Unit 7 Fame and Fortune
Part Ⅰ Getting ready
A The following words and phrases will appear in this unit. Listen carefully and study the definitions.
1. velocity:
2. infrastructure:
3. eliminate:
4. middle man:
5. con man:
6. fraud:
7. correspondence course:
8. feature film:
9. potential:
10. one-off:
B Listen to a recording about the life of Bill Gates. Fill in the blanks while listening.
In the past few years, hundreds of magazine and newspaper stories have been written about Bill Gates and his company, the reason the Microsoft Company is extremely successful. It has made Bill Gate one of the richest men in the world. William Gates the 3rd was born in 1955, in a western city of Seattle, Washington. He became interested in computers when he was 13 years old. When most young boys his age were playing baseball or football, young Bill Gates was learning to write computer programs. These programs tell computers how to perform useful tasks. Bill Gate attended Harvard University after high school. At Harvard, he began developing the computer language called Basic. He began to think that the computer would someday become a valuable tool that could be used in every office and home. Bill Gate returned to Seattle where he established the Microsoft Company in 1975. It employed only three workers. Microsoft developed computer software for established American companies, like General Electric and Citibank. Soon Microsoft was working with the International Business Machines Company known as IBM. In 1981,IBM began selling a personal computer that used Microsoft products as part of its operating system. By then, Microsoft had 129 workers. Today IBM still uses Microsoft's computer operating system. So do many other computer companies. One of the most famous Microsoft products is a program called Windows. Windows makes it much easier to use a computer. Company officials say Microsoft has sold about 40 000 000 copies of the Windows program around the world. Microsoft does thousands of millions of dollars in business each year. It now has more than 16 000 workers in more than 48 countries. Microsoft today produces computer programs in 30 languages and sells them in more than 100 countries.
B Listen to a recording about the life of Bill Gates. Fill in the blanks while listening.
Part Ⅱ Bill Gates' new rules
A You are going to hear an excerpt of Bill Gate's new book Using a Digital Nervous System. Note down the key words in the notes column. Then match column A with column B.
If the 1980s were about quality and the 1990s were about re-engineering, then the 2000s will be about velocity. About how quickly business itself will be transacted. About how information access will alter the life-style of consumers and their expectations of business. Quality improvements and business-process improvements will occur far faster. When the increase in velocity is great enough, the very nature of business changes.
To function in the digital age, we have developed a new digital infrastructure. It's like the human nervous system. Companies need to have that same kind of nervous system — the ability to run smoothly and efficiently, to respond quickly to emergencies and opportunities to quickly get valuable information to the people in the company who need it, the ability to quickly make decisions and interact with customers.
The successful companies of the next decade will be the ones that use digital tools to reinvent the way they work. To make digital information flow an intrinsic part of your company, here are 12 key steps.
1. Insist that communication flow through e-mail.
2. Study sales data online to share insights easily.
3. Shift knowledge workers into high-level thinking.
4. Use digital tools to create virtual teams.
5. Convert every paper process to a digital process.
6. Use digital tools to eliminate single-task jobs.
7. Create a digital feedback loop.
8. Use digital systems to route customer complaints immediately.
9. Use digital communication to redefine the boundaries.
10. Transform every business process into just-in-time delivery.
11. Use digital delivery to eliminate the middle man.
12. Use digital tools to help customers solve problems for themselves.
As I said in The Road Ahead, we always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.
You know you have built an excellent digital nervous system when information flows through your organization as quickly and naturally as thought in a human being and when you can use technology to marshal and coordinate teams of people as quickly as you can focus an individual on an issue. It's business at the speed of thought.
B Listen again, complete the 12 rules for the digital age.
Part Ⅲ Great business deals?
A Listen to the recording. You'll hear about two businessmen and some of the deals they made. Note down the key words in the notes column. Then fill the gaps in the following chart with information given in the recordings.
1.In the … er … late 1920s, early 1930s, there was a … a young Greek businessman who … er … made quite a lot of money … er … by importing tobacco into Argentina. Um … he then moved up to North America … er … this was in about … er … 1933, when of course the world was in the middle of a … a trade slump. Er … he … er … decided he wanted to get into shipping, and to get into shipping he needed ships so he … he started looking around for some ships to buy with his tobacco fortune and he found ten vessels … er … which belonged to the Canadian National Steamship Company … er … the problem being that they were frozen into the ice in the St Lawrence River in Canada. They'd been rusting away there for two years and were now completely filled up with snow and ice. Er … in fact the story goes that when he went aboard to … er … inspect one of the ships, he fell into a snowdrift and … er … ended up on the deck below. Well, the ships had cost $2 million to build … er … about ten years before, and the owners were prepared to let them go just for a … a scrap price of … er … $30 000 each. He offered $20,000 and the owners accepted.
