Ummm. Wait, let me check.

Okay.

No, I didn’t get it.

Oh! Let me send it to you again.

But what’s in the mail?

I just sent some documents for you to look at.

Okay, send it over.

I heard Mr. Peter called you?

Yeah… I just got back from his cabin.

Why? Was it something serious?

Not serious, but it was pretty important.

What was it?

He was just telling me about a new project. That’s it.

Oh. Thank God! You were getting your ear chewed, because he looked a bit mad today.

He’s mad alright, but not at me… He’s mad at the competition. They’ve underbid us.

Hey Fiona, are you done with the support team review?

Nope Sophie. I am still grading the calls.

Oh, come on! You’re gonna get me in trouble. We have our team meeting this morning!

I know, I know. I am working as fast as I can. There’s a lot of work here.

Fiona, I gave it to you three days ago.

Well, don’t worry. I am almost done. I’ll have it all laid out for you in a couple of hours.

Great! I hope so. I gotta review it so that I can answer the questions in that meeting.

Don’t worry, Sophie. I’ll get it done.

Listen Jake, I want that contract.

I know Mr. Higgins. We need it.

It’s going to do wonders to our bottomline. So get it for me, will ya?

Well, I am pretty sure it’s ours.

I am not so sure. Wheelers Inc is after it too, and they’re a slick outfit.

Not as slick as ours. I already know about their operating margins.

They’ve got a higher manufacturing cost. We’ll beat them with a lower bid.

A lower bid? Have you checked the project viability?

Sure! We’ve got the advantage of economies of scale. We’re already producing this stuff for Checkers Corp.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Okay, keep the bid low, and send them a sample of our current work. We want them to be impressed.

I’ll take care of it Mr Higgins. Won’t let you down.

Ear chewed : When someone is chewing your ear, they are criticizing you for something you did wrong.

Underbid : To underbid is to give a lower priced bid than someone else. A bid is the offer you give someone when you do their work for a fee.

Grading the calls : It means to rate or analyze the phone-calls made by company employees for quality. Call-centers often do that.

Laid out : Laid out in this context means available. When a work is laid out, it’s ready and available.

Bottom line : The bottom line is the net profit after all expenses have been deducted.

Slick outfit : A slick outfit is a company that’s very professional, well managed and efficient.

Operating margins : The operating margin is the amount you need to earn to pay the expenses you make in running your business.

Manufacturing cost : It is the money you spend in manufacturing something.

Project viability : When you check the project’s viability,

it means you consider all the factors like expenses, time, capabilities, etc., and decide whether a project is worth doing or not.

Economies of scale : According to a rule in manufacturing,

the more quantities you manufacture of an item, the less each individual item costs you because some costs like rent etc., are fixed.

This is called economies of scale, example things become cheaper to manufacture, the more quantity you manufacture.