Skype Linkup with North Carolina

Last week we started an online collaboration with our American partners from Forsyth Tech Community College in North Carolina, USA using Skype linkup. Our wonderful American host, Suzanne Stafford, Professor of Macroeconomics at Forsyth Tech Community College suggested we let the American and Moldovan students get to know each other better using Skype and also start working together on an international exchange. Our main topic of discussion was sources of information for students interested in reading about the current news in the world. We mentioned CNN Money and BBC Financial as our main resources. Our special guest last week was Olesea Fortuna, the Executive Manager of American Councils Moldova and the Open World Program Coordinator. Mrs Fortuna talked about another similar Skype project in collaboration with North Carolina wine makers who taught Moldovan entrepreneurs about marketing strategies in US: "Recomandări Strategice în Marketingul Viti-Vinicol ".

Banca Mondială îşi deschide uşile pentru Studenţii de la ASEM

Pentru a le deschide studentilor ASEM de la Facultatea de Bănci şi Finanţe perpective noi asupra posibilităţilor de a studia economia în baza studiului de caz, am organizat o masă rotundă cu tema: „Banca Mondială– proiecte de dezvoltare economică în Moldova: istoric şi perspective actuale” avîndu-l ca invitat special pe Domnul Victor Neagu, reprezentant al Băncii Mondiale Moldova, Departamentul Relatii Externe. Evenimentul a fost găzduit de către noul Centru American de Resurse (ARC) administrat de către Secţia pentru Cultură şi Presă a Ambasadei SUA la Chişinău. Studenţii au aflat ..... (Read more here)

Writing an Argumentative Essay

1) Watch the 2010 World Bank International Essay Competition 2nd place winner and answer the following questions:

- Why do you think it receved the second prize?

- What type of essay is it?

- How does the author support his point of view?

2) Download the PDF file and take the quiz then check your answers.

3) Now let's practise how well you can use connectors. Take the QUIZ.

3) What is a thesis? Watch the video and write your own, detailed definition.

4) Watch the Video Essay "A Scenic America" and write your opinions about the essay in 150-200 words.

Ratings of Molovan Companies

What are 10 most expensive companies in the Moldovan Stock Exchange? Which companies are leading with the highest market value in 2010 ? What are the most efficient banks in Moldova? Read and find out for yourselves.

Magenta Consulting - Research in Moldova

Dear FB students,

We have discussed a lot about international business projects, but not too much about how business is being approached in Moldova. Meet Magenta Consulting - suring 2009, Magenta Consulting has carried out 62 researches that have been based on 18.840 interviews, over 470 mystery shopping situations, 115 in-depth interviews, 68 focus groups, 42 store-checks, 16 feasibility studies and 8 industrial analyses of the Moldovan market.

Select one of the following studies and write a short response essay: 1st paragraph - a summary and the 2nd - your personal opinion / analysis / interpretation / prognosis, etc.

1. The Moldovan consumer is chosing commercial centers over markets

2. Social Networking and Advertising

3. Most preferred advertisement means in Moldova

4. Awareness of Magazines in Moldova

5. What are the expenses reduced during crisis?

Voicethread Projects

This week we have been working on our Voicethread Projects. Let's have a look at each of them and decide together which projects are the best! Evaluating the following: organisation, creativity, how the topic was presented, research (Did the student use data, numbers, satistics, etc?). Good luck!

1) Elena Effective Advertising
2) Marina Nokia versus Apple
3) Cristina Toyota's Problems
4) Eugenia Cadbury- World's Chocolate Leader
5) Sabina Best Business Opportunities in 2009
6) Cristina R. Top 10 Most Profitable Companies in USA

7) Max Apple's new product: the iPad

8) Tatiana Most Influential People in Moldova 2009

Video Resumes

Dear FB students,

one of the projects we have been working on is creating video resumes. It's tie to decide which project is the best! Check on the following links and send us your opinion: which one did you like best? Why? Pay attention to: organisation, creativity, English fluency, vocabulary, structure and sense of humour! If you were an employer, who would you rather give a job to?

