2.1 Listening
As you did in Lesson 1, 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 Mr. Bill Gates says. Gates is an outstanding example of another sort of guru – the guru who leads by actions more than words.
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.
Highlights
Bill Gates is an outstanding example of another sort of guru, the guru who preaches more by deeds than by words. He revels in change and draws inspiration from a crisis.
His first book, 'The Road Ahead', was published in 1995. Gates famously ignored the Internet at first. The Internet and its implications dominate his second book, 'Business @ the Speed of Thought'.
2.1 Listening
But we can learn as much from Bill Gates by looking at what he does, as a manager and a leader, than by reading his books:
1. Concentrate your effort on a market with large potential but relatively few competitors
2. Get in early and big
3. Establish a proprietary position
4. Protect that position in every way possible
5. Aim for high gross margin
6. Make the customers an offer they can't refuse
Gates, with no previous experience, no MBA, and no mentors, set about creating a new sort of organization, what he called a knowledge company. The knowledge company's raw material is brainpower.
Vital to a knowledge company is what Gates calls the DNS - the Digital Nervous System, the e-mails and computer systems that allow everyone to learn everything they need to know.
2.1 Listening
Microsoft also has some very clear people policies, which give the company its extraordinary vitality. Gates summarizes them as five 'E's:
Enrichment
Empowerment
Emphasis on Performance
Egalitarianism
E-Mail
Some Useful Business Words
outstanding
very good
deeds
action
revels in
gets pleasure from
2.1 Listening
proprietary position
a position where you own legal, eg. intellectual rights
gross margin
difference between the manufacturing cost and the selling price
mentors
persons who give advice to others over a long period of time
egalitarianism
the belief that all people are equal and have equal rights
And now is the time for listening to your teacher or to Professor Handy speaking about Bill Gares.
And after you finish listening you will be required to answer some questions and exercises.
Jigsaw Text
Below is a paragraph from The Handy Guide Part 10: Bill Gates. The sentences are in the wrong order.
Rearrange them so that they are in the correct order.