BEC高级学生用书(第三版)教材听力原文

1.1 The future of human resources

1) I think the problem is that in the last fifteen years,employers haven't shown their employees much loyalty.They've hired and fired pretty much at will,accor ding to whether the market dictated that they need to increase or reduce the w orkforce.The flipside of this is that employees now,particularly

those in the 25 to 35 age group,don't feel much loyalty to their employer either .Developing strategies to hold on to highly skilled and highly qualified people h as become the number one priority in human resources - in all big companies, in fact.

2) There's no doubt that in the next ten years there will be a move away from the nine to five office-based model of work. In fact ,it's already happening with women ,who often find it challenging to balance work and domestic schedules . This could mean more 'teleworking', in other words working at home and bei ng linked to the office by computer;or it could mean shorter working weeks or j ust more flexible hours, Unless companies offer these possibilities,a lot of peo ple will look for alternative types of work.

3) Companies are finding that graduates and school leavers aren't well enoug

h prepared for working life. This is going to drive two changes,I think. One is a greater co-operating between companies and universities or colleges to ensu re that at entry level to the company, people have the right skills. We'll also se e more investment in corporate training - corporate universities and so on -so that employees' skills can be moulded to the needs of the company.

4) As the birth rate decreased and life expectancy increases, there will be shortages in the job market. Consequently, a lot of ex-employees who thought they had finished their careers at 60 or whatever,will be called back to work. This will suit the companies, but it will suit the employees too, because their p ensions will probably be inadequate to fund their longer retirement.

5) At the moment people in their 50s and 60s are , on the whole , very poorly valued in companies. Firms want to recruit younger employees who are cheap er to employ and more adaptable to a changing business environment. But as the supply of these younger workers dries up, we'll have to consider older sta ff differently. I hope that in future the wisdom and experience of this group will become more valued.

1.2 An environment accident

J=Journalist S=Spokesperson

J : So, can you tell me how this happened?

S : Well, it was a very unfortunate combination of events. As you know , weath er conditions have been severe in the eastern Atlantic for the last couple of da ys. The ship's captain reported that the ship was in trouble at 11pm last night and was ordered to make for port as quickly as possible. At 2:30 pm he report ed that she was grounded on some rocks just off the Cornish coast.

J: But this isn't the first time this particular ship has been in an accident.is it? S: She has been involved in two incidents in the past, but these had nothing t o do withher sea-worthiness,She is a well-maintained ship in excellent workin g order with an experience crew on board.

J: And what are you intending to do to limit the damage to the environment no w? S: Unfortunately, while conditions remain so hostile, there is very little we c an do, but the moment the storms subside we will be mounting an operation t o transfer the oil off the ship using tugs.

J: Do you think that this kind of accident is acceptable?

S: I think it needs to be put into perspective. Accidents at sea are far less com mon than rail or road accidents. The problem is that they attract much more p ublicity ... J: Well, yes, Whichever way you look at it, it's a PR disaster for your company, isn't it ?

S: As I've said, this type of incident does attract a lot of media attention. I just hope that the public can see ...

2.1 The PeopleSoft takeover

COMMENTATOR I think you could sum up PeopleSoft's approach to their e mployees like this:"We want you to be happy, we want you to do the things yo u've good at and that you enjoy doing. ' Very few big IT consulting companies are like that.They usually throw people straight in at the deep end: put them o n jobs where they don't necessarily have much skill or experience, arguing tha t it's good for them to learn. But I think that although they have talked a lot abo ut caring for their people and having fun, PeopleSoft put a lot of responsibility on them too. Like they were saying, ' Here's a job you can do and will enjoy d oing,but you'll be accountable for the results.' To enforce that they generally st arted people on low salaries - and I mean low - and explained that greater rew ards would come in time. In fairness, it was direct and honest. In December 2 004,when Oracle took over,a lot of employees decided to leave. For a start, th e feeling was that their applications just weren't as good as PeopleSoft's - in f act they were probably just more difficult to use - and secondly people thought that Oracle didn't respect employees as much. The CEO of PeopleSoft, Dave Duffield, had a very paternalistic approach - he used to sign his emails ' DAD '(which were his initials). It wasn't well-paid work but people felt valued, which is often more important. Also there was a relaxed atmosphere around the com pany.The moment the merger was announced, that kind of evaporated. It see med to become tense, people wondering if the new CEO was going to live up to his reputation for wielding the axe. And, in retrospect, you would have to sa y they were right to be worried!

