LABU 2040 Course Introduction & Mini Case I

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• know the course structure and assessment requirements.

• understand the business case study method.
• apply the case analyses process to a short case study.
• distinguish between symptoms and underlying problems of a management issue.

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Teachers may do Course Introduction and Mini Case I in two lessons, or in one lesson if they
want to explore Mini Case II in depth. Mini Case II materials contain suggestions on how to do
so.

To ensure students have enough time to work on Mini Case I with Course Introduction in one
lesson, teachers may do Task 3 immediately after going through information about the course.
Task 1 and Task 2 are optional. They can be given as out-of-class if teachers so wish (answers
to be quickly discussed in the next lesson).

Welcome to LABU 2040

LABU 2040 is a highly interactive course where you will make new friends and enjoy many
benefits of learning in an engaging class environment.

You will complete a series of individual and group tasks that are designed to increase your
skills in case analyses. You will improve your ability to read cases efficiently and discuss
them effectively. LABU 2040 focuses on developing the many skills involved in analyzing
business cases and successfully communicating your ideas in a business context.

Course Structure
LABU 2040 is a graded, one-semester course worth three credits. The course focuses on
five main elements.

1. Mini business cases

2. Oral communication for business
3. Business case 1
4. Written communication for business
5. Business case 2

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Description of the five main elements:
1. Students will experience the case analyses process through the mini cases. There
are unassessed tasks w h e r e s t u d e n t s c a n g e t f e e d b a c k on communication
skills.
2. Oral communication for business focuses specifically on audience awareness
(presenting effectively to persuade specific audiences) in these aspects: task completion,
organization and teamwork, delivery, language, visual aids and Q & A.

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 Task completion: ensuring that the audience is very clear about the problems,
and is very convinced about the recommendations to take action (assessed in
oral presentations 1 and 2).

Organization and teamwork: organizing ideas, making the presentation highly

persuasive and very easy to understand (assessed in oral presentations 1 and 2)

Delivery: establishing excellent rapport with the audience, making the message
very effective, fully sustaining the audience’s attention, and making an impact on
the audience using space, facial expression and eye-contact, gestures, body
posture and movement (assessed in oral presentations 1 and 2).

Language: using voice and language to fully persuade and engage the audience;
sounding natural and conversational and easily understandable (assessed in oral
presentations 1 and 2)

Visual aids and Q & A: using visuals effectively and giving responses effectively
in the Q & A session effectively (assessed in oral presentation 2).

3. Business case 1 is the WIYCR case focused on cross-cultural communication and

leadership styles.
4. Written communication for business focuses specifically on audience awareness
(writing a recommendation report effectively to persuade a specific audience) in these
aspects: task completion, organization and language use (assessed in the
recommendation report).
Task completion: writing with a very clear purpose throughout and fully achieving
the purpose as there is a very strong awareness of the reader’s needs; including
coverage which is very convincing, i.e. comprehensive, relevant and accurate.

Organization: using the correct format; organizing the report very effectively
making it very easy to read.

Language: using highly appropriate tone and style, excellent grammar and highly
effective vocabulary use.

5. Business case 2 is the Kitchen Best case f o c u s e d on cross-cultural business

practices.

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Assessment Requirements
Read the assessment overview on the course page on Canvas.

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Apart from the overview, teachers can guide students to locate the task instructions and
descriptors on the page.

You will submit a learning portfolio on oral presentation skills at the end of the semester.
Read the task instructions on Canvas. How do you think you can benefit from it?

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Advantages of Portfolio (adapted from [Link]
• Students will be responsible for their own learning and develop a proud ownership of
their work.
• The self-reflection in each step allows students to improve as they see themselves
progressing over time at the different stages.
• Students will be motivated due to the visibility of the final portfolio.
• It promotes creativity, individuality and uniqueness in the assessment of learning.
(That’s why the course only suggests, not prescribes, the online platform and the format
of presentation.)
• It shifts teacher’s focus from comparative ranking to improving understanding via
feedback.
• Students can demonstrate more than the end result in such a process orientated
method.
We expect your active participation in class. What do you regard as excellent participation?
In groups, identify five things you could do to contribute positively to your learning environment.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Excellent participation may include the following:
• Being active and constructive.
• Showing initiative in class activities.
• Speaking up but not dominating conversations.
• Contributing to a positive atmosphere in class.
• Consistently providing excellent comments/ feedback on activities.
• Being mature and responsible towards own learning.
• Respecting the teacher and peers.
• Acting positively on suggestions/ feedback/ comments given by t h e t e a c h e r
and peers.
• Using only English in class.
• Being well-prepared and focused always.

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 • Being punctual always.

Highlight that learning only takes place when one actively participates in tasks. Teachers do
not lecture but facilitate by giving adequate input and prompt feedback.

Task 1: The Case Study Method

What do you know about the case study method? In groups, discuss the following. You may
do research if necessary.

1.1 Describe some features of a ‘business case study’.

1.2 List three advantages of the case study method over traditional teaching methods.
more input from student

1.3 What are some of the difficulties you might face when using the case study method?

everyone has different interest and idea

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1.1 A case analysis, or case study, is usually a description of an actual or ‘realistic’ situation
that presents an issue or an opportunity for people in an organization involved in making
decisions.

1.2
• Students practice important managerial skills – diagnosing, making decisions,
observing, listening, and persuading while preparing for case discussions.
• Students develop realistic and concrete actions for complex situations.
• Students are often confronted with insufficient information, which provides them with
an element of reality where there can be an imbalance between available resources,
individual and corporate needs, and conflicting objectives.
• Students develop a managerial point of view – a sense of responsibility and the need
for action in diverse business contexts.

1.3
• Determining the central issues in the case.
• Developing practical solutions to address the issue(s) identified.
• Selecting ideas carefully from a range of possibilities.
• Applying theoretical content effectively.
• Understanding new vocabulary.
• Working in teams.
• Dealing with shyness related to sharing ideas and public speaking.

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Task 2: A Business Case Study Quiz
In groups, choose the best answer(s) to each question.

2.1 The case study method is a research strategy that was first used in the year 2000 to support
statistical data and provide a systematic way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing
information, and reporting results.
A. True
B. False

B. False; first used in the 1820s

2.2 Business professors began using cases in their teaching

A. at Harvard Business School after WWI.
B. at the London School of Business after WWII.
C. at Stanford University in the 1960s.

A. The Harvard Business School was established in 1918 when no textbooks were suitable for
a graduate program emphasizing realistic applications of business principles. Cases were
subsequently written by business school faculty with particular learning objectives in mind
and were refined in classrooms before publication.

2.3 Business cases can be

A. based on true events.
B. out of date in a short time.
C. used to teach business concepts.
D. fictional and are fabricated by the author(s).

A, B, C & D.
B- In principle, a well-written case serves to illustrate important issues and points in business
and management that are perpetually relevant. For example, the Tylenol case was written
in 1982 and is still widely used as an example for describing crisis management. There are
cases whose question revolves around decision-making in a fast-changing industry, and so
the point is lost when recent events nullify the key question asked.

2.4 Business cases are written by

A. business people.
B. business professors.
C. business consultants.

A, B & C.
Cases are written and published in textbooks by students, faculty, or consultants. Field cases
are written by professors and students of business with the cooperation of managers and
executives who experienced the events and problems described in the cases. Library cases or
armchair cases could be purely fictional, and do not involve special access to the businesses
being studied; they can be written by anyone although they are more often written by
professors.

2.5 What are the key features of well-written business case studies?

A. contemporary challenges
B. discipline-specific focuses

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 C. unique and correct solutions
D. business contexts or scenarios
E. engaging stories and/ or characters
F. decision-making issues or opportunities
G. realistic details for analysis and response

C is the only incorrect option.

2.6 When using a business case, the teacher

A. learns with the students.
B. tells students “what actually happened”.
C. guides students to give the right answer.

A Yes.
B Not always, as some cases are open-ended.
C Yes and no – the teacher guides students, but there is no right answer to a case.

2.7 Business cases are linear and logical, like textbooks.

A. True
B. False

False.
Cases ‘look’ like they have a linear structure – with an introduction, conclusion and subject
headings – but they are non-linear, and their content is rarely presented in a logical order.
Important and relevant evidence is often scattered throughout the text and is often disguised
or left to be inferred. This can be very confusing for inexperienced students. Many cases have
other features which make understanding challenging such as:

• unstated information that must be inferred.

• information that is biased or unsubstantiated.
• too much information; lots of ‘padding’.

Remind students that real business situations are fluid and inevitably involve uncertainty.

2.8 When analyzing a business case in a team, disagreement should be avoided.

A. True
B. False

False.
Disagreement or constructive criticism enhances discussion and evaluation of solutions.

Task 3: The Case Analyses Process – Mini Case I

There are many ways to analyze a case study but over the years, a particular five-stage
process proves to be efficient time and again:

1. Read and understand the case.

2. Identify the problem(s).
3. Research and analyze data.
4. Generate and evaluate possible solutions.
5. Recommend and create an action plan.

Apply these steps to Mini Case I now.

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Step 1. Read the case and then discuss:

a. What is the case about?

b. Who are the stakeholders and what are their concerns or vested interests?

Step 2. What is the problem and its underlying cause(s)?

Step 3. What information do you need to help you understand the issue more thoroughly and
make better decisions? (You may not have time to do the research now.)

Step 4. What are the possible options to deal with the issue? What are their pros and cons?

Step 5. If you were Nicholas Wong, what actions would you take in the short (immediately)
and in the long term?
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Step 1
a. (Te a ch e rs sh ou ld stre ss th e imp o rta n ce o f su mma rizin g th e ca se ‘in yo u r own
wo rd s’ a s o n e critica l re a d ing a n d th in kin g skill .)
The case is a management case about a junior staff member (Sales Assistant) of a retail store in
China expressing her grievance to the President about her allegedly unfair dismissal (after receiving
a customer complaint) for failing to perform a duty she had not been trained for.

b.
The primary stakeholders are Zhang Shuo, the supervisor and Nicholas Wong. The secondary
stakeholders are the customer involved, the rest of the staff, all customers and shareholders and
any other acceptable answers.

Concerns/ vested interests:

• Zhang Shuo – wanting her job to be reinstated.
• Supervisor – pacifying the angry customer and managing the department’s reputation.
• Nicholas Wong – m a n a g i n g t h e c o m p a n y ’ s r e p u t a t i o n (external), handling Zhang
Shuo’s grievance, handling the management team, and identifying the underlying problem
(internal).

Step 2
One key learning point from this mini case is distinguishing between symptoms and underlying
causes. Teachers should stress how solving a problem at its root is important. Teachers may use
this table to guide students how to think critically:

Symptom Underlying Cause

Zhang Shuo was left on her own to deal with a
customer.

Zhang Shuo was dismissed by the Supervisor

without prior warning.

Zhang Shuo had to go directly to the Company

President to get her grievance heard.

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 Symptom Underlying Cause
Zhang Shuo was left on her own to deal with a Mismanagement of human resource.
customer. Inaccurate sales forecast.

Zhang Shuo was dismissed by the Supervisor Absence of proper procedures to terminate
without prior warning. staff.
Staff termination procedures not being followed.

Zhang Shuo had to go directly to the Company Absence of proper procedures/ channels for
President to get her grievance heard. staff complaints.
Staff complaint procedures/
c h a n n e l s not made clear to staff.

Teachers may guide students into concluding that the overarching problem is systemic, related
to HR management. The solutions therefore target the system/ organization, not an individual
staff member. Similar incidents could happen until the underlying problem, i.e. the root cause is
tackled.

Step 3
• Grievance procedures in big corporations
• Job description of a sales assistant
• Customer relationship management (in the retail industry)
• Labor laws in China
• Any other acceptable answers

Step 4
• Ignore the letter and endorse the original dismissal
• Reinstate Zhang Shuo in the shoe department
• Reinstate Zhang Shuo in another department
• Penalize the Department Supervisor
• Any other acceptable answers

Teachers should stress how ‘delayed judgement’ is important at this stage – to generate as
many options as possible and weigh their pros and cons before selecting the most suitable
option.

Step 5
Teachers may invite groups to present their ideas; should stress how justifying the actions and
reasoning logically are important, e.g. what has to be done first for immediate impact and what
actions should follow, and which action would take more time before the effects can be seen

What happened: This mini case is based on a true episode that took place during Cassian
Cheung’s spell as President and CEO of Wal-Mart, China, from 2003 to 2006.
The key issue is that in management, one has to strike a balance between people and the
system. Any associate on probation can be dismissed without violating contract terms or
labor laws, and a “lowly” sales assistant is not going to be missed by the Department. It was
quite convenient for the store management to blame the new staff member for the poor service,
and perhaps even pacify the irate customer that way. However, is this good people
management? Does it help enhance the prevalent company culture? Does it concur with the
core values of the company?

It did not take Cassian long to decide that the girl should be reinstated to her position. Her

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inability to carry out a duty which was not hers did not warrant a summary dismissal. From a
human resource perspective, the fact that she was not prepared for the unexpected task reveals
a weakness in the training and supervision procedures, for which the department supervisor
and the company are both responsible. If Wal-Mart were true to some of the mantras it set for
itself, such as “Open Door Policy”, “servant leadership” and “people come first”, Wal-Mart should
demonstrate the high value it places on every associate.

When Cassian left his job in late 2005, the Human Resource Director was interviewed about
her impression of him as a CEO, and she told this story to the reporter to illustrate the point
that he was a boss who cares for individuals.

Teachers may conclude this task by asking students to recall the five steps, which they will use
again to analyze mini case II and the assessed cases.

Mini Case I: The Girl in the Shoe Department

It was 5 p.m. on Friday, 20th October 2007. Nicholas Wong, President and CEO of
one of the biggest international retail stores operating in China, was relaxing a little,
after another hectic week in his Shenzhen office. He was trying to recall the events of
the past six months. He was feeling mightily relieved that he had so far ridden the
storm of the financial crisis. Business had now got back to normal, with sales figures
not only returning to pre-credit crunch levels but also actually rising steadily in the
last two months. It had surely been one of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest, in
his long and distinguished career in corporate management. He could finally afford a
smile of satisfaction.

There was a knock on the door, and his secretary brought in the afternoon mail. One
particular letter bore only his name but no address or stamps, apparently via the
internal mail system. An eighteen-year-old girl called Zhang Shuo had written the
letter. She had been on the temporary staff of the Shoe Department in one of the
Shenzhen stores for three weeks but had been summarily dismissed two days
previously. She felt her supervisor had treated her unfairly and was begging to have
her dismissal overturned.

The company’s corporate culture emphasizes openness in communication. All

employees are known as Associates, to stress mutual dependence. There is also an
open-door policy, by which associates can seek help from one rank higher than the
line manager. This is to ensure that management deals with issues without the
employee suffering any backlash from their immediate supervisor. Another one of the
company’s mantras is ‘servant leadership’, with the CEO serving everybody in the
company – hence the seemingly bold approach employed by Zhang Shuo.

In her letter, Zhang Shuo described the incident that led to her dismissal.

She had been hired as a Sales Assistant in the Shoe Department. Her responsibilities
were to help tidy up the sales area by removing unwanted shoeboxes and replacing
them onto the correct shelves in the storeroom. On Wednesday, while Zhang Shuo
was clearing up, she was approached by a customer who demanded that a pair of
shoes she had recently purchased be replaced. The customer claimed that when she
got the shoes home, she had found they were defective. Not having been trained as a

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salesperson, Zhang Shuo was unsure what she should do, and after a moment’s
hesitation told the customer to look for a salesperson. The customer started yelling at
her, saying how she had been looking around in vain for help and how rude and
unhelpful Zhang Shuo was. The noise caught the attention of the Department
Supervisor, who ran over to pacify the customer. When the commotion had died down
and the angry customer had left, the Department Supervisor asked Zhang Shuo to see
her after work in her office. She told Zhang Shuo that her performance had been
unsatisfactory and her service was no longer needed, though by regulation she would
be paid her wages for the three weeks she had worked for the company.

Mr Wong called the Human Resource Department to verify the facts of the incident
and found that Zhang Shuo’s story was accurate and agreed closely with the details
given in the Supervisor’s report. The Human Resource Department insisted that
everything was in order and in line with the company’s regulations.

Zhang Shuo, in her letter, mentioned that she had come all the way from Sichuan to
look for work, had felt extremely lucky to have been working for the company, and
had been giving her best in her modest job. However, she could not understand why
she had been dismissed for not being able to perform a task which she was not trained
or paid for. She felt she had been victimized and made a scapegoat for the scene
created by a difficult customer.

What should Nicholas Wong do?

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 Mini Case II

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this cycle, students will be able to:

• read critically and infer key messages in texts.

• recognize the tone of a message through the writer’s word choice.
• apply the steps of case analyses to a short business case.
• analyze different stakeholder concerns in a business case.
• select and organize content, and adapt language for different audiences.

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Mini Case II is important as it focuses on audience awareness and presenting to different
audiences, and the key course learning objectives. The tasks here should cover two lessons.
There are options for teachers who plan to spend one more lesson on this mini case.

Task 1: Stakeholders’ Views and Tone

At the university, you may be asked to read case studies in different disciplines. You may be
asked to analyze the situation and issues faced by certain industries. To understand these
better, you need to read critically to consider the concerns and views of all stakeholders by
inferring their key messages and tone through word choice.

1.1 The information below provides you with a background of the logging industry. Extracted
from various sources, they represent views of different stakeholders. Read the excerpts and
answer these questions:
a. Whose perspective is the view from?
b. What are the key messages, either stated clearly or inferred?
c. What is the tone? How does the word choice help you recognize the tone?

(Sources of these excerpts will be acknowledged in class.)

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Excerpt 1

Forest product markets are cyclical, experiencing significant ups and downs over the
economic cycle. This constant state of shifting circumstances creates both challenges
and opportunities. In recent years, Canada’s forest industry has undergone an especially
deep cyclical decline, coupled with structural changes in world markets. In particular, the
rise of electronic media has resulted in a deep decline for paper-based communications
products — including several products (such as newsprint) that have traditionally been
critical to the Canadian pulp and paper subsector.
In response to these challenges, the forest industry has begun to transform itself along four
distinct lines: market development, operational efficiency, business process change and
new product development. One of the most exciting elements of this transformation has
been the new and innovative products, materials and services being produced in Canada’s
forest sector. These include new building materials, biofuels that can substitute for fossil
fuels, and biochemicals that can be used to produce bio-based pharmaceuticals,
biodegradable plastics, personal care products and industrial chemicals. Chief among
these are cellulosic fibrils and nano-crystalline cellulose—next-generation pulp-based
products with the potential to revolutionize the pulp and paper sector.

These a n d other e m e r g i n g t e c h n o l o g i e s and b u s i n e s s p r o c e s s e s offer n e w

w a y s of generating social, economic and environmental values for Canadians from
our abundant forest resource. They generate value from a wider range of forest products
and processes than traditional milling and pulping. Whether co-located with an existing
establishment or a result of a greenfield investment, these new technologies and business
processes increase overall industry productivity: additional revenue streams are available
from each log harvested, diversifying product lines to stabilize economic performance
and boosting the share of renewable products in the marketplace. These new technologies
will also create opportunities for new entrants, enhancing competition and
entrepreneurialism in the industry.

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Excerpt 2

Q. You work in the family business. What is that like for you?

A. My grandfather and his brother and their father and uncle started this company 70 years
ago, and I like the sense of continuity. My family takes a lot of pride in working here. Besides
this company, my father owns a cattle farm. At one point, I wanted to be a cattle farmer.

What is your background for this job?

I studied forestry at California Polytechnic State University and was a logger here during
the summers. I joined standards, last June after graduating. I want to become a registered
professional forester, but I need three years’ work experience. I also need to pass a test on
forest practices and rules in California.

What will you be able to do when you’re registered?

I’ll be able to plan entire projects instead of working on pieces. We work on our own
timberlands and those that others own. I’ll be able to plan where to build roads and how to
protect streams and wildlife. Right now, I do a lot of the legwork, like marking trees to be
cut, drawing maps and helping to flag areas where we need to leave all the trees.

What kind of trees do you harvest?

California redwood and Douglas fir, which are often used in decks and outdoor furniture.
We selectively harvest our forests. This means we thin each forest by cutting about a third
of the bigger trees every 15 to 20 years, leaving the others to grow. Redwoods actually
sprout, so when you cut one and leave the trunk, more trees will grow from it. You also want
to select those that will help trees around it grow.

What have you learned from working in the woods?

If you pay attention, you can learn something new every day. It’s really remarkable. Certain
plants will thrive in some environments and not others. For example, as trees grow, they
create more shade, so shade-tolerant plants will grow and others won’t. Sometimes plants
compete with each other, too, for water, light and soil nutrients.

What’s a recent project you worked on?

One we called the helicopter logging project. We wanted to manage a remote area that
has no roads into it. We had to hike in to mark the trees to cut, and then the loggers hiked
in to cut them. The only way we could remove the logs was to have a helicopter do it.

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Excerpt 3

As the rest of the region’s timber supplies are slowly being exhausted, major logging
companies are pushing into the forests of New Guinea – by any means necessary.

These forests are among the most significant timber resources in Asia-Pacific. Naturally,
such riches attract significant commercial interest. This includes Asian companies, such as
Malaysia-based Rimbunan Hijau, which accounts for a vast proportion of all forest product
exports in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

What is happening and why

As commercial stands of timber in Sumatra and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) are

increasingly exhausted, t h e l o g g i n g industry h a s s h i f t e d eastwards t o New
Guinea.

In PNG, the forest industry makes an important contribution to the country’s economy. The
vast majority of timber is produced as raw logs for export - this accounts for 97% of the
value of all exports of forest products, with woodchips covering almost all of the remainder.

Logging in practice

But the price being paid by the forests is high. In PNG, industrial logging has been the most
significant cause of forest loss and degradation for over 2 decades.

Lack of compliance with environmental standards and inadequate monitoring and control
by government regulating agencies are plaguing the sector. According to the World Bank,
these practices have caused logging to become completely unsustainable in the country.

…meanwhile, on the Indonesian side

In Papua Province, vulnerable tree species such as Merbau are cut illegally and exported
to China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, despite a logging ban imposed in 2001. Most of the
Merbau timber is destined for factories in China that produce wooden flooring.

A ‘booming’ industry

Against a background of contradicting laws, logging across Papua Province has surged
dramatically. According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, over 7 million m3 of timber is
smuggled out of Papua annually. This means that 70% of the total volume of timber that
leaves each year is illegal.

