and UNESCO.
“To be a management controller or auditor in the Louvre,
or of a theatre or opera in Paris, is not the same as working
in a bank,” explains Maria Koutsovoulou, ESCP Europe’s
academic dean.
is highly complex,
says Renaud Legoux, a professor at HEC Montréal,
which offers degree programmes in the management of cultural
organizations. “Cultural organizations also have to
handle deep relations with multiple stakeholders such as
governments, patrons, private donors, foundations and
firms,” Legoux says.
Mary Carlson would agree that arts management has
changed. Carlson is the director of Arts Executive Search,
a consultancy in London. “Today, you have to have a
background in finance and an understanding of HR at a
sophisticated level, resource allocation, audience trends
and distribution via broadcast — not to mention unions
academic dean
etwa: leitende(r) akademi-
[ÄkE)demIk (di:n]
sche(r) Dekan(in)
auditor [(O:dItE]
Rechnungs-, Wirtschaftsprüfer(in)
co-founder [)kEU (faUndE]
Mitgründer(in)
degree [di(gri:]
mit Hochschulabschluss
DIY exhibition [)di: aI (waI eksI)bIS&n] UK Do-it-Yourself-Ausstellung
entrepreneur [)QntrEprE(n§:]
Unternehmer(in)
executive search Suche nach Führungs -
[Ig(zekjUtIv s§:tS]
kräften, Headhunting
foundation [faUn(deIS&n]
Stiftung
graduate [(grÄdZuEt]
Absolvent(in)
HR (human resources) [)eItS (A:] Personalwesen
internship [(Int§:nSIp]
Praktikum
management controller
etwa: Leiter(in) Unter-
[(mÄnIdZmEnt kEn)trEUlE]
nehmenssteuerung
networking [(netw§:kIN]
Kontaktaufbau und -pflege
patron [(peItrEn]
Mäzen(in)
peer critique group [)pIE krI(ti:k gru:p] Kollegen-Kritikgruppe
put sth. on [)pUt (Qn]
hier: etw. veranstalten
raise one’s profile
seinen Bekanntheitsgrad
[)reIz wVnz (prEUfaI&l]
erhöhen
residency [(rezIdEnsi]
hier: Lehraufenthalt
resource allocation [ri(zO:s ÄlE)keIS&n] Verteilung der Mittel
sophisticated [sE(fIstIkeItId]
anspruchsvoll, gehoben
stakeholders [(steIk)hEUldEz]
Interessensgruppe(n)
stay in touch with sb. [)steI In (tVtS wID] mit jmdm. Kontakt halten
union [(ju:niEn]
Gewerkschaft
and management of labour issues,” she told the
Financial Times.
Arts graduates need to make use of their networking
skills, whether social or otherwise, says
Annabel Tilley, artist and co-founder of Zeitgeist
Arts Projects (ZAP). Tilley advises young artists to
put professional rivalries aside. “Leaving college and becoming
a professional artist is tough,” Tilley says. “My advice
is to stay in touch with your peer group — get together
and create a peer critique group to look at each other’s
work or put on a DIY exhibition so you can start to get
your work out there,” she told The Guardian.
“Apply for awards and residencies, build up your network
and do paid freelance work,” says Medeia Cohan,
creative director of the School for Creative Startups.
“These are important parts of raising your profile and
broadening your network.”
Christina Hiller is
working as a physiotherapist, not as a circus performer. Yet
Hiller says she learned some important skills from her nine
months in the circus, particularly public speaking and stage
presence. “And I have an immense capability to forgive
now,” she adds with a laugh. “Because you’re stuck with
the people and if you don’t get along, it’s horrible, so you
just have to get over it. But I’ll have to buy some hula
hoops, because I miss it!”
■BS
For more information
WEBSITES
■ Alison Balsom’s website includes information about her
recordings and performing schedule: www.alisonbalsom.com
■ ESCP Europe is one of Europe’s top business schools:
www.escpeurope.eu
■ HEC Montréal, a Canadian business school, offers management
training for cultural careers: www.hec.ca/en
■ The School for Creative Startups offers a year-long training
programme to entrepreneurs: http://schoolforcreativestartups.
com
■ Zeitgeist Arts Projects (ZAP): www.zeitgeistartsprojects.com
Listen to Christina Hiller on Business Spotlight Audio
plus Practise the language of the arts in Business Spotlight plus
www More career trends at www.business-spotlight.de/careers
MARGARET DAVIS is a Canadian journalist and is the
editor of the Careers and Global Business sections of
Business Spotlight. Contact her at: m.davis@spotlightverlag.de
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 69

■ CAREERS TIPS AND TRENDS
All in a day’s work
medium
Wann sollte man die Arbeit beenden? Was sollte man trotz Nervosität bei einem Vorstellungsgespräch
beachten? Wie holt man das Beste aus einer Fachkonferenz heraus? MARGARET DAVIS gibt Tipps.
On the job
Time to go home
Is presenteeism the rule at your company?
Do you find yourself staying late at
the office just because everyone else
does? Long working days do not necessarily
increase productivity, says efficiency
coach Heather Townsend. They might
even have the opposite effect, making
you overtired. “When you stop being
productive, put your hand up. Leave the
office and if you have to [work] an hour
later at home, do it,” Townsend told the
Financial Times.
Working late: not
always productive
If only I’d…
When New York-based tech entrepreneur
Daniel Gulati asked 30 professionals
between the ages of 28 and 58
about their career regrets, he found that the biggest regret was taking a job for the money. This
was followed by regretting not quitting an unsuitable job sooner. One investment banker said,
“I dream of quitting every day, but I have too many commitments.” The third-biggest regret
was not having the confidence to start a business of one’s own. “My biggest regret is that I am
a ‘wantrepreneur’,” said the head of a Fortune 500 company.
Source: Harvard Business Review
Hemera
Tradition counts:
British schools
Trend
A British education
The number of British-style international
schools opening abroad
has doubled in the past ten years.
Such schools are seen as a passport
to British universities and to jobs
in English-speaking countries.
Among the British public schools
opening international schools
are Dulwich College and Harrow. Top
locations include the United Arab
Emirates (with 370 schools),
Pakistan, China, India and Japan.
Sources: The Daily Telegraph; International
and Private Schools Education Forum (www.ipsef.net)
based: ...-~ [beIst]
commitment [kE(mItmEnt]
entrepreneur
[)QntrEprE(n§:]
presenteeism
[)prez&n(ti:)IzEm]
professional [prE(feS&nEl]
public school
[)pVblIk (sku:l] UK
quit a job
[)kwIt E (dZQb]
regret [ri(gret]
unsuitable [)Vn(su:tEb&l]
wantrepreneur
[)wQntrEprE(n§:]
non-stand.
mit Sitz in...
Verpflichtung
Unternehmer(in)
Präsentismus
(bloße Anwesenheit
am Arbeitsplatz
ohne volle Leistungsfähigkeit)
Fachkraft
Privatschule
eine Stelle kündigen
eine Sache, die
man bedauert
ungeeignet
jmd. der gerne
Unternehmer(in)
wäre (aus „want“
und „entrepreneur“)
Alamy
70 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

Hurry, hurry: time for the
next presentation
HOW TO...
Make the most of a conference
Trade conferences can be useful. Not only do they get you
out of the office (a benefit in itself), but you can make important
contacts. However, conferences can be exhausting,
too: so many talks, so little time. How can you make sure that
your attendance is going to be worthwhile?
■ Wear comfortable shoes. No, we’re not joking. You’ll spend
a lot of time walking, perhaps in an overheated convention
centre where the air feels as if it has not been recycled for
decades. Dress in layers that can be removed as necessary.
■ Enjoy the conference dinner or cultural events. But remember
that you are representing your company. Do you really
want your boss to see Facebook photos of you red-faced and
tipsy on the dance floor? We didn’t think so.
■ And talking of dinner and dancing reminds us of the morning
after. If you are registered for an early-morning talk, do
attend it, even if it means skipping breakfast.
■ What if you are one of the conference speakers? We hate
to be spoilsports, but you need to be extra careful. You, in
particular, have a reputation to lose.
■ Stay in touch. Look at the business cards you exchanged
during the conference and send emails to or connect with
those people on social-networking sites like LinkedIn.
Dilbert
iStockphoto (2)
Statistically speaking
Unsafe interruptions
■ A recent study for the US Navy showed that a threesecond
interruption doubled the number of mistakes
people made while performing complicated tasks. A
4.5-second interruption tripled the number of errors.
These findings are particularly important for highly
technical fields, such as medicine or aerospace. “What
this means is that our health and safety is, on some
level, contingent on whether the people looking after
it have been interrupted,” says Dr Erik Altmann, lead
researcher for the study.
Sources: CBS News (www.cbsnews.com);
Michigan State University (http://msutoday.msu.edu)
Who’s calling?
■ Xerox Corp. hires all 48,700 callcentre
employees using talentmanagement
software, relying
on personality tests and data
analysis rather than personal
interviews. Global spending on
such software rose by 15 per
cent between 2010 and 2011,
to $3.8 billion.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
aerospace [(eErEUspeIs]
billion [(bIljEn]
contingent: be ~ on sth. [kEn(tIndZEnt]
crowd sth. out [)kraUd (aUt]
exhausting [Ig(zO:stIN]
layer [(leIE]
researcher [ri(s§:tSE]
skip sth. [skIp]
spoilsport [(spOI&lspO:t]
stay in touch [)steI In (tVtS]
talk [tO:k]
tipsy [(tIpsi]
trade conference [(treId )kQnf&rEns]
triple sth. [(trIp&l]
Luft- und Raumfahrt
Milliarde(n)
von etw. abhängig sein
etw. verdrängen
anstrengend
Schicht, Lage
Forscher(in)
etw. ausfallen lassen
Spielverderber(in)
in Verbindung bleiben
Gespräch; Vortrag
beschwipst
Fachkonferenz
etw. verdreifachen
Quiet, please:
difficult work
www.dilbert.com scottadams@aol.com
© 4/5/2012 Scott Adams, Inc. Dist. by Universal Uclick
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 71

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illegaler
Download
GRATIS
Testen Sie den aktuellen Audio-Sprachtrainer von Business Spotlight!
Jetzt GRATIS downloaden:
www.spotlight-verlag.de/audio-test

LEISURE TIME CAREERS ■
S. McCurry/Magnum
Away from your desk
medium
Verbannen Sie die englische Sprache und die englischsprachige Welt nicht an Ihren Arbeitsplatz!
Mit Büchern, Kunst und anderen Genüssen räumen Sie ihnen auch in Ihrer Freizeit einen Platz ein.
MARGARET DAVIS gibt Empfehlungen.
Photography
Steve McCurry’s portrait of a green-eyed girl from
Afghanistan, which appeared on the cover of
National Geographic magazine in 1985, went on to
become an icon of modern documentary photography.
That striking image and more than 100 others
can be viewed until 16 June at the Kunstmuseum
Wolfsburg (www.kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.de) in
an exhibition called “Steve McCurry: Im Fluss der
Zeit, Fotografien
aus Asien
1980–2011”.
Born in Philadelphia,
the 63-
year-old’s career
as a photographer
spans more
than 30 years.
Striking image: Steve McCurry photo
Book
Welsh actor Richard Burton
was one of the most successful
and highly paid film and
theatre stars of all time. Married
five times (twice to Hollywood
legend Elizabeth Taylor), he was
no stranger to scandal. Yet, as
his diaries show, Burton hated
his profession. Worse, he was bored by it, describing
himself (and Taylor) as “bone lazy”. Lazy they might
have been, but their life together was far from boring.
And although The Richard Burton Diaries (Yale
University Press) is too long, Burton’s complex, intelligent
and often funny personality shines through.
Music
Will the wistful
“Where Are We
Now?” be as successful
for David Bowie as past
hits like “China Girl” or
“Modern Love”? It’s
impossible to tell, of
course, but the release
of The Next Day, his
first album in ten years,
has Bowie fans excited.
Meanwhile, the Victoria
& Albert Museum (V&A)
in London is showing
the first international
retrospective of Bowie’s career. The exhibition includes
handwritten lyrics, original costumes, music videos and the
singer’s own instruments and album artwork. They can be
seen at the V&A until 28 July. www.vam.ac.uk
DVD
T
he
M. Sukita
award-winning BBC comedy series Outnumbered
features two working parents, their three school-aged
children, in addition to assorted friends, grandparents
and other relatives. Partly improvised,
it is a look at family life that will ring
true for many. It is not clear, however,
whether it has had an effect on
the British birth rate. The Brockman
family’s efforts to keep their heads
above water are as funny as they are
frightening.
In costume:
innovative
British singer
David Bowie
artwork [(A:tw§:k]
assorted [E(sO:tId]
bone lazy [)bEUn (leIzi] UK
diary [(daIEri]
exhibition [)eksI(bIS&n]
feature sb. [(fi:tSE]
icon [(aIkQn]
keep one’s head above water
[)ki:p wVnz )hed E)bVv (wO:tE]
hier: Illustrationen
verschieden(e)
stinkfaul
Tagebuch
Ausstellung
jmdn. als Hauptdarsteller(in) zeigen
Symbol
sich über Wasser halten
lyrics [(lIrIks]
outnumbered: be ~
[)aUt(nVmbEd]
release [ri(li:s]
ring true [)rIN (tru:]
span (a period of time) [spÄn]
stranger: sb. is no ~ to sth.
[(streIndZE]
wistful [(wIstf&l]
Liedtext(e)
zahlenmäßig unterlegen/
in der Minderheit sein
Veröffentlichung
authentisch erscheinen
(einen Zeitraum) umfassen
etw. ist jmdm. nicht fremd
wehmütig
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 73

