For Sandberg, the first part is easy; there are only two shareholders: Jesper Sandberg as founder and chairman, and me as CEO. What that means is a much bigger question. As well as being shareholders, we have been employees in the company and directors on its board. We have worked alongside the staff most of our lives, invested decades of our professional ambition into building the business and been involved in the smallest decisions and the biggest ones. We have given a face to the company and allowed our personal reputations to be intricately linked with the company鈥檚 reputation. For us, this has been personal as much as professional.听

Over the years, we have wondered what we would do if someone offered to buy our shares. Would we sell to another language service company, for example, or a private equity fund? After all, that seems to be in vogue 鈥� M&A interest in our industry remains high. In most recent language industry market survey, 42.7% of the respondents stated that they are looking for companies to acquire and 26.0% are looking to sell. In 2022, Nimdzi reported that 30 of the top 100 LSPs in the world were already backed by private equity or venture capital. That鈥檚 almost half of all privately owned companies on their ranking list.听

These exit options may, however, raise questions in a shareholder鈥檚 mind when they think about the future of their company. They may want to protect the legacy they have built and make sure the company can continue to trade with its current culture and values. Happily, a shift in ownership doesn鈥檛 always mean that the company can鈥檛 continue as an independent business.听

What is employee ownership?

The principle of employee ownership is well-established in the UK and means that a significant proportion of ownership in the company is held by or on behalf of most of the employees. Thus, in order to have employee ownership, all employees must have a significant and meaningful stake in the business. This contrasts with executive-only share plans and even all-employee plans which only apply to an insignificant minority percentage of shares.听

The employees鈥� shareholding can be owned directly by the employees, indirectly by a trustee on their behalf, or you can have a hybrid. We at Sandberg have been attracted to indirect employee ownership where all the company鈥檚 shares are bought and owned by a trust. This has practical advantages over direct employee ownership; it sidesteps the upfront and ongoing administrative complications around individuals buying and selling shares. The employees can鈥檛 buy shares, own shares or sell shares, but whilst they are employed at the company, they enjoy the benefits of indirect ownership. If they leave the company, they leave these benefits behind.听

What is an Employee Ownership Trust?

An employee ownership trust (EOT) is a relatively new type of employee benefit trust that was introduced by the UK government in 2014. To become an EOT company, a majority of the shares in the trading company must be owned by the trust on behalf of the current and future employees. The purpose of the trust includes the well-being of the company鈥檚 employees and it may have other purposes as well, such as community benefit, or social and environmental goals.听

There are benefits in selling to an EOT compared to selling to any other kind of buyer. For the shareholders, it means that they can control the timeframe of their exit from the business and be involved in deciding who succeeds them. In the UK, the government also provides tax benefits when an EOT holds a controlling interest; the sale of the shares to an EOT is free of capital gains tax.听

The main benefit for the employees is that they get a financial stake in the business without having to invest at all. Once the previous shareholders have been fully paid for their shares, all employees will collectively receive the full financial benefits that would normally be gained by the shareholders. These are not paid out as dividends but as annual bonuses. In the UK, these employee bonuses are free of income tax up to a point.听

This employee-shared capitalism model has been proven to boost employee engagement, leading to improved productivity and increased job creation and retention. The UK government sees it as a counter to short-term capitalism, with the ownership structure and tangible employee benefits resulting in a long-term strategic view that benefits the whole country.听

Moving to employee ownership at Sandberg听

On 31听May 2023, almost 28 years after sa国际传媒 was founded, we set up an employee ownership trust. The trust now owns 100% of the shares in Sandberg.听

Initially, the trust didn鈥檛 have any funds, so Sandberg the trading company made a contribution of surplus cash to the trust, which was then used as a partial payment to buy the shares from the shareholders. The rest of the value of the shares was exchanged for a debt which will be paid off in regular instalments over the coming years. The price agreed was based on an independent open market valuation of the company and the sum was approved by the UK tax authorities.听