Massive profits

The crime rings that organize the illegal forest trade are raking in huge profits. While local
communities in Papua are paid around $11 per cubic metre for Merbau logs, in China, the
same amount is worth around $240. Estimates suggest that more than 300,000 m 3
(or US$600 million worth) of Merbau timber leaves Papua Province every month.

These colossal benefits eventually find their way into the accounts of brokers living in
Jakarta, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, thousands of kilometres away, in the
forests of New Guinea, local loggers desperately try to make ends meet.

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Excerpt 4 Procedure of logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, bucking, and then loading of the logs onto trucks. Believe
it or not, this is actually a manufacturing process. It is the process of turning standing trees
in the forest into cut logs that can be transported by truck. Although this sounds simple, it
can be quite a challenge. In the Midwest, if the terrain is level and easy to work, it usually is
Tix
cleared for farming or pasture. So naturally we tend to have more challenges, but that’s ok.
We are glad God gave us the rough terrain to be stewards of.

The first step in the logging process is felling the standing tree. At Tri-State, we fell the trees
with a chainsaw. In other parts of the country, where trees are logged at smaller diameters,
logging is done oftentimes with a mechanical harvester. In most of the Midwest, the trees
are harvested at a size where the trees are too large for a typical timber harvester and many
of the tracts of timberland are too small for a timber harvester to be economically transported
to. When felling trees by chainsaw, we use directional felling of the trees to minimize the
damage to the residual stand. After the tree is on the ground, the tree is delimbed and
topped.

The next step is to transport the trunk of the tree to the log yard where it can be processed
into logs. This is usually done by a rubber tire skidder. The skidder is either equipped with
cable or a grapple. Cable skidders are used for more treacherous terrain while grapple
skidders can be used on less challenging jobs. The path taken from the stump to the log yard
is important. The operator looks for the path of least resistance from the terrain, but also
must avoid residual trees we hope to harvest in future years. Not every tree is avoidable, but
we take great pride in avoiding the best we can.

Once the truck arrives at the log yard, it is cut into log lengths. This is done by either a
knuckleboom equipped with a bucksaw or by a chainsaw. The logs are then piled until there
is enough for a truckload. The logs are then loaded onto the truck, strapped down, and then
they are off to the market.

After the harvest operations are completed, we will close out the job. This is done by
smoothing out the skid trails and the log yard. Also, we do our best to divert the water off the
skid trails to avoid erosion of the soil. This is done multiple ways, but one popular and
effective method is installing waterbars. A waterbar is similar to a speed bump put in at a 45-
degree angle made from the soil. This is a very effective way of getting the running water off
the trail and onto less erodible soil.

Tri-State takes care of the forest resource we all love and are fortunate to have. Tri-State has
a culture of caring about the resource and is doing what is best for the landowner. We still
have to make a profit, but we also know doing good work will give us a good reputation. A
reputation of caring and happy landowners is the best form of advertising money can buy.

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TN
Two possible approaches:
1. Students work in groups of four. Each member is to work on one excerpt individually, and
then share information within the group.
2. Divide the class into four groups. Each group is to work on one excerpt and agree on the
answers. Form new groups (students with different excerpts) and share information.

Excerpt + Source Whose Key Message Tone (Vocab Choice)

Perspective
1 The Government To present forest Positive/ optimistic/
[Link] of Canada sector challenges forward-looking
ca/our-natural- (Industry & and opportunities/
resources/forests- Trade) transformation (‘one of the most exciting
forestry/forest- elements’, ‘the potential to
industry- Inferred revolutionize’, ‘emerging
trade/overview- To attract new technologies’,
canadas-forest- entrants/ investors ‘generating…values from
industry/13311 our abundant forest
(Jan 28, 2019) sources’)

2 Dennis Webb, To share his job Largely neutral/ objective

Posted on The New 22, is a forestry as a forestry except ‘it’s really
York Times, the technician at Big technician remarkable’
classified section, on Creek Lumber in
May 1, 2016. Davenport, Calif. Inferred
[Link] To attract people
om/2016/05/01/jobs/a to join this
-young-logger-with- profession or to
deep-roots-in-the- uphold the
california- industry’s
[Link] professional image

3 An To present the Negative/ critical/ gloomy

[Link] environmentalist threats to New (‘trail of destruction’,
what_we_do/where_ (WWF) Guinea because ‘supplies…being
we_work/new_guine of the logging exhausted’, ‘the price
a_forests/problems_f activities being paid…is high’, ‘loss
orests_new_guinea/ and degradation’, ‘the
deforestation_forests Inferred crime rings’)
_new_guinea/logging To lobby; to raise
_forests_new_guine funds
a/

16
4 A logging To present the Positive
[Link] company logging process (‘to be stewards’, the
om/the-logging- steps represent standard
process/ Inferred procedures, ‘takes care of
(October 4, 2013) To uphold the the forest resource we all
industry’s love and are fortunate to
professional image; have’, ‘good work…good
to increase its reputation’)
credibility; to
dispel possible
rumours

17
Task 2: The Case Analyses Process – Mini Case II
2.1 Apply the five steps to Mini Case II: California Wood Harvesting Co. Download the case
from [Link]

Step 1. Read the case and then discuss:

a. What is the case about?

b. Who are the stakeholders and what are their concerns or vested interests?

Step 2. What is the problem and its underlying cause(s)?

Step 3. What information do you need to help you understand the issue more thoroughly and
make better decisions?

Step 4. What are the possible options to deal with the issue? What are their pros and cons?

Step 5. If you were John Davidson, what actions would you suggest to take in the short
(immediately) and in the long term?

TN
(Suggested answers adapted from [Link]

Step 1
a. Te a ch e rs sh o u ld stre ss h o w impo rta n t it is to su mma rize th e ca se ‘in yo ur
o wn wo rd s’ a s o n e critica l re a d in g a n d th inkin g skill.

Th e re le va n t facts:
• The company has been practising clear-cutting for many years, and complies with
governmental regulations.
• Environmentalists’ strength and pressure have been increasing to such a degree that
cannot be ignored by the company.
• The company feels it needs to counteract the negative press from the
environmentalists.
• The negative press seems to have reduced sales and may lead to increased
governmental regulations.
• Bob Thomas feels that the company’s image would be more favorable if t h e land
were donated to the government for wilderness areas.
• The land the company intends to donate is not profitable to the company.
• George Hollis and John Davidson question the wisdom of the above approach, but the
company president, Bob Thomas, insists on the approach.
• As a Sierra Club member, John Davidson may have a personal conflict with the way
the image-building campaign is being approached.

b. The primary stakeholders are Bob Thomas, G e o r g e H o l l i s , J o h n Da v id so n , o t h e r

employees, environmentalists, and the government. The secondary stakeholders are
communities supported by the logging activities, competitors and business partners.

18
Concerns/ vested interests:
• Bob Thomas and George Hollis: To boost the company’s public image; to improve sales
• John Davidson: To impress the bosses and secure his ‘fast track in upper management’
• Environmentalists: To protect the environment and limit logging activities

Step 2
The problem i s h ow John Davidson can boost the California Wood Harvesting Co.’s public
image given the land donation proposal and his own Sierra Club membership.

Possible causes:
• Nature of the logging industry
• Bad press for the company
• Reduced sales
• Damage to the environment, e.g. disappearance of the spotted owl

Step 3
• Sierra Club and what they do (their lobbying tactics)
• Logging companies’ image building initiatives
• Government policies towards logging activities
• Any other acceptable answers.

Step 4
• Stop or reduce the practice of clear-cutting
• Proceed with the land donation and let the government/ community decide what to do
with it
• Launch an image building campaign on social media
• Develop the land for hiking trails, conservation/ educational center, animal sanctuary or
community farm, and any other acceptable answers.

Teachers should stress how important ‘delayed judgement’ is at this stage to generate as many
options as possible and weigh their pros and cons before selecting the most suitable option.

Step 5
Teachers may invite groups to present their ideas; should stress how justifying the actions and
reasoning logically are important, e.g. what has to be done first for immediate impact and what
actions should follow, and which actions would take more time before the effects can be seen.

2.2 Based on your group’s discussion in Task 1, what recommendations should John
Davidson propose to build the company’s image?

TN
Teachers can assign 2.2. as an out-of-class task. Teachers may set up a Google Doc for each
class and ask students to write their recommendations in groups. In the next lesson, teachers
may assign groups to comment on other groups’ recommendations. Google Doc is a useful
collaborative tool for other tasks too.

19
Task 3: Analyzing, Selecting and Organizing Content, and Adapting
Language for Different Audiences
Before presenting your recommendation, you have to identify and reflect on the target audience’s
interests to select relevant content, organize it, and adapt language, tone and style to meet the
audience’s needs.

3.1 You are John Davidson, Assistant to Vice President of Marketing. You have been asked to
present the image-building program to one of these stakeholders:
a. Bob Thomas, President, and George Hollis, Vice President of Marketing
b. Sierra Club

First, analyze these audiences in three areas:

1. Relationships
• What is my relationship with the audience?
• What does my audience already know?

2. Attitudes
• How receptive will my audience be?
• What would be the right tone and style for this audience?

3. Needs and Goals

• What are my audience’s interests?
• How do I clearly introduce my idea?

TN
President and VP of Marketing Sierra Club
Relationships colleagues external stakeholder
(communication: internal and (communication: external and
upward) upward)

Attitudes more open, less sceptical sceptical, hostile, confrontational

Needs and to convince that the to convince that the

Goals recommendations would increase recommendations would benefit the
profits and build or improve environment
reputation

3.2 Based on the audience analyses, write an introduction for one of the audiences, in groups.
Next, compare your introduction with another group’s (which has written for a different audience
from yours). What are the differences in content and language (e.g. vocabulary, sentence
patterns and rhetoric)?

TN
Assign each group one of the two audiences. Each group may draft the introduction on Google
Doc. Next, the groups will compare their introductions (ensure that the audiences to be compared
are different). Here is an example of the outcomes of past student work.

20
 President and VP of Marketing Sierra Club

Thank you, Bob and George, for your time today. Sierra and California Wood Harvesting. Working
We know that our company hasn’t been doing together? Is that even possible? Especially on a
too well, and just like both of you, that’s my problem like this? I’m sure you have doubts. But
biggest concern right now. the challenge today is important in bringing us
together.
While there's been a lot of negative public
sentiment which may hurt our profits, we can, I’m John and I’ve worked in California Wood
on our part, turn on the other way with what Harvesting Company for the past three years.
you’ve suggested, Bob - an image building What’s more important is that I’ve been the
program. Let’s gain more public and member of Sierra Club for ten years. Just like you,
government support and increase sales or in the I understand what the Club really cares about -
least retain it. Let’s do more than just donate protecting and rebuilding our forests.
unprofitable land to the government.
Today, let me show you how we have the same
So, here’s the plan basically - in three steps. concerns, and how we are working towards the
First, let’s listen to the Sierra Club, the same goal. We have a 3-step plan but it will only
community, the environmentalists, and the work with your support.
government; tell them we want to better our
practices, and we want their advice. This is the You understand the forest and know the forest,
first step to bringing our profits up to where they but hey so do we. You know that clear-cutting is
were 50 years ago. Second, instead of just not the best thing to do for the environment, and
replanting trees, let’s work with the Sierra Club so do we. You know that things need to change,
and the community to set up an educational and this change should last, and so do we.
center to protect our forests. Getting the Club
and the community involved will help us create Preserve, Protect and Manage - this is what our
better practices to do logging in the best way company would do to create the forest both you
possible. Third, we’ll get the government and I want. We’ll improve logging practices to
involved. protect our forests even more. We’ll replant more
trees in our forests and put the costs on our
company. We’ll show you how we Preserve-
Protect-Manage now.

Differences President and VP of Marketing Sierra Club

in
Content • exclude shared knowledge (e.g. self- • build rapport
introduction, detailed elaboration • visualize the future of working
about the issue) together
• acknowledge presence • establish credibility
• introduce quickly and briefly the issue • establish shared interests/
(negative public sentiment) sameness
• focus mainly on the plan
Language More prescriptive and direct to give More rhetorical to get attention,
suggestions, e.g. using action verbs and e.g.
signposts to show sequence. • questions in the opening
• repetitions (‘so do we’, ‘you
understand/ know’)
• rule of three (Preserve,
Protect and Manage)

21
3.3 Continue drafting the presentation for your target audience. Note the purpose of the
presentation and analyses of your audience in #3.1.

TN
Teachers can assign 3.3. as an out-of-class task, Teachers may invite some groups to present
in the next lesson, which leads to teaching oral presentation skills.

TN
Extra tasks on Mini Case II (shared by Kin)

Objectives: presenting/evaluating recommendations AND audience awareness

Optional warmer to remind students of defining a set of criteria to help BOTH make AND
evaluate decisions/recommendations
• Individually – think of 3 important criteria that would help you choose a location for
exchange
• Recommend a place for exchange to your classmate

Task 1 – Establishing Criteria in Decision Making

Get students to reflect and consider the criteria they used for their own recommendations for
Mini Case II (this can be useful for later)
• Did your team have a set of criteria to evaluate the merit of the alternative options?
• A decision matrix can be used to help you organize your thoughts systematically and
make a decision in a logical and methodical manner:
[Link]
• List 4 to 5 criteria that you used or should have used in the decision-making process of
the recommendation you made.

Go through the common business-related criteria

• Profitability/ sales / customer satisfaction / consistency with corporate vision, strategy,
image, / employee morale, safety / ease of implementation

Get students to use the decision matrix to assess the recommendations made by their team

• Is your team’s recommendation still the best according to the decision matrix?

Ask students to assess who is more important – Speaker or Audience?

Obviously BOTH are important but in most cases. Presenters have to persuade the audience
and to do this, speakers have to get into the minds of the audience. This is done effectively by
understanding and analyzing the audience. The better students can understand the audience,
the more likely they are able to persuade the audience.

Task 2 – Presenting to Different Audiences (Steps 4 and 5 will be covered in this task)
Give students two audiences to analyze
1. To whom they will be presenting recommendations
2. Who they will be when listening to another group

A sample arrangement for a class in 6 groups:

22
Students to present to one another and give feedback about whether the recommendations are
accepted. This can lead to step 4 of case analyses when teachers elicit feedback shared with
the whole class.

Task instructions to students:

• Present to one another your recommendations and action plan – 3 mins
• Q & A – 2 mins
• Swap roles and repeat the above
• In your groups, evaluate one another’s recommendations with your set criteria – will you
accept the recommendations?
• Why or why not? (Also consider the language, tone and style used by the presenters) Give
feedback to the other groups.

Optional Follow-up Task – Detailed Audience Analyses

• These questions can form an additional list for a more detailed audience analyses
1. What are my audience’s motivations or interests? What are their concerns?
2. What is the purpose of my presentation?
3. What do I want to achieve with this presentation? Key Objective?
4. Why should the audience listen to me, and what are their expectations?
5. What benefits will the audience get from my presentation? How might they resist?
6. What background information will my audience need?
7. What information is essential to my audience’s understanding?
8. How should I sequence and link my ideas so that they are coherent and easy to follow?
• Elicit answers on why the questions are important to discuss and ask when analyzing the
audience
• Most are self-explanatory and relate to persuasion, selection of information and structure

23
 Business Oral Presentation Skills I

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• understand and use voice (volume, stress and pronunciation, pace and pauses, and
pitch and intonation) and language appropriately and effectively to fully persuade
and engage the audience.

Persuading and engaging the audience verbally

To fully persuade and engage your audience, you should establish excellent rapport with your
audience, make your message effective, fully sustain your audience’s attention, and make an
impact on the audience.

Other than noting what you say to the audience, note how you say (verbally) it to the audience.

You should sound like you care about the audience. Ask yourself:
• How can you use voice (volume, stress and pronunciation, pace and pauses, and pitch and
intonation) and language to sound natural and conversational, sincere and trustworthy?
• How can the audience understand what you say easily and accurately?

TN
Business Oral Presentation Skills I and II consist of focused tasks which follow through two
student speaker business presentations to give students a more realistic idea of what is
expected in their presentations, and student practice. If time permits, teachers could share with
students audio/videos of other business presenters.

Note that Task 1 in this lesson focuses on voice while Task 2 focuses on language.

Task 1: Understanding the criteria of using voice

1.1 Get in groups. Look at some criteria of using voice in your business presentation. Discuss
how you can use voice (volume, stress and pronunciation, pace and pauses, and pitch and
intonation) to:

• sound natural and conversational, sincere and trustworthy.

• be very easily understood.

24
Scale

Excellent Has natural and conversational tone and style highly

appropriate for the audience; Very easy to understand the
speaker due to highly appropriate use of voice.

Very good Has natural and conversational tone and style appropriate for
the audience; Except in one or two instances, it is easy to
understand the speaker due to highly appropriate use of voice.

Competent Despite making attempts to sound natural and conversational,

the speaker may still sound rehearsed or sound as if they have
memorized or written the speech; Relatively easy to
understand the speaker due to appropriate use of voice.

Satisfactory Makes little attempt to sound natural and conversational most

of the time and so sounds rehearsed or sounds as if they have
memorized or written the speech; Can still be understood
though not very easily due to inappropriate use of voice in
many instances.

Use these questions to guide you:

• Volume:
o What would be an appropriate volume and why?
o Why should you vary volume and why?
• Stress and pronunciation:
o What kind of words would you stress or emphasize?
o How should you pronounce words, phrases and sentences?
• Pitch and tone:
o What kind of pitch and tone would be appropriate? What does a low or a high pitch
convey?
o Why should you vary tone?
• Pace and pauses:
o What would be an appropriate pace and why?
o What would be an appropriate use of pauses and why?
o Why should you vary pauses?
TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of the criteria of using voice (volume, stress, pitch and
tone, pace and pauses) in their presentations. Students should aim to sound natural and
conversational, sincere and trustworthy and to be very easily understood. As the task helps
students prepare for task 2, teachers are encouraged to do this task first.

• Volume:
o What would be an appropriate volume and why?
Depends on what you are saying and to whom and when. Usually a comfortable
volume to sound confident and energetic. Not too loud e.g. shouting at times but not
too soft e.g. fading at the end of sentences.

o Why should you vary volume and why?

Should vary volume and not use the same volume throughout to avoid sounding
monotonous.

25
• Stress and pronunciation:
o What kind of words would you stress or emphasize?
Stress or emphasize key words/ content words (e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs,
adverbs, numbers and so on), not function words (e.g. prepositions, pronouns,
determiners, conjunctions, modals, auxiliaries or particles).

o How should you pronounce words, phrases and sentences?

Pronounce words, phrases and sentences clearly and accurately. Use connected
speech (i.e. not pronouncing words separately one by one but making speech flow
smoothly by changing the way of pronouncing the end and beginning of some words
depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of these words).

• Pitch and tone:

o What kind of pitch and tone would be appropriate? What does a low or a high pitch
convey?
Depends on what you are saying and to whom and when. Usually a comfortable
pitch which is not too low and not too high. A low pitch usually conveys authority. A
high pitch may irritate the audience.

o Why should you vary tone?

Should vary tone to avoid sounding monotonous. Avoid sounding too dramatic or
awkward e.g. rising tone at the end of words/ phrases.

• Pace and pauses:

o What would be an appropriate pace and why?
Not too fast and not too slow such that the audience can understand the message i.e.
cannot get the message/ does not lose track of the message.

o What would be an appropriate use of pauses and why?

Pauses should be sufficient to break down thoughts into more manageable units. Not
too many (speak too slowly) or too little (speak too fast) such that the audience cannot
get the message or lose track of it.

o Why should you vary pauses?

Should vary pauses to avoid sounding mechanical/ written rather than spoken.

Task 2: Using voice to sound natural and conversational

2.1 In groups, listen to speaker 1 who is role-playing as a senior consultant at McKinsey &
Company. The speaker, with their colleague, is presenting to Daniel Zhang (CEO of Alibaba
Group), Jack Ma (Founder, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Alibaba Group) and Maggie
Wu (Chief Financial Officer). The task is to persuade the audience strategies on how to monetize
Taobao.

In groups, discuss whether the speaker sounds natural and conversational overall to fully
persuade and engage the audience:

• establish excellent rapport with the audience;

• make the message effective;
• fully sustain the audience’s attention;
• make an impact on the audience.

26
 Discuss and note the speaker’s volume, use of stress and pronunciation, pitch and tone, pace
and pauses. Next, rate the speaker’s overall use of voice.

Use the guidelines given in the table.

Voice Speaker 1
Overall
Excellent/ Very Good/ Competent/ Satisfactory

Volume
Is it:
• appropriate?
• varied?
Stress
Is it:
• appropriate?
• varied?

Pronunciation
Is it:
• clear?
• accurate?
Pitch
Is it:
• appropriate?
• varied?

Tone
Is it:
• appropriate?
• varied?
Pace
Is it:
• appropriate?
• varied?

Pauses
Is it:
• appropriate?
• varied?

TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of how voice (volume, stress and pronunciation, pitch
and tone, pace and pauses) affects their ability to sound natural and conversational in
presentations. Teachers can use this audio link [Link]
L8. Do not give students the link.

27
 Voice Speaker 1

Overall Satisfactory
Excellent/ Very Good/ Competent/ Satisfactory Makes little attempt to sound natural and
conversational most of the time and so
sounds rehearsed or sounds as if they have
memorized the speech (mechanical and
monotonous) most of the time); Though easy
to understand the speaker (due to them
pronouncing each word separately), there is
inappropriate use of voice in many instances.
Volume
Is it:
• appropriate? • Comfortable and somewhat appropriate
• varied? • Not varied; same volume throughout

Stress • Somewhat appropriate. Emphasizes key

Is it: words and divides speech into chunks
• appropriate? (single words/ group of words) to
• varied? communicate a thought/ idea though
mechanically
• Not varied - stresses words
mechanically
Pronunciation
Is it: • Pronounces words quite clearly and
• clear? accurately most of the time
• accurate? • Does not use connected speech well
e.g. says each word separately
Pitch
Is it:
• appropriate? • Appropriate and somewhat varied such
• varied? that it conveys some sincerity and trust
e.g. not ‘distant’ or ‘cold’
Tone
Is it: • Not that appropriate and not varied as it
• appropriate? is monotonous
• varied? • Awkward rising tone at the end of some
words or phrases
Pace
Is it: • Somewhat appropriate such that the
• appropriate? audience can understand the message.
• varied? Very monotonous

Pauses • Somewhat appropriate. Though pauses

Is it: are sufficient, they are mechanical i.e.
• appropriate? sounds written rather than spoken.
• varied?

