This is the main hall. We serve customers here. At the moment, a cashier is talking to a customer.

 

STUDENT B

Goldcrest Hotel
Area	What happens	What is happening now
Kitchen	prepare and cook meals	chefs / prepare / today’s lunch
Restaurant	serve breakfast, lunch and dinner	waiter / clear / the tables
Reception	welcome guests, answer calls	receptionist / talk / to a guest
Gift shop	sell souvenirs	sales assistant / help / a customer
A bedroom	guest stay	maid / clean / the room

 

E.g.

This is the kitchen. We prepare and cook meals here. At the moment, the chefs are preparing today’s lunch.

 

 

VOCABULARY BOOSTER

A Match the verbs in A with the phrases in B, as in the example.

A	B
1 to design / to manufacture	a) a system or service	1 d
2 to open / to reorganize	b) staff	2___
3 to introduce / to improve	c) a new market	3___
4 to recruit / to lay off	d) a new product	4___
5 to look for / to enter	e) a factory or office	5___

B Which verb in A means:

1 to bring something into use?

2 to make something better?

3 to find new employees?

4 to make people unemployed?

5 to try to find?

C Match the departments 1-9 with the definitions a-i.

1 Design	makes products	1_____
2 Marketing	sells to customers	2_____
3 IT	buys products or services for the company	3_____
4 Production	deals with the company’s accounts	4_____
5 Finance	hires new employees and organizes training	5_____
6 Buying	arranges artwork	6_____
7 Sales	maintains the company’s computer systems	7_____
8 Human Resources (HR)	invents and develops new products	8_____
9 Research and Development (R&D)	promotes products or services	9_____

 

D What a SWOT analysis is? Study the following words and their definitions:

Strengths – things that a company does well

Weaknesses – things that a company doesn’t do well

Opportunities – things that a company doesn’t do at the moment but could do in the future

Threats – things that can causeproblems to/damage the company, e.g. competition)

Listen to a man who is talking about an analysis he is doing for his company. Listen to part one. Match the headings in the table with the questions.

a) _________ Can my organisation increase sales or find new markets?

b) _________ What does the company do badly?

c) _________ Does another company offer better products or services?

d) _________ What does the company do well?

 

SWOT analysis
1 Strengths	2 Weaknesses	3 Opportunities	4 Threats

E Listen to part two, where the man gives his SWOT analysis. Look at these extracts and write a-h in the correct column of the table above.

a) machines in the production department are old

b) sell our products on the internet

c) good at design

d) three new companies sell similar products

e) try American and Asian markets

f) other companies charge less for their products

g) wide product range

h) delivery is slow

F Listen to part two again and check your answers.

OK, first we look at strengths. Well, my company is really good at design. Oh, and we have a wide product range. Now, let’s think about weaknesses. Well, the machines in the production department are old, and customers say that our delivery is slow. The next thing to look at is opportunities. Hmm. That’s a difficult one. I suppose we could sell our products on the internet. At the moment, we’re only selling to the European market, but we could try American and Asian markets, too. The final thing on the SWOT analysis is to look at threats. Well, I know that there are three new companies that sell similar products. Some other companies charge less for their products, too. So we are loosing our market share.

G Discuss the following question with your partner: How often is it a good idea for a company to do a SWOT analysis? Give reasons.