第一章Setting up a Business

In this module, we will learn the basics and essentials of running a business in the modern world, including commonly used types of business ownership, different forms of business organizational structures and their advantages and disadvantages, frequently used financing instruments by the business to raise money in the capital market, essential factors of production, ways of transforming factors of production into outputs efficiently under different economic systems, as well as related business words and terms.

●1.1Forms of Business

When creating or restructuring a business, the legal responsibilities will depend on the type of business entity chosen. There are many types of business entities defined in the legal systems of various countries, among which the most common types include sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, cooperative. Each type of business entity has its merits and defects, which may bring in benefits and risks to the owner(s). In this lecture, we will probe into different types of business entities, their merits and defects, and decide which kind of structure will best suit your needs when running a business.

●1.2Organizational Structure

In business, when producing products or service involves more than one person, organizational structure comes into play. Organizational structure is usually defined as a system, which decides how information flows between different levels of the business, and how activities are directed to achieve aims of the business. In this lecture, we will learn the five elements of organizational structure, including departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, work specialization and formalization, and four basic types of organizational structure, including functional structure, divisional structure, matrix structure and flat structure.

●1.3Corporate Financing

The primary goal of corporate financing is to figure out how to maximize a company’s value by making good decisions about investment. In other words, how should businesses allocate scarce resources to minimize expenses and maximize revenues? How should companies acquire these resources through stocks or bonds, owner capitals or bank loans? In this lecture, we will probe into the definiton of corporate financing, major types of financing, including debt financing and equity financing, as well as advantages and disadvantages of different types of financing instruments.

●1.4Production

The economy’s ability to build cars, generate electricity, write computer programs, and deliver the multitude of goods and services that are in our gross domestic product depends upon our productive capacity. Production, as a fundamental business activity, is transforming factors of production into products or services. Production capacity is determined by the land, size and quality of the labor force, quantity and quality of the capital stock, by the nation’s entrepreneurship, technical knowledge along with the ability to use that knowledge, and by the nature of public and private institutions. In this lecture, we will probe into essential concepts of production, production factors, as well as how companies transform inputs into desirable outputs efficiently in different economic systems.

第二章Employment

In this module, we will learn ways of talking hiring and firing, the basic recruitment process, the most important documents for a new job including cover letter and resume, and finally, how to prepare a job interview. In order to have a better understanding of the recruitment process, we analyze various aspects of hiring cost. In terms of firing, the rules of termination are provided. Finding a new job entails a lot of work, so this module gives you the different channels to obtain the job opportunities, especially for the college graduates. With the source of information, you need to prove yourself through cover letter and resume that you are the best fit for the job. once you line up the interview, the preparation work would give you confidence to face the questions raised by the interviewers and receive the great news.

●2.1Hiring and Firing

Getting to know the different expressions helps us talk about hiring and firing in different scenarios. With the words combination, the recruitment process can be clearly presented, which gives the overview of the whole picture. In order to have a better understanding of the recruitment process, we analyze various aspects of hiring cost. In terms of firing, the rules of termination are provided. There are three be rules including be honest, be compassionate and be quick. However, as the person who is responsible laying off staff, the anger, disappointments, the threaten should be avoided. Making promises is the another unwise move to make.

●2.2Finding a Job

Finding a new job entails a lot of work, so this part gives you the different channels to obtain the information about job opportunities, especially for the college graduates, including networking as the social media, close friends referrals, job boards and career websites, attending job fairs, keeping an eye on some company websites, even making cold calls. Of course the headhunter is famous for find professionals for important jobs, temping, voluntary jobs and internships usually are very helpful for college graduates.

●2.3Cover Letter and Resume

With the source of information, you need to prove yourself through cover letter and resume that you are the best fit for the job. The cover letter acts as an introduction written by the candidate to express their interest in the position and what makes them the best fit for the job. On the other hand, the resume offers a glimpse into the professional and academic experience of a potential employee. This part shows common mistakes people make in writing cover letters. Together with the layout and style, the comparison between cover letter and resume becomes evident. The sample can be download if you want to learn from it.

