Topic 2 Company Structure

A. Listening- Getting an Overview

1. Colin Vikckerstaff is a company director. He is speaking to a group of new graduate

trainees. Listen and complete the company profile.
Company Profile
1. Name : AGM Industries
2. Established :
3. Main Activity :
4. Headquarters :
5. Turnover :
6. No. of Employees :
7. Current market share :

2. Listen as Colin describes the management organization of his company. Complete

the chart.

a. Chairman
b…………………. CEO

Operations Technical Business Finance Strategy and c………… Customer

services Development Planning Services
s

Product d………... Quality e………… f…………

Management Control

B. Speaking- Talking about organizations

Speaking strategy: Describing a company

1. Study the language below that you can use to describe a company and its activities.
Notice the words and expressions in bold.
a. The company was founded / established in … / it is based in …
b. The main activities of the company are …
c. It produces / supplies / exports / manufactures …
d. It is one of the leading … / at the forefront of …
e. It has an annual turnover in excess of …
f. It is headed by …
g. It is organized into three divisions / made up of five departments.
2. Look at the company profile of Drucher Bahn Systems. Use the language above and any
other expressions you know for describing an organization to talk about this company.

Company Profile Managing director: Hans Kilmer

Name: Drucher Bahn System Organization
Established: 1862 Operations (design, Maintenance)
Main activity: Manufacture of railway Production
vehicles Business Development (Strategy,
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany Project, Management)
Turnover: €575 million p.a. HR
No. of employees: 12,392 Finance
Market share: 15% Extra Information
Carriages 20% lighter than competition
Rapid growth in recent years

C. Listening – Introducing new staff members

1. Look at the sentences below. Underline the expressions you can use to introduce
someone.
a. This is Tony Wilkinson.
b. Let me introduce you to our General Manager.
c. Can I introduce you to Sonya?
d. I’d like you to meet our new marketing director.
e. I want you to meet the rest of the team.
2. Listen to this new member of staff being shown around a company. Write the
correct job next to each person.
a. Lisa Vickers Accounts Administrator
b. Carol Parks ......................................
c. Tim Starks ......................................
d. Helen Green .....................................
e. What department do you think all these people work in?
........................................................................................

D. Listening – Roles and responsibilities

1. Listen to four people talk about their jobs. Which department do you think each
person works in?
a. Finance d. Public Relations
b. Sales and Marketing e. Research and Development
c. Human Resources f. Customer Service

Michiko ........ Yousry .......

Carl ....... Heidi .......
 2. Listen again and note any words or expression the helped you to identify the
department each person works in.

a. Michiko ...............
b. Carl ……..........
c. Youssry ................
d. Heidi ................
3. Listen to the following recording and fill in the empty space

Andrea: This 1) _____________ ___________________ is really confusing.

Raffael: Why are you looking at that?
Andrea: I have an interview next week and I’m trying 2) _______ ______ _______ on
the company I’ll be interviewing with. I want to impress them, but this chart
is really confusing.
Raffael: Let me see. It’s a simple 3) _____________ ___________ . You have your
board of directors at the top, with the 4) _____________ ___________
reporting to them, and then the 5) _____________ ___________ overseeing
major departments.
Andrea: But I thought managers work below the executive officers.
Raffael: You’re confusing managers with managing directors. The managing director
oversees the entire company and managers oversee 6) __________________
Andrea: Oh, I see. So these here are the departments: accounting, 7) _____________,
purchasing, personnel, 8) _____________, sales, and 9) _____________
Raffael: That’s right. Which department are you interviewing for?
Andrea: I think the job is in purchasing.
Raffael: You think? Don’t you think that’s something you should 10) _____________
___________before you do anything else?
Andrea: You might have 11) _____________ ___________ there.
Script by Dr. Lucy Tse