BEC精听（五）

第三辑  TEST ONE

PART ONE

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I'm honored to have this opportunity to talk to you. Eight years ago I bought my first computer, but I soon discovered that where I lived was difficult to find accessories for that particular make. That made me realize that the other people must have the same problem. Then I found that foreign maganzines contain plenty of advertisements of mail order companies, so I started buying spare parts and things that way and selling them on to my friends at a small profit. That was how my company Manshee, was born.
Four years later, Manshee was making a profit and had reached a turnover of 6 million pounds. We had four directors - myself and three of my friends - plus staff of seventeen. The culture was young and the working environment didn't have any structure. The company just grew and grew with its own momentum（势头 ）, and everything we did seemed to strike lucky（交好运;撞大运）. If we need to buy some equipment or redecorate the sales office（营业部）, we decided yes or no in isolation（独自地）, only taking the short term- usually the cash flow for that month - into account. However, the market became increasingly cut throat（竞争激烈）, and that led to falling margins（利润缩水）. We realized, rather unwillingly, that the time had come to structure our future, but we didn't really have much idea how to set about（着手） it. So we went to a firm of consultants who specialized in helping small businesses, and it proved a turning point. They insisted that we four directors sit down and rank our investment in oder of importance for the coming years. It seems obvious now, but we'd never realized the value of doing it before.

Initially, we set out strategic and financial targets for the next three years, and now we're pleased with just how many of those objectives we've met. The value of bringing in outside expertise was that it gave us objectivity. It's so easy to take things for granted, and to go on in the same mindset. Using consultants meant we received invaluable advice（宝贵建议） on our business priorities (业务优先级). Planning has allowed us to make notable improvements（重大改进）. For instance, by segmenting our customer base（分割客户群）, we realized that we could put our customers, curretly in excess of a thousand, into four distinct groups, according to their buying behavior. That made us realize that we could increase sales if we allocated different people to deal with each group. So we set up four specialist divisions（专门事务部）. And the most successful one has increased its sales by over 20%, and that's the division involved with（所涉及的） a training sector（即培训部）. We're signing off the next plan for growth. People are sometimes concerned that planning leads to rigidity（僵化）, but we certainly don't find that it stops us from being as flexible as we need to be. Thank you.

PART TWO

1. Well, now it's all over. I can only hope we've learnt the right lessons from the experience. Although the consultants at the time urged caution（嘱咐要谨慎行事）, the Board were sure of the plan, after all, it was the sort of thing they'd pulled off（成功完成） before - and ploughed ahead（奋力领先） with a launch of the new division. But the Board wouldn't accept that the predicted boom in these new overseas markets was bound to be unstable, because of the likely fluctuations in currency rates（汇率）and share prices. And that's where it all came unstuck（紊乱的，失灵的）. They reacted sensibly（理智地）, though, and now we have established a good joint venture there, which is a better bet than going it alone, or slashing costs（削减成本） all over the place and laying people off in a panic（裁员）.

There was a failure to understand economic trends. | A partnership abroad was formed.

2. In the end, you'd have to say we had a lucky escape, I mean, it could have been a lot worse. It's very difficult to know where your brand is really positioned...we've always accepted that our research almost inevitably will be running a bit behind（调研滞后）. Consumer taste change so quickly these days, and that's where we suffered and lost market share. The directors, once it was clear what was happening, attacked the problem and looked at various options. They could have looked to generate revenues with a share issue（发行股票）, but I think they were right to go for clipping back by reducing expenditure wherever possible, you're better placed to re-group with a tight ship. The plan to develop higher quality products for the future look pretty plausible now.

Certain products went out of fashion. | A cost reduction program was introduced.

3. Well, I now know to take all this talk about the importance of communication skills seriously... I used to think it was all rather woolly（模糊的）, but when you've seen the damage misunderstandings can do...I suppose the board was a grouping of people with such strong backgrounds individually that each of them expected to be top dog, and that it was perhaps inevitable that they'd clash over what direction the company should go in. Anyhow, it looke very grim（危急，严肃的） for a while, but in the end, two of them took the pretty sizable payoff（丰厚酬劳） they were offered and moved on. From our point of view, at least it saved us from the prospect of the group being split up（公司重组） and the shares sold off（抛售股票）.

There were conflicts between directors. | Large severance payments（遣散费） were made.

4. We were all extremely glad to see the back of that particular episode in the company's history. I know there's quite a trend to constantly reviewing your sourcing in the search for cost savings, but it was crazy to move over（换成） to such an untried firm（没合作过的公司）. The trouble was we were getting nearly all our parts from them, so everything was leaving the factory here with faulty components, with appaling（糟糕的，骇人听闻的） results. We should have listened to the consultants, but on this one, we thought we knew better. It got so bad that predatory offers（掠夺性竞价） were being made for the division, and we had to think hard about how to save the brand's reputation. Raising fresh capital（筹集资金） through new shares was the right way to go and enable us to cover the losses we made in sales.

There was a reliance on poor-quality supplies. | New shares were issued.