Company governance听听

Sandberg the trading company is regulated by its articles of association and controlled by its board of directors. This remains unchanged; the board sets the company鈥檚 strategy and oversees the running of the company, and the directors are accountable for their decisions and actions.听

The employee ownership trust is also regulated by a set of articles called the deed of trust. It is controlled by a corporate trustee that is controlled by a group of trustee directors. Our trust will initially have four trustee directors; Jesper and I as the seller trustee directors will be working with two employee trustee directors who will serve a two-year term, enabling different staff members to rotate in the role. In due course, we will also appoint an independent trustee director from outside the company, someone experienced in running a company at director level.听听

EOT exit benefits听

Selling a business to an鈥�employee ownership trust is a tax-efficient exit strategy that offers significant benefits鈥痶o the exiting shareholders, the employees, and the business itself. It works well for shareholders looking to exit from a business while safeguarding the company鈥檚 legacy and taking care of its employees. It鈥檚 also a great option where there is no obvious opportunity for a trade sale or management buy-out. Business owners who are heavily involved in the day-to-day management of the company can gradually transition away, providing an extended period for leadership succession to be implemented.听

Between 2014, when the government first started promoting the EOT, and June 2020, the employee ownership sector in the UK grew by over 300%. Well over 90% of that growth came from companies adopting the employee ownership trust model. To me, it seems like鈥痑 refreshing, controllable alternative to other M&A options, and it has certainly given Sandberg an exciting鈥痜uture to look forward to鈥�!听

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Knowing how to prepare an annual report is a key skill for anyone in a leadership position. It seems that such reports have been getting longer with each passing year (), but this doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean companies are able to present the kind of information in them that stakeholders are looking for.鈥疘nvestors will, of course, carefully analyse the financial performance of the businesses they consider funding, but they also want to understand the health and future of the company in question.鈥疶hey are looking for a holistic view, just like we are when visiting the doctor for a general check-up.鈥��听

Every January since 2016, I have put together an annual report for Sandberg, the company I work for. Sandberg is a privately owned, medium-size company, so the report is not written to attract investors, nor primarily even to inform the shareholders. It is written for our staff. I see my colleagues as our key stakeholders who invest their time and talent in the company in the same way as an investor might invest their money. They deserve to have this tool that provides information about the company鈥檚 financial performance and communicates our progress and future plans. The report is undoubtedly also useful for sharing with other interested parties like our bank manager, or could also be used for grant applications and showcasing our brand to the world. But for me, the main purpose of our annual report is to build trust and credibility with the people that matter the most.听

How to write an annual report听

Traditionally, an annual report is split into two halves.鈥疶he first part contains the company鈥檚 narrative, which usually includes the following elements:听

• a management discussion and analysis that provides an overview of the company’s performance and insight into the factors that impacted the company鈥檚 results;听
• a business overview of the company鈥檚 operations including products, services, market position and key achievements; 听
• a section on industry trends that reviews the developments in the industry and the impact they may have on the company鈥檚 future;听
• corporate governance information about the board of directors and executive management team;听
• a corporate social responsibility update about the company鈥檚 commitment to sustainability and its impact on the community and the environment;听
• and the company鈥檚 plans for future growth, innovation and expansion.听

The second part strips out the narrative components and presents the financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. The financial statements are particularly valuable to investors, as they provide detailed information about the company鈥檚 performance without obscuring it with any particular narratives or opinions. 听

• The鈥痠ncome statement鈥痵hows the company鈥檚 revenue and expense accounts for a set period. Using trial balances from any two points in time, a business can create an income statement that tells the financial story of the activities for that period.听
• The鈥痓alance sheet鈥痵hows the company鈥檚 assets, liabilities and owners鈥� equity accounts as at a specific date, illustrating the company鈥檚 financial position and health at that point.听
• The cash flow statement鈥痯rovides a detailed picture of what happened to the business鈥檚 cash during an accounting period. Cash flows are important for valuing a business and managing liquidity and are essential to understanding where actual cash is being generated and used. 听

