Capítulo 2: La planta 51

Hi, it's Sam here. And welcome back to The Adventures of Lola Badiola. In the previous episode, Lola informed her company that she was resigning. In this episode, we're going to find out how the company reacts to this unexpected and unwelcome news. We are also going to study the expressions, phrasal verbs and advanced vocabulary that are used in the text. But first, let's find out what happens to Lola when she tries to leave the company. The Adventures of Lola. Chapter 2 - The 51st Floor. Luis took a moment to process the news. He was shocked and upset, like a faithful long term lover who has just been discarded for an exciting alternative. Lola was a rainmaker. Her team had beaten their budget for the last four years consecutively, often going beyond the company's stretch targets. Without her, the whole division's financial plans would be almost impossible to fulfil. - Why? - I need a change, Luis. A new challenge. Where are you going? It's a small tech startup. You won't have heard of it. Louis motioned for Lola to sit down in his office. Then, as Concha had predicted, he did everything in his power to convince her to stay. He started with the logical arguments. 90% of startups fail in the first two years. When she didn't let up, he moved on to the emotional arguments. We've been through so much together. We're like a family. As a last resort, he ended with the moral arguments. How can you do this to me after all I've done for you? Lola was patient and resolute. She had learned that one of the key attributes of a successful salesperson was the anticipation of objections to a proposal. She had created a mind map of all the possible scenarios for this discussion. If he says X, I will respond with Y. She had filled a dozen sides of A4 paper with notes and spent most of the week practicing her lines. Wait here, said Luis, as he realized he was getting nowhere. I need to go and have my daily call with senior management, but I'll be right back. He went into the adjoining meeting room and dialled into a conference call. Lola could see everything, but she couldn't hear anything due to the soundproofing. It gave her a moment to reflect on the course she was taking. As was often the case, the expectation of a difficult conversation was more unpleasant than the conversation itself. In verbalizing her thoughts and desires, Lola fully accepted that she was doing the right thing. There was no turning back now. She was burning her boats. After about 20 minutes, Luis returned to his office. His attitude had changed. He was distant, as if emotionally detached from the situation. He no longer looked Lola in the eyes. Okay. Follow me. We're going up to the 51st floor. In her seven years at the company, Lola had never been to the 51st floor. It was where the company had its board meetings and entertained VIPs. It was strictly for senior managers only. Even Luis looked a little nervous as the elevator doors opened and the two of them walked out into a palatial reception. It felt like a five-star hotel with double-height ceilings, baroque artwork and panoramic views of Madrid. Luis led Lola along a corridor past the company's boardroom until they reached an old oak door. He knocked on the door and then turned to Lola. Good luck. You'll need it. Then he walked away. The oak door opened and a smart middle aged lady invited her in. This way, please. Lola walked into an opulent study filled with antique furniture, old books and Persian rugs. On the walls were oil paintings of hunting scenes framed in elaborate gilt. In the corner, there was a sideboard replete with crystal glasses and vintage whisky. Would you like a drink? No, thank you. The lady smiled politely and then walked out of the study. Lola was left on her own. The silence was deafening. It was a room that absorbed all the ambient noise, like a music recording studio or a padded cell in a lunatic asylum. She wandered over to the bookshelves, keen to distract herself and ran her fingers across the shiny, leather bound volumes. They appeared to be unopened there for decoration rather than education. One of the oil paintings caught her attention. It was strikingly similar to a landscape by Diego Velazquez that she had seen in the Museo del Prado. She examined the picture closely. The composition, the lighting and brushwork all suggested the hand of a great master. Was it possible she was looking at an original piece by one of Spain's greatest artists? Good morning, Lola. The voice from behind her was deep and resonant, shocking her out of her reverie. She spun around to see Mario Ruiz de Blasio at the entrance of the study. He was strikingly handsome, his silver hair slicked back, his green eyes glinting in the late morning light. Lola was momentarily lost for words. Please take a seat. So as you can hear, Lola has a problem. She wants to leave the company. But they don't want to let her go. Have you ever been in that situation? You don't want someone anymore, but they still want you. It could be a business relationship. It could be a romantic relationship. How do you resolve this situation? How do you escape with the minimum of damage? It's never easy, right? And sometimes you just have to accept that somebody's going to get hurt. Well, over the next few chapters, we're going to find out how Lola copes with this dilemma. But right now, we're going to start by analyzing a key grammar point that appeared in the text. Tell me if you agree with these three statements. A meeting that lasts two hours is a two hours meeting. Right? A journey of two hundred kilometers is a two hundred kilometers journey. Right? A hotel that has five stars is a five stars hotel, Right? Wrong. Wrong. And you guessed it: Wrong. These are all what we call compound number adjectives. And non-native speakers rarely express them correctly. Listen to this sentence from the chapter one more time. It felt like a five-star hotel with double-height