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Look at the statements below and at the extracts from five job advertisements on the opposite page.
Which advertisement (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement 1-8 refer to?
For each statement 1-8, mark one letter (A, B, C, D or E) on your answer sheet.
You will need to use some of these letters more than once.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example:
0 This company is offering a job only on a temporary basis.
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A
HEAD OF PRODUCTION
Success for this ￡40 million food production plant has come as a result of clear national market focus, coupled with quality products commanding premium prices. Demand continues to outstrip the ability to produce and new product lines have been enthusiastically received by the market place. To ensure that the business meets its demanding customer requirements in a well-controlled and professional fashion, a Head of Production is now needed to install good manufacturing practices and to ensure that the production staff are moulded more positively into a cohesive and responsive unit.
B
OPERATIONS MANAGER
We are a major stationery company. After years of impressive success in ground-breaking new products and customer relationship development, our present objective is to drive manufacturing processes higher up the agenda and we are now committed to manufacturing innovation. We wish, therefore, to appoint a Senior Operations Manager to impart the very latest in manufacturing development. Drive, enthusiasm and a passion for excellence are required, as is the ability to win a similar response from colleagues at all levels.
C
PROJECT MANAGER
We are seeking to appoint a Project Manager to work on a two-year contract with the fish processing industry. Applicants must have a degree in food science or a business discipline with a minimum of three years’ experience, preferably in the seafood industry, and must be able to demonstrate an understanding of the current issues facing the fish processing industry. Duties will include leading a small team of researchers, assessing the needs of client companies and providing them with support, primarily through the organisation of technical workshops.
D
MANAGING DIRECTOR
We are an international packaging and printing group and have ambitious plans for future expansion both through organic growth and by acquisition. We are now seeking a successor to our present Managing Director who is due to retire in three months’ time. The successful candidate will have to display technical competence in the industry and will have a demonstrable track record of managing a high-technology business. The new MD will be expected to build on our enviable blue-chip customer base through secure and profitable business-development activities.
E
HEAD OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
We are looking for someone with team management, database and process development skills to head our customer-service department. The person appointed will be responsible for managing operational delivery and performance. He or she will have to demonstrate experience in the management of fluctuating supply and demand situations. The company, a leader in the provision of services to businesses in the telecommunications sector, has a strong reputation for quality and speed of solution delivery. We are poised to implement an explosive growth plan and are targeted to treble in size within five years.
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Read this article about management buyouts.
Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.
For each gap (9-14), mark one letter (A-H) on your Answer Sheet.
Do not use any letter more than once.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
How to launch a management buyout (MBO)
The business you’re running has huge potential but the parent company doesn’t seem interested, and there are rumours that they are looking to sell. If ever there’s a time for you and your senior colleagues to mount a management buyout (that is, take over the company by purchasing its shares) it’s now. (0) .....H... That’s why it’s crucial to examine your motives carefully before doing anything.
According to Mark Perchetti, private equity partner at MYT Accountants, one motive for launching an MBO is to build some capital. 【P1】______.And this list is far from exhaustive. Before doing anything else, check the feasibility of a buyout. MBOs are invariably financed externally by borrowing money based on the company’s share value (a leveraged buyout). That’s why you will need to adopt strategies to sharply increase profits, by cutting costs or expanding, for example. This should enable you to significantly boost the value of the shares a few years down the line.
Approach the owners or parent company with your proposal and ask for permission before you disclose any confidential information to venture capitalists or banks. 【P2】______.And what you definitely don’t want is to find yourself out of a job just yet!
So, when should you act? Well, it may be easier to raise the capital when business is booming, but paying over the odds is one of the biggest risks you face. 【P3】______.In other words, be careful not to pay too much. Also be careful who you choose for your team: this will typically consist of a CEO and 3-4 directors, but larger deals may bring in lower tiers. There’s no room for sentiment. You may have someone who was fine as the accountant of an operating division, but who you then find is not up to being MD of an independent company. 【P4】______.To avoid this problem you should therefore consider bringing in external talent right from the start.