Sometimes, however, these standard sections are not enough. What about clients; how the company measures their satisfaction with the service, product range and prices?鈥疉nd the employees; what are the productivity and employee retention numbers? Metrics like these could be leading indicators of the company鈥檚 future performance, and that is exactly the kind of information that savvy stakeholders like to see.鈥�听

Communicating with global stakeholders听

Our company鈥檚 experience with annual reports is not limited to the one I produce. A key part of our business is translating our client鈥檚 annual reports for their global stakeholders. The first quarter of the year is always the busiest period for this type of work and our teams can be booked up for months in advance as the reports are needed for distribution in multiple languages as soon as the original language versions have been written. The localisation of these documents not only requires financial acumen, but also storytelling skills, especially when it comes to presenting a clean narrative and a consistent client brand.鈥��听

Different language versions of the company鈥檚 annual report allow the business to reach a wider audience of investors, customers, suppliers and employees who may not speak the language in which the report was initially produced. If the company operates in multiple countries or has a significant presence in different regions, a multilingual report can help reinforce its global market presence. In some countries, there may even be legal requirements to provide financial information in specific languages. Providing the annual report in multiple languages ensures that stakeholders have a clear understanding of the company鈥檚 performance and strategy, regardless of their language proficiency. A well-designed, multilingual annual report can enhance the company鈥檚 brand image and reputation, demonstrating its commitment to communicating effectively and transparently with all of its stakeholders.听

How to write an annual report for global audiences听

When writing an annual report that will be translated into multiple languages, consider the following guidelines to make the translation process smoother:听

• Use simple and clear language: Avoid using complex words, lengthy sentences and idioms that may not be easily translatable. Stick to plain and straightforward language.听
• Be consistent: Use the same terminology throughout the report to avoid confusion during translation.听
• Avoid cultural references: Cultural references may not translate well and will have to be recreated for different cultures, so it is best to avoid them.听
• Use visuals: Visuals can help convey complex information in a more accessible way and can be understood without needing to be translated.听
• Use headings and subheadings: Organising the report into clear sections and using headings and subheadings can help keep the content easy to follow.听
• Work with a professional translator: Only collaboration with a trustworthy, qualified human translator will give you the peace of mind about the content being accurately translated and the intended message conveyed in an engaging way.听

Reports that engage stakeholders听

You may have noted that I deliberately didn鈥檛 claim that I write Sandberg鈥檚 annual report. Saying that would be taking the credit for the diligent work of our team managers who each prepare a management report for their department, which I then use to put together the final document by summing up their results and adding some context and narrative to them. 听

The tone and content of an annual report can give you interesting clues about the company in which you are thinking of entrusting your capital 鈥� or your working time and talent. Many CEOs work long and hard on their personal message which is often presented as a letter to the shareholders. This letter is the CEO鈥檚 chance to provide insight into the challenges and opportunities the company has encountered, an explanation of the causes behind the figures in the financial section and insight into the future of the business.听

If you鈥檙e not an investor but an employee working within a company, the annual report can impart valuable information pertinent to your career. Understanding how your company is performing and the impact your actions have had on its business objectives can help you advocate for a promotion or other form of鈥痗areer advancement.听

A company can enhance or damage its reputation and value through the way it behaves, but also by how it reports.鈥疘f you manage to instill confidence with your content, you improve your chances of engaging stakeholders. Market research shows that there is a direct link between stakeholder engagement and market value.鈥疘n鈥痑 of 85 investment professionals, 80% said that their perception of the quality of a company鈥檚 reporting impacts their perception of the quality of its management. This indicates a clear correlation between trust, reputation and value.鈥�听

听

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Driven by the urge to extract the essence of our purpose into an inspiring statement, I spent a fair bit of time last autumn thinking about what motivates us to do our work well.

You may be familiar with the concept of ikigai, that core thing at the convergence of What you are good at, What you love, What the world needs and What you can be paid for.