Me, Myself
„Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust“, wusste schon Faust zu klagen. Wie steht es mit Ihnen?
Sind Sie in der Arbeit die gleiche Person, die man auch zu Hause kennt und umgekehrt? VICKI SUSSENS
hat drei Personen in drei Ländern nach ihren Erfahrungen dazu gefragt.
medium
Mauritius

IDENTITIES MANAGEMENT ■
Patrick Kessler
Current job: co-founder of and head of client services and
strategy at Threeview GmbH, a marketing communications
agency started in 2005
Home: Munich, Germany
Cultural roots: mother American, father German
At work, I get frustrated when people are not focused.
At home, anyone can visit any time, even early on Sunday.
I started running for fitness and then I got ambitious.
The first thing I do at work is open my window. This is
my ritual to start a new day. It’s also when I shift my focus
towards business and the day ahead. Running a business is
central to who I am. It’s the American in me. My mother
comes from a family of entrepreneurs in Indianapolis.
I grew up on stories about my American grandfather. He
started a metal manufacturing business out of a garage,
and was an inspirational manager. Although he died before
I met him, there are parallels in how we do things. My
partners and I started Threeview in a small room. Now, we
adversity [Ed(v§:sEti]
bizarre [bI(zA:]
co-founder [)kEU (faUndE]
come naturally [)kVm (nÄtS&rEli]
committed: be ~ to sth. [kE(mItId]
core [kO:]
critical [(krItIk&l]
entrepreneur [)QntrEprE(n§:]
gruelling [(gru:ElIN]
map sth. out [)mÄp (aUt]
outside of work [)aUtsaId Ev (w§:k]
people skills [(pi:p&l skIlz]
Widrigkeit(en)
seltsam
Mitgründer(in)
ganz von selbst passieren
sich für etw. engagieren
zentral
hier: schwierig
Unternehmer(in)
mörderisch
etw. planen
hier: außerhalb der Arbeit
soziale Kompetenz(en)
“You’re in the rain, jogging along the Isar, and
all of a sudden, you find that strategic solution
you were so desperately looking for earlier”
have a staff of 20 and clients around the world. I believe
people skills are the most powerful of all work skills.
Many of my core work values come from my father. He
taught me to be committed to whatever I’m doing, as well
as a German skill so essential to my work with clients: creating
consensus by listening to all sides of a story.
At Threeview, we believe in working hard and having a
good time. We talk about private things at work and meet
outside of work. So I mix my work and private lives.
When I leave work, I turn into my private self quicker
than in my first ten years of work, especially if I run home.
When I run, things that looked critical hours before, stop
looking so bad, and it’s often then that I have my best
ideas. It’s bizarre. You’re in the rain, jogging along the Isar,
and all of a sudden, you find that strategic solution you
were so desperately looking for earlier.
Running seven marathons has given me work skills. The
gruelling training has taught me to deal with adversity.
The one skill I do not bring home is strategic thinking.
You can’t map out your private life. For example, I met
Barbara three years ago and we will marry this autumn. I
couldn’t have planned that. It just came naturally.
On the weekends, we are mostly out with friends. We
know all our neighbours, and visitors are welcome any
time. I think my work and private personas are well integrated.
My running passion could change, however, if we
have children. Family would then become my passion. 4
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 75

Nthabi Khadi
Current job: senior manager, project management (licensing
and registration) for a global pharmaceutical company
in Surrey, UK
Home: Guildford, Surrey, UK
Cultural roots: born in Maseru, Lesotho, to Basotho parents
If you came into my office at work, I probably would not
even notice you were there.
The first thing I do when I get home is make a cup of tea.
My passionate side would surprise my colleagues.
In my private life, I’m crazy, outgoing and supercharged.
I live life to the full. Skydiving is one of the crazy things
I’ve done. I also enjoy dancing, travelling, shopping for
shoes and being with friends. And I love everything Italian.
I travel to Italy at least once a year. The passionate side
of me would surprise most of my colleagues.
I do not mix my work and private lives. My work persona
is formal, very focused and conservative. Colleagues
who don’t know me well would say I’m reserved, but this
allows me to observe, analyse and understand work situations
better. Privately, I express strong views, but I find
this hard to do at work. In fact, I generally need to raise
my profile among my colleagues and management.
If you came into my office, you’d find me totally absorbed
in my work. It would take me a few minutes even to notice
you.
My work persona expresses my Lesotho roots more than
any other side of me. I lived in Maseru, Lesotho, until I was
12 years old, when my father, a diplomat, was sent first
to Rome and then to London. In Basotho culture, respect
for authority is very important, which I find hard to break
out of, but we also have enormous respect for others. We
are welcoming and accepting of people. Pulling together as
“Colleagues who don’t know me well would
say I’m reserved, but this allows me to
observe and understand situations better”
a community is very important. These values make me a
good team player. However, I find it challenging to get people
to work together the way I learned to. People here tend
to be very focused on their own ambition and direction.
When I shut my front door after work, I first have a cup
of tea. Then I listen to webinars or podcasts on personal
development or spiritual activities. The power of the mind
fascinates me. If I am not too tired, I’ll go out with friends.
My greatest passion is helping others. I have volunteered
in many initiatives in the community.
I feel my work and private personas should be separate.
I could bring more passion to my work, however, and I
could also bring more of my work skills back home. For
example, I commit easily to things at work, but I find it
hard to commit to things I’ve wanted to do privately for a
long time, such as starting dancing lessons again.
challenging [(tSÄlIndZIN]
commit to sth. [kE(mIt tu]
live life to the full
[)lIv )laIf tE DE (fUl]
outgoing [)aUt(gEUIN]
pharmaceutical
[)fA:mE(su:tIk&l]
raise one’s profile
[)reIz wVnz (prEUfaI&l]
reserved [ri(z§:vd]
senior manager
[)si:niE (mÄnIdZE]
skydiving [(skaI)daIvIN]
strong [strQN]
supercharged [(su:pEtSA:dZd]
volunteer [)vQlEn(tIE]
webinar [(webInA:]
schwierig
sich zu etw. verpflichten
das Leben in vollen Zügen
auskosten
kontaktfreudig
[wg. Aussprache]
sich profilieren
zurückhaltend
Manager(in) der oberen
Führungsebene
Fallschirmspringen
hier: entschieden
extrem energiegeladen
ehrenamtlich tätig sein
Web-Seminar
76 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

IDENTITIES MANAGEMENT ■
Arman Astabatsyan
Job: owner of machinery and chemicals export firm Silky Way
Home: Yerevan, Armenia
Cultural roots: comes from a noble Armenian family. Has
lived in Russia, Ukraine, Singapore and China.
None of my staff would dream of interrupting me at work.
The first thing I do when I get home is to play like a wild
child with my children.
I relax by being active, for example, by playing football.
I think this photo of me on a motorbike is cool but I’m
not a motorbike rider. It was taken at Universal Studios in
Hollywood — that’s the bike from The Terminator.
I am probably the first Armenian businessman to live
with his family in China. I made China the base of my
machinery and chemicals export firm about seven years
ago, and it was easier to be there while doing this. We lived
in a quarter with French people and Germans. Although
Chinese is my favourite food, I love German sausages,
which I could get there.
I’ve always had my own business. In 2002, I started with
a small shop in Yerevan, selling toys and stationery, and
base [beIs]
easy-going [)i:zi(gEUIN]
knighted: be ~ [(naItId]
machinery [mE(Si:nEri]
nobility: the ~ [nEU(bIlEti]
sausage [(sQsIdZ]
stationery [(steIS&nEri]
Yerevan [)jerE(vÄn]
Basis, Hauptquartier
unbekümmert
geadelt werden
Maschinen(anlagen)
der Adel
Wurst
Schreibwaren
Erivan
“Another big part of my identity is that I come
from the nobility. My family were knighted and
produced many influential Armenians”
then went into electronics. My export firm in China has offices
to handle business in Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and
Russia. I returned with my family to Yerevan last year.
Culturally, I’m Armenian, which means that I am hotblooded.
Armenians get angry quickly. I have learned to be
careful about this in China, where this is not acceptable.
Another big part of my identity is that I come from the
nobility. My family were knighted and produced many influential
Armenians. Courage is important to us and when
we have a plan, we make it work. However, I have many
friends in Europe, so I’m also culturally quite Western.
I’ve learned how culturally different employees are in different
countries. For example, Chinese staff don’t stay
long. They’ll leave if they get a higher salary elsewhere. For
Armenians, more important than salary is how happy they
are in the place they work.
My work self is easy-going but I can get angry if things
are done badly. I like hard work, and I like things to be
done on time. You’ll mostly find me in front of my computer
with my mobile phone in one hand and another phone
ringing. The door is shut! But I’m very different at home.
The first thing I do when I get home is play with my sixyear-old
daughter and three-year-old son. I become a
child like them, rolling on the floor or chasing them.
My passion is sport. I play football and basketball. I also
love camping in the mountains with friends. ■BS
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 77

■ MANAGEMENT WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Coca-Cola’s biggest mistake
Im Wettstreit mit der Konkurrenz entschloss sich Coca-Cola vor Jahren,
seine Rezeptur zu ändern — eine Fehlentscheidung mit weitreichenden
Folgen. Doch es gab einen Ausweg, wie VICKI SUSSENS berichtet. medium
The background
A disaster: Coke
drinkers did not
want the taste to
“get better”
Robert W. Woodruff, The Coca-Cola Company’s president
from 1923 to 1954 and its unofficial leader until he retired
from the board in 1984, wanted Coke to become the most
popular drink on earth. He succeeded. As it spread around
the world, it became a symbol of American culture. Pepsi-Cola,
which had been launched as “Brad’s Drink” in
1893, just seven years after Coke, struggled to compete.
Then, in 1963, Pepsi cleverly repositioned itself. The
1960s saw baby boomers increasingly questioning their
parents’ values, and Pepsi targeted them with the slogan
“Come Alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation”. Where
Coke advertisements were nostalgic, PepsiCo promoted the
Pepsi drinker as young and changing the world. From
1970, it began to take market share from Coke.
The problem
In 1975, PepsiCo began a new battle in the cola wars that
Coca-Cola could not win. Consumers were asked in the
“Pepsi Challenge” campaign to compare the taste of the
two colas. They preferred the sweeter Pepsi. In the 1980s,
the market for Coke worsened. Weight-conscious baby
boomers turned to diet sodas, and the biggest market for
sugary cola, young drinkers, preferred Pepsi. By 1983,
Coke’s market share had dropped from 60 per cent just after
the Second World War to less than 24 per cent.
The solution
Coca-Cola decided to make a sweeter Coke. Roberto
Goizueta, who became chief executive in 1981, famously
said that there would be no “sacred cows” in how the company
did business, including Coke’s formula. In 99 years,
the formula had been changed only slightly, to make it
kosher. And it is so secret that the only written version
remains locked away. Goizueta quietly formed a group
to create a new formula, which was tested on 200,000
consumers. While the majority preferred the new taste to
both old Coke and Pepsi, a small group said they would
stop drinking Coke if it changed its taste. Marked “NEW”,
the cola was launched on 23 April 1985.
What happened next
The result was a massive consumer backlash. Coke’s headquarters
in Atlanta received 400,000 angry calls and letters,
including one given personally to Goizueta, addressed
to “Chief Dodo, The Coca-Cola Company”. A Chicago
Tribune writer attacked Coke for changing the formula.
And Cuba’s Radio Havana said the death of the “Real
Thing” was a symptom of decay in the US. In the meantime,
protest groups called for a return to the old formula.
PepsiCo took advantage of the situation, producing advertisements
mocking New Coke. But Coke fans didn’t switch
to Pepsi. They stocked up on old Coke, and shops began to
import it from countries where it was still available.
Three months after New Coke was launched, Coca-Cola
announced the return of old Coke. This made front-page
news, and 31,600 consumers phoned Coke’s hotline to say
thank you. New Coke remained in a few markets until
2002, but it was hardly promoted. Ironically, the marketing
faux pas gave Coke back its original advantage over
Pepsi — its symbolic status — and Coke sales soared. ■BS
baby boomer
[(beIbi )bu:mE]
backlash [(bÄklÄS]
board [bO:d]
challenge [(tSÄlIndZ]
chief executive [)tSi:f Ig(zekjUtIv]
come alive [kVm E(laIv]
compete [kEm(pi:t]
consumer [kEn(sju:mE]
decay [di(keI]
diet soda [)daIEt (sEUdE]
dodo [(dEUdEU] ifml.
formula [(fO:mjUlE]
front-page news: make ~
[)frVnt peIdZ (nju:z]
headquarters [)hed(kwO:tEz]
launch sth. [lO:ntS]
market share [(mA:kIt SeE]
mock sb./sth. [mQk]
sacred cow [)seIkrId (kaU]
sales [seI&lz]
soar [sO:]
stock up on sth. [)stQk (Vp Qn]
target sb. [(tA:gIt]
Angehörige(r) der geburtenstarken
Jahrgänge
Gegenreaktion
Vorstand
Herausforderung
Firmenchef(in),
aufleben, in Schwung kommen
konkurrieren; hier: mithalten
Konsument(in), Verbraucher(in)
Verderbnis
Diätlimonade
alter Depp
Rezeptur
es auf die Titelseiten
schaffen
Zentrale
etw. auf den Markt bringen
Marktanteil(e)
sich über jmdn./etw. lustig machen
die heilige Kuh
Umsatz
in die Höhe schnellen
sich Vorräte von etw. zulegen
auf jmdn. abzielen
plus Do a reading-comprehension exercise in Business Spotlight plus
78 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