●2.4Job Interview

Once you line up the interview, the preparation work would give you confidence to face the questions raised by the interviewers and receive the great news. Starting from the vocabulary helping you to describe your personalities, job interview can be taken into three stages, before, during and after. The preparation stage entails your dress, the business etiquette, company research, practicing the Q & A, printing out the documents you need, and writing a 30-second elevator pitch in case that you don’t have enough time to present yourself fully. During the interview, the communication skills demonstrate your personal qualities through your gesture, eye contact, and the language you use. After the interview, don’t forget to express your gratitude for the time and opportunities before you get any results.

第三章Brands

In this module, we will learn the basics and essentials of branding, including the origin of brands, the definition and importance of brands and branding as well as some vocabularies about branding. In addition, we will get to know how to carry out branding and learn four branding strategies. In the end of this chapter, we are going to talk about how to apply the branding strategies by discussing a case and introduce two business analytical models— SWOT analysis and 4Ps.

●3.1Introducing Brands

Brand is a kind of identification mark, a spiritual symbol and a kind idea to express values for an enterprise. It is the core embodiment of excellent quality carried by products. The process of cultivating and creating a brand is also a process of constant innovation. With the power of innovation, the company can remain invincible in the fierce competition, then consolidate the original brand assets, and participate in the competition from multiple levels, multiple angles and multiple fields. So brand is the intangible resource of an enterprise and the guarantee of quality and reputation. In this lecture, we will get to know something about brands, including the origin, the definition and the importance of brands.

●3.2Introducing Branding

Branding is an activity to give an answer to the question how a company make its brand known to the public. Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. It concerns a brand as a promise to its customer. It tells them what they can expect from a company’s products and services, and also it differentiates the offering of a company from its competitors'. For a company, a brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. But what exactly does "branding" mean? How does it affect a business? In this lecture, first, we will talk about what branding is, and then we try to get the importance of branding and finally we learn some vocabularies about branding.

●3.3Branding Strategy

A branding strategy is about how, what, where, when and to whom a company plan on communicating and delivering on its brand messages. An effective branding strategy is crucial for products and services sold in huge consumer markets. For a company, it provides a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. Successful branding strategies can help a company to stand out form its peer competition. In this lecture, we are going to explore branding strategy. We will get to know how to carry out branding strategy and have a systematic study on four branding strategies by giving examples.

●3.4A Branding Case: Caferoma

Branding strategy is a series of management and marketing methods conducted by enterprises that can generate the value accumulation for its brands. In the previous lectures, we have learned about some basic concepts including brands and branding. We have talked about four branding strategies. In this lecture, we are going to have a further study about how branding strategies can be used through an authentic case. Specifically, we will first discuss a branding case: Caferoma, then by talking about the solutions, we will get to learn about two other business analytical models— SWOT and 4Ps. In the end, we will explore the solutions by applying the branding strategies to the case.

第四章Advertising

In this module, we will explore advertising from business perspective. The module mainly introduces basics of advertising and major types of advertising media. And then there will be introduction of the theory of advertising, including Hierarchy-of-effects models and Marketing mix. The latter, proposed by professor Jerome McCarthy in the 1960s, is made of four basic elements, that is “four Ps”. Moreover, after acquiring basics of online advertising, there will be listening. Oral practice is the last part assigning students’ the tasks of holding Ads Maker Contest and showing representative works of the Ads video.

●4.1Introducing Advertising

This section is to explore advertising from business perspective. Advertising is important when the seller is marketing his products. We will mainly focus on advertising and major types of advertising media. The ads that can be popular in the world because they enjoy the following strong points: faith or emotion-inspiring, creative, high-technological, fresh, fashionable, effective etc. Major types of advertising media includes Internet, TV, newspaper, radio, direct mail, magazine, outdoor billboards and others. According to their needs, the seller can select the proper type of advertising.