Your passion is the area where what you love overlaps with what you are good at. Mission is the area where what you love matches with what the world needs. Your vocation is where what the world needs intersects with what you can be paid for. And your profession is where what you can be paid for meets with what you are good at.

And where all these four areas intersect, you can find your purpose. In other words, Sandberg鈥檚 purpose had to be something the world needs, something we can get paid for, something we are good at and something we love.

Here鈥檚 how I worked it out:

People need access to goods and services in their own language. That鈥檚 the 鈥榳hat the world needs鈥� bit.

We get paid if having that access is an enjoyable and confidence-inspiring experience for them. This took some time for me to figure out. In today鈥檚 world, almost anyone can claim to produce translations. But for the translations to be successful, they need to inspire confidence in their audiences so that they end up influencing and persuading people. That will not happen if the translations make people question the quality of the product they are considering or doubt the safety of the instructions they are reading.

We are good at producing such an experience. When our teams do the translation, the resulting user experience is confidence-inspiring.

We love giving people that experience. This is what we relish about our work; to delight people with language, to make them feel comfortable and included, to make them feel they get the message, they understand the references, they enjoy the jokes. We love giving them confidence through what they hear or see.

This will now become Sandberg鈥檚 new official mission statement: To create confidence through content. It answers the question about our purpose and why we do what we do. It explains what we want to give the world through our work. It spells out the benefit of our work to our clients 鈥� that their multilingual content will inspire their audiences to have confidence in their products and services.

Our new mission widens our purpose to cover different types of content services, not just translation. And it’s motivational for all of us here at Sandberg because it鈥檚 aligned with what we feel is important about our work. Giving people confidence and positive user experiences is a purpose we can be proud of.

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One answer to these questions has just been published by in the form of Anna Wyndham鈥檚 which includes a growth roadmap for language service companies. The map looks at the operational decisions LSPs tackle as they grow (e.g. deciding on an organisational structure, reassessing technology strategy, implementing data security).

When Anna interviewed me for her field research, I was inspired to look back at Sandberg鈥檚 21 years as an incorporated company and discovered that we went through an operational reorganisation in the company on at least four pivotal occasions.

Structural reorganization

In the late 00鈥檚, Sandberg鈥檚 most pressing need was to retain staff by keeping them happy. Our translators and project managers were craving structure and professionalism in our operations and wanted to see progressive career paths laid out for them. In response, we formed a management team around the owner-manager and designed our first organisation chart. We also drew up contract templates, job descriptions and a staff handbook, and established our first company policies on topics like remuneration, family-friendly practices and remote working.

Service offering reorganisation

A few years later, it was time to reorganise the service offering to our clients. We separated our Account Linguist concept from the standard translation and localisation service and set it apart for the repeat business from our key clients. Implementing continuous localisation seamlessly into our internal workflows required new automated push/pull functionality in our business management system and deployment of new API collaboration with our biggest clients.

Business management reorganisation

After 15 years as a limited company, a new CEO was appointed at Sandberg in 2015. With that change came a change in leadership style.听 The company moved into data-driven management and all department heads starting tracking ingeniously set KPIs and reporting the results and quarterly improvement plans at management meetings. The first translation-service-specific ISO quality standard was published in the same year, and Sandberg was one of the first UK companies to be certified.

Production hub reorganisation

The following year we took our first steps in offshoring by opening a production hub in Bulgaria. The new company hosted project management, vendor management and technology staff and required a full HR presence to comply with the local labour laws and regulations in a region that was unfamiliar to us. We also formalised a shift in qualification criteria for these roles and started hiring applicants from commercial backgrounds for the positions that had previously been filled by Nordic and English translation graduates.

Do you know where your company is on its operational growth journey? It鈥檚 one thing to be able to look back and identify past milestones, but quite another to know what is still ahead. Slator鈥檚 roadmap is invaluable to language service companies because it delineates a growth journey specifically for us, taking into account the global nature of our business, our access to a world-wide talent base and the critical role language technology plays in our service provision. You may already know your next business goals, but to see them described on a map next to the actions other LSPs have taken to reach that goal is very helpful.

