Текст 1. THE FOUNDATION OF SOFTBANK
   Masayoshi Son was born in Kyushu, Japan in 1957. He is founder of SOFTBANK, Japan’s leading software distributor.
   I spent a long time doing research and making business plans before I started the company. I was living in Kyushu at the time. It was 1979 and I’d just come back from the States. I had no income and all my family and friends were worried. They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t doing anything, but I was thinking.
   I’d gone to the States to study when I was 16. I went to Oakland, California for a couple of years first, than transferred to Berkeley where I graduated. I met my wife while I was studying English in Oakland and by the time we came back to Kyushu we had a new baby. She was worried too. I had come up with 40 new business ideas – everything from creating software to setting; up hospital chains – but I didn’t know which to start.
   I wanted a business I could fall in love with. It had to be unique and original. It had to have great growth potential. I had about 26 points like this and I took a big sheet of paper and gave each business idea scores. Than I picked the best one. It turned out to be the personal computer software business. So in 1981 we finally moved to Tokyo and I started SOFTBANK.

                   Текст 2. WHO SAID THE ELECTRIC CAR WAS A NEW INVENTION?
   At the turn of the century, we supported fleets of electric vehicles: milk trucks, delivery vehicles, passenger cars. Downtown Detroit had four electric cab fleets charging at stations operated by the Edison Illuminating Company, the forerunner to Detroit Edison.
   At the Electric Light Convention of 1911 everyone was talking about standardizing plugs for electric vehicles. But the very next year the discussion was put on hold by a dazzling new invention-an electric starter for the gasoline-powered automobile. Than Henry Ford started mass production and gasoline conquered the market.
   But not for much longer. The electric vehicle is back on the road and once again you can fuel your car with safe, clean electricity. Detroit Edison is pleased to be a driving force behind the new technology.
   So it’s time to drive electric again and follow the road to a brighter future.

                 Текст 3. THE EV BATTERY PROBLEM ENDS RIGHT HERE.
   A two-part problem has long stalled the public acceptance of Electric Vehicles(EVs), The first part: lack of a powerful, lightweight battery. The second: technology to manufacture large quantities of that battery.
   Electrosource has solved the first part –of the problem. Independent tests have confirmed that the Electrosourse HORIZON battery can be recharged 50% in less than 8 minutes {99X in 30}. And HORTZQN-powered EVs “rill go ICO+miles between charges.
   And BDM Technologies, Inc. has solved the second part of the problem.
   The HORIZON battery can be manufactured for significantly less than other advanced batteries (such as nickel iron varieties) and potentially for less than other lead a old types.
   The future is on the HORIZON. We can bring it to you now. For further information, write Department 93, BDM Technologies, Inc., YA ?2102. Phone 1-800686-2301, Fax (703) 351-6909.

Текст 4.TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
   The key to quality is very simple. You should do a job right first time. Most organizations do jobs approximately. They make mistakes that they have to fix later so they incur higher costs. In a TQM organization they know it’s cheaper to do the job right in the first place.
   So what does “doing it right” involve? It means you mustn’t waste resources; no wasted materials, no wasted time and no wasted space. And it means you have to throw out outdated processes. It’s constant and never ending process and it has to involve everyone in the organization.
   You have to push responsibility close to the point where employees and customers meet. It’s your operating employees that have to make important decisions because they’re closest to the customers. And that means you have to stand the traditional management hierarchy on its head.
   You must give employees more decision-making powers. Instead of giving them orders from above, your administration should support them and try to make their life easier. You can’t do that in an atmosphere of conflict. You can only do it through creative teamwork.

Текст 5. THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR EXPORT (Part 1)
   Every walker wants waterproof boots. They are the key to comfort, progress and even survival. Nick Brown, the creator of Nickwax, realized this at 15, cooked up his own solutions in the- kitchen and at 21 discovered he had a viable product.
   “I actually sold my first tin of Nickwax in 1977. I was going to Scotland and needed new boots. The guy at Alpine Scotland in London sold me a pair and tried to sell me some wax too. I told him I made my own and why it was better. He took six dozen tins.”
   Nick’s company now sells a whole rang of rub-in, spray-on and wash-in waterproofing products as well as waterproof clothing. Sales have increased at a steady 10 to 16 per cent a year and today the company employs five people, who all spend around 30 per cent of their time on research.
   “When we started, the biggest problem was getting customers to buy large enough quantities. So I offered them advertising by printing their logo on the lid in exchange for a minimum order. Two things happened. First, the shops bought more, and second, because people who were satisfied with the product knew where to buy it, the shops with logos outsold the others”.

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