1) Resume 1 Sanda
2) Resume 2 Victoria
3) Resume 3 Cristina V.
4) Resume 4 Radu
5) Resume 5 Elena
6) Resume 6 Cristina R.

Apply for Business for Youth

Dear FB students,
I am strongly encouraging you to apply to Business for Youth this year
Read more about the project, download the application and see what the participants from previous years had to say about their experience on their blog: http://bfy2010.wordpress.com/ or on the ACCELS Moldova official webpagehttp://www.americancouncils.md/
Let me know in class if you need help or more info. I wish you ALL the best of luck!

Social Corprate Responsibility

o1) Vicabulary work

a) What is social responsibility?

b) What is the difference between social and corporate responsibility?

c) What is the history of the "Corporate social responsibility" term?

d) What is the significance of this term?

e) What are the positive benefits of SCR?

f) What are the negative aspects?

2) Whatch the Video and Explain the concept of Corporate Responsibility

Read the "Corporate Social Responsibility"article by Mallen Baker and answer the following questions:

a) How does the author of the article define CSR?
b) How does The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication "Making Good Business Sense" by Lord Holme and Richard Watts define CSR?
c) How is the concept traditionally understood in United States?
d) What are the two aspects of their operations companies need to answer?
e) What is the “outer circle” stakeholders are taking an increasing interest in?
f) What is the European model more focused on?
g) Why does the author of the article believe this model is more sustainable?

3) Now read the CR facts published by BNET and answer the following questions:

a) What do 94% of company executives believe regarding Corporate Responsibility strategy?
b) How are companies in Europe and Japan different from those in Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa and Asia?
c) Arrange the following companies according to the rate of corporate Responsibility reports they publish: US, Australian, British, Japanese,South African companies.
d) How does the author of the article prove that the financial contribution to society in the form of taxes has plummeted?
e) What is being reported about corporate profits in 2006 and 2007?
f) What about pay for top executives?
g) What do the following refer to: a day / in a year, 37% / 3.3%. ?

4) Study Cases:

1. IBM
2. Nokia
3. Vodaphone (Video Report)
4. McDonald's
5. Western Union
6. Orange

7. Moldcell
8. Mobiasbanca (Download the report and read pages 29 to 33)

Moldovan Business Project - a SWOT analysis

Steve Jobs has just launched the new iPod, while the Moldovans invest in the following project "Tarancuta":
Whatch the video and answer the following questions:
a) What is your overall opinion of the invention and its effectiveness? Why was it invented?
b) How many samples has the inventor sold so far? Who are his customers?
c) Would you invest in such a project? Why? Why not?
Now, you are going to work on a SWOT analysis of this project. Please analyze it according to the following system:
1) SWOT analysis template 
2) Free SWOT Examples 
Based on your own SWOT, please answer: IS THIS PROJECT WORTH INVESTING MONEY IN? Why? Why not? Good luck!

Ten things you didn't know about Money by TIMES

As the U.S. Mint releases a new $1 coin on Nov. 19 — this one commemorates former President Zachary Taylor — TIME traces the history of banknotes from ancient China to modern cocaine dens.
Here are 10 fun facts about money that may surprise you: Do you know the Origin of the $ sign? What does the expression "Dirty money" really mean? How many years can a bill used? When and where was the first ATM mashine installed? When was the first paper money issued and much much more!

Starting a Successful Career

There are three things you need to do well to start a successful career:

1) Write an excellent CV / Resume

2) Put together a convincing Cover Letter

and

3) Pass a Job Interview

1) Tead the following guidelines on how to write a CV/Resume.

2) Do you have a personal statement on your resume? Learn about how to write one here.

3) Read about the pitfalls of resume writing, examine the "badly" and "well" written resumes.

4) Take the following tests to determine whether those are good or bad resumes.

5) Watch the Video on How to Write a CV/Resume

6) Learn about how to write a good cover letter: how many paragraphs should be there? what does the firt paragrpah contain? how about the second?

7) Read the following guidelines and select the three most important steps.
8) Chose the best WEB Templates.
9) What is a "creative resume"?

