PRE-INTERMEDIATE

In company interviews: Video scripts

a bit of money and us as drivers would get a cheaper and
Note: these video scripts reflect the words spoken by
more convenient parking space. We also wouldn’t need to
the interviewees. Any errors are the speakers’ own.
wait in the stadium car park at the end of the game for a
couple of hours waiting for tens of thousands of vehicles to
Mo Choy leave. So it seemed like a great idea.
UNITS 1–3 Having a great idea is the easy part of starting a new
My name’s Mo Choy, I work for Mo Choy Design and I’m business; the real challenge is executing it. You’ve got,
a Graphic Designer. We design for print and interactive obviously, developing a business model, a pricing model,
media and we produce animation and illustration as well. and then probably the most challenging part is obviously
Networking is very important. I think networking is quite marketing and actually getting your first few customers.
a frightening word actually, I think work relationships So … and another big challenge is obviously running a
are more important. Networking tends to suggest very marketplace business where you’ve got homeowners and
organized events or actions which relate to making drivers, or buyers and sellers, in this place. You know as
connections. I think, personally, I prefer a softer approach, a buyer, or as a driver, there’s no point going to a website
smaller groups. I’m quite shy in large groups, large events, where you’ve only got five parking spaces. And vice versa,
so I prefer smaller groups or one-to-one connections. if you’re a property owner, you’re not going to list- why
And introductions via previous clients have always been should you use parkatmyhouse when there’s only five,
my mainstay of work. ten, fifteen drivers using it. And so, although I started
I would say my work–life balance is not too bad. Other the business in 2006 it took a very long time to build up
people may not agree. Because my husband is also my enough supply on the property owner side and obviously
work-partner, work and life are quite integrated. And we enough demand from drivers, and awareness, to actually
work together, we live together, sometimes we go out make this into a successful business. We now have over
for coffee and talk about projects that we want to do … nearly half a million drivers registered on the website
personally. So I think the difference between work and life and over twenty thousand locations around the UK where
is quite a grey area. And it works for us, but then I find they’ve listed their parking spaces for rent.
work–life balance a strange phrase anyway, because it So developing the booking process on the website.
suggests they’re opposing things and when you’re working So, obviously, the process where a driver goes on, finds
you’re not living. a space, books it, pays for it, and then receives all the
The phone is really important tool for communication. Less information such as address and directions, etc, making
so than it used to be for me. In the past, I communicated sure that was an automated process which didn’t require
by phone all the time; now I find a lot of clients prefer any manual intervention was extremely important when
to use email a lot. But … and so do I. I think it’s really I first set it up. I wanted to create an eBay™ for parking,
important to find a way of communicating that suits your if you will, where you don’t need human intervention.
client as well. If they use the phone more I tend to phone Obviously there’s a customer support element but
them more too. If they prefer email then I’ll stick with ultimately you should have, be able to drive, no pun
email. intended, drivers to the website and obviously property
owners as well. They can interact on the website.
Anthony Eskinazi Everything is done automatically. And the idea as well is
UNITS 5–7 that as a business we just obviously see, hopefully, the
My name is Anthony Eskinazi and I’m the founder of money roll in. And getting that set up was obviously one
parkatmyhouse.com. Parkatmyhouse.com is the world’s of the most important parts of … in our early stages. So,
largest online parking market place, and they bring home you know, as a driver you can go onto the website by typing
owners, business owners and any other property owner parkatmyhouse.com into your Internet browser. You can
with underutilized parking spaces to rent it out to drivers go onto our iPhone app. or alternatively you can just go
needing somewhere to park. They can find those parking to parkatmyhouse.com on your mobile phone from your
spaces by visiting the website and typing the location they mobile phone browser and also book a parking space in
need to park and drivers can then obviously book that exactly the same way you would on a website.
space, pay for it and then just park on someone’s driveway. Travelling internationally, first of all, it’s a lot of fun,
It’s not only cheaper but it’s also normally more convenient getting to meet new people … business is done and
for drivers than parking in any commercial car park or on conducted in a very different way just in the States even
the street. though we speak the same language. There’s a different
So, I had the idea for parkatmyhouse while I was in culture there in terms of conducting business. Travelling
San Francisco going to a Giants (San Francisco Giants) there, I’ve always, make sure you join a frequent flyer club.
baseball game. I couldn’t find anywhere to park and I said It’s amazing how you can really reduce the cost of travel by
to my friend, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could park on doing that. Don’t fly first class or business class until you’re
that person’s driveway, knock on their door and just ask actually generating significant revenue and your comfort
for permission’. It seemed like a win-win situation for is extremely important on a flight, let’s say you’re going
everyone involved. The homeowner would obviously get straight into a business meeting and you don’t want to be