5. I sometimes really do think that the people who know least about the company are the people who run it... That's why there's such an industry in advising on and supplying the skills for managing change. We went along assuming that（一直以来都认为）we were selling well because of what we saw as our core qualities, but we were wrong. It was just that we happened to have got our pricing right, so when we changed that, it all started falling apart（崩溃）. Things got decidedly grim（非常严峻） for a time, and drastic action（极端措施）was required. A merger was considered, and an aggressive takeover had to be fought off（战胜，消除）. In the end, it was easier to accept an offer（接受报价）for the Budget Products Division, and avoid major redundancies（避免大规模裁员）, than to go on trying to keep the whole thing afloat（费尽心思维持整个公司的运转）（有偿债能力;能维持下去）.

Reasons for previous success were misunderstood. | One division was sold off.

PART THREE

A: Well, Deborah, we need to think about the candidates who've put in applications for the post of area manager.
B: Yes, John, that's an exiciting new role, and it fits in with the strategy development plan.
A: Quite. It's part of a logical progression in our approach to management, carefully consolidating our skills base（巩固技能基础）. It should mean a new chain of command（新的管理范围，指挥系统）, but based on tried and tested methods, we'll be stronger as a result.
B: Well, that's the idea. Now, the first one that's come in is from Colin..
A: The assistant manager for the south east?
B: Yes. Colin's clearly keen（热切的，渴望的）...
A: But of course, it's an attractive proposition.
B: And I think that's what drawn him. He's said his current post is demanding as well he might but that he's keen to position himself in the spotlight here. Reading between the lines, I think the alternatives, as he sees it, is to move sideways to IT, which is where his background is. It would be a shame to lose someone like him... he's hungry.
A: Yes, it's a genuine application. He is a serious contender（有力竞争者）. I was struck（惊讶，印象深刻） recently... I think it was last month by his problem-solving abilities. He was passes a complaint（收到投诉）, it wasn't his problem at all but he took it up（处理） anyway, about some faulty goods we'd supplied apparently. I think he saw it  as an efficiency issue, and so relevant to any responsible person here. And he reacted really well, so that the customer went away happy after all.
B: Right, and that suggests the qualities that are most germane（与…有密切关系） to the job. Ultimately（说到底，根本上）, I suppose, we're looking for（考察，寻找） a level of adaptability that it's fair to say someone in his position may not have had the chance to really demonstrate yet, but his familiarity with the goods we produce is second-to-none（首屈一指的）, so I think the signs are there that he may become an astute analyst（精明的分析师） and problem solver.
A: That's certainly encouraging（令人欣慰的）. And it's not just in the office that he's been looking good. I sent him abroad as part of that group a few weeks ago. The basic brief was to secure a continuation of the Asian contract. To be honest, that was a bit of given, and what I was really hoping for was something extra. And sure enough, he clearly really worked on all our contacts out there, and he came back with some great new insights into how we might be able to develop bulk sales (批发销售) directly through warehouses（仓库）, rather than through the standard agency channels（中介代理）.
B: Oh, right, interesting. I missed the de-brief on that one. But I do know he went on a training course not so long ago, and clearly reaped the benefits there. The content was mundane（平凡的，单调的）enough - how to produce effective reports or some such - but he identified the points that really mattered, and saw that what it actually addressed was how to order (整理) the most pertinent（相关的, 恰当的） facts for delivery（n. 演讲）to a team. 

A: So, it's good news all round?
B: Well, let's look at what his reference has to say. He does have shortcomings, of course. His confidence is very strong, almost to a fault, you might say, which could lead to difficulties on the patience front, just because he gets the point quickly doesn't mean he's entitiled to（有权利） think everyone else does, that they share the same conclusions（结论相同）, others may be behind in terms of objectivity, still grappling with（竭力解决） issues that impact personally on themselves.
A: That'd certainly be something to watch, I guess. Still, we're not looking for perfection, are we? And we're not going to be setting up a lone operator. 孤军奋战之人
B: Oh, far from it. Whoever gets the job will be well backed up. I was talking to the consultants the other day, and they were quite critical of our reliance on checking performance through the one-to-one appraisals system. So it's been decided that this new post will be linked into the cross departmental advisory group（跨部门咨询小组） that was set up a few months ago, and benefit from dealing with them and getting their input. That should help quite a bit.
A: That makes a lot of sense. Well, let's talk about some of the other candidates...

go for 选择
sourcing 货源
see the back of 摆脱
in our approach to management 推行管理方针道路上
tight ship 一个管理完善，效率高的企业、家庭或组织

proposition

1   提议，建议（尤指业务上的）

an idea or a plan of action that is suggested, especially in business

I'd like to put a business proposition to you.

我想向您提个业务上的建议。

He was trying to make it look like an attractive proposition .

他正设法使他的计划显得吸引人。

2   欲做的事；待处理的问题；任务

a thing that you intend to do; a problem or task to be dealt with

同义词： matter

Getting a work permit in the UK is not always a simple proposition.

在英国获得工作许可证往往不是一件简单的事情。