GlobalComm Strategists as Key Leaders and Innovators

After the Global Economic & Investment Forum I attended last week my mentor walked me out to my car. He is a retired bank CFO and was interested to know who I think the target audience of this blog is and what it is I want them to take away from it. Let me begin by saying that I was flattered to know that he was reading my blog. And secondly, he is not the first to wonder about this, sometimes I wonder myself.

The world we live in forces business leaders to deal with an enormous amount of demands; globalization, technology, the financial crisis, economic recession, downsizing and competition. But in the global communications industry, we sometimes find it hard to visualize the long term impact of these demands beyond what they mean to our own revenues each month. To ignore these demands is a very dangerous game to play, though, and in our ever-more competitive industry those of us who have a wider vision and adapt to shifting global trends will be the ones that not only survive but prosper.

One thing my mentor understands very well is we are in the middle of a seismic shift in the balance of economic power – a shift brought on in part by surging energy costs, huge budget and trade deficits in the U.S. and the redistribution of global wealth. One result is energy producing nations are taking their proceeds and becoming a main source of merger and acquisition activities and purchaser of goods and services.

Don’t believe me? Recently, Saudi Arabian Basic Industries completed the over $11 billion acquisition of one of our clients, GE’s Plastics division. It was at the time the largest ever acquisition of a U.S. company by a Middle Eastern company. We still enjoy a relationship with the new company SABIC Innovative Plastics and the success story of how they relied on our people, processes and innovation to help guide the cost effective delivery of the new brand in 12 languages and in record time is one I’ll save for another day.

In more recent news, Etihad, Abu Dhabi's flagship air carrier, stole the show at the Paris Air show this week by purchasing rights that, if exercised, would equal the largest engine order on record in commercial aviation at more than $14 billion. GE Aviation was one of the big winners inking $3.9 billion in orders from Etihad. I’ve had the pleasure of having many discussions with folks from GE Aviation who contend the international language of aviation is English; I wonder if this will change their minds?

Let’s imagine for a moment that it does and GE Aviation decides it wants to manage some portion of their global communications in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural way. Some of the decisions they would need to make would impact how they create, localize and deliver their content. To start with they would need to develop a strategy that considers classification and storage procedures, review processes to ensure regulatory and legal compliance and design standards that accommodate multiple languages. Additionally, they would need to develop best practices and vendor strategies for internationalization, translation, quality review and document compilation activities that address subject matter & language pair expertise, predictive capacity planning and pricing models. When it comes to distribution of the content, it is probably important for them to simplify how their people find and share information and multi-lingual content in a secure environment, perhaps customization and personalization is a priority and certainly they will want a delivery model that facilitates electronic and physical media. Finally, transaction accounting and metrics on activity will need to be considered.

And herein lies the disconnect for my mentor, and indeed many multi-national organizations; financially they understand the business case for ‘going global’ but what it takes to get there seems too daunting. They can’t believe that there is any way to organize the activities described above in a repeatable way to produce positive business outcomes. And even the promise of technology isn’t enough because technology is simply an accelerant to the process. And that is the problem; there is no secret recipe to the process. Each is unique and dependant on where organizations find themselves dealing with demands such as globalization, technology, the financial crisis, economic recession, downsizing and competition.

Our industry ought to be as aware of global economics as any other, but most get caught up in their own demands and become blind to the bigger picture. As the title of Marshall Goldsmith’s book tells us, what got you here won’t get you there. Business leaders aren’t looking for better ways to do the old job, they are looking for a vision that solves the demands they face today and the people, processes and innovation to take them there.

So what is it I hope readers take away from my blog? There is a huge opportunity for companies to drive growth with global communications - due to the unwinding of the world’s economic framework perhaps a bigger opportunity than ever. But as GlobalComm strategists we need to prove ourselves not just as business service providers, but also as key leaders and innovators of business development process – doing things faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively.

Economic BRIC Heavyweights

The BRIC countries, which represent the world’s major emerging markets, find themselves emerging as world economic heavyweights. They have benefitted from a combination of a talented low-cost workforce, good global economic conditions and favorable currency exchange rates to produce great products and services which are relatively inexpensive. The resulting economic growth has added wealth to these countries which make them attractive markets to sell products into. Brazil, in particular, has maintained a practical economic policy and tight controls over inflation and increasing foreign reserves to become an important global monetary player.

Today, the United States is in a very different fiscal position. Due to huge budget and trade deficits, it finds itself relying on uneasy foreign creditors who are starting to question an investment strategy of accumulating even more dollar assets. The resulting downfall of the dollar may be only a matter of time. So is it goodbye U.S. Dollar (USD), hello International Monetary Fund (IMF)?

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Wednesday Latin America's largest country will offer $10 billion in financing to the IMF to help support credit availability for emerging market countries. The $10 Billion is less than 5% of Brazil’s foreign exchange reserves which is a relatively small amount of outstanding U.S. Treasuries. On the other hand, Russian foreign currency reserves, which represent the third largest reserves in the world, are up over $8 Billon to a total of $410 Billion. As much as a third, or $140 Billion, is held in U.S. bonds. The Russian central bank has announced some of that money may be moved to IMF bonds. Who would have thought 20 years ago that monetary decisions in Brazil of whether to invest in U.S. Treasuries would move the needle in the value of the USD? It is truly a brave new world.

What all of this indicates, I contend, is the growing importance of short and long term sales strategies that includes emerging markets. To win in emerging markets companies need to fundamentally rethink how they communicate. I recently met Don DePalma in Berlin and the back of his business card provides some pretty clear guidance. He has a quote from Willy Brandt, the former German Chancellor, which reads, “If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying from you, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen” (then you have to speak German).