He left them there, stuck in the ice, there was nothing more he could do. Er … but a few years later, the … the world depression … er … came to an end and … er … world war seemed to be looming in Europe and, of course, that led in its turn to a … bit of a shipping boom. So the young man, there he was with his ships and … er … he became one of the richest men in the world. His name was … Aristotle Onassis.
2. Once upon a time there was an enterprising Scottish actor, called Arthur Furguson, who discovered that he could make a very good living selling things that didn't actually belong to him, in other words he was a con man. He first got the idea when he was sitting in the middle of Trafalgar Square (in London that is). Um … this was in 1923, and he saw an American tourist admiring the stone lions and the fountains and Nelson's Column. He introduced himself as the "official guide" to the Square and started to explain the history of the place. And while he was doing this he also slipped in a little mention that as Britain was heavily in debt, the British government was looking for the right kind of person to buy the Square. He said that he was the official government salesman and that the asking price was around ￡6 000. The American said that this was a good price and offered to pay by cheque right away, so Mr. Furguson went off to okay this with his superiors — in other words he went off for an hour and a half and kept the American waiting. Well, he then came back and said, yes, they were willing to sell to the American at that price. The American wrote a check and Furguson gave him a receipt and the address of a company who would dismantle the Square and get it ready for shipping it to the States. Then he went off to cash the check.
Soon after that he sold Big Ben for ￡1 000 and took a down payment on Buckingham Palace of ￡2 000. Two years later he went to the United States and leased the White House to a Texas cattleman for 99 years for $100 000 per annum. Later he arranged to sell the Statue of Liberty to an Australian for $100 000, but unfortunately Furguson allowed the buyer to take a photograph of him and the Australian, feeling slightly suspicious, showed the photograph to the police. Furguson was identified and sent to prison for fraud for five years. When he came out he retired to California, where he lived in luxury until he died in 1938.
B Listen again, and then work out the outcome of the two persons by filling in the gaps.
part Ⅳ More about the topic: Walt Disney
You are going to hear part of a broadcast about the life of Walt Disney. Complete the unfinished sentences below.
Presenter: Walt Disney is well known as the creator of Mickey Mouse and the inventor of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, but his creations are better known than his life. Peter Spencer is the author of a new book about Disney. What was Walt Disney's background?
Peter: Walter Elias Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago but actually he was brought up in a small town in the Mid-West near Kansas City, Missouri, which incidentally was later used as the model for Main Street U.S.A. in Disneyland. Um ... he first studies cartooning, you know, by doing a correspondence course. During the First World War he worked as a … a driver for the American Red Cross but after the war he returned to Kansas City where he met a guy called Ub Iwerks. Now they … er … started to work together on a series of experimental-type films ... um … and after a while they set off to California to join Walt's elder brother Roy who was living there in Los Angeles.
Presenter: When did Mickey Mouse first appear?
Peter: Ah, well, Disney and Iwerks first invented a character called Oswald the Rabbit but then in 1928 a new character was born: cheerful, sometimes rather naughty, energetic mouse with large funny ears. Yes, it was Mickey and he appeared for the first time in the first talking cartoon film, called Steamboat Willie. Er … not many people know this but Walt Disney actually provided the voice for Mickey. By the way, he was almost called "Mortimer Mouse", which doesn't have the same kind of ring to it, or does it? Well, Roy and Walt gathered a team of artists … er … illustrators together … um … by this time Ub Iwerks had left them and started his own company, this was in 1930, and Disney Studios, as they called themselves, starting … started to produce the famous short cartoons with … starring Mickey and Minnie and Donald Duck and Pluto and Goofy. Er … Roy was the business manager and driving force behind the company … er … making it very profitable and Walt was more the … er … imaginative, creative part of the partnership.
Presenter: What kind of man was Walt Disney?
Peter: Well, according to the artists who worked for him Walt actually couldn't draw very well … er … most of the characters were actually drawn by Iwerks, but apparently he was an amazing storyteller. He would act out the stories of films doing all the voices and actions to show the illustrators what he wanted them to do and then they had to go off and try to recreate his visualizations.
