Throughout the course of history, society has often been hesitant to accept widespread change. A day doesn’t pass without a new technological advance being reported. This has led many to worry about the effects of artificial intelligence, or AI, on our daily lives.
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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English collocations related to implementing a plan.
Everyone knows that you have to plan for the future. But many “plans” are only that: they are just plans. But a plan is only useful if it leads to action. Or, as a wise man once said: a plan without action is a dream wasted. In order to not waste that dream, we need to implement the plans we create.
In today’s lesson, we’ll hear a discussion about how to implement a marketing plan. And you’ll hear lots of common expressions we use when talking about implementation. These expressions are called “collocations,” which just means a set of words that usually go together. For example, have you heard the expression “put something into action?” That’s a common collocation that means “to implement.” We don’t say “make something into action” or “activate something.” It’s always “put something into action.”
You can learn these natural combinations of words used by native speakers. Studying English collocations will help you sound more natural and expand your active vocabulary. As you listen to today’s dialog, try to catch some of these collocations, and we’ll go over them later in the debrief.
In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Carlos, Viv, Byron, and Marion, who are discussing how to implement a marketing plan. In the last lesson, they talked about some of their online marketing activities. Today, they’re going to talk about some other parts of the plan, including the timeline.
Listening Questions
1. Why does Carlos mention that Marion is a strong writer?
2. What does Carlos say about the importance of the CRM?
3. What does Viv think about the timeline on the CRM activities?
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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English collocations related to implementing a plan.
In business, good planning is important, whether you’re talking about a long-term strategy or a short-term project. But a plan itself means nothing without action. It’s not what you decide to do that matters, but what you actually do. And what you actually do with a plan is called “implementation.” Implementing a plan is all about deciding who will do what, and when they will do it.
In this lesson, we’ll listen in on a meeting about how to implement a marketing plan. During the discussion, you’ll hear lots of useful expressions that we call “collocations.” A collocation is a natural combination or group of words. For example, I’ve already used the collocation “to implement a plan.” We don’t say “do a plan” or “activate a plan.” The natural expression is “to implement a plan.”
Native speakers use collocations like this automatically, and you can learn to use them as well. By studying English collocations, you’ll improve your vocabulary and sound more fluent. As you listen to the dialog, try to pick out some of these collocations and we’ll discuss them later in the debrief.
In the dialog, we’ll hear Carlos, Viv, Byron, and Marion. The small company they work for has just had a new marketing plan developed by a consulting company. Now they are meeting to figure out how to implement the plan.
Listening Questions
1. Carlos asks for volunteers on one aspect of the plan. What exactly does he want the volunteers to do?
2. As there’s lot to do on the website, what does Byron need to do as the lead?
3. What is Carlos going to do in three weeks time?
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Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the people of the UK woke up on June 24 to learn that they had voted in favour of leaving the European Union, otherwise know as Brexit. After an emotional campaign, 33.5 million votes were cast in the referendum with 17.4 million voting for Leave, and 16.1 million for Remain. Months of warnings from both camps focused on both the political and economic ramifications and rewards.
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If you’re a fan of technology, you’ve likely come across the term Internet of Things, or IoT. It’s the connection of everyday devices to the Internet and has already started to change the way we interact with each other and the online world, and as Business Insider explains, it’s just getting started.
The Internet of Things has been labeled as “the next Industrial Revolution” because of the way it will change the way people live, work, entertain, and travel, as well as how governments and businesses interact with the world. In fact, the revolution has already started.
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