2.2 Listen to speaker 2 who sounds very natural and conversational overall in persuading and
engaging their audience. Note how the speaker uses voice (volume, stress and pronunciation,
pitch and tone, pace and pauses) to do so.

28
TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of speech which sounds very natural and
conversational.

Teachers can use this audio link [Link] Do not

give students the link.

If teachers have time, ask students to compare why speaker 2 uses voice (volume, stress and
pronunciation, pitch and tone, pace and pauses) better than speaker 1.

2.3 Present the modified script from speaker 1. Use voice (volume, stress and pronunciation,
pitch and tone, pace and pauses) to sound natural and conversational overall to fully persuade
and engage your audience.

Script

So, it’s time to monetize Taobao.

And we’ll introduce you two strategies.

The first is to provide seller premium service.

And the second is to help sellers to design their webpage.

Let’s look at the online market.

Since 2002, the number of Internet users has increased significantly.

At the same time, the number of registered users of all online shopping sites has reached 55
million.

In 2007, these figures show that the market is big and growing.

Though Taobao owns 84% of the market share, it still needs to compete with other companies
such as eBay and Paipai.

TN
This task aims to get students to practice using voice to sound natural and conversational.
Teachers can ask students:
• to present the script individually in about one minute and then give quick verbal feedback on
aspects (volume, stress and pronunciation, pitch and tone, pace and pauses) OR
• to present the script individually in about one minute and then ask other students to give quick
verbal feedback on aspects (volume, stress and pronunciation, pitch and tone, pace and
pauses) OR
• to record their speech individually and self-evaluate aspects of voice they need to improve
OR
• to present the script to a partner/ present the script individually within a small group for
feedback on aspects of voice to improve.

29
Task 3: Understanding the criteria of using language
3.1 Get in groups. Look at some criteria of using language in a business presentation. Discuss
how to use language to:

• sound natural and conversational, sincere and trustworthy.

• be very easily understood.

Scale

Excellent Very easy to understand the speaker due to very clear,

accurate and appropriate language with a few minor slips.

Very good Except in one or two instances, it is easy to understand the

speaker due to clear, accurate and appropriate language with
a few slips.

Competent Relatively easy to understand the speaker due to generally

appropriate language with some systematic errors which do not
impede understanding.

Satisfactory Can still be understood though not very easily due to unclear/
inaccurate/ inappropriate language in many instances.

Use these questions to guide you:

• How can you:

o use language which is inclusive? Give examples.
o use language which is positive? Give examples.
o ‘soften’ language or make it less strong? Give examples.
o use language to sound natural and conversational? Give examples.
o use language which is short and concise? Give examples.
o use language which is simple and understandable? Give examples.
o use language which is accurate? Give examples of possible common errors in
speech.
TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of the criteria of using language in their presentations
and helps students especially in scripting their presentations later on. Students should aim to
use language which is natural and conversational, sincere and trustworthy and to be very easily
understood.

• How can you use language which is inclusive? Give examples.

o Use ‘you’, ‘we’, ‘your’ appropriately to show you are thinking about your audience,
create a common ground, and show you are with them in this together e.g.
▪ ‘We're here to help you.’
▪ ‘You, just like us, would want a better work environment.’
o Use ‘I' (only when relating to a personal experience)

Note: Be very careful when using these pronouns. Not a good sentence if you are not the
one conducting the training e.g. ‘Together, we'll conduct the training.’

• How can you use language which is positive? Give examples.

o Say things carefully instead of carelessly e.g.
▪ ‘You’ve tried very hard to’ instead of ‘You failed to’

30
 ▪ ’You might need to take more interest in’ instead of ‘You did not care.’
▪ ‘You could have paid more attention to’ instead of ‘You overlooked’
o Request instead of demand e.g. ‘
▪ ‘Would you mind…?‘ instead of ’We insist that you must..’
▪ ‘You might consider this...’ instead of ‘You must do this or else...’
o Advise instead of patronize e.g.
▪ ‘We might be able to tell you more how to…’ instead of ‘We know what you
need to do to…’
▪ ‘We’re here to help you...’ instead of ‘We’re here to make sure you don’t…’
▪ ‘The company might need to save a little more.’ instead
of ‘The company spends too much.

Note: Use positive instead of negative language which offends/ sounds as if blaming the
audience/ focuses on the audience’s negative actions

• How can you ‘soften’ language or make it less strong? Give examples.
o Use hedges such as mental state verbs e.g. ‘think’/’ believe’/ ‘feel’/ ‘hope’/ ‘perhaps’
e.g.
▪ ‘We think that you might be interested in what we have to say.’ instead
of ‘You will be interested in what we have to say.’
o Use modals ‘can’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘could’, ‘might’ e.g.
▪ ‘You might want to spend more time with your co-workers. It could tighten the
bond between you and them.’ instead of ‘Spend more time with your co-
workers. It tightens the bond between you and them.’

• How can you use language to sound natural and conversational? Give examples.
o Use active instead of passive voice or more active than passive voice e.g.
▪ ‘You need to choose the right solution. It’s important.’ instead of ‘The
appropriate solution needs to be chosen as it‘s important.’
o Use action verbs instead of nominalizing them (turn verbs into nouns e.g. ‘
▪ ‘improves’ instead of ‘makes improvement’
▪ ’agree' instead of ‘have an agreement’’
▪ 'observed’ instead of ’did observations'
▪ ’conversed’ instead of ‘had conversations’
o Use contractions appropriately e.g.
▪ ‘We’re’ instead of ‘We are’
▪ ‘it’s’ instead of ‘it is’
o Begin a sentence with e.g.
▪ ‘but’, and’ and ‘so’ when appropriate

• How can you use language which is short and concise? Give examples.
o Avoid prepositional phrases to denote possession of an object. Change the phrases
into single words and adjectives e.g.
▪ ‘employees’ hard work’ instead of ‘hard work of employees’
▪ ‘inefficient reward system' instead of 'inefficiency of the reward system’
▪ ‘the company’s operations’ instead of ‘the operations of the company’
o Avoid redundant or unnecessary words/ phrases which give too much details or
explain the obvious e.g.
▪ ‘incurs’ instead of ‘does incur’
▪ ‘annually’ instead of ‘every 365 days’
▪ ‘regain’ instead of ‘gain back’
▪ ‘meaningfully' instead of 'in a meaningful way’
▪ ‘to’ instead of 'in order to’
o Avoid tautology e.g.
▪ ’collaborate’ instead of 'collaborate together’
▪ ‘priority’ instead of ’first priority’

31
 o Avoid expletives (e.g. 'It is’, ‘There is’, ‘There are) which hide the main subject and
action. Use e.g.
▪ ‘We identify that’ instead of ‘It is identified that’
▪ ‘We need to’ instead of 'There is a need to’

• How can you use language which is simple and understandable? Give examples.
o Use simple vocabulary e.g.
▪ ‘use’ instead of ‘utilize’
▪ ‘help’ instead of ‘assist’
▪ ‘cheaper’ instead of ‘more economical’
o Avoid business jargon and clichés e.g.
▪ ‘leverage’, ‘collectivists’, ‘revolutionary’
• How can you use language which is accurate? Give examples of possible common errors in
speech.
o Errors in grammar: prepositions, subject-verb agreement, singular-plural nouns, and
so on.

Task 4: Using language which establishes sincerity and trust, is

natural and conversational, and is easy to understand
4.1 Read speaker 1’s presentation script.

In groups, discuss whether the speaker uses language which is:

• sincere and trustworthy;
• natural and conversational;
• easy to understand;

to establish excellent rapport with the audience, make the message effective, fully sustain the
audience’s attention and make an impact on the audience.

Discuss whether the speaker’s language is:

• inclusive
• positive
• ‘softened’ or less strong
• natural and conversational
• short and concise
• simple and understandable
• accurate

Use the guidelines given in the table.

Language Speaker 1
Overall
Excellent/ Very Good/ Competent/ Satisfactory
Is the speaker’s language:
• inclusive? Give examples.

• positive? Give examples.

• ‘softened’ or less strong? Give examples.

• natural and conversational? Give examples.

32
 • short and concise? Give examples.

• simple and understandable? Give examples.

• accurate? Give examples.

Line Presentation script

1 Good evening Mr. Zhang, Mr. Ma and Miss Wu.
2 We are the team from McKinsey.
3 I'm Jackie.
4 This is John, Natalie and Charlotte.
5 Taobao has dominated the Chinese market by defeated eBay.
6 However, as the service provided by Taobao is free of charge, there is little revenue
earned.
7 And this might be a burden for Alibaba.
8 Some shareholders of Alibaba might have dissatisfaction on Taobao as it reduces the
financial performance of Alibaba and this might affect their interest.
9 So, it is the time to monetize Taobao.
10 And we are going to introduce you two strategies.
11 The first one is to provide seller premium service.
12 And the second one is to help the sellers to design their webpage.
13 And before introducing you our strategies, let me talk about the online market first.
14 The number of Internet users has increased significantly since 2002.
15 At the same time, the number of, the number of the registered users of all online
shopping sites had reached 55 million people.
16 In 2007, these figures shows that this is the really big market and it is still continuously
growing.
17 So, how, although Taobao has about 84% of market share in this huge potential
market, we still need to prepare for our competitors.
18 They are eBay and Paipai.
19 Taobao have won the competition with eBay and forced it to shut its site.
20 However, eBay is still waiting for a chance to have its comeback by entered into a joint
venture with the Tom online.
21 And for another competitor Paipai, it has the advantage of huge community base as
both Paipai and QQ are owned by Tencent.
22 First, Taobao has a noisy webpage which fits the taste of the Chinese customers.
23 Also, it is totally free of charge and it encourages more buyers and sellers to join the
platform.
24 But the most important is Taobao has successfully built trust between the sellers and
buyers in several ways, such as providing identity verification, rating
system, err.. introducing Alipay and even providing, err even providing instant
messaging service.
25 These are all Taobao’s competitive advantages.
26 Now, John will talk about the first strategy.

TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of how language affects their ability to sound natural
and conversational, sincere and trustworthy, and easy to understand in presentations.

Language Speaker 1

33
Overall Competent
Excellent/ Very Good/ Competent/ Satisfactory Relatively easy to understand the speaker
due to generally appropriate language with
some systematic errors which do not
impede understanding.
Is the speaker’s language:

• inclusive? Give examples. • Could be even more inclusive by using

more ‘you’, ‘your’; e.g.
o ‘As your online site, Taobao,’
instead of ‘As the service
provided by Taobao’ (line 6);

• Uses ‘we’ and ‘our’ incorrectly as the

speaker is a consultant e.g.
o ‘although Taobao has about 84%
of market share in this huge
potential market, we still need to
prepare for our competitors’ (line
17)
• positive? Give examples. Though not offensive, the language might
be somewhat neutral i.e. just stating the
situation and facts. While this is acceptable,
the speech could be deemed to be less
persuasive.
• ‘softened’ or less strong? Give examples. Somewhat ‘softened by using modals e.g.
‘this might affect their interest’ (line 8)

• natural and conversational? Give Natural and conversational most of the time.
examples.
• Uses active voice but could use even
more e.g.
o ‘As Taobao provides service free
of charge, it earns little revenue’
instead of ‘However, as the
service provided by Taobao is
free of charge, there is little
revenue earned.’ (line 6)
o Tencent owns both Paipai and
QQ” instead of ‘both Paipai and
QQ are owned by Tencent’ (line
21)
• short and concise? Give examples. Short and concise most of the time.

• Could turn some verbs into nouns e.g.

o ‘might burden’ instead of ‘might
be a burden for Alibaba’ (line 7)
o ‘might be dissatisfied’ instead of
‘might have dissatisfaction’ (line
8)
o ‘have outcompeted’ instead of
‘have won the competition’ (line
19)
• Could change prepositional phrases
into single words and adjectives e.g.

34
 o ‘the financial performance of
Alibaba’ to ‘Alibaba’s financial
performance’ (line 8)’
o ‘Chinese customers’
taste’ instead of ‘the taste of the
Chinese customers’ (line 22)
• Could avoid redundant or
unnecessary words/ phrases which
give too much details or explain the
obvious e.g.
o ‘we will introduce you’ instead
of ‘we are going to introduce’
(line 10)
o ‘The first’ instead of ‘The first
one’ (line 11)
o ‘The second’ instead of
‘The second one’ (line 12)
o ‘Paipai, another
competitor, has...’ instead of
‘And for another
competitor Paipai, it has...’ (line
21)
o ‘Paipai and QQ’ instead of
‘both Paipai and QQ’ (line 21)
o ‘importantly’ instead of ‘the most
important is’ (line 24)
• Could avoid tautology e.g.
o ‘still continuously’
• simple and understandable? Give Uses simple and understandable words/
examples. phrases most of the time e.g.
• Could use ‘for Taobao to make
money’ instead of ‘monetize Taobao’
• accurate? Give examples. Could be more grammatically accurate e.g.

• ‘by defeating’ instead of ‘by defeated’

(line 5)
• ‘dissatisfaction with Taobao’ instead of
‘dissatisfaction on Taobao’ (line 8)
• ‘it is time’ instead of ‘it is the time’ (line
9)
• ‘these figures show’ instead of ‘these
figures shows’ (line 16)
• ‘a really big market’ instead of ‘the really
big market’ (line 16)
• ‘Taobao has’ instead of ‘Taobao have’
(line 19)
• ‘by entering’ instead of ‘by entered’ (line
20)
• ‘with Tom online’ instead of
‘with the Tom online’ (line 20)
• ‘a huge community base’ instead
of ‘huge community base’ (line 21)

35
4.2 In groups, re-write the script to make it more natural and conversational, sincere and
trustworthy, easy to understand and accurate.

Revised script

TN
This task aims to give students practice in using language to make speech sound natural and
conversational, sincere and trustworthy, and easy to understand in presentations.
Teachers should allow students to make changes in the way content is organized.

36
 Business Oral Presentation Skills II

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Understand and use stance, space, gestures, eye contact and

movement appropriately and effectively to fully persuade and engage the audience.

Persuading and engaging the audience non-verbally

To fully persuade and engage your audience, you should establish excellent rapport with your
audience, make your message effective, fully sustain your audience’s attention, and make an
impact on the audience.

Other than noting what you say to the audience, note how you say it (non-verbally) to the
audience.

You should look like you care about the audience. Ask yourself:
• How can you look confident, energetic and enthusiastic?
• How can you use space very well?
• How can you maintain a composed stance?
• How can you use natural and meaningful gestures?
• How can you maintain consistent eye contact with the entire audience?
• How can you move naturally?

Task 1: Understanding the ‘delivery’ criteria

1.1 Get in groups. Look at some ‘delivery’ criteria in your business presentation. Discuss and
demonstrate what you should do to look confident, energetic and enthusiastic, use space,
gestures, eye contact and movement to fully persuade and engage the audience:

• establish excellent rapport with the audience;

• make the message effective;
• fully sustain the audience’s attention;
• make an impact on the audience.

Discuss and also demonstrate what you should not do as you deliver your presentation.

37
Scale
Excellent Highly confident, energetic, and enthusiastic throughout;
adopts a very composed stance.

Uses natural and meaningful hand gestures.

Maintains consistent eye contact with the entire audience.

Uses space very well and moves naturally.

Very good Highly confident, energetic, and enthusiastic except in one or
two minor instances; adopts a very composed stance.

Uses natural and meaningful hand gestures.

Maintains consistent eye contact with the audience.

Uses space well and moves naturally.

Competent Reasonably confident, energetic, and enthusiastic, adopts a
relatively composed stance.

Uses hand gestures which are not distracting, but they may not
be natural or meaningful (i.e. repetitive).

Makes good effort at eye contact with the audience though

some of it may be lost due to taking quick glimpses at the
screen/ script/ note cards and/ or looking away when recalling
their thoughts.

Able to make good use of space and movement is natural and

is not distracting.
Satisfactory Noticeably nervous, but performance is not significantly
affected; lacks energy and/ or enthusiasm.

Makes some attempt at gestures but they are often unnatural/

awkward/ not meaningful or may be distracting/ overused/
underused.

Has inconsistent eye contact with the audience as they may be

relying on the screen/ script/ note cards quite often/ avoiding
genuine eye contact.

Shows some awareness of space but may move around too

much/ not quite enough/ appear stiff/ rigid/ awkward at times.

TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of the ‘delivery’ criteria in their presentations. Teachers
should encourage students to demonstrate what they should do to look confident, energetic and
enthusiastic, use space, gestures, eye contact and movement to fully persuade and engage the
audience.

Teachers should also demonstrate to students what they should not do.

38
Here are some things which students/teachers can demonstrate.

Confidence, energy, enthusiasm and stance

• Take a deep breath before a presentation.

• Stretch before a presentation.
• Relax the shoulders.
• Stand up straight.
• Have slight body movements (vs. stand still and look stiff).
• Put on a smile.
• Know your talk well (confidence from within).
• Walk from side to side naturally (note: students should be reminded that doing so
continuously in front of a small audience in a classroom could be distracting and
meaningless, compared to doing so in front of hundreds of people in a lecture theater)

Space: A simple rule is ‘not too far away from or not too close to the audience’. This depends
on the size and shape of the presentation venue and where the audience is seated.

Gestures

• Lift elbows and place them naturally beside the waist, not too far out from the waist and
not too close to the waist
• Use both hands most of the time, naturally
• Use open gestures e.g. not palm-down gestures

Eye contact

• Make eye contact with each individual OR divide viewing the audience into three sections
and focus on a section a time.

Some examples of what not to do

• Standing behind the teaching console or in front of the projector screen

• Swaying in front of the audience.
• Standing in front of the projector lights.
• Tapping with pens.
• Fidgeting with clothes, pockets or jewelry.
• Fussing with hair.
• Frowning.
• Looking bored, tired or distracted.
• Using one hand to clutch the other arm.
• Putting hands in pocket, consistently putting hands in front, behind, or at the side or in
one position all the time.
• Using gestures which are distracting/ exaggerate
• Rolling your eyes up as you think.
• Looking at presentation slides all the time.
• Looking at notecards/ paper
• Reading to the audience.

39
 Task 2: Looking confident, energetic and enthusiastic.
Using space, stance, gestures, eye contact and movement.
2.1 In groups, watch speaker 1 who is role-playing as a senior consultant at McKinsey &
Company. The speaker, with their colleague, is presenting to Daniel Zhang (CEO of Alibaba
Group), Jack Ma (Founder, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Alibaba Group) and Maggie
Wu (Chief Financial Officer). The task is to persuade the audience strategies on how to monetize
Taobao.

In groups, discuss whether the speaker’s confidence, energy and enthusiasm, stance, use of
space, gestures, eye contact, and movement fully persuade and engage the audience:

• establishes excellent rapport with the audience;

• makes the message effective;
• fully sustains the audience’s attention;
• makes an impact on the audience.

Use the guidelines given in the table and comment on the speaker’s performance.

Delivery Speaker 1
Overall
Excellent/ Very Good/ Competent/ Satisfactory

Confidence, energy and enthusiasm, and

stance
Is the speaker:
• highly confident, energetic, and enthusiastic
throughout?

Does the speaker:

• adopt a very composed stance?

Hand gestures
Does the speaker:
• use natural and meaningful hand gestures?

Eye contact
Does the speaker:
• maintain consistent eye contact with the
entire audience?

Space and movement

Does the speaker:
• use space very well and move naturally?

TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of how delivery (confidence, energy and enthusiasm,
stance, use of space, gestures, eye contact, and movement) affects how the speaker can fully
persuade and engage the audience:
• establishes excellent rapport with the audience;
• makes the message effective;
• fully sustains the audience’s attention;
• makes an impact on the audience.

40
Teachers can use this video link [Link] (0:00-3:15).
Show the video but mute the voice. Do not give students the link.

Delivery Speaker 1

Overall
Excellent/ Very Good/ Competent/ Satisfactory Competent

Confidence, energy and enthusiasm, and

stance
Is the speaker: Reasonably confident, energetic, and
• highly confident, energetic, and enthusiastic enthusiastic. Adopts a relatively composed
throughout? stance.

Does the speaker:

adopt a very composed stance?

Hand gestures
Does the speaker:
use natural and meaningful hand gestures? Uses hand gestures which are not distracting,
but they may not be natural or meaningful e.g.
repetitive.

Eye contact
Does the speaker:
• maintain consistent eye contact with the Makes good effort at eye contact with the
entire audience? audience though some of it might not be
directed at the entire audience.

Space and movement

Does the speaker:
• use space very well and move naturally? Able to make good use of space and movement
is natural and is not distracting.

2.2 Watch speaker 2 whose excellent delivery persuades and engages their audience. Note the
speaker’s confidence, energy and enthusiasm, stance, use of space, gestures, eye contact, and
movement.

TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of how excellent delivery (confidence, energy and
enthusiasm, stance, use of space, gestures, eye contact, and movement) affects how the speaker
can fully persuade and engage the audience:
• establishes excellent rapport with the audience;
• makes the message effective;
• fully sustains the audience’s attention;
• makes an impact on the audience.
Teachers can use this link [Link] (0:00- 2:45).
Show the video but mute the voice. Do not give students the link. If teachers have time, they
can ask students to compare why speaker 2 delivers (confidence, energy and enthusiasm,
stance, use of space, gestures, eye contact, and movement) better than speaker 1.

41
2.3 Present the modified script from speaker 1. Look confident, energetic and enthusiastic; use
space very well; maintain a composed stance; use natural and meaningful gestures; maintain
consistent eye contact with the entire audience; and move naturally.

Ensure that you establish excellent rapport with the audience; make your message effective; fully
sustain the audience’s attention; and make an impact on the audience.

Script

So, it’s time to monetize Taobao.

And we’ll introduce you two strategies.

The first is to provide seller premium service.

And the second is to help sellers to design their webpage.

Let’s look at the online market.

Since 2002, the number of Internet users has increased significantly.

TN
This task aims to get students to practise delivery. Teachers can ask students:
• to present the script individually and then give quick verbal feedback on these aspects
(confidence, energy and enthusiasm, stance, use of space, gestures, eye contact, and
movement) OR
Note: Teachers may want to video record the practice to show students their performance.
• to present the script individually and then ask other students to give quick verbal feedback on
these aspects (confidence, energy and enthusiasm, stance, use of space, gestures, eye
contact, and movement) OR
• to video record their speech individually and self-evaluate aspects (confidence, energy and
enthusiasm, stance, use of space, gestures, eye contact, and movement) they need to
improve OR
• to present the script to a partner/ present the script individually within a small group for
feedback on aspects (confidence, energy and enthusiasm, stance, use of space, gestures,
eye contact, and movement) to improve.

