B2 (složitejší): Co je to účel společnosti a má jej každá firma?

What does a company´s purpose mean and does each company have it?

Firstly, we should have a look at what a company is. A company is an organization consisting of either a few or many people who should have the same ideas and beliefs. Before a company is established, there has to be somebody wishing to have one. Usually, this person has a dream to make a place or to give a birth to an idea which will help others to live better lives in any way. Let me provide you with some examples.

A man likes to bake and he is aware of people´s loving pastry, so he decides to open a shop called bakery. That´s where he bakes fresh pastry every day and sells it to people so that they could enjoy their breakfast or snacks. Great job! The purpose of the existence of this shop is to provide people with some food which makes their daily routine more enjoyable and pleasant. And, moreover, if he is successful and bakes well, he might need to employ some more people to help him do his job, as he can´t manage it all by himself anymore.

I will give you one more example. There is a woman who is keen on accounting. She likes numbers and figures and is always happy when she finds out how to get to the right result. One day, she realizes she doesn´t have to do it all just for herself (or maybe there is nothing more to count anymore:)) and she sets up her own business. Why not to help others with accounting – not everybody is keen on it, so it is a good idea to make their lives easier in this way. Since then she has been helping others with love and passion till now. And maybe she has been doing such good job that it is necessary to hire some more people to work for her.

Now we should easily understand what a company is and we should even have a clue about the meaning of the collocation „company´s purpose“. So, before each company was founded, somebody had had a reason to do so. It means somebody must have felt the need to contribute to the world with something that might help others to lead easier lives, have fun, educate themselves or anything else. And that was why this person said „Yes, I will sacrifice loads of my free time, thousands of my leisure weekends and hundreds of my calm mornings to do something worthwhile“.

And this is called a purpose. The reason why we decide to cut down on some of our habits and make someting for the world itself. Each company has a purpose. Each company was founded because of something. And this something can be a lot of things. Walt Disney´s company says its purpose is to use their imagination to bring happiness to millions of people. Apple says they want to contribute to the world with making tools for mind which will help the mankind to progress. Wonderful, isn´t it?

And Perfect World says its pursose is to increase the life quality of many people through the ability of speaking a foreign language. And what´s the purpose of a company of yours or the one you work for? Don´t you know? Ask yourself or try your boss!

Exercises:

1. Find the right synonyms and match them:

If you are not sure about the meanings of the words, look them up in a dictionary and try to find the right solution. If you really want to remember the words, make a few English sentences with each of them. Using the words in the right context will help you not to forget them.

Right answers: to found + to establish, leisure + free, being + existence, to enjoy + to have fun, to be keen on + to love, to help + to contribute, a purpose + a reason.

True or false?

1. Is the purpose of Walt Disney´s company to make people happier?
2. Has the baker from our story started to run his own business for money?
3. Was each company established because of any reason?
4. Should people working for the same company have similar beliefs?
5. When one sets up a company, they do not have to sacrifice much time.
6. Perfect World wants to help people to feel better about themselves.
7. Apple does their best to produce pastry.