When I’m not solving the world’s global communication problems, I like to swim, bike and run. I have completed over 25 triathlons including two Ironman races. Please don’t think this means that I am particularly talented or fast at any of the activities. One of my best friends though, Andy Rumsey, is a gifted and accomplished triathlete. In 2007 he qualified for the Ironman Championship held annually in Kona, Hawaii which places him among the best endurance athletes in the world. 
Triathletes have somewhat of a ‘jack-of-all-sports, master-of-none’ reputation. This is true because most train in a way that makes them adequate triathletes able to finish a race, but not great swimmers, bikers, or runners. Swimming for example is a highly technical activity. Great swimmers will devote years to training many times a week, year round doing specific drills and sets to develop their stroke. Triathletes like me are really only interested in being efficient enough to swim the race distance without exhausting ourselves before the bike and run portions. To battle this Andy employs a training tactic he calls, “swim with the swimmers, bike with the bikers and run with the runners”. By training with the best of each sport he sharpens his technique and speed; a strategy that makes him elite at each discipline.
This strategy works for global communications too, just replace swimming, biking and running with creating, localizing and deploying. Many companies today, whether it’s a marketing agency, language service provider or print vendor, are trying to be a jack-of-all-trades by providing products or services that are supposed to handle the entire global communication lifecycle. Agencies are being urged to elevate their game. The results, as you can imagine, aren’t championship level.
Multi-nationals, whether they know it yet or not, need to transform their business model to deliver excellence and value along the entire global communication supply-chain. The challenge they face is connecting all of the key stakeholders around the world to facilitate the type of collaboration I’m describing. To do that, they need process and technology experts that enable them to partner with companies great in each discipline. As Tom Friedman sums up nicely in The World is Flat: “We (society) are taking apart each task and sending it around to whomever can do it best”.
The organizations we work with who have jumped in the water are realizing amazing results: accelera
tion of cycle times, reduced costs, improved productivity and a level of localization in each market that is beyond their wildest expectations. The common triggering event for each of these companies was to change the way their global communication supply chain worked to let the partners they value do what they do best. Technology lets them do this.
Andy is having a great season again so far this year, has set a personal best in a half-Ironman distance race already, and if he keeps this pace will certainly qualify for Kona again. His experience is a valuable lesson. No matter what advances are made in technology, equipment and techniques, he is able to quickly and easily adopt them because his strategy enables him to compete with the best-of-the-best.
Triathletes have somewhat of a ‘jack-of-all-sports, master-of-none’ reputation. This is true because most train in a way that makes them adequate triathletes able to finish a race, but not great swimmers, bikers, or runners. Swimming for example is a highly technical activity. Great swimmers will devote years to training many times a week, year round doing specific drills and sets to develop their stroke. Triathletes like me are really only interested in being efficient enough to swim the race distance without exhausting ourselves before the bike and run portions. To battle this Andy employs a training tactic he calls, “swim with the swimmers, bike with the bikers and run with the runners”. By training with the best of each sport he sharpens his technique and speed; a strategy that makes him elite at each discipline.
This strategy works for global communications too, just replace swimming, biking and running with creating, localizing and deploying. Many companies today, whether it’s a marketing agency, language service provider or print vendor, are trying to be a jack-of-all-trades by providing products or services that are supposed to handle the entire global communication lifecycle. Agencies are being urged to elevate their game. The results, as you can imagine, aren’t championship level.
Multi-nationals, whether they know it yet or not, need to transform their business model to deliver excellence and value along the entire global communication supply-chain. The challenge they face is connecting all of the key stakeholders around the world to facilitate the type of collaboration I’m describing. To do that, they need process and technology experts that enable them to partner with companies great in each discipline. As Tom Friedman sums up nicely in The World is Flat: “We (society) are taking apart each task and sending it around to whomever can do it best”.
The organizations we work with who have jumped in the water are realizing amazing results: accelera
tion of cycle times, reduced costs, improved productivity and a level of localization in each market that is beyond their wildest expectations. The common triggering event for each of these companies was to change the way their global communication supply chain worked to let the partners they value do what they do best. Technology lets them do this.Andy is having a great season again so far this year, has set a personal best in a half-Ironman distance race already, and if he keeps this pace will certainly qualify for Kona again. His experience is a valuable lesson. No matter what advances are made in technology, equipment and techniques, he is able to quickly and easily adopt them because his strategy enables him to compete with the best-of-the-best.
Best of the Best....I like that!
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