I worked for a tool manufacturer, which had always targeted the domestic market,
我曾为一家工具制造商工作,公司的目标一直是国内市场,
but then the Managing Director realised our product lines would do well abroad, too, and he asked me to look into how best to achieve this.
但然后总经理意识到我们的产品线在海外销售也不错,他让我研究一下如何最好的实现这一目标。
Well, this was a great opportunity for me. I thought it was really important to send our own staff overseas,
这于我而言是个很好的机会。我认为向海外派遣我们的员工非常重要,
so they could devote all their time to getting our products into the markets.
这样他们可以全心全意将我们的产品带入市场。
But it turned out the boss actually meant I should investigate local companies to use as our agents:
但结果老板的意思是我应该调查本地公司,将他们当做我们的代理商:
he said they would already have information about potential customers. I wish he'd spelt this out at the beginning,
他说他们已经有了关于潜在客户的信息。我希望他一开始就解释清楚,
because at least we could have discussed it. As it was, he ignored most of what I proposed, so I'd simply wasted my time.
因为至少我们可以讨论一下。事实上,他忽略了我大部分的提议,所以我只是在浪费时间。