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1  Straightforward Upper Intermediate Second edition © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012 Straightforward Business 5c Gurus Speaking & Reading 1 Work in pairs. Look at the list  of business gurus and discuss   the questions. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner and microcredit expert Malcolm Gladwell, Canadian journalist and author of The Tipping Point and Blink Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, one of the best-selling business books of all time Steve Jobs, founder of Apple If you had to read a book by one of these writers, which would you choose? Why? How many other names can you think of to add to the list? What is special about them? Have you ever read anything by an inspirational business writer? If so, what? If not, why not? 2 Read the article and match paragraphs 1–3 to the  summaries a–c. a) Gladwell: how he writes b) Gladwell: the phenomenon c) Gladwell’s publications 3 Read the article again and say if the sentences 1–6  are true (T) or false (F). Correct the false sentences. 1 Gladwell does not have any business experience. 2 He is a star in the eyes of many people. 3 Gladwell is a typical business guru. 4 He usually writes about the same topic. 5 He did not originally plan to be a writer. 6 He is often inspired by talking to other people. 4 Work in pairs. Discuss the question. Would you like to read some of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing? Why or why not? Glossary digging out n finding, discovering go viral v become extremely popular on the internet prior to adv before pioneer v be one of the first people to do something / go somewhere royalties n income from writing books 1 2 3 Business thinkers: Malcolm Gladwell The author of four international bestsellers and listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Malcolm Gladwell has been the biggest business guru on the scene for a few years now. He has worked as a consultant to blue chip companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hewlett Packard. His lectures draw sell-out crowds and one of his talks at TED.com has had more than half a million hits. He’s not exactly a rock star, but he’s the closest thing to it in the creative worlds of marketing, design and product development. Unusually, for a business guru, Gladwell is not the ex-CEO of a successful multinational. He’s a journalist with a gift for digging out interesting ideas and presenting them well. He’s the kind of guy who makes us think. His topics, ranging from the way we make decisions to the way that ideas can go viral, are well-chosen and well-researched. Apart from his books, Gladwell has written a regular column in The New Yorker since 1996. One of these articles became the main idea behind his first best-seller, The Tipping Point. Prior to joining the team at The New Yorker, Gladwell had been writing business articles for nearly ten years for The Washington Post. Gladwell graduated with a degree in history but he had never planned to be a writer. He took his first job as a journalist because he had failed to find a suitable job in advertising. He quickly discovered he had a talent for it. Gladwell’s trick was to find an interesting angle on everyday things. He admits that he gets many of his ideas from friends and colleagues. He came up with his essay on ketchup brands, for example, after a conversation with a friend who had been working in the ketchup business. For his essay about the woman who pioneered the hair colour market, Gladwell had originally been planning to write about shampoo … until an advertising executive suggested that hair colour was a ‘much more interesting’ subject. Basically, Gladwell takes small ideas and turns them into Big Ideas. And his royalties indicate just how well he sells them.

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1    Straightforward Upper Intermediate Second edition © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012

Straightforward    Business

5c GurusSpeaking & Reading1 Work in pairs. Look at the list 

of business gurus and discuss  the questions.

• RichardBranson,founderofVirgin

• BillGates,founderofMicrosoft

• MuhammadYunus,NobelPrizewinnerandmicrocreditexpert

• MalcolmGladwell,CanadianjournalistandauthorofThe Tipping PointandBlink

• TomPeters,authorofIn Search of Excellence,oneofthebest-sellingbusinessbooksofalltime

• SteveJobs,founderofApple

• Ifyouhadtoreadabookbyoneofthesewriters,whichwouldyouchoose?Why?

• Howmanyothernamescanyouthinkoftoaddtothelist?Whatisspecialaboutthem?

• Haveyoueverreadanythingbyaninspirationalbusinesswriter?Ifso,what?Ifnot,whynot?

2 Read the article and match paragraphs 1–3 to the summaries a–c.

a) Gladwell:howhewritesb) Gladwell:thephenomenonc) Gladwell’spublications

3 Read the article again and say if the sentences 1–6 are true (T) or false (F). Correct the false sentences.

1 Gladwelldoesnothaveanybusinessexperience.2 Heisastarintheeyesofmanypeople.3 Gladwellisatypicalbusinessguru.4 Heusuallywritesaboutthesametopic.5 Hedidnotoriginallyplantobeawriter.6 Heisofteninspiredbytalkingtootherpeople.

4 Work in pairs. Discuss the question.

• WouldyouliketoreadsomeofMalcolmGladwell’swriting?Whyorwhynot?

Glossarydiggingoutnfinding,discoveringgoviralv becomeextremelypopularontheinternetpriortoadvbeforepioneervbeoneofthefirstpeopletodosomething/

gosomewhereroyaltiesnincomefromwritingbooks

1

2

3

Business thinkers: Malcolm Gladwell

The author of four international bestsellers and listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Malcolm Gladwell has been the biggest business guru on the scene for a few years now. He has worked as a consultant to blue chip companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hewlett Packard. His lectures draw sell-out crowds and one of his talks at TED.com has had more than half a million hits. He’s not exactly a rock star, but he’s the closest thing to it in the creative worlds of marketing, design and product development.

Unusually, for a business guru, Gladwell is not the ex-CEO of a successful multinational. He’s a journalist with a gift for digging out interesting ideas and presenting them well. He’s the kind of guy who makes us think. His topics, ranging from the way we make decisions to the way that ideas can go viral, are well-chosen and well-researched. Apart from his books, Gladwell has written a regular column in The New Yorker since 1996. One of these articles became the main idea behind his first best-seller, The Tipping Point. Prior to joining the team at The New Yorker, Gladwell had been writing business articles for nearly ten years for The Washington Post.