Presenter: The most famous cartoon of all was Snow White — and the best I still think.
Peter: Mm, yeah, it was the first feature-length cartoon and it was released in … er … 1935. Now, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs required two million drawings and took three years' work to make. Um … obviously it was … er … very expensive, particularly for those times. By the way, the British film censor gave it an Adult certificate because he thought that it would be too frightening for little children to see on their own. Er … that was followed by Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940, Dumbo in 1941. And … er … the Disney Studios also started making … um … some rather low-budget live action feature films for children … er … something which the other studios didn't dare risk doing. Er … some of his films mixed live action with cartoons — er … I'm thinking about Mary Poppins, which I think we've probably all seen, made in 1964, where cartoon characters and … and the real life actors appeared together on screen and talked and danced and sang together. Disney was one of the first to see the potential of television, all the other studios were afraid of this medium. Um … so he started to produce films directly for television and … and now of course there's a Disney Channel showing only Disney films.
Presenter: And then he dreamt up Disneyland, didn't he?
Peter: Ah, "dreamt" is the right word. Disneyland was a creation of the land of his dreams: safe, happy, clean, fairy-tale world with its own Magic Kingdom. The original Disneyland was opened in Los Angeles in 1955 and it cost $17 million. Walt died in 1966 but he was already working on plans for the Disney World in Orlando, Florida, which opened in 1971, and the EPCOT Center near Walt Disney World — that's the "Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow", by the way. And there's also a … a Tokyo Disneyland, which was opened in … um … 1983.
Presenter: And … and now there's even an Euro Disneyland near Paris, I think.
Peter: Yes, that's right. Um … and the Disney Studios still continue to produce films in the … the house style, the Walt Disney style and presumably it always will. Disney's films appealed … um … and still do appeal to children of all ages, but people often criticize them for their lack of taste and they say they're vulgar, but Disney said, "I've never called this art. It's show business and I'm a showman." Well, can you imagine a world without Mickey Mouse?
Presenter: Peter Spencer, thank you.
Part Ⅴ Do you know ...?
Listen to the recording. You'll hear about the three best real estate deals in the history of America. Find the answers to the following questions.
1. The best real estate deal in history
Even in the days when America was known as the New World, it was a country with a reputation for its spirit of enterprise and the ability of its people to make a good deal.
When the settlers started negotiating, the natives hardly knew what had hit them — and in the summer of 1626, probably the most spectacular real estate coup in history took place.
Governor Peter Minuit of the Dutch West India Company had the job of buying Manhattan Island from the Indians.
After some haggling with Chief Manhasset, the price was agreed at 24 dollars' worth of kettles, axes and cloth.
Today, $24 would not buy one square foot of office space in New York City, and an office block in central Manhattan changes hands for around $80 million. Even allowing for inflation, Minuit got himself a real bargain.
2. Not again, Josephine!
You would think that the Manhattan deal would remain a one-off for ever. But less than two centuries later the loser was Napoleon, Emperor of France and (in his early years, at least) a brilliant military tactician.
In 1803, Napoleon had his mind on European affairs (in particular, an invasion of Britain), so he decided to dispense with France's American possessions.
He sold the entire Mississippi valley, an area of 828 000 square miles extending from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico and westwards to the Rockies, for just over 27 million dollars.
Through this deal, known as the Louisiana purchase, President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States for only around 5 cents per acre.
3. Nice ice at a reasonable price
Napoleon did just manage to reach Moscow in his ill-fated invasion of 1812 — but it would seem that news of his poor American deal did not.
For, astonishingly, the Russians went on to become the third victims of major land deals with America.
On March 30th 1867, the U.S. Secretary of State, William Seward, bought Alaska from Tsar Alexander II for a mere $7.2 million — thereby acquiring another 586 000 square miles of territory for less than 2 cents per acre.
The Tsar presumably thought that this remote, frozen and virtually uninhabited piece of land had nothing at all to commend it — and at first, the American people agreed with him, for Alaska was known as "Seward's folly" and "Seward's ice box" for years.
In 1896, however, gold was struck at Klondike in the Yukon, and since then, over 750 million dollars' worth has been mined.
In 1968, black gold was discovered — and an estimated 100 billion tons of coal are also lying underground, just waiting to be dug up. |