You're listening to Business English Pop, the business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Over the last two episodes, we've studied phrases for introducing, signposting and highlighting visuals, and we've learned language for describing trends.
We've looked at both how to present your points clearly and persuasively and how to deliver your data with maximum impact.
In this show, we'll be completing our discussion of charts and graphs by studying language for making predictions and for supporting your predictions with analyses.
We'll also look at a couple of advanced ways to rhetorically emphasize a point.
Rhetorical means using words effectively to get your message across.
This listening continues Pat's presentation of the market trends for Ambient and its competitors.
This time, Pat is coming to the real story, the main point of his presentation.
As you listen, see if you can catch what it is.
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 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.
So, what we need to do now is to keep working closely together to exceed our quarterly RPU targets.
This is fundamental to our continuing success and, of course, you don't need me to tell you that it's good for your bonuses too.
Okay, now let's take a closer look at those RPU targets.
First of all, what kind of slide are they looking at?
Basically, Pat is talking about revenue per unit, the average revenue created by each cell phone.
He is comparing the market average with Ambient and Cirrus' figures.
Having already discussed current trends in the industry during charts and graphs 1 and 2, Pat spends more time in this episode analyzing data to predict future developments.
In addition, because Pat is coming to the most important part of his presentation, he makes use of advanced rhetorical techniques to get his point across effectively.
Let's start with Pat's rhetoric.
Remember, rhetoric is the study of how to use language effectively.
The adjective is rhetorical.
Listen again to the beginning of Pat's presentation.
He uses a couple of great rhetorical techniques.
What are they?
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.
By the real story, Pat means the real point of his presentation.
Headline sales refers to great sales, a story that could make the headlines of the newspapers.
But here is where the rhetoric comes in.
Pat says the real story is not about headline sales or market share, though ambient is doing well in those areas.
No, the real story is ambience meeting even exceeding a key performance indicator.
Indicator means measurement or metric of something that indicates success.
The rhetorical structure that Pat uses here is comparison and contrast.
Not only have we accomplished A, but moreover, we have accomplished B.
In addition to this structure, Pat makes use of repetition of words with similar meanings to build up positive weight.
Ambient is meeting and indeed exceeding targets.
Both comparison and contrast, and also repetition, are great techniques for adding impact to your ideas.
Let's listen to a couple more examples of the comparison and contrast rhetorical structure.
What I'd like everyone to see here is that not only are we increasing our sales.
Yes, that's important, but it's not everything.
In addition, by following this plan, we are reducing, even eliminating some of our major costs.
As you all know, success in this market is not only about who has a larger sales force or more outlets.
No, in fact, it's not even the most important factor.
Far from it.
Success in this market comes down to this.
Who has better information and who acts on it first?
In both examples, there is strong use of repetition of such words as important and success.
In addition, in both examples, the compare and contrast structure is very effective, isn't it?
Now, let's get back to the listening.
So Pat has said that the key message of his presentation is improvement, not in market share or revenue, but in revenue per unit, or To highlight Ambient's success in this area.
Pat says he's going to compare their RPU with the market's average RPU, provided by a company called IDG Statistics, and with Cirrus' RPU.
Let's listen to him do that.
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.
This section is basically a trend description, much as we studied last time.
To break out of the trend lines means to change tendencies.
The tendency, or trend line, is like a jail or a cage that the trend breaks out of.
WAP refers to Wireless Application Protocol.
A protocol is a language.
Wireless means a device without wires.
A cell phone, or mobile phone as they are often called in the UK...
So WAP is basically a way for cell phones and PDAs, which are personal digital assistants or small portable computers, to go online to websites and surf the internet without a wire or a landline, as they're called.
Mass means large, so mass market refers to the general market, not just people with a lot of money, but the general consumer.
To hit the market means to enter the market.
So now you should be able to understand what Pat means.
By the first mass market WAP phones hit the market in the 2005 holiday season.
