Business Dialogues The Uniform Part I

AUDIO BUSINESSDIALOGUES

THE UNIFORM PART I

This is the first part of a two-part mini-series called “The Uniform”. In the first part, Mr Cook, the head of a chain of restaurants in London, is meeting with the branch managers. Linda is the branch managers’ spokesperson. Listen to the dialogue and answer these two questions:

1. What is Mr Cook worried about? 2. What is Linda worried about?

Mr Cook: Good morning everybody. I’ve called this meeting to talk about our latest business initiative. Managers: Morning. Mr Cook: As you know, things haven’t been going well recently: the number of customers is down, and we’ve been losing customers to rival restaurants in the area. In order to reverse this alarming trend, we’ve developed a new strategy that will help differentiate us from our competitors. Linda: Mr Cook, we understand perfectly well the situation the company is in. What my colleagues are interested in knowing is will there be any lay-offs or redundancies. Mr Cook: We’ll talk about that later. As I was saying, we have to find a niche for ourselves in the market, and a way of developing our brand image… Linda: Will we be out of a job or not? Mr Cook: … and we have to do our utmost to satisfy customer demand. Linda: Can you guarantee our position within the company? Mr Cook: If you’ll just bear with me for one minute, I’d like to show you what our design department has come up with… And here it is, our latest range of staff uniforms… (Mr Cook pulls out an example of the new staff uniform) Managers: Oh my God. Linda: Mr Cook, you cannot be serious. Mr Cook: Oh, yes, I am deadly serious… the survival of our company is at stake, and you can never underestimate my determination to… (to be continued)

Exercise

Now let’s try another activity. Listen to the sentences from the previous dialogue. In each one there is a missing word and a beeping sound. Write down what you think the word is. (The answers are on the CD, and on page 48).

1. I’ve called this meeting to talk ____ our latest business initiative. 2. We’ve been losing customers ____ rival restaurants in the area. 3. We’ve developed a new strategy that will help differentiate us _________ our competitors. 4. I’d like to show you what our design department has come _____ with. 5. The survival of our company is ________ stake.

G L O S S A R Y

a chain of restaurants n a group of restaurants that all belong to the same company a branch manager n a person in charge of a “branch”. A “branch” of a company is an office that belongs to that company a spokesperson n a person who represents a group of people a business initiative n a business plan or idea to be down exp to have decreased to reverse vb to change an alarming trend n a bad and constant development to differentiate vb if you “differentiate” yourself from the competition, you show customers how you are different a lay-off n if an employee is “laid-off”, he or she is told to leave a company a redundancy n if there are “redundancies”, a company tells some employees to leave a niche n if you find a “niche” in the market, you find a hole in the market and an opportunity to sell something new a brand image n a special look and image for your product (your brand) that helps define your product in the market out of a job exp with no job to do your utmost exp to make a big effort to do something if you’ll just bear with me exp please wait until I finish deadly serious adj very serious at stake exp if something is “at stake”, it is in danger and something bad could happen to it