EXECUTIVE EYE MANAGEMENT ■
“Practice is essential for excellent performance. But
practice alone cannot create talent, not even in sport”
ADRIAN FURNHAM ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT
medium
Why you can’t
create talent
The idea of creating talent is a
myth, and talent management is
bogus nonsense. The debate about
whether talent is caused by “nature”
or “nurture” has swung backwards
and forwards. In the 1960s, the focus
was on nurture. Then, the late 1970s
saw the introduction of DNA testing
and the growth of sociobiology,
which focuses on evolution as a cause
of behaviour.
Now, the pendulum has swung back,
and from the business world, we hear
that talent can be created. Influencing
this theory is sports science, or the
“10,000-hour rule”, which says that
anybody can show talent after 10,000
hours of coaching and practice.
The magic ingredient is practice.
Practice, it seems, not only makes
perfect, it makes talent. So if you
don’t succeed in winning an Olympic
gold medal or starting a hugely successful
company, it isn’t that you
don’t have the talent, but that you
haven’t practised enough. It seems
bogus [(bEUgEs]
common sense [)kQmEn (sens]
egg sb. on [)eg (Qn]
ends: use sth. for one’s own ~ [endz]
fertilizer [(f§:tElaIzE]
here’s the rub [)hIEz DE (rVb]
knowledgeable [(nQlIdZEb&l]
magic ingredient [)mÄdZIk In(gri:diEnt]
nurture [(n§:tSE]
nutrient [(nju:triEnt]
pendulum [(pendjUlEm]
performance [pE(fO:mEns]
plateau [(plÄtEU]
seed [si:d]
setback [(setbÄk]
soil [sOI&l]
window: go straight out the ~ [(wIndEU] ifml.
that common sense goes straight out
the window when management gurus
use science for their own ends.
vorgetäuscht
gesunder Menschenverstand
jmdn. anstacheln
etw. zum eigenen Nutzen einsetzen
Düngemittel
hier liegt der Hase im Pfeffer
sachkundig, informiert
Zaubermittel
Bildung, Erziehung
Nährstoff
Pendel
Leistung
Ebene, Niveau
Samen; hier: Veranlagung
Rückschlag
Boden, Erde
auf der Strecke bleiben
Practice is, of course, essential for
excellent performance. But practice
alone cannot create talent — neither
in business nor in sport. Sports stars
start at the right age and with the
right bodies. Early experience is also
important. The earlier you start the
violin, skiing or speaking German,
the easier it is, with practice, to become
an expert.
But here’s the rub: if you put ten
people through the same 10,000-hour
programme, one might become a star
while the others don’t. Such individuals
are what we call “naturals”,
born with an ability others don’t
have. But having that seed is not
enough. For talent to grow, it needs
the right soil, fertilizer and nutrients.
And this is a complicated process.
People differ greatly in their passions
and ability to invest in their talents.
Outside influences can only partially
help people over their performance
plateau. People have different
learning experiences and deal with
opportunities in different ways. For
example, the intelligent, curious child
who reads a lot will become increasingly
knowledgeable. People who
have an early failure may stop believing
in their abilities and not develop
a talent. Those who get positive encouragement,
on the other hand, may
be motivated to succeed and prepared
to work hard and get over setbacks.
However, the source of motivation
is also important. It may be a parent,
a teacher or a coach egging a star on,
Ingram Publishing
Start again: talent management is nonsense
but when they stop, the star’s motivation
can also drop.
So talent is not only genetic. Nor is
it something you get through hard
work alone. You get into the talent
group through both effort and ability.
The less ability you have, the more
effort is required. But there are minimum
requirements for both. ■BS
ADRIAN FURNHAM is a psychology professor
at University College, London, a
management expert and the author of
over 60 books. His latest is The Engaging
Manager: The Joy of Management and Being
Managed (Palgrave Macmillan).
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 79

Downtown Detroit: home
of a high-tech revival
C. Burkert/laif
The road to
recovery
Im Zuge der Absatzkrise auf dem Automobilmarkt schien Detroit, einst blühendes
Zentrum der Autobauer, dem Niedergang geweiht. PAUL HARRIS berichtet, wie die
Ansiedlung junger IT-Unternehmen der Stadt eine neue Zukunft gibt. advanced
The lively, noisy scene inside the M@dison building
is not one you would expect to find in innercity
Detroit. It appears as though a piece of California’s
Silicon Valley has landed in the middle
of a city now just as famous for catastrophic urban
decline as for being the spiritual home of America’s car
industry.
Two youthful tech engineers play table tennis in the middle
of a busy, open-plan office, while others relax on the
multicoloured couch in the cafe lounge. Around a table,
three people are having a discussion and a few words can
be heard across the room. “Having an eye patch would be
kind of cool,” insists one, seriously.
This is no mirage. Increasingly, it is a common sight in
the Motor City, as more and more high-tech firms are starting
up in downtown
Language point
Detroit. The M@dison
building has just been
named one of the
world’s coolest offices
by the monthly busi-
decline [di(klaIn]
eye patch [(aI pÄtS]
mirage [(mIrA:Z]
open-plan office [)EUpEn )plÄn (QfIs]
Detroit is commonly called Motor City,
as the three largest US carmakers are
based here: Chrysler, Ford and General
Motors. These are often referred to as
the big three.
Niedergang
Augenklappe
Trugbild, Fata Morgana
Großraumbüro
80 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

DETROIT TECHNOLOGY ■
ness magazine Inc. The building is not alone. Around the
M@dison, other tech firms have appeared, followed by
bars, restaurants and, of course, that true symbol of urban
youth coolness in America: a fancy table-tennis club.
Most are centred on Woodward Avenue, the once-proud
street that is called “Webward Avenue” by local media.
But, unlike many earlier attempts to fix downtown Detroit,
the growth of a tech industry seems to be real. Suddenly,
buildings that were empty for decades are being
turned into loft apartments. On “Webward”, new offices
and apartments are even being built. “You are seeing construction.
It is pretty exciting,” said Jim Xiao, a 24-yearold
financial analyst for Detroit Venture Partners (DVP),
the driving force behind the M@dison and an investor in
new tech firms in the city.
As a former resident of Seattle and Microsoft employee,
Xiao is typical of the tech engineers and entrepreneurs who
can now be found in Detroit. In less than two years,
DVP has already invested in 18 start-ups. The aim
is to set up many of them in the M@dison and then
watch them grow, leave them to find their own offices
and have their spaces filled by an already long
waiting list of new companies. In Brightmoor, too,
at the outer edge of the city, there are plans to set
up a project called TechTown, which will help residents
start or improve their businesses.
One of the biggest success stories is Detroit Labs,
which makes apps for mobile phones, iPads and other
tablets. Started 18 months ago, the firm now has 30 workers
and is about to move out of the M@dison and into its
own offices. Detroit Labs co-founder Paul Glomski also
believes in the city. “There is the cool grit factor with Detroit.
This is a genuine, hardworking place. It is not superficial.
It is full of people getting things done,” he said.
arson [(A:s&n]
bailout [(beI&laUt]
bankruptcy [(bÄNkrVptsi]
broken [(brEUkEn]
catastrophe [kE(tÄstrEfi]
co-founder [)kEU (faUndE]
entrepreneur
[)QntrEprE(n§:]
fix sth. [fIks]
genuine [(dZenjuIn]
grit [grIt] US ifml.
pain [peIn]
pivotal [(pIvEt&l]
riot [(raIEt]
ruin porn [(ru:In pO:n] non-stand.
(porn
space(s) [(speIs(Iz)]
superficial [)su:pE(fIS&l]
vacant [(veIkEnt]
venture [(ventSE]
white flight [)waIt (flaIt]
Brandstiftung
Rettungsaktion
Bankrott
hier: marode
[wg. Aussprache]
Mitbegründer(in)
Unternehmer(in)
etw. reparieren; hier: auf
Vordermann bringen
authentisch
hier: Mumm
hier: Elend, Misere
zentral; hier: von
wesentlicher Bedeutung
Unruhe, Krawall
Bilder des Verfalls
Pornografie)
Räume
oberflächlich
leer stehend
Unternehmung
Wegzug der weißen
Bevölkerung
The giant carmakers are playing a role, too. The industry,
which is recovering after a government bailout during
the recession, is producing cars increasingly dependent on
technology. As a result, the big three are hiring thousands
of software engineers, as cars become internet-connected
and electronics-driven.
But in Detroit, any optimism is weakened by the
brutal realities of half a century of frightening decline. You
see burned-out homes, vacant factories and schools with
falling-down walls, the sort of landscape that is usually the
product of war or catastrophe. This horror show is so
widespread that Detroit has become a photographers’ paradise
for “ruin porn”.
The visual shock is matched by the cold, hard facts. Since
the 1950s, when 1.85 million people lived here, the city has
been hit by race riots, white flight, industrial decline and
The growth of Detroit’s tech
industry seems to be real
terrible mismanagement. Its population is now 700,000 —
more than a million Detroiters have simply left.
Life for the people remaining in Detroit is hard. The police
force struggles to deal with gang violence, waves of
arson and widespread drug use. There were almost 400
gun deaths in 2012 — the city’s highest rate in 19 years —
and for the past four years, Forbes magazine has named
Detroit “America’s most dangerous city”. Above all that
are worries about money. Detroit’s finances are almost as
broken as its buildings. If it can’t save itself, it may become
the biggest city bankruptcy in American history.
But the tech boom may help to save the city in other
ways, too. Rich Feldman, a local activist, lifelong Detroiter
and former car worker, is collaborating with the Detroit
Center for New Work to encourage the use of new technologies,
such as 3D printers (see Business Spotlight
5/2012), so that people can become economically independent.
For example, they might make their own clothes, or
create energy for their homes. The center aims to build a
modernized local economy. “Technology can be used for
community development, especially when it comes to
things like digital fabrication,” he said.
Both Feldman and Xiao have hope for Detroit’s future.
“It is an exciting moment for Detroit. It is pivotal. It does
not mean there isn’t a lot of pain going on, but this is a very
optimistic time for the city,” Feldman said. ■BS
© Guardian News & Media 2013
PAUL HARRIS is a political journalist and US correspondent for
The Guardian and The Observer.
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 81

■ TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Research to go: the UK’s
Antarctic station can ski
Ideas and inventions
Was gibt’s Neues? CAROL SCHEUNEMANN präsentiert technische
Innovationen und wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse. medium
Polar caravan
Imagine a camel caravan travelling across a desert. Now
imagine a line of very big, blue camels marching across
a snowy landscape and you have an idea of what the new
British Antarctic research station Halley VI looks like.
Located on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf, the station
consists of a main red platform and seven interconnected
blue modules. Each module and platform stands on
four hydraulic “legs” that are attached to what are basically
skis. The hydraulics in the legs raise the buildings
when snow piles up. Should the ice threaten to break off
where it is joined to the continent, a special bulldozer
can pull the modules to a different location.
BAS
The Halley project has existed since 1956 for the purpose
of studying the earth’s magnetic field and nearspace
atmosphere. Scientists’ work today includes measuring
the reduction in ozone and the rise in sea levels,
as well as studying the region’s glaciers and geology.
The £25.8 million (€30 million) station is the latest in
a series of bases built for the British Antarctic Survey
(BAS). The first four were buried and crushed by the
weight of snow. The fifth was on a steel platform that
could be raised above the snow. But as the ice shelf
moves approximately 700 metres per year, there was increasing
danger of the ice breaking off.
Halley VI can handle extreme conditions, including
winds of up to 145 kilometres per hour and temperatures
that go below -30º C. Up to 70 scientists, technicians and
support staff can live in the station. A common area in
the red platform includes an indoor climbing wall,
where residents have lots of time to practise, as there is
24-hour darkness from about March to September.
iStockphoto; Hemera
Fingerprints: more secure
than passwords
COMING UP
FIDO
Fast IDentity Online. This open industry
alliance aims to set international
standards for secure authentication (see
Business Spotlight 4/2012). The goal is to replace
passwords with technologies such as biometrics or
tokens.
Source: FIDO Alliance (http://fidoalliance.org)
More than $3 million
Prize money being offered by Google in a competition
for hackers.
Source: The Chromium Blog (http://blog.chromium.org)
9
The number of digits chimpanzees can
hold in their short-term memory. Most
humans can remember no more
than seven.
Source: Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Primate Research
Institute, Kyoto University
DID YOU KNOW?
Avatars may help depressed teenagers.
In one study, young patients suffering
from depression showed improvement
after talking to virtual characters.
Teens seemed to find this easier than
speaking face-to-face with doctors.
alliance [E(laIEns]
authentication [O:)TentI(keIS&n]
biometrics
[)baIEU(metrIks]
British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
[)brItIS Änt)A:ktIk (s§:veI]
competition [)kQmpE(tIS&n]
digit [(dIdZIt]
face-to-face [)feIs tE (feIs]
glacier [(glÄsiE]
ice shelf [(aIs Self]
research station [ri(s§:tS )steIS&n]
sea level [(si: )lev&l]
short-term memory
[SO:t )t§:m (memEri]
token [(tEUkEn]
Source: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Zusammenschluss
Authentifizierung
Biometrie, biometrische
Personenerfassung
britisches Polarforschungsprogramm
Wettbewerb
Ziffer
direkt, im persönlichen Gespräch
Gletscher
Schelfeis
Forschungsstation
Meeresspiegel
Kurzzeitgedächtnis
Token (Datenpaket)
LivingActors Presenter
Monkey see,
monkey do?
3/2013

Lifesize
LANGUAGE FOCUS TECHNOLOGY ■
Vocabulary
3/2013
One drop:
details of
your health
are at your
fingertips
accelerometer [Ek)selE(rQmItE]
Beschleunigungssensor
actuator [(ÄktSueItE]
Auslöser
amplification [)ÄmplIfI(keIS&n]
Verstärkung
automotive [)O:tEU(mEUtIv]
Kfzbiochemical
assay
biochemisches Nachweis-
[)baIEU)kemIk&l E(seI]
verfahren
blood glucose level [)blVd (glu:kEUz )lev&l] Blutzuckerspiegel
cardiac marker [)kA:diÄk (mA:kE] Kardial-, Herzmarker
centrifugal force [)sentrIfju:g&l (fO:s] Zentrifugal-, Schleuderkraft
certified [(s§:tIfaId]
staatlich geprüft
cleanroom [(kli:nru:m]
Reinraum
deposition process [depE(zIS&n )prEUses] Abscheidungsverfahren
detection [di(tekS&n]
Erkennung
device [di(vaIs]
Gerät
distribute sth. [dI(strIbju:t]
etw. verteilen
drug abuse [(drVg Eb)ju:s]
Drogenmissbrauch
functional chamber [)fVNkS&nEl (tSeImbE] Reaktionskammer
infectious disease [In)fekSEs dI(zi:z] ansteckende Krankheit
in vitro [In (vi:trEU]
im Reagenzglas
in vivo [In (vi:vEU]
im lebenden Organismus
lab-on-a-chip
Westentaschenlabor, Labor-
[)lÄb Qn E (tSIp]
auf-dem-Chip
laboratory [lE(bQrEtEri]
Labor
medical-care team
medizinisches Behand-
[)medIk&l (keE ti:m]
lungsteam
metering chamber [(mi:tErIN )tSeImbE] Dosierkammer
microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mikroelektromechanisches
[)maIkrEUi)lektrEUmI)kÄnIk&l (sIstEm] System (MEMS)
microfluidic channel
mikrofluidischer Kanal
[)maIkrEUflu:I)dIk (tSÄn&l]
micropatterning [)maIkrEU(pÄt&nIN] Mikrostrukturierung
microsystem engineering
Mikrosystemtechnik
[)maIkrEU)sIstEm )endZI(nIErIN]
nervous system [(n§:vEs )sIstEm] Nervensystem
point-of-care testing/diagnostics (POCT) patientennahe Labor-
[)pOInt Ev )keE (testIN/daIEg(nQstIks] diagnostik
pulse rate [(pVls reIt]
Pulsschlag
purification [)pjUErIfI(keIS&n]
Reinigung, Aufbereitung
purify sth. [(pjUErIfaI]
etw. reinigen, aufbereiten
rapid prototyping
schnelle Prototypen-
[)rÄpId (prEUtEUtaIpIN]
entwicklung
respiratory rate [ri(spIrEtEri reIt] Atemfrequenz
sample [(sA:mp&l]
Probe
sample preconditioning
Probenvorbehandlung
[)sA:mp&l )pri:kEn(dIS&nIN]
spinning mode [(spInIN mEUd]
Rotations-, Drehmodus
vital sign
Vitalparameter, Lebens-
[)vaIt&l (saIn]
zeichen
For more information
BOOK
■ Microsystem Engineering of Lab-on-a-Chip Devices, Oliver
Geschke, Henning Klank, Pieter Telleman (Wiley)
WEBSITE
■ Lab on a Chip journal: www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/lc/
about.asp
Answers: a–3; b–1; c–2
Point-of-care
testing
Mobile Geräte ermöglichen die schnelle
Feststellung medizinischer Werte vor Ort,
wie CORNELIA KREIS-MEYER erklärt. advanced
Point-of-care testing (POCT) is the use of mobile systems
for rapid analysis of a patient’s vital signs. Simple
POCT systems include equipment for measuring pulse rate,
blood pressure and blood glucose levels.
New diagnostic tools make use of microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS) to measure a range of medical parameters.
Doctors can quickly determine whether a patient had
a heart attack, or has an infectious disease such as HIV or
tuberculosis. The tools also test for drug abuse.
All you need is a drop of blood or urine, and the results
are available almost immediately. In critical situations, this
can save lives by allowing doctors and medical-care teams
to take decisions on treatment at the scene. POCT can also
be used in patients’ homes or in a doctor’s office. This saves
costs, as samples do not need to be sent to a laboratory.
For example, the “lab-on-a-chip”, also called “biochip”,
can carry out several laboratory functions. A similar system,
the “Bio-Disk”, looks like a CD. You put a sample of
blood or urine on the disc, and place it in an analysis system
the size of a portable CD player.
In the spinning mode, the system makes use of centrifugal
forces to drive the liquid through microfluidic channels.
The sample is then purified, separated and distributed into
functional chambers for analysis.
■BS
Exercise: Mobile health
Answer the questions based on information in the text.
a) Which vital sign is not mentioned?
1. blood pressure 2. pulse rate 3. respiratory
rate
b) What is a drop of blood or urine called?
1. sample 2. result 3. example
c) Which force is used to separate fluids?
1. infectious 2. centrifugal 3. nuclear
CORNELIA KREIS-MEYER is a certified technical
translator specializing in the automotive and cleanroom
industries. She also provides technical English
training. Contact: cornelia@ck-translations.eu
www.business-spotlight.de 83

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Attached or enclosed?
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include your postal address, email address
and phone number. We reserve the right to
edit readers’ comments for clar ity or length.
While reading the language test in Business Spotlight 1/2013,
I came across a phrase that caught my attention. On page
49 in the second exercise (“The Write Way”), the last sentence
of the email reads “Enclosed please find...”. It was my understanding
that you use “attached” when writing an email,
whereas “enclosed” is only used in letters. I would be very
grateful if you could clarify this. Keep up the great work!
Philipp Berk, Oberursel
Many thanks for your feedback. Yes, you are right — one would normally write
“please find attached” in an email. Thank you for spotting that! We hope you
will continue to find Business Spotlight useful and entertaining.
The Editor
Confusing definition
The explanation of “palette” as Palette on one of the language
cards in Business Spotlight 5/2012 may be confusing to some
readers. You might have added that the English “palette” —
apart from referring to a range of something, as in “a palette
of flavours” — denotes a thin board that a painter holds to mix
colours on, rather than a pallet for handling, storing or moving
materials, which would more likely spring to one’s mind as
the intended meaning of the German Palette.
Hansjörg Bittner, Winsen
Interspecies telepathy?
Ienjoy the high quality of your magazine and was therefore
surprised to read the interview with animal communicator Su
Burnett in My Working Life (Business Spotlight 1/2013, p. 9).
Her extraordinary paranormal claims were accepted at face
value despice a complete lack of scientific evidence for the existence
of telepathy. I feel strongly that there was a journalistic
failure to apply simple logic, leading to the promotion of
confused thinking, which is below the standards I’m accustomed
to from Business Spotlight.
Adam Lockett, Berlin
Helpful new section
The new Toolbox section (Business Spotlight 2/2013, p. 38)
is very clear and helpful for international communication. I
am often faced with the challenges described here, such as making
a phone call to someone for the first time. I am very much
looking forward to reading more articles about these topics in
future issues.
Gerhart Thomas, Hamburg
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84 www.business-spotlight.de

4/2013 PREVIEW ■
In the next issue:
iStockphoto (2)
Making and changing decisions
The ability to make decisions effectively is a key skill
at work. How well can you do this? And how should you
go about changing a decision that turns out to be
wrong? Bob Dignen examines these important questions
in our Business Skills feature.
Language test: transport
Moving people and goods from one place to another is
at the very heart of international business. Do you know
the vocabulary necessary to talk about this essential
area? Find out how good your knowledge is by taking
our special test.
SKILL UP!
Improve your
BUSINESS
VOCABULARY
with our
essential guide
Africa: continent of contrasts
What are the main factors to consider when doing business in Africa?
Can we even make generalizations about a continent that is
made up of more than 50 different countries? We take a closer
look in our Intercultural Communication section.
Mauritius/Alamy
In the next issue...
In the next issue...
HOLIDAYS
FALSE FRIENDS: pension, coffer
ESSENTIAL IDIOMS: “travel light”
SMALL TALK: culture shock
BusinessSpotlight 4/2013 is on sale from 12 June 2013
3/2013
www.business-spotlight.de 85

■ PEOPLE MY WORKING LIFE
Edwin Broni-Mensah
Social entrepreneur
Wasser aus Einwegflaschen ist teuer. Seine Flaschen hingegen kann man
mit sauberem Leitungswasser für einen guten Zweck nachfüllen lassen.
VICKI SUSSENS sprach mit dem sozial engagierten Unternehmer. easy
were sold out of bottles within a few hours. I’ve also given
over 100 talks to schools, universities and firms like Deloitte
and Google. And we use social media to get people
involved. For example, customers can use our iPhone app
to find places to refill their bottles.
I run GiveMeTap, an organization I started
in the UK in April 2010 to encourage people when they are
away from home to drink tap water rather than water in
plastic bottles. People who buy GiveMeTap bottles can get
them filled in a large network of cafes and restaurants that
have joined our project. We give 70 per cent of our profits
to water and irrigation projects in Africa.
28
Away with plastic
bottles! Edwin
Broni-Mensah
provides a clever
alternative
London, though my parents come from Ghana.
At the moment, we do not pay salaries, but invest
any extra money into GiveMeTap. I decided to do this so
that we can grow quickly. In the meantime, I earn money
as a business consultant.
Good ideas come from personal
experiences. As a student, I played squash and football,
and spent £5 (about €6) a day on bottled water. Few cafes
would give me free tap water, and I noticed most people
were embarrassed to ask. I thought this was ridiculous.
Running a business is no
joke. It’s challenging and you need knowledge in many areas.
I’ve learned mostly by running my own organization,
but through the Marketing Academy, I’ve learned how to
communicate the organization’s social mission.
PR is essential to our campaign.
We’ve appeared in almost all the national media. In
2011, after being on the front page of The Observer, we
We’ve helped over 1,500 people get clean
drinking water in Malawi and Namibia. We have persuaded
190 cafes in 12 cities in the UK to provide free tap water.
And we have also spread to a few places in the US,
France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal. The business
awards GiveMeTap has won have given us lots of
publicity.
I have a PhD in Applied
Mathematics and most of my friends are now bankers, so
it might seem strange that I’m running GiveMeTap. But it
is the best thing I’ve ever been involved in in my life. Every
single day is different, and I get to bring attention to a
problem that is close to my heart: the world water crisis.
How easy it was to get cafes and
restaurants to join our cause. I’ve also been very touched
by the support we’ve had from people who buy our bottles,
follow us through social media or write about us.
Stay tuned! We’ve got great plans. As my girlfriend
will tell you, I like to surprise people. ■BS
Applied Mathematics
[E)plaId mÄTE(mÄtIks]
business consultant
[(bIznEs kEn)sVltEnt]
cafe [(kÄfeI]
cause [kO:z]
challenging [(tSÄlIndZIN]
embarrassed: be ~ to do sth.
[Im(bÄrEst]
irrigation [IrI(geIS&n]
mission [(mIS&n]
network [(netw§:k]
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
[)pi: eItS (di:]
sold out of: be ~ sth.
[)sEUld (aUt Qv]
(sold out
Stay tuned! [)steI (tju:nd]
talk: give a ~ [tO:k]
tap water [(tÄp )wO:tE]
(tap
For more information, go to www.givemetap.co.uk
Angewandte Mathematik
Unternehmensberater(in)
[wg. Aussprache]
Anliegen
schwierig
es peinlich finden, etw. zu tun
Bewässerung
Auftrag; hier auch: Leitsätze
Netz(werk); hier: Verbund
Doktortitel
von einer Sache nichts
mehr zu verkaufen haben
ausverkauft)
Bleib(en Sie) dran!
einen Vortrag halten
Leitungswasser
Wasserhahn)
86 www.business-spotlight.de 3/2013

