📘 Part 3: Businesses

This episode's vocabulary

Get off the ground (idiom) - to start.

Organization (noun) - the way in which something is done or arranged.

Well-organized (adj.) - working in an effective and successful way because of good organization.

Vision (noun) - an idea or mental image of something.

Resilience (noun) - the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened.

Widespread (adj.) - existing or happening in many places and/or among many people.

Financial freedom (noun) - having enough savings.

Muddy the waters (idiom) - to make a situation more confused and less easy to understand or deal with.

Be responsible for sb/sth/doing sth - to have control and authority over something or someone and the duty of taking care of it, him, or her.

Trait (noun) - a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behaviour.

Autonomy (noun) - the ability to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else.

Finances (plural noun) - the money that a person or company has.

Megacorporation (noun) - a large company or group of companies that is controlled together as a single organization.

-

Questions and Answers

M: What do you think are the key factors that contribute to the success of a business?

R: Probably the right people, relationships and systems in the right place at the right time. And all that is based on being able to use information in a way that benefits the company to the maximum extent possible. So for example, I doubt Virgin would have gotten off the ground without Richard Branson's unique connections and opportunities.

M: What kinds of qualities do people need to run their own business?

R: He-he-he, quality. Initially, I wanted to say that it comes down to organization and managing information. But really, it's probably about having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and your strengths and weaknesses, and how to compensate for the latter while maximizing the former, you could be the most well-organized person in the world. But without a vision, you're probably better suited to administrative work and positions.

M: What skills are important for success in business?

R: Well, I think that will depend entirely on what part of business you work in, wouldn't it? If it's administration, then like I said, you should be organized. If it's more about marketing, then creativity and up to date knowledge of the market or how to sell things will be important.

M: But what about personal skills?

R: Well, being organized is a personal skill. But so is resilience, being able to cooperate with others if it's a large company, for example. So all of this is context-dependent, though.

M: What kinds of businesses are popular in your country?

R: I'm not sure if it's tremendously different from elsewhere, if I'm honest, everyone needs to get food. So supermarkets and suppliers are necessary and widespread. The same is true for clothes and clothing outlets, those would be the areas they cater to but if we talk about other ways of categorizing companies, we could talk about small, medium and large companies. But the vast majority of those are on the small side of things that's not much different from anywhere else. Maybe there are more souvenir shops for Scottish goods. But it's not a major shift to what's true for everywhere else as well, except for the fact that would be connected to the country they're in.

M: Will the businessman continue to work hard after he has succeeded?

R: I suppose that comes down to how one defines success and how ambitious one is. Some people are quite fixed in terms of setting the goals and sticking to them, while others are more flexible. And once they reached a certain point, they might change their minds and be happy to settle for what they've got.

M: But do you think most business people stop trying or stop working hard after they've achieved success? Or for example, like if we take like Google or Facebook, or they keep going?

R: I don't know is the honest answer to that question. If we talk about large companies, with founders who have a really ambitious vision for what they want to achieve, then probably they would keep going. But if they're just someone like starting a family business, and maybe they don't want to take over the world, then they probably just settle for what they have.

M: Why do some people set up their own business?

R: I imagine they wish for a certain degree of greater financial freedom. They have an idea that they could make out a lot of money, or they would prefer to work for themselves. It could even be a combination of all three now that I think about it.

M: What are the differences between being a boss and working for others?

R: Well, if you're the boss, then there's a clear line of communication and control, and you know who is responsible. On the other hand, it could be quite pressuring. By contrast, if you work for others, then you might be more comfortable giving up power, but if there are lots of people then it might muddy the waters in terms of who's responsible for what.

M: Would you agree that not everybody can be their own boss?

R: Yeah, some people are absolutely hopeless at making decisions or they don't have the right Ideas are the right character traits. So that's fine.

M: Is it better to have your own business, or work for a boss?

R: Well, better for whom? Some people are quite comfortable giving up a degree of autonomy for the security of not having to take responsibility for everything, or anything. And others might want more control or freedom over their finances and actions. So that will come down to a person's character or personality rather than something that could be said to be universally right or wrong.

M: Do you think that in the future, we'll have more businesses, and more people will set up their own businesses?

R: Oh, I think that's probably impossible to say. I'd like to think that more people will set up their own businesses, because the technology that we have, allows that to be done more easily than before. But I can see lots of things happening that might prevent that, like the rise of, sort of megacorporations that might just flood the market with cheap goods that push smaller people out.

M: Thank you very for your answers! This is the end of the speaking test!

R: Hooray!

M: We can go wild and crazy!

-