A、Machinery in factories is too old. B、Management in some industries appears out-of-date. C、Trade unions disagree with each othe

Woman: What’s the first thing you’re going to do, Peter, when you take over the business from your father next year?
Man: Pay much more attention to market research. I’ve already got my eye on a good man for the job. Father has invested a lot of money in technical research but I still can’t make him see how important market research is.
Woman: I’ve never really understood market research. What is it exactly?
Man: It’s simply finding out what customers want. It’s no longer any good making the same old product in a new year and saying: "This is what you ought to want. It’s well made. It’s British. So come and buy it!" That used to be the tendency not so long ago, but nobody thinks like that today. We can’t ’afford to. We’ve got too many competitors.
Woman: Is it going to be a hard struggle then?
Man: Yes, because we--the British, I mean--earn our living by exporting manufactured goods. The trouble is, we can’t export without importing raw materials, and we have to buy these with dollars, marks and francs and so on. Then we have to try and sell our products in world markets.
Woman: It seems to me that things will never get any better.
Man: They’ll get better if we can increase our productivity, in other words, produce more goods per worker. This will mean that we’ll be able to sell more abroad and keep more for ourselves at home. It’s this "growth" that so many people are looking for.
Woman: But I thought our economy was growing.
Man: It is, but not as fast as that of many other countries, and that’s what matters.
Woman: Why is our growth so poor?
Man: Because we ’all want bigger profits and higher wages and shorter working hours. But to get all these things we need to be more efficient. To begin with, we ought to invest more money in new machinery. Some of our factories are still using machinery that’s at least fifty years ago, and in some industries the management is pretty old-fashioned too. Then there are the trade unions--they’ve got to bring themselves up-to-date. There are far too many unions, and no really effective way of stopping the absurd disagreements they so often have. Besides, the unions have no real control over their members now. About 60% of all our strikes these days start unofficially, even if some of them are made official later. To put it bluntly, unless we increase our efficiency all round, we’ 11 never increase our productivity.
Woman: I’m not surprised that factory workers want shorter hours. How would you like to beat panels or turn screws hour ’after hour every day?
Man: I wouldn’t. I’d get bored, and I’d think only of my weekly wage packet.
Woman: So naturally our workers are always on strike ! They’re bored, and they want more money to spend in their time!
Man: It’s a mistake to blame everything on strikes. Actually we have fewer strikes than many other countries. We lost far more working hours through illness and through workers just taking a day off--like all industrial countries. No, what worries me is that there are far too many unnecessarys disagreements between workers, trade unions and management. We haven’t yet learned to work together as a team.
Woman: Is that why so many of our industries are dying?
Man: What do you mean "so many of our industries"? And what do you mean "dying"?
Woman: That’s the word you used the other day about coal-mining, and the cotton textile industry.
Man: Why do people get so upset about these industries? I suppose it’s because they used to be our pride and strength. Well, they’re not any more, and as far as I am concerned, the sooner people realize it the better. Then, all the money, labor and technical skill wasted on them could be put into expanding industries, like electronics, motor-cars and so on.  Some people wouldn’t agree with me, of course.
Woman: What about industries in other countries? Haven’t they got the same sort of problems?
Man: Yes, but they’ve had more practice at fighting for markets. That’s why I’m in favor of Britain being a member of the Common Market. Industries inside the Common Market are forceds to take notice of their competitors.
Woman: Then you don’t feel too hopeless about the future?
Man: Of course I don’t. We’re a very inventive people and we have plenty of skilled workers. Besides, we still have our reputation for honesty and fair dealing in business.
Woman: Is that so important these days?
Man: Indeed it is! Why do you think London is still the world’s chief insurance market and such an important banking centre? The foreign money these services earn is one of our most important exports. In fact, without them we’d never be able to pay for our imports.
Woman: How nice to hear you boast, Peter! The English think it’s in bad taste to boast, don’t they? When foreigners ask you "How are things?" and you answer, "Not bad!" How are they to know that "Not bad!" often means "First-class, thank you! "?