Business Briefs

Dear FB students,
Please take the time to browse through the following Busness Briefs: they have some very interesting artcles on various business related topics. We will work in three teams this time: read the articles and write a 300 word summary:

Team 1: on "Emotional Branding"

Team 2: Facebook - faced dismissal (pages 17-18)
Team 3: Global Luxury Survey
Team 4: The G-8 Summit
Team 4: TIME's Person of the Year - 2009

Writing a Business Brief

Dear FB students,
this is a short guide to writing business briefs. Use it to complete our next assignment.
Writing a Business Brief

Let's learn some new vocabulary!

This week we will work with various online resources to boost our vocabulary. Your talk is going to be the following: collect 10 new business English words from the Finance / Banking and Accounting area and post them on the blog in the following format: 

new word - definition - synonyms - example

For example: Overheads 

Definition: business expenses, such as rent, that are not directly attributable to any department or product and can therefore be assigned only arbitrarily.
Synonyms / Idioms / Expressions: Also called burden fixed costs indirect costs oncost.
Example: We have to cut costs in order to reduce overheads.

As resources, you will use the following three websites:

1) YouTube: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3
2) BusinessEnglisSite : Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Test 6
3) Accounting for Beginners: Read the article and answer the following questions:

* What are assets according to the article? * What do you know about fixed assets? * What are liabilities? * What is equity? * What are the three basic financial statements that you need to understand to run your business? * What is an Income Statement? * What is the cash flow statement?

Famous Study Cases - Summarising Long Articles

For FB-28K Students: This week we are working on how to write summaries:
These are guidelines and examples you could use before writing your own summary:
Writing a summary - 8 easy steps.
Academic Summary.
Read the following study cases and write a 300 ord summay then present it to the rest of the class. Don't forget the structure of a summary and the eight steps you should follow while writing one.
1) Coke versus Pepsi
2) Pizza Wars
3) Benetton
4)Absolute Vodka
5) Calvin Klein
6) Cadbury Dairy Milk's Advertising Campaigns in India
7) Apple's Marketing Campaigns: From 'Get A Mac' to 'Why You'll Love a Mac'
8) Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” Campaign: A Model for Global Marketing?

BBC Business News Europe

Dear FB students,
reading about the latest business news in Europe and in the World is going to be an important part of our course this semester. the best resource for you should be BBC / Business , where you can find lots of great articles and videos on the most recent financial issues in Europe. Don't forget to check on the Video news section of the website. Check on what Toyota boss had to say about the car issue we discussed in class. Other interesting stories:
1) In Paris, the customer is not always right
2) Latvia economy reels in recession
3) Europe protects Italian pizza brand from immitation
4) Could Greece be expelled from Eurozone?

Please post your sumaries of the artices you enjoyed most under this post, so that your colleagues have access to this information as well. See you in class!

The 4 Ps of the Marketing Mix

Dear FB students,

TIMES 100 presents a series of case studies which show all the business studies theory you need to know in practice. By studying real life business case studies, you will see how business and marketing work and therefore learn quicker. Each of the following case studies show a different aspect to business and marketing that you can use as a revision tool for your business studies.

1) What are the four Ps of the Marketing Mix (also check the BBC explanation of the four Ps)?

2) The Marketing Mix of Manchester United 3) Nivea Promotion 4) Motorola 5) Ford

6) MacDonald's Monopoly Game 7) Levi's Marketing 8) World's most expensive Ad: Honda Acord 

9) Most expensive TV ad by Guiness

Now watch the video and answer the following questions:

a) When was the term "marketing mix" made popular? b) Which three examples of products did the presenter mention? c) Why did the presenter claim that "place" is everywhere? d) How is the consumer empowered in the 21st century? e) How are the four Ps transformed arrording to the Consumer-Side Marketing (list all 4 of them)?  f) How does the presenter define "position"? g) What is targeting? g) How did Colgate and Crest fight against each other? h) Give 4 examples of the most important demographic segments in Moldova. i) What did Coca Cola do in the 1990s as part of their "Always Coca Cola" campaign (give examples)? j) What was their increase in sales in just 5 years?