Important Vocabulary
- Autonomous: Independent, able to take decisions without consulting a higher authority
- Decentralization: Dividing an organization into decision-making units that are not centrally controlled
- Function: A specific activity in a company, e.g. production, marketing, finance, human resource management
- Hierarchy: A system of authority with different levels, one above the other
- Line authority: The power to give instructions to people at the level below in the chain of command
- Report to: To be responsible to someone and to take instructions from him or her
Subordinates: People working under someone else in a hierarchy - Industrial belt: An area with lots of industrial companies, around the edge of the city
- Wealth: The products of economic activity
- Productivity: The amount of output produced (in a certain period, using a certain number of inputs)
- Corporate ethos: A company’s way of working and thinking
- Collaboration: Working together and sharing ideas
- Insulated or isolated: Alone, placed in a position away from others
- Fragmentation: Breaking something up into pieces
Classifying the Strategies According to the Departments That Would Favor Them
[ finance | marketing | production (or operations) ]
- A factory working at full capacity – Production
- A large advertising budget – Marketing/Finance
- A large sales force earning high commission – Marketing
- A standard product without optional features – Production
- A strong cash balance – Finance
- A strong market share for new products – Marketing
- Generous credit facilities for customers – Marketing
- High-profit margins – Finance
- Large inventories to make sure that products are available – Production
- Low research and development spending – Finance
- Machines that give the possibility of making various different products – Production
- Self-financing (using retained earnings rather than borrowing) – Finance
Extracted From
MacKenzie, I. (2002). English for Business Studies: A course for Business Studies and Economics students (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