INDUSTRY ANALYST Oracle gets a lot of flak because of its aggressive grow th strategy,but i'm afraid in this sector only the big guys are going to survive. T he merger with PeopleSoft was a business necessity. It didn't happen becaus e the two companies were so alike - their cultures were very different.At Oracl e there's a greater sense of urgency ... It's a stressful environment, but the re wards are huge. I know some reps there who are making millions of dollars. S ure, if you don't cut it, you've toast pretty fast,but that's business. It's survival o f the fittest. The differences really come from the nature of the two businesses . Oracle's core

product is databases and with databases the customer often make a decision whether to buy or not in a matter of weeks. With ERP applications, which is m ore PeopleSoft territory, you can be in discussions with customers for months, analyzing their needs and then proposing the right solution before a sale is a greed. So that naturally makes for a different culture. The other thing is that th e merger happened really quickly - like marrying before you've really got to kn ow the bride. So, of course people are uncertain. I think in the end, though, as both sets of employees adapt to each other's way of working, things will settle down.

2.2 Falling shares

CEO OK,hi everyone. I'll make this brief, because I have another meeting to get to ,but what I have to say is no less important for being short.

As you know, in our three-year plan we had a target of 20% growth by th e end of this year. As things stand, we've going to be quite a bit short of that - t rading circumstances haven't been easy. And unless we do something about it in the next few months, the consequences on our share price could be pretty significant. The markets are already getting a bit twitchy as you will have read in the financial press.

It's unrealistic to think that we are going to trade our way out of this. All t he indications are that the market is going to remain flat for at least the next t welve months. So, what I need you to do is to come up with some possible tar gets for acquisition. We're looking for a medium-sized business, reasonably w ell established in the market. It doesn't have to be a toy business, but it must b e related ... in other words in the leisure retail sector, because that is where ou r expertise is. I don't need to tell you your jobs, I know you'll be discreet, but d o get on with it - time's not on our side. I'll schedule a meeting for a month's ti me to hear what you've come up with.

3.1 Dealing with problems

CCO=Call center operator C=Customer

CCO: Hello, Penco Telecommunications.

C: At last. I was just about to hang up. I've been on the phone for ten minutes going through various options ... None of which I wanted.

CCO: I do apologize for the wait.sir. How can I help you ?

C: I've been waiting in all day for an engineer to come and repair my line. He was due to come at ten o'clock this morning ... It's now three in the afternoon.

I telephoned at twelve o'clock and one of your operators promised to call me b ack, but she hasn't. I've wasted my day waiting around and worse than that I s till can't receive any calls. CCO: I'm very sorry. Can i have your number and I'll look into it straightaway ? C: Yes , it's 01889 245624.

CCO: Ok. One moment - I'm going to see who the engineer is that has been a ssigned to the job ... Ok, I have his number. I'm going to put you on hold and tr y to find out what's happened.

C: Please don't disappear. As i said, it took me ten minutes to get through in th e first https://www.wendangku.net/doc/aa9000357.html,O: Don't worry, I'll come straight back to you. One moment ... Right, I'm afraid he has been delayed on another job. He apologizes for not ca lling you sooner. He normally works until 5pm but he's offered to work later thi s evening to fit in your job. He can be there by 6pm. Would that be convenient ?

C: No, it would not. I'm going out to the cinema this evening.

CCO: I quite understand. In that case, I'm going to have to reschedule him for another day. Can you tell me when would be convenient ?

