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Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod for today's lesson on analyzing trends during a presentation.
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Business is a game of numbers and whether you're in marketing finance, sales or operations, you have different metrics that tell you whether you're successful.
Read any business report, and you'll see these metrics presented in charts and graphs.
But charts and graphs aren't enough on their own.
Sure, you can use them to present a snapshot of the current state and you can show how different numbers have gone up or down relative to other numbers.
But so what?
The numbers are only useful if we can analyze them, learn from them and make better decisions with them.
When you analyze trends in a presentation, it's a good idea to clearly state your approach from the beginning.
Then you can do things like describe the rate of change and speculate about future developments.
You might also make specific predictions about what will happen and raise people's awareness of possible future trends.
In today's dialogue, we'll rejoin a presentation at a mobile company called Ambient.
A director named Pat has been presenting results for sales and market share.
Now Pat is digging deeper and analyzing the company's performance on one key metric revenue per unit, or RPU.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
1.
What is Pat going to compare in his approach to analyzing trends?
2.
What does Pat predict about his company's RPU in the future?
Three, what possible future trend does Pat warn about at the end of the dialogue?
But the real story I want to share with you today is not about headline sales or market share.
No.
What I'm here with you today for is to share our success in meeting, indeed exceeding, this last quarter our targets for a key profit indicator revenue per unit, or RPU.
Now, to do that, I'm going to compare our own unit revenue with that of Cirrus and the market average provided by IDG statistics.
First, here's the market average.
As we can see, it remained fairly flat from 2002 to 2005 and then started to break out of the trend lines as the first mass-market WAP phones hit the stores in the 2005 holiday season.
The momentum that this trend picked up in 2006 looks likely to continue on in 2007 and 8.
Now, as you all know, the latest research indicates that growth in the mid-range, even in developing markets, is reaching saturation.
And as I'm sure your channels are telling you, demand for high-end products is not just limited to Western Europe anymore.
Now obviously, it's been a core part of our strategy to increase RPU by 10 per year from 2006 to 2011.
We have met this target for 2006 and we are on track to continue strong growth this year.
But the best news is that, following Cirrus' disastrous G3 launch and our hard work in Q1 and Q2, we have now actually overtaken them in this key metric.
This really bodes well for our profitability in 2007 as a whole.
Call tell is something for us to watch out for however, because you know they aren't going to be satisfied with the low end for very long.
Okay, now let's take a closer look at those RPU targets.
Now let's go through the presentation again and look at the language and techniques Pat used to analyze the trends.
Pat is talking about one particular key profit indicator, RPU, or revenue per unit.
But the real story I want to share with you today is not about headline sales or market share.
No.
What I'm here with you today for is to share our success in meeting, indeed exceeding, this last quarter our targets for a key profit indicator revenue per unit, or RPU.
Now, to do that, I'm going to compare our own unit revenue with that of Cirrus and the market average provided by IDG statistics.
When we analyze the numbers and dig deeper, we need to help our audience along.
Diving in too fast might confuse them.
As Pat shows, it's good to state your approach first.
Pat explains that they'll look at revenue per unit compared to another company called Cirrus and the market average.
This is the average of all mobile companies.
Clearly stating your approach can help prepare your audience to understand.
It helps to explain what you're going to show them before you show them.
Once you put a complex graph on the screen, people might not immediately understand what they're looking at.
Let's try some more examples of clearly stating your approach.
Let me show you how our performance has changed over the past 10 years.
I'm going to show you how costs differ in our four departments.
I've got several charts here that will help us understand the current market.
I'd like to break down the revenue mix for our major business units.
Now let's listen as Pat starts by showing the market average.
First, here's the market average.
As we can see, it remained fairly flat from 2002 to 2005 and then started to break out of the trend lines as the first mass-market WAP phones hit the stores in the 2005 holiday season.
The momentum that this trend picked up in 2006 looks likely to continue on in 2007 and 8.
Numbers can stay flat or unchanged, or they can increase and decrease.
What's interesting is how fast or slow they go up and down.
As Pat explains, the average RPU was steady for a while, then started to increase and the change picked up or got faster in 2006.
It's important when we're analyzing trends to talk about the rate of change.
It's one thing to say a number is going up.
It's another thing to know that it's going up slowly or quickly, or that it's increasing at a faster or slower rate.
This kind of analysis will help us understand what might happen in the future.
Let's run through some more ways of talking about the rate of change.
