Reading: Company Structure

Read  Jim Haines’ email to a new employee. Then, choose the correct answer. 

Dear Mr. Stevens,

Before you start working with us, I would like to introduce you to our company structure.

Here in TerrainMaster Industries, we have a board of directors. Its members are in charge of the whole company. John Silver is the chairman of the board, but Jane Brisk, who is the CEO (chief executive officer), makes most of the day-to-day decisions. The board reports to shareholders who own TerrainMaster.

All departments have managers who are responsible for managing work. All invoices and payments come from the Accounts Department, all clients are managed by the Sales Department, and finally if you need anything – paper, a new computer, parts to machines – go to the Purchasing Department. I suppose you can imagine what the Production Department does, but what about the R&D Department? They create and test new products, such as TerrainMaster Heavy Boots. We also have a Marketing Department, which deals with advertising and our company’s image.

As you may know, our head office is in Vancouver, Canada. The most important departments are located here, as well as the biggest factory – in total, there are ten factories where we produce our shoes and clothes. When they are produced, they are transported to one of the warehouses in Seattle, where they wait for transport. This city is home to our distribution and service centers. From the first one, we send our products to most countries in the world, and the second one repairs broken items.

We have two subsidiaries abroad, one in China (OffroadBoots) and one in Brazil (JungleShoes). They report to us and we make the most important decisions for them. When clients call our company, our employees respond in the call center in Portland. Finally, there are over two thousand outlets all over the world. They are located in supermarkets and shopping centers.

Best Regards,

Jim Haines