This just means that the first affordable internet phones entered the market in 2005, around Christmas and New Year, which is the holiday season in Europe and America.
So basically, Pat has told us that the market average RPU started increasing at the end of 2005 as higher and higher tech phones came out.
Now, he goes on to talk about the current and future direction of this tendency.
The momentum that this trend picked up in 2006 looks likely to continue on in 2007 and 2008.
The term momentum comes from physics, the study of energy and matter.
Momentum is technically defined as weight or mass multiplied by speed or velocity.
To pick up momentum means to increase or add momentum.
In business, this is frequently used to describe a growing tendency, such as increasing support for a proposal, or a strengthening trend, either upward or downward.
Momentum is a really useful expression, so let's look at a couple more examples.
After Sarah got most of the workers to agree, support for her proposal really picked up momentum among the management team.
In the 80s, Momentum gathered behind the upward trend in CEO salaries until, in the 90s, they reached truly spectacular levels.
After the merger, we had sudden access to much better IT resources, so the proposal to conduct a new round of IT training really lost momentum.
Remember Pat says that the market momentum towards increased RPU looks likely to continue in 2007 or 2008.
Looks likely to is a way of referring to a likely future trend.
Later in his discussion, Pat also talks about the likelihood of future growth in ambience RPU.
He says, and now we are on track to continue strong growth in 2007.
Now listen to some more examples of ways to talk about likely future developments.
Share prices are almost certain to continue rising rapidly, at least to the end of the year.
There is great likelihood of more mergers in the auto business.
We are very probably going to see a continued expansion of production capacity as demand increases.
We can certainly expect this tendency to continue in the future.
This trend is almost sure to change.
Sometimes you want to highlight that a future trend is unlikely.
How do you do that?
Well, obviously, you can just negate, that is, add not to any of the phrases you just heard.
But here are a couple more examples to complete your list.
It's quite unlikely that we will see this kind of growth continue into 2009.
The fall in the price of gold will not last long.
I don't believe we can count on any more increases in the price of real estate.
Nine times out of ten, when we see this kind of trend, we know that it is going to be short lived.
In the last example, Nine times out of ten is just an idiomatic way of saying something is very likely, while short-lived means its life is very short.
It won't last long.
So how does Pat's analysis continue?
Keep listening.
As you all know, the latest research indicates that growth in the mid-range, even in developing markets, is reaching saturation.
You'll remember that, as you know, is a way of showing respect to the audience that we studied in the first episode in this series.
Growth in the mid-range refers to the middle part or range of the market, not too expensive and not too cheap.
Developing markets means markets whose size is still growing, places where not everyone has cell phones or where wealth is increasing rapidly.
For example, in Central Europe, where Pat is finance director, or in South America, where cell phones are not as common as they are in Europe.
To reach saturation means that a market cannot accept any more new products.
Just as when you keep adding salt to a glass of water, it starts building up on the bottom of the glass.
The water just can't dissolve it anymore.
This is saturation.
So Pat means that even in growing markets the demand for mid-range cell phones is not really growing.
What's the next point he makes?
And as I'm sure your channels are telling you, demand for high-end products is not just limited to Western Europe anymore.
Channels means sales channels such as department stores, cell phone shops and so on.
Any way you deliver the product to the customer.
So what's Pat's main point here about RPU and the cell phone market?
Can you say it in your own words?
To practice analyzing trends in English, why don't you give it a try?
After you hear the beep, take a few seconds to sum up what Pat has told us about the main trends in developing markets and Western Europe.
After you've finished, compare your answer with ours.
You can start your answer by saying, well, the main point is that...
Well, the main point is that even in developing markets such as Central Europe, the market for mid-range phones is saturated.
Meanwhile, phone retailers are telling Ambient that demand for high-end products such as WAP phones is picking up, even in developing markets like Central Europe.
How did you do?
A great way to practice is to rewind and try again.
Try substituting and mixing language from the example answer in Pat's original statement.
