1.1 Listening

Listen to your teacher, read the speech text by Charles Handy, who has been a professor at the London Business School for many years. By accessing the website below, you can listen to the speech by Charles Handy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/work/handy/gates.shtml

To make your listening to the talk easier, here are the “Highlights” ( i.e. the important points) of what Professor Handy says. Please note that some words and expressions are in boldface (i.e. in dark black color). These are the items that are explained for you so that you may be able to understand what you are going to listen to more easily.

1.1 Highlights:
These days practically every city in the world has a School or Institute of Management and if you want a good start to an executive career, then get yourself an MBA degree and become a Master of Business Administration.

Management has always been the invisible ingredient of success. The pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China could not have been built without good management systems. Good ideas are wasted unless someone turns them into a workable activity or business, by management.

1.1 Listening

But the art of management still seems very elusive. Unlike the physical sciences, in management there seem to be no absolute laws. As new technologies arrive and people find new needs, managers have to adapt and experiment to stay in business.

That's where the gurus come in. Their role is to interpret and spread around what seems to be working, helping managers to cope in a world that changes fast.

The twelve significant gurus we'll be looking at often use common sense, but they see the sense before it becomes common and that's what can give companies and their managers the competitive edge. The insights and methods of the gurus can make a big difference to the way we manage our organisations.

1.2 Some useful business words:
guru
a Hindu spiritual leader. Also used to indicate a respected and influential expert on something. About twenty years ago the leading thinkers in the field of management started to be called 'gurus'.

a good start
to begin something well, to have an advantage at the beginning

1.1 Listening

executive career
a job relating to the management of an organisation and to putting plans into effect

invisible ingredient
a quality which is not obvious

elusive
something or someone that is elusive is difficult to find, achieve, describe or remember

spread around
make known or available over a large area or to a large number of people

significant
important, considerable

common sense
practical good sense gained from experience, not study

competitive edge
advantage over others

1.1 Listening

insights
understanding of a complex situation or problem

And now is the time for listening to your teacher or to Professor Handy.

And after you finish listening you will be required to answer some questions and exercises.

Discussion questions

1.	In business terms, what is management?
2.	Why is it important?
3.	Before today, did you know anything about Charles Handy?
4.	Do you know of any other management gurus?
5.	Do you know anything about their ideas?
6.	Have you ever read a book about management, or been to see a speaker on this subject?
7.	If so, did you find it interesting or useful?
8.	If you have read a lot of management books or seen a lot of speakers, which ones have you found most interesting or useful, and why?

1.1 Listening

Vocabulary: broken words

Version A – easy
Rearrange these sections to make TWELVE English words. You should use ALL the sections, and you should not repeat any of them.

elu via ach
lo dsi vel
de pai chi
dili ent hel
lly ing
example: hel + lo = hello

1. cam ____ gn
2. ____ ble
3. tactfu ____
4. hierar ____ es
5. ____ sive
6. ____ gent
7. hin___ ght

1.1 Listening

8. turbul ____
9. shri ____
10. ____cay
11. demean ____
12. pre ____

Version B – medium

Rearrange these sections to make TWELVE English words. You should use ALL the sections, and you should not repeat any of them.

gn ent bul ble
es elu tac rar
lo cam pre hel
gent chi ing dem
shri tfu hin cay
ght
example: hel + lo = hello

1.1 Listening

1. _____ pai _____
2. via _____
3. _____ _____ lly
4. hei _____ _____ _____
5. _____ sive
6. dili _____
7. _____ dsi _____
8. tur _____ _____
9. _____ vel
10. de _____
11. _____ ean _____
12. _____ ach

Version C – difficult

Rearrange these sections to make TWELVE English words. You should use ALL the sections, and you should not repeat any of them.Guide to the Gurus of Management

1.1 Listening

de via ean cam pai
gn lly bul ble hei
sive ach tac rar tur
lo dsi pre vel elu
gent chi ing dem es
shri tfu hin dili cay
ght ent hel
example: hel + lo = hello

1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
4. ____________________
5. ____________________
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10. ____________________
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12. ____________________