Kaija Pöysti

Business of LanguageAnd Language of Business

English Today at FinnBrit Society 11.3.2016

Serial entrepreneur, board member, business angel

Focus on digitalization, data & analytics

Founder of Trantex, a Finnish translation, localization, technical writing and training company

M.Sc. (Tech.), Operations Research

Two co-authored books on Social Business Design

Kaija Pöysti

Business of Language

Business is now

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozenchipmunk/55759117/ & http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictfactory/2796367140/

social.

http://www.slideshare.net/pmalik123/towards-a-smarter-data-driven-future

That means huge amounts of instant information.

Text, audio, video, pictures…

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

Internet is multilingual.

http://translation-worlds.blogspot.fi/2013/08/computer-assisted-translation-tools-for.html

And we have tools. Lots of tools.

http://www.word2word.com/mt.html

http://thenextweb.com/google/2015/11/20/youtubes-offering-new-translation-tools-and-legal-support-for-its-creators/#gref

http://www.statista.com/statistics/257656/size-of-the-global-language-services-market/

Language Is Big Business

http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/global-language-translation-software-market-2016-forecast-to-industry-size-shares-strategies-trends-and-growth-2020-655373.htm

https://www.taus.net/blog/the-game-changers-of-2016-2

Transformation of Language Business

Relevance to Finland

• Ample mobile skills• Use of information moves to mobile and becomes ubiquitous• Need more UI, UX and CX skills and experience• How to expand interest in gaming into interest in multilingual CX?

• Good passive language skills• Resources for testing & tool development

• Long experience in academic language technology • Still waits for a global success

• Could we have an understanding of non-mainstream cultures?

• “Long-tail”, i.e. small language groups, can be a good business, too – but requires very lean operations

http://ulpd.nmmu.ac.za/ulpd/media/Lean-Images/Logo-Lean-Culture.png

Digital Lean Culture Approach to Business Growth

Language of Business

Social Is Multilingual

http://vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/

http://vincos.it/social-media-statistics/

Social Is Changing Continuously(just try to keep up with teenagers)

Business Is Multilingual

http://www.deutsche-mittelstands-nachrichten.de/kategorie/ressourcen/

http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/06/09/les-pme-francaises-renouent-progressivement-avec-l-investissement_4650240_3234.html

http://cincodias.com/cincodias/2015/09/02/pyme/1441206221_324356.html

Relevance To Finnish Companies• Information is searched only in English

• Most relevant and recent business information is in local language

• You still need to sell in buyer’s language• Doing business in Germany requires German, in France French

etc. – but where are our speakers? • Selling to consumers requires local language

• In addition to language, one needs to know the culture• This is obvious, but sometimes forgotten in a country of

engineers• There is life outside one’s specific business, i.e. the famous

“small talk”

• SMEs become a bigger business opportunity• English is OK with most big companies, but most SMEs use local

language

Communication with customers has changed from pushing your message...

… to having a dialogue with customers, partners, subcontractors, and employees.

<p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=4096">Image:

stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=721">Ima

ge: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

That dialogue happens mostly in local language.

Social channels may be free. Using them is not.

It takes time and localization.

<p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=330">Image:

Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2169

http://pytell.com/2011/08/08/get-rid-of-multitasking-if-you-want-to-not-suck/multitasking-insanity/

Conclusion

• Languages and cultures are still alive and well

• Languages present a huge business opportunity

• Even language business begins with improving customer experience

Thank you!

www.intosome.fi

Kaija Pöysti

kaija.poysti@intosome.fi

+358 400 505 727Twitter @kaijapoysti