UNIT 10

Institutional Culture
READING

Culture is a broad, abstract notion that has grown more complex, and indeed, more difficult
to capture in a definition. Culture can be approached from several perspectives, and maybe, if we
attempted to give a full definition, we should view it integratively, from an interdisciplinary
perspective.
The organisational/institutional culture/business culture has become increasingly important.
It has acquired a full status, developing and growing in the very proximity of the general concept of
culture and has branched out into other areas of interdisciplinarity like: organisational psychology,
psychology of management, socio-linguistics, management and other.
The tremendous development of this kind of culture is broadly explained by the following
reasons:
people have become increasingly concerned with and wrapped up in their
professional life
businesses around the world have realized the vast impact that the
business/institutional culture has on people, both on employees and on
clients/customers
institutional/business culture has become more and more the focus of various
studies ranging from psychology through communication studies to socio-
linguistics.

Generally it is agreed that culture comprises assumptions, attitudes, values and standards
which determine the systems, structure and rules in an organization, and the way all activities and
on-goings are unfolded. The kind of culture approached here is the institutional/organisational one,
therefore the people who are talked about and affected by it are employees, and shall be referred to
as such, despite the fact that, yet, there is one more group of people who come under its direct
influence, i.e. the customers. Consequently, those who try to cherish and develop institutional
culture must necessarily focus on both categories and envision them as targets. De facto,
institutional culture strategists, executives or implementators work on one group in order to
ultimately influence the other.
Culture is extremely important as it has a bearing on peoples behaviour, creating patterns
of behaviour, influencing them, creating and impacting attitudes, changing attitudes, morale
and performance. Culture can further significantly impact both business development and
staff recruitment because the cultural reputation of a company or institution can either
attract people to, or deter them from it, with wide repercussions on customers or clients.

Institutional representatives or employees, especially the bureaucrats as a particular class

of employees or administrators, are generally perceived as inflexible, and different by the people
they come into contact with. Many of these perceptions are the external reflection of the employees
following the company norms and conventions and trying to use them in their intercourse with
customers, in an attempt to keep their business operational and to better serve the clients.
Customers often find that their interactions with such employees are frustrating because the
latter are inflexible, as they go by the book and sometimes lack the authority to get things done.
Sometimes even top administrators may get annoyed and irritated by their employees resistance to
comply with their orders or directives.
The question that may illuminate the topic is why do employees act like that? Individuals
who work for large and well-established organisations cannot elude institutional culture but be
affected by it, even in their every day intercourse and speech. On taking up an institutional career,

1
any employee must necessarily adopt the inherent institutional culture. Many employees attend
undergraduate courses which train them for institutional careers, and as employees they may also
have to attend more training for the execution of certain institutional or bureaucratic
responsibilities.
Modern institutions and bureaucracies, which are good examples of such cultures, develop
explicit rules and standards to make operations more efficient and to treat their clients fairly.
Within each institution or organisation, norms, both formal and informal(written and unwritten),
help preserve, develop and influence the way people act on the job. Likewise institutional values are
transmitted to employees and further down to clients.
Reversibly, institutional culture is also influenced by the employees who work in the
institution. and who all have a major contribution to shaping up, modifying and adjusting the
institutional culture to permanently respond to novel or challenging circumstances and needs.
Henceforth, institutional culture is a system that is open to changes imposed by various
uncontrolled factors that exert influnce on the system from the outside environment, whether social,
vocational, cultural psychological, behavioural or linguistic.
Institutional culture is primarily influenced in its selection of policy options by the
prevailing customs, attitudes, and expectations of the people who work within the institutions.
Institutions and departments commonly adopt and develop a kind of institutional mission
awareness, where a particular objective or means of achieving it is strongly emphasised. The
institutions with such a strong sense of mission also develop a strong esprit de corps that fosters the
employees motivation.
The employees are otherwise good-natured people, who dedicate their entire effort to the
achievement of institutional and individual missions. Their caution and adherence to the institution
rules and norms offer a measure of consistency and reliance to the system along with its protection.
The ensurance of a strong institutional mission and rules is necessary, as otherwise, if the
employees were free to interpret the rules as they pleased, the system would be likely to disrupt and
fall apart. This adherence of employees to particular rules and norms is perceived by outsiders as
the going by the book attitude, where the book, is certainly composed by the laws, norms, internal
rules and regulations of an institution.
Institutional culture follows several steps or cycles including: the forming, improving and
consolidating stages. It is influenced by a broader array of factors such as:
the environment in which the organization operates, often displayed in a warm, friendly
physical layout
the beliefs, values and norms of employees of the organization, particularly those
communicated by top management, i.e. the way customers and staff are treated, even the
way employees dress to express their adherence to institutional culture, etc
the formally and informally appointed leaders who personify the organisations culture
the procedures that have to be followed and the behaviour expected of people in an
organisation, i.e. the structure and reporting arrangements
the network of communications which disseminates the corporate image and culture; and
covers areas like: publicity and advertising, staff magazines, social events, briefing
meetings, and employee participation in decision-making
other factors like: organisation size, history, form of ownership, and technology, that have
a strong influence on the development of its culture.
It is imperative and important, however, that top management communicates and encourages
all staff to observe and follow the desired culture, despite the fact that employees come from
various backgrounds and share different values. Many employees are brainwashed and introduced
to t culture either formally through induction and training or informally through the people they
work with. The latter is a socialisation process that seeks to affect and shape the individuals
attitude, thoughts and behaviour.

