Where are the ideal places in your city for wireless hotspots to be installed for
business users? Why?
railway stations
bus stations
restaurants
coffee shops
cinemas
hotel lobbies
airport lounges
Can you think of any other places?
Module 1 Travel
Text 2
The importance of eye-to-eye contact
Before you read
Do/Would you like traveling on business? Why/why not?
Reading
Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the questions.
Corporate road warriors
By Stuart Crainer
The characteristic that most distinguishes today’s executives is not their
technological sophistication but the amount of time they spend on the move. To
observe the real impact of globalization, you only have to walk around an
international airport. Among the crowds of tourists, an army of warriors and
corporate executives march red-eyed across the world’s time zones. Global 5
markets mean constant global travel.
Management consultants are among the most frenetic frequent fliers.
They routinely cross continents for a face-to-face meeting and then return home.
They point to the importance of personal contact. For a profession built on rational
analysis, it seems illogical. Face-to-face meetings when one of the parties is exhausted 10
and jet-lagged seem unlikely to benefit anyone. But most consultants act as if e-mail
and satellite links had never been invented. For the masters of logic, only the face-to-
face experience will do.
The question is why all the technological gadgetry has failed make a dent in the
amount of business travel? The answer seems to lie with a simple statistic. More than 15
90 percent of human communication is non-verbal (some studies put it as high as 93
percent). Facial expressions, body language, eye-contact – these are all key conduits.
Without them you can’t get past first base. It’s tough to bond over the Internet.
«Most of us still want face-to-face contact, » says Cary Cooper, professor of
organizational psychology and health at the University of Manchester Institute of 20
science and Technology (UMIST). «A lot of people rely on their personalities to
persuade others,» he says. «That doesn’t come out in e-mails, and video conferencing
is limiting. They may also want to influence people outside of the meeting. A lot of
lobbing goes on before and after meetings. That’s why eyeball-to-eyeball is so important.
We still don’t fully trust the technology even though it’s been around for a while. We 25
prefer to talk behind closed doors.»
We also read body language to pick up the atmosphere, he says. «We walk into a meeting and pick up the feel of what the other people are thinking. We watch how Y reacts
to what X is saying. You can’t do that by videoconference. Most of us don’t have the self-
confidence to believe we can build the sorts of relationships we need with clients and 30
suppliers down the wire. Business travel won’t decrease for that reason. It’s a shame
because at the moment we’re burning out an awful lot of people.»
1. Read the whole article. Are these statements true or false?
a) Businesspeople are traveling more than ever before.
b) Management consultants travel less than other business people.
c) Most people think that using the Internet is as good meeting face-to-face.
d) Body language is more important than what people actually say.
e) Business travel will decline in the long run as people use the Internet more and more.
2. Choose the best alternative to complete these statements/
a) Sophistication (line….) is when people have a lot of
i) ignorance about something
ii) knowledge, experience and understanding of something
iii) interest in something.
b) If X has an impact (line….) on Y, it has no
i) no influence on it
ii) a connection with it
iii) an affect on it.
c) A road warrior (line….) is a kind of
i) a soldier
ii) transport employee
iii) businessperson.
d) A time zone (line…) is an area of
i) an airport where you can see the times of flights
ii) a building where there is a public clock
iii) the world where it is the same time in all places.
e) Something that is global (line…)
i) is round or spherical
ii) happens or involves things all over the world
iii) is full or complete.