Gladwell graduated with a degree in history but he had never planned to be a writer. He took his first job as a journalist because he had failed to find a suitable job in advertising. He quickly discovered he had a talent for it. Gladwell’s trick was to find an interesting angle on everyday things. He admits that he gets many of his ideas from friends and colleagues. He came up with his essay on ketchup brands, for example, after a conversation with a friend who had been working in the ketchup business. For his essay about the woman who pioneered the hair colour market, Gladwell had originally been planning to write about shampoo … until an advertising executive suggested that hair colour was a ‘much more interesting’ subject. Basically, Gladwell takes small ideas and turns them into Big Ideas. And his royalties indicate just how well he sells them.

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Straightforward Upper Intermediate Second edition © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012   2

Straightforward    Business

  Gurus  5c

Grammar: past perfect continuous•Usehad+been+verb+-ingtoformthepast

perfectcontinuous. Gladwell had been planning to write about

shampoo.

•Usethepastperfectcontinuoustotalkaboutactionsthatwereinprogressbeforeoruptoacertainpointinthepast.

Prior to joining TheNewYorker, Gladwell had been writing for TheWashingtonPost.

Usethepastperfectsimpleandnotthecontinuoustotalkaboutacompletedaction. He had failed to find a job in advertising.

  See Language Reference page 54

1 Change seven of the verbs in italics to the past perfect continuous.

WhenGilbertPetersfinallyfoundapublisherforhisbookThink Big, Get Rich,he(1)had lookedforoneforalongtime.He(2)had hopedforabigadvanceonhisroyalties,buthe(3)had finally realizedthathewouldhavetoacceptasmallpublisherwithnoroyaltiesatall.Infact,he(4)had had to payasmallamounthimself–tocover‘administrativecosts’,accordingtothepublishers.Peters(5)had worked onhisbookforalongtimeandsohe(6)had not been abletodoaregularjob.He(7)had triedtoliveonaslittleaspossible,buthe(8)had borrowedmoneyfromfriendsandthebankwhilehewaswaitingforacontract.He(9)had even soldhiscartopaytheadministrativefee.

ThedayofthelaunchofhisbookattheInternationalBusinessBookFairwasadaythathe(10)had dreamtofforyears.Hewalked,proudly,intotheroomwhich(11)had been scheduledforhispresentation.But,insteadofthedozensofpeoplehe(12)had expected,theroomwasempty.

2 Choose the correct verb forms to complete the text.

DaleCarnegie,authorofHow to Win Friends and Influence People,oneofthebest-sellingbooksofalltime,(1)began /had begunteachingpeoplehowtospeakinpublicin1912.Butonlyayearbeforethat,he(2)lived /had been livinginaNewYorkhostel,outofmoneyandoutofwork.Hisproblems(3)had been starting/had startedwhenhequitthemeatcompanywherehe(4)worked/had beenworkingasasalesrep.Instead,hestudiedactingand(5)got/had been gettingapartinatravellingshow.TheshowclosedafterashorttimeandCarnegieneededwork.Beforehisactingcourse,he(6)thought/had been thinkingofbecomingateacher,andhedecidedtosetupthe‘DaleCarnegieCourse’.Hissuccess(7)was/had beenimmediate.BythetimeCarnegiedied,over5millionpeople(8)read/had readhisbookandhewasahouseholdname.

3 Work in pairs. Use your imagination to complete the story below. Then compare your version with the work of another pair of students.

1 TheprofessorarrivedlateinStockholmfortheNobelPrizeinEconomicsbecausehehadbeen…

2 Whenhewalkedintotheroom,theaudiencebreathedasighofrelief.Theyhadbeen…

3 Theprofessor’sclothesweredirtybecausehehadbeen…

4 Whentheprofessorwasaskedtocometothestagetoreceivehisprize,hedidnothearbecausehehadbeen…

Pronunciation: long vowels1 Work in pairs. Underline the word that does not 

belong in groups 1–5.

1 /ɜ:/journalistresearchstarworked2 /ɔ:/authorbluecourselaunch3 /ɑ:/apartcarstartteach4 /i:/feepeopleteamworld5 /u:/chooseshampooshortsuitable

Which of the groups 1–5 should the odd word out for each group be in?

2 How many more words can you find that contain the sounds in exercise 1?

Gilbert Peters

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  4

Straightforward    Business

Acknowledgements: written by Philip Kerr. Designed by eMC Design Ltd.Photos by: ImageSource and Digital Stock.

This page has been downloaded from www.macmillanenglish.com/Straightforward.It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Straightforward Upper-Intermediate

Second edition © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012. These materials may contain linksfor third-party websites. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the

contents of such third-party websites. Please use care when accessing them.

  Gurus  5c

2

1 b)Gladwell:thephenomenon 2 c)Gladwell’spublications 3 a)Gladwell:howhewrites

3

1 F(hehasworkedasaconsultanttobluechipcompanies)

2 T 3 F(HehasneverbeentheCEOofamultinational.)4 F(Hewritesonawiderangeoftopics.) 5 T 6 T

IfyouwantafollowupStudentswhoareinterestedcouldreadextractsfromGladwell’swritingonhiswebsite:http://www.gladwell.com.

Grammar: past perfect continuousSeepages70–71ofStraightforwardUpperintermediateSecondeditionTeacher’sBookforlanguagenotes.

1

1 hadbeenlooking 2 hadbeenhoping 5 hadbeenworking 7 hadbeentrying 8 hadbeenborrowing 10 hadbeendreaming12 hadbeenexpecting

2

1 began 2 hadbeenliving 3 hadstarted 4 hadbeenworking 5 got 6 hadbeenthinking7 was 8 hadread

Pronunciation: long vowels1

1 star(group3) 2 blue(group5) 3 teach(group4)4 world(group1) 5 short(group2)