3-stage business English activity

1. Schumpeter
Here comes SuperBoss
A cult of extreme physical endurance is taking root among executives
Dec 19th 2015 | From the print edition
IN A crowded field, a contender for most absurd business-related tweet of the year must surely be the
World Economic Forum (WEF) for its “14 things successful people do before breakfast”. They get up with
the lark, avers the article being promoted in the tweet. They exercise furiously. They spend time on a
“personal-passion project”. (“Novel-writing and art-making are easy to skip when you’ve been in meetings
all day.”) They connect with their spouses. (“What could be better than pre-dawn sex to energise you for
the day?”) They make their beds (because this is supposedly correlated with increased productivity). They
spend quality time with the family. They network over coffee. They meditate to clear their minds. And so
on. But they still find time to work on an important business project.
The tweet was quickly drowned in ridicule. One commenter said this represented a busy month for him.
Another noted that it appears successful people don’t take showers or get dressed. But for all its inanity,
the WEF’s tweeting does point to something real: a growing cult of extreme performance among the
Davos crowd. In the pre-industrial world, elites abided by a code of conspicuous leisure. In the era of
gentlemanly capitalism, they replaced this with a code of effortless superiority. Today’s code is all about
effortful superiority: the successful deserve their success because they get on the treadmill and sweat.
Successful people make a great fuss about getting up early. Laura Vanderkam, a “time - management
expert” who inspired the WEF’s tweet, says that, in a straw poll of 20 executives, 90% woke up before
6am on weekdays. Brett Yormark, the boss of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, is said to get up at
3.30am; and Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, at 4am. Bob Iger of Disney reportedly rises at 4.30am;
whereas Jack Dorsey apparently slouches in bed until 5.30am, despite running two companies, Twitter
and Square. Your columnist once had a 7am breakfast with Michael Milken, the inventor of junk bonds.
Offered a sticky bun, Mr Milken declined on the ground that “I’ve already had a pre-breakfast breakfast
with a Nobel prize-winner.”
An early start is followed by furious exercise. David Cush, the CEO of Virgin America, is on his exercise
bike shortly after getting up at 4.15am. Tim Cook of Apple is in the gym at 5am. However strenuous the
workout, it is often combined with other tasks. Mr Cush reads, makes phone calls and listens to a sports -
radio station while cycling. Mr Iger once told the New York Times that, while exercising, “I look at e-mail.
I surf the web. I watch a little TV, all at the same time.” And all while listening to music.
A striking number of bosses are going further and becoming devotees of extreme sports. John Rost, the
president of Fiesta Insurance Franchise Corporation, has climbed the highest mountains on seven
continents (the “seven summits”). Rick Davidson of Century 21 Real Estate spends his spare time
climbing mountains, skydiving, scuba diving, racing NASCAR vehicles and flying fighter jets. Sir Rocco
Forte of Rocco Forte Hotels and Michael Johnson of Herbalife are among the bosses who take part in
regular “CEO Challenges”, in which they push themselves to their physical limits through such things as
triathlons and 100-mile mountain-biking trails.
This cult of hyper-performance is nurtured by a growing army of personal trainers and yoga coaches who
make their living by fine-tuning and de-stressing business leaders. For example, Ursula Burns, the CEO of
Xerox, schedules an hour with a trainer twice a week at 6am. Business magazines bulge with articles on
how to train like a Navy SEAL or how to achieve “cognitive fitness”. Business schools and corporate in-
house “universities” compete to have the most expensive gyms. Deloitte’s new $300m training facility,
near Dallas, Texas, has a 12,000 square-foot (1,100 square metres) fitness room whose classes start at

2. dawn; and SAS, a software firm, has run a 90-day “leadership and energy for performance” programme
for its high-flyers.
Pill-popping
The cult of super-performance may now be spreading into more troubling areas. First, brushing privacy
concerns aside, some companies are experimenting with using wearable devices to monitor their
executives’ vital signs. One provider of such monitoring systems, Peak Health, lists Goldman Sachs, Bank
of America and several hedge funds among its clients.