After a period of stability, costs are rising again.
The momentum and growth we saw earlier this year is now flattening out.
I expect the pace of this pullback to pick up if the economy worsens.
As I mentioned, talking about the rate of change helps us when we look into the future.
Let's hear Pat talk about what's happening in the market and then hear what he thinks might happen in the future.
Now, as you all know, the latest research indicates that growth in the mid-range, even in developing markets, is reaching saturation.
And as I'm sure your channels are telling you, demand for high-end products is not just limited to Western Europe anymore.
Now obviously, it's been a core part of our strategy to increase RPU by 10 per year from 2006 to 2011.
We have met this target for 2006 and we are on track to continue strong growth.
This year there's not as much room to grow in the mid-range or medium-priced products, but there's more demand for the high-end or expensive products, and this is good for Ambient, according to Pat.
He says that they're on track to continue increasing by 10 per year.
If you are on track for something, it means things are trending the way you want them to.
Basically, Pat is speculating that the rising trend of RPU will continue to rise into the future.
He's not certain this will happen, but he has reason to speculate or guess that it might.
How else can we speculate about future developments?
Let's try some more examples.
The competition could get into this market, but it seems unlikely.
There's a strong chance that sales will see a huge boost in the fall.
Turnover is probably going to increase if we don't get a handle on this.
I think it's very likely that costs will continue rising in the future.
Now let's get back to the presentation, as Pat has some more thoughts about the future, based on what the numbers are showing.
But the best news is that, following Cirrus' disastrous G3 launch and our hard work in Q1 and Q2, we have now actually overtaken them in this key metric.
This really bodes well for our profitability in 2007 as a whole.
In business, your competition's failure can mean your success.
Pat is talking about how Sirius' terrible or disastrous introduction of a new phone created an opportunity.
It allowed Ambient to overtake or go past Cirrus in terms of RPU.
Given this situation, Pat feels pretty confident in predicting good things in the future.
As he says, it bodes well for their profitability.
That just means it indicates good things will happen.
Let's try some more ways of making predictions about the future based on our analysis of trends.
I think we'll see this trend reach its peak late next year.
If this keeps up, we should be able to capture 15% of the market relatively quickly.
I have no doubt that this is going to look completely different next quarter.
I'm pretty confident that revenue will hit two million by the end of the year.
So far, Pat has been pretty optimistic about the future, but it's never a good idea to get too comfortable in a competitive market, as Pat emphasizes.
Call tell is something for us to watch out for however, because you know they aren't going to be satisfied with the low end for very long.
Pat has been analyzing Ambient's success compared to their competitor Cirrus, in the middle and high-end markets.
Now he's mentioning another competitor Kaltel, which is focused on the less expensive end of the market.
But Pat believes they might not be happy with just the low end of the market for long.
Sometimes the numbers can give us an understanding of how things might go in the future.
But trends change and we need to watch out for future trends, as Pat does when he suggests call-tell might become increasingly competitive.
Let's try some more ways of raising awareness of future trends in a presentation.
There's a big shift coming in employee expectations.
Customers are showing increasing concern about the environmental impact.
There's a strong trend toward more regulation in our sector.
Alright, let's finish the dialogue by hearing what Pat will talk about next.
Okay, now let's take a closer look at those RPU targets.
Pat has been analyzing trends in the market so that he can then talk more specifically about their targets.
He's given some useful explanation about how Ambient's RPU compares to other companies, and he's used the trends to speculate and predict what will happen in the future.
All this information will clearly help as they talk more about their goals or targets.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you're giving a presentation about both past performance and future growth.
I'll ask you to make statements that analyze charts and graphs in your presentation.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and provide an example answer for each response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
Start by stating that you will be presenting both sales history and sales projections.
Answer.
I'd like to show you both our sales history and the sales projections.
Now say that last year's growth has clearly continued into this year.
As you can see, last year's growth has continued into this year.
Next, say however that there will likely be new competitors entering the market.
Answer.
However, I believe it is likely that we will see new competitors enter the market.
Now predict that, despite new competition, you will continue to grow.
Still, even with the new competition, we should continue to grow.
Finally, say that one thing you have to watch for though is rising costs.
Answer.
But one thing we'll have to watch for though is rising costs.
We've reached the end of this lesson on how to analyze trends during a presentation.
We've learned how to clearly state your approach and describe the rate of change.
We've also covered speculating about the future and making predictions, as well as raising awareness of future trends.
For more practice.
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