●4.2Marketing and Advertising

Hierarchy of effects is to provide theory to advertising practice. The model of Clow and Baack clarifies the objectives of an advertising campaign. There are six steps a customer will move when they are shopping. Marketing mix was proposed by professor Jerome McCarthy in the 1960s. It is made of four basic elements, that is “four Ps”. First P is Product referring to the actual product. Price stands for the process of deciding the value of a product. Promotion means promoting products in the target market and persuading people into buying the products. Place refers to the variables of getting the product to the consumer such as distribution channels, market coverage and movement organization.

●4.3Online Advertising

Online advertising is the most popular one among many media and it will change the whole business style. In this section, there will be introduction of basics of online advertising. Online Advertising includes mobile advertising, web banner advertising, social media marketing, search engine marketing, email marketing etc. In the listening script, a speaker is running a web-business and giving a presentation to a group of marketing managers. It is required to listen to it and make clear how to successfully advertise on the Internet and note down the key words and phrases. The proper online advertising will help market the products and improve the sales.

●4.4Advertising Maker Contest

On the basis of acquisition of the fundamentals of advertising and online advertising techniques, in this section, students will go on oral practice and do the group work. There will be the introduction of the procedure of holding Ads Maker Contest, standards for Ads works, prizes for the excellent Ads. Moreover, the teacher will show some representative works of the Ads videos and inspire students to make their own works. Students are required to make an English Ads video in two weeks. They will also get ready for the organization of the awarding ceremony of Ads Maker Contest and demonstrate their Ads videos in the ceremony.

第五章Marketing

In this module, we will first learn the conception and framework of marketing, which is followed by marketing Mix and marketing Research. We then will know how to differentiate the marketing and sales from their concepts, content, and foci. In addition, we will study how to describe the trend of sales, which includes such two sentence patterns as noun pattern and verb pattern. We end with six principles of persuasion. They are reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus.

●5.1Introduction of marketing

As for the marketing, it is much more extensive than we thought. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, services and idea to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. There are two layers of meaning in the concept. First, it is about goods or services. Second, its aim is to satisfy consumers’ desire. In this lesson, we will illustrate marketing with Marketing Concept, Marketing Mix, and Marketing Research.

●5.2Marketing and sales

This lesson, we try to clarify the difference between marketing and sales. First, we will learn the concepts of them. Then, we will introduce the main content of them. Last, we will try to talk about the foci of them. The most important part is the content of marketing. They are products or services, pricing, place, and promotion. As for the products of services, they mean producing a product or services with the appropriate features and quality customers want. Therefore, the products and service here are not arbitrary made, but made with proper features and high qualities which could satisfy the needs of consumers. Pricing means pricing the product or service correctly. We could not price the products at our will, but following the change of the markets, which is decided by the needs of consumers. The next one is the place, which means choosing a right place with appropriate channels to sell products.

●5.3Sales trend

We will learn the vocabulary and sentence patterns of describing trends today, which is followed by a task of describing a bar graph using the vocabulary and sentence patterns we just learned. Second, by adding descriptive words before the nouns or after the verbs, we will further learn the way to depict the range of change trends, the point of this round is that we need to match the sentence pattern, basic trend words and descriptive words effectively. Last, there will be a comprehensive task to request students to finish describing a line graph on stock price, which includes the specific range of the developing trends.

●5.4Persuasion in sales

Today, we will learn six persuasion principles, which include reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus. Reciprocity is to give back to others the form of a behavior, gift, or service that you have received first. However, if you are a salesperson who wants to sell your products to your customers, the point of reciprocity is that you should be the first one to give, but not to receive. The second one is scarcity, which means people want more of things they can’t easily have. The third one is authority, which means that people choose to follow knowledgeable experts or people with credibility. Authority isn’t born with, but can be improved by such proofs as diploma, certificates and others’ introduction. The forth one is consistency. It means that people are willing to do things they have said or done, or believe others by what they always say or do. The fifth one is liking, which means that people prefer to say yes to someone they like.