Second, according to one CEO, several of his peers are now dabbling in mind-boosting drugs such as
Modafinil and Ritalin, which aid concentration. This trend is likely to intensify: surveys of American
university students suggest that one in six now use mind-boosting drugs to get through their exams, a
habit they may continue in their subsequent careers. Once again business is learning from both the
sporting and military spheres. Sports teams routinely use biometric devices to track their star athletes
(and occasionally drugs to boost their performance). America’s armed forces are experimenting with “go
pills” that help fighters function for long periods without sleep.
It is time to call a halt on all this hyperactivity, before it gets out of hand. There is no doubt that many
bosses have heavy weights resting on their shoulders. But are they likely to make these decisions better if
they arrive at work exhausted and sleep-deprived? Working around the clock is probably a sign that you
are incapable of delegating, not that you are an invincible hero. Frenetic multi-tasking—surfing the web
while watching TV while listening to music —is a formula for distraction, rather than good management.
And bosses who think of themselves as supermen and superwomen can weaken their companies. As Peter
Drucker, a management guru, once pointed out, “No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses
or supermen to manage it. It must be organised in such a way as to be able to get along under a
leadership composed of average human beings.”
Find the words corresponding to the following definitions:
1. (noun) someone who competes with other people for a prize or job.
2. (noun) a small brown bird that is common in Europe and is known for singing while it flies
3. (noun) remarks or behaviour intended to make someone or something seem silly by making fun of
them in an unkind way.
4. (noun) lack of substance, shallowness, stupidity.
5. (phrasal verb) to follow a rule, decision or instruction.
6. (noun) a piece of exercise equipment with a flat moving surface that you walk or run on
while staying in the same place.
7. (verb) to sit, walk, or stand with your shoulders bent forwards and your headlow so that
you look lazy.
8. (adjective) an activity of this kind is one in which it is necessary for you to use a lot of effort, energy,
or strength.
9. (noun) someone who is very enthusiastic about something.
10. (verb) to help someone or something to develop.
11. (verb) to be very full.
12. (phrasal verb) to refuse to think about, believe or accept something:
turn down, ignore, dismiss...
13. (verb) to be involved in an activity for a short time in a way that is not very serious.
14. (adjective) happening or coming after something else
15. (adverb) as part of the usual way of doing something.
16. (adjective) Lacking / not having something (used here in combination with a noun)
Speaking activity:
In light of what you've just read:
In groups of 3/4 decide on the attributes / character traits and optimal leisure activities of the ideal boss.

3. Schumpeter
Here comes SuperBoss
A cult of extreme physical endurance is taking root among executives
Dec 19th 2015 | From the print edition
IN A crowded field, a contender for most absurd business-related tweet of the year must surely be the
World Economic Forum (WEF) for its “14 things successful people do before breakfast”. They get up with
the lark, avers the article being promoted in the tweet. They exercise furiously. They spend time on a
“personal-passion project”. (“Novel-writing and art-making are easy to skip when you’ve been in meetings
all day.”) They connect with their spouses. (“What could be better than pre-dawn sex to energise you for
the day?”) They make their beds (because this is supposedly correlated with increased productivity). They
spend quality time with the family. They network over coffee. They meditate to clear their minds. And so
on. But they still find time to work on an important business project.
The tweet was quickly drowned in ridicule. One commenter said this represented a busy month for him.
Another noted that it appears successful people don’t take showers or get dressed. But for all its inanity,
the WEF’s tweeting does point to something real: a growing cult of extreme performance among the
Davos crowd. In the pre-industrial world, elites abided by a code of conspicuous leisure. In the era of
gentlemanly capitalism, they replaced this with a code of effortless superiority. Today’s code is all about
effortful superiority: the successful deserve their success because they get on the treadmill and sweat.
