Key

1.

a) 2

b) 1

c) —

2.

a) 2

b) 1

c) —

3.

a) 2

b) —

c) 1

4.

a) 2

b) 1

c) —

5.

a) 1

b) 2

c) —

6.

a) 1

b) 2

c) —

0-7 Building relationships is not easy for you. Communication is the key. Make the effort to talk to people about problems. Ignoring them won’t solve them, and practice makes perfect.

8-9 You are making the effort to build good relationships, but are you trying too hard? It might be better to spend more time developing the relationships you have rather than going out to meet more people.

10-12 Congratulations! You obviously enjoy good relations with many of your business associates. Can you use your skills to help those who work with you improve their business relations, too?

Interviewer | Gillian Baker

Interviewer: Gillian, what are the key factors in building good business relationships?
Gillian Baker: I’d say one of the best ways of building a lasting relationship is to give the customer or supplier superior value and satisfaction. It’s all about not just meeting the customer’s expectations, but trying to exceed them if possible, If you satisfy and also delight the customer, this will produce greater customer loyalty, and that in turn will lead to a better company performance.
Let me give you an example. It was reported in a marketing book written by the famous American marketing expert, Philip Kotler. He gives the example of Lexus Cars. It’s well known that the manufacturer of this luxurious car makes immense efforts to satisfy their customers and exceed their expectations. Apparently, a customer bought a new Lexus car, and while driving it home, he decided to try out the radio. As he tuned in to some radio stations, he noticed that they were set to either his favourite station — music, news or whatever — or to his daughter’s favourite station — in this case, it was rock music. Every button was set to his or his daughter’s tastes. How did it happen? Quite simply, the mechanic who checked the car he’d traded in to buy the Lexus noted the radio settings. He then transferred these to the new car. Of course, the customer was highly impressed.
Interviewer: I see. so you’re suggesting customers will remain loyal to a company if it makes that extra effort to satisfy and if possible delight them?
Gillian Baker: Exactly.

1. If something jeopardises relations, it puts them in danger.

2. If people resume/restore relations, they start them again after a period when they had stopped.

3. If people strengthen/cement relations, they make them stronger

4. If something sours/damages/undermines relations, it makes them worse.

5. If people sever/disrupt/break off relations, they stop them.

6. If people encourage/foster relations, they support communication.

1. break off relations
2. build up relations
3. cement relations
4. cultivate relations
5. cut off relations
6. damage relations
7. develop relations
8. disrupt relations
9. encourage relations
10. establish relations
11. foster relations
12. improve relations
13. jeopardise relations
14. maintain relations
15. promote relations
16. restore relations
17. resume relations
18. sever relations
19. sour relations
20. strengthen relations
21. undermine relations

Interviewer | Alison Ward

Interviewer: Can you tell us about the Cocoa Partnership and how it came to be developed?
Alison Ward: We launched the Cocoa Partnership in 2008, and it’s a £45-million investment into cocoa sustainability. But the inspiration for it came from a piece of research which was done in the UK and in Ghana. And we looked at what was happening to cocoa farms in Ghana, and cocoa in Ghana accounts for about 70 per cent of our cocoa-bean supply, so it’s an important country for us. We found that farmer yields were declining, and they were actually getting only 40 per cent. So, a 40-per-cent yield from the land, compared to what they could get — so a real gap between the potential of the land and what they were getting now. We also found that farmers were ageing. So the average age of a farmer is 50 — young people don’t want to become farmers in Ghana. And we also found … Through the research, we looked at the social aspect in the village, and it was clear that we needed to take some action in terms of helping people have a sustainable livelihood from cocoa. So, that’s really where the investment came from, um, and, already, we’re working with partners in Ghana, including the United Nations Development Programme, and then with social experts like Care, VSO and World Vision, to actually look at how we create, create action at a farming level in Ghana.
But there’s also a real commercial element to this because, quite simply, if we don’t have the beans, we don’t have the bars that, for our great chocolate brands around the world. So, it’s really important that this isn’t just a social programme, but it’s actually a commercial programme as well.

Interviewer | Alison Ward

Interviewer: What are the benefits for each side in this relationship, and are there consumer benefits, too?
Alison Ward: Well, we’re really proud that we’ve achieved Fairtrade certification for our Cadbury Dairy Milk brand, and that’s in the UK and Ireland, and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. So it means that people around the world can now make an ethical choice and know that the money, some of the money from their chocolate-bar purchase is going right back to farmers in Ghana. I was privileged enough, um, to meet some of the farmers from the Fairtrade co-operative and really saw the empowerment that trade had brought these women, um, and how that it was trade that was giving them a helping hand out of poverty. Fairtrade’s an interesting marque in that it’s not only very powerful in consumer markets — it’s very well-understood — but it also has great power back in cocoa-farming communities. And we’re really proud to be their partner and looking forward to really helping these farmers in Ghana as well.

Interviewer | Alison Ward

Interviewer: Are there other examples of Cadbury building long-term business relationships?
Alison Ward: We see partnership as part of the way we do business and we also have a great partnership with our milk farmers in the UK. We use fresh milk in our chocolate, and there’s a co-operative of farmers who supply only milk that makes our UK chocolate. We’ve been working with them on their carbon footprint, so that’s the metric that measures how much carbon is produced from, to make milk.
And we found in our Cadbury Dairy Milk bars that 60 per cent of the carbon footprint comes from milk. So, by working with this co-operative, we’ve begun to help them and help us make some changes in our supply chain. So that includes different type of animal feed, it includes investment, so that the lorry that brings the animal feed only delivers once rather than three times, and actually helping them really make some changes on their farms, so it’s more efficient. So our partnership spans not only for farmers in Ghana, but back into the UK and our dairy, dairy farmer partners in the UK as well.

1. With milk farmers in the UK.

2. They have been working to change the animal feed, the investment and the way the feed is delivered to the milk farmers, in order to make the farmers more efficient and reduce their carbon footprint.