C: Well, first thing tomorrow morning, but...

CCO : I'll see what I can do. Please just bear with me for a moment while I sp eak to him again ... Right that's arranged for tomorrow morning at nine. C: Tha t's all very well, But what am I supposed to do in the meantime ?

CCO: Do you have a mobile phone,sir ?

C: Yes.

CCO: What I can do is to divert any calls coming into your office number on to your mobile phone until your line is repaired. Would that be acceptable to you ?

C: I suppose so. When can you do that ?

CCO : If you'd like to tell me your mobile number, I can get that activated imm ediately

C: Ok, the number is ...

3.2 Exam practice

I imagine most of you are here today because you want to find out more ab out the job of a coach. Some of you will be skeptical about its benefits, others will have already started making a career out of coaching.

I myself have been a coach since the late 90s, but our academy was set u p more recently in 2004 in response to a demand for more formal training in th e field. We are a private institution and don't rely on any government funding. Our aim was to try to professionalize an industry which until then had been, in this country at any rate, a rather disorganized and unregulated industry. We n ow have over 450 members and run twelve courses a year in various types of coaching. These range from day seminars for people who are already practici ng as coaches to four-week courses or the beginner.

So what is a coach exactly ? Well, there are many different types of coach offering help in many different aspects of business and personal life: from fina ncial or management coaching through to parent coaching and work-life balan ce coaching. But the basic principles remain the same whatever the field: usin g simple psychology and simple direction to help people to believe in themsel ves and to achieve their goals.

The great thing about coaches is that not only do they help you to identify your goals and the obstacles to achieving them, but they stay there cheering y ou on from the sidelines. In other words, they always help the clients to look fo rward. This is very unlike traditional counseling, which tends to focus more on past events and mistakes and helping the person to get over these before the y can move on.

I'm going to show you a short film of a coaching session in a moment, but beforeI do, I will just mention something about the rewards of the job, and the qualifications and resources that you need for it because these are questions t hat will be concerning many of you.

The rewards: Well, job satisfaction is , of course, very high. I mean, how often do you come home from work and are able to say, ' wow, I really made a differ ence to someone's life today '?As to financial rewards, sessions with coaches usually start at about ￡70 per hour but experienced coaches can earn anythi ng up to ￡400 per hour. As to qualifications, you will need to follow an accredi ted coaching course, such as the ones we run here at the academy, and also you will need considerable experience in the field that you are coaching in. If y ou don't have this background it will be difficult for the client to have confidenc e in you.

What else do you need to set up as a coach ? Most coaching is done at the cli ent's office or home, but some coaches also see people at their own homes. I n fact there's no need always to meet face-to-face. I know of several coaches who conduct session by phone or online, even sometimes by text message ...

Sarah We make financial software for medium-sized companies. Competitio n is strong - not necessarily price competition, because in our sector, quality , reliability and service are far more important factors. We use a sales techniqu e that's called ' relationship selling '. In other words, we spend a lot of time get ting to know each prospect's individual needs :their business processes, their strategic aims, and um ... Also the issues and constraints they face. The idea i s that the customer sees us as a partner, someone who's going to work with t hem and help them find the best solution for their business. Working this way, there are times when I have to freely admit to people that our products may n ot be best suited to their particular needs, but to be honest I'd much prefer to be doing that than using some hard-sell technique to push something I don't r eally believe in myself, you know ...

Presenter Thank you, Sarah. Now, Dale Freidman, I know you have a very di fferent approach ...

Dale I would say so, yes. In my line of business, it's all about perceived benef its - there are some tangible ones like, for example, use of natural ingredients in our deodorants, but everyone in the industry copies ideas, so it's difficult to sustain any kind of technical competitive advantage for long. So, I use a lot of anecdotes when I sell; I tell stories, get people laughing, My approach is direct - I guess some might say pushy, but I get results. I deal only with the decision maker, who's generally a buyer for a chain of stores. You'd be amazed how m uch time people waste talking to the wrong guy. I always start by presenting th em with the most expensive options, because this increases our average sale s, and as soon as I get a buying signal from them - it could be anything, you k now, just a question like ' What's your most popular product ? '- I move in and close the sale by discussing quantities required, special delivery arrangement s, favorable payment terms, thing that make them feel they're getting added v alue ...

