Sziasztok!
Összeállítottam egy újabb feladatsort a legfrisebb business cikkekből. Lehet gyakorolni, szókincset bővíteni!
1, Match the questions with the answers!
1, What have been the key observations for you as a leader in remote working during the mass transition to home working?
2, What is Adobe seeing from its customers in terms of tools, technologies and processes that are helping to ensure businesses continue to thrive?
3, You’ve made staying in touch with your teams and partners a priority during the pandemic. How important is communication at this time and what changes have you brought in?
4, From a strategic perspective, what should companies consider when deploying technology to ensure business continuity?
5, Finally, what advice do you have for business leaders at this time of crisis?
a, It’s enormously important. Delivering a great employee experience is fundamental to maintaining a strong organisational culture and fostering a sense of community. With our people now working remotely, we’ve set up new internal social channels so our teams can continue to keep in touch informally and share their experiences. As well as moving our team meetings and calls to video conferencing, we also host coffee catchups and even daily challenges where our people share photos of their entries and winners receive a donation for a charity of their choice. Finding ways to replicate the social aspects of going to work has been a big focus for us.
b, Leaders are faced with making great changes to both their business processes and commercial offerings as they strive to keep their customers and employees satisfied during this challenging period. They are also under pressure to make these changes as seamlessly as possible. It’s a huge task and one where digital technology plays a pivotal role for many of our customers. Above all, it’s important to keep open minded, flexible, accepting of the situation we find ourselves in and remain supportive. It goes without saying that we are focused on supporting our employees, customers and community at this time and all of the other leaders I’ve spoken with from our customer and partner communities are doing the sam
c, In the same way that supporting our people and helping them to continue to work productively and flexibly from home has been a major focus for us, the same is true for our customers. Many have responded to the current situation by identifying the fundamental technologies they need to stay operational and meet the needs of their employees and customers as quickly and seamlessly as possible. It’s especially important companies remain digitally connected with their customers during this period. We’ve seen huge demand from across the public and private sectors for our Document Cloud applications that enable people to stay productive and collaborate from anywhere, while keeping their operations running successfully. Beyond those fundamentals, all companies are facing their own unique challenges. Where the hospitality and travel sectors, for example, have seen their operations heavily restricted, others such as supermarkets have seen demand increase and pressure on supply chains and customer service teams intensify, all while having to meet heightened health and safety requirements. In some cases, digital transformation programmes that might have been planned for the next few years have needed to be delivered in a matter of weeks. Whatever the sector or business, this is a defining moment.
d, The almost overnight switch to everyone working remotely has posed myriad challenges for most organisations and, more importantly, for the people that work for them. Even the most experienced remote worker has had to deal with the added complexity of extra responsibilities at home and changes to their daily routines. For those who are used to being office based, the transition has been an even bigger shift. People are a company’s greatest asset and leaders need to make sure they are doing everything they can to support employees as they adapt to their own unique situations. What has stood out for me is how well and how quickly our people have been able to adapt, and how they have managed to retain a strong sense of culture and community, even without seeing each other in person. Equally, seeing the high levels of productivity that can be achieved outside the office environment, by setting new behaviours and processes and making use of the digital tools, has been similarly eye opening
e, The current situation has accelerated many of our customers’ digital transformation plans or seen them pivot their intended investments from one area to focus on the solutions they need to stay operational. Things like cloud-based collaboration tools and e-signature technologies have gone from being somewhere on a list of priorities to being an absolute necessity. However, there is a difference between staying operational and ensuring business continuity. The latter also covers the need to continue meeting the expectations of your customers and maintaining service levels. In many sectors, providing that same service entirely digitally might meet a pressing shortterm need, but it could also change the way your customer sees you forever. It’s important to balance short-term needs with a long-term view and consider how the steps you make now will carry through to a world with fewer restrictions, as well as how your customers will respond. For example, if you ramp up your digital offering now, will you be able to scale it back in the future or will your customers have changed their behaviour and expect it to continue?
