Английский язык. Практический курс для решения бизнес-задач - Пусенкова Нина - Страница 23

Many markets have moved from being competitive markets to becoming hypercompetitive markets. In a competitive market, a company can usually sustain its market position and competitive advantage. In a hypercompetitive market, there is hardly any sustainable competitive advantage. Rapid technological change and globalization can destroy competitive advantages overnight. The only hope is to practice continuous improvement – some even say continuous breakthroughs. When Jack Welch was CEO of General Electric, he told his people: «Change or die!» Perhaps the only advantage a company can have is an ability to change faster than its competitors.

Companies, of course, should study other companies that have mastered certain processes, whether those be product development, customer retention, or order fulfillment. Benchmarking, however, has two forms: passive, in which one company copies the practices of another; and creative, in which one company copies and improves on a process seen at another company. Creative benchmarking is about bettering the best, not just copying the best.

– You write that the customer has become the hunter. What impact does that have on marketing strategies?

Customers now have the power. With the advent of the Internet, they have great amounts of information about brands, prices, product quality, features, and service at their disposal. This is in contrast to the past, when information was largely in the hands of the sellers and the cost of acquiring information was high for the buyers. Today the buyer of a car goes on the Internet, searches for product and price information, and comes armed with the facts to wrest a good price from the seller. The sellers who have the best chance to survive and prosper are those who have found ways, in the words of Jack Welch, to «keep giving the customers more for less… while maintaining a profit.»

– How can a company survive in an environment where the markets are changing faster than the marketing?

Not all companies can survive! This is evidenced by the high rate of bankruptcy and the rapid increase in M&As. When there is too much capacity, mergers help to rationalize that capacity. The companies that will do well will be those that can create and deliver the most value to customers. The task is to assess the trajectory of customer wants accurately.

Source: www.amanet.org, 2005

Essential Vocabulary

1. globalisation n – глобализация

2. site n – место, местонахождение; производственная или строительная площадка

3. trend n – тренд, тенденция

4. preferential terms – предпочтительные, наиболее благоприятные условия

5. retention n – удержание, сохранение, задержание

retain v – нанимать, удерживать, сохранять

retained a – удержанный, сохраненный; нераспределенный (о прибыли)

6. transaction (trans) n – сделка, операция

7. mediator n – посредник, ходатай

mediation n – посредничество, ходатайство, вмешательство с целью примирения

mediate v – посредничать, ходатайствовать

8. scenario n – сценарий

9. implication n – последствие; вовлечение; причастность; значение

implicate v – впутывать, вовлекать, подразумевать

10. expenditure n – расходы, затраты, расходная часть бюджета, статья расхода

expend v – тратить, расходовать, затрачивать

expendable a – потребляемый, расходуемый; невозвратимый, одноразового применения

11. tool n – инструмент

12. sales force – сбытовики

13. set n – комплект, набор, коллекция, серия, ряд, состав; компания, круг, партия; множество; строение, конфигурация; тенденция

set v – ставить, помещать, поставить; располагаться; сажать, надевать, вставлять; направлять, приготавливать, устанавливать, определять, назначать, ставить (задачу), подавать (пример), вводить, внедрять (модель)

14. facilitator n – способствующее (сделке) лицо

facilitate v – способствовать, облегчать (в некот. контекстах давать взятку)

15. measure n – мера, система измерений, единица измерения, мерка; мероприятие

measure v – измерять, мерить, отмерять, оценивать

16. metric n – мерило, измеритель

metric a – метрический

17. campaign n – кампания

18. prospect n – вид; потенциальный клиент; перспектива, будущее

prospecting n – поисковые работы (горн.)

prospect v – исследовать, разведывать, искать (клиентов, полезные ископаемые)

prospective а – будущий, предполагаемый, ожидаемый

19. retailer n – розничный торговец

retail a – розничный

20. capacity n – производственная мощность, способность, потенциал, функция

21. overcapacity n – переизбыток производственных мощностей

22. scarcity n – нехватка, недостаток, дефицит

scarce a – дефицитный, редкий (ресурс)

23. merger n – слияние

merge v – сливаться

24. benchmarking n – бенчмаркинг

25. mergers and acquisitions (M&A) – слияния и поглощения

Exercise 1*. Which of the following statements are not correct and why?

1. Globalization means that companies will bring products into a country at prices higher than those charged by the domestic sellers. 2. Hypercompetition means that there are less suppliers competing for the same customer, leading to price hikes. 3. The Internet means that people can compare prices more quickly and move to the lowest-cost offer. 4. Various world regions are becoming less integrated and less protective. 5. In the fast-changing world, it is useless to identify trends and speculate about their implications for the company. 6. Nowadays, marketing departments need a whole new set of skills. 7. Marketers need to think about profitably when selling a product or a service. 8. Marketing has been lax in developing marketing metrics to show what particular expenditures and campaigns have achieved. 9. The Japanese threat to the US companies meant competing with Japanese companies that were able to offer similar products at lower costs. 10. Today, both customers and products are scarce. 11. In a hypercompetitive market, there is hardly any sustainable competitive advantage. 12. In the past, information was largely in the hands of the sellers and the cost of acquiring information was high for the buyers.

Exercise 2*. Philip Kotler names different types of marketing. Find 19 categories of marketing in the text and explain what they mean.

Exercise 3*. Fill in the blanks using terms given below.

Benchmarking

Benchmark refers to a…… of best practice…….. Benchmarking refers to the search for the best practice that yields the benchmark performance, with emphasis on how you can……. the process to achieve…….. results.

Benchmarking is a process used in management and particularly……, in which companies……. various aspects of their business processes in relation to best practice, usually within their own…… This then allows companies to…… plans on how to…… such best practice. Benchmarking may be a…… event, but is often treated as a continuous process in which companies continually seek to…… their practices.