Laying an operational growth roadmap next to your revenue growth plans and scrutinising them together is a worthwhile exercise. They feed off each other, inform each other and provide you with a healthy reality check. Together, they should inspire you with a constant desire to keep going on your journey, which is essential for protecting you from the complacency that can easily start to stunt any company鈥檚 growth.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 30: Growing up 鈥� which stage are you at? appeared first on sa国际传媒.

Which serves to illustrate that whilst metrics can help create an impression, they can鈥檛 tell the whole story.

How to localise for international growth

Traditionally, the buyers of translation and localisation services used to focus on measuring the efficiency and cost of the localisation effort with metrics like average translation project turnaround time, translation quality pass/fail rate or adherence to the translation budget.

However, these metrics only served to reinforce the idea of localisation as a cost centre. Modern and mature translation and localisation buyers know how to look at the bigger picture and measure what localisation achieves at the different stages of the customer journey cycle.

For the early stages of the customer journey (awareness, consideration and decision), you translate or transcreate marketing, website and social media content that aims to generate new leads for your company. Typical performance metrics of the success of this work include page views or bounce rates.

At the customer retention stage, it鈥檚 important to measure your customers鈥� satisfaction with your localised product, for example by looking at retention rate and or product reviews. And at the loyalty stage, you want to track whether they remain engaged with your localised social media content or found answers to their questions from your translated support materials.

How to be customer-centric

Don鈥檛 be content with telling the same story everyone else is telling. You can create a more interesting narrative by measuring something a bit different from your competition. Most performance indicators we use in business inform us of how our company is doing. They鈥檙e company-centric. Even when we measure the behaviour and preferences of our customers, what we鈥檙e actually interested in is how those customers are performing for our company, not how our company is performing for them.

So when you try to measure how well your multilingual marketing content is performing out there, it鈥檚 easy to settle on measuring how many new customers it鈥檚 bringing to your website. Or how much new revenue your online product catalogue translated into six new languages is bringing to the company. Because that data is easily trackable in your digital marketing team鈥檚 reports.

But instead of telling your story only in terms of those company-centric KPIs, you could be measuring how well your localised content is performing for your existing and potential customers. That would be true customer-centric thinking that would in turn translate to a boost to your traditional company KPIs.

All existing and potential customers come to your website, help centre, knowledge base or e-learning course with a problem, need or question. How quickly or easily that gets resolved indicates how your content is performing for them. And that can be measured.

You could also track how the number of culturally appropriate online payment options for your product impacts your new client acquisition. Or how the social acceptance of your localised product interface is reflected in the number of 鈥渇riends鈥� or 鈥渓ikes鈥� it receives. Or you could carry out a sentiment analysis of the multilingual reviews your customers have given via your multilingual chatbot service.

How to measure localisation ROI

At a language services company, we apply customer-centric thinking when we advise our clients on how translating and localising their content helps them achieve their business goals. That includes ideas for which indicators to track and how to use those tracked statistics. At Sandberg, we鈥檝e just made this a little easier for you 鈥� we鈥檝e written an e-book full of hands-on tips for measuring localisation ROI. The underlying principle is that when you have a digital product or digital content, you focus more on the outcome rather than the output. In other words, you don鈥檛 just track how much translated content you have, you track how that translated content performs.

How to use what you measure

We live in a world where we track everything: the steps we take, the hours we sleep, the calories we eat and burn, the friends and followers we have, how many times our heart beats and how many people like what we say or write.

Measuring and tracking makes you aware. It helps you focus. It aids your decision-making. But beware 鈥� comparison will kill you. When my daughter was a teenager, she hung that sentence in a frame above her bed.

Comparison will kill you because vital statistics are personal. Whilst it鈥檚 important to learn from your marketing team what good looks like in terms of organic website traffic and social channel growth, and whilst you must pay attention when your sales team explains how many leads you need in order to generate the pipeline you want, the numbers they give you are not meant to be used for comparing to other companies and their numbers.