Now, I don’t need to establish how smart Don is as he is the author of Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing and the Chief Research Officer for Common Sense Advisory. But this quote, on this card, handed out at a Localization Conference in Germany is the perfect example of what global marketing tries to achieve. Don has hit the trifecta here, found a message that is relevant to the subject, is personal to the country and is even multi-lingual. A quote from a German Chancellor speaking to the need for multi-lingual communications in order to conduct business in global markets; Brilliant!

A company who’s Marketing Communications successfully sells into global markets will face different challenges as they move to Operations Communications. These address service relationships and contractual obligations. I participated in a discussion last year focused on Brazil, who again in particular, has some of the most complicated regulatory and compliance requirements when it comes to conducting business in their country. So the strategy moves from a process able to deliver targeted, unique multi-cultural messages to a one that places a priority on consistent authoring practices, translation management and content reuse. Technology can help with all of these concerns.

These BRIC countries find themselves dealing with the realities of the new global economy and we can all learn from their experience. To take advantage of their new opportunities they are thinking differently than ever before. As global communication strategists we need to help our clients do the same. We need to think differently about how we develop growth strategies to take advantage of opportunities in emerging markets.

iPod Theory: Simplifying the Complex

Cool, like iPod cool or iPhone cool, has been a key to Apple’s continuance as the essential accessory. But there’s more to success than just being cool, and Apple understands this perhaps better than anyone. Their consumer-centric development model is at the center of what I call the iPod Theory; an innovation strategy of simplifying the complex.

A major part of my theory is the idea that process is more important than quality. And I’m not suggesting quality is not important, actually it’s critical, but where most companies are trying to develop products for today’s consumers, Apple is asking what the markets of the future are?

To illustrate, let’s take my dad for example, he was born in the 1930’s before the television was invented. And like most people his age he is still confused by the remote control for his TV. But you know what my dad can do? With no training whatsoever, he is able to collect, store and catalog music and movies on his computer using iTunes and sync them to his iPod with no trouble at all. What Apple has accomplished is taking a very complicated process to one that is deceptively simple. My dad can’t take a picture on his camera and email it. But he can download my mom’s favorite new movie to watch on her iPod while flying to see her grandkids; amazing.

So, Apple has created a whole new population of people, in this case those who aren’t computer savvy, and made an entire world of media available to them. They did this not by trying to improve the quality of the movies or music that already existed, rather they identified a constraint to the consumption of these movies and music and eliminated it – by simplifying the complex.

As global communication strategists our challenge is the same. The process by which communications are created, localized, deployed and measured is complicated. According to Common Sense Advisory, companies claim that 90% or more of their content should be managed in multiple languages; 20+ languages in the EU alone. Forrester Research, though, states only 10% of companies have a global content solution in place that protects brand identity, reuses content locally, and localizes content for regional audiences. That’s a whole lot of people who could use some help.

With all of the quality-driven solutions in the marketplace today, why do so few companies have a strategy in place that unifies these activities on one platform? I believe it’s because too many consultants are focused on the wrong things, instead of asking what the solution of the future is, like the iPod, they are trying to convince companies they have a better remote control. To bring about change, meaningful change, the fundamental approach needs to shift the focus from addressing one element of the global communications supply chain, say language translation, to a comprehensive business infrastructure that makes everything easier and delivers excellence and value along entire GlobalComm process – an innovation strategy of simplifying the complex.

Competitors will continue to challenge the iPod and iPhone on the cool front, but Apple has made a nice living understanding the value of co-innovation – another pillar of my iPod Theory we’ll leave for another day. But, because they have so successfully simplified the complex, my dad has developed a trust with Apple that will keep him happy and loyal. In that same way, global communications technologies will continue to develop, but our clients trust us to keep them up-to-date and help solve issues related to the entire GlobalComm value stream.

Localization World & The GlobalComm Lifecycle

Localization World is the conference for global business know-how, the heart of which is the latest information on trends, processes, technologies and influences that shape the world of localization. Traditional tracks at the conference include an introduction for companies that need to localize content, but are unsure where to begin and expertise for launching and maintaining a worldwide website.

This year, though, is different and Localization World which is being held in Berlin is introducing a new track for Global Business Best Practices. We are proud to have been selected, along with Mercer, to kick off the inaugural track with a discussion of how we have worked together to increase their speed of business; an experience that provides practical insights for anyone interested in venturing into or growing their presence in international markets.

Most people can identify immediately with language translations as an important part of a global communication strategy – so much so that many think global communications is synonymous with language translations. What Localization World aims to do with this new track is explore the other critical elements of a comprehensive global communications strategy that includes authoring, design and layout concerns, deployment methods and of course, localization.

This, in my opinion, is a significant move in the right direction for Localization World; one in which they shift from an inward view of issues facing the localization community to an outward look at the challenges facing enterprises. The goal is to begin to ponder the larger question of how do multi-national organizations shape global business models to create an independent and integrated supply chain that delivers value over the long term.

Steve Faigen, who played a major role in helping create the book, Creating Value Through People: Discussions with Talent Leaders, will represent Mercer at Localization World and discuss how they have begun to answer that question. By putting together a broad team within Mercer that includes Marketing, Knowledge Management, Design and in-field Consultants Mercer has done the heavy lifting required to reinvent their global communications supply chain. The early results show significant cycle time improvements, cost reductions and perhaps most importantly, a newfound ability to provide targeted multi-lingual custom documents to current and prospective clients.

Localization World has realized that to fully deliver on new opportunities presented by globalization, companies need help connecting all the elements of the global communication lifecycle. And we’re honored to have the first swing in Berlin.