42
 Business Case Analyses – Case 1 (I)

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this cycle, students will be able to:

• apply critical reading and thinking skills to extract key information from a business
case.
• define key issues in a business case and support these with evidence from the case.
• conduct research on management styles and cross-cultural communication to
understand in detail key issues in the case.

TN
Case 1 Quiz ensures students read the case before coming to class. Teachers may debrief
some key points at the beginning of the lesson. Refer to Canvas for details, e.g. completion
deadline.
Four lessons are scheduled for Case 1 (I) and (II).
Case 1 (I):
• Form teams and explain the assessments.
• Work on Task 1.
• Introduce Task 2 and if time allows, let students work on it in class.
• Students share findings for Task 2 (could be a presentation practice).
• Work on Task 3.
• If time allows, let students discuss solutions and share ideas.
Case 1 (II)
• Share how the assessed oral presentation should be organized.
• Ensure that students analyze the different audiences for oral presentation 1 and the
recommendation report.
• Do a 5-min presentation practice (per group) and learn from feedback to get ready
for oral presentation 1.

Case Scenario and Assessed Tasks

Read and understand the scenario in, and assessed tasks on, Case 1, West Indies Yacht
Club Resort: When Cultures Collide. N o t e the assessment dates and submission due
dates.

TN
Remind students that they should understand the situation presented in the assessment well –
Patrick Dowd and his team were at the resort for a week before the presentation. He had already
met the US expatriates and some of the local staff members. Lacking this awareness will lead
to awkward presentation openings such as ‘I’m Patrick Dowd from the US. I’ve come to WIYCR
to observe your operations…’.

As students conduct some search online, students might:

o gain a better understanding of the services guests should expect from a luxury resort
and whether some resorts manage to keep up their service quality.
o find out that it might not be easy to find available rooms during peak season, i.e. the
resort may be fully occupied during peak season.
o find out about the price range of a luxury resort.

43
Task 1: The Case Analyses Process – Case 1

1.1 Analyze Case 1: West Indies Yacht Club Resort: When Cultures Collide.

Step 1. Read the case and then discuss:

a. What is the case about?

b. Who are the stakeholders and what are their concerns or vested interests?

TN
a. Students should summarize the case in their own words.
(Suggested answer) The case follows Patrick Dowd, a management consultant, through a
series of observations and interactions with both local and expatriate staff and resort guests.
These interactions conclude with Dowd contemplating changes he would recommend to
improve service, inter-cultural employee relations, management turnover, and motivation.

b. At this stage, students need not look at each individual manager or local staff to understand
the concerns or vested interests. Instead, teachers can guide students to different ‘groups’
of stakeholders in this case. Students will analyze each manager’s leadership styles in a
subsequent task.

Jim Johnson, General Manager – He is concerned about the competitiveness of the resort
(e.g. profit and reputation) compared to other similar resorts in the area. He needs to ensure
that manpower is effectively used in the company. He has to ensure internally that his staff
(both US expats and locals) do their jobs well, are motivated and are willing to remain in the
company, and externally that the guests enjoy their stay at the resort and will return.

US expatriate managers – All except for one are the line managers of each work team.
The managers need to ensure their staff or subordinates deliver their work effectively and
efficiently, and that they can fulfil the work expectations or target given by the General
Manager.

BVI staff – They are usually the frontline staff. They are probably the ones who are at the
receiving end of complaints if they occur. Thus, they want to carry out only duties they are
familiar with, and want to be sure of what to do. They also value relationships and harmony.

Step 2. What is the problem and its underlying cause(s)?

TN
Reminder (from Mini Case I): One key learning point for students is to be able to distinguish
between symptoms (i.e. problems) and underlying causes. Teachers should stress how
important it is to solve the root cause of a problem.

Symptom Underlying cause

High expatriate Resort has hired managers not suited for expatriate work.
turnover
Cultural differences, personal problems, difficulties in adapting to the
environment – work and country and making the appropriate transitions
from working in own country to working in a foreign country.

44
 Increasing Drop in service quality due to: inadequate staffing during peak season;
number of attitudes or perceptions of the locals about their responsibilities and duties;
guest lack of enthusiasm and interest in customers and their jobs.
complaints
Lack of communication between the headquarters and the resort about
overbooking (p.16 of case study).
Tension Behavioral differences, different personalities, communication and
between integration problems, inappropriate leadership or management styles, low
expatriate & morale (on the locals’ part) due to high expatriate turnover.
local staff

Low employee Cultural differences and government regulations that protect their jobs.
motivation

As students tend to analyze the symptoms one by one, teachers should direct them to thinking
more critically:
1. Are the symptoms separate or intertwined (e.g. any causal relationships)?
2. Do the symptoms share any common underlying cause? In other words, targeting at
one common cause should solve most of the problems at the root.

Cross-cultural management is definitely the main theme of the case. The cultural differences
between the local staff and expatriate managers will be researched and discussed in a
subsequent task.

Some students may identify BVI labor laws as the major contributing factor to the problems.
However, delving into labor laws can be very confusing and limiting with respect to what
solutions may be possible. Teachers can acknowledge the restrictions that the local laws place
on the resort as described in the case, but should also guide students to consider
recommendations that address the day-to-day interactions and operations at the resort. Also,
labor laws have changed since the publication of this case (1994), and students should be
encouraged to take an up-to-date approach to addressing the problems.

Step 3. What information do you need to help you understand the issue more thoroughly and
make better decisions?

TN
Students may suggest relevant topics, e.g. duties of a General Manager (vs. a line manager) and
features of a resort’s operations, and then do the research later.

The two major research topics – management styles and cultural differences – will be discussed
in subsequent tasks.

Step 4. What are the possible options to deal with the issue? What are their pros and cons?

Step 5. What actions would you recommend?

TN
Steps 4 and 5
Students may have preliminary ideas but they will develop better solutions after the
subsequent research tasks. So, teachers should allow perhaps five minutes for a quick
discussion before moving onto the next task.

45
Task 2: Describing Management Styles
2.1 To better understand the problems in the case, read this text.

A management style, simply, is an overall method of leadership used by any manager.

Managers perform many roles within organizations or companies and their management
styles are highly dependent on the tasks, situations and people. The key to being a
successful manager is to have varied management styles which are to be used flexibly
to get the best outcomes of the tasks, situations and people. Here are four common
management styles:

1. autocratic
2. democratic
3. paternalistic
4. laissez-faire

Managers who adopt the autocratic (controlling) style usually make all decisions, are very
involved in every decision made and would instruct others what to do. It is a top-down
communication approach from the manager leaders to subordinates. While there might be
consistency in business decisions, subordinates tend to be more dependent on the manager
leaders, and are in need of supervision.

Managers who adopt the democratic (hands-on) style include employees in the decision-
making process and there is a consensus amongst the majority. Here, communication goes
both ways from the managers to the employees and vice-versa. While employees tend to
be more satisfied with their jobs and work quality tends to improve, what might be the best
decision might not be adopted, and the decision-making process tends to be slowed down.

Managers who adopt the paternalistic (semi-controlling) style are controlling but make
decisions in the best interests of employees rather than businesses. Managers would
interact with others, showing concern on a deeper social level and this would promote
employee loyalty. Employees, similar to the subordinates of autocratic-style managers, are
dependent on the managers but might be unhappy when the managers make the wrong
decisions.

Managers who adopt the laissez-faire (behind the scenes) style would mostly set targets
but allow others to do the work. The managers’ roles are minimal and employees manage
the work themselves. Communication tends to be less common than the other three styles
discussed. While this style is more suitable for highly professional employees, it can lead
to poor management. Employees tend to lack direction and might be unhappy.

46
TN
Teachers may check students’ understanding with the mini-task given (not in the SN). The task
also helps with critical reading/ listening and thinking.

Which management style(s) did Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. adopt according to:

a. this blog (from [Link] but has been removed)

Steve Jobs was unique as a CEO in the decisions he made; everything had to go through him
from design to the launch of a product. He made not just the big decisions but the little ones,
down to the design of the Apple shuttle bus and what food was served in the canteens.

Steve Jobs ran the tightest ship in Silicon Valley. Every product was his own vision and woe
betide the person who altered it. Clear vision coupled with effective communication meant that
Apple's aim was to release products exactly how Jobs envisaged them. This design strategy -
avoiding the group effort of most manufacturing companies is risky - if Jobs comes up with a bad
idea, then a huge amount of resources have been wasted. The thing is - he didn't come up with
bad ideas.

b. an interview in 2010 ([Link]

Suggested answers
(a. the text): autocratic; (b. the video): democratic (each employee was in charge of a specific
duty and was allowed to contribute their own ideas; Jobs trusted his employees and let them
make a lot of decisions.); paternalistic (“what I [Jobs] do all day is meet with teams of people
and work on…solve problems…”; he also contributed his ideas.)

Follow-up question: “Was Steve Jobs managing in a self-contradictory manner?”

Not necessarily. First, the article was probably written by an outsider of Apple while the interview
was given by Jobs himself. The perspectives are different. Second and more important, while
Jobs dictated the vision and the overall product offerings (autocratic), he allowed ideas to flourish
within the framework (democratic) and participated in the process when problems arose
(paternalistic).

2.2 Profile the key players in Case 1 based on the table headings below. See the example given.
Discuss the key players’ management styles and rate their respective effectiveness with
effective, semi-effective, barely effective, not effective. You must support your analyses with
evidence from the case.

The key players are:

1. Joe Kimball
2. Tom Fitch
3. Kent Mawhinney
4. Kristin Singiser
5. Steve Lucas
6. Enrik Harrigan
7. Dave Pickering

47
 Personal Details Management Style and Effectiveness
Jim Johnson (Example) Laissez-faire and semi-effective
Age: 48 years • Behind-the-scenes manager; provides detailed
Position: goals but leaves the execution to other managers
General Manager • Spends a lot of time in his office having meetings
with department heads
• Has confidence in his staff
• Always rushes and is in a hurry
• Knows what is wrong but does not know how to fix it
(that is why he has to hire Dowd to be a consultant)

TN
Personal Details Management Style and Effectiveness
Joe Kimball Laissez-faire and not effective: Tried to be hands-on but because of
Age: In his 70s where he is based and his other business interests, he is perceived as
Position: President being removed and distant by some staff; manages the resort from afar
and does not interact nor demand from his employees, e.g. no longer
knows their names (not nurturing); ‘…knew fewer and fewer of his
employees by name’; ‘visited the WIYCR resort less frequently’;
‘believes that marketing activities should take place close to the
customers’; ‘local employees thought that Kimball was increasingly
distant and removed’. Gives general directions and entrusts the
marketing job to Tom Fitch.
Tom Fitch Laissez-faire and semi-effective: Hands-on and high profile only on
Age:32 specific occasions and times of the year; always present when there are
Position: Marketing important events to serve business interests; “frantically tried to assure
and Special the guests’ needs are met’. Communicates little with the locals and
Promotions Director shows little care.
Kent Mawhinney Paternalistic and effective: Hands-on and high profile all the time.
Age:40 Willing to be involved with all levels of staff in their work i.e. get his
Position: Property hands dirty. Believes that ‘management by walking around’ is needed;
Manager leads by example and physically demonstrates what needs to be done.
Takes note of each manager’s immediate challenges.
Kristin Singiser Paternalistic and effective: Involved and energetic. Cares for her
Age:35 staff, e.g. ‘she had adapted to local culture, made close friends with
locals and took a sincere interest in them.’; ‘she had sincere interest in
Position: Rooms
[the staff] and was involved in local culture’, and invites local staff to
Division Manager dinner. Leads by example i.e. demonstrates instead of instructs.
Hands-on and ‘with and for’ her staff. Tough but fair and concerned,
e.g. ‘bashing them over the head with it’.

48
 Steve Lucas Autocratic and not effective: Control freak and heavy-handed with
Age:28 subordinates, and cares about quality of staff. Works to ‘please’.
Position: Food and Expects the resort head chef to tell him when something is not possible
Beverage Director (i.e. that the ingredients are not available for the cheesecake). Works to
‘please’ top management by whatever means; Lucas ‘knows the people
in Chicago expect big things from him and he plans to deliver – no
matter what it takes.’ Does not socialize with the local staff and prefers
to keep his distance and ‘hang out with guests’; loves to keep business
and his personal life separate.
Enrik Harrigan Laissez-faire and semi-effective: Has problems delegating work and
Age: 27 responsibilities and managing the operations though able to earn the
Position: Water respect of local staff. Has difficulties ‘assigning tasks and managing’
Sports the waterfront perhaps because these might move him to ‘out-group’
Director status. Laid-back, in-group, and friendly.
Dave Pickering Positive, helpful, ambitious, responsible and hardworking but has
Age:22 difficulties understanding the locals’ attitudes and mentality. Works too
Position: Water hard and stands out: makes $50 to $100 a day in tips by working hard.
Sports coach Takes the initiative without being asked: does the guest briefing even
though it is his day off.

Task 3: Hofstede’s Dimensions of National Culture

Hofstede’s Dimensions of National Culture is another important research area. Learn about the
dimensions from [Link]

1. Power Distance Index (PDI)

2. Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV)
3. Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS)
4. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)

3.1 Rate the four dimensions of your home city/ country on a scale of 0-100. Then check
your answers with the ratings on [Link]

My home city/ country: My perceived rating Hofstede’s rating

Power Distance (PDI)

Individualism versus collectivism (IDV)

Masculinity versus femininity (MAS)

Uncertainty avoidance (UAI)

Are your perceived ratings similar to Hofstede’s? Read the interpretations below the chart.

49
TN
For each of the four dimensions, a higher score means:
• Higher power distance
• More individualistic
• More masculine
• Less tolerant of uncertainty

3.2 Complete the chart by comparing how the USA and the BVI employees behave. You
m a y be asked to explain your findings to the class.

Cultural USA BVI

Dimensions
Individualism/ Individualistic / Collectivistic* Individualistic / Collectivistic*
Collectivism
Evidence from the case: Evidence from the case:

Power Distance High / Low power distance* High / Low power distance*

Evidence from the case: Evidence from the case:

Uncertainty High / Low uncertainty avoidance* High / Low uncertainty avoidance*

Avoidance
Evidence from the case: Evidence from the case:

Masculinity Masculine / Feminine* Masculine / Feminine*

/ Femininity
Evidence from the case: Evidence from the case:

*Circle the appropriate.

TN
US: Individualistic; BVI: Collectivistic
US: Low power distance; BVI: High power distance
US: Low uncertainty avoidance; BVI: High uncertainty avoidance
US: Masculine; BVI: Feminine

Being able to identify relevant evidence and use it as support is part of the assessment.
Teachers may ask groups to share their findings but should not be discussing the answers with
them comprehensively.

50
 Business Case Analyses – Case 1 (II)

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this cycle, students will be able to:

• structure a business oral presentation effectively to meet the audience’s needs.

o analyze the generic structure of a business presentation and adapt the structure
to meet the audience’s needs in oral presentation 1.
o open the presentation interestingly and clearly to get the audience’s attention.
o include an effective body.
o conclude the presentation with a summary and a strong call to action.
• understand how to demonstrate teamwork in a business oral presentation.
• analyze the audiences’ needs in oral presentation 1 and recommendation writing
assessments.

Task 1: Presentation Structure and Teamwork

1.1 Watch the presentation of the first finalist team in the CBS Case Competition 2014 Finals
([Link] 18’40”-33’35”). Analyze the presentation
by answering the following questions:

a. Who is the audience?

TN
Judges, CEO and Board of Directors (simulated)

b. How is the presentation organized? Fill in the content of the generic structure below.

Introduction

Body

Conclusion
(See question d.)

51
TN
Introduction
A hook
Greetings
Self-introductions
Presentation agenda
Goals and objectives

Body
Analyses (Industry/ Customer Segment/ Company/ Growth Option/ SWOT)
Problem statement
Tactical evaluation (i.e. criteria for evaluating solutions)
Strategy statement (LINKS/ LOVE/ LEARN)
Strategies (i.e. recommendations)
Outcomes
Financials
Risk mitigation Implementation timeline
Alternative strategies
Conclusion
(See question d.)

c. How does the first speaker try to get the audience’s attention? Suggest some other ways
appropriate in your context.

TN
A personal story relevant to the case
Other ways:
• Business stories
• Shocking data
• Rhetorical questions
• Relevant quotes
• Jokes (Appropriate?)
Reminder: A hook is optional

d. How does the last speaker conclude the presentation? Is it effective/ impactful?

TN
Reiterate the short-term and long-term objectives
Wrap up with the theme, “3L”.

Quite effective, summarizing the key ideas; but this is done too quickly as the presenter
is probably running out of time.
Teachers should stress the importance of an impactful conclusion (to be forward-looking).

1.2 How would you adapt the structure to meet the audience’s needs in your assessed
presentation?

52
TN
Introduction → Keep some parts
A hook→ Keep
Greetings→ Keep
Self-introductions→ Keep (depending on which audience)
Presentation agenda→ Keep
Goals and objectives→ Keep
Analyses (Problem + root cause) → Keep
Problem statement → Keep

Note: Though ‘analyses’ and ‘problem statement’ might be in the body of the presentation, they
could also be placed in the introduction, depending on the context and audience’s needs.
Note: Teachers should share with students this introduction structure which could be
used in the assessed oral presentations.

• Acknowledge the audience and address their presence.

• Address the audience’s concerns and interests and make the opening highly relevant to
the audience using appropriate attention getters (e.g. reference to event or occasion,
statistics, rhetorical statements; illustrations etc.).
• State the purpose (e.g. to help the audience…).
• Secure goodwill and trust with the audience by establishing credibility, i.e. say why they
are the best person (e.g. relate job experience to the audience’s needs) to help the
audience and how listening to what they have to say would benefit the audience.
• Present the relevant problems by making general references to events tactfully. (Note:
teams can choose to either raise the problems in the opening or to raise them as they are
making the recommendations. Whatever the teams do, they need to relate the problems
to the recommendations)

Body → Keep some parts

Tactic evaluation → Criteria for evaluating solutions

Strategy Statement (LINKS/ LOVE/ LEARN) → Keep
Strategies (i.e. recommendations) → Keep; the most important content
Outcomes → Keep
Financials → Not needed
Risk Mitigation → Not needed
Implementation timeline → Optional
Alternative strategies → Not needed

Note: Teachers should share with students this body structure which could be used in
the assessed oral presentations.

• Package the recommendations under a unifying theme or goal.

• State clearly the recommendations and how the audience would benefit or possible
impact of the recommendations.
• Explain the problems the recommendations help solve.
• Refer to, e.g. success of the recommendations elsewhere.

Conclusion → Keep

53
Note: Teachers should share with students this conclusion structure which could be used
in the assessed oral presentations.
• Conclude the presentation with a summary and a strong call to action, i.e. would help
the audience visualize what would happen if the audience take or do not take action.

1.3 How did the presenters hand over from one speaker to the next? Do you think the
strategy they use is effective? What are some other ways to demonstrate teamwork in a
presentation?

TN
Transitions
1 > 2 “…pass to 222 to further expand the strategies.” > “Thank you, 111.”
2 > 3 “…333 will now address the second initiative.” > “Thank you, 222.”
3 > 4 “…444 is going to walk us through how the 3L strategies…”

Note: In the assessed LABU presentations, presenters may hand over from one speaker to the
next without using verbal transitions.

Teamwork
• Pay attention to the speaker or the audience.
• Know where to stand when not presenting
• Ensure that PPT slides are consistent in style.
• Coordinate slides smoothly.
• Distribute time appropriately amongst team members.
• Cooperate in the Q & A session.

Task 2: Analyzing and Presenting to Different Audiences

In Mini Case II: California Wood Harvesting Co., you analyzed the audiences in three areas to
better meet their needs:
1. Relationships
2. Attitudes
3. Needs and Goals

2.1 How will you analyze the three audiences for the assessed oral presentation 1 and assessed
recommendation writing?

TN
Teachers may ask students to refer back to Mini Case II lesson. The analyses of ‘needs and
goals’ would be the most important in helping students prepare for their assessed oral
presentation 1 and recommendation writing.

54
 Expatriate Managers Local Staff Jim Johnson (GM)
(for the report)
Relationships External; client’s External; client’s External; client; he
colleagues; you’ve colleagues; you’ve requests your
‘worked’ and talked with ‘worked’ and talked with company’s consulting
them directly during some of them directly services, and is your
your stay at the resort; during your stay at the direct point of contact
they may identify you resort
as one of them (i.e.
expatriates)
Attitudes Neutral or perhaps a Neutral or perhaps Open, eager to know
little sceptical curious about your your ideas
ideas
Needs and You want to convince You want to convince He wants solutions (the
Goals them of the problems them of the problems report) to the problems,
(that they need to be (that the resort is not so be direct.
more culturally aware, offering quality service,
and need to change or and that they could be
adapt their more motivated). Only
management styles). then will they be willing
Only then will they be and motivated, based
willing and motivated/ on their cultural traits
incentivized to take (e.g. collectively) to
action (your take action (your
recommendations) recommendations)

2.2 Based on the audience analyses, present the introduction and one recommendation to the
audience assigned to you for oral presentation 1 in five minutes.

TN
Teachers MUST do this presentation practice, probably in the second last or the last Case I
lesson, to be fair to students in all sections. Conduct a 2-3 min Q&A after each team presentation
so that the team can get feedback (probably on content) from peers. Teachers should also give
feedback (probably on delivery and language) to get students ready for the assessment. Direct
students to the descriptors on Canvas to set expectations.

***In an online semester in which students submit oral presentation 1 recordings: teachers
may ask the groups to record their practice videos (introduction + 1 recommendation in 5 mins
per group) and submit the links for teachers’ feedback. Teachers can arrange group consultations.

55
 Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses I

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• identify differences between spoken and written forms of business communication.

• identify differences between academic and business writing.
• analyze the audience in business writing and in the recommendation report writing
assessment.
• identify and understand the structure and sections of the recommendation report.
• identify the functions and language of the Introduction of a report.
• write the Introduction of a report.

Task 1: Spoken versus Written Forms

Business communication may involve sharing internal information that can benefit an
organization commercially and promote an organization’s products or services externally to
potential customers. These communications can be spoken and/or written.

To communicate effectively, you should be aware of the differences between the spoken
and written forms. In the assessed oral presentation, you communicated with a specific
audience orally. In the next few lessons, you will learn how to communicate with a
different audience by writing a recommendation report.