Those figures are given to you so that you can set clear goals for your teams and effective KPIs for tracking how your teams move towards those goals.

Your company has a unique combination of talent, resources and opportunities, but also a unique blend of skills gaps, challenges and commitments. Just as your vital statistics are individual, so should be your company expectations when it comes to KPIs such as conversion rates or market share or customer retention.

There is value in benchmarking, but you don鈥檛 need to pursue other people鈥檚 goals. Choose your own goal, figure out the ways to measure what good looks like in terms of that goal, and stick to tracking your chosen KPIs so that you can see whether you are moving towards your goal or away from it.

If you鈥檇 like tips on how to check whether localisation is a revenue-generating investment for your business, our Client Services teams would love to help. or email us at info@stptrans.com and we can figure it out together.

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It was due to a misunderstanding about the start time, probably arising from me and the organiser being in different time zones. We didn鈥檛 use a calendar invitation (always use one), I just received a Zoom link and the schedule for the multi-speaker event, and I failed to notice that the slot allocated to me was not the one I鈥檇 proposed in our email correspondence. We were two hours out of sync.

Consequently, at 9:00 on a Monday morning when I was comfortably lining up the day鈥檚 tasks at my desk, dressed in my gym gear for the virtual physiotherapy session I was due to have at 9:30, an email popped up in my inbox asking if I had trouble logging into the Zoom meeting. Even then, the penny didn鈥檛 drop. I logged in to the event, saw the audience nicely in attendance, and thought 鈥測es, sure I can log in, I鈥檓 ready for when my time comes鈥�. As it turns out, it had already come.

Fast forward past the eureka moment, a quick dash back to the event programme and a short period of frantic scrambling, and my potential no-show turned into a 60-min slide deck being presented at break-neck speed in 45 minutes. I had to skip some content and present off camera which I consider a real faux pas for online speaking. Furthermore, my phone rang in the middle of the talk with the physiotherapist chasing me for the missed appointment and the overloaded washing machine kept drumming in the next room with an ear-shattering spin cycle (always do the laundry outside of online meetings).

Not my proudest moment. I don鈥檛 take kindly to professionals winging public speaking, even when we are essentially making a voluntary goodwill contribution. You prepare, out of respect for the audience for whom you want to provide value, but also because your reputation matters.

Speaking in a professional peer context is quite an art form. I was reminded of this last week at the virtual event. At the language industry events, our knowledge sharing is always member-generated, and at times I wonder what motivates someone to spend hours to prepare a free online webinar, publish an article on an association platform, give a talk at a special interest group or do an interview with a podcast host, knowing that the audience may consist of knowledgeable peers and interested business partners but also of competitors? Perhaps it鈥檚 about staking a claim. Spreading ideas. Making a difference. Eradicating problems. Benchmarking self.

With virtual meeting opportunities multiplying in the past two years, we鈥檝e been challenged to re-evaluate and rethink our major language industry events. Many old-timers seem more attracted to intimate, organic and egalitarian ways of sharing views (just look at Clubhouse). It鈥檚 easy to glance at a speaker event programme and think 鈥渨hat鈥檚 new, I鈥檝e heard it all before鈥�. And it鈥檚 true, not every presentation is original.

However, it was evident from the talks at GALA Connected 2021 that the language services sector today covers so many evolving services, fast-moving technologies, diverse talent pools, interested stakeholders and hugely different client industries, that we all feel there are corners of our own industry we don鈥檛 know enough about.

Originality may be a bit overrated. Not everyone is original in business either. You don鈥檛 need a听unique business idea to run a successful language services business. In fact, knowing that clients have paid for a similar service before is reassuring. It means that there is demand for your offering and if clients are buying it from others, they may buy it from you too. Most language service companies run their operations on the principle of giving their clients what they want and competing on being either

But we must differentiate on other kind of value too. It鈥檚 essential for enabling localisation buyers to make informed choices. The way to differentiate here is to explain how we create value added, over and above the baseline value the client can get from any LSP. That value added needs to match at least one of the localisation buyers鈥� pain points, whether it鈥檚 to give them everything they need as a one-stop vendor, be a specialist partner who knows their vertical and becomes part of their community, be a regional expert who helps them enter a specific market, or to transform the efficiency of their localisation operation with technology.

