托福阅读Time:The 6 Most Important Questionsin Business

托福阅读的提高确实可以在短时间内提高，所有的托福阅读提高技巧都不如多看多读来的直接，每天花点时间在阅读上，会让你的托福阅读成绩在不知不觉中增长。今天小编要和大家分享的这篇托福阅读美文，叫做The 6 Most Important Questionsin Business商业中的6个重要问题。将来留学归国的你走上创业这条道路之后，不要忘记这6个重要问题哦！

当然，托福口语或者托福写作中考到有关创业和公司的时候，这篇文章讲的东西或多或少都可以弄得上哦！

 

托福阅读Time:The 6 Most Important Questionsin Business商业中的6个重要问题

Companies fail for a host of reasons. Bad luck plays a role, sure, but disaster usually strikes because of a more fundamental flaw—in the original idea, the strategy, the execution or all of the above.

公司倒闭的原因有很多种。诚然，霉运是一点，但是灾难的降临常常是由于一个更基本的缺陷——公司最初的理念、策略、各种策略的实施，或者兼而有之。

 

When it comes to building a business, even Warren Buffett would agree that no one canspot every opportunity or anticipate every threat. There are simply too many variables. And in an increasingly competitive global economy, those variables are changing faster than ever before.

谈到创业问题，就连沃伦 · 巴菲特也认为没有人能辨别出所有的机遇或者预料到所有的威胁，因为变数太多了。而在竞争日益激烈的全球化经济氛围下，这些不确定因素比以往变得更快了。

 

What entrepreneurs can do is ask the core set of tough questions that govern the fate of any enterprise. Armed with those answers, they stand the best chance of beating some fairlydire odds: Studies estimate that just two-thirds of all start-ups survive the first two years, and less than half make it to the fourth.

企业家们所能做的是提出一套处于核心地位并能掌控公司命运的艰巨问题。用这些问题的答案来武装自己，他们就会战胜困难，走出逆境。据研究估计，在所有新成立的公司当中，2/3 的企业能在最初的两年内存活下来，而到第四年，就只剩下不到一半了。

 

We present the 6 most important questions entrepreneurs need to answer—and keep answering—to build their businesses. Some highlights:

这里我们提出了企业家在创业过程中需要回答的 6 大主要问题，他们需要对这些问题不断作答。其中一些要点如下：

 

What is your value proposition?

你的价值取向是什么?

This is the single most important question of the bunch. If you can’t explain—in three,jargon-free sentences or less—why customers need your product, you do not have a value proposition. Without a need, there is no incentive for customers to pay. And without sales, you have no business.

这是这些问题中最重要的一个。如果你不能三言两语、言简意赅地说明为什么你的顾客需要你的产品，那就说明你根本没有价值取向。没有需要，消费者就没有购买产品的动机。而卖不出去，你就没生意可做。

 

What differentiates your product from the competitors’?

你的产品与同类竞争者的产品有什么不同?

Few companies can rely on—let alone afford—clever marketing schemes to separate themselves from the competition. If you want to win in business, you need to offer somethingtangibly valuable that the competitors don’t.

几乎没有几家公司单凭巧妙的营销策略就能使自己的产品区别于同类竞争产品，更不用说有无这种能力。如果你想在商场上取胜，那就需要提供竞争对手没有的、有切实价值的东西。

 

How big is the threat of new entrants?

新公司的威胁有多大?

If you’re smart enough to spy a profitable business opportunity, you can bet competition isn’t far behind. Some barriers to entry—patented technology, a storied brand—are morefortified than others, but eventually someone will find a way to do what you can do faster, cheaper and maybe even better. If not a direct competitor, then a substitutetechnology might take a chunk out of your hide. The trick: building a loyal following before that happens.

如果你足够聪明，能探查出有利的商机，那几乎可以肯定，竞争已离你不远了。你需要设置障碍防止对手介入，比如专利技术，品牌。尽管这些比其它的东西更有防御能力，但是最终还是会有人找到办法比你发展得更快，比你卖得便宜，甚至可能比你做得更好。即便不是直接的竞争者，替代技术也可能抢走你的一大笔生意。窍门：在这一切发生之前拥有一批忠实的顾客群。

 

How much power do your suppliers have?

你的供应商有多大能耐 ?

Convincing customers to buy your products is tough enough without suppliers breaking yourback. Basic rule of thumb: The fewer the number of suppliers, the more sway they have.

说服顾客购买你的产品就已经够艰难了，要是还有供应商在背后使坏，那情况就更糟糕了。基本经验法则：供应商的数量越少，他们的影响力就会越大。

 

Does the business scale?

你的企业有规模效益吗?

Bill Gates plowed piles of money into developing the first copy of Microsoft Office. The beauty: Each additional copy of that software program costs next to nothing to produce. That’s called scale—and it’s the difference between modest wealth and obscene riches. What models don’t scale? Think service businesses, where the need for people grows along with revenues.

比尔 · 盖茨为开发微软公司的份拷贝投入了大量资金。好处是：之后再复制生产这份软件程序就几乎没什么成本了。这被称为规模效益——也是中等财富与暴富之间的区别。什么样的模式不能形成规模效益?想想服务业，在这个行业里，收益的增加就伴随着人手需求的增加。

 

What price will your customers pay?

你的顾客能承受什么样的价位?

Get this answer wrong and you could leave bags of money on the table—or worse, send customers running into the arms of the competition. When Apple sliced the price of its iPhone by a third after only two months on the market, even loyal customers screamed, forcing chief Steve Jobs to apologize and offer a partial rebate.

如果你回答错了这个问题，那就等于丢掉了一大笔钱——甚至更糟的是， 会使顾客转向其他竞争对手。iPhone 上市仅两个月，苹果公司就把其价格下调了1/3，就连最忠实的顾客也大叫不满，强烈要求苹果公司总裁史蒂文 · 乔布斯向公众道歉并返还部分折扣。

 

读完一篇英文文章，多多少少都能学到一些单词，想要攻克托福阅读，单词量的提升是必不可少的。毕竟想考好托福，词汇量不达到8000，还敢想托福100分。

以下是本文的词汇拓展Vocabulary：

flaw n. 缺陷

execution n. 实施

spot v. 发现

govern v. 控制

fate n. 命运

dire a. 可怕的

odds n. 不利的条件

estimate v. 估计

highlight n. 要点

proposition n. 主张

jargon n. 行话

incentive n. 动机

differentiate v. 区分

scheme n. 方案

tangibly ad. 明白地

entrant n. 新成员

spy v. 侦察fortified a. 加强的

substitute n. 代替品

chunk n. 大块

hide n. 兽皮(文中指代生意)

break one’s back 把某人压垮

rule of thumb 经验法则

sway n. 影响

plow sth. into sth. 大量投资于

next to nothing 几乎没有

obscene a.(量) 大得惊人的

revenue n. 收入

slice v. 大幅度消减

rebate n. 折扣

 

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