Most efficient spend
The ……………………………. of your plan, says Dr Lentzer, should be spent ………………the first three weeks and assessing how useful the changes have been. And he has some ………………..to give to managers. Try to deal with important business at the beginning of your …………………………… and leave minor things until the end. Encourage colleagues to change their working habits to make the ……………………………… use of their time. Cut down the amount of time you spend ……………………………… . Make a note of what you are going to say before you make your call. …………………… some time …………………. a month making sure that your time–plan is working.
Exercise 5
These four extracts have been removed from the article. Can you put them back in the correct place?
- This was over seven per cent of the company’s total operating costs.
- These programmes can help to cut costs.
- or on inviting their major clients to expensive meals in restaurants.
- Which trips are essential to promote sales?
Travel Expenses
How much does your company spend on travel? Even small firms are finding that their travel and entertainment budget can account for between five and six per cent of operating costs. For large multi–national companies the costs can be even higher.
In fact many firms have no clear idea of how much they are spending on sending executives to international conferences (1).
Claudion Rossi, a Milan–based travel consultant, has spent the past year looking at the ways companies deal with their travel expenses. “Very few of the companies I studied could tell me exactly how much they were spending on travel. Only one or two had thought about introducing a system to control expenses.”
Mr Rossi gives the example of TransEurop ASP, a Danish transport company. “Everyone I spoke to in the firm assured me that regular trips abroad were a vital part of the work of senior executives. Nobody asked themselves if all this travel was necessary and nobody seemed to know how much it was costing the firm.”
In fact when Mr Rossi sat down with TransEurop’s chief accountant they found that travel and entertainment costs together came to a staggering $2.2m in a year. (2)
Mr Rossi claims that every medium–sized and large company needs a clear policy on controlling its travel costs. He proposes a four–point plan which companies can introduce over a period of six months to a year.
- Travel expenses audit. Begin by asking yourself how the company spends its travel budget at the moment. How much are we spending? How are expense claims processed? (3) Where can we make the biggest cost savings?
- Setting up a policy. Once you have decided how much the company can afford to spend you can begin putting your ideas into action. The plan should involve the company’s main travel suppliers – travel agents and airlines – as well as those executives who have to travel most frequently.
- Managing the policy. For larger firms this could mean appointing a full–time travel manager who would be responsible for controlling travel costs and for communicating the policy to other people in the company. This is not a feasible option for most small companies.
- Policy review. From time to time you might need to change your policy to take account of any new offers in the travel market. Many airlines now offer special deals for companies with frequent travellers. (4)
Exercise 6
Complete these definitions with words or word partnerships from the article above.
- A company’s ………………………………. is the money which it plans to spend on meals with customers, trips abroad, visits etc.
- A ……………………….. is a large firm which operates in a number of different countries.
- A company’s ………………… are its most important customers.
- An executive who makes ……………………….. abroad goes there fairly often.
- If a company considers a practical alternative, it looks at a ………………… .
Now use the same phrases to complete the gaps in each of these sentences:
- Last year we lost two of our …………………. to the competition. This year we’ll be looking more carefully at our pricing structure.
- I’m afraid that moving to a new office is not ……………………… for our company. It would cost us far too much money.
- IBM, BP and Coca–Cola are some of the world’s largest ………………………… .
- In my job I have to make ………………………………. . Next month I’ll be visiting Japan, Korea and China.
- We’ve had instructions from Head Office to reduce our …………………….. by 20% this year. Senior executives will now have to fly economy class.
Приложения
Приложение 1
Таблица некоторых неправильных глаголов
Infinitive
| Past
| Past Participle
| Meaning
|
be
become
breake
bring
build
buy
come
do
drink
drive
eat
fall
feel
find
get
give
go
have
hear
know
leave
lend
lose
make
pay
put
read
run
say
see
sell
send
speak
spend
take
think
understand
wake
write
| was, were
became
broke
brought
built
bought
came
did
drank
drove
ate
fell
felt
found
got
gave
went
had
heard
knew
left
lent
lost
made
paid
put
read
ran
said
saw
sold
sent
spoke
spent
took
thought
understood
woke
wrote
| been
become
broken
brought
built
bought
come
done
drunk
driven
eaten
fallen
felt
found
got
given
gone
had
heard
known
left
lent
lost
made
paid
put
read
run
said
seen
sold
sent
spoken
spent
taken
thought
understood
woken
written
| быть
сановитья
лмать
пиносить
сроить
покупать
приходить
делать
пить
вести машину
кушать
падать
чувствовать
находить
получать
давать
идти
иметь
слышать
знать
уходить
отдалживать
терять
делать
платить
класть
читать
бегать
говорить, сказать
видеть
продавать
посылать
говорить
тратить
брать
думать
понимать
будить
писать
|
Приложение 2
| Indefinite
| Continuous
| Perfect
|
Present
| verb
Ask(s)
- Repeated, customary action
- Fact
- Future action (timetable, programme)
Usually/generally
Always/never
Often/seldom
sometimes
| Be + –ing
Am
Is asking
Are
- Action (process) at the present moment
- Future action planned before
- Changing situation
Now
At present
At the moment
| Have + V(–ed) /3 form
Have/has asked
Have/has taken
- Completed action connected with the present
- Result
Already/yet
Ever/never
Lately/recently
This week/today
By now
|
Past
| Verb + ed 2 form
Asked Took
- Action in the past at a stated time
Yesterday
Last week
3 days ago
| Was /were + –ing
Was
Were asking
- Action (process) taking place at a given moment in the past
At 5 yesterday
From 5 to 6 yesterday
For 3 days last week
All day long/the whole day
When we came
| Had + V(–ed) / 3 form
Had asked
Had taken
- Action completed before a certain moment in the past
- At sequence of tenses
By 5 o’clock yesterday
Before he came
By the end of last year
|
Future
| Will + verb
Will ask
Tomorrow
Next week
In 3 days
In 2007
| Will + be + –ing
Will be asking
- Action (process) taking place at a given moment in the future
At 5 tomorrow
From 5 to 6 tomorrow
For 3 days next week
All day long tomorrow
When he comes
| Will + have + –ed
Will have asked
- Action completed before a definite moment in the future
By 5 o’clock tomorrow
When he comes
By next summer
|