Unit 7
Text A
Pre-reading Activities
First Listening
Before listening to the tape, have a quick look at the following words.
gospel
福音
partner
合伙人
unpredictable
不可预测的
Second Listening
Listen to the tape again. Then, choose the best answer to each of the following questions.
1. Most of Sam Walton's "Rules for Succeeding in Business" are ________.
A) new ideas resulting from research
B) old ideas, but useful ones
C) rules that must be followed exactly
D) secrets that most people don't know
2. What does Sam Walton say about hard work and cooperation?
A) They are so basic that he doesn't include them in his list of rules.
B) They can make up for many other weaknesses.
C) They are more important in some businesses than others.
D) American businesses need to learn to do them better.
3. Which of the following does Sam Walton NOT say you should do in business?
A) Make a strong commitment to your business.
B) Share profits with your employees.
C) Keep secrets from your employees.
D) Show your appreciation for your employees.
4. What is Sam Walton's main purpose in writing this passage?
A) To give some guidelines for success in business.
B) To describe how his company became successful.
C) To tell the story of his life in the retail business.
D) To emphasize the importance of hard work and cooperation.
Running a Successful Company: Ten Rules that Worked for Me
Sam Walton
A whole lot has changed about the retailing business in the forty-seven years we've been in it—including some of my theories. We've changed our minds about some significant things along the way and adopted some new principles — particularly about the concept of partnership in a corporation. But most of the values and the rules and the techniques we've relied on have stayed the same the whole way. Some of them are such simple commonsense old favorites that they hardly seem worth mentioning.
This isn't the first time that I've been asked to come up with a list of rules for success, but it is the first time I've actually sat down and done it. I'm glad 1 did because it's been a revealing exercise for me. I do seem to have a couple of dozen things that I've singled out at one time or another as the "key" to the whole thing. One I don't even have on my list is "work hard." If you don't know that already, or you're not willing to do it, you probably won't be going far enough to need my list anyway. And another I didn't include on the list is the idea of building a team. If you want to build an enterprise of any size at all, it almost goes without saying that you absolutely must create a team of people who work together and give real meaning to that overused word "teamwork." To me, that's more the goal of the whole thing, rather than some way to get there.
I believe in always having goals, and always setting them high. I can certainly tell you that the folks at Wal-Mart have always had goals in front of them. In fact, we have sometimes built real scoreboards on the stage at Saturday morning meetings.
One more thing. If you're really looking for my advice here, trying to get something serious out of this exercise I put myself through, remember: these rules are not in any way intended to be the Ten Commandments of Business. They are some rules that worked for me. But I always prided myself on breaking everybody else's rules, and I always favored the mavericks who challenged my rules. I may have fought them all the way, but I respected them, and, in the end, I listened to them a lot more closely than I did the pack who always agreed with everything I said. So pay special attention to Rule 10, and if you interpret it in the right spirit — as it applies to you — it could mean simply: Break All the Rules.
For what they're worth, here they are. Sam's Rules for Building a Business:
RULE 1: COMMIT to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it. If you love your work, you'll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you — like a fever.
RULE 2: SHARE your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in a partnership. Encourage your associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It's the single best thing we ever did.
RULE 3: MOTIVATE your partners. Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs. If things get stale, cross-pollinate; have managers switch jobs with one another to stay challenged. Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don't become too predictable.
RULE 4: COMMUNICATE everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they'll understand. The more they understand, the more they'll care. Once they care, there's no stopping them. If you don't trust your associates to know what's going on, they'll know you don't really consider them partners. Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitors.
RULE 5: APPRECIATE everything your associates do for the business. A paycheck and a stock option will buy one kind of loyalty. But all of us like to be told how much somebody appreciates what we do for them. We like to hear it often, and especially when we have done something we're really proud of. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free — and worth a fortune.
RULE 6: CELEBRATE your successes. Find some humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show enthusiasm — always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don't do a hula on Wall Street like I did. Think up your own stunt. All of this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really fools the competition. "Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart seriously?"
RULE 7: LISTEN to everyone in your company. And figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines — the ones who actually talk to the customer — are the only ones who really know what's going on out there. You'd better find out what they know. This really is what total quality is all about. To push responsibility down in your organization, and to force good ideas to bubble up within it, you must listen to what your associates are trying to tell you.
RULE 8: EXCEED your customers' expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want — and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them. Fix all your mistakes, and don't make excuses — apologize. Stand behind everything you do. The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: "Satisfaction Guaranteed." They're still up there, and they have made all the difference.
RULE 9: CONTROL your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. For twenty-five years running long before Wal-Mart was known as the nation's largest retailer — we ranked number one in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.
RULE 10: SWIM upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long.
Those are some pretty ordinary rules, some would say even simplistic. The hard part, the real challenge, is to constantly figure out ways to execute them. You can't just keep doing what works one time, because everything around you is always changing. To succeed, you have to stay out in front of that change.
