Senior executives from the electronics giant Samsung have announced an ambitious and aggressive expansion agenda for the company, to more than double sales by 2010. As if that wasn’t an intrepid enough target, it also has its eye on seizing the top worldwide market share in a host of products within the next five years. The South Korean firm further said it wants to become one of the world’s three largest consumer electronics companies within the same time span. Samsung’s Chief Executive Officer Yun Jong-yong unveiled his plans to market analysts, who are now busily plotting possible trajectories against which to monitor the success of the company’s rise to new heights. Competitors too must now be reassessing their battle plans.

Samsung is already top dog in the production of memory chips and is currently second to Intel in semiconductors. It is a leading and pioneering producer of a plethora of consumer electronics, including flat-screen TVs and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It has achieved notable success in the mobile phone market, overtaking the likes of Sony Ericsson to nudge its way to third spot and muscle in on leaders Nokia and Motorola. Samsung already has a proven track record to back up its expansion plans by posting record sales of US$76 billion in 2004 and recording a consistent 20 percent growth in sales in each of the past five years. As a precursor of what’s in store for consumers, the company showcased its cutting edge mobile phone – with an 8-megapixel camera.

WARM-UPS

1. MY ELECTRONICS: In pairs / groups, talk about the last three electronic gadgets you bought. Why did you buy those particular makers or models? If you were CEO of the manufacturing company, would you be proud of those products? Why (not)?

2. TOP DOG: Look at the goods below. With your partner(s), decide which is the world’s leading company in the production of these goods. Talk about what those companies would need to do to double their sales within the next five years. Is it possible?

Mobile phones	Cameras
Laptop computers	Sportswear
Cars	Pharmaceuticals
MP3 music players	Gaming machines

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Senior executives / electronics / giants / expansion / market share / market analysts / competitors / battle plans / Intel / LCDs / record sales / cutting edge

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. MARKET LEADER: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the words “market leader”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. SAMSUNG EXEC.: You are now a top executive with Samsung Electronics. You are confident your company can double its sales in five years and become one of the world’s top three consumer electronics companies. Talk with other “executives” (not all with the same company) about Samsung’s plans.

6. EXPANSION: What is necessary to be able to double sales within five years? Talk about the importance of the following factors in achieving such impressive targets. Rank them in order of importance.

1. _____ Good products
2. _____ Being first in the market
3. _____ Classy advertising
4. _____ Sales incentives to retailers
5. _____ A happy workforce
6. _____ Luck
7. _____ A booming Chinese economy
8. _____ The ability of senior executives to speak English
9. _____ A CEO with vision

Change partners and compare what you talked about and your rankings. Agree on new rankings with your new partner(s). What is missing from the above list?

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Samsung has ambitious plans for a twofold increase in its sales.	T / F
b.	Samsung is eying a doubling of sales by the end of the decade.	T / F
c.	It wants to become one of the five largest electronics companies.	T / F
d.	Market analysts are plotting trajectories to track Samsung’s growth.	T / F
e.	Samsung is striving to become top dog in memory chip production.	T / F
f.	Samsung has nudged its way to top spot in the mobile phone market.	T / F
g.	Samsung posted sales figures that suggest it can meet its targets.	T / F
h.	Samsung unveiled a cutting edge phone as a precursor of the future.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	senior	divulged
b.	agenda	indicator
c.	intrepid	edge
d.	unveiled	courses
e.	trajectories	program
f.	plethora	pioneering
g.	nudge	top
h.	muscle in on	profusion
i.	precursor	challenge
j.	cutting edge	audacious

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	an ambitious and aggressive	of a plethora of consumer electronics
b.	As if that wasn’t an intrepid	possible trajectories
c.	has its eye on seizing the	reassessing their battle plans
d.	busily plotting	top worldwide market share
e.	Competitors too must now be	on leaders Nokia and Motorola
f.	Samsung is already top	expansion agenda
g.	a leading and pioneering producer	of Sony Ericsson
h.	overtaking the likes	store for consumers
i.	muscle in	dog in the production of memory chips
j.	a precursor of what’s in	enough target

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WHICH WORD? Strike through the incorrect word in each pair of italics.

Samsung Electronics aims to double sales

Senior executives from the electronics midget / giant Samsung have announced an ambitious / ambidextrous and aggressive expansion agenda for the company, to more than double sales by 2010. As if that wasn’t an intrepid enough target, it also has its eye / pupil on seizing the top worldwide market share in a host / hostess of products within the next five years. The South Korean firm farther / further said it wants to become one of the world’s three largest consumer electronics companies within the same time spin / span. Samsung’s Chief Executive Officer Yun Jong-yong unveiled his plans to market analysts, who are now busily plotting / piloting possible trajectories against which to monitor the success of the company’s rise to new depths / heights. Competitors too must now be reassessing their battle plans.

Samsung is already top / bottom dog in the production of memory chips and is currently second to Intel in semiconductors. It is a leading / forwarding and pioneering producer of a placenta / plethora of consumer electronics, including flat-screen TVs and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It has achieved negligible / notable success in the mobile phone market, overtaking the likes / hates of Sony Ericsson to nudge / nugget its way to third spot and muscle in on leaders Nokia and Motorola. Samsung already has a proven track record to back up its expansion plans by posting / pasting record sales of US$76 billion in 2004 and recording a consistent 20 percent growth in sales in each of the past five years. As a precursor / cursor of what’s in store for consumers, the company showcased its cutting edge mobile phone – with an 8-megapixel camera.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Samsung Electronics aims to double sales

________ executives from the electronics giant Samsung have announced an ambitious and aggressive expansion ________ for the company, to more than double sales by 2010. As if that wasn’t an ________ enough target, it also has its eye on seizing the top worldwide market share in ___ _______ ___ products within the next five years. The South Korean firm further said it wants to become one of the world’s three largest consumer electronics companies within the same _____ _____. Samsung’s Chief Executive Officer Yun Jong-yong unveiled his plans to market analysts, who are now busily _________ possible trajectories against which to monitor the success of the company’s rise to new heights. Competitors too must now be _______________ their battle plans.