Anke Reigl Is everyone ready ? Good, then I'll begin. Ok ... Well, based on a verage growth in sales over the last two years and given the relatively stable s tate of the market at the moment as far as competition is concerned, we're for ecasting a fairly modest increase in the first quarter, about 2to 3%. We expect this to rise to between 7and 10% in the second and third quarters, after the la unch of the new slow - release version of the drug. Marketing tells me - thanks , Werner for your help with this ...

Werner You're welcome.

Anke Reigl ... That demand for this version is strong and should be reflected in sales more or less immediately. So that's the basic picture. There are just a couple of monthly variations to this trend which I'll explain now

If you look at the graph, you'll see that in March last year sales wet up quit e sharply and that the figure predicted for this year is much lower. The reason for this is that Bayer had distribution problems and weren't able to supply the required quantities to their customers. We were fortunate, because we were c arting extra stock and were fortunate, because we were carrying extra stock a nd were able to take advantage of the situation. I think it's worth nothing that d isruptions in the supply chain can affect anyone and it really does pay for us t o hold a reasonable amount of stock in reserve for events like these.

As you know, sales generally decline in April and Mat - it's just a seasonal fact or - bur as I already mentioned, the launch of the new version this year is exp ected to boost them considerably, especially in April directly after the campaig n. They'll drop back a little after that, but in July we'll have the usual early sum mer phenomenon when distributors ...

5.1 A culture of debt

Economist Perhaps the greater legacy of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan G reenspan is the way he transformed people’s attitude to credit and debt. Durin g his term of office not only the national debt of America, but also personal de bt, increased substantially.

Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, people in America have been nat urally reluctant to borrow money. But for this generation, in the US and increa singly globally, debt has become respectable. From an early age, young peopl e take out loans to pay their way through college and borrowing against equity in real estate is now at record levels. Re-mortgaging your home was unheard of generations ago: a second mortgage was an indication of a household in tr ouble. But today it is routine.

All this is possible because credit is easy and interest rates are low. Banks are encouraged to lend, and often do so irresponsibly. In some states it’s possible to get a 100% mortgage – in other words with no down – payment –equivalen t to four times a couple’s combined annual salary. The market is constantly co ming up with new financial products and new ways of extending credit to ordin ary people. General Motors, whose automotive business is in decline, now sel ls home equity loans though a subsidiary: it’s the only part of company that ha s been consistently profitable in recent years.

The reason for this boom in money lending is clear – to fund consumer spendi ng. As long as people are spending, economic growth continues. In other mor e conservative borrowing cultures, like Germany, economic growth has slowe d because in times of uncertainty people tend to save their money, rather than borrowing and spending to make themselves feel better.

So does the accumulating debt matter ? Some say that as long as asset valu es rise faster than debt, there’s no problem. In 2005 Americans were twelve tri llion dollars in debt, but their personal assets stood at 64 trillion dollars . Other s argue that we are sitting on a time-bomb.

Asset value will not continue to rise indefinitely and when they crash, millions of people will be plunged into negative equity. Liabilities remain the same but assets can go up and down in value. This was the case with stock market valu es, which saw sharp falls around 2000. Crisis was averted only because inves tors moved their money into real estate.

For millions of Americans this only confirmed the culture Alan Greenspan had been promoting – debt is good. And if he turns out to be wrong – well, we all h ad fun in the meantime.

5.2 discussing costs

CA=Cost accountant GM=General manager

CA Look, we’ve got to do something. Doing nothing is not an option. Our mar gins will just get squeezed more and more. GM Ok. What do you suggest? CA Personally,I’d recommend cutting the wage bill – either by laying some p eople off or by freezing salaries.

