Chapter 8: The Attack

Hello and welcome back to the Adventures of Lola Badiola. In the last chapter Lola was making a speech to her new colleagues when her mind went completely blank. Now you're probably wondering what happened next. While I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a few episodes to find out. Because right now we are returning to the situation of Luis Bruner, Lola's ex boss. We are going to discover how he and his team are coping after the loss of their star performer, their rainmaker. We will also discuss the common expressions, phrasal verbs and business concepts that are used in the text. So without any further delay, let's go back to the story. The Adventures of Lola Badiola Chapter 8 The Attack Luis Bruner opened the front door of his house and tipped over in, quietly shutting the door behind him. It was past midnight and he'd spent the last 18 hours dealing with a crisis at Texbania. Lying at the bottom of the stairs was his six-year-old son, Chema. The little boy was deeper sleep. Luis picked him up and took him to his bedroom. He laid the little boy gently in the bed and put the sheet on top of him, watching him breathe slowly and peacefully. He kissed him on the forehead and left the room. When he went to check on his wife, she was still awake, lying in bed, reading a novel. "Hey, sweetie, hi." She didn't look up from her book, and it was clear from the tone of her voice she was in a bad mood. "I'll come to bed in a few minutes." Luis went back downstairs for a whiskey. He didn't have the energy for a late-night fight about work-life balance. It had been a day of non-stop stress. At 6am that morning, one of his clients, SMZ, a Swiss life insurance company had been shut down by a ransomware attack. The hackers had exploited a vulnerability in the Spanish branch of the company. They had locked the company database and given the company 12 hours to transfer 100 Bitcoin, more than 4 million euros, to an untraceable digital wallet. If the money didn't arrive on time, they promised to unleash a virus that would disrupt their systems for days and weeks to come. Luis and his team of engineers had spent the whole day brainstorming ideas, writing code, and communicating with their colleagues in Switzerland. With two hours to go until the deadline, the CTO arrived in Madrid on a private jet from Zurich. He would have been the image of business sophistication if his face weren't red with anger and stress. The company's reputation was at risk. People's jobs were on the line, including his own. "Where are we?" he said brusquely. "Let me take you through our plan of defence," replied Luis, with as much confidence as he could summon. At that moment he truly missed Lola. She had managed the SMZ account, she knew the client inside out, she'd even learned some basic German to enhance the relationship. She would have been able to reassure the client and deal with the crisis, but she had resigned from the company a month earlier, and Luis still hadn't found a suitable replacement. With an hour to go until the deadline, the CTO started to take the necessary steps to transfer the Bitcoin to the digital wallet. There was only one thing left that Luis could do, organize an emergency meeting with the North Americans. Just like in Europe, the U.S. cybersecurity market was a virtual monopoly. Despite being competitors at a global level, Texas Banya and its U.S. equivalent had agreed to come together in moments of crisis to share their expertise. A high-profile breach of security, like the one that SMZ was experiencing, eroded the trust of the entire sector. It was, therefore, in everyone's interest that this problem was resolved quietly and competently. During the emergency meeting it became apparent that the ransomware code was almost identical to the one used to break into a life insurance company based in New Jersey earlier in the year. With the collaboration of IT experts in the U.S., Luis and his team were able to design a programme to override the malware and neutralise its effect. With less than 15 minutes remaining, SMZ systems were unlocked and an upgraded firewall was put in place. The Bitcoin transfer was cancelled and the company's reputation was saved, but nobody celebrated. Luis knew that this was probably the end of the relationship with the SMZ company and the loss of more than a million dollars of revenue per year. He would have to explain the situation to Ruiz de Balasco at the next morning meeting, a prospect he dreaded. As he sat on his sofa in the darkness, he took another sip of his whiskey and wondered how his department was going to hit its budget, let alone its stretched targets, without the Swiss life insurance account. He also wondered how on Earth he was going to be able to replace Lola by the Ola. He heard the footsteps of his wife coming down the stairs. She was wearing a dressing gown and slippers. She sat down next to him on the sofa, reached for his glass of whiskey and took a small sip. "You want to talk about it?" she asked softly. So Luis has been unable to replace Lola and his department is suffering as a result. How many managers have found themselves in exactly that situation? Often clients have a stronger connection with the individual they deal with than with the company. So when that individual leaves, so does the client. You lose one of your key employees and everything starts to fall apart. And that's why retention strategies are so important. And it's also why it's dangerous for a company to rely on star performers. We'll talk more about these human resources issues in future podcasts, but right now, let's do some business English. Today we have three everyday expressions, three phrasal verbs and three business concepts to discuss. Today, three is the magic number. So let's start off with the everyday expressions. Have a listen to this again. She didn't look up from her book and it was clear from the tone of her voice she was in a bad mood. Your mood is the way you feel, your emotional state. So if you are in a good mood, you're happy, you're pleased, you're cheerful. If you are in a good mood, you see the world in a positive way. On the other hand, if you are in a bad mood like Louise's wife that evening, then you see the world in a negative way. Something has upset you and it creates a dark cloud over everything around you. Are you in a bad mood? That's a very common question amongst friends, family and particularly husbands and wives. It's a very useful and popular expression because it's non-specific and it covers so many different emotions. When you ask the question, are you in a bad mood? It really means I know that something is wrong but I have no idea what it is specifically. And therefore that question can make people even more upset than they already are. So be careful. Right, let's move on to our second expression. Here it is, the company's reputation was at risk, people's jobs were on the line. When something is on the line, it means that it is at risk. It means that there is a high chance that you might lose it, whatever it is. And it also means that whatever you do or say right now is critical. you. job is on the line, it means there's a chance that you might lose your job and therefore how you behave now will have a major impact on whether you stay employed or you lose your job. Originally it was a gambling