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BusinessSpotlight
SKILL UP!
VOKABELTRAINING LEICHT GEMACHT
AUSGABE 20
Talking about
production
also:
The factory floor | Problems, tasks and processes

CONTENTS
THE FUTURE’S IN PRODUCTION
Large-scale production, local production and home production will all play a
role in the future of manufacturing. In this Skill Up!, we present the vocabulary
you will need to talk about production trends and processes.
The factory floor is the focus of our illustration in Picture This! (pp. 4–5), where
we look at a modern, purpose-built plant and provide a list of manufacturing
industries. For a more detailed look at the various types of production plants
and stages of production, turn to our Word Bank (pp. 6–7). As production does
not always go to plan, our In Focus section (pp. 10–11) highlights common
production problems — and looks at the typical tasks that white-collar and
blue-collar workers have to perform.
What about the nuts and bolts? In Essential Idioms (pp. 12–13), you can learn
how to use this idiom and discover more idiomatic language from the world of
manufacturing. In False Friends (pp. 8–9), we show you the words you probably
shouldn’t be using to talk about production — as well as the ones that you
should. Careful how you use “fabric” and “montage”.
Some factories offer potential clients (and, sometimes, even tourists) the
chance to tour their production facilities. On such occasions, safety is of utmost
importance. In Small Talk (pp. 16–17), we provide the language you will
need to keep you and any visitors free from harm. Keep safe!
Deborah Capras, deputy editor
bs.deputyeditor@spotlight-verlag.de
SKILL UP!
If you want to remember new expressions,
you will need to practise using them. Our
workbook, Business Spotlight plus, features
exercises on the topic of production that are
based on the material in this vocabulary
guide. You’ll find more information at
www.business-spotlight.de/plus
SKILL UP! online
On our website, you’ll find selected
vocabulary from this guide in our
Word of the Day section. To listen to
the words, definitions and example
sentences — and to download the
MP3 file of each word — go to
www.business-spotlight.de/skill-up
2 SKILL UP!
ISSUE 20

A work in progress:
at the production plant
iStockphoto
CHECKLIST: WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Below, you will find the contents of this issue of Skill Up! and a checklist of what you should
be able to do with confidence after studying this guide. Ask yourself what you can really do.
If you can’t say yes to every statement, go back and spend more time on learning the relevant
vocabulary. Don’t forget to read our Skill Up! tips and do the online exercises!
Contents Page(s) Checklist
Picture This!
On the factory floor 4–5 I can describe basic equipment and talk about industries.
Word Bank
Key stages 6–7 I can talk about different types of production facilities
and places
and the stages of production.
False Friends
Made of fabric 8–9 I can identify the false friends presented here — and
use the correct translations.
In Focus
Production tasks 10–11 I know which specialist terms are typically used to
and problems
describe problems and tasks during production.
Essential Idioms
Lock, stock 12–13 I can correctly use idiomatic expressions that have their
and barrel
roots in tools and the production process.
Close Relations
A productive plant 14–15 I can correctly use the “produce” and “product” families.
Small Talk
A factory tour 16–17 I can describe important safety regulations and talk
about my company in an informal setting.
Your Profile
Be productive 18 I can honestly say that I now feel more confident using
the vocabulary in this guide.
Preview 19
Not yet A little Yes!
n n n
n n n
n n n
n n n
n n n
n n n
n n n
n n n
ISSUE 20 SKILL UP! 3

PICTURE THIS!
3
4
18
21
19
20
Bernhard Förth
5
17
1
6
13
16
15
2
7
8
12
14
9
10
ON THE FACTORY FLOOR
This is the heart of the production process. Our illustration features some of the basic
vocabulary you will need to talk about manufacturing.
11
First day on the
factory floor
1. purpose-built plant eigene / zu einem
Zweck erbaute
Produktionsstätte
2. production line Fließband
3. state-of-the-art robot hochmoderner
Roboter
4. machine malfunction technische Störung
5. (pneumatic) tool (druckluft-
[nju(mÄtIk]
betriebene(s))
Werkzeug(e)
6. defective product mangelhafte Ware
7. control panel Steuerpult
8. lever Hebel
9. switch Schalter
10. knob [nQb] Knopf
11. steel-toe rubber boots Sicherheitsschuhe
mit Stahlkappe
12. blue-collar worker Fabrikarbeiter(in)
machine operator Maschinist(in)
13. hard hat with face shield Schweißmaske
14. white-collar worker Büroangestellte(r)
site manager
Betriebsleiter(in)
15. earmuffs [(IEmVfs] Gehörschutz
16. safety goggles [(gQg&lz] Schutzbrille
17. finished goods fertige Waren
18. forklift Gabelstapler
19. forklift operator Gabelstapler -
fahrer(in)
20. spare parts Ersatzteile
21. warehouse Lager(halle)
4 SKILL UP!
ISSUE 20

Which industry?
Heavy industries
aerospace
automotive industry
chemical industry (also: chemicals)
construction (industry)
defence industry
shipbuilding (industry)
steel (industry)
textile industry (also: textiles)
[(tekstaI&lz]
iStockphoto
Light industries
clothing and footwear
computer hardware
cosmetics
food and beverages
household goods
luxury goods [(lVkSEri]
plastics and polymers [(pQlImEz]
SKILL UP!
Do you agree with our categories
for the different industries? Would
you add any others, or move any to
a different category? Thinking
about categories for words and expressions
can help you to remember
them.
Bekleidung und Schuhe
Computer-Hardware
Kosmetik
Nahrungsmittel und
Getränke
Haushaltswaren
Luxusartikel, -güter
Kunststoffartikel
Growth industries
consumer electronics
pharmaceuticals
[)fA:mE(su:tIk&lz]
Luft- und Raumfahrt
Automobilindustrie
Chemieindustrie
Baugewerbe
Rüstungsindustrie
Schiffsbau
Stahlindustrie
Textil- und Bekleidungsindustrie
Small-scale production and
craft industries
bakery
Bäckerei
brewery [(bru:Eri] Brauerei
carpenter’s shop Schreinerei,
Tischlerei
dairy [(deEri] Molkerei
goldsmith’s Goldschmiedeworkshop
werkstatt
printer’s
Druckerei
sound studio Tonstudio
tailor’s shop Schneiderwerkstatt
vineyard [(vInjEd], Weingut
winery [(waInEri]
Wachstumsindustrien
Unterhaltungs-;
Verbraucherelektronik
Arzneimittel,
Pharmaprodukte
Trouble at the plant?
What did you do?
Operator: I pulled the lever, flipped the
switch and turned the knob. And the robot
just jammed.
pull the lever
flip the switch
turn the knob
jam
den Hebel ziehen
den Schalter betätigen
den Knopf drehen
hängen bleiben
ISSUE 20 SKILL UP! 5

WORD BANK
KEY STAGES AND PLACES
Planning and organizing the production process in an efficient way is essential for the
success of a business.
It’s huge: largescale
production
“All parts and components must
arrive at the assembly line
just-in-time or even
just-in-sequence in the interests
of maximum efficiency”
Plants and places
plant
assembly plant
bottling plant
company premises/site
[(premIsIz/saIt]
completely knocked down
(CKD) plant [)nQkt (daUn]
food processing plant
ironworks [(aIEnw§:ks]
local automobile plant
[(O:tEmEU)bi:&l]
packaging and distribution
plant
pre-assembly plant
press plant
production facility/plant
Fabrik, (Betriebs-)
Anlage
Montagewerk
Abfüllanlage
Betriebs-, Werksgelände
Werk für die Montage
von kompletten
Teilesätzen
Werk für Lebensmittelverarbeitung
Eisenhütte(nwerk)
ortsansässiges
Automobilwerk
Betrieb für Verpa-
ckung und Vertrieb
Vormontagewerk
Presswerk
Fertigungsbetrieb
Inside the plant
body shop
Karosseriewerkstatt
clean room
keimfreier Raum
conveyor belt
Förderband
foundry [(faUndri]
Gießerei
goods reception
Wareneingang
inspection area
Inspektionsbereich,
Prüffläche
inventory [(InvEntEri] Lagerbestand
packaging
Verpackung
paint shop
Lackiererei
processing floor
Fertigung
production hall
Produktions-,
Werkhalle
production line
Produktionsstraße
site workshop
Werkstatt am
Standort
stations
Stützpunkte
stock
Warenlager
storage area
Lagerfläche
universal main assembly line Hauptfertigungs -
straße
Comstock
6 SKILL UP! ISSUE 20

SKILL UP!
Generally, we talk about manufacturing only
when we refer to the production of goods on
a large scale, using machinery of some kind.
Production refers to the making or manufacturing
of goods. Often, the words are used interchangeably.
We give the most common
combinations in our lists.
Processes
agricultural/
landwirtschaftliche
farm production
Produktion
assembly-line production Fließbandfertigung
batch production
Serienfertigung
customized manufacturing kundenspezifische
[(kVstEmaIzd]
Fertigung
flow production [(flEU] Fließfertigung
individual/job production Einzelfertigung
large-scale production großtechnische Produktion
mass/series production Serienfertigung
outsourced production ausgelagerte Fertigung
pull manufacturing Fertigung nach tatsächlichem
Bedarf
push manufacturing Fertigung nach einem
erwarteten Bedarf
wage-intensive
lohnintensive Proproduction
duktion
Tools and trends
complex simulation models komplexe Simulationsmodelle
computer-aided machining computerüber -
wachte Produktion
computer-based design rechnergestützte
programs
Konstruktionsprogramme
energy recovery system System zur Rückgewinnung
kineti scher
Energie
just-in-sequence
produktionssyn-
[)dZVst In (si:kwEns] chron, in festgeleg -
ter Reihenfolge
just-in-time
bedarfsorientierte
Fertigung
made-to-order
nach Maß gefertigt
made-to-stock
auf Lager gefertigt
quality assurance [E(SO:rEns] Qualitätssicherung
rapid prototyping
schnelle Herstellung
[(prEUtEUtaIpIN]
von Musterbauteilen
reverse auction konzipierte Vergabe -
[ri)v§:s (O:kS&n]
auktion
vertical integration [(v§:tIk&l] vertikale Verflechtung
virtual tools [(v§:tSuEl] virtuelle Werkzeuge
Materials and ingredients
blank
Rohling
carrier substance Trägersubstanz
[)kÄriE (sVbstEns]
component [kEm(pEUnEnt] Bauteil
end/final/finished product Endprodukt
engineering prototype technischer Prototyp
half-finished product halbfertiges Produkt
ingredients [In(gri:diEnts] Zutaten, Inhaltsstoffe
liquid ingredients flüssige Inhaltsstoffe
powdered ingredients pulverförmige
Inhaltsstoffe
raw ingredients Rohbestandteile
interchangeable part
[)IntE(tSeIndZEb&l]
intermediate product
[)IntE(mi:diEt]
lot
part
raw materials
sample [(sA:mp&l]
test specimen
[(test )spesEmIn]
workpiece
raw/unprocessed
workpiece
austauschbares Teil
Zwischenprodukt
Los, Charge
Teil, Werkstück
Rohstoffe, -materialien
Muster, Probe
Prüfling
Werkstück
unbearbeitetes
Werkstück
iStockphoto
ISSUE 20
SKILL UP! 7

