An exercise in learning how to use business English vocabulary appropriately in real-life cases

Despite innovative designs continuing to differentiate their products from those of their competitors, several months back it was becoming clear that their trading position had deteriorated. One could only foresee difficult trading conditions ahead for them.

Furthermore, the bank said that their takeover plan of a rival was not viable in the present business climate, and therefore it looked likely that the bankers would withdraw their financial support.

The first step was to tell their staff the situation. Through experience, the board knew that keeping the staff informed was key. It is always a good policy to disseminate information via the intranet. This is what they did. They augmented the management team with a business consultant, who advised right away that James, the rising star in sales, was still too inexperienced to take over the sales team.

Particularly in the UK, bankruptcy remains a stigma for many years, and by bringing turnaround specialists on board, it was thought this could expedite the recovery of what was fast becoming a potentially insolvent business. To counter potential staff unrest amidst all the uncertainty, it was deemed advisable to bring an interim HR manager on-board. An effective HR manager can resolve disputes with unions before they develop. The first meeting between the HR manager and the Union is crucially important to lay out the position of the company towards their employees, and to fully ascertain the Union’s position.

Then the situation changed significantly when a much larger rival company made a potentially advantageous proposal. They proposed a merger which would undoubtedly consolidate the new larger company’s position in the market. The main issue was that anti-trust laws put a legal constraint on the companies dominating the market, and this merger would create a truly dominant player in the market. Therefore, there was no guarantee that the merger would have been given the go-ahead. Moreover, creditors votes are weighted according to the aggregate of their claims, and nothing could be decided until the creditors had had their say.

Despite the board’s initial assessment being positive, the board rejected the merger offer.