2
 Institutional culture is also carried out and fostered by the institutional information or
communication system. To operate successfully any business needs to communicate effectively
internally and externally. Consider, for example, the chaos that would emerge if British Rail or a
local transport company issued inaccurate timetables.

(From S. Irimiea, Western Institutional Culture and Its linguistic Routines, Studia
Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Philologia, 2004, 4, pages121-133),

GRAMMAR
Simple and Continuous Tenses

The difference regarding the two forms lies in their basic meanings:
The present simple (P.S.) refers to a habitual, generally valid state of facts or actions:
Jack drives well (=a general quality)
while the present continuous (P.C.) refers to actions that are limited to a fixed span of time, the
moment of action being always mentioned:
Jack is driving well (=refers to a particular occasion)

In statements conveying instantaneous actions:

P.S. is used when the action is insisted upon: I open the door.
P.C. is used when the statement is neutral: I am opening the door.

With performative verbs:

P.S. is used to express formal acts of declaration: We accept your offer.
P.C. is used to report the speakers present activities or future intentions: We are accepting your
offer.

In sports commentaries:
P.S. is used to give the narration a more dynamic and vivid impression: And Jones scores.
P.C. is used when the commentators want to say that the action lasts for a longer period of time:
The Tornados are pressing again.

In statements referring to the future:

P.S. is used to signify a plan or arrangement regarded as unalterable, mainly been conceived by
an authority: We start for Bucharest tonight. (This is what a guide would say)
P.C. is used to weaken the special dramatic overtones: We are starting for Bucharest tonight.

In statements referring to a habitual action:

P.S. is used to refer to habits or reported actions that have a generic: I read The Tourist.
P.C. is used to suggest that the habit occurs only for a short period of time, shorter than in the
first case: Im reading The Tourist.

In statements expressing a characteristic activity:

P.S. is used to convey an objective tone: Matthew always comes late.
P.C. is used to impart a subjective, emotionally coloured tone: Matthew is always coming late.

3
Exercises

1. Put the verbs in brackets into the present simple or continuous

(affirmative/interrogative/negative):

1. A traveler is someone who 1. (travel) or often 2. (travel); someone who 3.(have) a

permanent home and 4. (travel) from one place to another.

2. Long a heaven for freethinkers, San Francisco 5. (have) a rich history that 6. (include) a
gold rush, earthquakes, and fires. The City 7. (rebound) now, and its emergence as an
Internet boomtown has only increased its attractiveness to artists and entrepreneurs of
every ilk. Nestled on a hilly peninsula, colorful neighborhoods 8. (be) home to a
multiethnic populationand a short drive away from some of Californias most striking
natural wonders.
(http://www.nationalgeographic.com/destinations/San_Francisco/)

3. He 9. (live) in London at present but he 10. (hope) to move to Edinburgh next year.
4. Mary 11. (leave) for London in a fortnight.
5. Dear Jane, sorry to hear about your problem at work. I 12. (think) you 13.(do) the right
thing, but I 14. (doubt) whether your boss really 15. (know) his job from what you 16.
(tell) me.
6. The Jones usually 17. (go) on holiday in June, but this year they 18. (go) in August.
7. They left for London an hour ago. I 19. (wonder) whether they 20. (travel) by air or by
train.