(1 345 words)
New Words
partnership
n. the state of being a partner or partners, esp. in a business; a group of two or more people working, playing, etc. together as partners; a business with two or more owners 合伙（关系）；伙伴（关系）；合伙企业
common sense
n. practical good sense gained from experience of life, not by special study 常识；（由实际生活经验得来的）判断力
commonsense
a. having or showing practical good sense; sensible; practical; clear 有常识的；明白事理的；注重实际的；清楚明白的
revealing
a. 有启迪作用的，发人深省的
reveal
vt. make (facts, etc.) known 揭示，揭露；透露
enterprise
n. a business company or firm 企业单位，公司
overuse
vt. use (sth.) too much or too often 使用…过多；使用…过度
teamwork
n. organized effort as a team 协同工作，配合
scoreboard
n. a board on which a score is shown 记分牌，示分牌；（商业活动等的）记录牌
commandment
n. 1. command; order 戒律；命令
2. (in the Bible) any of the Ten Commandments, ten laws given by God to the Jews （基督教十诫中的）一诫
maverick
n. a person with independent or unusual views 持不同意见者；持异议者
pack
n. a gang or band of people 一帮人，一伙人
partner
n. a person who takes part in an activity with another or others, esp. one of the owners of a business 合伙人，股东；伙伴，同伙
discount
n. amount of money taken off the cost of sth. （价格等的）折扣
v. 打折扣出售（商品等）
bet
n. an arrangement to risk money, etc. on an event of which the result is doubtful 打赌
outrageous
a. very shocking and unacceptable; very unusual and quite shocking 惊人的；肆无忌惮的，毫无节制
payoff
n. a deserved reward or punishment 报偿；惩罚
stale
a. no longer interesting or exciting because of having been heard, done, etc. too often before; not new 因陈旧而乏味的，过时的；没有新意的
cross-pollinate
v. fertilize a plant with pollen from a different type of plant （使）异花传粉
predictable
a. (of a person) behaving in a way that can be predicted 可预言的；可预料的，可预计的；（贬）按老一套办事的
empower
vt. give (sb.) the power or authority to act 授权给
offset
v. compensate for (sth.); balance (sth.) 补偿，抵消
competitor
n. a person or an organization that competes against others, esp. in business 竞争者；比赛者；对手；敌手
loyalty
n. the quality of being true and faithful in one's support of sb./sth. 忠诚，忠心耿耿
well-chosen
a. carefully selected (used esp. of words) 仔细斟酌过的，合适的，恰当的
well-timed
a. done, said, etc. at the right time or at an appropriate time 适时的，不早不晚的，及时的
hula
n. Hawaiian performance that includes dance, gesture, and chanting （美国夏威夷的波利尼西亚女子跳的一种动作类似哑剧的）呼拉舞，草裙舞
stunt
n. an unusual act designed to attract attention 惊人的表演，绝技；惊险动作
cornball
n. (U.S. Slang) an unsophisticated person；rube；hick （美俚）头脑简单的人；乡巴佬；土包子
retailer
n. a person who sells goods to the general public 零售商
ratio
n. a relation between two amounts, which shows how many times one contains the other 比；比率；比例
inefficient
a. (of a person or an organization) failing to make the best use of the available time and resources 无效率的
upstream
ad. & a. in the direction from which a river, etc. flows; against the current 逆流（的）；往上游（的）
conventional wisdom
the opinion that most people consider to be normal and right 一般人的意见，流行的看法
niche
n. a suitable position, place, job, etc. 合适的位置（或地方、职务等）
simplistic
a. making difficult problems, issues, ideas, etc. seem much simpler than they really are, e.g. in order to conceal sth. （把复杂问题）过分简单化的；被过分简单化的
execute
vt. do or perform (what one is asked or told to do) 实行，实施；执行，履行
execution
n. 实行；执行，履行
Phrases and Expressions
come up with
find or produce (an answer, etc.) 提出，想出
single out
choose (sb./sth.) from a group, e.g. for special attention 选出，挑出
at one time or another
在某个时候
go without saying
be very obvious or natural 不用说，不言而喻
put...through
make (sb.) experience (sth. very difficult or unpleasant) 使…经受
pride oneself on
be proud of 以…自豪
in the end
at last；finally 最终；最后
commit to
devote oneself to (a certain cause, position, opinion, or course of action) 献身于
loosen up
relax （使）放松
think up
produce (an idea or a plan): invent or devise (sth.) 想出；设计出，发明
figure out
come up with; come to understand or discover by thinking （美口）想出；理解，明白
bubble up
move upward in or as if in bubbles; emerge from below 往上冒泡；涌现
stand behind
be responsible for 对…负责
go out of business
become bankrupt 破产；倒闭；歇业
wave down
signal to (a vehicle or its driver) to stop, by waving one's hand 挥手示意（车辆、司机）停下
Proper Names
Sam Walton
萨姆·沃尔顿（1918—1922，美国企业家）
Wal-Mart
沃尔 — 玛特商场（由萨姆·沃尔顿于1962年开办）
Wall Street
华尔街（美国纽约市曼哈顿区南部的一条街道，是美国金融机构的集中地，现常作美国金融市场或金融界的代名词） |