Now let's finish going through the listening.
How does Pat's discussion of RPU end?
Pat reminds his audience that it's been a core or main part of Ambient's strategy to increase RPU by 10 per year.
Having met this goal in 2006, Ambient is already on track to do it again in 2007.
Remember we talked about this use of on track a little earlier, when we learned of ways to talk about the likelihood of future developments.
Now, what does Pat say the best news is?
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.
You'll remember that in previous episodes we heard a little about Cirrus' disastrous or terrible 3G launch.
We have now overtaken them in this key metric as a way of comparing two trends –
One overtakes or passes the other.
Let's study some more ways to compare trends.
Actually, when you compare the sales order of these two companies, you'll see that those of Company A far exceed Company B, even though Company B has high revenue.
Once again, science tech's profits fell far short of the industry average.
Demand has not caught up with supply all year.
Really, we are neck and neck with our main competitor going into 2008.
As you can see, in addition to standard comparisons like more and most, or better and best, you can also use verbs such as exceed or overtake, which mean to do better than, or fall short of, which means to do worse than.
To be neck and neck means to be tied or to be even.
All these expressions for comparing performance are based on the sports metaphor that is so common in business.
Competing companies are racing against each other.
As we saw last time, you can also use a war metaphor.
Company A lost to Company B in market share, for example.
Alright.
After comparing Cirrus and Ambience RPUs, Pat makes a general prediction about the future, based on Ambient's strong growth in this key performance indicator.
This really bodes well for our profitability in 2007 as a whole.
To bode well for something means to be a good sign for something.
The fact that Ambient's RPU is growing means it is likely that profitability the company's ability to increase profits will also grow.
What are some other ways of making general predictions?
Of course, you can say will or going to.
For example, profits are going to increase.
But there are many other expressions you can use.
Let's listen to a few.
We predict steady increases throughout 2008.
All signs point towards a large drop in consumer confidence.
The fall in demand does not all go well for the market.
Back to our listening.
After making an optimistic prediction, Pat leaves us on a note of caution.
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.
Call-tell is something to watch out for means we should observe call-tell carefully.
This is a way of reminding everybody to look out for future developments.
Let's study some more language for this.
We definitely need to keep our eyes peeled for more activity in this sector.
Raw materials are going to continue to be an area of strong growth, so looking forward, it's something that we can't afford to ignore.
I advise everyone to stay on guard against hostile takeovers.
In our price negotiations, we need to keep an eye towards other areas where we can get more value, such as delivery time.
What's the last thing Pat does before moving on to the next slide?
He uses this moment as an opportunity to encourage cooperation, as well as to give the sales team a friendly reminder that their bonuses the extra money they make at the end of the year are tied to or connected with RPU.
So, what we need to do now is to keep working closely together to exceed our quarterly RPU targets.
This is fundamental to our continuing success and, of course, you don't need me to tell you that it's good for your bonuses too.
Note the strong collocation or word partnership here.
Fundamental to our continuing success.
Fundamental means basic or important.
SOPAT means that meeting RPU targets is extremely important to Ambient's continuing success in Central Europe.
Using strong collocations is another effective rhetorical technique for adding impact to your presentation.
So you should make the study of words and groups and phrases a regular part of your practice.
You can go back through the transcript of this and other episodes, making note of good word partnerships.
Here are some more good collocations for saying something is very important.
It's essential to our success to reach our earnings targets.
It's absolutely fundamental to our continuing viability that we keep reducing costs.
I can't emphasize enough how critical innovation is to our business growth.
The crux of the matter is that we have to keep expanding our search for new markets.
Okay, that's about it for this episode.
This concludes our three-part series on charts and graphs.
Over this series, you've learned language for introducing and highlighting points, describing trends and analyzing data.
In this show we focused on rhetorical techniques for drawing attention to your main point and emphasizing the importance of something, and we learned a range of language for talking about future trends and making predictions.