2. Identify any possible errors in these sentences, and correct them if necessary:

1. Im depending on you, so dont make me lose my flight!

2. Is this total including the new member of the team?
3. Excuse me, but do you wait for someone?
4. How are you feeling today?
5. I have a feeling that something goes wrong with the plane.
6. I look forward to hearing from you.
7. Are you hearing anything from Wendy these days?

SPEAKING
Negotiations

Definition. Main aspects involved in negotiations. Language

Negotiations are conversations, as they share many characteristics with the conversations,
but at the same time differ from conversations, as they have stricter rules and a defined goal.
Furthermore, in negotiations, most of the time there is a disagreement or opposition among its
participants, which must be settled, and there is some need to take a decision regarding further
actions.

4
Consequently, negotiations use conventions of conversations, and always use language to express the
end product, which usually is a verbal agreement, a written report, a memo, communiqus.

In a negotiation the speaker performs the following acts:

puts forward a point of view;
brings into discussion topics, opinions, needs, purposes, etc.;
adjusts, adapts, changes his perspective according to circumstances;
prioritizes the matters, ranks them and chooses from among them what can make up an
acceptable whole;
formulates what will be the finished/final proposal;
formulates the final communicative act, which will be a plan, a contract or a verbal agreement.
The hearer will:
note what others do, propose, suggest, report, argue etc.;
analyze what criteria are being used by participants to establish major items and minor ones;
note what acts are not performed by others;
learn about ideas expressed by others;
know when to provide support or refuse it.
Negotiations follow all structural and interpersonal rules or conventions, which act as controlling
devices and operate both at the level of the interaction and at the level of speech exchange. All
interactions are governed by two kinds of agreed rules of behaviour:

a) regulative rules and norms which can be broken with a variety of effects but with no major
impact on the interpersonal relationship; an example of breaking the regulative rules would be
the interruption of anothers speech; this is a breach against the rule according to which a
speaker should not be interrupted while he is talking; breaking such rules has repercussions on
the interpersonal bond causing embarrassment, but does not cause, however, serious damage to
the relationship;

b) constitutive rules which cannot be broken, because if they were, it caused marked
consequences, damaging the interpersonal relationship; an example of constitutive rule-
breaking is the abrupt and unsignalled termination of an interaction; according to this rule,
interpersonal encounters should be terminated by bilateral agreement, while unilateral
termination could cause severe social damage, or the break of the interpersonal bond.

The accepted structure of any interaction is a three- move structure, including: an initial phase, a
central and a closing phase.

1. The initial phase, according to J. Mulholland (1991), performs several functions:

to (re)establish/declare bonds of relationship
to express the speakers role
to provide information about the mood, attitude or personality of the speaker
to pass on (send and receive) the information
to make decisions about psychological tactics, speech acts and politeness strategies.
2. The central phase consists of three stages: a preliminary phase, a center and a closing phase.
Each phase transition is framed and signalled by a boundary move of the type: Well, now,
wed better get down to work , Lets move to the next item on the agenda, which is .
The function of these framers or linguistic boundary-setters is threefold:
i. to label the item to be discussed, thus making the item perfectly clear to the
participants and preparing them for the spoken interaction,

5
 ii. to summarize the already addressed item and
iii. to declare closed the previous part.
According to J. Mulholland(1991), a phase transition consists of two linguistic/transition
markers:
a. a framing signal, of the type: Now then, Ok, then often accompanied by a non-
verbal signal, such as a bang on the table, a tick etc;
b. a focus signal performing the function of a metastatement; such examples include:
Thats settled, Lets start, now, etc.
The two signals collocate and are normally spoken by the chairperson of the meeting, or by an
agreed leader, who assumes the leadership of the group, if the interactants are of equal socio-
professional status.
3. The closing phase or closure, is the last phase of an interaction and is also governed by
conventions. A formal meeting, including negotiations cannot be ended unilaterally, or else it
may damage the (business) relationship. If in the case of informal meetings the signal of
bilateral agreement is an Ok, a nod, or a nod plus turning away, the more formal the
encounter, the more signals are necessary. For example, a committee meeting agenda displays
three stages of closure:
a preliminary signal under the wording form of: Any other business?,
a reference to the next meeting, and
a terminating signal, of the type: I declare the meeting closed.
Within this frame, each signal has a defined role in the closure: the first permits the
participants to express agreement or disagreement with the items discussed, the
second allows the participants to relate the present intercourse to the next one,
whereas the third signal allows all present to ackowledge the closure.