1.1 In group s, discu ss a nd th en list the differences between spoken and written forms.
Also identify three types of spoken or written communication that may be commonly found in a
business context.

Spoken Written

TN
Text adapted from
[Link] [Link]

Spoken Written
• There is usually no permanent record. • Has a permanent written record.
• Less costly. • More costly.
• Speaker is usually under time pressure. • Writer has a prolonged processing time.
• Listener has limited processing time. • Reader has more processing time.
• Less time to prepare and transmit a • More time to prepare and transmit a
message. message.
• Possible time limit. • Possible word/page limit.
• Immediate feedback. • Delayed or immediate feedback
• Examples: oral presentations, talks, depending on contexts.
meetings • Examples: email, reports, minutes

56
Task 2: Academic versus Business Writing
To understand business writing better, identify the differences between business and
academic writing ( e.g. the academic essays you might be more familiar with).

2.1 In groups, discuss and list key differences between academic and business writing, and
similarities if any. You may think about variou s e lemen ts in clud in g the purpose, audience,
genre, ownership, style, use of sources, and format. You may use this table below.

Academic writing Business writing

TN
Academic writing Business writing
Differences
a. Purpose Students write to learn or to Business people write to get work
demonstrate that they have done or to recommend action i.e.
learnt e.g. argue a case to show transactional writing e.g. to solve
their professor that they can problems, to report earnings, to
apply certain concepts. report activities, to negotiate
contracts, to direct future growth
and so on.

b. Audience Write for one reader usually Write usually for a complex group
e.g. teachers. of readers such as stakeholders
with different needs and interests
e.g. CEO, managers, customers,
employees, shareholders,
regulatory bodies, and lawyers.
c. Genre types Include papers, exams, essays, Include reports, memos, letters,
journals, reports. proposals, business plans,
marketing plans, handbooks,
manuals, performance evaluations
and so on.
d. Ownership Students own the documents. The company owns the documents
and these include confidential and
proprietary information.
e. Collaboration Usually write individually without Usually work in groups to write
showing the writing to other documents and get feedback from
classmates. others.

57
f. Style Write in a style using paragraphs, Write in a style which includes fewer
tends to be more scholarly, paragraphs and in bullet points, not
supporting evidence may be scholarly, supporting evidence may
more academic (e.g. expert be more anecdotal (e.g. parallel
opinions, data, theories). cases, testimonials).

g. Attributing Paraphrase and quote from Paraphrase, quote and boilerplate

sources outside sources using convention text within their organization without
styles of the academic field e.g. attributing sources.
APA, MLA and so on.
h. Use of product The essays or reports written are The same documents could be
usually the end-product and will transformed into oral presentations
not be reused and/or meetings

Similarities
a. Informative to provide facts or a. Informative to record facts or
persuasive to argue. persuasive to recommend an
action/to help in making decisions.

b. Written with a specific reader in b. Written with a specific reader in

mind. mind.

Source: [Link]

Features of effective business writing include the following.

1. achieves its purpose efficiently (in the shortest amount of time/ length).
2. provides precise and concise information.
3. persuades and convinces the reader(s).
4. might call the reader to action.
5. preserves and/or enhances the writer’s credibility.
6. establishes and /or enhances goodwill between the writer and the reader.
7. leaves a useful record for future reference.

The first four will be used to evaluate business writing in Task 3.

58
Task 3: Evaluating Business Writing
3.1 Review the fo llo win g e ma il and evaluate its effectiveness based on four essential
features of business writing discussed in #2.1. The bolded sentences will be used to review the
language used in #3.2.

From the Hong Kong government to HKUST Human Resources

Dear Sir/Madam,

A recent applicant is being considered for a teaching position in a primary/secondary

school in Hong Kong. The applicant has provided the name of your institute for reference
as their previous employer.

In order that full consideration may be given to the application, we would appreciate your kind
assistance in completing the attached and returning it to us. The information provided in
the form will be treated as strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to any other
person or organization.

Please be advised that the applicant’s consent for us to perform reference checks and
for organizations to release records and information about them for purposes relating
to recruitment by and employment with a school in Hong Kong has been obtained.
Should you have any questions, please contact me or respond to the address of this email.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would let me have your reply within 5 days from the
date of this email. Thank you for your kind attention and I look forward to your prompt
response.

Yours faithfully,
Recruitment Officer, HK Education Bureau

Content Yes/ no Why/ why not?

Achieves itsfeFeature
purpose efficiently
s
(in the shortest amount of time/
length)?

Provides accurate and concise

information?

Persuades and convinces the

reader?

Calls the reader to action?

59
TN
Features Yes/no Why/why not?
Achieves its purpose (in the No The purpose is stated but i s done too late,
shortest amount of time/length)? not until the second paragraph. The email also
does not provide any details concerning the
information that the writer requires.

Provides precise and concise No The writer undermines the conciseness of the
information? message by using passive voice when an
active one would be more clear and impactful.
For example, the first two paragraphs could be
rephrased and condensed into active voice:
“The HKEB requests that you confirm the
employment history of a recent applicant,
(name). The applicant has authorized this
disclosure, and any information received will be
treated with strict confidence.”

There is a noticeable lack of necessary

information including the following.
• Name of the applicant in the body of the
email
• The specific teaching position the applicant
is pursuing
• General details regarding the information
needed in the attachment
• Name, title, and alternative contact
information for the writer

Persuades and convinces the No This item concerns effectiveness as the

reader? writer should express the call to action earlier
(2nd paragraph) so that the reader
immediately knows what is expected of them.
The writer could also include more details
about what to expect (e.g. dates of
employment, specific duties). The writer also
fails to include a proper signature (name,
position, contact information) to make the
email credible.

Calls the reader to action? Yes The writer includes the intended action of the
reader; they have even noted the 5-day
deadline. However, the overall ineffectiveness
of the email does not motivate the reader to
respond in a timely manner.

3.2 After evaluating the email content, focus on the language used in the two bolded sentences.
Answer the questions to identify why these sentences are ineffective for a business context.

60
Language

1. The information provided in the form will be treated as strictly confidential and will
not be disclosed to any other person or organization.

What is redundant in this sentence?

2. Please be advised that the applicant’s consent for us to perform reference checks
and for organizations to release records and information about them for purposes
relating to recruitment by and employment with a school in Hong Kong has
been obtained.

How does this sentence structure affect clarity?

Language

1. The information provided in the form will be treated as strictly confidential and will
not be disclosed to any other person or organization.

What is redundant in this sentence?

This sentence is noticeably redundant in that “strictly confidential” already establishes that
information “will not be disclosed.”
2. Please be advised that the applicant’s consent for us to perform reference checks
and for organizations to release records and information about them for purposes
relating to recruitment by and employment with a school in Hong Kong has
been obtained.

61
How does this sentence structure affect clarity?
Although this sentence is noticeably long, its lack of clarity is due more to its structure.
1. Passive structure indicated by “has been obtained.”
• The sentence would be clearer with an active agent as the subject. For
example, “We have obtained the applicant’s consent for us to perform
reference checks and for organizations to release records and information
about them for purposes relating to recruitment by and employment with a
school in Hong Kong. ”
2. The distance between the main verb and the beginning of the sentence.
• Regardless of active or passive voice constructions, writing clearly in English
often relies on presenting the subject and main verb at or near the beginning
of a sentence so the reader can immediately identify the main agents and
actions involved. In the text, the main verb “has been obtained” is not
expressed until the end of the sentence.
• This means that the reader must process all the preceding information from
“Please be advised…” to “with a school in Hong Kong” before realizing the
critical action described in this sentence.
• Even in passive voice, the sentence could be written more clearly by moving
the main verb closer to the beginning of the sentence. For example, “Please
be advised the applicant’s consent has been obtained for us to perform
reference checks and for organizations to release records and information.
about them for purposes relating to recruitment by and employment with a
school in Hong Kong. ”

62
Task 4: Analyzing the Audience in Business Writing
To present your intended message effectively, you should first consider your relationship with
the audience by looking at the nature and direction of the communication (see diagram).

You should begin by asking if the intended audience is within your group or organization
(internal) or outside your group or organization (external).

You should also ask whether your audience is of a higher status than you professionally such
as your supervisor or the CEO or whether your audience consists of people whom you need
to cater to such as a client or a customer. Such relationships would result in “upward”
communication.

“Downward” communication involves just the opposite where the audience is of a lower
status professionally, for example, a professional superior communicating with someone they
oversee or a client communicating with an organization that they have hired.

“Horizontal” communication involves communication between members of equal statuses

professionally such as peers or colleagues working within the same department.

Nature Direction

Internal Downward

External Upward

Horizontal

Apart from the “nature” and “direction” of communication depicted in the diagram, you have
to know your audience to select information which is relevant to their needs. To begin
understanding your audience, you may ask yourself these questions.

1. Who is my primary audience i.e. the person or persons who will process, use, or act on
the information that I will provide?
2. What is the purpose of my communication (e.g. to inform and/or to persuade)? What effect
do I want to have on my audience (e.g. to be informed and/or to act in response to the
information provided)?
3. What does the audience want, expect or need from me (e.g. facts, opinions, explanations)?
4. What does my audience already know about the situation so that I do not communicate
unnecessary information?

63
4.1 Analyze the sample scenarios by determining the nature and the direction of
communication and answering the four questions about your audience.

Scenario 1

You are Andy Lee, a project manager at MTR Corporation Limited. You have been asked
by Jenny Leong, the project director, to report on the increasing human traffic during peak
hours due to a completed new housing complex and recommend solutions for the problem.

TN
Nature: Internal
Direction: Upward

1. Audience: Jenny Leong, Project Director of MTR Corporation Limited, who is possibly
your boss. (Your report may form the basis on which Jenny prepares her report to other
bosses.)

2. Purpose of the report: to inform (e.g. how serious the problem is) and then to
persuade Jenny Leong of the solutions

3. What the audience wants, expects or needs from the writer: recommendations with
justifications to solve the problem reported. Quantitative evidence should be included.

4. How much the audience would already know: Jenny would know the existence of such a
problem, but may not be fully aware of the details or i t s seriousness. She may have
in mind some generic solutions given her experience in the profession, so your solutions
have to be contextualized and specific.

Scenario 2

George Hollis, the VP of Marketing for the California Wood Harvesting Co., wants you as his
assistant to develop a plan to improve the company’s reputation with the public. He requested
that you investigate the effectiveness of the current plan and make recommendations on how
the company could use it to appeal to the interests of the local community.

TN
Nature: Internal
Direction: Upward/ horizontal (senior coworker)

1. Audience: VP of Marketing

2. Purpose of the report: to describe and justify a plan to improve the company’s public reputation;
to persuade the VP of the efficacy of any recommendations.

3. What the audience wants, expects or needs from the writer: findings and analyses of the current
efforts on improving corporate reputation, and feasible/ workable recommendations which
would solve the problems.

4. How much the audience would already know: Mr Hollis would already know that the company
has an image problem, and that they will donate land to win favor of the local government. Mr
Hollis would also be familiar with the writer as they are coworkers. So a certain familiarity might
be exhibited in the tone of the message.

64
4.2 Now, analyze the scenario of the first assessed recommendation writing task (on Canvas)
by determining the nature and direction of communication and answering the four questions
about your audience (see questions in Task 4).

Nature:

Direction:

1. Who is my primary audience?

2. What is the purpose of my communication?

3. What does the audience want, expect or need from me?

4. What does my audience already know about the situation?

TN
Nature: External
Direction: Upward

1. Audience: Jim Johnson (client in a consulting project)

2. Purpose of the report: to analyze the issues at the resort; to recommend solutions for those
issues, and persuade Jim Johnson of the solutions.

3. What the audience wants, expects or needs from the writer: identification of the causes of
the ongoing issues, recommendations to address those issues with justifications.

4. How much the audience would already know: Jim Johnson is aware of the symptoms (the
four main issues that prompted him to seek your help), but he is not aware of their root
causes of the problems. He knows the background history and the managerial structure of
the resort.

Task 5: Structure and Sections of a Recommendation Report

In business, the standard recommendation report does not exist. The format of the report varies
depending on the industry and the corporate house style. However, generally, the report
structure can be direct or indirect. For your assessments, you should adopt a more direct
approach.

The direct approach is characterized by the following features.

Structure: The main idea (i.e. conclusions, recommendations, or requests) appears at the
beginning of the document, followed by the evidence.

Context: The audience will be neutral or positive about your message.

Advantages: Most popular and convenient: it saves time and makes the rest of the report
easier to follow. The writer sounds sure of themselves when stating the
conclusions confidently at the outset.

65
5.1 For the written assessment, you will adopt the direct approach and organize your reports
into these sections:

1. Heading: To/ From/ Date/ Subject

2. Introduction
3. Conclusions
4. Recommendations
5. Findings and Analyses
6. References (optional)

Review this sample recommendation report and then match the description of what the writer
does in each part of the report to the appropriate description.

Please note that you should not use this sample as a model for how you would compose your
own reports as the communicative context of your assessments may be very different from the
sample’s. Also, note that this is not a perfect sample, and improvements may be made in content
and language.

66
Sample Recommendation Report

To: George Hollis, Vice President, Marketing

From: John Davidson, Assistant to Vice President, Marketing
Date: 12 October 2020
Subject: Recommendations for Donated Land and Related Media Campaign

1. Introduction
This report provides recommendations for developing a wind farm on the land that the
California Wood Harvesting Co. (CWHC) will donate. It includes strategies for cooperating
with local government and businesses and actively advertising our involvement in an
environmentally-friendly initiative.

I reviewed developmental ideas and researched the feasibility of local businesses’

investing in such a project. I also consulted representatives from the local government and
environmental groups regarding their respective interests in supporting this idea.

Due to time limitations, I did not survey the local residents who may have other concerns.
Nevertheless, a plan for developing the land in an ecologically-conscientious way is
necessary to promote an environmentally-friendly image for our company and reduce the
possibility for more stringent restrictions.

This report includes the conclusions, recommendations, and findings and analyses.

2. Conclusions
Based on my findings and analyses, we have yet to present a corporate image and
business model that emphasize:
2.1 protecting the environment to reverse negative perceptions of our
company as exploiting the environment for profit.
2.2 focusing on ecology than economy, and thus, we seem insensitive to the impact of
logging on the environment.

3. Recommendations
Changing our company image and business pursuits are ambitious goals and will require
our cooperating with different groups to achieve them. Still, as the stakeholders of Northern
California value environmental protection and sustainability, I recommend that we:

67
3.1 develop a wind farm on our donated land.

3.1.1 We can appeal for funding from the local government that has prioritized
renewable sources in their energy policies. This includes the recently launched
“Golden Hills North” project to upgrade hundreds of aging wind turbines in the
Altamont Pass area1. Moreover, lawmakers have introduced legislation like
Senate Bill 350 that targets half of the state’s energy coming from renewable
sources by 20302.

3.1.2 We can also approach local businesses who have the financial means and
interest to support eco-friendly initiatives. Massive tech companies such as
Apple and Google regularly finance such proposals, the latter having committed
$2.5 billion USD in 2017 for renewable energy projects 3. Amazon has also
invested heavily into these causes, launching nearly 20 wind and solar energy
ventures in 20174.

We should establish an Outreach Committee consisting of CEO Bob Thomas, you as

VP of Marketing, and me as your assistant to review how our company can contribute
to this project in addition to donating the land. We could provide surplus materials
towards constructing the wind farm and offer workmanship in cutting and shaping wood
for construction. We should prepare an internal strategy within the next month that
should include a draft of CWHC’s commitment of labor and materials, relevant
government agencies to solicit, and potential sponsors from the private industry to
contact.

Our investment in the project can be offset by using it as an advertising opportunity.

For example, if we receive the local government’s recognition on signage along major
Northern California roadways, it would greatly enhance our public reputation. Such
advertisement could present a positive corporate image for CWHC over 26 million
licensed drivers throughout California 5.

3.2 approach environmental groups such as the Sierra Club to recognize our project. The
San Francisco Bay Chapter of The Sierra Club routinely promotes stories about local
initiatives for renewable energy to its over 40,000 members6. Companies like East Bay
Community Energy have benefited from this type of positive publicity7. As CWHC

68
 sustains our commitment to a “green” business model, we can eventually apply for
certification from groups such as the California Green Business Network that would
further solidify our reputation for environmental awareness 8.

The Outreach Committee should compile a list of regional environmental groups with
their respective offiicers who would be points of contact. Communicating our “green”
initiative within this network can begin rehabilitating our image with environmentalists
and the public.

4. Findings and Analyses

As the residents, government, and conservationists of Northern California all prioritize
protecting the environment, we must create a corporate image that coincides with this
emphasis. Our business model of clearcutting makes us seem more interested in profit
rather than the environment and appear insensitive to the impact of our industry. Proposing
the construction of a wind farm would begin rehabilitating this impression with local
stakeholders.

The local residents’ perception of our company is shaped by media reports that depict us
as exploiting the environment for profit. Though some in the community benefit from the
jobs we provide, negative press has decreased sales and hindered attracting new
customers locally and nationally. Immediately promoting our intention to develop a wind
farm can be an instantly recognizable green-energy initiative. As a result, the public can
begin shifting their negative impression of our company.

Because of public sentiment, the government of Northern California may adopt stricter
regulations on the wood harvesting industry. These may increase production costs, limit
production volume, and lead to increased taxation of many products. This plan could sway
legislators’ opinions of our industry and benefit their constituents with increased jobs,
investment, and environmental sustainability. Developing a wind farm on the donated land
could fulfill these interests and minimize future restrictions on our industry.

Environmental groups are increasingly critical of the ecological impact of logging, especially
how it compromises the natural habitat of native species like the spotted owl. So, we should
work with local businesses that are recognized by environmentalists and begin changing
our reputation. This repositioning can begin with cooperating with companies like Apple,
Facebook, and Google which have all received high rankings from Greenpeace for their
commitment to clean energy9.
(Word count: 946 words)

69
References
1. California Energy Commission: Official Blog. “New Altamont Pass Project Repowers Wind
Energy in California.” 30 May 2017.
[Link]
[Link].
2. [Link]: California Energy Commission. “Clean Energy & Pollution Reduction SB 350
Overview.” 7 October 2015. [Link]
3. Wang, Ucilia. “How Google is using big data to protect the environment.” The Guardian,
12 October 2016. [Link]
environmental-sustainability-data-kate-brandt.
4. Dvorak, Paul. “Amazon has launched 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S. More to
come.” Windpower: Engineering & Development. 25 October 2017.
[Link]
issues/amazon-launched-18-wind-solar-projects-across-u-s-come/.
5. Statista: The Statistics Portal, Statistics and Studies from more than 22,500 sources.
“Total number of licensed drivers in the US, in 2016, by state.”
[Link]
6. Sierra Club: San Francisco Bay Chapter. “Who We Are.” [Link]
francisco-bay/who-we-are
7. Sierra Club: San Francisco Bay Chapter. “New East Bay power supplier adopts
groundbreaking commitment to local clean energy and jobs.” 19 July 2018.
[Link]
adopts-groundbreaking-commitment-local
8. Green: California Green Business Network. “What is A Certified Business?”
[Link]
9. Perez, Sarah. “Apple, Google, and Facebook top Greenpeace’s clean energy report.”
Techcrunch. 10 January 2017. [Link]
google-top-greenpeaces-clean-energy-report/

70
 Sections Description
The writer makes a personal judgment about specific actions to be taken
based on the investigation results and usually uses action verbs.

The writer tells readers who the report is for e.g. organization or the person,
who has written the report e.g. organization or the person, and when the report
was written.
The writer expresses personal opinions and synthesizes the findings based
on facts and insights that are discussed in other sections of the report. This
should include the author’s identification of underlying causes and issues.
The writer includes all relevant facts collected which are presented logically
and coherently. This may be arranged using headings and sub-headings.

The writer prepares readers for the report and includes background to the
investigation, purpose of the report, scope and limitations, procedure for
gathering information and plan of development.
The writer acknowledges any work written by others using any one of the
standard referencing style.

TN
Sections Description
Recommen The writer makes a personal judgment about specific actions to be taken
dations based on the investigation results and usually uses action verbs.

Heading: To/ The writer tells readers who the report is for e.g. organization or the person,
From/ Date/ who has written the report e.g. organization or the person, and when the report
Subject was written.
Conclusions The writer expresses personal opinions and synthesizes the findings based
on facts and insights that are discussed in other sections of the report. This
should include the author’s identification of underlying causes and issues.
Findings and The writer includes all relevant facts collected which are presented logically
Analyses and coherently. This may be arranged using headings and sub-headings.

Introduction The writer prepares readers for the report and includes background to the
investigation, purpose of the report, scope and limitations, procedure for
gathering information and plan of development.

References The writer acknowledges any work written by others using any one of the
standard referencing style.

Task 6: Functions and language of the Introduction

6.1 Review the Introduction of a recommendation report from John Davidson to George Hollis
and identify the primary functions of each section. The Introduction is labeled into four sections
for your analyses.

71
Introduction

Section Text
This report provides recommendations for developing a wind farm on the land that the
California Wood Harvesting Co. (CWHC) will donate. It includes strategies for
1 cooperating with local government and businesses and actively advertising our
involvement in an environmentally-friendly initiative.

I reviewed developmental ideas and researched the feasibility of local businesses’

2 investing in such a project. I also consulted representatives from the local government
and environmental groups regarding their respective interests in supporting this idea.

Due to time limitations, I did not survey the local residents who may have other
3 concerns. Nevertheless, a plan for developing the land in an ecologically-
conscientious way is necessary to promote an environmentally-friendly image for our
company and reduce the possibility for more stringent restrictions.

4 This report includes the conclusions, recommendations, and findings and analyses.

Sections and primary functions

Section Primary Function(s)

TN

Section Primary Function(s)

Immediately and specifically establishes the purpose of the report (“provides
1 recommendations for developing a wind farm”) and generally introduces strategies to
achieve this goal (“cooperating with local government and businesses”) and how to
capitalize on it (“advertise our involvement”).
Note that the writer initially uses a third-person reference to the company that he works
for. This is unnecessary, depending on context, but can add variety and formality.

Describes the methods that the writer uses to gather their information (“reviewed
2 developmental ideas”, “researched the feasibility”, consulted “local government and
environmental groups”).

Describes the limitations of the writer’s methods (“Due to time limitations”), but also
3 emphasizes how important the findings are despite those limitations (“promote an
environmentally-friendly image”).

