What Is The Translation Business About?

What is the business of providing translation services about? It depends on who you ask.

The Project Manager

The project manager thinks about managing resources and getting things done. They might say: “I need this text currently in language X to be in language Z. I need this to happen within 10 business days. I need to make sure that once the translation is done there will be no problems. Oh … and I need this all done within my allocated budget. Do this and my life will be easier.”

The Business Strategist

The person thinking more about business strategy and organization goals might tell us: “We need to bring our message to potential new customers in a different country. It’s important that we do this in order to reach our organizational goals. Yes there will be some investment required on our part to facilitate the understanding of our message, information about our company/products, and to begin to establish our brand.”

For the project manager and the business strategist we in the translation business provide essentially the same services. However, the way we communicate with these two types of people is different. The emphasis and manner of speaking is different. Our value as language professionals is determined differently depending on who we’re working with.