FALSE FRIENDS
MADE OF FABRIC
There are many words in German and English that sound similar but have very different
meanings. They are “false friends”. Learn the correct translations of these terms.
factory
fabric
Zoonar
iStockphoto
What’s Fabrik in English?
Fabrik = factory
“This investment will create over 1,000 new
jobs at the factory.”
It’s not fabric!
fabric = Stoff, Gewebe
“They’ve created an innovative new fabric that
doesn’t need to be washed.”
helmet
What’s Helm in English?
Helm = helmet
“For safety reasons, everyone has
to wear a helmet in this area.”
It’s not helm!
helm = Ruder
“John, can you take over the helm
while I take a break?”
helm
8 SKILL UP!
iStockphoto (2)

assembly
montage
iStockphoto (2)
What’s Montage in English?
Montage = assembly
“We’ve decided to move the assembly plant
back to Manchester.”
It’s not montage!
montage [mQn(ta:Z] = Film-, Fotomontage
“I’ve prepared a montage of an apple and an
orange that you could use in advertising.”
stack
What’s stapeln in English?
stapeln = stack
“Do not stack the boxes as this could
damage the goods.”
It’s not staple!
staple = heften, tackern
“We staple the pages together before
they are put in the file.”
staple
iStockphoto (2)
M
SKILL UP! Audio
You can do an exercise on
false friends on Business
Spotlight Audio.
YOUR PROFILE
Write down example sentences that are useful to you. This makes it easier to remember false
friends and other tricky expressions.
ISSUE 20

IN FOCUS
High-precision work
on the factory floor
PRODUCTION TASKS
AND PROBLEMS
Today, technology performs many tasks, but the workers, engineers and
management have also become more skilled in what they do — and
how they deal with problems.
iStockphoto
A mixture of old and new
Subtractive (machining) techniques: the removal of material by
cutting, drilling, filing or grinding, and the joining of material via
riveting, screwing, spot-welding and welding to create a product.
Additive (3D printing) techniques: the adding of material (liquid,
powder, or sheet material) by layering, printing, fusing or bonding
to create a product.
On the factory floor
apply a coating
assemble parts
carry out spot checks
churn sth. out
[)tS§:n (aUt]
finish the surface
hand-finish sth.
make adjustments
monitor processes
perform high-precision
work
tighten nuts and bolts
einen Belag aufbringen
Teile zusammenbauen,
montieren
Stichproben durchführen
etw. am laufenden Band
produzieren, ausstoßen
die Oberfläche abschließend
bearbeiten
etw. von Hand fertigstellen
Anpassungen vornehmen
die Arbeitsabläufe überwachen
Präzisionsarbeit verrichten
Schrauben und Muttern
anziehen
bond verbinden, verschweißen
cut
(aus)schneiden, trennen
drill bohren
file [faI&l] feilen
fuse [fju:z] schmelzen
grind [graInd] schleifen, wetzen
join verbinden, zusammenfügen
layer schichten
print drucken
rivet [(rIvIt] nieten
screw schrauben
spot-weld punktschweißen
weld schweißen
The factory
close down operations
ramp up production
work at full capacity
work to optimum
capacity
den Betrieb einstellen
die Produktion
(schnell)
hochfahren
mit voller Kapazität
arbeiten
mit optimaler
Kapazitätsauslastung
arbeiten
10 SKILL UP! ISSUE 20

iStockphoto
The engineers and management
apply for tax breaks Steuervergünstigungen
beantragen
be hit by delays
von Verzögerungen betroffen
sein
build to specifications nach Vorgaben bauen
cater for (US cater to) sich nach individuellen Kunindividual
customer wishes denwünschen richten
comply with regulations den Vorschriften entsprechen
contain a leak [li:k] eine undichte Stelle stopfen
deliver a prototype einen Prototyp liefern
digitize processes
Verfahren digitalisieren
[(dIdZItaIz]
eliminate human error menschliches Versagen ausschalten
ensure a fast turnaround eine schnelle Durchlaufzeit
[In(SO:]
garantieren
increase production capacity die Produktionskapazität
erhöhen
incur cost overruns [In(k§:] in Kostenüberschreitung(en)/
Kostenunterdeckung geraten
minimize idle time [(aId&l] Leerlaufzeiten minimieren
minimize inventory den Lagerbestand gering
[(InvEntEri]
halten
minimize waste
das Abfallaufkommen
minimieren
protect know-how
das Know-How schützen
reduce emissions
die Emissionen verringern
reduce lead time [li:d] die Vorlaufzeit reduzieren
respond to fluctuations auf Marktschwankungen
in the market
reagieren
scale back production die Produktion zurückfahren
source materials
Material beziehen / ausfindig
machen
standardize procedures Verfahren vereinheitlichen,
standardisieren
suspend production die Produktion (zeitweise)
stilllegen
SKILL UP!
If you are interested in talking about production
problems, use the words we present
here to search for news stories online and
make a note of the sentences in which they
occur. Create your own summaries of the
stories using the vocabulary, too.
The problems
backlog
bottleneck
breakdown
capacity
excess capacity
overcapacity
spare capacity
surplus capacity
contamination
defect [(di:fekt]
downtime
fault [fO:lt]
electrical fault
gas leak [li:k]
health scare
maintenance
routine maintenance
shortage
slack time
Working at full
capacity
Rückstand
Engpass
Panne, Maschinenschaden
Kapazität
Überkapazität
Überkapazität
ungenutzte Kapazität
Kapazitätsüberschuss
Verunreinigung
Fehler, Defekt
Ausfallzeit
Fehler, Störung
elektrische Störung
Gasleck
gesundheitliche Gefahr
Wartung
Routinewartung
Knappheit, Mangel
Pufferzeit
ISSUE 20 SKILL UP! 11

ESSENTIAL IDIOMS
LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL
There are many idiomatic expressions containing words related to production processes
and tools. Read the dialogues to learn how to use them in business situations.
SKILL UP!
Read the two versions of the short conversations. Then cover
up the idiomatic version and read the simpler version again. Can
you remember how to say the same things idiomatically? Check
that you’ve understood the text by looking at the translations.
Here we go: set the
wheels in motion
First, the idiomatic way
Mark: It’s time to take stock of our goals for the company.
Sue: We have to outsource more of our production.
Mark: I disagree. We shouldn’t outsource any more.
Sue: But we’ve already set the wheels in motion.
Mark: And I’m putting a spanner in the works!
Now, more simply
Mark: It’s time to review our goals for the company.
Sue: We have to outsource more of our production.
Mark: I disagree. We shouldn’t outsource any more.
Sue: But we’ve already started to put the plan into action.
Mark: And I’m going to prevent the plan being put into action!
Check the translations
take stock of sth. sich über etw. klar
werden
set the wheels die Dinge ins
in motion Rollen bringen
put a spanner (US einen Knüppel
monkey wrench) zwischen die
in the works Beine werfen
Ingram Publishing
First, the idiomatic way
Mark: We broke the mould when we outsourced
so much of our production, but it’s now a
problem. Last month, our factories ground
to a halt because we didn’t have the necessary
parts.
Sue: There are no cast-iron guarantees that
production would be any better here.
Now, more simply
Mark: We did things in a completely different way
when we outsourced so much of our production,
but it’s now a problem. Last
month, our factories stopped working because
we didn’t have the necessary parts.
Sue: There are no firm guarantees that production
would be any better here.
iStockphoto
Check the translations
break the mould mit der Tradition brechen
grind to a halt zum Erliegen kommen
cast-iron
hundertprozentig
It’s happening: that’s
a cast-iron guarantee
ISSUE 20

iStockphoto
Where’s all the money?
Down the drain!
Check the translations
grease the palm Schmiergeld zahlen
wildcat strike wilder Streik
run a sweatshop einen Ausbeutungsbetrieb
betreiben
down the drain zum Fenster hinausgeworfen
First, the idiomatic way
Mark: A lot of things happen there that wouldn’t here.
Last week, I was asked to grease some palms
to get the material we need. I refused, so we’ll
have to wait another six months. We were also
hit by a wildcat strike. Have you forgotten that
our main supplier was running a sweatshop?
Sue: What about our investments? All that money
down the drain!
Now, more simply
Mark: A lot of things happen there that wouldn’t here.
Last week, I was asked to pay money secretly
and illegally to people to get the material we
need. I refused, so we’ll have to wait another six
months. We were also hit by a number of unorganized
strikes without warning. Have you forgotten
that our main supplier had a factory
where the workers were paid and treated badly?
Sue: What about our investments? All that money
wasted!
First, the idiomatic way
Mark: OK, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
How do we get out without losing
money?
Sue: You have a plan?
Mark: I still have to check all the nuts and
bolts of the deal, but I think we have a
buyer. A local company wants to buy the
production facilities, lock, stock and
barrel.
Sue: They must have a screw loose!
Now, more simply
Mark: OK, you’re right. How do we get out
without losing money?
Sue: You have a plan?
Mark: I still have to check all the basic details
of the deal, but I think we have a buyer.
A local company wants to buy the production
facilities, everything included.
Sue: They must be mad!
Brand X Pictures
Check the translations
hit the nail on the head
Explain the nuts
and bolts again
den Nagel auf den
Kopf treffen
the nuts and bolts of sth. die wichtigen
Einzelheiten
lock, stock and barrel mit allem Drum
und Dran
have a screw loose eine Schraube
locker haben, ein
Rad ab haben
ISSUE 20 SKILL UP! 13

CLOSE RELATIONS
A PRODUCTIVE PLANT
We can use many members of the “produce” and “product” word families to talk about
the production process — and other topics, too.
produc-
+e produce
+ er producer
mass- +
re +
co- +
mass-produce
reproduce
co-producer
Hemera
+ ing producing
oil- +
oil-producing
by- +
by-product
product
+ ion production co- + co-production
counter +
counterproductive
The families
reproduzieren, vermehren
Fortpflanzungs-
unproduktiv; ertragsarm
Unergiebigkeit; Unproduktivität
reproduce
reproductive
unproductive(ly)
unproductiveness
+ ive productive
by-product Nebenprodukt
co-producer Koproduzent
co-production Koproduktion
counterproductive kontraproduktiv
mass-produce serienmäßig herstellen
non-productive unproduktiv
oil-producing ölfördernd
produce [prE(dju:s] produzieren, herstellen
produce [(prQdju:s] (Agrar-)Produkt
producer Hersteller(in), Produzent(in)
producing produzierend, herstellend
productive(ly) ergiebig; leistungsfähig
productiveness Ergiebigkeit
productivity Produktivität, Leistungsfähigkeit
non- +
re +
un +
+ ity
+ ly
+ ness
un +
un +
non-productive
reproductive
unproductive
productivity
productively
unproductively
productiveness
unproductiveness
“Money is just a
by-product of success”
Tim Cook, 52, CEO of Apple
ISSUE 20

Verb + production
affect
automate [(O:tEmeIt]
boost
cease [si:s]
delay [di(leI]
discontinue
disrupt [dIs(rVpt]
halt [hO:lt]
limit
resume [ri(zju:m]
shift
switch
USE THE FAMILY
IN PRODUCTION
l We have to minimize waste and
use the by-products of the production
process more efficiently.
l Productivity has increased
since we started using the new
machines.
l Introducing shorter working
hours would be counterproductive.
l This land is unproductive and
could be used for construction
purposes.
IN BUSINESS
l A by-product of our new system
is that you can contact me anytime
and anywhere.
l An hour-long lunch break can
improve productivity.
l I understand that you feel
strongly about this, but your
aggressive manner is most
counterproductive.
l These weekly meetings are so
unproductive. I don’t know why
we have them.
Talking about production
Die Produktion...
beeinflussen
automatisieren
ankurbeln
beenden
verzögern
einstellen
unterbrechen
anhalten
beschränken
wieder aufnehmen
verlagern
umstellen
Production + noun
in-house production unternehmensinterne
Produktion
production output Produktionsleistung
production quota [(kwEUtE] Produktionssoll
production run
production sequence
[(si:kwEns]
production stop
iStockphoto
Product + noun
product liability
product life cycle
product range
Verb + products
distribute
introduce
launch
promote
recall
supply
withdraw
Produktionsablauf
Fertigungsablauf
Produktionsstillstand
Talking about products
Produkthaftung
Produktlebenszyklus
Produktpalette, Sortiment
Produkte...
vertreiben
einführen
auf den Markt bringen
fördern
zurückrufen
liefern
zurückziehen
IN ACTION: PRODUCE AND PRODUCT
‡ Generally, we use the noun produce to talk about things that have
been grown or produced on a farm. Produce is uncountable:
“Our dairy produce is organic. That’s why it’s more expensive.”
‡ We use the verb produce to talk about manufacturing products and
also about making films or multimedia items:
“Ben Affleck produced, directed and starred in the film Argo.”
‡ Use production to talk about manufacturing, but also about the activity
of making a film or other media:
“Film production began last week.”
‡ If you reproduce something, you make a copy of it or make something
that is very similar to the original. This verb also refers to having babies
or producing young animals or plants:
“We were unable to reproduce the same effect using glass.”
“Moisture increases the bacteria’s ability to reproduce.”
‡ The adjective reproductive refers only to creating new life:
“Pesticides can damage the reproductive health of bees.”
‡ The adjectives non-productive and unproductive are similar in
meaning and can generally be used interchangeably:
“What an unproductive day! I didn’t sell anything.”
ISSUE 20 SKILL UP! 15

