'Gross' Loss in Translation - (on the job)

Outsourcing to India means crossing oceans and time zones -- even everyday speech.

When Bill Lenihan, director of IT at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Sacramento, Calif., called his Indian counterparts to order a "gross" of plastic six-pack rings, the request was met with silence. What the heck's a gross?

"I told them it was 144, or 12 squared, a dozen times a dozen, and they just could not understand the value," Lenihan says, chuckling. "Actually, when it was all over, I'm not sure I could, either."

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