In Company 3.0 Pre-intermediate © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014 INTERVIEWS VIDEO SCRIPTS 1
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stuck in economy before that! In terms of, you know, let’s whole of their team. I also believe that being a good leader
say choosing the right hotels, making sure it’s got WiFi, is about most certainly being honest and transparent.
have a look on TripAdvisor® for if it’s suitable for business And essentially, those three elements, the honesty and
travel. A little tip is ‘YOTEL’ in New York City. It’s an transparency, the ability to leverage the best out of your
incredible hotel – really affordable – and has great WiFi team, and the knowing the ‘why’ as opposed to just the
and is a great business hotel, which was a find of mine. ‘what’, will gain respect from your team. A good leader
And yeah, it’s good fun. You need to … obviously when you is somebody who always has respect from their team. It
go there, you are different. People won’t know you. You’re is not about being popular, it is not about being a crazy
not part of a network or a clique of businesses. But you’re person in terms of making people feel small, it’s about
also probably more interesting than everyone else in the gaining respect from everybody in everything that you do.
room because you are from a different culture. You’ve got That’s what makes a good leader.
a different business that they might not have heard of
before. You do need to just sort of lower your inhibitions, Tamar Brooks
go out, network, and meet people. UNITS 13–15
My name is Tamar Brooks. I’m a Sales Consultant. For the
Tony Whitehorn previous seven years I have been a Sales Director for a
UNITS 9–11 global software IT company called CAPLC.
Hi, my name is Tony Whitehorn, I am the CEO and Business travel has really changed in the last ten to
President for Hyundai Motors here in the UK. fifteen years. What was acceptable business travel for ten,
I think that enterprise is hugely important in any business. fifteen years ago to have meetings face to face, due to the
However, in many global businesses there are corporate economic slowdown, due to the double dip recession, we’ve
governances involved and because of that there’s a really found in the last five years that people are trying
necessity and a requirement for people to follow certain to find alternate means for business travel. So, be it live
procedures. So sometimes being enterprising is not quite meetings or over the web or conference it … conference
so easy in a big global organization. However, in Hyundai calls as preferable to the cost. But that said there are still
we have the opportunity to be enterprising in our own reasons for and the need to do business travel. So whereas
local situation. And that is all about taking the initiative, before I might have been travelling once a week, it’s now
making a step change, thinking about new projects, more once a month for the same type of activity.
thinking about things very very differently than have The main challenge I find with hiring staff is the sourcing
previously been done. A good example for us was when the right candidates. And I use a number of mechanisms
scrappage came into this business and what we decided to to do that. I use recruitment agents and I also use our
do was take a little bit of a risk. And normally we would networks, my network, my colleagues’ networks, people
order one thousand i10s and we decided to order seven that they know. But increasingly we’re using a social
thousand i10s. So it was about taking a little bit of a risk media website called LinkedIn® which is a very important
but about taking the initiative, making that step change, business network for business people in the UK. It’s …
and in doing so, making a difference. That’s what enterprise one of its functions is to enable recruitment and building
is all about. the network of people that you know and ability to reach
I think stress is very interesting because stress is actually out to people very quickly about roles that they may be
a perspective. Everybody in life is either motivated by interested in. So that has really changed the recruitment
achieving success or avoiding failure. In business, if you landscape in the last sort of ten years. My biggest challenge
are always looking back to avoid failure you will become with firing people is the … when it’s performance related.
very stressful. But actually, if you look at that self-same Is the amount of time that this can take. So in sales it’s
situation and view it as an opportunity to succeed then very straightforward with … in terms of performance.
it doesn’t quite become so stressful in itself. What you You’re either achieving your targets or you’re not. If you’re
are trying to do is you are achieving, you are moving not achieving your targets then I go through an informal
forward as opposed to looking back to avoid that failure. process with them whereby I meet them every week to
In any situation and in particularly in business there will review their activities, their opportunities, what they’re
be stressful positions. But at the end of the day it’s how doing with their time, what they’re focusing on, their
you as an individual view that specific situation. And my priorities. If, after a period of time, those informal sessions
recommendation is to view it as an opportunity to succeed. are not producing the results that we’re looking for then
I think that many people want to be a good leader. But if we need to move to a more formal process with HR and
you are leader you are a leader of people, and the key about those formal process then starts with a meeting monthly
being a good leader is to ensure that you get the best out as well as the weekly meeting … informal meetings
of your team. It isn’t about being the person at the front. continuing with a formal meeting monthly where they get
It’s about looking at the people around you and leveraging a verbal warning or a written warning and then, and so it
their skills and their talent. That’s the prime responsibility progresses. But the whole process from start to finish can
of a leader. Secondly, a key element of being a good leader take somewhere in the region of seven to eight months.
is appreciating the ‘why’ as opposed to the ‘what’. What I So if someone is not preforming my recommendation is
mean by that – many people say ‘ah this is what we should very much to start working with them as soon as possible
do’; few people would really appreciate why it is necessary. to try and turn that around because a formal disciplinary
A good leader knows what to do and why they are doing it. process can be quite a long time period.
And in doing so, they will then have a high regard of the