For example, a good organizer must necessarily be a good negotiator and thus he may save hundreds
of dollars.
He should possess a sound experience in the field and be well informed and keep in touch with
other various associations of conference coordinators.
A good conference organizer or coordinator does not take anything for granted. So he will not
take for granted the price he sees on a list or that somebody offers him. What he tries to do is to
lower the price, or to obtain some extra services for the same price.
However, there are a few things that he must negotiate. So for example, the price of the rooms
must be negotiated in order to obtain lower prices for smaller rooms, for rooms with no
perspective, or placed in a noisy neighbourhood. He should further seek to obtain better prices
for the activities organized at the venue.
The basic rule so far is that any final decisions reached with the hotel manager or any other
provider should be confirmed in writing. That would include all agreements made, all agreed
prices, and the dates for the delivery of all products or services.

Exercises

You are the manager of the Belvedere Hotel. A customer wants to find out about your conference
facilities, and to negotiate suitable rates with you. Act the conversation.
Here are some items of information which you may find useful.
Multi- purpose conference hall which can be extended to include two side rooms. Space at the
sides has large glass screens for exhibitions.
Main auditorium which seats 200. It can also be used as a cinema.
Auxiliary rooms, which can be added to the main auditorium at request.

6
 Chairmans platform with a table for speakers and a projection screen behind.
Film projection room
The coffee room with a seating capacity of 50.

Conference equipment
Every seat in the auditorium and adjoining rooms has a writing table and a microphone for
use..
The centre has a video recorder, camera and seven monitor TV sets.
The projection room has both film and slide projectors.

Movable equipment Fixed equipment

Film projector Film projector
Overhead projector Equipment for simultaneous translation
VCRs Projection screens
Tape recorders Flip charts

(The exercise was taken from S. Irimiea, English for International Tourism,
Presa Universitara Cluj, 1999, page 127)

Further reading

Negotiation s- principles, stages, types of negotiators, strategies and techniques

As it is one of the oldest jobs in the world, trade runs in everyones blood. People
negotiate for various things every day, for example for a higher salary, a better service or
solving a dispute with a co-worker or family member. It is done as naturally as breathing.
According to the Webster dictionary, negotiation is a business transaction, an action of
meeting with another so as to arrive through discussion at some kind of agreement or
compromise about something. (Webster, 1993)
Negotiation, as a process, is universally the same. The order in which the four
stages appear: preparation, debate, proposal and agreement is not necessary linear.
An important role in maintaining the open character of a negotiation is assigned
to the availability of each partner to make concessions and compromises. Concession
represents the unilateral giving in of one of the parties to one or more of the sustained
positions, with the purpose of creating the best conditions for understanding. These
concessions can be real or stratagems (giving in to formal pretensions). Compromise
represents the guarrantee for mutual concessions, for unblocking treaties or for smoothing
the path towards agreement.
Beyond any natural abilities, personal charisma and charm, the successful
negotiator must posses some traits amongst which: honesty, hard-work, persuasion,
optimism, initiative, tact, inspiration and a strong will (Prutianu, tefan, 2000).
In his book A Perfect Negotiation(Negocierea perfect, 1998), Gavin Kennedy
suggests a simple and useful classification of negotiators by a colour code. As
demonstrated in that study, the personality and the behaviour of people that negotiate either
business, politics, diplomacy, kitchen or any other item, can be framed in three large
sections: Red, Blue and Violet.
The Red negotiators belong to the aggressive and dominator type. They are
ready to ask anything anytime, without offering anything in return. According to the Red