GM Neither of which are going to be very popular options.

CA No, but the alternatives are probably worse : reducing material costs will d efinitely have an impact on product quality and cutting back on advertising exp enditure is only a short-term solution – it will hurt us in the long run.

GM No, I see that.What about administrative costs or other overheads ? Inste ad of cutting staff, we could try and do something about getting our energy bill s down for example.

CA I’ve already done as much as I can in those areas. I have thought about t his a lot and for me, the only real solution is to tackle labor costs. It may be pa inful, but the advantage of it would be that, once done, we could get back to c oncentrating on selling.

GM Ok, I hear what you’re saying, but I think it might create more problems t han you think. I’m going to go away and think about it … see if there is an acc eptable way of doing it.

5.3 Matching

we are accused frequently of doing nothing about the ageing population and the consequent hole in pension funds. But you have to understand that, at th e moment at any rate, there are no popular solutions to this problem. Either w e raise the

retirement age or we increase taxes on working people. Neither of these is a v ote winner. I think a lot of us in government are hoping that if we just hold on a bit, then sooner or later another solution will present itself.

5.4 Exam practice

1) I don’t believe in the capital markets. For a start they are unpredictable and for

another thing, not everyone has the possibility to take such risks with their mo ney. I have always been of the view that you pay taxes through your working li fe in order to enjoy certain benefits from the state and certain protection again st difficult times. For example, in case of unemployment or sickness or for you r retirement, for that matter. So when I retire, I will live on what the governmen t is due to give me. If I can’t afford cruises in the Caribbean, then that’s too ba

d.

2) I’m very lucky to have worked in the civil service, which has its own pensio n

scheme. My salary has never been as good as it might have been in the privat e sector, but you accept that when you work for a public service. What you do get is job security, longer holidays, good medical insurance and an excellent p ension. My pension is calculated as a percentage of my final salary. That’s ver y rare in the private sector. Usually private companies take your average salar y over a period of, say, twenty years. So all in all I expect to be very comfortab le when I retire, even if I haven’t had that much disposable income during my working life.

3) People think that as a company director, I’m bound to have all sorts of privil eged

pension benefits and company schemes going on – some special executive pl an. But it’s not the case. We have a company scheme for all our employees b ut I don’t actually participate in it. Instead, I’ve put most of my money in a long -term

savings account, that gives a good rate of return if you keep it in for long enou gh. It seems bizarre I know, but I make far more than I need to spend and I gu ess I’m naturally cautious with my money.

4) There’s a saying – I don’t know who by – that you should ‘ invest in land, be cause

they don’t make it any more! ‘ I think that’s good advice. Around 2004 there started to be a lot of stories in the media about company pensions and private pensions not delivering the benefits they had promised, mainly because they were linked to stock market investments. At that point I decided to withdraw m y money from my own private pension and put it into property. I figured that if I bought a small office building, then by the time I reached retirement age, I wo uld have paid off the mortgage and could live off the rent … so that’s what I di d.

5) I realized quite early on that my state pension wasn’t going to be sufficient, so I

took out a private one when I was about 30. It works like a managed investme nt

fund – a mixture of blue-chip stocks – so I don’t really have much say in how t he money is invested. Unfortunately, like a lot of private pension schemes, it h asn’t really performed as predicted. I think the projected growth rate was betw een 8 and 12% and it’s grown at about 4.5%, which isn’t much above inflation. There are signs that the stock markets are doing a little better now, so I’m ho peful that in the long run I will have reasonable funds for my retirement. Would I advise anyone to do the same … with hindsight, probably not .

6.1 A contract to supply

B=Barbara P=Paul

B Paragon. Can I help you ?

P Hello, is that Barbara ?

B Yes, speaking.

P Hi, Barbara, this is Paul from A1 Flooring in London. I’m just calling to discu ss the extension of our contract for next year. Is this a good moment for you ?

B Yes, as good as any, I guess. Let me just get a pen and paper so I can mak e some notes … Ok, so where have we got to ?