In Company 3.0 Pre-intermediate © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014 INTERVIEWS VIDEO SCRIPTS 2
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So time management is probably one of the most Working from home is … I think it’s a freedom of choice.
challenging areas and aspects of work in the corporate You can decide to work or okay first of all, this is a company
managerial role. Trying to manage that work–life balance decision to allow employees to work from home. There
is very difficult. I’ve got, I’ve used certain tips and tricks are advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage
that I’ve done in the past and certain methods whereby is I think working from home is most of the time people
I split out the tasks that I have for the day, the week, the are more productive. It’s increased the productivity of the
month, the quarter ahead. So you have the urgent tasks team. People who work in quieter environment. I assume
that you have to do that tend to be very urgent, people that working from home you don’t have children around
screaming at you. And then there’s the more medium you to distract you. You’re working in very quiet place
task, they tend to be less but they are longer-term time where you can concentrate and you can think about more
period. And then the very strategic topics, so maybe three strategic things. Not just follow the office life where
or four of those that you have to do. And how I split the people are coming to you and distracting you sometimes.
day is I generally at the beginning of the day decide how So you have more people to consider different things
many of the short-term tasks I need to do, they’re the and to me to think more strategically. Disadvantages,
ones the people are screaming at, if you’re not careful all I think working from home you’re losing the touch with
your time gets taken up on doing those. You then … I then the other colleagues. You know that sometimes the office
usually set myself the task of doing one medium task a environment actually provides more so for your motivation
day, a number of the short, one medium, and in terms and joy of working with other people.
of the long strategic ones, putting time aside every week
to start addressing one of those topics, so start working
through those. So it depends, everyone’s very different
but I think I would certainly recommend going through a
process at the beginning of working out what is best for
you and how it works best for you and then sticking to it.
And the biggest thing about time management: discipline.
Once you’ve decided that and agreed it with yourself and
put it into place then you need to execute on it and be
really disciplined about doing that.

Plamen Petroff
UNITS 17–19
Hi, my name is Plamen Petroff and I’m Managing Director
of INTICS Group. The business of the company is in
different areas like customer relationship management,
software development, access control systems and business
development.
I think building relationship in the company or in the team
is very important. It’s a very complex, I think, building
the team if we’re talking about the team. It’s important,
it’s like building a team of players in a football match
or a football team for example. You can’t have eleven
goalkeepers or eleven attacking players. You must build
a team which is balanced and cover different areas of
expertise and knowledge.
To utilize Internet or to have Internet presence I think
is very important for the company. Also, when we say
Internet or e-commerce this is not just trading because our
company’s not selling. It’s not like a shop. We are selling,
but services, and we have relationship with our clients.
For example, one of the online presences is we have, on
our website, we have part of the website which is software
login for our partners where they can log-in their incidents.
It’s like a support line. And so they can report issues so this
is to aid communication every day, sometimes. So this new
technology is, allow you to sell and to present yourself in
different way to the market. And I think this is important
for the companies to understand this. It’s not just about
your contact name and address on Internet and put your
website on top of the list – which I know is important –
but to provide more services to your clients.

In Company 3.0 Pre-intermediate © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014 INTERVIEWS VIDEO SCRIPTS 3