4 Introduces the remaining parts of the report.

72
6.2 Identify in this introduction three language features that make it more direct than indirect.

1.___________________________________________________________________________

2.___________________________________________________________________________

3.___________________________________________________________________________

TN

4 Use of active voice (subjects are the actors)

5 Use of “I” (1st person pronoun to refer to the writer)
6 Use of absolute language (“is necessary”) without hedging

Follow-up Task: Writing the Introduction

7.1 You have been hired as an external consultant by the California Wood Harvesting Co. to
develop a backup plan on what to do with the donated land in case John Davidson’s plan is
rejected. You have been asked to write a recommendation report for the President detailing your
ideas and analyses.

In groups, draft the Introduction for your report within 200 words and bring a soft copy on your
laptop to class for discussion. Remember to write in the most effective tone and style.

Note that the context of this report is different from the sample. Also, remember to fulfill the
following functions expected in an Introduction of a recommendation report.

• establish the purpose or aim of the report

• present relevant background information
• explain how you gathered your information
• acknowledge the limitations of your methods
• outline the sections of the report

TN
As this task is group work and will be followed up in Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses
II, III and IV, students should work in the same groups. In this lesson, students will write the
Introduction; in Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses II, students will evaluate the
Introduction; in Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses III, students will write and evaluate
the Recommendations; and in Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses IV, students will write
and evaluate the Findings and Analyses and Conclusions. At the end of Business Writing Skills
for Case Analyses IV, they will be asked to start writing individually the assessed
recommendation writing.

If time allows, teachers should ask students to brainstorm in groups what to include in the
Introduction. They may start writing the Introduction in class.

73
 Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses II

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
• identify the most appropriate, and effective tone and style of a recommendation
report.
o tone is formal and businesslike, personal and friendly, and confident.
o style is direct (use of active style and the first person) and concise.
• use tone and style effectively in a recommendation report.
• identify less concise language which is inappropriate for a recommendation report.
• evaluate the Introduction of a report.

Task 1: Tone and Style

1.1 In groups, discuss:
• How would you define the tone of a piece of writing?
• How would you define the style of a piece of writing?

TN
The tone and style of a piece of writing such as a recommendation report would be affected
by the purpose (why write), who the readers are and their needs, and the situation related to
the piece of writing.

Tone is usually described using expressions such as formal or informal, personal or

impersonal. We may define tone as our choice of words based upon the relationship between
ourselves as writers and our audiences as readers. It is the expressions we choose and the
ways in which we combine these expressions that reflect tone.

Style is usually described as direct or indirect, lengthy or concise. We may define style, in
our case, as a way of writing. It is how we communicate – the way we use language to
persuade our readers in the recommendation report. It is how we choose and put words
together to meet the purpose and our readers’ needs within a given context.

1.2 What kind of tone and style would be most appropriate for a recommendation report?

TN
The tone of a recommendation report should be formal in that the language is precise with
concrete expressions (words and expressions that possess an immediately identifiable
meaning) throughout, minimal use of metaphors, and appropriately measured when describing
recommendations and their potential impact (using hedges modals, avoiding overblown or
absolute expressions). The style can also be appropriately personal in that the writer needs to
appeal to the reader directly to be convincing and urge them to action. For example, judiciously
integrating expressions such as “your company,” “your managers,” and “your company’s
benefit,” in the appropriate context, can make the writer’s ideas more impactful.

The style of a recommendation report should be direct and concise. This requires writers to
immediately communicate the purpose of the report and use more active voice. The writer
should also eliminate wordiness that may come in the forms of phrasal verbs, redundant
modifiers, and irrelevant information.

74
1.3 How would you decide when to use the active or passive voice when you write? Which do
you think is more appropriate for a recommendation report and why? How does the choice of
active or passive voice affect the tone and style of a report?

TN
Decide based on the purpose of writing, who the writing is for, and the given context.
Write in the active voice when you want to:
• be direct and get to the point quickly.
• be concise.
• sound more natural (less pretentious and high-sounding)

Write in the passive voice when you:

• really need to be tactful and must omit who the doer is.
• want to focus on the idea instead of the person with the idea.
• write to a hostile reader who is more powerful than you are.

The active voice tends to be frequently used as business readers would not want to waste time
and expect to get to the point quickly. Writing in the active style tends to make a report more
direct, brief, more convincing and more definite than if written in the passive. The passive voice
tends to make a report indirect, wordy, more detached and distant.

Task 2: Identifying the Most Appropriate and Effective Tone and Style
2.1 Contrast three texts from John Davidson to George Hollis of the California Wood Harvesting
Co. Discuss which text uses the more effective tone and style for a recommendation report.
Support your reasons with examples from the text. Next, identify 5 characteristics of effective
tone and style for a recommendation report.

Text 1

After thorough investigation and conducting extensive research, it is preferable that the
company should consider enhancing its corporate image through the development of a
project focused on clean energy. The company’s participation in such a program should be
promoted in order to improve its reputation amongst environmental groups and local
residents. The strategies could be based on the following principles.
• obtaining funding and favorable regulations for development from the government
• obtaining support from local businesses who have the capital and interest to support such
projects
• obtaining recognition from environmentalists and local residents via outreach campaigns

75
Text 2

After looking into your case extensively, we’ve identified that a perfect way to boost up
your corporate image is to use the land for a project focused on clean energy, a great way
to showcase your commitment to CSR! You also need to promote how your company is
stepping up and improve your reputation amongst environmental groups and local
residents. You should do the following.
• get funding and favorable regulations for development from the local government
• get support from local businesses who have the capital and interest to support such
projects
• get recognition from environmentalists and local residents by campaigning
aggressively

Text 3

Based on my findings and analyses, I have identified that an effective way to enhance our
corporate image is to use the land for a project focused on clean energy. We should also
promote our participation to improve our reputation amongst environmental groups and
local residents. The strategies should include:

• soliciting the local government for funding and favorable regulations for development.
• cooperating with local businesses who have the capital and interest to support such
projects.
• campaigning to gain recognition from environmentalists and local residents.

Five characteristics of effective tone and style for a recommendation report.

1. _________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________________

5. _________________________________________________________________________

76
TN
Text 1
Not the most appropriate and effective style and tone. Reasons:
• indirect (e.g. “should be promoted”)
• highly formal/ frozen/ impersonal and not a personal style in the first person (e.g. repetitive
third-person references to “the company” and “its”)
• very little attention is paid to the relationship with the reader
• sentences are long and complex with lengthy lead-ins (e.g. “After thorough investigation and
conducting extensive research…”)
• overuse of passive forms and the impersonal ‘it’ (e.g. “It is preferable…”)
• unnecessary use of jargon and unfamiliar expressions (e.g. “principles,” “via”)
• parallel structure maintained but repetitive (“obtaining…”)

Text 2
Not the most appropriate and effective style and tone. Reasons:
• more suited to speaking than writing (e.g. “need to,” “get”)
• informal, very casual, too personal, and arrogant ( e.g. “perfect way,” “great way”)
• use of exclamation marks (e.g. “CSR!”)
• use of idioms or phrasal verbs (e.g. “looking into,” “boost up,” “showcase,” “stepping up”)
• parallel structure maintained but repetitive (“get”)

Note: As using contractions is becoming more acceptable, there is no penalty for using
contractions in the assessed writing tasks.

Text 3
The most appropriate and effective style and tone of the three. Reasons:
• appropriately personal (e.g. first-person references “I,” “we”) and suited to the context of
this report (i.e. within the same organization)
• direct and active (e.g. “I have identified…,” “We should…”)
• concise and precise language choices (i.e. no use of idioms or jargon)
• parallel structure maintained

Most of the time, a recommendation report should:

• be direct.
• be formal but less formal than the highly formal, yet personal.
• use tone which is formal and businesslike, confident, personal and friendly.
• use short sentences.
• use simple words but formal vocabulary.
• use the active style.
• use a personal style or first person (which will still make one sound professional and
businesslike) e.g. personal pronoun ‘we’ (to report for a group of people, department or
organization). Note: As the writer will most likely write the business recommendation
report for someone or a group of people within their department, within their organization,
or out of their organization, it is only natural to write from person to person. The writer
should use the first person ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ when writing for themselves.
• use no slang.
• use no short forms.

77
Task 3: Conciseness
3.1 Discuss why the bolded phrases in the text are not concise. What words or phrases
would you use instead to be concise? Use the following questions to evaluate why these
phrases lack conciseness.

1. Does the phrase express what is obvious?

2. Is the phrase unnecessarily modified?
3. Does the phrase lack clarity?
4. Is the phrase repetitive in meaning?
5. Is the phrase a double negative?

Being in the hospitality industry that caters to customers’ needs, it is especially

important to provide customer service training so that staff can carry out day-to-day
operations better. Our proposed training program should be sufficient enough to address
recent complaints, and a dramatic increase in customer retention is not unexpected.
Phrase Comments Alternatives
1. Being in the hospitality
industry that caters to
customers’ needs
2. especially important

3. day-to-day operations

4. sufficient enough

5. not unexpected

TN
Being in the hospitality industry that caters to customers’ needs, it is especially
important to provide customer service training so that staff can carry out day-to-day
operations better. Our proposed training program should be sufficient enough to address
recent complaints, and a dramatic increase in customer retention is not unexpected.
Phrase Comments Alternatives
1. Being in the hospitality redundant expression i.e. to being in the hospitality
industry that caters to say what is obvious industry/ to cater to
customers’ needs customers’ needs
(depending on context)
2. especially important unnecessary modifier in a important
business writing context

78
 3. day-to-day operations expressions that are too general (the specific operation or
though they may seem related customer relation being
to a business context, business addressed)
writing needs precise focus on
specific issues

4. sufficient enough tautology which is a word enough, sufficient

which repeats the meaning of
another word in the same
phrase
5. not unexpected double negatives where two expected
negative words are used in the
same sentence
Sample rewrite
Being in the hospitality industry, it is important to provide customer service training so
that staff can deliver the service that our guests expect. Our proposed training program
should be sufficient to address recent complaints, and a dramatic increase in customer
retention is expected.
“Concision” versus “precision” can be confusing, but teachers can note that students should not
compromise the clarity of their ideas by using a vague expression. An expression such as “day-
to-day operations,” though seemingly more concise, does not express a concrete idea. Teachers
can show the sample rewrite to explain this idea if necessary.

As a general rule, students should avoid:

• long sentences which are more than 18 to 20 words.
• repeating an idea, word or a phrase if it detracts the writing from being clear.
• long-winded, wordy or customary phrases.
• hackneyed words.

3.2 The sentences are from different sections of a recommendation report from John Davidson
to George Hollis. Rewrite the sentences concisely.

Subject line

Recommendation report containing strategies for what to do with the land the company plans
to donate

1. Introduction

This recommendation report provides plans to develop the land that the company intends to
donate to the government and use it to improve the corporate image of the California Wood
Harvesting Co.

2. Conclusions

The company is suffering from a negative corporate image that makes it appear
environmentally unfriendly.

3. Recommendations

The California Wood Harvesting Company should approach legislators from the local
government for funding and finances in support of the project as such a project would be
beyond the resources of the company.

79
 4. Findings and Analyses

The local government of Northern California has frequently shown the tendency to reflect
public concerns and interests and has often devoted vast amounts of resources to clean-
energy projects.

TN
The sample sentences are not concise primarily because the writer lacks awareness of the
communicative context. In other words, this is an internal document - thus the writer and their
intended audience already share common knowledge (e.g. the nature of the land donation, the
need to use it as a means of improving the company’s image). The suggested answers reflect
this relationship. Teachers can note this if necessary. Other issues include noticeable
redundancies.

Subject
Recommendations for developing the donated land

1. Introduction

This report provides recommendations for developing the donated land and using it to improve
our corporate image.

2. Conclusions

The company’s corporate image depicts the company as environmentally unfriendly.

3. Recommendations

We should approach the local government to fund the project.

4. Findings and Analyses

The local government frequently reflects public interests and has devoted vast resources to
clean-energy projects.

Task 4: Evaluating the Introduction

4.1 At the end of t h e previous lesson, you were asked to draft the Introduction section of a
recommendation report for the President of California Wood Harvesting Co. and bring a soft
copy of the report to class. Exchange your work with other groups. Evaluate whether:

a. the Introduction fulfills the necessary functions:

• establishes the purpose or aim of the report.
• presents relevant background information.
• explains how information was gathered.
• acknowledges the limitations of the methods.
• outlines the sections of the report.

b. the use of tenses is accurate.

c. the tone and style are appropriate for a recommendation report.

80
TN
Teachers can ask students to do this task in these ways:
• use MS Word comment button to give feedback relating to the evaluation criteria given.
• give comments on Google docs using the MS comment button to give feedback relating
to the evaluation criteria (teachers need to do their own set up by putting all the student
writing onto Google docs first)

Teachers should ensure that each group reads two other introductions.

Teachers can also ask each group to choose one introduction to be evaluated as a class by
projecting the writing onto the screen. Teachers can lead a class discussion of what is effective
and ineffective in the writing,

Some content, organization, and language points that teachers can discuss with the class
include the following.

Content and Organization

Introductions need to clearly detail:

1. the purpose
2. the background
3. the method(s)
4. the limitation(s)
5. the sections

Language

The language should clearly show that the writer is aware of the following.

• direct and precise in that the purpose of the report is clearly and immediately expressed
• communicative context [i.e. external report for a client resulting in second-person
references to the company, e.g. “your company,” “your company’s reputation”); maybe
some occasional use of third-person references (e.g. California Wood Harvesting Co.
(CWHC)]
• active expressions (i.e. less passive voice and subjects as active agents, e.g. “I reviewed,”
“I recommend,” “your company should”)
• concise language (i.e. more action verbs instead of nominalizations, e.g. “we researched”
rather than “we conducted research”, eliminating redundancies and optional words)
• concrete language (i.e. using only expressions that have concrete meaning, eliminating
clichés, idioms, and unnecessary jargon)

81
 Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses III

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• identify the functions and language of the Recommendations of a report.

• write and evaluate the Recommendations of a report.

Task 1: Functions and language of the Recommendations

1.1 Read the excerpt from a Recommendations section and answer these questions:
a. What is the function of the first sentence in this section?
b. What needs improving in the Recommendations?
c. What language features are used in the Recommendations?

Recommendations

As the stakeholders of Northern California value environmental protection and sustainability, I

recommend that we do the following.

• develop a wind farm on our donated land.

i. We can appeal for funding from the local government that has prioritized
renewable sources in their energy policies.
ii. We can also approach local businesses who have the financial means and
interest to support eco-friendly initiatives.

We should establish an Outreach Committee to review how our company can contribute to
this project in addition to donating the land. We could provide materials and labor. We should
prepare a formal proposal within the next month that should include the necessary details.

TN
a. What is the function of the first sentence in this section?
The first sentence serves as a lead-in to the recommendations. It is a bridging sentence
which relates the findings and analyses, and conclusions to the recommendations. However,
it does not acknowledge the challenges or limitations of the recommendations (e.g. The
scope of the project is beyond the capabilities of CHWC.).

b. What needs improving in the Recommendations?

The recommendations lack development.
• How would the recommendations appeal to the government?
• How would the company approach private companies for sponsorship?
• Who is in the committee?
• Is there a timeframe?
• What does “material” and “labor” mean?
• What are “necessary details?
• What support or justification could make these ideas more convincing? Are there any e.g.
companies which had carried out the recommendations and benefited from them?

Recommendations are poorly organized in terms of style and format

• The first bullet point is ungrammatical (e.g. “we do the following…development of…”).

82
 • The sentence structures of recommendations are inconsistent and unparallel.
• The numbering of bullet points is inconsistent.
• Recommendations should be labeled as the “3” (e.g. “3. Recommendations”)
• Succeeding bullet points should follow this format (e.g. 3.1, 3.1.1, 3.1.2)

Note: Using numbers will be more meaningful than using bullets if recommendations are
intended to be sequenced.

c. What language features are used in the Recommendations?

• Tense: present e.g. recommend, do; future e.g. should establish, should prepare, can
appeal, can approach and so on.
• Modal verbs e.g. ‘should’, ‘can’
• Active voice to make the agent clear to the reader e.g. ‘we should establish; we can
appeal

Task 2: Rewriting and Evaluating a Recommendation

2.1 In groups, rewrite the recommendation in #1.1. Note that your recommendation should fulfill
the following criteria.
• Include a lead-in. A sentence (or two) that bridges the actions with the ideas from the
Conclusions and observations from the Findings and Analyses. It should also acknowledge
any challenges or limitations to the actions.
• Use and be consistent with the format expected and include sufficient and relevant details
by answering these “wh”-questions.
o What will be done?
o Why will it be done? (Note: Reason to include e.g. companies which had carried
out similar recommendations and benefited from them)
o How will it be done?
▪ Who will do it?
▪ When will it be done?
▪ Where will it be done?
o Is what is to be done feasible?
2.2 Exchange your group’s rewrite with another group for peer review. You can use the following
checklist to share your observations with your peers.

Criteria Y N

Does the recommendation describe what will be done?

Does the recommendation describe why it will be done?

Does the reason include examples of companies which had
carried out similar recommendations and benefited from
them?

Does the recommendation describe who will be involved?

Does the recommendations describe when it will be done?

Does the recommendation describe where it will be done?

Does the recommendation describe why it will be done?

Is the recommendation feasible?

83
 Additional comments

TN
Teachers can project a group’s rewritten recommendations onto the projector screen to lead a
class discussion. This can be done via a USB or Google Docs. Teachers can review the sample
based on these features.

Content
1. Does the action clearly account for: what specifically, why, how (who, when, and where)?
2. Is the action justified either by direct benefits to the company or parallel cases of other
reputable companies who have adopted similar approaches?

Format
1. Is there a lead-in sentence(s)?
2. Is parallel structure maintained with respect to wording (word forms), punctuation, and length?

Language
1. Is the language suited for this context (i.e. an internal writing to and from colleagues who would
be familiar with the company and the situation that they are currently addressing)?
2. Is the tone appropriately suggestive (e.g. using “should” or “could” rather than “will”)?
3. Is the language concise and precise (i.e. uses concrete expressions and avoids redundancies)?

Follow-up Task: Writing the Recommendation

3.1 Following up on the Introduction that your group prepared for the recommendation report
to the President of California Wood Harvesting Co., write a different recommendation from the
ideas presented in the sample report. Remember to include the following information:
• What will be done?
• Why will it be done? (Note: Reason to include e.g. companies which had carried out similar
recommendations and benefited from them)
• How will it be done?
o Who will do it?
o When will it be done?
o Where will it be done?
• Is what is to be done feasible?

Your group should write the report (150 words max.) and bring a soft copy of your
recommendation on your laptop to the next class for peer review.

TN
This might be very challenging for students especially if they have a quick turnaround (two days)
between this class and the next. Still, teachers should ask students to at least develop an idea for
the California Wood Harvesting Co. that they could share in the next class as their
recommendation will be used to transition to the Findings and Analyses section. They can also
use ideas they discussed in the mini case lesson.

84
 Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses IV

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• identify the functions and language of the Findings and Analyses and Conclusions of a
report.
• write and evaluate the Findings and Analyses, and Conclusions of a report.
• recognize aspects of coherence and cohesion.

Task 1: Features of a Good Paragraph

1.1 The Conclusions section of a recommendation report consists of information presented in
bullet points, but the Findings and Analyses section consists of information presented in
paragraphs.

Based on what you learnt in other language courses, discuss and list the features of a good
paragraph.

TN
A good paragraph is unified, meaning that it discusses only one idea or one topic. Here are
typical features of a good paragraph:
• topic sentence (states the main idea of the paragraph at the beginning of the paragraph to
meet most business audiences’ needs).
*Inform students that in business writing, the topic sentence tends to be separated from the
supporting sentences. This is probably so to ensure that readers can easily identify the
important points.
• explanation sentence (optional sentence which explains or expands on the t o p i c
sentence).
• supporting sentences (provides qualitative and/or qualitative evidence to support the idea
in the topic sentence e.g. examples and statistics).
• concluding sentence (optional final sentence which reiterates the main idea).

85
Task 2: Functions and language of the Findings and Analyses
2.1 Review the following topic sentences from a Findings and Analyses section of a
recommendation report from John Davidson to George Hollis. Discuss what the controlling idea
of the paragraph would be based on your analyses of the topic sentence.

4. Findings and Analyses

Topic sentence 1

As the residents, government, and conservationists of Northern California all

prioritize protecting the environment, we must create a corporate image that
coincides with this emphasis.

Topic sentence 2

The local residents’ perception of our company is shaped by media reports that
depict us as exploiting the environment for profit.

Topic sentence 3

Because of public sentiment, the government of Northern California may adopt

stricter regulations on the wood harvesting industry.

Topic sentence 4

Environmental groups are increasingly critical of the ecological impact of logging

especially how it compromises the natural habitat of native species like the spotted
owl.

TN
This task aims to raise student awareness of how the topic sentence establishes the controlling
idea of a paragraph, even in recommendation reports. Student answers may vary as long as they
are consistent with main focus of the topic sentence.

Suggested answers:
• Topic sentence 1: the importance of developing an environmentally-friendly company image
• Topic sentence 2: changing the media portrayal of the company and how the public views
them
• Topic sentence 3: the risk of tighter regulation on this industry
• Topic sentence 4: how to appeal to environmentalists’ interests

2.2 Read the Findings and Analyses of the sample recommendation report and answer these
questions:

a. Are the paragraphs ‘good’ based on your definition in #1.1?

b. What type of information is included in this section?
c. How are the analyses related to the recommendations?
d. Are the paragraphs equally developed?

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 4. Findings and Analyses

As the residents, government, and conservationists in Northern California all prioritize

protecting the environment, we must create a corporate image that coincides with this
emphasis. Our business model of clearcutting makes us seem more interested in profit
rather than the environment and appear insensitive to the impact of our industry.
Proposing the construction of a wind farm would begin rehabilitating this impression with
local stakeholders.

The local residents’ perception of our company is shaped by media reports that depict us
as exploiting the environment for profit. Though some in the community benefit from the
jobs we provide, negative press has decreased sales and hindered attracting new
customers locally and nationally. Immediately promoting our intention to develop a wind
farm can be an instantly recognizable green-energy initiative. As a result, the public can
begin shifting their negative impression of our company.

Because of public sentiment, the government of Northern California may adopt stricter
regulations on the wood harvesting industry. These may increase production costs, limit
production volume, and lead to increased taxation of many products. This plan could
sway legislators’ opinions of our industry and benefit their constituents with increased
jobs, investment, and environmental sustainability. Developing a wind farm on the
donated land could fulfill these interests and minimize future restrictions on our industry.

