Some Business English through Tech Talk

Today we're going to focus on some business English terms used in a recent New York Times article "Sell Big or Die Fast" by Jenna Wortham.

The English we'll focus on is highlighted in bold:

Seven weeks after it was put on sale, Hewlett-Packard killed its TouchPad

tablet, the company’s competitor to Apple’s iPad. Hewlett-Packard killed the TouchPad after 48 days, cut the price and created a buying frenzy. Last year, Microsoft pulled the plug on its Kin mobile phones only 48 days after they went on sale.

In recent years, technology companies have been cutting their losses with increasing speed. Google proudly released Wave, its platform of collaborative work tools, to the general public in May 2010. It canceled Wave 77 days later...

These days, big technology companies — particularly those in the hypercompetitive smartphone and tablet industries — are starting to resemble Hollywood film studios. Every release needs to be a blockbuster, and the only measure of success is the opening-weekend gross. There is little to no room for the sleeper indie hit that builds good word of mouth to become a solid performer over time.
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Now let's discuss the vocabulary in the article:

(to) kill a product - to stop making a product (usually because it is a failure - or flop - in the market).

(to) pull the plug on - to stop something; to end something. (Think of pulling the plug of a lamp out of the wall - it goes out)

(to) cut one's losses - to stop doing something because it is likely it will not succeed; to stop doing something before one loses any MORE money.

blockbuster - a big winner; a huge success

sleeper hit - a product, service, movie or other thing that is not popular immediately, but becomes popular over time (often unexpectedly). Note: the "indie" in the article is short for "independent" - typically applied to movies made by a small studio or an individual.

word of mouth - when people talk about a product or service and it then becomes known. An important term in marketing these days, especially with Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

Questions? Comments? Include them in your Comments to this blog post! And if you want to learn more business English expressions, check out the books Speak Better Business English and Make More Money and Speak Business English Like an American. Also the iPhone apps Speak Business English I and Business English Power Verbs.

Business Schools Move to Soft Skills - Good for a Business English Lesson!

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article called "'Soft Skills' Business Courses Aim to Prepare Students for Management Roles." There are many good English expressions in the article.

Before we get into the article further, let's discuss the term "soft skills." Who out there has heard of this expression? It's all the stuff of being an understanding boss, a sensitive manager -- listening to people, empathizing with employees, delegating well. The "hard skills" are things like knowledge of finance, accounting, business strategy ...

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Now let's look at a piece of this Wall Street Journal article. Parts we will discuss are highlighted in bold:

Business schools are tapping into their "soft" side. This fall, students at Columbia Business School will be invited to learn the art of meditation. Emotions will run high in Stanford Graduate School of Business' long-running "Touchy Feely" course. And professors at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business will try to teach students to rein in their type-A personalities, lest they upset fellow classmates ...

Although business schools have traditionally excelled at teaching "hard skills" like finance and accounting, those skills become less relevant as an employee ascends the corporate ladder and moves away from crunching numbers to overseeing employees, companies and experts say.

Expressions for study:

to tap into - to connect with; to get in touch with; to use as a resource for your own benefit

Example: If you're looking for a job, experts say the best way is to tap into your personal network.

touchy feely - openly expressing emotions, such as affections

Example: Sandy is a touchy-feely manager. She's constantly asking her employees if they need a hug.

Note: This expression is usually used in a somewhat negative way. Although it's nice to be described as sensitive and empathetic, it's less nice to be described as "touchy feely." It implies that there's TOO MUCH affection going around!

rein in - to control; to cut back on

Example: Our marketing budget has gotten too large. We need to rein in ad spending.

type-A personalities - very competitive people, who are often aggressive and very ambitious (often these people can also be described as "workoholics").

Example: John is a real type-A personality. He's always in the office by 6 a.m., never takes vacations, and expects the same from his staff.

corporate ladder - the order of position or title in a corporation. You will often hear this phrase with "climb," ascend" or "work one's way up" in front of it.

Example: Andrew is really working her way up the corporate ladder. At just 30, she's already a marketing director at Procter & Gamble.

to crunch numbers - to perform financial calculations (often complex ones, or for a long period of time)

Example: Joe quit his job as a financial analyst at Donox. He was tired of crunching numbers all day.

And a special note on "crunching numbers" -- people who crunch numbers are, very appropriately, called "number crunchers." In the old days, MBAs were often criticized as being just a bunch of number crunchers. All that has changed now. Or, as this article tells us, is in the process of changing. Corporations don't just want a bunch of number crunchers -- they want sensitive people who know how to lead! More soft stuff, less hard stuff.

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Better Business English Pays...And So Does Job Loyalty!

We know that learning to speak better business English pays ... and now it turns that job loyalty also pays. That's what career experts say in this recent Wall Street Journal article by Dennis Nishi. (So if you were sitting around thinking "The first thing I'm going to do when the economy improves is find a better job!" then read on). I'm including the beginning of the article below. The business vocabulary we'll study is in bold. Now we'll kill two birds with one stone: learn better Business English AND get some career advice! Here we go:

Daniel Nicholson firmly believes in the value of company loyalty. At 46, the vice president of global quality has worked at General Motors in Detroit for 29 years, though he admits that his longevity isn't the norm.