7
negotiator, better means better for him and less for the other partner. The Red often uses
dirty tricks, miscellaneous means for achieving their purpose and cunning, sly tactics.
The Blue negotiators are gentle, kind, concessive and obedient, ready to offer
without asking, to give without expecting anything in exchange. The Blue is guided by the
principle better for both of us which actually means more for the partner and less for
me.
One and the same negotiator can be in the same time both Red and Blue. It may
happen that a negotiator starts being Blue, that is, having a concessive behaviour, but then
he just cannot resist the temptation and turns into a Red, adopting an aggressive behaviour.
Still, the Red and the Blue can end up by losing negotiations because they do not function
according to the principles of trading do ut des (Latin = give in order to get) and facio ut
facias (Latin = do in order to have it done to yourself too).
The Violet negotiator is a pragmatic combination between the Red and the Blue.
The Violet negotiates according to the principle of trading. He does not offer without
asking, nor does he ask without offering something in exchange. He proposes
simultaneously the offer, as well as the demand: If you, then I.
There are five basic strategies that are generally used during a negotiation
(CHIRIACESCU, Adriana, MUREAN, Laura, BARGHIEL, Virginia, HOLLINGER,
Alexander, 2005):
1. the competitive or win-lose strategies are adopted with the purpose of
maximizing ones own profit in the detriment of the other partner. They are
characterized by a low level of trust, inflexible tactics and deliberte overlook
of the other partys options.
2. co-operation or win-win strategies, through which achievement of common
interests is pursued and also finding a solution to the problems, take into
account the needs of each party for their mutual success.
3. submissive strategies, that most definitely cannot be adopted throughout the
entire negotiation, but are more likely to occur in certain parts of a
negotiation in order to reduce the tension between parties. They are more of a
tactic; which lead to the concession: you win- I lose. This happens when
the negotiation has reached a less significant part and the partners resort to a
concession which enables them to move on to the next point of discussion, a
much more important one.
4. passive, inactive strategies, that are approached only in extreme cases and
which, naturally, are not part of the partners starting points. This results in a
situation where none wins, which can further cause the breaking-off of the
business relationship.
5. inflexible or destructive strategies, which conduct to the breaking-off of the
business relationship.

De facto, a negotiation involves the mix of the first three strategies. For
negotiations to develop and end successfully, it is necessary that the interests of the
involved parties are satisfied equally. The idea is not to win the negotiation at any cost, but
to win it through fair negotiation.
With the purpose of reaching the desired objective(s), negotiators resort to certain
tactics. They are part of a strategy and they are intended to represent the means and forms
of action that are going to be used.
Here are some general tactics:
1. establishing a common or a bottom-line ground for discussions and revealing
the main areas of common interest
2. voicing personal proposals

8
 3. highlighting advantages
4. outlining concrete proposals
5. listening to the partners proposals without interrupting him
6. if necessary, requesting an argumentation from the partner
7. making counter-proposals by the method yes, but
8. helping the partner withdraw from difficult situations
9. accepting concessions
10. consolidating the obtained results through formulating partial conclusions
11. simulating personal withdrawal, if necessary
12. compensating for any withdrawal by proposing another plan
13. proposing a compromise or a truce in case of a predictable failure.
The author wishes to give the reader some examples of expressions currently
used in negotiations:
When sounding out the partner and putting forward a suggestion: I was
thinking it might be a good idea to, Tell me, have you ever
considered the possibility.
When giving advice or warning: I do not think you quite appreciate
When expressing approval, agreement disapproval, disagreement: That is
the very thing we need., Yes, that suits us perfectly., I am afraid we
really could not accept that., We were given to understand that there
would be no price increase, so we are rather surprised that you should
mention it., We hardly expected you to invoice us so quickly. We find
this pressure very hard to accept..
When bargaining, making proposals and counter-proposals: The delivery
time is too long. Could you deliver in a month?, We do not usually
grant such high discounts, but I agree in this case, provided that , I
would prefer a system whereby the discount was variable.
When making concessions: We feel a gesture is called for on your part.,
In return for this concession, we would hope you would reciprocate in
terms of price., I am afraid such a matter is irrelevant here.
When hesitating, being evasive: Before we can finalize the deal, I would
have to ask my colleagues about it., That is something we will have to
go into later on.
When expressing confidence in the good business relations of the two
partners: We value our association, which is based on mutual respect and
precise fulfillment of commitments on both sides.
Negotiation is normally thought of as an oral process- a discussion, an
argument or a question-answer exchange between two or more people meeting face to face.
So far, it has been considered that the final agreement of a negotiation is in writing. Direct
oral discussion is easily the most common negotiating mode, but there are occasions in
which correspondence or a telephone call can play a useful part, or may even be used as an
alternative to a conventional face-to-face meeting.
So, it is not uncommon for business negotiations to begin with an exchange of
letters, even if these consist of no more than a request for a meeting and confirmation of its
time and place. These letters may, though, be used in an attempt to establish an opening
position or to set the tone for later negotiation.
In practice, a mixture of written and oral negotiations are often the best option.
Lengthy or complex negotiations cannot be conducted on the telephone but
there are situations when this method of negotiation is extremely effective. There is
something about the telephone that encourages at least some people to be more co-operative

9
 than in face-to-face discussions. The unplanned or unexpected nature of a phone call, which
may interrupt higher priority work, sometimes reduces the care and resistance usually
present in face-to-face negotiations. There is a danger, of course, that such attempts at quick
deals will misfire: that the answer will be no. Negotiators who try to get quick results by
using the telephone should be reasonably confident that their opponents have less skill in
the use of this particular mode of bargaining.

