Wang: When time is not well planned within a company, they usually do not allocate blocks of time to specified tasks. They do not have a definite idea of when they should complete a certain task. And …

Zhang: And I think they often neglect the ordering of priorities. I mean certain tasks need our prior attention. But in our company every task is treated on an equal basis, even if it is a very urgent task.

Wang: That's the point. So time should be planned according to the importance of the tasks we need to deal with.

Zhang: So what do you think we can do so that time is managed effectively here in our company?

Wang: You mean what procedures we can adopt?

Zhang: Sure. That's what our boss is asking us to do. Right?

Wang: Right. I think we've got a lot to do. First, we should make all the staff members realize how important effective time management is to our company.

Zhang: Yes, I think we can give them instruction in time management, especially those in supervisory positions.

Wang: Right, perhaps we can run a few training programs for them. If need, we may invite some experts from outside to help us.

Zhang: Another thing we can do is to make all the managers, or even every staff member, come up with a job description of their own. In this way, they can be pretty sure about what they are responsible for and what they are not.

Wang: Yes, that's a good idea. And I think, the top managers of our company should come up with a set of rules as to what kind of jobs should be given priority to. In this way, we can make sure that important tasks are dealt with first.

Zhang: Good idea. So to sum up, our company should run a few training programs, and every staff member should write a job description of their own.

Wang: And rules should be made as to what kind of job should be given priority to. Responding to Competition

Zhang: You know our sales have fallen a lot during the past quarter.

Wang: Yes, one of our competitors is charging a lot less than us.

Zhang: I know. It is a new company in this line of business. We really need to do something about it.

Wang: What do you think we can do?

Zhang: I think we can launch an advertising campaign to promote our product. Wang: Yes, it's a good idea. But that will surely add to our cost and therefore