streda 22. augusta 2007

The three sectors of the economy

An economic sector is a certain type of business activity within an economy. Economics is part of the social structure of a society and is concerned with how people produce and consume goods and services. What types of goods and services are produced and consumed in a society depend on geography and social customs. The three major economic sectors are: primary, secondary and tertiary.
The primary sector
includes obtaining and refining raw materials such as wood, steel and coal. Primary economic sector workers include loggers, steelworkers and coalminers. All types of natural resources industries such as fishing, farming, forestry, and mining are a part of the primary economic sector.
The secondary sector deals with the processing of raw materials into finished goods. Builders and potters are examples of secondary economic sector workers. Lumber from trees is made into homes and clay from the earth is made into pottery. Brewing, engineering and all types of processing plants are part of the secondary economic sector.However, many of the people working for manufacturing companies do not actually make anything, but they provide services such as administration, law, finance, selling and so on.
The tertiary sector has to do with services that help industry produce and distribute goods to the final consumers. Dry cleaners, real estate agents and loan officers fall into the category of tertiary economic sector workers. Education, leisure, health care, transportation, banking, tourism and retail stores are all part of the tertiary economic sector.
Some people consider government and education to be solely part of the tertiary sector, while others add the quaternary economic sector and the quinary economic sector to the three main sectors.
The quaternary sector is said to be that of intellectual organization in a society such as government, research, cultural programs, Information Technology (IT), education and libraries. The quinary sector is thought to be related to the quaternary sector, but includes only the senior management levels. Top management in non-profit organizations, media, arts, culture, higher education, science and technology and government are all included in the quinary economic sector.
The movement of goods and services through the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors is referred to as the "chain of production". For example, trees are sourced to make paper, then the pulp is processed to create the paper and then the finished product is sold in stores।


1 Task:

Read the article about the three sectors of economy and rewrite it in your own words





2 Task

Define the three sectors of the economy and then classify activities below according to which sector they belong to:

aeorospace
agriculture
airline
banking
beverages
catering
computers
digging iron ore
electronics
engineering
food processing
hotels and restaurants
chemicals
insurance
mining coal
oil
retailing
telecommunications
transport
vehicle manufacturing



3 Task

Match these companies with sectors of industry and the product groups in the chart:

Bayer
Pepsi
British Airways
SEARS
SAAB-SCANIA
Hilton International
Ford
Kia
Istrochem
Slovenská sporiteľna
T-mobile



4 Task

Choose 10 key words from the text „The Three Sectors of the Economy“, then define them and use in the sentences.

pondelok 20. augusta 2007

Company structure

The lecture is aimed at company structure. Below you can see a standard company organisation.
Most companies are made up of three groups of people: the shareholers (a person or group that owns shares in a company or business), the management (the people who run and control a business) and the workforce (the people who work for a particular company, organization, etc). At the top of the company hierarchy is the Board of Directors headed by a Chairperson or President. It consists of the group of people chosen by shareholders to control a company, decide its policies and appoint a Managing Director (MD) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who has overall responsibility for the running of the business. Senior managers or company officers head the various departments or functions within the company, which may include follwing: Marketing, Finance, Public Relations (PR), Information Technology (IT), Human Resources/Personnel, Production, Research and Development (RD), Legal Affairs.

Exercise 1

Your assignement is to write down a description of the company you know or you worked for or you have been working for. In case you have not worked for any company yet, then you find one on the Internet, read its structure and describe it in your own words.For describing use the verbs: consist of, contain, include, to be composed of, to be made up of, to be divided into, to be in charge of, to support, to be supported by, to be accountable to, to be responsible for, to be responsible to, to assist, to be assisted, report to somebody, report on something
At first look at the examples:


Here is a short description of the organization chart illustrated.
The Chief Executive Officer reports to the President and the Board of Directors. The company is divided into five major departments; Production, Marketing, Finance, Research & Development, and Human Resources. The Marketing Department is subdivided into Market Research, Sales, and Advertising & Promotions. The Finance Department contains both Financial Management and Accounting. Sales consists of two sections, the Northern and Southern Regions, whose heads report to the Sales Manager, who is accountable to the Marketing Manager.

Literature: MacKenzie, Ian: English for Business Studies, Student´s Book, Cambridge University Press, 2002
Tullis, Graham; Trappe, Tonya:New Insights into Business, Student´s Book, Longman, 2000



Exercise 2

Compare these types of company structure (define them, and write down their advantages and disadvantages):

Sole Propietorship
Partnership
Limited Liability Company
Corporation



Exercise 3

Compare these ways of organizing companies:

hierarchical
functional
matrix
staff position