3 Business English Oral Examination Case study Bonhomme Bonhomme is a Chinese company based in Shanghai. It exports over 70 per cent of its production, some of its profitable markets being in non- Chinese speaking countries. It was recently taken over by the Brant Corporation, a US multinational. Soon after the takeover, Brant’s President Carlson J. Overend held a meeting with thirty senior executives of Bonhomme. During the meeting, Mr. Overend told these senior executives that there would be some changes after the takeover, in organization, personnel and products. He thought this piece of news would make them sit up, but there was no reaction! And then, to his astonishment, Mr. Overend found out that these people had no response because they even did not understand a word of what he had said just now. He realized that it would be a big problem if his people did not know English. He told the President of Bonhomme, Michael Chen, that he wanted an English languagetraining programme put into effect without delay. John Wang, the Personnel Manager of Bonhomme, was then instructed to produce a report defining which groups in the company needed English language training and how urgent that need was. One week later he had finished the report “English language proficiency in the Bonhomme company”. This first report included only head office personnel that would use English for various purposes in the normal course of their duties. It showed that altogether 134 are weak in English. The chart below shows the estimated training needs for these people: TRAINING Numbers who are weak or average in the three categories Essential and urgently needed 52 Essential and needed as soon as possible 72 Desirable when convenient 10 Once the report had been circulated John Wang received a memo from M. Chen in which two points were made: 1. Brant will finance the training scheme for one year. Results will then be reviewed. And the training should be cost effective. 2. Promising junior executives may well be promoted to important positions in Brant Corporation at some future date. Wang decided to gather information about the training programmes available and to present them for discussion at a meeting with the President of Bonhomme and two other head office managers. At the meeting four possible approaches to the problem are discussed. . Meeting – instructions At the meeting each of you is for one of the possible approaches described below. You enact the meeting in the examination room and should conclude with a decision on which approach you will choose. You should also be prepared to answer questions from the examiners in connection with your meeting. You may bring this task paper and notes taken during preparation into the examination room. June 2002 1 Business English Oral Examination 3 Four different approaches Michael Chen, President You suggest that Bonhomme should use the services of the New Horizon Study Center, an independent language school whose premises are about two kilometres from Bonhomme’s office. Established two years ago, the school is run by an American who has constantly been sending publicity material to John Wang. It runs specialist English courses. The Director has offered tailor-made, full- or part-time courses for Bonhomme staff at his school. These courses will be fairly expensive. The school at present has no language laboratory. John Wang, the Personnel Manager You yourself feel that the company could start in a modest fashion by appointing a full- time English language instructor/administrator. This person would be empowered to hire other parttime teachers when necessary. The courses would be given on the company’s premises, although there might be a few problems finding suitable rooms, and they would be developed slowly and steadily. Personnel urgently needing training would be given priority on the courses that were set up. Tom Li, Sales Manager You are in favour of an offer made by a representative of a Swedish company some days before. His company sells ultra-modern language laboratories and complete audio-visual courses for self-tuition. You argue that Bonhomme are going to need these one day, so the company might as well invest in them now. The representative also claims that the courses have been successful in other Asian countries. The sophisticated package he offers, which includes the installation of a language laboratory, is expensive, but seems good value for money. Ada Zhang, Training Manager You have a different approach to the problem. You have visited the Shanghai office of the British International Advisory Council and talked to the English Language Training Adviser there. He convinced you that since Brant considers English language training to be a top priority, Bonhomme should do things properly and send staff on short, intensive courses to an Englishspeaking country – preferably Britain. The British Council would offer advice on suitable courses and provide a number of contacts. June 2002 2