CHAPITRE 2 : COMPANIES
I / The different types of companies.

Private Limited Companies (LTD) : SARL. Shares are not coted on stock exchange. Public Limited Companies (PLC) : SA. Shares are coted on stock exchange. Partnerships : run by more than one person associate. Simple proprietorships : own by one person, but can have no employee or some. Multinationales firm Small or medium size firms (SMF) : PME

II / Organisation of companies.

Organised in different departments / divisions.

How to be a good corporate citizen company ? Quality of the product Working conditions and employment Current Issues

III / Problem of companies.

Internal problems : Poor management : close-minded Financial problems : overheads too high (frais généraux) or overstaff (too many people). Trade Union (Syndicats) : social unrest : very often, trade unions are responsible for strikes. Faulty product : something wrong on the product, consequence : be on the red Ill-adapted marketing strategy Communication problems

External problems : related to business environment

Competition (concurrence) : you have to work hard to be competitive. The market is glutted (saturé) Suppliers/Providers : sales problems Customers problems : because buying habits change A loss Deregulation : opening the market to competition

IV / How to react ?

Reduce costs : do subcontract (sous traiter). To restructure : to have drastics cuts in the workforce (main d’oeuvre)
To relocate
To avoid social unrest, early retirements. To update : to retrain the staff to be more competitive to increase R&D to update tools and equipment to adopt new strategies launching new products adopt new form of business (fusionner : merger) to tap new markets

QUESTIONS

Why companies feel the need to communicate ?

To be known
To stay in people mind
To project