Tag Archives: Business

Personal Branding for the Business Professional

Posted on April 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. – Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

Gary Vaynerchuk could tell you that his personal brand is worth millions, but heʼs modest. My friend and PodCamp co-founder, Christopher S. Penn, often refers to branding by ZeFrankʼs definition: “an emotional aftertaste.” I have some thoughts on how one might develop a strong personal brand online, and what you might do with one, once you build it.

Why Build a Personal Brand? You might already know the answer to this question. There are lots of answers, actually, depending on you, your needs, the way the world has shaped you. Letʼs look at just one answer. Continue reading →

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Business is War and Peace

Posted on August 17, 2010 by | Leave a comment

“Business is war.” the traditional language of business certainly makes it sound that way: winning the competition, getting market share, beating up suppliers, locking up customers. There are the victors and the losers.

But today in doing business, you have to listen to customers, work with suppliers, keep good relations—even with competitors. That does not sound like war. Besides, there are few victors when business is looked upon as war.

Most businesses succeed only if others also succeed. Business is competition and cooperation as well. In other words, business is war and peace.

To bring together competition and cooperation, we turn to game theory. Game theory provides that whether one person wins or loses depends on what other people do. It is particularly effective when there are many interdependent factors and no decision can be made in isolation from other decisions.

Game theory breaks down the game into key elements: players, added values, rules, tactics, and scope (PARTS). Every element affects the result of the game. This means that each of the five elements gives you a way to change an existing game into an entirely new one. Change on of the PARTS, and you change the whole.

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Insurance in Business English

Posted on August 5, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Insurance is very closely related to foreign trade. In international trade, the transportation of goods from the seller to the buyer is generally over a long distance by air, by land or by sea and has to go through the procedures of loading, unloading and storing. During this process it is quite possible that the goods will encounter various kinds of perils and sometimes suffer losses. In order to protect the goods against possible loss in case of such perils, the buyer or seller before the transportation of the goods usually buys insurance from an insurance company to cover the goods in transit.

As a high percentage of our trade in and out of the country goes by ship, our main concern is the Marine insurance. We should strive to win over the business of insurance, wherever favorable, as it is a form of intangible trade which helps us to accumulate foreign exchange.

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Offer and Counter-offer in Business English

Posted on July 31, 2010 by | Leave a comment

An offer is the expression of the wishes of sellers or buyers to sell/buy particular goods under stated terms (including quantity, price, time of shipment, terms of payment,etc.). Offers that can result in actual sales are vital for business transactions.

According to their finality, offers used to be divided into two types: definite offer ( or firm offer ) and indefinite offer ( or non-firm offer ). When an offeree is not satisfied with certain terms in an offer, he may propose a new set of terms for the transaction or make a conditional acceptance by making some changes in the offer. This is known as counter-offer. In fact, a counter-offer is a new offer that cancels the original offer. When a counter-offer is made, the original offeree becomes the new offerer and the original offerer becomes the new offeree. the new offeree may choose to reject, counter-offer again or accept the counter-offer.

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Inquiry in Business English

Posted on July 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Usually, inquiry is an action undertaken by buyers to get products’ information before purchasing. It is not only one of the most direct ways to acquire product details, but also a starting point of the formal contacts between buyers and sellers.

When making an inquiry, besides the prices of goods, buyers may ask for more information, such as the specification, packing, delivery date and other forms. In an inquiry, buyers should clearly express what kind of information is needed and under what conditions the deal can be made and it should be brief, specific, courteous and reasonable. In return, the answers to inquiries should be prompt, definite and helpful. Each inquiry is a sales opportunity, an opportunity to foster a potential long-term relationship.

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