SMALL TALK
A FACTORY TOUR
If you work in production, you may have to give a guided tour of your facilities. It’s a
time to make small talk, but also to give important information about security and safety.
Situation:
Andy is visiting a company in the UK and John is about
to take him on a tour of the production facilities.
John:
Andy:
John:
Andy:
John:
Andy:
John:
Andy:
John:
Andy:
John:
Andy:
John:
Andy:
For security reasons, would you mind signing in
here, please?
Sure, I understand.
Great. Well, now’s your chance for a guided tour.
I’ll take you behind the scenes and let you in on a
few secrets, too. We’re a showcase of lean manufacturing.
But no flash photography!
You can check my pockets!
No need — we have CCTV cameras everywhere.
As we walk through the factory, please make sure
that you keep behind the yellow line or you might
get hit with sparks from the welding robots.
Cool! Oh, I probably shouldn’t have said that!
It is a cool experience. Just keep in mind that it’s
a factory. There are a lot of dangerous machines
and materials in there.
You do have an on-site emergency response
team, don’t you?
Of course! It’s a requirement in all our factories.
However, our company prides itself on its safety
record. We won’t need them!
That’s reassuring.
OK, before we go in, you need to put on this safety
helmet and these safety goggles. And mind your
head as we go down the steps. You’re very tall!
Wow, and this is very impressive.
The company was founded in 1964, and it has
grown from a small one-man operation to the
world’s largest producer of cylinders. As you can
see, much of the work is now fully automated. Andy
Miller, this is Ronny Mann, the line supervisor.
He’ll be showing you round with me.
Sounds good. Nice to meet you, Ronny.
behind the scenes: jmdn. hinter die
take sb. ~
Kulissen führen
CCTV (closed-circuit Überwachungs -
television) camera kamera
flash photography Fotografieren mit
Blitzlicht
guided tour
Führung, geführter
Rundgang
keep behind sth.
hinter etw. bleiben
keep sth. in mind an etw. denken
lean manufacturing schlanke Produk-
[)li:n mÄnju(fÄktSErIN] tion(sabläufe)
line supervisor
mind one’s head
one-man operation
on-site emergency
response team
Fertigungsinspektor(in)
auf seinen Kopf
achtgeben
Einmannbetrieb
Notfallteam vor Ort
pride oneself on sth. auf etw. stolz sein
reassuring: be ~ beruhigend sein
[)ri:E(SO:rIN]
safety record [(rekO:d] Sicherheitsbilanz
secret: let sb. in jmdm. ein Geheimnis
on a ~
verraten
security reason: for ~s aus Sicherheitsgründen
show sb. round
showcase
sign in
jmdn. herumführen
Schaukasten; hier:
Vorzeigebetrieb
sich eintragen
spark
Funke
welding robot [(rEUbQt] Schweißroboter
16 SKILL UP!
Safety comes first:
mind your head!

Comstock (2)
Dangers and warning signs
If you are giving a tour, you might need
to remind people about the dangers involved
— even if there are warning
signs everywhere.
Authorized personnel only
Be careful! The floor is slippery.
Beware of moving vehicles.
Corrosive material
Disinfect your hands before entering
the clean room.
Fire assembly point
Flammable material
Keep the aisle clear at all times.
Lift with care.
No admittance
What to wear?
Wear...
a face mask
a hair covering
a hard hat
a hazard suit
[(hÄzEd su:t]
Tragen Sie…
eine Gesichtsmaske
eine Haube
einen Schutzhelm
einen Schutzanzug
a lab coat
einen Laborkittel
a safety helmet einen Schutzhelm
earmuffs [(IEmVfs] Gehörschutz
overalls
einen Schutzanzug
protective shoes Sicherheitsschuhe
rubber gloves [glQvz] Gummihandschuhe
safety goggles [(gQg&lz] Schutzbrille
admittance
aisle [aI&l]
Be careful!
beware of sth.
corrosive [kE(rEUSIv]
fire assembly point
Zutritt
Gang
SKILL UP!
If you’re the person giving a tour, use
specific phrases to tell people how
they should behave. Read the dialogue
to find examples of these phrases
(keep in mind, make sure, would you
mind?). If you’re on a tour, ask questions
and show your interest in the facilities.
Use adjectives, as we do in the
dialogue (impressive, reassuring).
Achtung!, Vorsicht!
Vorsicht vor...
ätzend
Sammelplatz bei Feuer
flammable [(flÄmEb&l] brennbar, entflammbar
keep sth. clear
slippery
etw. freihalten
glatt, rutschig
We’re a showcase
of technology
People you might meet in the factory
apprentice [E(prentIs] Lehrling
head of department
machine operator
porter
Abteilungsleiter(in)
Maschinist(in)
Pförtner(in)
receptionist [ri(sepS&nIst] Rezeptionist(in)
skilled worker
superior [su(pIEriE]
trainee [treI(ni:]
unskilled worker
Facharbeiter(in)
Vorgesetzte(r)
Auszubildende(r)
People who might be given a tour
client, customer Kunde/Kundin;
Auftraggeber(in)
contractor [kEn(trÄktE]
key supplier [sE(plaIE]
skilled fitter
subcontractor
supplier
ungelernte Arbeitskraft
Auftragnehmer(in)
Hauptzulieferer/-zulieferin
Monteur(in)
Subunternehmer(in)
Lieferant(in),
Zulieferer/Zulieferin
ISSUE 20
SKILL UP! 17

YOUR PROFILE
BE PRODUCTIVE
Personalize this guide by adding your own example sentences — which should reflect
words and expressions you need in order to talk about your circumstances.
FROM THE FLOOR UP
What happens on the factory floor? Describe the facilities and processes at your (or another) company’s
factory.
What do the managers of a production plant do? Describe some of the recent decisions taken at your
company using the expressions from our In Focus section (pp. 10–11).
Use the idiomatic expressions in Essential Idioms (pp. 12–13) to describe recent events at your company.
How many idioms are relevant to your situation?
SMALL TALK: SAFETY FIRST
Write a mini-dialogue in which you inform people of the safety procedures at your company. Use expressions
from our Small Talk section (pp. 16–17).
18 SKILL UP! ISSUE 20

In the next issue
PREVIEW
Hemera
IMPRESSUM
HERAUSGEBER UND VERLAGSLEITER:
Dr. Wolfgang Stock
CHEFREDAKTEUR: Dr. Ian McMaster
STELLVERTRETENDE CHEFREDAKTEURIN:
Deborah Capras
GESCHÄFTSFÜHRENDE REDAKTEURIN (CvD):
Maja Sirola
AUTORIN: Deborah Capras
REDAKTION: Margaret Davis, Hildegard Rudolph,
Elisabeth Schneider-Eicke, Michele Tilgner
BILDREDAKTION: Sarah Gough (Leitung),
Thorsten Mansch
GESTALTUNG: loop grafikdesign München
REDAKTIONSASSISTENZ: Barbara Hiller
PRODUKTIONSLEITUNG: Ingrid Sturm
VERTRIEBSLEITUNG: Monika Wohlgemuth
MARKETINGLEITUNG: Holger Hofmann
ANZEIGENLEITUNG: Axel Zettler
VERLAG und REDAKTION:
Spotlight Verlag GmbH
Postanschrift: Postfach 1565, 82144 Planegg
Hausanschrift:
Fraunhoferstraße 22, 82152 Planegg
Telefon: +49 (0)89 8 56 81-0;
Fax +49 (0)89 8 56 81-105
Internet: www.business-spotlight.de
LITHO: HWM GmbH, 82152 Planegg
DRUCK: Druckwerk SÜD GmbH,
88339 Bad Waldsee
© 3/2013 Spotlight Verlag, auch für alle
genannten Autoren, Fotografen und Mitarbeiter.
HOLIDAYS
Whether you work in tourism or just enjoy being
a tourist, our next Skill Up! will provide you
with the language you need to talk about long
holidays, short breaks and romantic getaways.
FALSE FRIENDS: pension, coffer
PICTURE THIS: the best accommodation
ESSENTIAL IDIOMS: “travel light”
also:
SMALL TALK Culture shock
Mauritius/Alamy
Cover photograph: Mauritius
ISSUE 20
It’s not
what you
expected

Der Deal des Jahres.
Jetzt 30% sparen und 2 Ausgaben
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Ihr Vorteil:
€ 17,90
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und Tipps für Präsentationen, Small Talk und Verhandlungen.
Jetzt bestellen und Vorteilspreis sichern!
www.business-spotlight.de/minimagazin

BusinessSpotlight
100
KEY
PHRASES
FOR BUSINESS
Mit Sprachtest
Your language survival guide

Perfektion lässt sich leicht üben.
Mit dem Übungsheft Business Spotlight plus passend zum aktuellen Magazin.
Zu jeder
Ausgabe von
Business Spotlight
Business Spotlight plus ist die ideale
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Erscheint jeden zweiten Monat passend zum Magazin
www.business-spotlight.de/plusheft

A NEW FOCUS
Most business English materials
focus on the specific
language of individual “events”,
such as presentations, telephoning
or meetings. Although
this is helpful, people also need
generic communication skills
that they can use in any situation. These include the ability to build
relationships and trust, make decisions, deal with conflict and,
when necessary, say no. The 100 phrases in this booklet, based on
Bob Dignen’s articles in Business Spotlight, cover ten general areas.
We hope you find them useful and look forward to your feedback.
Bob Dignen, Ian McMaster
Contact: business@spotlight-verlag.de
Impressum
HERAUSGEBER UND VERLAGSLEITER: Dr. Wolfgang Stock
CHEFREDAKTEUR: Dr. Ian McMaster
STELLVERTR. CHEFREDAKTEURIN: Deborah Capras
GESCHÄFTSFÜHRENDE REDAKTEURIN: Maja Sirola (CvD)
REDAKTION: Margaret Davis, Barbara Hiller, Hildegard
Rudolph, Elisabeth Schneider-Eicke, Michele Tilgner
AUTOREN: Bob Dignen, Ian McMaster
BILDREDAKTION: Sarah Gough, Thorsten Mansch
GESTALTUNG: loopgrafikdesign München
VERTRIEBSLEITUNG: Monika Wohlgemuth
MARKETINGLEITUNG: Holger Hofmann
ANZEIGENLEITUNG: Axel Zettler
PRODUKTIONSLEITUNG: Ingrid Sturm
VERLAG UND REDAKTION: Spotlight Verlag GmbH
Postanschrift: Postfach 1565, 82144 Planegg
Hausanschrift: Fraunhoferstraße 22,
82152 Planegg, Telefon: (0049) 89 856 81-0
Internet: www.business-spotlight.de
LITHO: HWM GmbH, 82152 Planegg
DRUCK: teNeues, 47906 Kempen
Building relationships
Building trust
Influencing people
Making decisions
Group dynamics
Conflict
Selling your ideas
Saying no
Managing change
Giving feedback
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
© 3/2013 Spotlight Verlag, auch für alle genann ten Autoren,
Fotografen und Mitarbeiter.
The authors: Bob Dignen
and Ian McMaster
CONTENTS
Language test 14
BusinessSpotlight 3

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Digital Vision
TIP
Good relationships are the key
to working effectively with
other people — whether in
your own department, in your
organization more generally or
with business partners in other
firms and countries. It is
therefore essential to practise
and develop your relationshipbuilding
skills.
Introducing yourself
l Good morning/afternoon/evening.
My name is…
l Pleased to meet you. It’s great to
be here.
Starting small talk
l How was your journey? Was everything
on time?
l Can I get you something to drink?
The way people approach relationship
building depends on the culture
they come from. Try to be sensitive
to your business partners’ style. Do
they want to build relationships
quickly or take time? Do they want
to focus on work or private issues?
Make your own preferences clear.
A key factor:
good relations
Asking about work
l What are you working on at the
moment?
l How is the … project going?
Finding things you have in common
l So I hear that you are also interested
in…
l That’s interesting. I also have a
background in…
Saying goodbye positively
l It was very good to meet you.
l Thank you so much for the lovely
meal/evening/trip.
get sb. sth.
sensitive: be ~
to sth.
[(sensEtIv]
jmdm. etw.
holen
auf etw.
reagieren
4 BusinessSpotlight
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 4/2007.