"When you've been at a company for a long time, you really build a network of people that know what you can do," he says. "They tend to trust you more and that brings opportunity. That's what's worked for me."


After years of layoffs and pay cuts, the thawing job market is giving some frustrated employees an opportunity to jump ship. But career experts say that staying put should be a top option.

"You've already weathered the worst of the recession. If you believe the company can turn it around, why not recommit yourself to your job and see what the hard work that you've already put in can get you?" says Patrice Rice, a Washington recruiter who specializes in the hospitality industry. She says loyalty can open doors to more opportunities, and loyal employees are more likely to keep their jobs.
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Now let's review the interesting terms used in the above article.

longevity - the amount of time an employee has worked at a job (in this context, it implies a long time); the word also means lifespan - the length or duration of life

(to) jump ship - to quit a job. Well, a little more colorful than just walking out the front door...suggests that one is really not happy at the job and decides to leave, often without giving much warning

(to) stay put - to remain at a job; to not leave a job. In this bad economy, many people have been afraid to go out and look for new jobs and have instead decided to stay put.

(to) weather - to survive a difficult period (a recession, a downturn, etc)

(to) turn around - to improve things (especially when they are going poorly). This phrase is often used when a new CEO is brought into a poorly performing company -- they're brought in to turn it around.

(to) open doors - to create new possibilities or opportunities

New iPad app for Improving Your English

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Improve your Business English with some Tech Talk

Just when you thought the $99 laptop was around the corner...the Wall Street Journal reports that the costs of PCs (personal computers) is going up. Read these exerpts from their article of December 14 by Ben Worthen and then we'll review some key business English expressions. The expressions we will focus on are in bold.

Rising Computer Prices Buck the Trend

For the first time in several years, people shopping for personal computers are doing something new: paying more.

Computer prices are rising even as the prices of other consumer electronics such as high-definition televisions and digital cameras plunge this holiday season.

In November, the average retail price of a PC sold in the U.S. was $615, up 6% from last year's $580...

The rising prices for PCs...is a stark turnabout for the $250 billion global PC industry, which for years has coped with sharp price declines even as machines became more powerful.

The cut-throat pricing of recent years has rippled through the industry, squeezing profit margins for big PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc...

The higher-end models are "flying off the shelves," said PaulHenri Ferrand, chief marketing officer for Dell's consumer unit.

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Now let's discuss the terms in bold:

buck the trend - to go against the direction things were moving; to be an exception to the rule (NOTE: This term is often used in investing. A company whose stock is "bucking the trend" is going up while the overall stock market is going down.)

plunge - to go down by a lot; to sink. Often said of prices or demand.

to cope with - to deal with something bad

cut-throat - very competitive. Often used with the word competition, as in: The cut-throat competition in the PC industry has led to lower prices OR Joe faced cut-throat competition to gain admission to Harvard Business School).

to ripple through - to travel through, as in a wave; to move through (think of waves rippling through an ocean).

to squeeze profit margins - to make profit margins go lower (profit margins show how much a company is earning). A company wants profit margins to be as high as possible (more $$$ for the executives!) so when they are squeezed, it's a bad thing.

to fly off the shelves - to be very popular; to sell very well (Imagine products with little wings flying through the air of the store, headed to the cash register). This idiom is featured that way in More Speak English Like an American, which teaches 350 American English expressions and is part of the bestselling Speak English Like an American series.

Halloween Costumes Sure to Scare and Some Business English Too

Have you ever heard of Snooki? I hadn't until recently when I found out that the Snooki Halloween costume is a bestseller this year. So who is Snooki? She's a character on the MTV show "Jersey Shore." She has big hair and she wears a short leopard dress.

According to a Wall Street Journal article: "Costumes based on Snooki's poofy hair...have been flying off store shelves."

Time to break for some vocabulary:

poofy hair - big hair that usually goes high up in the air before settling down again (not a compliment)

flying off the shelves - this is a great idioms that means to sell very fast. Another idiom that means the same thing is: to sell like hotcakes.

Snooki's costumes are flying off the shelves so fast, some shelves are now empty of Snooki wigs. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Retailers who are selling out of the official Pauly D Snooki wigs and other authorized wear are coming up with makeshift Jersey Halloween packages.

in a pinch, they're finding that they can put together a pretty good Snooki kit with skin bronzer, furry pink slippers, and one of last year's unsold Amy Winehouse wigs...

A return to Business English vocabulary:

makeshift - something made up to meet an urgent need; something put together quickly because it's needed

in a pinch - in a difficult situation, when no other options are available (You can hear the store owner yelling in desperation: "Oh no! We ran out of official Snooki wigs. Time to get out the old Amy Winehouse wigs...Maybe nobody will notice").

Happy Halloween! If you want to learn more business expressions, give yourself a TREAT and buy yourself a copy of the new book/audio CD "Speak Better Business English and Make More Money."