Environmental groups are increasingly critical of the ecological impact of logging,

especially how it compromises the natural habitat of native species like the spotted owl.
So, we should work with local businesses that are recognized by environmentalists and
begin changing our reputation. This repositioning can begin with cooperating with
companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google which have all received high rankings from
Greenpeace for their commitments to clean energy9

TN
a. The paragraphs are unified, each one focusing on one issue that the writer has identified.
This is then elaborated with more specific consequences for the company before transitioning
to how the writer’s recommendation addresses the issue.
b. The findings and analyses section should include the main issues, the causes of those issues,
and a discussion of events (if any) observed in the case.
c. The analyses should justify, and should be related directly to the recommendations.
d. Yes. Each paragraph is approximately the same length.

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Note: Sometimes a topic sentence in a recommendation report may be separated from the rest
of the paragraph, almost like a heading if the rest of the paragraph is lengthy. This type of
formatting allows the reader to focus on the main idea more efficiently. However, students need
not do this for their assessments and should show that they are able to control the cohesion of
unified paragraphs.

2.3 Look at the way the first paragraph of the Findings and Analyses section can be broken down
into its constituent parts.
Paragraph 1

As the residents, government, and conservationists of Northern California all prioritize

protecting the environment (identification of the issue), we must create a corporate image
that coincides with this emphasis (how the company can tackle the issue). Our business
model of clearcutting makes us seem more interested in profit rather than the
environment and appear insensitive to the impact of our industry (identification of the
issue). Proposing the construction of a wind farm would begin rehabilitating this
impression with local stakeholders (highlighting the impact of the recommendation on
the company and a direct link back to Recommendation 3.1).

2.4 Now choose one of the remaining Findings and Analyses paragraphs and break it down in a
similar way.
Paragraph 2 OR

The local residents’ perception of our company is shaped by media reports that depict us
as exploiting the environment for profit. Though some in the community benefit from the
jobs we provide, negative press has decreased sales and hindered attracting new
customers locally and nationally. Immediately promoting our intention to develop a wind
farm can be an instantly recognizable green-energy initiative. As a result, the public can
begin shifting their negative impression of our company.

Paragraph 3 OR

Because of public sentiment, the government of Northern California may adopt stricter
regulations on the wood harvesting industry. These may increase production costs, limit
production volume, and lead to increased taxation of many products. This plan could
sway legislators’ opinions of our industry and benefit their constituents with increased
jobs, investment, and environmental sustainability. Developing a wind farm on the
donated land could fulfill these interests and minimize future restrictions on our industry.

88
Paragraph 4

Environmental groups are increasingly critical of the ecological impact of logging,

especially how it compromises the natural habitat of native species like the spotted owl.
So, we should work with local businesses that are recognized by environmentalists and
begin changing our reputation. This repositioning can begin with cooperating with
companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google which have all received high rankings from
Greenpeace for their commitments to clean energy.

TN
Paragraph 2

The local residents’ perception of our company is shaped by media reports that depict us
as exploiting the environment for profit (identification of the issue). Though some in the
community benefit from the jobs we provide, negative press has decreased sales and
hindered attracting new customers locally and nationally (identification of the issue).
Immediately promoting our intention to develop a wind farm can be an instantly
recognizable green-energy initiative. As a result, the public can begin shifting their
negative impression of our company (highlighting the impact of the recommendation on
the company and a direct link back to Recommendation 3.1).

Paragraph 3

Because of public sentiment, the government of Northern California may adopt stricter
regulations on the wood harvesting industry (identification of the issue). These may
increase production costs, limit production volume, and lead to increased taxation of
many products (identification of the impact of the issue on the company). This plan could
sway legislators’ opinions of our industry and benefit their constituents with increased
jobs, investment, and environmental sustainability. Developing a wind farm on the
donated land could fulfill these interests and minimize future restrictions on our industry
(highlighting the impact of the recommendation on the company and a direct link back to
Recommendation 3.2).

Paragraph 4

Environmental groups are increasingly critical of the ecological impact of logging,

especially how it compromises the natural habitat of native species like the spotted owl
(identification of the issue). So, we should work with local businesses that are recognized

89
 by environmentalists and begin changing our reputation (highlighting the impact of the
recommendation on the company and a direct link back to Recommendation 3.2). This
repositioning can begin with cooperating with companies like Apple, Facebook, and
Google which have all received high rankings from Greenpeace for their commitments
to clean energy (describing how to implement the recommendation).

Task 3: Writing the Findings and Analyses

3.1 Recall that you were asked to write one recommendation based on your back-up plan. Based
on your group’s recommendation, what would you include in the Findings and Analyses section of
the report for California Wood Harvesting Co? In groups, write the topic sentence for a paragraph
in the section.

Next, explain your recommendation and how you will develop the idea based on your topic
sentence.

Now, write a paragraph of the Findings and Analyses section.

TN
This task can be particularly effective for classrooms with multiple whiteboards. Each group can
be assigned a whiteboard. The group can write their recommendation on the top half of the
whiteboard with their topic sentences below it. Next, the groups can either briefly present the
ideas on their whiteboards (i.e. explaining their recommendation and how they intend to develop
the ideas referenced in their topic sentences) or the groups (in rotations) can review others’
whiteboards to comment and/ or discuss the ideas.

Answers will vary depending on the recommendations.

E.g. if a recommendation is ‘Set up CWH Nature Fund to sponsor environmental protection
projects’, the topic sentence in the Findings and Analyses could be ‘Clear-cutting has been a
contributing factor in degrading the natural habitats of some animals’. When giving feedback to
the groups, teachers should ask how the analyses justify the recommendation.

Two more topic sentences for reference:

• Social media is increasingly influential and has become a very useful tool for promotion… (to
be elaborated and supported by evidence)
• Investment in research for cleaner programs will help boost sales by building a positive
image… (to be elaborated and supported by evidence)

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Task 4: Writing the Conclusions
4.1 After reviewing your Recommendations and the beginnings of your Findings and Analyses,
decide as a group what your Conclusions should be. Develop and write one conclusion (about
50 words including the sub-heading). You may refer to the Conclusions from the sample
recommendation report.

Ensure that the conclusion relates to the Findings and Analyses paragraph you wrote earlier,
and evaluate the effectiveness of the lead-in sentence. Then read another group’s Conclusions
and evaluate its effectiveness.

Remember that the Conclusions should:

• summarize the key findings based on facts and insights which are discussed in other
sections of the report.
• include the problems and underlying causes, or the identification of what is currently
lacking.

2. Conclusions

Based on our findings….

2.1 …

TN

Teachers could remind students to refer to task 3 in Business Writing Skills for Case Analyses I
for features of the Conclusions which are ‘ synthesizes the findings based on facts and insights
that are discussed in other sections of the report’ i.e. ‘summarizes the key findings of the
investigation’ and ‘should include the author’s identification of underlying causes and issues’.
Highlight that the Conclusions is not a summary of the recommendations.

This task can be particularly effective for classrooms with multiple whiteboards. Each group can
be assigned a whiteboard. The group can write their Conclusions. Next, the groups can either
briefly present the ideas on their whiteboards or the groups (in rotations) can review others’
whiteboards to comment and/ or discuss the Conclusions.

Suggested Answers

2. Conclusions

Based on my findings and analyses, we have yet to present a corporate image and
business model that emphasize:
2.1 protecting the environment to reverse negative perceptions of our company as
exploiting the environment for profit.
2.2 focusing on ecology rather than economy; and thus, we seem insensitive to the
impact of logging on the environment.

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Task 5: Coherence and Cohesion
5.1 Coherence and cohesion in the recommendation report for this course focuses on
relatedness and clarity. Examine the sample recommendation report again. Identify what the
writer uses to make the writing coherent and cohesive at the level of the report, the sections, the
paragraphs and the sentences. Give a few examples.

TN
• paragraphs are linked using topic sentences and controlling ideas.
• sentences are linked to express thoughts smoothly: use of pronouns, transitional words,
parallel structure.
• relationships are expressed using subordination.
• headings and numbers, typing and spacing, indentations and alignment for example are
used and follow the principles of parallelism and subordination.

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 Business Case Analyses – Case 2

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this cycle, students will be able to:

• apply critical reading and thinking skills to extract key information from a
business case.
• define key issues in a business case and support these with evidence from the case.
• conduct research on business ethics, family business, small and medium-sized
enterprises and cross-border businesses to understand key issues in the case.
• analyze the audiences’ needs in oral presentation 2.
• communicate constructively to persuade the audience.

TN
Case 2 is the last round of the case analyses. Students are expected to have acquired and
sufficiently practiced the necessary skills to complete their assessments. Teachers should
thus only facilitate student learning. Students should discuss and share findings amongst
themselves. Do NOT give any specific answers to the assessments as students would have
been given notes and guidelines about the assessments.

Case 2 Quiz ensures students read the case before coming to class. Their quiz completion
will count towards Participation. Teachers may debrief some key points at the beginning of
the lesson. Refer to Canvas for details, e.g. completion deadline.

Three lessons are scheduled for Case 2:

Lesson 1:
• Form teams and explain the assessments.
• Work on Step 1 and Step 2 of Task 1.
• Assign Step 3 as out-of-class work.

Lesson 2:
• Students share research findings (Step 3 of Task 1).
• If time allows, students should discuss Steps 4 and 5.

Lesson 3:
• Analyze audiences (Task 2).
• Learn about constructive communication (Task 2).
• Do a 5-min presentation practice (by group) and learn from feedback to get ready
for oral presentation 2 (in Lesson 3 or use the consultation lesson).

Case Scenario and Assessed Tasks

Read and understand the scenario in, and assessed tasks on, Case 2, Kitchen Best: Ethics
when Doing Cross-boundary Business in Southern China. Take note of the assessment dates
and submission due dates. There are Important Notes on Canvas to help you better prepare
for the assessments.

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Task 1: Business Ethics and Family Business
Case 2’s two major themes are business ethics and family business. Discuss the following
questions and share your ideas with the class.

1.1 What is corruption? What will you do if you know of any corruption cases at your
workplace?

TN
What is corruption?
• Illegal, bad, or dishonest behavior, especially by people in positions of power.
([Link]
• Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can be classified as
grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector
where it occurs. ([Link]

What will you do if you know of any corruption cases at your workplace?
• Most students might give answers e.g. ‘report to the ICAC’, but they will soon
discover that the solution is not always that simple in real-life. In the Kitchen Best
case, if Henry Chan ever had the option of reporting to the ICAC, there would be no
need for the consulting services. Also, the case involves a family business.

1.2 You will be providing consulting services to Kitchen Best, a family business. Consulting firms
consider family business as one specialized group of clients. Read information on the following
websites and share with your team the challenges that family businesses face.
a. Boston Consulting Group
b. Deloitte
c. PricewaterhouseCoopers
d. McKinsey & Company

Is Kitchen Best facing any of these challenges?

TN
(Students can practice critical reading skills: reading for gist, skimming and scanning, and
summarizing)
a. To identify the appropriate governance structure, to manage succession planning,
generational transitions, and capability development, and to attract the best non-family talent
b. Succession planning, family governance and next generation education and development
c. Strategy and governance, business transition and private wealth
d. Changing business environments, maintaining entrepreneurial vision, finding the right
governance balance and any other acceptable answers.

Quick response to the next question; students will analyze the problems in the next task.
Yes, Kitchen Best is in the transition phase (from the founding father to the son), lacks
governance and is struggling to adapt to the changing business environment.

(FYI: The 21 biggest family-owned businesses in the world [Link]

worlds-21-biggest-family-owned-businesses-2015-7)

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Task 2: The Case Analyses Process – Case 2

2.1 Analyze Case 2: Kitchen Best: Ethics when Doing Cross-boundary Business in Southern
China.

Step 1. Read the case and then discuss:

a. What is the case about?

b. Who are the stakeholders and what are their concerns or vested interests?

Step 2. What is the problem and its underlying cause(s)?

TN
Step 1
Students summarize the case in their own words.

Stakeholders: Ask students to pay attention to the stakeholder relationships, which form part
of the problems, e.g. Henry Chan’s heavy reliance on Ma Luk has resulted in the former turning
a blind eye on the latter’s unethical behaviors.

Henry Chan – Chief Executive, Kitchen Best; son of founder Chan Dong-hwa; took up the
role of chief executive since 2008; 32 years old; spent most of his time in HK coordinating with
customers and travelling overseas attending exhibitions and trade fairs; relied heavily on the
expertise of senior management (Ma Luk, Horatio Sze, Macy Wei) and his father’s unofficial
involvement to manage daily operations of the Foshan factory.

Ma Luk – Operations Director and Head of Greater China Business; Mainlander; 45 years
old); long-time staff who had served the company since it was established in the mid-1980’s;
Chan Dong-hwa’s (founder) right-hand man and still maintained frequent contact with Chan.

Horatio Sze – Purchasing and Production Manager; grandson of Kitchen Best’s silent partner,
Li Qingyang; 37 years old; had close connections with suppliers; based in Foshan and reported
to Ma Luk.

Macy Wei – Quality Control Manager; 32 years old; protégé of Horatio Sze, who had taken her
under his wing and trained her to become a quality controller; saw Sze as her mentor; based
in Foshan and reported to Ma Luk.

Shago – Kitchen Best’s long-time Malaysia-based distributor (about 8 years); a major

distributor of kitchen appliances in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Haus de Metro (“HdM”) – customer of Kitchen Best; a German retail chain store which had
ordered electric water dispensers from Kitchen Best. The order was subsequently contracted
to Kitchen Best’s subcontractor, Qinghua Electrical Appliance Ltd.

Qinghua Electrical Appliance Ltd. – subcontractor of Kitchen Best which was based in Foshan;
a home appliances manufacturer; helped manufacture the order from Kitchen Best’s customer,
Haus de Metro.

Keemark Testing Services – an independent testing agency based in HK hired by Kitchen

Best to conduct product testing and inspection for appliances outsourced to Qinghua.

95
Honghua Appliances – a Macau-based group which owned a home appliances retail chain in
southern China; had worked with Kitchen Best for about two years; it comprised about 5% of
its revenues; considered a key customer of Kitchen Best as it planned to expand to other parts
of China and hence offered great potential for Kitchen Best.

Eddie Lau – Honghua’s general manager for greater China and a personal friend of Ma Luk;
a Macau native; received wining and dining and kickbacks from Ma and directed Honghua’s
purchasing manager to place orders of kitchen appliances with Kitchen Best in the past before
Honghua tightened its purchasing policies and prohibited staff from receiving kickbacks from
suppliers.

Step 2
Problems:
‘A series of incidents revealed personal gains made at the expense of the company and
instances of misconduct within the company that undermined its management. As chief
executive, Henry Chan had to decide what kind of internal control mechanisms he should put
in place to ensure the future success of the company.” (see p.1, para. 1)

Specifically, there are four major problems:

1. Nepotism/ favoritism in service procurement (p.5) – The Shago Incident: Horatio Sze,
Purchasing and Production Manager of Kitchen Best, awarded a contract to his brother- in-
law’s company to provide tableware (microwave-safe bowls and plates) to Kitchen Best’s
Malaysia-based distributor Shago to be included as gift sets with its 40th anniversary
collection appliances. In return for the favor, Sze and his wife were offered a free package
tour to Europe. The bowls and plates were later found to be faulty and not microwavable.
Shago demanded a refund and compensation from Kitchen Best. Macy Wei, quality
Control Manager of Kitchen Best did not report on Sze despite knowing his personal
relationship with the supplier as Sze was the grandson of Li Qingyang, Kitchen Best’s silent
partner. Even though in-house testing later found the product to be faulty and the problem
was reported to Sze, no remedial action was taken by him.

2. Bribing customers and suppliers with kickbacks, entertainment and gift-giving (p.6) – Ma
Luk, Operations Director and Head of Greater China Business of Kitchen Best, ‘regularly
used kickbacks, entertainment and gift-giving to open and maintain accounts, and expenses
for such activities were reimbursed to Ma through fake invoices booked as ‘entertainment
expenses’ (p. 6)’ as there were ‘no clear guidelines or vetting procedures for expenses
incurred from wining and dining or entertainment provided to supplier and customers’. Neither
Chan Dong-hwa, founder of Kitchen Best and father of Henry Chan, nor Henry Chan stopped
him as they saw such practices as an inevitable part of doing business in Chinese culture (p.
6).

3. Problem with sub-standard outsourced appliances certified as having met the safety
standards by an external testing agency(p.5) – Henry Chan received an anonymous letter
which revealed that a shipment of appliances produced by its subcontractor Qinghua for one
of Kitchen Best’s customers, German retail chain Haus de Metro, did not meet the company’s
safety requirements despite a satisfactory testing report was received from Keemark Testing
Services, an independent testing agency based in HK. It was later found that Qinghua had
bribed Keemark’s team leader so that it could interfere with the sample drawing for laboratory
testing. Henry Chan did not pursue the case further for fear of rocking the boat and losing the
customer.

4 . Kitchen Best was at risk of losing a major customer who no longer accepted kickbacks
(pp.5-6)-- Kitchen Best ran the risk of losing one of its key customers, Macau-based Honghua

96
Appliances, as Eddie Lau, Honghua’s general manager for greater China and a personal
friend of Ma Luk, no longer dared to accept kickbacks and entertainment and direct
Honghua’s purchasing manager to place orders with Kitchen Best after Honghua’s new
management tightened its purchasing policies and fired two managers who accepted
kickbacks from suppliers. Kitchen Best’s business with Honghua was at risk because it was
not as competitive in delivery time and product development capacity as Honghua’s other
suppliers.

Underlying causes:
There was a lack of an objective management system (corporate governance) in place which
facilitated feedback, ensured checks and balances, and maintained clear guidelines on work
processes and ethical standards guiding conflicts of interest to prevent unscrupulous staff
from taking advantage of loopholes in the system for personal gains.

Reference: Extra notes on the incidents in the case

Shago

1. What was the relationship between Kitchen Best and this company?

Shago, a major distributor of kitchen appliances in Southeast Asia, contracted

Kitchen Best for production orders of gift sets of microwaveable tableware. They
have been business partners for eight years.

2. What was the primary issue in this incident?

The gift sets that Kitchen Best provided were not microwaveable, leading to
customer complaints.

3. What was the cause of this issue?

Kitchen Best’s production manager, Horatio Sze, sourced the production to a

factory run by his brother-in-law in exchange for a free tour of Europe. The Quality
Control Manager,Wei, knew of the arrangement but did not report it.

4. What were the consequences for Kitchen Best?

Shago demanded a refund and compensation from Kitchen Best.

Haus de Metro

1. What was the relationship between Kitchen Best and this company?
Kitchen Best was a supplier of electric water dispensers for Haus de Metro.

2. What was the primary issue in this incident?

The electric water dispensers from Kitchen Best did not meet Haus de Metro’s
safety requirements.

3. What was the cause of this issue?

Kitchen Best subcontracted the order to Qinghua which painted the outer casings
of the dispensers with unsafe paint that included harmful elements such as lead
and mercury. Qinghua then arranged faulty, non-random testing of its products with
Keemark testing in exchange for bribe money. Also, Henry Chan was notified of this
anonymously, and suggested that a systematic communication channel is needed.

97
 He also did not interject after the fact, perhaps indicating a lack of proactive, hands-
on management.

4. What were the consequences for Kitchen Best?

Perhaps, damage to its reputation which would be especially significant given that
Haus de Metro is a German retail chain located in an area (Europe) that Henry
Chan plans to expand to.

Honghua Appliances

1. What was the relationship between Kitchen Best and this company?
Honghua is one of Kitchen Best’s customers and is based in Macao. This business
relationship was built largely on personal interests between Ma Luk (Kitchen Best’s
Operations Director) and Eddie Lau (Honghua’s General Manager) that included
kickbacks.

2. What was the primary issue in this incident?

Honghua had changed management and its corporate culture to no longer accept
personal benefits when arranging business transactions. Ma Luk also inflated his
expenses for reimbursement.

3. What was the cause of this issue?

Maintaining such relationships often involved Ma submitting fake invoices to

account for his expenses. In the past, Chan Dong-hwa had ignored these invoices
in deference to generating new business partners and sustaining them.

4. What were the consequences for Kitchen Best?

Kitchen Best risks losing local (Hong Kong, Macao, and China) partners as the
acceptable business culture is changing to one that emphasizes professional
qualifications rather than personal interests and personal relationships.

Step 3. What information do you need to help you understand the issue more thoroughly and
make better decisions?

TN
Step 3
Each team is to identify one relevant concept or topic, do the research and give a 10-min oral
presentation to the class in the next lesson. Each team should explain how the information can
possibly help generate recommendations.

Possible Topics Specific Information Needed

1. SMEs in Hong • What is an SME?

Kong • What is its typical corporate structure?
• What management system does it use?
2. SME’s running a • How does this kind of company work?
cross-border operation • What are the common challenges they face?

98
3. Business ethics/ • What is business ethics? What are common unethical
Ethical standards and practices?
behavior • Why are personal ethics and system integrity important?
• What implications do they have for the success of a
corporation?
• What are the specific laws and regulations governing
business ethics in HK, Macau, and Mainland China?
• How are the laws different across the jurisdictions?
4. Bribery - giving and • How does bribery work?
receiving kickbacks • What are i ts implications for business (legal, stakeholders
such as customers)?
• What are the relevant regulations in HK, Macau, and the
Mainland China?
• What are some of the most representative court cases on
kickbacks which can provide concrete ideas on
consequences for a company, and remedial actions taken?
5. Favoritism/ • How does favoritism/ nepotism work?
Nepotism • What are their implications (legal, operational,
competitiveness)?
• What are some of the most representative court cases on
favoritism which can provide concrete ideas on the
consequences for a company, and remedial actions taken?

6. Internal control • What are ‘internal control measures’?

measures • Why is it important to have internal control measures in a
corporation, especially a cross-border SME?
• What are some examples of internal control measures
used by a corporation to prevent unethical behaviors such
as bribery and favoritism?

Step 4. What are the possible options to deal with the issue? What are their pros and cons?

Step 5. What actions would you recommend?

TN
Steps 4 and 5
Groups need not share ideas in class as the ideas could be used as content in the
assessments.