第六章Business Culture

In this module, we will learn the basics and essentials of business culture including an introduction to intercultural business communication (IBC) and intercultural business communication competence (IBCC), similarities and differences between verbal and nonverbal communication, nonverbal communication types, the role business etiquette and protocol play in the process of globalization, cultural differences in business initiating phase such as naming system and business card exchange, corporate culture components and influential factors, as well as culture related words and terms.

●6.1Introducing Intercultural Business Communication

With China's increasing integration into the world's economic system, we are witnessing more and more international business dealings taking place in multicultural contexts. Intercultural Business Communication (IBC) as a subject of study as well as a research area is emerging alongside with this huge market demand and developing with unprecedented speed.To better understand business communication, in this lecture, we will introduce the history , the motivation,the definition of communication, and the definitions of business communication, intercultural communication(IC), intercultural business communication(IBC), and the cultural factors influencing intercultural communication, and importance of intercultural business communication competence(IBCC) have been given as well.

●6.2Understanding Non-verbal Communication

Researchers have shown that the words a person speaks may be far less important than the body language used when delivering the verbal message.What do we mean by nonverbal communication? Are “nonverbal”means mostly universal or culture-specific? In this lecture ,we will introduce what nonverbal communication is ,in terms of its definition,importance,function,characteristics,and categories,etc. like the similarities and differences between verbal and nonverbal communication, body language, para-languages, spatial language and temporal language.

●6.3Etiquette and Protocol

In business transactions, it is the details that make success. The details can include any trifling behaviors, such as eye contact, hand shaking and body posture. Interacting in our own culture has been learned from birth and is quite natural for us. Going global causes one to focus more on the intricate details of business interactions. Thus, appropriate etiquette, custom showing and protocol counts a lot in intercultural business communication. In this lecture, we will study why, what and how these details are important in intercultural business communication.

●6.4Corporate Culture

Intercultural business communication may mean sending and receiving messages between two entirely different corporate cultures. Corporate culture incorporates an organization’s values, its norms of behavior, its policies and its procedures. It is an essential component in any business’s ultimate success and failure. To gain a better understanding of how corporate cultures affect intercultural business communication, in this lecture, we will study the foundation and components of corporate culture, how it relates to the national culture, as well as some great corporate culture examples.

第七章Access to World Market

In this module, we will learn ways, principles and strategies by the international company to enter global market and engage in global market competition, including basic procedures and principles of conducting international business negotiations, frequently used strategies by international companies to market their products or service in global market, business models and economic impacts of international companies, basics and components of the international trade, balance of the international trade, as well as trade related words and terms.

●7.1International Business Negotiation

Nowadays companies of all size are increasingly competing in the global market to seek growth and maintain their competitive edge. This trend has forced managers and executives to negotiate business deals in the multicultural environment. The frequency of international business negotiation has been increasing rapidly in past two decades. And for many business people and organizations international business negotiations with various levels and types have become a norm or a routine job. In this lecture, we will study what is international business negotiation, major steps involved in international business negotiation, including enquiry, offer, counter-offer and acceptance, as well as basic principles of international business negotiation.

●7.2Access to World Market

International strategy is the continuous and comprehensive management technique, designed to help companies operate and compete effectively across national boundaries. Some rudimentary aspects of international strategies mirror domestic strategies in that companies must determine what products or services to sell, where and how to sell them, where and how they will produce or provide them, and how they will compete with other companies in the industry in accordance with company goals. The development of international strategies entails attention to other details that seldom, if ever, come into play in the domestic market. These other areas of concern stem from cultural, geographic, and political differences. In this lecture, we will focus on the commonly used strategies by international companies to market their products or service in the global market.

●7.3Multinational Corporations

A typical multinational corporation usually functions with headquarters in one country, while other facilities are based in other countries. Multinational corporations have been developing very fast with the government support in ways of low tax rates, convenient financial transfers, etc. Right now, multinational corporations is maintaining a significant global presence, and a massive trade presence in the world market. In this lecture, we will study what are the multinational corporations, business models of multinational corporations, positive and negative impacts made by the multinational corporations, as well as development of multinational corporations both at home and abroad.