2, Insert the words in the right place
Projct performance relies heavily on a company’s ability to manage a complex web of dependencies, that 1,……….. across time, including supply chains, teams and resources. These dependencies form networks that determine the fragility of a project to largescale, systemic failures, such as those caused by a global pandemic. When projects are as complex and connected as they are today, traditional risk management falls short in response to events like the coronavirus crisis. Risk is commonly defined as the probability of a harmful event taking place, multiplied by its impact. But in the context of modern projects, this equation no longer 2, ……… The COVID-19 pandemic was seen by many as a low-probability and high-impact risk, often called a “black swan” event, but that is not the case. Applying traditional risk procedures and tools will lead organisations to ignore the complexity and interconnectivity of doing business in the digital world, 3……………. a false sense of confidence and deepening their risk exposure. “The COVID-19 pandemic is very similar to a systemic financial crisis”, says Dr Christos Ellinas, a world leader in redefining project management, co-founder and chief technology officer at Nodes & Links. “Both events show that our economy is composed of networks coupled together and both are wrongly interpreted as black swans. Many experts predicted for a long time that a pandemic was 4,……… to happen. “Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s low probability, high impact or any other combination of the two. What actually matters is the fragility of the overall system. Nothing is too big to fail, but it can be too connected to fail. The challenges we are now facing with COVID-19 are the result of our society and economy being deeply connected.”
There is another way of understanding risk, shifting the focus from probabilities to connectivity. Connectivity is a quantifiable and measurable aspect that can help companies leverage risk and 5,………… on opportunity. Nodes & Links brings this perspective into a core aspect of almost every organisation: projects. By understanding the 6,……….. and consequent exposure that projects have against risk, project experts can optimise decision-making while delivering tactical workload savings and cost efficiencies
Nodes & Links does this through Aegis, its cloud-based intelligent platform. By incorporating the effect of networks that 7,………… the delivery of projects, Aegis empowers its users to improve the outcomes of capital and infrastructure projects across all sectors. “Conquering project complexity is one of our core missions,” says Dr. Ellinas. “Aegis allows project experts to better understand what the data tells them, and then test different scenarios to assess the overall exposure of the project and the 8………..of it being delivered on time.”
The modularity of the technology has allowed Nodes & Links to quickly help businesses quickly deal with COVID-specific scenarios. The novelty of the approach has seen the results reach all parliamentarians, ministers and even No 10 after featuring in a report by the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum. “Tackling COVID-19 is near impossible with a traditional risk perspective,” Dr. Ellinas explains. “But approaching it from the perspective of fragility means we can deal with risk and achieve resilience in a simpler, more effective way.” By uncovering how risk 9……….across entire organisations through the lens of project delivery, Nodes & Links is opening up a new era of data-driven, corporate governance and enabling new economic opportunities. Its platform combines high-fidelity raw project data with tagging by project experts to provide a better understanding of where risk lies, unlocking innovative products such as micro-insurance based on the likelihood of certain tasks being delayed. “We live in an interconnected era and as we see more digitalisation, organisations need to be agile in how they adopt, utilise and capture value from digital tools,” Dr. Ellinas concludes. “Unless we provide the formal instruments to deal with risk in a way that is appropriate to this era, it will come back to bite us again and again. Companies that don’t embrace the technologies which enable them to 10,………… emerging risks are going to be left behind.”
perpetuating, underpin, alleviate, capitalise, evolve, percolates, bound, likelihood, adds up, implications
3, Insert the right preposition
In testing times, the British are fond 1…nothing more than a good homily. Whether it’s putting your best foot forward or keeping calm, there’s a distinct sense of carrying 2…regardless. However, when faced 3……. a historic challenge, it takes more than a stiff upper lip to emerge not just safe, but stronger on the other side. What defines a company’s culture as resilient? Such a company tends to have strong, transparent and visible leadership, engaged and empowered employees, and strong brand trust, both internally and externally. Resilient cultures have a powerful, ethical core so employees don’t have to second-guess the right thing to do. Many also favour an agile working model, fostering a climate of collaboration that enables rapid communication and supportive, effective colleague networks. If this sounds like something of a utopia, it is. Resilience culture is not built overnight. It depends on a long-term investment 4….. purpose, people and process. And while most senior executives agree it is their goal 5……. theory, in practice many are still far behind the curve. London’s Alexandra Palace is one of the UK’s busiest venues, hosting upwards of 400 events a year. It is also an historic destination and a charity. Creating a common purpose was 6…… bringing the organisation together so it could maximise its potential as well as protect it 7….. risk. That risk isn’t just the chaos caused by COVID-19. The commercial arm operates in a highly competitive environment while, as a charity, Alexandra Palace is fighting 8….. an ever-dwindling pot of private and public funds. “It wasn’t about a consultant coming in to write a purpose for us,” insists Alexandra Palace’s chief executive Louise Stewart
