lesson 8 unit 7 corporate cultures

1. lesson 8 unit 7 corporate cultures Step 1 Lead-in discussion as for the largest retailing giant in the world, Wal-Mart certainly has its own corporate culture, it has three basic beliefs, respect the individual (giving every colleague enough respect). (尊重个人) ( service to our customers) ( 服务顾客) “customer always first!”) strive for excellence（追求卓越） （try to find innovative ways to improve constantly. in 1999, Wal-Mart merged with another superstore group in the UK---Asda. Then is the culture between the two companies fit for each other? in the passage of unit 7, we may further understand that corporate culture means a lot in international merger. we should not take for granted that culture is so easy to be meshed together between two companies.

2. Step 2 reading tasks before coming to the text Ask Ss to get prepared for the following questions Understanding main points 1. Which company is bigger---asda or wal0mart 2. What are employees at asda called? 3. Which two countries are asda and wal-mart from? 4. Which of these statements best summarizes the corporate culture of asda and wal-mart? A) We must keep costs as low as possible B) we value the contribution of every employee to the success of asda and wal-mart C) everyone in the company is considered equal 5. what extra financial benefit do wal-mart employees have?

3. Step 3 read the text 1. Prepare for the vocabulary Ask the students to read through the words loudly 1）Explain some of the terms: align: to on sb as an ally chant: to sing or shout rhythmically and repeatedly collapse: sudden failure , breakdown commentator: an expert on a particular subject and talks or writes about it in a newspaper or on a TV or radio complacent: calmly satisfied with oneself or with a situation compromise: giving up of certain demands by each side in a dispute, so that an agreement may be reached which satisfies both to some extent downfall: fall from a position of prosperity

4. downfall: fall from a position of prosperity motivate: to give an incentive for action replicate: to be or make a copy of reproduce pensioner: a person who is receiving a pension retailer: tradesman or company who sells goods, which are usu. not for resale, in small quantities to the general public vending machine: coin-operated slot machine for the sale of small items share ownership scheme: a plan that provides employees with a financial share in the business they work in neat: fine splendid terminology: the technical words or expressions used in a subject

5. 2）background information Wal-Mart: founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is the largest company in the world based on revenue. It is the largest private employee in the United States, Mexico and Canada Corporate culture: a company’s values, benefits, business principles, traditions, ways of operating, and internal work environment 2. give the students ten minutes to read and understand the passage in a rough way ask Ss to give the general idea of the passage and try to find the keys to the questions in reading tasks A. 3. explain the passage in details and make translations of some of the content.

6. Step 4 summarization and review Ask the students to finish the following reading tasks understanding details mark these statements T or F 1. asda and wal-mart have very similar corporate cultures 2. Wal-Mart is the biggest supermarket group in the US. 3. asda had financial problems in the 1980s. 4. many of asda’s employees are over 65. 5. Allan Leighton is sure the merger of asda with Wal-Mart will succeed. 6. Wal-Mart plans to impose its corporate culture on asda. 7. Creating a corporate culture cannot be planned in theory only.