P Well, first the good news. The Klik laminate flooring has been going really well here –you’ll probably have noticed that from the order book in the last six months or so. Customers really love it : the feedback we’ve had has been exc ellent.

B That’s great.

P It is good. I have to say, I’m not so surprised –it’s an excellent product, ver y high quality and the price reflects that of course. Which brings me on to my next point. Now, I’m not asking for better commission –we’re ok on that – but what would really help is more seasonal discounting from your end. What I me an is, reductions that we could pass straight on to our customers. Generally, w e run sales in January, spring and late summer and at the moment Paragon’s products are the only ones that don’t feature. I suppose you could say that giv es them a certain exclusivity in the eyes of the customer, but at the same time …

B I can see the logic of what you’re saying, and I’ve no doubt it would help s ales, but what you must understand is that it’s very difficult for us to have a pol icy with you that’s different from all our other customers. Let me think … what I could suggest is that we try and feed you more discounted stock when we ar e coming to the end of a particular product line. I can speak to the boss about that.

P Well, could you also mention to him the principle of seasonal discounts, be cause I think it would generate even more interest in the products.

B All right, I will … but I’m not too optimistic. Are there any other points ?

P Yes, there is one other problem, which is that when we place an order, it’s quite often the case that you don’t have exactly what we want in stock and yo u offer us a substitute instead. Let me give you an example: we want engineer ed wood flooring in a natural oak and you only have it in a stained oak. On the whole we try to be flexible, but it’s something which seems to be happening more and more – and what worries me.

B I do understand, Paul, and I apologise. It’s something which we are trying t o solve. But it’s not really a problem of our own making. It’s a result of shortag e in raw material and delays further up the supply chain. We do try to carry re serve stocks of all types of wood, but as you know it’s a sensitive product to tr

ansport and store and we often have to rely on what’s available from our supp liers at a given time. That’s just the nature of the product.

P Yes, I appreciate all that, but explaining it to our customers is another thin g.Often they’re just not prepared to wait and if they can’t get what they want e xactly when they want it, they’ll go elsewhere. In the end, that’s no good for eit her of us. Are you saying that the situation is unlikely to improve because if yo u are …

6.2 Telephone expressions

1) A Can I speak to Yan Lin, please?

B I’m sorry, the liner is engaged. Would you like to hold?

A No, that’s ok. I’ll call back later.

2) A I’m afraid Mr. Chiu is out of the office today.

B Ok. Can you take a message ?

A Of course. I’ll just get a pen and paper.

3) A Hello, Morris Industries.

B Can I have the sales department, please ?

A One moment. I’ll put you through.

4) A I’m afraid our computer are down at the moment.

B But I need the information by the end of today.

A Ok, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

B Thank you. I’d appreciate that.

5) A How can I help ?

B Can you ask Esther to bring her laptop with her ?

A Sure. I’ll make sure she gets the message.

B Thanks.

6) A I’m calling about Mr. Signelli. Is his bill for $3,000 or $3,500 ?

B One second. I’ll just check my records.

7) A Can I speak to Sarah, please ?

B Hang on. I’ll see if she’s back from lunch yet.

8) A So, it’s the Taj Mahal restaurant at 1 o’clock.

B Great. I’ll look forward to seeing you then.

7.1 Strengths and weaknesses

1) I admire my boss a lot. He’s very capable; he knows exactly what he’s doin

g and

he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, not like some managers who think they’r e

above it all. The one problem is that he takes on too much. I don’t think it’s be cause he doesn’t trust us to do a good job –it’s because he likes to be involve d in everything. He’s a bit of a control freak. The result is that he spreads hims elf very thin, when he could hand more work out to others, and he’s often over loaded and stressed.

2) Cheryl’s not particularly brilliant, but she knows that. She knows her own limitations, which is certainly one of her strengths. In fact, I don’t think you hav e

to be particularly bright to be a manager –that’s more a quality you need in a l eader. A manager’s job is to bring order to the workplace and the team, so tha t people are clear about what they should be doing and when they should be doing it. Cheryl is very good at getting everyone working in the most efficient way and that makes our working environment much less stressful.

