Student B – Rapidfire representative
Read the memo from your boss. Meet a representative from Comtech (Student A) and discuss the problem with him (her). Write a memo to your boss summarizing the meeting.
Memo
Rapidfire
From: L. Burgoyne, General Manager
To: F. Sanchez, IT Manager
Re: Comtech Virus
Date: 18 December
Dear F,
The first meeting with Comtech is tomorrow at 2pm. They’re coming to us. Can you represent Rapidfire? I feel that as IT Manager you will give us more authority. We probably won’t get an offer of compensation tomorrow, but it is essential that we get something from them that can be construed as an admission of liability. For example, they sent a technician to disinfect the system and reinstall the software. If they agree not to bill us for this service it would imply that they were making good their own work. Another possibility would be a large discount on the original word – say 25%. Please don’t feel that I’m asking you to do anything unethical. I am sincerely convinced that the virus came in with their software. This has cost us, at a conservative estimate, £45,000.
Best regards,
Larry Burgoyne
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Vocabulary:
admission
to admit
alien
authority
to back up
to bill smb.
complaint
at a conservative estimate
to construe
to convince
essential
to go down
hard disk
to imply
to install
to intend
inventory control
invoice
IT (information technology)
liability
local inventory network (LAN)
to prevent
to process an order
in respect of
software
to trash
utilitу
VAT
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признание
признать
чуждый, иностранный
авторитет, влияние, значение
делать копию данных для сохранности
выставить кому-л. счет
жалоба
по самым скромным подсчетам
объяснять, делать вывод
убеждать
основной, определяющий
портиться
жесткий диск
подразумевать
устанавливать
намереваться
управление запасами
счет-фактура
информационная техника
ответственность
локальная сеть
предотвращать
обрабатывать заказ
в отношении
программное обеспечение
отправлять в корзину
обслуживающая программа
НДС (налог на добавочную стоимость)
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3. Breach of contract
Teacher’s notes
ACTIVITY
Pairwork and groupwork: reading, speaking
AIM
To simulate a three-sided negotiation between a client, an architect and a firm of builders.
GRAMMAR AND FUNCTIONS
Third conditional
TIME
35-45 minutes
PROCEDURE
1) Write the following half sentence on the board: If you’d finished the work on time … Elicit a few completions.
2) Tell the students they are going to practice negotiating. The negotiation is about a job that was not finished on time.
3) Dictate the following list of words: deadline, penalty clause, overrun, completion, bid, contract. Ask how the words relate to the negotiating situation.
4) Write the following text on the board: You stated in your (1)________ that the (2) __________ for (3) ____________ of the work was march 15th. You also agreed to the (4) _____________ in the (5) _______________ which said that you would pay us FF15,000 a day if there was an (6) ______________ .
5) Ask the students, in pairs, to complete the text with the words you dictated: (1) bid, (2) deadline, (3) completion, (4) penalty clause, (5) contract, (6) overrun
6) Divide the class into three equal sized groups: Clients, Builders and Architects.
7) Within each of these three groups, put the students in pairs.
8) Let each pair of students read the letters form Ogawa to TKO Construction and the appropriate memos: Clients: 1’st memo (Ogawa), Builders: 2nd memo (TKO Construction), Architects: 3rd memo (Fiona Barnes). Allow 5-10 minutes.
9) Set up the negotiating groups. There should be six students in each group: a pair each of clients, builders and architects. If you have only six students in the class, you may prefer to divide them into two groups of three with one representative of each party in each group.
10) Ask them to run the meeting and see if they can come to a conclusion. It is unlikely that they will find an easy agreement. Interests are very polarized in this negotiation. Allow 10-20 minutes.
11) When the negotiations finish, ask different groups to explain what the results of their meetings were. Ask what they think would happen in real life in a case like this. Should the three companies have set the job up differently? Could they have avoided this problem?
FOLLOW-UP 1
Students look through the documentation and find all the phrasal verbs.
FOLLOW-UP 2
Students write memos to their bosses summarizing what happened in the negotiation.
Read the following letter, give a short summary of the document.
Letter from Ogawa to TKO Construction
OGAWA RECREATIONAL VEHICLES
SHIN NICHIBO BUILDING
1-2-1 SARUGAKU-CHO
CHIYODA-KU, TOKYO 101
TEL: (03) 3294 0385 FAX: (03) 3294 0348
Gaspard Racette
Sales Manager
TKO Construction SA
301 Boulevard Voltaire Ref: E/00987
PARIS 75011 January 9
Dear M Racette,
Following our meeting last week, I am writing to confirm that I would like TKO Construction to fit out Okawa's new showroom in Paris. I would like to take this opportunity to say how pleased I am that we will be working together on this project and to thank you for all the time you put into putting together such a very detailed and helpful proposal.
