Task Sheet:

参考答案:Task Sheet:
A: Board Meeting: how to prepare a board meeting
Suggested Ideas :
· First, it is important to decide on a date for the meeting as all board members are busy and have different work schedules. So finding a date on which every member can be available is very important.
· Secondly, it is important to find an appropriate venue for holding the meeting. As there are independent directors who may live and work in different cities, it is important to find a venue to which all members of the board have easy access.
· Thirdly, it is important to work out an agenda for the board meeting. The agenda may include the following :
— what is going to be done at the meeting, e. g. to decide on the annual budget; to appoint members of the management team ; to discuss possibilities for mergers or acquisitions; to decide on whether to have IPO (Initial Public Offering) for the company; etc.,
— who are the keynote speakers at the meeting,
— what are they going to talk about.
· Fourthly, it is important to prepare a notice for the meeting stating the time and venue for the meeting and send each board member a copy of the notice together with a copy of the agenda.
· Finally, it is also important to prepare all materials to be handed out at the meeting: e. g. copies of financial statements or reports, resumes of candidates for the management team, information of target companies for mergers or acquisitions, etc.
B: Company Annual Report: what to be included in this kind of report
Suggested Ideas :
A company annual report usually includes information related to the following:
· Company structure: whether there have been any changes in the company in the past year, such changes may be related to internal departments, subsidiary companies, mergers, acquisitions.
· Board of directors / management team: whether there have been any changes in the board or in the team, such changes may be related to any nominations of new directors or managers, replacements and/or promotions of the exiting board directors or management team members.
· Financial management: information related to new investment, working capital, annual incomes and profits, costs and expenses, etc.
· HR management: information related to recruitment of new staff, promotion of existing staff, training programs, and any changes in staff welfare policies, etc.
· Sales and marketing: information related to increase and decrease in sales or market share, development in customer/client relations
· Research and development: information related to research on how to improve existing products/services and development of new products/services
C: Transportation: the factors involved in choosing a specific means for transporting products
Suggested Ideas:
These factors may include the following:
· Speed: how fast it is required to transport products. The fastest way of course is to transport products by air. However, there are some disadvantages in transportation by air:
— cost: it is the most expensive, compared with other means of transportation,
— size: it has restrictions on the size of products to be transported, it cannot transport oversized products,
— quantity: it also has restrictions on the quantity of products to be transported.
· Cost: what is the cheapest way to transport products. The cheapest way of course is to transport products by sea. However, there are disadvantages too:
— speed: it is usually much slower than transportation by air or by rail or by highway,
— access: it can only reach places along coasts and cannot reach in-land places directly as it requires connections with either transportation by rail or by highway for such places.
· Size/quantity: for transportation of over-sized products or large quantities of products, it is better to choose transportation by sea or by rail.
· Convenience: the most convenient way for transporting goods is by truck, as this way of transportation can offer door to door service. However, it is limited to transportation within a certain distance. It will be difficult for example to transport products from one continent to another by truck.