ceilings, baroque artwork and panoramic views of Madrid. It's a five-star hotel, not a five stars hotel. Why? Five star is a compound number adjective. You write it with a hyphen and in the singular form. Compound number adjectives are everywhere in business. I mean, we use them every day. For example, a ten-minute meeting, a 200-kilometer journey, an 8-kilo turkey is what we ate at Christmas last year. And this, my dear listener, is a 20-minute podcast. So let's quickly move on to the next point. Let's just reflect on why the company is so attached to Lola. Why the company doesn't want to let her go. Listen to this paragraph one more time. Lola was a rainmaker. Her team had beaten their budget for the last four years consecutively, often going beyond the company's stretch targets. What's a rainmaker? What is a stretch target? And are you familiar with the expression to beat your budget? Let's start off with the most obvious one: "to beat your budget". Now I have a standard middle class southern English accent, so I say "budget". But there are many native English speakers, particularly in the north of the country, who would pronounce this word "boodget". But the one thing we all agree on is the D is silent. It's "budget", not "bud-get". Now, what does it mean to beat your budget? Well, every commercial team that I have ever worked in interprets the word budget as the financial target or objective. So at the beginning of the year, management set a budget. The amount of money you are expected to generate. Now, this could be revenues or it could be profits. And if you beat your budget, you exceed those financial objectives. You make more revenues or more profits than expected. And everyone is happy. Now, in our business English novel, Lola Badiola has very successfully managed to beat her budget for the last four years consecutively. Well done, Lola. And sometimes she goes beyond her stretch targets. Now, what is a stretch target and what is its purpose? Well, if you stretch, you try to reach something that is unobtainable. I need to stretch my body to reach the books at the very top of my bookshelf. So in business, stretch targets are not just challenging goals. They are impossible goals given current practices, skills and knowledge. So new approaches must be found to make them attainable. In other words, you can't just work longer and harder to attain your stretch goals or your stretch targets. You have to work in a radically different way. You have to revolutionize your processes. So what happens is stretch targets incentivize your employees to find innovative and creative solutions to your company's problems. Because if you hit those stretch targets, everyone gets paid a really big bonus. There are some very famous cases where stretch goals completely transformed a company's process. And there are some very famous cases where they completely failed. So sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Depends on the company, depends on the department and depends on the industry. But in the case of Lola Badiola, she has hit her stretch targets on several occasions. She has been able to reinvent the way that she and her team operate. In order to make the impossible possible. And that makes her a very, very valuable employee. And that is why she is referred to as a rainmaker. In ancient times, rainmakers could magically cause the rain to fall, ensuring their crops would grow, which meant survival and prosperity for everyone. Now, the modern business definition of a rainmaker is not much different. Rainmakers are the people who magically generate revenue, ensuring prosperity not just for themselves, not just for their team, but for the entire organization. Now, of course, you and I know it's not magic. It's skill, it's discipline. It's hard work or what human resources people refer to as talent. That's why Luis Bruña is so desperate to keep Lola. The financial performance of the whole division depends on her. The company won't hit its stretch targets or even beat its budget without her. And one of the greatest challenges for the manager of any commercial team is to retain their top talent, to prevent their rainmakers from leaving, and worst of all joining the competition. Will the company be able to convince Lola to stay? Well, you can find out in the next episode when she talks to the CEO. But right now, I have one more interesting expression for you. Listen to this. In verbalizing her thoughts and desires. Lola fully accepted that she was doing the right thing. There was no turning back now. She was burning her boats. To burn the boats. This means that there is no possibility of turning back. You have passed the point of no return. You are 100% committed to moving forwards. Hernan Cortes, the conquistador, famously destroyed all his boats on arrival at the New World in 1519. He didn't actually burn the boats. He just destroyed them. But the idea of the burning the boats is much more dramatic, and that's why we use it in the expression. So in his case, there was no turning back. He and his men had to conquer the territory or die trying. When Marina and I decided to move to Spain from London, we quit our jobs. We sold everything. Our house, our car, our furniture. We even tried to sell the kids. We burnt our boats. So that we were 100% committed to our new life here in Madrid. And what that does is it focuses the mind. And it improves the chances of success. So with that dramatic expression, we come to the end of our 20-minute podcast. Did you hear that compound number adjective: 20-minute podcast. And we wish you well for the coming week. Make sure you join us for the next session. You'll find out what the CEO says to Lola. We'll find out if he can convince his rainmaker to stay at the company as we continue to entertain you to a fluent and confident level of business English. Until then, keep practicing and remember: If you want to beat your budget, don't be afraid to burn your boats.