It’s best to keep a low profile until your MBO is pretty much signed and sealed. 【P5】______. This might also mean that your customers, employees and other stakeholders become nervous, especially if there’s a prolonged period of uncertainty. If there are key customers or suppliers whose ongoing commitment you require, wait until the last minute to talk to them. And remember, if your MBO fails, for whatever reason, you may find yourself working with the same colleagues and the current owners of the business. 【P6】______.So don’t burn your bridges just yet!
Example:[*]
A Other common reasons are where the business has become non-core to its parent, or where a private owner of a family business is retiring.
B If you are unfortunate enough to have to do this, they won’t thank you if you have criticised their abilities or commitment.
C If you buy at the peak of the market, you may find it difficult ever to make money.
D Financiers want you to put in enough that it would hurt you if you lost it, but not so much that you’d be constantly worrying about it.
E If your financiers come to the same conclusion, you may lose credibility.
F If your interest becomes more widely known, you risk starting an auction, in which case the price will go up.
G Otherwise you risk being turned down at a later stage - and getting your marching orders.
H But the stakes are high: get it wrong and you could bankrupt yourself.
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Read Stephen Overell’s review of a book by Frances Cairncross called The Insidious Tech Revolution, and the questions on the opposite page.
For each question (15-20), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.
First it revolutionised everything, then it changed nothing and now no one knows what to think. Predictions about how the communications revolution would transform management have followed a trajectory just as wild and erratic as high-technology stock prices. It is timely, then, to read a calm, temperate analysis arguing that we have underestimated the capacity of the internet to transform companies and businesses.
Despite the high expectations of the time, the dotcom business model was never likely to bequeath an enduring legacy of lightning growth and quick cash. Frances Cairncross’s contention is that now the frantic energy has been dissipated, the real revolutionary effect of that model on the structures, functions and activities of established businesses and markets can start to become clear Discerning it can be a subtle affair: The most widespread revolution in the workplace will come from the rise in collaboration and the decline of hierarchy,’ she writes.
Both of these, of course, were trends-in-progress before the widespread adoption of internet technology. But they are the areas where the change can now be perceived as most profound, precisely because developments in communications technology have worked with the grain of preexisting movements, accelerating what was already happening. In previous generations, communications flowed from the top of companies downwards. But as more firms began to strip out layers of hierarchy, the internet allowed the flatter corporate architecture and web-like structures of modern organisations to function efficiently. Multifunctional teams, the much-pampered child of 1990s management theory, would be so much trickier to run without the internet. In addition, the internet enables efficient outsourcing and management of external suppliers. Highly marketable workers now have a choice. They can work flexibly if they want to auction their skills to well-paying clients, and move on when they get restless. From a company perspective, the transformed feelings about work among desirable external personnel carry their own difficulties. Many companies are finding that squads of free agents can be difficult to manage and reward. Human resources directors in some sectors are having to behave like theatrical casting agents: they staff work, not jobs.
As Ms Cairncross suggests, new information technology leads to organisational change. Every aspect of running a company, whether building a brand (down to five years from 50), managing an ’ecosystem’ of suppliers, innovation, or leading and motivating senior executives, has undergone - and continues to undergo - a transformation. This is not always in predictable ways, though. Who would have guessed that the widespread adoption of email would mean that turning up in person would actually carry greater weight than before?
Predicting the managerial consequences of the communications revolution inevitably risks being a hostage to fortune, especially as the revolution is still in its infancy. The speed of innovation is enough to make most of us feel bewildered. The telephone was invented in the 1870s but it was not until the 1980s that the telephone banking industry took off. Dotcom companies went from boom to bust in just seven years, fragmenting old markets and creating new ones as they went. In such an atmosphere, fortune reading needs to be tempered by prudent vigilance.
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Read the article below about an attempt to buy part of a company.
Choose the correct word to fill each gap from A, B, C or D on the opposite page.