If you ask business people for the
magic ingredient that allows
teams to perform excellently, you
will often get a one-word answer:
“trust”. Without trust, expensive
controls are needed to check on
staff, information doesn’t flow
freely and motivation is lower.
BUILDING TRUST
Showing trust
l I trust you (totally) to…
l I’m very happy for you to handle
this.
Developing a supportive atmosphere
l Just ask me if you want some support
for…
l I understand you are under a lot of
pressure.
Establishing an ethical approach
l I believe that we need to respect
certain values, such as…
l It’s very important for us all to be
honest.
Stockbyte
TIP
Trust: the basis of business
We trust people for many reasons,
including because they are competent,
because they are similar to us,
because they act with integrity,
because they are reliable and
because they involve and trust us.
Try to show your business partners
that you have these qualities.
Involving others
l I want to share this information
with you.
l My feeling is that… How do you
see this?
Showing you can be trusted
l You can count on me to support
you in this.
l Don’t worry. I promise to…
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 1/2011.
check on sb.
honest
magic ingredient
[)mÄdZIk
In(gri:diEnt]
perform excellently
reliable [ri(laIEb&l]
jmdn. kontrollieren
ehrlich
wundersame Zutat;
hier: Patentrezept
hervorragende
Ergebnisse
erzielen
zuverlässig
BusinessSpotlight 5

INFLUENCING PEOPLE
The ability to influence other
people has always been a key
skill in business. But it has become
more important in recent
years as organizations have
become more complex, with
multiple reporting lines and
the increasing use of crossdepartmental
project teams.
Pixland
There might
be better ways!
Emphasizing benefits
l The main benefit of this for us
would be…
l This would enable us to...
Using logical arguments
l The main reason behind my argument
is…
l All the research shows that…
Using your experience
l In my experience, this approach is
always successful.
l This worked very well on the last
project I was involved in.
confident
zuversichtlich
cross-departmental abteilungsüber-
[)krQs )di:pA:t(ment&l] greifend
push for sth. auf etw. drängen
[(pUS fO:]
reporting line Berichtslinie
research [ri(s§:tS] Forschung
6 BusinessSpotlight
Being optimistic
l I’m very optimistic/confident that
this will be a success.
l I have absolutely no doubt that we
can do this.
Being strong
l There is (absolutely) no other solution
to this problem.
l It would be crazy for us not to do
this now.
TIP
There are two main approaches to
influencing people. The first is a
“pull style”, which uses a lot of
questions to get information and
agreement. The second is a “push
style”, which gives others information
and pushes for a solution.
Which is your preferred style? Is it
effective?
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 6/2006.

Decision time:
what now?
MAKING DECISIONS
iStockphoto
International business is a world
of complexity, ambiguity and
paradoxes. To make effective
decisions, you need to think about
the kind of decision-maker you
are — directive? analytical? —
and then to make your decisionmaking
steps clear to others.
Deciding to decide
l What do we need to decide first?
l How soon do we need to take a decision
on this?
Defining the process
l Who needs to be consulted on
this?
l Who should take the final decision?
Implementing a decision
l Can we agree on an action plan?
l The first step we need to take is…
Then, we need to...
Reviewing a decision
l Let’s look at the impact of our decision.
l Was it a good decision? Well, yes
and no.
Deciding on an option
l Which option do you think is best?
l In my opinion, we should…
ambiguity
Vieldeutigkeit
[)ÄmbI(gju:Eti]
consult sb.
jmdn. um Rat
fragen
directive richtungs wei -
[dE(rektIv]
send
impact
Auswirkung(en)
implement sth. etw. umsetzen
[)ImplIment]
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 6/2008.
TIP
Different people and cultures interpret
the word “decision” in various
ways. Is it a binding commitment to
a course of action? Or is it simply a
temporary position that is open to
further discussion and change? Talk
about this openly with your business
partners.
BusinessSpotlight 7

GROUP DYNAMICS
Much of our working lives
takes place in groups, whether
in departmental or project
teams, or in looser networks.
The success of organizations
depends on the performance
of such groups, and leaders
have to create an effective
structure and atmosphere.
All for one
and one for all
Stockbyte
TIP
Building group identity
l Our mission in this group is to…
l We have to work well together in
order to…
Establishing positive dynamics
l I think we’ve made great progress
over the past year.
l One of our big successes as a
team was…
If you are leading a group, you need
to think carefully about its structure.
Are team members going to
have clearly defined and segmented
roles? Or will there be overlapping
roles and everyone is expected to
help everyone else? It is also
essential to clarify your role as
group leader.
8 BusinessSpotlight
Clarifying expectations
l Can we briefly discuss our different
expectations here?
l As team leader, I expect everyone
to be punctual and respectful.
Expressing feelings
l I have a real fear that this will lead
to conflict.
l What do you feel about this? Are
you confident that…?
Harmonizing
l I think both points of view are
valid here because…
l Can we try to reach a consensus
on this, please?
clarify sth. [(klÄrEfaI] etw. klären
confident
zuversichtlich
departmental Abteilungs-
[)di:pA:t(ment&l]
overlapping sich überschnei-
[)EUvE(lÄpIN] dend
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 5/2012.

When you work internationally,
the question is not whether conflict
will arise, but when. Conflict
can damage team spirit, and reduce
productivity and creativity.
But it is also a way of identifying
problems that need resolving.
CONFLICT
Being optimistic
l I know people have different
views, but I’m sure we can find a
solution.
l Let’s see if we can find a consensus
on how to proceed.
Presenting views
l First, I’d like to say how I see this
question.
l I’d like to hear more about what
you think on this issue.
Being fair to others
l I think that’s a very good point that
you make.
l Please go on. You clearly feel
strongly about this.
Postponing controversial issues
l Can we come back to that question
later?
l Can we leave that issue for now?
Being creative
l Is there another way of looking at
this?
l Could we try to find a different solution
that we all agree on?
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 4/2005.
Comstock
TIP
There are a number of key steps you
can take to minimize conflict: don’t
expect others to work at your
speed; listen more to other people
and ask lots of questions; stop
pushing your own solution and
focus on the needs of others; invest
time in building relationships and
trust.
productivity
Conflict: danger and opportunity
push sth. [pUS]
resolve sth. [ri(zQlv]
strongly: feel ~
about sth.
Leistungsfähigkeit
etw. durchdrücken
etw. lösen
entschieden für
etw. eintreten
BusinessSpotlight 9

SELLING YOUR IDEAS
How convincing are you?
Digital Vision
We all have to present our
opinions and ideas at work.
We want to be listened to
and, ideally, to have our ideas
accepted. For this to happen,
we must sell our ideas well,
presenting them in the right
way, at the right time and to
the right people.
Showing how your ideas solve other
people’s problems
l As you said, we need to… This
idea would solve that problem.
l This idea would be the solution to
the problem of … that I know
you’ve been worried about.
Getting other people to recommend
your ideas
l Uwe, if you get a chance, could
you mention this idea to Julia?
l Samantha is here today to tell us
why she thinks this is the right
approach for us to take.
TIP
Focusing on core arguments
l First, this proposal will… Second,
it allows us to… And third, if we
do this, …
l It’s cheap, more efficient and will
also be more profitable for us.
Reflect regularly on situations in
which you (and others) were convinced
by people’s ideas — and
situations in which you were not
convinced. This will enable you to
gain a greater understanding of your
selling style — and that of others.
10 BusinessSpotlight
Asking others to comment
l What do you think about my idea?
l Do you think that this is a
good/feasible/promising idea?
Clarifying reasons for rejection
l So, in your opinion, what is the
main problem with this idea?
l Why exactly do you think this plan
wouldn’t work?
approach [E(prEUtS] Herangehens -
weise
clarify sth.
etw. klären
core
Kern-, zentral,
wichtigste(r,s)
feasible [(fi:zEb&l] machbar
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 3/2011.

Photodisc
SAYING NO
You can’t always agree with others
Using your experience
l I don’t agree with this because, in
my experience, …
l I don’t think this will work. We had
the situation in my last job/company
in which…
Much of the literature on business
is about reaching agreement
and building consensus. But
this is only part of the story in the
real world. Sometimes, it is essential
to say no — to colleagues,
managers and business partners.
l That’s going to be difficult. But I
could do … instead.
Discussing other solutions
l Are there other possible solutions?
l What else might work here?
Making use of objective data
l It’s not possible to do this in five
weeks. It takes three months to
test a product like this.
l This idea is unrealistic. Benchmarking
studies show that…
Showing recognition
l I appreciate that you think this is
the way forward. My own feeling,
however, is that…
l I accept what you’re saying. But I
think it’s important for us to…
Negotiating a solution
l I can’t do that, I’m afraid. But
what I can offer is…
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 2/2012.
TIP
Before saying no in discussions at
work, ask yourself three questions:
a) Why do I want to say no?
b) Is no the right answer for the
organization?
c) What is the best way of saying
no in order to help the organization
to get the best results?
appreciate that…
[E(pri:SieIt DÄt]
benchmarking
negotiate sth.
[nI(gEUSieIt]
zu schätzen wissen,
dass…
Vergleich von
Prozessen,
Benchmarking
über etw. verhandeln
BusinessSpotlight 11

MANAGING CHANGE
iStockphoto
Change is an important part of
business life and often seems to
be more rapid than in the past. But
people typically don’t like change
and many change management
processes fail. It is essential for
managers to help their staff
through such difficult processes.
Emphasizing benefits
l The key benefit for you is…
l These changes will enable the organization
to…
Don’t forget
the people!
Walking the talk
l To support the process, I’ll...
l I’m doing this because I believe it
will help us all.
Connecting change to professional
values
l The change will allow you to improve
quality by…
l The new organization will be much
more customer-focused.
Linking change to people’s emotional
needs
l You will now have the complete
authority to…
l You will now have much more independence
to…
Understanding psychological factors
l How do you feel about the change?
l What is it that is stopping you from
implementing the change?
12 BusinessSpotlight
TIP
If you are responsible for managing
a process of change, be sure to
focus on the people involved. This
means making people aware of the
need for change, motivating them to
support the process and making
plans to improve staff skills.
change Veränderungsmanagemanagement
ment (Planung und
Steuerung der Veränderungsprozesse)
emphasize sth. etw. betonen
[(emfEsaIz]
implement sth. etw. umsetzen
staff
Belegschaft
walk the talk den Worten Taten
US ifml. folgen lassen
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 6/2010.

Feedback is vital in business
and has a simple goal:
improvement — of people,
products and processes. Formal
feedback mechanisms,
in particular, can help organizations
to learn from the
past and gain a competitive
advantage for the future.
GIVING FEEDBACK
How did you think that went?
Digital Vision
Setting up a meeting
l I’d like to give you some feedback
on the meeting yesterday. When
would be a good time for you?
l I have one or two points of feedback
I’d like to give you.
Offering alternatives
l I would suggest that next time this
happens you…
l It may be useful for you to consider
looking at this from a different
perspective.
Clarifying the objectives
l Before we start, let me go over the
main objectives of this feedback.
l The point of this feedback is to
support you.
Asking questions and listening
l Can you tell me how you saw the
meeting yesterday?
l Do you feel you could have done
anything differently?
Talking about impact
l John seemed angry this morning
when you said…
l How do you think Susan felt when
you attacked her idea?
For more on this topic, see Business Spotlight 2/2007.
clarify sth.
etw. klären
competitive advantage Wettbewerbs-
[kEm)petEtIv vorteil
Ed(vA:ntIdZ]
impact [(ImpÄkt] Auswirkung(en)
objective [Eb(dZektIv] Ziel(setzung)
vital [(vaIt&l] entscheidend
TIP
Think about areas you would like to
have feedback on (leadership competence,
time management, technical
skills, etc.). Ask for feedback
more often, for example, by saying:
“I would really value your feedback
on how well I did that. What do you
think?”
BusinessSpotlight 13

LANGUAGE TEST
How well do you know the
language in this booklet?
Find out with our special test.
Remember, however, that the
phrases we have presented
are just suggestions. You
should use only the language
that you feel comfortable
with — and that is appropriate
in your specific work situations.
1. Building relationships
“That’s interesting. I also have ___________ in information technology.”
a) knowledge b) an experience c) a background
2. Building trust
“Just ask me if you want some ___________ for this project.”
a) respect b) support c) trust
Hemera
3. Influencing people
“The main ___________ of this would be that we could reduce costs.”
a) advantages b) benefit c) gain
4. Making decisions
“Let’s look at the possible___________ of our decision to invest in China.”
a) event b) compact c) impact
14 BusinessSpotlight

5. Group dynamics
“Can we ___________ discuss our different expectations of this working
party?”
a) shortly b) surely c) briefly
6. Conflict
“Tell me more about your views on this subject. You clearly feel
___________ this.”
a) strongly about b) strong about c) strongly over
7. Selling your ideas
“After doing extensive research, I am very optimistic that this project is
___________.”
a) financial b) functional c) feasible
8. Saying no
“I ___________ that you think this is the solution, but I just can’t agree.”
a) accede b) assure c) appreciate
9. Managing change
“What help do you need to ___________ these changes?”
a) implement b) instruct c) implode
10. Giving feedback
“Let’s begin by clarifying
the ___________ of this discussion.”
a) objectives
b) objections
c) obstacles
Answers
1–c; 2–b; 3–b; 4–c; 5–c; 6–a; 7–c; 8–c; 9–a; 10–a
TIP
“If you operate on the
assumption that you’re
being misunderstood
a lot of the time, you’re
probably closer to the truth”
Bob Dignen, director,
York Associates
www.york-associates.co.uk

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