reference to the physical lines on the craps tables. You see gamblers would place their chips on the table and the table has a lot of lines on it so we would say that their money is on the line. In our story people's jobs, specifically at SMZ Insurance Company, are on the line. They are at risk. Okay our third and final expression is within this phrase. Listen carefully. She had managed the SMZ account. She knew the clients inside out. Inside out. Well literally this means that the inside part of your clothing is facing outwards. Maybe when you were a kid you might have put your jumper on inside out or maybe you put your t-shirt on inside out. So that's the literal definition of inside out. Now if you know something or someone inside out you know them very well. It makes sense right? It implies that all the internal workings of that person or that company are visible and noble to you. So in this case Lola knows the SMZ account inside out. She is extremely familiar with how the company operates. Okay let's now move on to our three phrasal verbs. Here's the first one. It was past midnight and he'd spent the last 18 hours dealing with the crisis at Texbania. To deal with, as I've said before, this is the number one phrasal verb in business English. This is the daddy of all phrasal verbs. To deal with means to take action in order to solve a problem. And that's what business is all about, right? Taking action to solve problems. That's what you do and that's why you get paid. So whenever a boss asks you about a process or a problem or even a crisis you use this phrasal verb. I'm dealing with it. It's music to the ears of any manager. Okay here's the next phrasal verb. One of his clients, SMZ, a Swiss life insurance company had been shut down by a ransomware attack. To shut down, it means to cease an operation or to cease a business. So for example, you might shut down your computer. What is the difference between shut down and switch off or turn off? Well typically shutting down involves some processes or steps. It's more convoluted. Whereas switch off or turn off is something quite simple. You just push a button to switch something off and that's it. It's done. Okay our third and final phrasal verb is the following. Despite being competitors at a global level, tech Spania and its US equivalent had agreed to come together in moments of crisis to share their expertise. To come together this means to start working successfully with each other. We need to come together in times of crisis. We might be familiar with the Beatles song come together and the inspiration for that song was when John Lennon was involved in non-violent protests against the Vietnam War. He started to write a campaign song for the anti-war movement called come together join the party. He never finished the song but it became the foundation of that very famous Beatles song. Okay quick question for you. What is the plural of crisis? Is it crisis is? No it's not. It's crises. So one crisis, two crises and it's spelled C-R-I-S-E-S. That is the plural of crisis. Okay let's move on to our business concepts. Here's the first one that we're going to discuss today. Luis and his team of engineers had spent the whole day brainstorming ideas. Let's talk about brainstorming. What is it and how do we benefit from it? Well it's basically a method of generating ideas and sharing knowledge to solve a particular problem. So you get a group of people together and you encourage them to think without interruption. It's a group activity where each participant shares their ideas as soon as they come into their mind. And now the conclusion of the session, the ideas are categorized and ranked so that you can then follow some concrete action. And there are some interesting rules, the govern successful brainstorming. And the first rule is that no idea is a bad idea. Whatever comes into your head however surreal you just say it out loud and somebody's going to write it down onto a whiteboard. The second rule is the quantity of ideas is more important than the quality. We just want as many ideas on the whiteboard as possible and then eventually we're going to rank them. When you're participating in brainstorming you'll be expected to build on the ideas put forward by others. Never pushing back on them. Because every person and every idea has equal worth during the actual brainstorming itself before you rank those ideas. Brain storming is a lot of fun, particularly if you have a very capable and energetic moderator. And it's quite amazing the ideas that can be generated. You can go very deep into your own subconscious mind and extract images and thoughts and concepts that you didn't even know were there. So why don't you try it? The next time you have a particular problem and advertising campaign, a strategy meeting, have a brainstorming session beforehand. Okay, here's our final common expression. He didn't have the energy for a late night fight about work-life balance. What is work-life balance? And why is it so important? Well, in short, work-life balance is an equilibrium between your professional life and your personal life. You are able to spend enough time on each to satisfy yourself and the needs of your work and the needs of your family. You are able to prioritize the demands of your career and the demands of your personal life. Now, here's a question for you. Do you have a work-life balance? Well very few people do. It seems to be an ideal that we are all struggling to reach. Well here are some ways to reach that ideal. Firstly, set very clear boundaries in your life. Set very clear boundaries and clear work hours. So the company knows when they can contact you and when you'll be out of contact. I have two friends, they work for the same technology company. One of them has set very clear boundaries as to when he's available when he's not and the other one hasn't. So the second one is always given the extra work and always accepts it. Who do you think has a better work-life balance out of those two? It's obvious, right? So really, it's in your hands to send a clear signal to your company and your manager. Well, the second thing is, of course, prioritize your health. Don't move your yoga class because you might have a meeting. Don't cancel your bike ride because you might need to stay late at work. The yoga and the bike ride take priority over the meetings. Thirdly, don't be afraid to unplug. When I go away on holiday, I shut down social media. I send a message to everybody on LinkedIn saying I'm not posting for the next six weeks. I'll see you in September. And that works for me. And then finally, in the words of Michelle Obama plan your joy. I think that's a great line and a great philosophy. Plan your joy. You know what it means, right? So you look at your year or you look at the next few years and you put certain pleasurable things into your diary so that you can look forward to them and you know that you're not going to change those plans if anything else comes up. Plan your joy. Okay with that excellent piece of advice we come to the end of today's class. Make sure you join us for the next podcast. You can find out what happens to Luis and his team and how Lola eventually gets drawn into this situation as we continue to entertain you to a leadership level of business English. Until then keep practicing and remember plan your joy.