Translation: Are You Costing Your Company Money?

This is the introduction article to a series of articles of the same title the purpose of which is to provide business with helpful pointers for their translation processes. We start with a headline that makes professionals in the translation industry cringe: Translation errors cause lost revenue in 80% of global firms (Source: SDL International Survey) The obvious question that jumps right to mind is: How is this possible? Global firms are generally staffed with exceptional bright, skilled and experience people, right? And, yet… Having been a professional translator for close to two decades, 8 years as the CEO of a Japanese translation agency based in Tokyo (Japan), I have some ideas that I would like to share with you. The aforementioned survey squarely attributes the causes of lost revenue to translation errors. Lost revenue, as a result of these errors, ranges from delayed product launches to fines for non-compliance. What is less clear, though, is the root cause of these translation errors. To simply war “businesses that they need to improve their translation and localization processes,” as the survey concludes, is as obvious as it is vague. Companies are already well aware of the need to do a better job -- What companies really need to know is how to go about improving their processes. Drawing on my own experience over the years in dealing with global firms on translation and localization projects, I have created a short list, which while certainly not exhaustive, will, I hope, provide companies with a few useful pointers: • Strategy. Establish a framework for the translation/localization process that is integral to the larger process (i.e. is not just a simple after thought of that larger process). • Project management. One of the major causes of errors is invariably lack of, or poor, project management - It is crucial to taking possession of a quality, error free project. • Personnel. Qualified personnel are the linchpin in any project because they can keep, or even bring back, a project on track. • Cost. Beware of the adage that has sunk many a promising project - penny wise pound foolish. Based on the list above list, I will publish a series of articles with real world examples showing not only what the root causes of most translation errors are, but how companies can reduce or even eliminate loses due to translation errors. (Once published, these articles will be linked from the list above for ease of access. If you can't wait, access these articles immediately by clicking Japanese Translation Services)