3) He’s not an easy guy to work for. He has very high expectations of his staff and

he can be rude and too direct. Sensitivity is not his strong point. He often puts you on the spot : ‘What makes you think this will work? ‘ Have you thought ab out the cost of this? ‘ and so on. You have to be prepared to justify your action s a lot. Some people can’t stand being challenged like this all the time, but yo u can’t deny that he gets the most out of his staff. People do perform.

4) There are people who listen to what you are saying, and people who hear what you

are saying. Paul is one of the former. He does try to listen to other people’s id eas, but his mind has often moved onto the next thing, and he doesn’t take on board what you’re saying. It’s the same thing when he’s expressing his own i deas and wishes. He kind of takes it for granted that everyone has reached th e same point in their thinking that he has, when often they’re still two or three steps behind. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very nice guy – kind and clever, and he has lots of great ideas and vision for the company – but because of these c ommunication difficulties, he can be very frustrating to work for.

5) The financial rewards in our company are not so huge, but in spite of that, i n my

team we all stay very motivated because our boss really appreciates our work . She’s actually very protective of her own people. She gives us a lot of praise.

Other people in the company say she’s a maverick, a kind of a loner. They sa y she’s difficult to get on with and doesn’t really have the company’s interests at heart. But I wouldn’t know about that really, because it’s not the side of her t hat we see. What we get is 100% loyalty and encouragement.

8.1 Corporate social responsibility

I’d like to talk to you today about an approach to doing business that is fast ga ining popularity. It is the concept of Triple Bottom Line. We all know the term b ottom line and what it refers to, namely the financial profitability of the compan y. Triple Bottom Line, or 3BL as it is sometimes called, recognizes that there a re two other important factors in measuring a company’s success – social perf ormance and environmental performance. Put in a more friendly way 3BL is a bout ‘ People. Planet and Profits .‘ Nor are these things unconnected: the thre e legs are in fact strongly linked.

Why is this important ? In today’s global economy, the standards set by busi ness, and not by government, are more and more what affect people’s lives. T he environment, as we all know, is under unprecedented pressure. In many se ctors – transport, energy generation, production of chemicals and plastics – b usiness can play its part in reducing pollution, particularly CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. It can also take more responsibility for the full lifecycle of pro ducts – from manufacture to disposal.

In the area of social performance, business must consider the welfare of t heir employees and the communities in which they operate. In the pursuit of a better financial bottom line, companies will naturally look to reduce their labor costs. This may mean cutting jobs or wages or it may mean outsourcing work or relocating to a country where labor is cheaper. All too often the impact of th ese actions on the workforce is not taken properly into account.

One aspect of social responsibility – sponsorship of community projects –has already been taken up by companies on a wide scale. That is probably be cause companies have been quick to see the financial benefit of the good pub licity that comes from being involved in such helpful projects.

Does all this sound nice ? Of course it does, but it’s not enough to say you are going to follow a policy of corporate social responsibility : to make a differ ence companies have to ‘ walk the talk ‘. So how do you go about translating good intentions into concrete actions that will really make a difference ?

The first thing is to be attentive to the needs of all stakeholders. This mea ns that companies must recognize their responsibilities not only to their share holders, but also be committed to respecting their employees, their suppliers, t heir customers, and the local community and environment in which they opera te.

The second point is about audits and reporting. Companies already submi t their financial accounts for audit; they must also submit to social audits and e nvironmental impact audits. These must be reported to the outside world so th at everyone can see the results of their performance in the three key areas, th us tying companies to their promises. However, this means that companies ha ve to be honest and open about their actions and so expose themselves to pu blic criticism. It’s easy to advertise your successes to your customer; It’s not s o easy to publicise the level of pollution from your factory or, if you are a privat

e company, to disclose your financial results.