Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 304, A Potential Partnership Meeting.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 304.
© BF-WATCH TV 2021
And a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is called A Potential or Possible Partnership Meeting.
It's a dialogue between Flavio and Marcia about two companies that may try to work with each other.
Let's get started.
Thanks for meeting with me.
It's my pleasure.
We're eager to hear your ideas about our companies doing business together in the future.
I agree.
What do you have in mind?
We seem to have core capabilities that complement each other, and I want to see how we can create a partnership that would be to our mutual benefit.
Yes, that's why I'm here.
I think we're thinking along the same lines.
Good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Yes, I think that's true, too.
But let's get beyond the preliminaries.
What kind of business model do you have in mind?
Well, that's why I wanted to meet with you.
I'd like to get your perspective on that.
I see.
When your company approached us about working together, we were under the impression that you had some concrete ideas to present.
Oh, we do.
I just wanted to get your suggestions before we present a formal proposal.
We'll do that.
Thanks for your time.
Don't mention it.
The dialogue begins with Flavio saying to Marcia, thanks for meeting with me.
Marcia says, it's my pleasure, which is a polite way of saying I am happy to meet with you.
Marcia says that her company is eager or wants to very much hear, and Flavio's ideas about how the two companies can do business together or to work together in the future.
Flavio says that he wanted to meet because he thinks their two companies can create great synergy S-Y-N-E-R-G-Y.
This has become a popular term in the business world in the last 10 or 15 years.
Synergy is when you have two or more people or organizations working together, and because they work together, they have more success, more money, other good things happen because they are cooperating with each other.
They are working together.
Marcia says, I agree.
And then asks Flavio, what do you have in mind?
To have something in mind, M-I-N-D means to be thinking about something, to have an idea about something.
If your friend says to you, I need a new car, and you say to him, what do you have in mind?
And he says, I want to buy a new Hummer, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
A Hummer is a big car.
Really it's a military vehicle that they sell as a car.
I don't know why anyone needs such a large car, but people buy them.
Flavio says, in answering Marcia's question about what he has in mind, that the two companies seem to have core capabilities that complement each other.
The word core means most important here.
Things that are central, things that are vital, essential.
Capability is the ability to do something.
So core capability is refers to a company or a person's most important or main skills and abilities, what the company is good at, we might say.
To complement C-O-M-P-L-E-M-E-N-T means to have some characteristic that makes something else better or stronger.
For example, if you are good at math and I am good at language, then together we could start a school to teach math and language.
Our skills, our capabilities complement each other.
You can think of complement like the word complete.
It completes, it matches well.
There's another word that sounds the same, complement, with an I in the middle.
That means a nice thing to say a nice thing to someone, to say to a woman that's a beautiful dress you have on.
That would be a compliment.
You should only say that to your wife or girlfriend, of course.
That's complement with an I.
This is complement with an E.
Fabio says I want to see how we can create or make a partnership that would be to our mutual benefit.
A partnership is a relationship where two or more people, or organizations or businesses work together to try to do something in common.
They're both going to work together to create a new product.
Mutual means for both you and me.
Benefit is an advantage, a good thing.
So mutual benefit means that both of the organizations, both of the companies in this example, will get something good from this partnership.
Marcia says, yes, that's why I'm here.
To think along the same lines means to think in the same way, to have the same idea.
Flavio says, To pull off something or to pull something off is a two-word verb, a phrasal verb.
That means to make something successful, to work at something and have a success, to have it go as you want it to go.
We often use this word when we think it might be difficult to do something.
I hope we can pull this off.
I hope we can be successful because it might be difficult.
To pull off has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide today for some additional explanations.
Fabio says they could dominate the market.
To dominate means to be, in this case, the one who is the strongest, who is the leader, who is the best at something.
To be stronger than anyone else is to dominate everyone else.
Marcia says, yes, I think that's true.
But let's go beyond the preliminaries.
Let's go beyond here means let's talk about more than just the preliminaries.
The preliminaries are the introductory comments or topics.
They don't talk about the main topic.
Preliminaries are things you do first and then you talk about the most important things.
So Marcia wants to talk about more than just the preliminary.
She wants to talk about the main ideas.
She asked Flavio, what kind of business model do you have in mind?
A business model is a structure of a business that Usually we use this to talk about how the business will make money.
Many internet companies in the late 1990s did not have a good business model.
They did not know how they were going to make money.
Flavio responds by saying, well, that's why I wanted to meet with you.
I'd like to get your perspective on that.
Your perspective is your point of view, your opinion, the way you think about something.
Marcia then says, I see, meaning I understand.
Then she says, when your company, Flavio, approached us about working together...
We were under the impression that you had some concrete ideas to present.
When Marcia says the company approached them, she means they began the contact.
They were the first ones to go to the company to begin a conversation about something.
Marsha says her company was under the impression, meaning they had a certain idea, a certain belief about what was going to happen.
To be under the impression is often used when your idea is wrong.
I was under the impression he was going to be here at 10 o'clock.
It's already 10.30 and he is not here.
My initial impression, my first thought was wrong.
Marcia says that her company thought that Flavio's company had some concrete ideas.
Concrete means, in this case, specific, detailed ideas.
Flavio says, oh, we do.
I just wanted to get your suggestions before we present a formal proposal.
A proposal is a recommendation or a plan about doing something in the future.
Marcia says, let's do this, meaning this is what we want to do.
Why don't you send me a proposal in writing, meaning written down on a piece of paper, not just in a conversation?
Put it in writing.
Put it on a piece of paper.
And I'll make sure that we give it our full consideration.
Our full consideration means we will look at it very carefully.
We will think about it very carefully.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Thanks for meeting with me.
It's my pleasure.
We're eager to hear your ideas about our companies doing business together in the future.
Well, I wanted us to meet because I think our two companies can create great synergy I agree.
What do you have in mind?
We seem to have core capabilities that complement each other, And I want to see how we can create a partnership that would be to our mutual benefit.
Yes, that's why I'm here.
I think we're thinking along the same lines Good.
I'm glad to hear that.
If we can pull off a partnership, we could really dominate the market.
Yes, I think that's true, too.
But let's get beyond the preliminaries.
What kind of business model do you have in mind?
Well, that's why I wanted to meet with you.
I'd like to get your perspective on that.
I see.
When your company approached us about working together, we were under the impression that you had some concrete ideas to present.
Oh, we do.
I just wanted to get your suggestions before we present a formal proposal.
Let's do this.
Why don't you send me a proposal in writing and I'll make sure that we give it our full consideration?
We'll do that.
Thanks for your time.
Don't mention it.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2007.