Samsung is already ____ ____ in the production of memory chips and is currently second to Intel in semiconductors. It is a leading and pioneering producer of a ___________ of consumer electronics, including flat-screen TVs and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It has achieved _________ success in the mobile phone market, overtaking ____ ______ ___ Sony Ericsson to nudge its way to third spot and ________ ___ ___ leaders Nokia and Motorola. Samsung already has a ________ track record to back up its expansion plans by posting record sales of US$76 billion in 2004 and recording a consistent 20 percent growth in sales in each of the past five years. As a ___________ of what’s in store for consumers, the company showcased its cutting edge mobile phone – with an 8-megapixel camera.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘track’ and ‘record’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. WHICH WORD? In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “SAMSUNG” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about Samsung, consumer electronics and doubling sales.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

announced intrepid eye time span plotting battle

dog plethora nudge track precursor edge

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. What do you think of Samsung?
3. What do you think when you read about companies aiming to double sales within five years?
4. Where is the consumer electronics industry going?
5. Do you know of any up-and-coming manufacturers who’ll be household names within the next decade?
6. Do you think working in sales is (would be) exciting?
7. How long do you think it will be before Chinese firms are muscling in on already established consumer electronics companies?
8. What do you think Samsung’s competitors are doing as a result of Samsung’s announcement?
9. What do you think the most profitable product will be in the future?
10. What’s your favorite gadget?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. Would you like to work in the consumer electronics industry?
4. How cutthroat do you think the consumer electronics industry is?
5. Why do you think all consumer electronics aren’t unveiling plans to double sales?
6. How has Samsung risen to become one of the world’s leading consumer electronics companies?
7. What new products will be all the rage in the future?
8. What cutting edge technology are you looking forward to being unveiled?
9. How would your life change if you could double sales for your company?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. What did you like talking about?
5. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

EXPANSION CONSULTANT: You are an expert Business Expansion Consultant. Several clients have asked you how they can double their sales over the next five years. You must draw up a plan for each of them. In pairs / groups, choose three companies and formulate ideas for expansion that will impress their management.

CLIENTS	IDEAS FOR EXPANSION
Samsung
Apple Computer
McDonald’s
Ferrari
Nike
Your company

• Change partners and show each other your ideas.
• Give each other feedback on whether these ideas will impress the management of clients. Offer advice on how to improve them.
• Role play the Expansion Consultants giving the ideas to the very skeptical management of the clients.
• Discuss which of your plans might be most likely to succeed.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Samsung. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

3. EXPANSION: Write a business plan for the expansion and doubling of sales of a company you like? Show your plan to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all have similar ideas?

4. TOP DOG: You are the top dog in your industry. Write the diary/journal entry for one day in you life of being top dog. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. T

b. T

c. F

d. T

e. F

f. F

g. T

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	senior	top
b.	agenda	program
c.	intrepid	audacious
d.	unveiled	divulged
e.	trajectories	courses
f.	plethora	profusion
g.	nudge	edge
h.	muscle in on	challenge
i.	precursor	indicator
j.	cutting edge	pioneering

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	an ambitious and aggressive	expansion agenda
b.	As if that wasn’t an intrepid	enough target
c.	has its eye on seizing the	top worldwide market share
d.	busily plotting	possible trajectories
e.	Competitors too must now be	reassessing their battle plans
f.	Samsung is already top	dog in the production of memory chips
g.	a leading and pioneering producer	of a plethora of consumer electronics
h.	overtaking the likes	of Sony Ericsson
i.	muscle in	on leaders Nokia and Motorola
j.	a precursor of what’s in	store for consumers

WHICH WORD?

Samsung Electronics aims to double sales

Senior executives from the electronics midget / giant Samsung have announced an ambitious / ambidextrous and aggressive expansion agenda for the company, to more than double sales by 2010. As if that wasn’t an intrepid enough target, it also has its eye / pupil on seizing the top worldwide market share in a host / hostess of products within the next five years. The South Korean firm farther / further said it wants to become one of the world’s three largest consumer electronics companies within the same time spin / span. Samsung’s Chief Executive Officer Yun Jong-yong unveiled his plans to market analysts, who are now busily plotting / piloting possible trajectories against which to monitor the success of the company’s rise to new depths / heights. Competitors too must now be reassessing their battle plans.

Samsung is already top / bottom dog in the production of memory chips and is currently second to Intel in semiconductors. It is a leading / forwarding and pioneering producer of a placenta / plethora of consumer electronics, including flat-screen TVs and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It has achieved negligible / notable success in the mobile phone market, overtaking the likes / hates of Sony Ericsson to nudge / nugget its way to third spot and muscle in on leaders Nokia and Motorola. Samsung already has a proven track record to back up its expansion plans by posting / pasting record sales of US$76 billion in 2004 and recording a consistent 20 percent growth in sales in each of the past five years. As a precursor / cursor of what’s in store for consumers, the company showcased its cutting edge mobile phone – with an 8-megapixel camera.

TOP