For each question (21-30), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Data International To Keep Wavertree
Data International, the heavily indebted book and music retailer, has shelved plans to sell its Wavertree book (0)______to Morris Media, after the two sides failed to come to an agreement on a price. Morris Media, which had been negotiating with Wavertree for over a year, had come forward with a 【C1】______ of close to ￡200 million for the business. Data International is thought to have wanted closer to ￡300 million. Disagreement arose over the level of working 【C2】______in the business, coupled with problems of the rising cost of bank debt needed to help 【C3】______the purchase.
It is believed that the directors of Data International backed away from the sale as Wavertree’s 【C4】______had begun to improve. Last year Wavertree 【C5】______profits of around ￡30 million before interest, tax and depreciation, on sales of around ￡400 million. Some observers believe that Data International is playing for time in the hope that Wavertree will 【C6】______from a hefty increase in sales in the key end-of-year period which may help 【C7】______ the price that the company can ask for Wavertree if talks resume some time in the new year.
A representative of Data International said, ’Sales at our music stores increased by 6% in the first quarter of the current financial year while Wavertree saw an increase of 9.5% over the same period. The company remains 【C8】______to Wavertree and the vote taken by the board to 【C9】______Wavertree for the foreseeable future was 【C10】______’
Example: A wing B chain C market D section
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Read the article below about the Importance of the office environment.
For each question (31-40), write one word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example: [*]
Beautiful is best
Is your office (0)______ attractive and comfortable place? Is it specifically designed to ensure that whatever stresses you encounter in the course of your work, your surroundings make life just that little bit 【B1】______ bearable? 【B2】______you greeted every morning by cut flowers, the smell of freshly-brewed coffee and a colour scheme that 【B3】______easy on the eye? Or do you have to settle for a desk covered with the pen marks of numerous former employees and a stationery cupboard that can be opened only with a pickaxe?
If the second scenario sounds more familiar, you are by 【B4】______means alone.A recent survey found that 38% of employees feel the interior design of the office they work in prevents them from performing 【B5】______the best of their abilities.
Many employers refuse to entertain the thought of improving and updating their offices 【B6】______of the costs involved. In the long run, however, it might be unwise to be too tight-fisted 【B7】______it comes to employees’ comfort. The working environment 【B8】______a direct effect on productivity, and 78% of bosses 【B9】______ responded to the survey agreed that a pleasant office is a major influence in attracting and retaining good-quality workers. Employees under-performance can not only spell financial loss: 【B10】______also fuels personal frustration when the employee feels unfulfilled. And it’s highly likely that the dissatisfied secretary will look to greener pastures - or cleaner offices.
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Read the text below about teamworking.
In most of the lines (41-52), there is one extra word. It is either grammatically incorrect or does not fit in with the meaning of the text. Some lines, however, are correct.
If a line is correct, write CORRECT on your Answer Sheet.
If there is an extra word in the line, write the extra word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
The exercise begins with two examples (0 and 00).
Examples:[*]
Supporting the weakest link in your team
0 A good, well-balanced work team is like a family in the sense that of its
00 individual members couldn’t manage without each other. As long as each
【M1】______person does what is expected of them and plays their part to the best way of
【M2】______their ability, and the cogs keep turning smoothly. Everyone has off-days,
【M3】______when the simplest tasks seem impossible, you can’t concentrate on or be
【M4】______bothered. But it’s when a colleague’s some off-days turn into off-weeks, then
【M5】______off-months, that warning bells will start to sound. High-performance teams
【M6】______have clear standards of what there is acceptable behaviour. If the rest of
【M7】______the team perceives so that one person isn’t pulling their weight or is being
【M8】______incompetent, it affects everyone. You should need to find out the reason for
【M9】______your colleague’s exact non-performance. If someone has suddenly stopped
【M10】______performing, become withdrawn or is lacking in motivation, it could be due to a
【M11】______personal problem. Then again, as their ineptitude could be down to lack of
【M12】______experience or confidence. Encourage them to take up full advantage of training and other schemes designed to help them.