Task 3: Presenting to Different Audiences and Communicating

Constructively

In Mini Case II: California Wood Harvesting Co., you analyzed the audiences in three areas to
better meet their needs:
1. Relationships
2. Attitudes
3. Needs and Goals

3.1 How will you analyze the audiences for oral presentation 2?

99
TN
Teachers may ask students to refer back to Mini Case II lesson and read the Important Notes for
guidance. The analyses of ‘needs and goals’ would be the most important in helping students
prepare for their assessed oral presentation 2.

The management Chan Dong-hwa (founder Henry Chan (CEO)

team & Chairman) & advisors
Relationships External; client’s External; client’s External; client; he
colleagues; you know colleagues; you know requests your
about them indirectly about them indirectly from company’s consulting
from your investigation; your investigation; the services, and is your
the presentation presentation session will be direct contact point
session will be the first the first time you formally and source of
time you formally talk to talk to them information
them
Attitudes Sceptical, hostile, Quite sceptical, maybe Open, eager to know
confrontational curious about your ideas your ideas

Needs and They have been asked They have been invited to He wants solutions;
Goals to listen to your listen to your presentation, he wants your team,
presentation, so you so you have to be clear external experts, to
have to be clear about about the objectives – you educate/ convince
the objectives – you want to convince them that the other
want to convince them they need to sustain the stakeholders in the
that they play an business Chan Dong-hwa company (the
important role in the had built; that the company presentation)
business, and in cannot survive in the
sustaining the business changing business world
as they are involved in which is different from the
the direct operations of time Chan Dong-hwa
the company; that they founded the company if they
need to try out new do business the way they
ways of doing business did in the past; that they
and that these new need or at least Chan Dong-
changes would create hwa needs to support, exert
more benefits for them influence or be a role-model
that what they currently in driving changes; that if
receive; and then they the unethical behaviors
will be willing and persist, the company’s
motivated/ incentivized future might be affected;
to take action (your and then they will be willing
recommendations) to take action.

Reference: Extra notes on audience analysis (There used to be an assessed recommendation

report to Henry Chan after oral presentation 2.)
Audience Interests Differences in content Differences in
language use
• Individual • Introduction should establish • Directly addresses
recognition and awareness of staff’s interests the managers (e.g.
incentives • Should identify underlying “you,” “your teams”)
• Maintaining issues • Can be somewhat
business • Recommendations should familiar and formal
relationships reflect benefits for managers • Criticism should be
• Career • Supporting evidence may be indirect and general
development experiential (anecdotal) and (i.e. not specifically

100
 opportunities researched (e.g. parallel referencing names
Managers (perhaps through examples, management or incidents)
expansion) principles, data related to
• Professional expansion, legal issues
development (maybe)
opportunities • Call to action should be
(perhaps through aligned with managers’
training) motivations
• Sustainability of the • Introduction should establish • Should directly
company awareness of the founder’s address the
• Reputation of the interests founder
Chan company • Recommendations should • References to the
Dong-hwa • His son’s achieving reflect benefits for the company should be
(advisors) the corporate goals managers and the company second-person
• Well-being of at large (e.g. “your
employees • Might not directly involve the company”)
• Legal concerns founder in the • Should be more
(maybe) recommendations formal
• Supporting evidence may be • Criticism might be
researched (e.g. parallel less direct (avoid
examples, management referencing specific
principles, data related to incidents)
expansion, legal issues • Criticism and/or
(maybe) observations
• May not include explicit call to should avoid
action. Motivation should be identifying
aligned with the founder’s. participants
involved (i.e. not
specifically
referencing names)

• Doubling revenue • Introduction should establish (Only when writing a

and expanding to awareness of the CEO’s recommendation report
the US and interests to Henry Chan)
European markets • Conclusions should identify • Should directly
• Internal control underlying causes or what address the CEO
(checks and Kitchen Best currently lacks especially if he’s
balances) (related to the involved in
• Improved internal recommendations) recommendations
Henry communication • Recommendations should be or in the findings
Chan, • Maintaining precise (who, what, when, and analyses
CEO competitiveness where and how) and may • References to the
locally include benefits to Kitchen company should be
• Product quality Best second-person
• Company • Supporting evidence can be (e.g. “your
reputation more detailed or researched company”)
• Legal (e.g. parallel examples, data • Should be more
considerations related to expansion, formal
(maybe) motivational theories, • Criticism can be
statistics (maybe even more direct
references to legal concerns) (referencing
• Call to action should be specific incidents)
aligned with the CEO’s • Criticism and/or
motivations observations
should avoid
identifying
participants
involved (i.e. not
specifically
referencing names)

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Some audiences may have negative attitudes towards your presentation as they feel they might
be accused of wrongdoings, threatened or punished for the wrongdoings. They may react
defensively, reject or rebuke your recommendations. In such presentations, you should
communicate constructively.

Constructive communication which aims to preserve positive relationships between

communicators while addressing problems enables you as presenters to be more effective in
persuading the audience (Williams, n.d.). To communicate constructively, you should:
• focus on the problem (problem oriented), not the person (person oriented).
• describe, not evaluate.
• validate, not invalidate.

TN
This section is adapted from
[Link]
gement. It aims to help students tactfully present and discuss problems with an audience
involved in unethical behaviors.

The three ways of communicating constructively are relevant to the assessments. Teachers
should highlight these to students.

Focus on the problem (problem oriented), not the person (person oriented): This way of
communicating focuses on the problem that should be solved rather than the person who is
responsible for the problem. Focusing on the person instead puts the listener on the defensive
and focuses the attention on blame rather than avoiding or solving future problems.

Describe, not evaluate: This way of communicating objectively describes the problem instead
of evaluating it. Evaluating, instead, puts the listener on the defensive as they would be judged
for their actions.

Validate, not invalidate: This way of communicating helps people feel understood, valued, and
accepted. It shows respect for others’ thoughts and feelings even when there is disagreement. In
contrast, communication which invalidates makes people feel ignored, worthless, or alienated.
Communication which invalidates is superiority-oriented, rigid, impervious and/ or indifferent.

3.2 With reference to communicating constructively, discuss why the following statements are not
constructive and then rewrite them.

a. You’ve been over-spending on wining and dining with clients, and that’s why your
accounts are less profitable.

b. Your company fails to attract outside talent because you focus too much on family.

c. It is irresponsible of you to have ignored the obvious signs of cultural conflicts amongst
staff.

d. Someone will report you to the authority as it is illegal to bribe your business partners.

e. We believe the company has made the wrong move of entering the Middle Eastern
markets.

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 f. These recommendations are based on our market research and our consulting
experience. Adopt the recommendations – it is time for you to change!
TN
Why not constructive Rewrite
a • Focused on the person (‘you’ve Some wining and dining definitely help build
been over spending’) relationships with clients and they are common
• Invalidates (makes the listener practice (validating) but spending lesser on wining
feel that ‘wining and dining with and dining might make your accounts profitable.
clients’ does not bring in revenue (problem oriented).
and that it incurs only cost)
b • Focused on the person (‘your To encourage outside talent to join your family
company fails…’) business (problem), the company should extend
• Evaluates (‘fail…’, ‘focus too their employment beyond family (descriptive).
much on family’)
• Invalidates (makes the listener
feel that they should not place
importance on ‘family’)
c • Focused on the person Cultural differences exist amongst staff. For
(‘irresponsible of you to have instance, (evidence as support + consequences)…
ignored’) (descriptive)
• Evaluates (‘irresponsible’)
• Invalidates (‘obvious signs’
sounds condescending)
d • Focused on the person (‘…report Offering gifts or other benefits to business partners
you…’) (descriptive) may be against the law (focused on
• Evaluates (‘illegal’, ‘bribe’) the problem) if the value exceeds a certain amount.
e • Evaluates (‘made the wrong The company hopes to gain the first-mover
move’) advantage by entering the Middle Eastern markets
• Invalidates (makes the listener (validating) but the legal restrictions have made it
feel that entering ‘the Middle challenging for a foreign brand to establish itself.
Eastern markets’ is a big mistake) (descriptive: ‘why made the wrong move’)
f • Invalidates (makes the listener We propose the recommendations based on our
feel like the consultant is superior, discussion with your team (validating), market
and their research/ experience is research, and experience. The recommendations
everything while the audience’s would help the company achieve…(descriptive).
achievements/ knowledge/
experience is worthless and
should be disregarded

3.3 Based on the audience analyses, present the introduction and one recommendation to the
audience assigned to you for oral presentation 2 in five minutes.

TN
Teachers MUST do this presentation practice, just like prior to oral presentation 1. Teachers can
schedule this after the subsequent presentation skills lessons to practice the skills on virtual
presentations, visuals and Q & A.

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 Business Oral Presentation Skills III

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• distinguish between effective and ineffective visual aids.

• design effective visual aids for business oral presentations .

Task 1: Evaluating Visuals

You will be presenting with visuals in oral presentation 2. They should communicate
conclusions and key points on every slide; use professional looking images appropriate to
the audience; use a color scheme appropriate to the purpose and which projects well on a
screen; and use legible fonts and sizes.

Your slides should include the:

• opening
• current situation (different themes)
• recommendations and benefits/ impact (different titles)
• summary and call to action

2.1 Get in groups. Look at some presentation slides created by a consulting firm for company
managers. The aim was to persuade the company managers to take on recommendations
which would help them solve issues they were facing.

Compare slides A (left) and B (right) in each set and answer these questions:
a. Which is better and why?
b. How can you make both slides even better?
TN
This task aims to raise awareness of what is expected in creating visuals for the assessment. The
visuals presented require a lot more work. Thus teachers should ask students to create better
visuals than the ones presented.

Set 1 (Opening the presentation)

TN

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Slide B is better than slide A overall.

Slide A
• No company logo.
• Slogan is inappropriate.
• Use a cartoonish image.
• Inappropriate/ unprofessional looking background e.g. with stars.

Slide B
• Client company name and logo.
• The consultancy company name/ logo is placed underneath the client company/logo to
indicate relationship/ partnership.
• Main purpose is indicated i.e. ‘The Way Forward- Addressing your needs’ though this can
be made more specific.
• The main background looks professional but the design on the left-hand side and the tabs
at the bottom are unnecessary. The background color might be too dark.

Next, look at sample slide 1 and answer these questions:

• How is this slide, as the opening, effective in highlighting the key message(s)?
• In what ways can the slide be more effective?

105
Sample slide 1

TN
Teachers can show sample slide 1 for students’ reference and elicit feedback as a whole class
or in groups. Get students to think about what could be made better e.g. the photo, logo which
might be unclear and so on. Get students to think of their opening slide as they critique this
one.

If time permits, teachers should ask the groups to redo the slide.
Suggested Answers

The PPT:
• States clearly the main purpose of the presentation i.e. ‘To adapt management skills into
the local culture and restore close relationships’
• Includes an appropriate background design i.e. an appropriate image of the client’s premise
and company logo
but can still be improved by including:
• The client company name
• The consultancy company name/ logo

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Set 2 (Introducing the team to establish credibility)

TN
Slide B is better than slide A, overall.

Slide A
• The word ‘wonderful’ is unnecessary.
• Does not indicate what the company is here to do for the managers.
• Photos used are inappropriate and do not project a professional image.
o Mark Fong’s photo includes his family – the baby and presumably wife?
o Shania Tong’s photo shows herself posed in a yoga position.
o Photos are stretched.

Slide B
• States what the company is here to do.
• Provides experience and expertise to establish credibility e.g. CPA, no. of years of
experience and in which area.
• Photos used are appropriate and professional.
• The main background looks professional but the design on the left-hand side and the tabs
at the bottom are unnecessary. The background color might be too dark.

Set 3 (Explaining the current situation)

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TN
Slide B is better than slide A, overall.

Slide A
• Too many things on the slide which makes it difficult for the audience to focus on the
message, and the main message is unclear.
• Images are irrelevant to the point being made.
• The theory need not be highlighted e.g. by Deci and Ryan. Use the theory to explain the
message or point but need not mention exactly the theory which is being used.
• Text is made up of long sentences which cannot be read quickly.

Slide B
• States message and key points clearly.
• Two of the images might not reflect what the text means e.g. the scale does not reflect
differences, and the image of the icons of people exercising.
• The background could be ‘cleaner’; reduce the unnecessary design on the top left-hand
corner.

Next, look at sample slide 2 and answer these questions:

• How is this slide, in explaining the current situation, effective in highlighting the key
message(s)?
• In what ways can the slide be more effective?

Sample slide 2

108
TN
Teachers can show sample slide 2 for students’ reference and elicit feedback as a whole class
or in groups. Get students to think about what could be made better. Get students to think of their
slide explaining the current situation, as they critique this one.

If time permits, teachers should ask the groups to redo the slide.

Suggested Answers

The PPT:
• States the key points clearly
but can still be improved by:
• Stating the message in the title instead of the subtitle
• Removing redundant/ repetitive titles and subtitles (i.e. Use the title or the banner in the footer
but not both; use either one of the subtitles on “Difference in culture” but not both)
• Placing the client company logo more appropriately (e.g. at the top right-hand corner)
• Improving grammatical accuracy i.e. “Difference in culture” should be “Differences in culture”
in the title subtitles
• Using a larger font size for texts in the boxes

Set 4 (Making a recommendation)

TN
Slide B is better than slide A, overall.

Slide A
• Inaccurate spelling of ‘recommendations’.
• Inappropriate images:
o one of the images shows the employees from ‘Hertz’ instead of ‘JKT”.
o the image showing the ‘microphones’ seems irrelevant to the point.

Slide B
• Clear conclusions given e.g. ‘Create work values’.
• Mostly appropriate images except possibly the one showing a ‘the thumbs-up’ sign.

Next, look at sample slides 3 and 4 and answer these questions:

• How are these slides, in making recommendations, effective in highlighting the key
message(s)?
• In what ways can the slides be more effective?

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Sample slide 3

Sample slide 4

TN
Teachers can show sample slides 3 and 4 for students’ reference and elicit feedback as a whole
class or in groups. Get students to think about what could be made better. Get students to think
of their recommendations slide as they critique this one.

If time permits, teachers should ask the groups to redo the slide.

Suggested Answers for slide 3

110
The PPT:
• States the message clearly in the title
• States the key points clearly
but can still be improved by:
• Using appropriate wording i.e. “to fit into the local staff’s values”; “Pleasant” (???)

Suggested Answers for Slide 4

The PPT:
• States the key points clearly
• Uses effective icons to help understanding i.e. uses graphic icons sparingly
but can still be improved by:
• Removing redundant/ repetitive titles/ banners i.e. use the title or the banner in the footer
but not both

Set 5 (Concluding the presentation)

TN
Slide B is better than slide A, overall.

Slide A
• Inappropriate image used e.g. icon of a ‘crown’, and the background.
• Inappropriate text used e.g. asking audience to ‘keep calm’.
• As the final slide is an important one, writing ‘thank you for listening to my presentation’
does not create an impact on the audience.

Slide B
• Reiterates the main focus stated at the beginning of the presentation.
• Summarizes the points under ‘Motivate, ‘Unite’ and ‘Excel’.

Next, look at sample slide 5 and answer these questions:

• How is the slide, as the conclusion, effective in highlighting the key message(s)?
• In what ways can the slide be more effective?

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Sample slide 5

Teachers can show sample slide 5 for students’ reference and elicit feedback as a whole class
or in groups. Get students to think about what could be made better. Get students to think of their
conclusion slide as they critique this one.
If time permits, teachers should ask the groups to redo the slide.

Suggested Answers
The PPT:
• States the key points clearly on the whole (except “everyone can get behind”)
• Uses effective icons to help understanding i.e. uses graphic icons sparingly
but can still be improved by:
• Ensuring points are stated clearly i.e. “get behind” (???) and more concisely at times
• Being consistent when capitalizing words in the boxes i.e. “Set up a new system”, “Set up
a specific KPI”
• Removing the distracting images in the background

2.2 In your oral presentation assessment groups, complete one of the following tasks assigned
by your teacher:
a. Create one of the slides (the opening, the current situation, the conclusion) for your
upcoming presentation for peer and teacher feedback.
b. Evaluate how effective your slides were for oral presentation 1. What was good about the
slides and what could be improved? How can you make better slides for oral presentation
2?
TN
This task aims to prepare students for oral presentation 2. Teachers should ask students to create
ONLY these slides (opening/current situation/conclusion). Teachers should inform students that
they will give feedback ONLY on the design and not the content for consistency purposes across
classes in the course.

Teachers may also ask students to evaluate/ grade the slides based on the performance
descriptors. Teachers may select and show the better sets of slides on the projector screen for
peer learning.

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 Business Oral Presentation Skills IV

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• answer questions effectively in Q&A sessions by predicting and preparing, showing

interest, listening, and acknowledging.
• answer negative questions effectively in Q&A sessions by turning and reframing the
questions.

Handling Questions
It is common for the audience to ask questions during a presentation to:
• confirm if you know your work (e.g. check whether your recommendations are justified, ask
for alternatives).
• clarify understanding.
• check whether you can work as a team and so on.

To handle questions well, you should:

1. Predict and prepare.
2. Assign group members to be responsible for answering particular types of questions.
3. Show interest and that you are pleased when the audience asks you questions.
4. Listen to the question and repeat what you hear in your mind.
5. Acknowledge or demonstrate understanding of the question (e.g. look at the questioner, nod
your head, and utter “ah” and “mm”).
6. Credit the questioner.
7. Step forward and maintain a confident posture.
8. Answer the question using a “you” paraphrase whenever possible.

All these happen very quickly, so presenters need to make sure they have sufficient practice
answering the questions.

Task 1: Predicting and Preparing for Questions the Audience Might Ask
1.1 To prepare for the Q&A session, you should anticipate the questions your audience might ask
about your presentation, for example:
1. the audience’s concerns.
2. the problems you are trying to solve.
3. things you might not have explained.
4. justifications for the recommendations.
5. weaknesses in your recommendations and so on.

Be sure to:
• identify questions you are least confident in answering, i.e. questions you least want to be
asked by your audience as they are the ones that need more attention and careful
planning.
• place the answers to the anticipated questions at the end of your presentation slides as
an appendix.

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In your oral presentation assessment groups:
• Anticipate and list 5 questions your audience might ask about your presentation.
• Prepare convincing and organized answers for the questions you have listed. Once you
have the answers ready, place these on PowerPoint slides.

Be prepared to answer these questions in front of the class.

TN
Teachers could prompt students about areas that the audience might be concerned about e.g.
the recommendations (whether the recommendations are feasible; who will carry out the
recommendations; when; where; how much; benefits and impacts; whether the recommendations
have been carried out elsewhere successfully; why the recommendations); consultants’ role/
involvement and credibility; and so on.

Teachers should ensure each group is ready to answer at least 3 of the 5 listed questions in the
next task.

Task 2: Answering Questions in Q & A Sessions

2.1 In groups, discuss how you will respond to the audience who asks a question given the
situation. Give an example of your response in phrases or sentences.

Situation Response and possible phrases/ sentences

If you can answer the question right away

If you do not understand the question

If you really do not know the answer(s)

If you were asked an aggressive/ negative

question e.g. “Your IT solution is useless as
it’ll take ages to implement.”

These suggested notes (simplified) are uploaded on Canvas as unpublished. Teachers may
make them available to students after their discussion.

Situation Response and possible phrases/ sentences

114
If you can answer the question right away Answer the question e.g.
• “I’m glad you asked that question.”
• “Thank you for asking.”
• “You raised an interesting point.”

If you do not understand the question Paraphrase the question e.g.

• “If I understood you correctly, you’d like
to know...”
• “So, you think… Is this right?”
• “Well, the question is… Is this right?”
• “So, what you’re asking is...”
• “Do you mean...?”
• “…is this what you mean?”
Get the questioner to paraphrase the question
e.g.
• “Sorry, I didn’t get your question. Could you
repeat…?”
• “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by...”
• “I’m afraid I don’t quite see what you mean”
If you really do not know the answer(s) Admit that you do not have the answer(s). Give
what relevant information you have, and offer to
follow up.
• “I’m sorry I’m not sure of the answer to that
question right now but what I do know is/ but
what I could tell you is...”
• “I’m sorry I’m not sure of the answer to that
question right now but what I could do is I could
come back to you with an answer a bit later,
by...”
• “I’m sorry I don’t know the answer. Perhaps
someone in the audience could help me out”
If you were asked an aggressive/ negative 1. Turn and reframe the question to address
question e.g. “Your IT solution is useless as the issue neutrally. Avoid repeating words
it’ll take ages to implement.” that are negative.
• “What I’m hearing from you is that you have
a concern about/ you are concerned about
_____ (a neutral word that summarizes the
area of concern, e.g. “implementation
timeline”’, “time cost”, “cost”, “manpower”,
“effectiveness”)
• “You’re asking what the benefit of… is/
how this solution can.../ can this work to.../
whether this solution is effective in.../ why
we choose this... (a neutral word/ phrase
that summarizes the concern)
2. Acknowledge the questioner’s view (Show
them you agree with them).
• “I think that’s a valid concern.”
3. Say “BUT…” to defend your position by
giving strong evidence.
• “BUT, what the IT system can do is...”
4. End with a strong statement to show you are
addressing/ have addressed the concern.
• “We are confident that _________ (the
concern) will be resolved soon.”

115
2.2 We will now simulate the Q&A session after your group oral presentation. Each group will
be given 3 minutes. You will take turns:
• Standing in front of the class.
• Opening the Q&A session appropriately.
• Answering two questions from another group confidently and persuasively.

The Q & A session will be videotaped for your reference.

You will receive peer and teacher feedback on your performance in class.

For the group assigned to ask questions:

• Pick two questions from those listed by the group you are asking.
• Turn one of the questions into an aggressive question.

TN
Teachers may ask student groups to videotape the Q & A session or teachers could videotape
the Q & A session to be given to students for reference.

Teachers should give feedback on the group’s performance based on whether the group
responds to the questions as one voice very confidently, convincingly (i.e. clear, very organized,
concise, relevant) and tactfully in class.

Alternatively, teachers can incorporate this simulated Q & A into the 5-min presentation practice
for oral presentation 2.

TN for consultations

Teachers could schedule different time slots to meet individual groups in the consultations.

During the consultation, teachers may do the following with each group:
1. Let students share their reflection on their performance in oral presentation 1.
2. Direct students to the performance descriptors for more details on what they are expected to
do to best fulfil the assessment requirements.
3. Let students report on their progress and/ or ask questions about oral presentation 2.

Note: Teachers should not give feedback on content (e.g. recommendations and justifications)
and organization (e.g. how to structure the presentation) as students would have already been
given notes and guidelines on how to approach the assessment

116