WRITING
The Business Plan
Business plans are required whenever money is to be raised, whether from a bank, a finance
house, or a provider of equity capital. Business plans are also needed whenever someone wishes to
start up a business. In this case the plan serves as a progress route for the business and assessment
criteria for the achievement of set objectives.
Business plans are read by business persons, so in order to be read and approved by them
they must be:
clear, therefore the language must be kept simple; sentences must be clear of extra load;
the range of adjectives must be also kept to the required minimum;
brief, in that they provide only the essentials of what the reader ought to know;
logical, i.e. present the items in their logical sequence, avoiding inconsequential
paragraphs, making sure that what is said under one heading chimes in with what is
said elsewhere in the document;
truthful and
backed up with figures; this means that numbers and quantifiers should be used
whenever possible (the banker or investor reading the plan thinks in terms of numbers
so try to quantify whenever you can).

The layout of the business plan can help greatly in keeping the reader interested. Above all,
the information provided must follow a logical pattern.
How much information goes into each section of the plan should be in proportion to the size
and scope of the project.
As mentioned before, a carefully written business plan will give you a better insight into
your own business, clarify thoughts, and help you weed out what is unneccessary etc.
You could present your material in the sequence shown below, using headings; this will
help the reader survey the plan and find his way without difficulty through it.

1. The brief statement

This should be to the point, just something to show the reader what you do, what you wish
to achieve, how much money you want and what you want it for.
2. The market
The majority of people lending money believe that what makes for success in business is
finding and exploiting a large enough market, so this section should be the one with which
you lead off. Your market research is crucial.
3. The skills, experience and resources of the persons involved
You must give a fairly full account of your own business career and those of your
co-directors or partners. Only your past achievements and technical qualifications are
relevant. You must also show the degree of your financial investment to prove that you are
financially committed in a consistent way.
4. The benefits of your product

10
 Your banker or financier has probably seen hundreds of absolutely brilliant ideas
which failed for all kinds of reasons. So this is the section you will have to write more
soberly. You could present here a brief description of the product or idea, how it works, why
it is better than its rivals or any independent appraisal.
5. The method
You will now need to tell your reader whether you are going to set about things in a
sensible and worklike manner, or not. Tell him what he should know in terms that are as
concrete as possible, describing exactly how you plan to get your project off the ground and
how it will run during the start-up period.
6. The longer-term view
Some enterprises are essentially short term, while others continue to be very
profitable over a longer period. In general, the reader should be told how you see the market
over two years, over five years, and in the long run. Also, what you propose to do about
potential competition.
7. Use of the funds
Emphasize how much money you and your colleagues are investing. No one is
going to risk his money on your project if you are not substantially and firmly committed.
After saying what you are hoping to raise, list the items you will be spending the money on,
such as:
patents,
land and buildings,
plant and equipment,
cost of publicity,
working capital and
reserve for contingencies.
8. Financial targets
It would be helpful if you gave a brief summary here of the important points. You
will be expected to show: the estimated turnover of the first year; the expected net profit for
the first year; how much of the loan will be paid off in one year; when you expect to pay off
the loan entirely; what you hope for in the second year.
The additional information the reader will want is: the rate at which you expect
profits to grow; what your dividend policy will be, what you and the other directors will be
taking out of the business before the equity holders share in the profits; what plans or
ambitions you have to sell out etc.
9. The appendices
The appendices could be copies of any documents that will support what you have
said previously. They might include:
accurate summaries of any market research, either your own or what has
been professionally carried out;
photo copies of local newspaper articles describing a need for a service you
propose to provide;
pictures of your product or products;
copies of your leaflets or other promotional literature;
the results of any testing of your product, especially if it has been done by
any independent organization.

10. The history of your business

11
 This section should be brief, factual, and based on the audited results. At least three years
results should be shown, if possible, as well as the last balance sheet.

Exercises

1. You wish to start up a business in tourism and contemplate opening a travel agency. Write
out the business plan. Check it with a colleage.

2. You wish to enter the tourism market. What do you plan to do? What are your strong
points that you rely on in starting up a business in tourism?

3. If you consider starting up a business in tourism, what products will you sell? Think out a
list of products and give reasons for each of them.

12