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Yet with economies in free fall, managers also need up-to-date information about what is happening to their businesses, so that they can change course rapidly if necessary. Cisco, an American network- equipment giant, has invested over many years in the technology needed to generate such data. Frank
Calderoni, the firm’s CFO, says that every day its senior executives can track exactly what orders are coining in from sales teams around the world, and identify emerging trends in each region and market segment. And at the end of each month, the firm can get reliable financial results within four hours of
closing its books. Most firms have to wait days or even weeks for such certainty. Admittedly, Cisco’s financial results have not made happy reading recently because, in common with many other large technology companies, it has seen demand for its products decline in the downturn. In early February it announced that its fiscal second-quarter revenues of $ 9. 1 billion were 7. 5% lower than the same period in 2008 and that its profit had fallen by 27%，to $ 1. 5 billion. In response to hard times，Cisco plans to cut $ 1 billion of costs this year by, among other things, making use of its own video-conferencing and other communications technologies to reduce the amount of its executives travel. It is also using these facilities to relay information from employees on the
ground to its senior managers, and to get instructions from Cisco’s leaders back out to its 67, 000 staff. A rapid exchange of information and instructions is especially valuable if the company wants to alter course in stormy times.
If everybody in a company can rapidly grasp what they have to do and how it is changing, they are more likely to get the job done. But some firms are reluctant to share their goals with the wider world. Unilever, a big Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group, has decided against issuing a 2009 financial forecast to investors, arguing that it is difficult to predict what is going to happen, given the dangerous state of the world economy. “We’re not just going to provide numbers for the sake of it,” explains James Allison, the company’s head of investor relations. Other companies that have decided not to provide annual earnings estimates for 2009 include Costco, a big American retailer, and Union Pacific, an American railway company.
Some firms, such as Intel, seem to have chosen to take things quarter by quarter. The giant chipmaker (芯片制造商)said in January that it would not issue an official forecast for the first quarter of 2009 after its fourth-quarter 2008 profit decreased by 90%. Several retail chains have also stopped providing monthly sales estimates because they cannot see what the future holds. Retailers, chipmakers and firms in many other industries may have a long wait before the economic fog finally lifts.
56. What can we learn about Cisco from the passage?
A. It will keep a record of the orders from sales teams.
B. It cut $ 1 billion cost by solely relying on its own technologies.
C. Unlike other technology companies, its financial reports are encouraging.
D. Only employees can use the video-conferencing to pass information.
57. According to the author, the staff can perform better by .
A. getting instructions from their senior managers
B. seizing what to do at hand and what to do next
C. having a financial forecast as a goal
D. sharing their goals with others
58. What is important in the unstable time if a company wants to change strategies?
A. Issue company’s financial reports faster.
B. Obtain the up-to-date information of company’s business.
C. Predict what is going to happen in the future.
D. Wait until the economic fog finally lifts.
59. The reason Unilever plans not to issue financial forecast in 2009 lies in .
A. their reluctance to share their goal with others
B. their rapid grasp of changes in the markets
C. the unstable economic situation
D. their reduction in the cost of prediction
60. What can we know about the giant chipmaker — Intel in the passage?
A. It did not issue first-quarter forecast for great decrease in January.
B. Inters chain store used to report sales estimates by year.
C. Only retailers and chipmakers are greatly influenced.
D. InteFs profit was greatly decreased in 20085s last quarter.