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Outsourcing Operations

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 216, “Outsourcing Operations.”

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 216. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com to find more information about this podcast, additional services we offer and a complete Learning Guide to this episode. The Learning Guide contains all of the vocabulary, additional words, explanations, sample sentences, cultural notes and a complete transcript of this episode.

This podcast is about a business that tries to hire, or get, another company to do part of their work. It’s called “Outsourcing Operations.” Let’s get started.

[Start of story]

Bonnie: I wanted us to meet today to talk about ways to reduce our overhead.

One suggestion is for us to outsource some of our operations. I’d like to hear what you think are the pros and cons of doing that.

Jean-Luc: I think that, in principle, it’s a good idea. It would save us a lot of money, but I see a downside. We would lose control of some of our key in house operations.

Bonnie: Well, I think that we want to focus on non-core operations, such as IT or accounting. I know that other companies have outsourced their call centers, but that would take a lot of training, especially with our call volume.

Jean-Luc: I completely agree. I don’t think that the call center needs to be micro-managed, but it does take more oversight than IT or accounting for quality control, especially if we decide to go offshore.

Bonnie: Okay, I think we’re thinking along the same lines. Let’s call a meeting with the rest of the staff to get their thoughts. How about next Tuesday at 10 a.m.?

Jean-Luc: That works for me. I’ll send out an email out to everybody today.

[End of story]

The title of this podcast is, “Outsourcing Operations.” To outsource, “outsource,” one word, means to get another company to do part of your work. So, if your company or organization does many different things, it may hire, “hire,” or pay another company to do part of your work. Operations just refers to the different things that a company does.

Our dialogue is between Bonnie and Jean-Luc, and they’re in a meeting - always an exciting thing. Bonnie says to Jean-Luc, “I wanted us to meet today to talk about ways,” or methods, “to reduce our overhead.” To reduce means to make less or to lower. Overhead, “overhead,” is the money that a company pays for its rent, for its insurance, for all the things that it needs to keep the company going.

Overhead is sometimes called fixed costs. Fixed, “fixed,” costs, “costs,” are costs, or expenses - money you have to pay - that do not depend on how much your company produces. For example, if you are a manufacturer, a maker of chairs, you need to buy materials, to buy things to make each chair. But, there are some expenses, some things you have to pay for - the rent, the lights - that do not depend on how many chairs you sell, and these fixed costs are your overhead. It’s what the company pays, no matter how much it sells of a certain thing or makes of a certain thing. The word overhead actually has a couple of different meanings. Take a look at the Learning Guide today to find out what else overhead means in English.

Bonnie says, “One suggestion is for us to outsource some of our operations.” We know what outsourcing means. It means getting another company to do some of your work - paying another company, or another person, to do part of the work of your company. This has become very popular in many companies in the United States. Take a look at our Learning Guide where we talk about this more in detail.

Bonnie says, “I’d like to hear what you think,” Jean-Luc, “are the pros and cons of doing that.” The pros, “pros,” and the cons, “cons,” refer to the good things and the bad things. The pros are the good possibilities, what we may call the advantages, and the cons are the bad things, or the disadvantages. We also use the expression, “the pluses and the minuses.” A plus is something that is good that adds something, and a minus is something that takes something away, or is a negative thing.

Jean-Luc says, “I think that, in principle, it’s a good idea.” The expression here, in principle, “principle,” means that Jean-Luc likes the idea in general, but not necessarily for this specific case, for this specific situation. So, when someone says, “Well, that’s good in principle,” they mean, well, in a general way, maybe for some other situation, but not necessarily for this particular situation. We might also say, theoretically. In principle or theoretically, it’s a good idea.

Jean-Luc says, “It would save us a lot of money, but I see a downside.” A downside, “downside,” all one word, is a negative result, a bad thing that could happen if you do this thing. For example, if you walk up to a beautiful woman and you say, “Hey baby, do you want to dance with me,” the downside is that she will say, “No! Get away, I don’t want to dance with you!” That’s the downside.

The upside, which is the opposite, “upside,” is that she’ll say, “Oh, yes Jeff, I would love to dance with you!” So you see, every situation has an upside and a downside. I usually see the downside.

Jean-Luc says, “We could lose,” or “We would lose control of some of our key in house operations.” In house, “house” - like the house you live in - in house operations are things that a company does by itself, that it doesn’t give to other companies to do.

Bonnie says, “Well, I think we want to focus on non-core operations.” Non-core, “non-core,” are things a company does that are not the most important, they’re less important things. The opposite of non-core would be core operations, and these are the most important things that your company does. Bonnie says that she thinks they should “focus on non-core operations such as IT.” IT means information technology - those are the computer people, some of you listening today are IT people, “or accounting.” Accounting, “accounting,” is the part of the company that pays the bills and collects, or gets, the money. So, that’s the part of the company that takes care of the money and often the taxes that a company pays.

Bonnie says that she knows that some “other companies have outsourced their call centers.” A call, “call,” center is a place where you have people who answer telephones. For example, when you have a problem with something, you may call the company to complain - to say, “I have problem” - and you will talk to someone in a call center. It’s a building, it’s a place where you have usually several people answering the telephone. Bonnie says that having an outsourced call center would require, “would take a lot of training, especially with our call volume.” The expression here, call volume, “volume,” doesn’t mean how loud something is, it means how much there is. So, the volume is the number of telephone calls, in this case.

Jean-Luc says, “I agree,” he doesn’t “think that the call center needs to be micromanaged.” To micro, “micro,” -manage, “manage” something means to try to control every little thing. To micro-manage is when a boss tries to tell the employee everything they need to do too much. Usually micro-manage is used as a negative expression, not always. But, to micro-manage means that you have to manage, you have to supervise someone for everything that is required for the job.

Jean-Luc says that the call center does require “more oversight.” Oversight, “oversight,” is the same as supervision - to be watching something. It requires “more oversight…for quality control.” The expression quality, “quality,” control, “control,” means that you are making sure that it is good. Quality control is what a company does to make sure that the things it is making are of a good, or a high, quality.

Jean-Luc says that this is a special problem if they “decide to go offshore.” Offshore, “offshore,” all one word, means to go to a company in a different country, or to go overseas, “overseas,” to go to a different company in another country.

Bonnie says, “Okay, I think we’re thinking along the same lines.” To think along the same lines, “lines,” means to be thinking the same, we have the same idea.

She suggests that they meet “with the rest of the staff to get their” ideas. The staff, “staff,” are the other workers, the other employees.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.

[Start of story]

Bonnie: I wanted us to meet today to talk about ways to reduce our overhead.

One suggestion is for us to outsource some of our operations. I’d like to hear what you think are the pros and cons of doing that.

Jean-Luc: I think that, in principle, it’s a good idea. It would save us a lot of money, but I see a downside. We would lose control of some of our key in house operations.

Bonnie: Well, I think that we want to focus on non-core operations, such as IT or accounting. I know that other companies have outsourced their call centers, but that would take a lot of training, especially with our call volume.

Jean-Luc: I completely agree. I don’t think that the call center needs to be micro-managed, but it does take more oversight than IT or accounting for quality control, especially if we decide to go offshore.

Bonnie: Okay, I think we’re thinking along the same lines. Let’s call a meeting with the rest of the staff to get their thoughts. How about next Tuesday at 10 a.m.?

Jean-Luc: That works for me. I’ll send out an email out to everybody today.

[End of story]

Our script today was written by - who else? Dr. Lucy Tse.

That’s all we have time for. From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan.

Thanks for listening. We will see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2006.