“It was written 9….. our team and captures what the organisation is about. It allows both the charity and commercial arms of the business to be passionate and have a sense of responsibility to the health of the whole organisation.” Niki Lawson, director of human resources at global law firm Addleshaw Goddard, says: “People need to understand how they fit 10……. the bigger scheme of things. One of the fundamental aspects of our brand is a culture of collaboration. People are rewarded for working together, which creates a network of support that has really been fundamental at the moment.” However, Lisa Lyons, senior principal, leadership and workforce transformation practice lead at Mercer, says: “There’s a lot of talk 11…… broader purpose, but much less action,” adding that Mercer’s Global Talent Trends research shows 85 per cent of business leaders agreed an organisation’s purpose should be about more than generating shareholder return, but only 35 per cent put it 12…. practice. The idea of culture is so conceptual, it can be hard to know where to start. “Reskilling becomes a practical way to measure progress,” says Lyons. Companies with more resilience tend to include forward-looking metrics such as degree of workforce reskilling as well traditional, historical measurements like quarterly revenues or productivity, she adds. TSB chief marketing officer Peter Markey discovered the value of broadening his own skills and those of his team when the bank encountered a significant IT outage in 2018. “It became really important that we didn’t just hold 13……. to jobs we did before and, instead, move quickly to a new way of operating with new types of roles and new types of work,” Markey explains. “My role became much more about front-facing communications rather than brand and advertising. Overall, it is about thinking differently and letting go 14…..what you did before.” For some, necessity has been the mother of invention. “COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to look 15….. how we deliver what we do using a different model,” Stewart reveals. “We have staff who deliver in specific areas, but they have transferable skills, so we’re looking at developing a multi-skilled workforce that allows us to develop more quickly, even at a junior level.” But again, leaders need to get rid 16….. preconceptions. The Global Talent Trends research discovered that while 78 per cent of employees are ready to reskill, only 45 per cent of executives believe they are capable 17…… doing so. Staff flexibility is at the heart of building the agile processes that make 18……..the third and final pillar of a resilient culture. Asking staff to pivot is no use unless a process is in place to support them.
Modern technology is undoubtedly a boon now and in a post-crisis world. At Alexandra Palace, Stewart notes the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the need to invest in automated technologies to formerly sceptical holders of the charity’s purse strings. Addleshaw Goddard’s Lawson adds video conferencing has been revelatory 19….. improving flexible working. However, executives universally agree that it has been in transforming communication – frequency, transparency, hierarchy – that has delivered the biggest uptick in organisational resilience. Lawson says straightforward communication, with no sugarcoating and direct from leadership, has been critical in weathering the pandemic. “We thought really carefully about it. Perhaps we’re even over-communicating, but the feedback is that it has been reassuring,” she says. Stewart adds: “How we communicate has been very much experimental, but it’s about what style suits our organisation; checking in regularly, encouraging staff to share concerns, which is healthy, but also how to make sure we join those conversations to hear those concerns.” Mercer’s Lyons concludes: “The changes we are witnessing, brought 20……. by uncertain times, are setting a new precedent for how we live and work. This situation also shines a spotlight on the level of resilience of each company. We clearly see companies getting ahead in this period and others falling behind.”
4, Match the words with the synonym
strain
cumbersome
silver lining
quirky
vigorous
watershed
verify
credentials
replicate
spoof
instigate
grapple with
onerous
milestone
scam
documents
glimmer of hope
energetic
deal with
burden
strange
copy
provoke
authenticate
KEY
1, 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-e, 5-b
2, 1, evolve, 2, adds up, 3,perpetuating 4, bound, 5, capitalize, 6,implications 7,underpin 8, likelohood, 9,percolate 10, alleviate
3, 1, of, 2, on, 3, with, 4, in, 5, in, 6, about 7, against, 8, for, 9, by, 10, into, 11, about, 12, in, 13, on, 14, of, 15, at, 16, of, 17, of, 18, up, 19, in, 20, about
4, strain:burden
cumbersome: onerous
silver lining: glimmer of hope
quirky: strange
vigorous: energetic
watershed: milestone
verify: authenticate
credentials: documents
replicate: copy
spoof: scam
instigate: provoke
grapple with: cope with