Successful people make a great fuss about getting up early. Laura Vanderkam, a “time - management
expert” who inspired the WEF’s tweet, says that, in a straw poll of 20 executives, 90% woke up before
6am on weekdays. Brett Yormark, the boss of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, is said to get up at
3.30am; and Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, at 4am. Bob Iger of Disney reportedly rises at 4.30am;
whereas Jack Dorsey apparently slouches in bed until 5.30am, despite running two companies, Twitter
and Square. Your columnist once had a 7am breakfast with Michael Milken, the inventor of junk bonds.
Offered a sticky bun, Mr Milken declined on the ground that “I’ve already had a pre-breakfast breakfast
with a Nobel prize-winner.”
An early start is followed by furious exercise. David Cush, the CEO of Virgin America, is on his exercise
bike shortly after getting up at 4.15am. Tim Cook of Apple is in the gym at 5am. However strenuous the
workout, it is often combined with other tasks. Mr Cush reads, makes phone calls and listens to a sports -
radio station while cycling. Mr Iger once told the New York Times that, while exercising, “I look at e-mail.
I surf the web. I watch a little TV, all at the same time.” And all while listening to music.
A striking number of bosses are going further and becoming devotees of extreme sports. John Rost, the
president of Fiesta Insurance Franchise Corporation, has climbed the highest mountains on seven
continents (the “seven summits”). Rick Davidson of Century 21 Real Estate spends his spare time
climbing mountains, skydiving, scuba diving, racing NASCAR vehicles and flying fighter jets. Sir Rocco
Forte of Rocco Forte Hotels and Michael Johnson of Herbalife are among the bosses who take part in
regular “CEO Challenges”, in which they push themselves to their physical limits through such things as
triathlons and 100-mile mountain-biking trails.
This cult of hyper-performance is nurtured by a growing army of personal trainers and yoga coaches who
make their living by fine-tuning and de-stressing business leaders. For example, Ursula Burns, the CEO of
Xerox, schedules an hour with a trainer twice a week at 6am. Business magazines bulge with articles on
how to train like a Navy SEAL or how to achieve “cognitive fitness”. Business schools and corporate in-
house “universities” compete to have the most expensive gyms. Deloitte’s new $300m tra ining facility,
near Dallas, Texas, has a 12,000 square-foot (1,100 square metres) fitness room whose classes start at

4. dawn; and SAS, a software firm, has run a 90-day “leadership and energy for performance” programme
for its high-flyers.
Pill-popping
The cult of super-performance may now be spreading into more troubling areas. First, brushing privacy
concerns aside, some companies are experimenting with using wearable devices to monitor their
executives’ vital signs. One provider of such monitoring systems, Peak Health, lists Goldman Sachs, Bank
of America and several hedge funds among its clients.
Second, according to one CEO, several of his peers are now dabbling in mind-boosting drugs such as
Modafinil and Ritalin, which aid concentration. This trend is likely to intensify: surveys of American
university students suggest that one in six now use mind-boosting drugs to get through their exams, a
habit they may continue in their subsequent careers. Once again business is learning from both the
sporting and military spheres. Sports teams routinely use biometric devices to track their star athletes
(and occasionally drugs to boost their performance). America’s armed forces are experimenting with “go
pills” that help fighters function for long periods without sleep.
It is time to call a halt on all this hyperactivity, before it gets out of hand. There is no doubt that many
bosses have heavy weights resting on their shoulders. But are they likely to make these decisions better if
they arrive at work exhausted and sleep-deprived? Working around the clock is probably a sign that you
are incapable of delegating, not that you are an invincible hero. Frenetic multi-tasking—surfing the web
while watching TV while listening to music —is a formula for distraction, rather than good management.
And bosses who think of themselves as supermen and superwomen can weaken their companies. As Peter
Drucker, a management guru, once pointed out, “No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses
or supermen to manage it. It must be organised in such a way as to be able to get along under a
leadership composed of average human beings.”