To summarise the main points from our meeting:
1 The design used will be the one produced by the architects Fiona Barnes Associates
2 TKO will be responsible for all building works, including purchasing and transportation of materials
3 The price for the job will be FF880,000
4 Payment will be in two parts: FF440,000 on signature of the contract
followed by FF440,000 on satisfactory completion of the work
5 Building works will commence on February 15
6 All works will be completed by March 15 at the latest
7 If the work is completed late TKO Construction will pay Ogawa a penalty of FF15,000 for every day’s overrun.
If this meets your approval, l will have our lawyers draw up a contract this week.
Best wishes,
Yours,
Okamoto Yutaka
Special Projects Manager, Ogawa Recreational Vehicles
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Read the following letter, give a short summary of the document.
Letter from Ogawa to Fiona Barnes Associates
OGAWA RECREATIONAL VEHICLES
SHIN NICHIBO BUILDING
1-2-1 SARUGAKU-CHO
CHIYODA-KU, TOKYO 101
TEL: (03) 3294 0385 FAX: (03) 3294 0348
Fiona Barnes Associates Architects
213 rue du Roi de Sicile
75004 PARIS
Ref: E/00911 January 12
Dear Ms Marigny,
I hope this finds you well. Once again, thank you for all the hard work you put into the design of the new Ogawa showroom in Paris. The company selected for the building works is TKO Construction. I contacted the two companies you recommended, but TKO's bid was more competitive. They have a good reputation, and I am sure there will be no problems. I am enclosing the business card of Gaspard Racette, TKO's Sales Manager, in case you need to contact him.
Best regards,
Okamoto Yutaka
Special Projects Manager, Ogawa Recreational Vehicles
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Progress check Memos
Student A – client (Ogawa)
Read the memo from your boss. Meet a builder from TKO construction (Student B) and an architect from Fiona Barnes Associates (Student C), run a meeting, discuss the problem and make an agreement. Write a memo to your boss summarizing the meeting.
From: Okamoto Yutaka, Special Projects Manager MEMO OGAWA KK
To: All managers, Ogawa Paris
Re: Paris showroom Date: 26 March
I am writing about the overrun by TKO on completing the building works on the Paris showroom. The work was finished on Saturday: seven days late. TKO do not wish to pay the penalty – a total of FF105,000 (7 x FF15,000). They say it is not their fault. According to their site engineer it was due to errors in the architect’s drawings. However, they accepted the architect’s drawings when they signed the contract. I am not willing to fly to Paris to sort this out; I will leave it to you. Do not make any decisions without my authorization, unless the decision is that TKO, Fiona Barnes Associates or both of them together pay us the money we are owed.
Best regards, Meeting at TKO 30 March at 2 p.m.
Okamoto Yutaka.
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Student B – builder (TKO construction)
Read the memo from your boss. Meet a client from Ogawa (Student A) and an architect from Fiona Barnes Associates (Student C), run a meeting, discuss the problem and make an agreement. Write a memo to your boss summarizing the meeting.
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From: Gaspard Racette, Sales Manager MEMO
To: Perry Mahon, Managing Director TKO
Re: Ogawa showrooms, Paris Construction
Date: 27 March
Dear Perry,
We’ve run into problems on the Ogawa showrooms job. We finished 7 days late and Ogawa wants to apply the penalty clause: FF15,000 per day late, a total of FF105,000. The job was costed very tightly, and this would mean that we came out without a profit. I wouldn’t normally have agreed to a penalty clause on a job like this, but the time allowed – a month – seemed very generous. It was my decision to do the work at weekends – we need all our resources for the job we are doing at Charles de Gaulle airport. The problem arose when we found an error in the architect's plans on Saturday 10: the dimensions for the showroom offices didn't add up. The architect was closed for the weekend and we had to hang about until Tuesday for the correction. In other words, we lost a full weekend's work - which we had to pay wages etc for. We were fully stretched and couldn't put extra workers on the job, so we didn't finish until Saturday 24. We're meeting Ogawa and Fiona Barnes Associates at our offices here this Friday - 30 March. What do you think our position should be?
Gaspard Racette
Any penalties should be paid by the architect. They made the mistake that caused the problem.
Perry.
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