●7.4International Trade

International trade refers to the exchange of products, service, as well as capitals across international borders or territories. In most countries, international trade contributes to a significant share of their gross domestic product. While international trade has been present throughout much of the history, its economic, social and political importance has been on the rise in recent centuries. It is the presumption of international trade that a sufficient level of geopolitical peace and stability are prevailing in order to allow for the peaceful exchange of trade and commerce to take place between nations. In this lecture, we will be studying the basics and components of international trade, balance of international trade, as well as related international trade words and terms.

第八章Writing Business Letters

If you can’t produce well-written business communications, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve business success. No matter what your industry, no matter what your job, no matter what other business abilities are required to succeed in your career, you must be able to get your points across clearly and persuasively in writing. Therefore, in this module, business writing course will set out an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand system guaranteed to help you write business English well.

●8.1Formats of Business English Letters Writing

Business letter formats refers to the way in which you print a letter——where you indent and where you place certain kinds of information. Actually several letter formats exist. But two of the most frequently used business letter formats are full block and modified block. This section aims to get you familiar with these formats.

●8.2Types of Business English letters

Globally speaking, business letters can be various. Different types of business letters depend on the different conditions. This section mainly introduces three common types of business correspondence that you will be expected to write on the job.

●8.3Writing a Report

It is a good idea to write a Job Application even if you are not actually applying for another job. It helps you see the milestones you have achieved and the personal attributes you have enhanced. It also helps you see yourself as a brand. According to this section, you are more likely to get chances of getting good job you desire.

●8.4Writing a Job Application

Reports are critical business documents for presenting information and findings, or for proposing action and strategy. However, reports can also be long and complex. This section will provide you some guidelines for structuring and language to make the writing process easier and quicker.

第九章Business Correspondences in Foreign Trade

In this module, we will learn the basics and essentials for English correspondences used in foreign trade, including general introduction on the principles and writing styles of business correspondences, popular layouts and formats used in business letters. Four common types of English correspondences used in foreign trade are also introduced in this module: inquiries and quotations; offers and counter-offers.

●9.1Principles and Writing Styles

Correspondence, generally, it means any written or digital communication exchanged by two or more parties. The Correspondences may come in the form of letters, emails, text messages, voice mails, notes or postcards. Nowadays the correspondences become more and more popular, specifically in foreign trade, definitely a high-quality correspondence always brings good effects and outcomes, how to write effectively and achieve the sender’s purposes is required for business communications in foreign trade. In this lecture, we will learn 7 core principles used for business correspondences in foreign trade, accordingly, bring to today, very casual, conversational and confident writing styles.

●9.2Layouts and Formats

The first impression a business letter makes on its reader often determines whether that the letters will actually be read, and it may also determine the reader’s reaction to the contents of the letters. Business letter writer must be able to communicate their thoughts in an efficient and appropriate way. In this lecture, we will introduce traditional layouts of business letters, ten basic elements will be explained in detail. Also we will introduce four business letter formats and styles in this lecture.

●9.3Inquiries and Quotations

Business negotiation in foreign trade usually begins with an inquiry on the terms of a sale. An inquiry is made by a buyer to a seller to seek a supply of products, services or information. The more complete and clear the inquiry is, the more satisfactory the answer will be. In this lecture, we will introduce two broad categories of inquiries and quotations, which are the two common types of business correspondences in foreign trade.

●9.4Offers and Counter-offers

An offer is the expression of the wishes of a seller to sell particular goods under stated terms (including the quality, the price, the time of shipment, the terms of payment etc.). A good offer conducted by the exporters will be a good start of reaching a good business in the future. In most cases, the exporters need to take the initiative to make an offer to find potential customers and trading opportunities in the future in international trade. In this lecture, we will focus on the introduction of firm offers and counter-offers, another two common types of business correspondences used in foreign trade.