Word: berlitz
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Some of the largest companies in the field--Bowne Global Solutions, Lionbridge Technologies and Berlitz GlobalNET (a sister company of the language school)--say they expect a surge in U.S. government contracts involving Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Uzbek and other languages useful in the war against terrorism. But that's a small part of the business. More broadly, the industry is thriving because American companies are learning--after years of denial--that to profit in the global economy, it's critical to speak the customer's native tongue. "An American company expanding abroad is competing with merchants who speak the local...
...like GE run multilingual trading sites, such as gepolymerland.com courting customers in 11 languages, including Portuguese and Chinese. Life-sciences and finance companies are also bolstering demand. When California-based ADAC Laboratories needed a quick Italian version of technical documents for a positron emission tomography scanner, it turned to Berlitz GlobalNET, which finished the job in 10 days. When Morgan Stanley and Prudential need translations of research reports and marketing materials into Japanese, German and other languages, they often turn to Lionbridge...
...most successful companies have been small-cap players operating in niche markets or regions. Lionbridge boasts a strong reputation in certifying and testing software for non-English users. Berlitz GlobalNET, based in New York City, is adept at consumer marketing. SDL International, based outside London, and Logos, based in Modena, Italy, cater to a wide range of European clients. In Asia, firms like Tokyo's Toin Corp. and Hong Kong's Real Idea have established fast-growing enterprises for clients such as Kyocera and Sony, respectively. "No vendor can cover all languages," says Ric Ginsberg, a vice president at Oracle...
Whichever solution companies choose, the goal is to get a translation that's linguistically accurate, culturally savvy and consistent with the client's global brand image. The latter element is key for American retailers tapping foreign markets. Berlitz's staff includes some of the industry's top consumer-marketing translators--a big selling point when Lands' End, based in Dodgeville, Wis., chose the firm to create French and Italian versions of its American website last year. Says Sam Taylor, vice president of Lands' End international operations: "There's a feeling we want to come through in the copywriting when...
...will be generated abroad. Many of the new orders will come through the company's European call centers, staffed by native-language speakers. But by setting up Web operations rather than in-country divisions, the firm made a "minimal" investment in reaching the French and Italian markets, says Taylor. Berlitz, for its part, earned a boost to its reputation. The Sharper Image pays the firm to localize content for its German and British sites, which it launched this year. "Global branding," says Berlitz GlobalNET CEO Jim Lewis, "is the fastest-growing part of our business...