Here in the UK, the Association of Translation Companies is organising a 鈥樷�� competition that celebrates the language service companies that specialise 鈥� and who, as specialists, provide services to their industry partners. We at Sandberg are proud sponsors of the competition, having helped LSPs around the globe for 25 years with localisation into听the Nordic languages and English.听It was befitting that our Operations Manager Susan Hoare was on the judging panel, since adding outstanding value is something her own teams have been praised for. Their production excellence has repeatedly earned them high client feedback scores like听鈥榓dded value provided by this team:听5/5鈥�.

Whether in service provision or public speaking, value added is closely linked with authenticity. It鈥檚 not enough to talk the talk 鈥� the talk must be substantiated with stellar evidence. Speaking of which, GALA Connected 2021 showcased dozens of language industry professionals who had clearly distilled months and years of personal experience into their inspiring bite-size presentations. Here are a couple of quotes from what they said that I find both insightful and actionable:

鈥淚ntroverts can be immensely drained by being constantly in video calls. They are not used to looking at their own reflection all the time, it makes them feel they are always on stage.鈥�

鈥淟anguage service buyers want agility, accessibility, engagement, quality 鈥� in this order.

Language service providers offer quality, process, price, agility 鈥� in this order.鈥�

鈥淎 flat discount for MTPE does not work. And the parameters based on edit distance are even worse, because they introduce unpredictability and still don鈥檛 correlate with the time spent by the post-editor.鈥�

鈥淒ata services are the shining new thing that can transform our lives and give us purpose for the next ten years. Maybe.鈥�

I for one treasure the curated content that language industry associations and organisations make available to us. Maybe it鈥檚 because I鈥檓 old enough to remember the days when all the knowledge sharing we had was anecdotal. I continue to enjoy that kind of confidential sharing within my personal networks, but I鈥檒l also persist in contributing to and engaging with the industry鈥檚 flagship events.

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Dear Santa,

I was looking forward to coming home to see you, but as the Finnish borders remain closed to non-resident foreign nationals听(e.g. husbands) and visiting ex-pats would have to spend most of their time in quarantine, I鈥檝e given up on that plan. With your low numbers of COVID-19 cases, I understand why you wouldn鈥檛 welcome people home this Christmas.

How are you coping with the travel restrictions yourself? I bet you鈥檙e anxious to toe the line and set a good example鈥� but some jobs simply have to be done. I guess your sleigh rides qualify as work-related travel, so on those grounds maybe the authorities will let you fly.

Here at Sandberg, we decided not to post out our usual Christmas hampers but have opted to send our staff virtual gifts instead. We hope to minimise spreading the virus and save the shops鈥� delivery slots for those who are self-isolating. In doing so, we鈥檝e also reduced international air traffic which should leave you more space in the skies when you set off on your big night.

How has it been at your workshop this year? Have you had to redesign, to accommodate the two-metre rule? We closed our offices nine months ago and moved everyone to work from home . But we have continued to recruit new staff throughout the year, which has made learning how to train colleagues without being next to them in the office an interesting challenge! I鈥檓 proud to say our teams have done extremely well.

It鈥檚 been such a grumpy year here in the UK. I expected our main struggle to be in preparing for business with the EU from 1 January 2021, but now I know better. Whilst there鈥檚 still no clear guidance on what will happen in just over a fortnight, the country battles with disunity and distrust around many other important decisions too. And we have lost more lives to COVID-19 than virtually any other European country, whilst the government鈥檚 borrowing has reached unprecedented levels.

However, I鈥檓 mindful of those who鈥檝e had an even tougher year. This month, we are once again fundraising as a company for Translators without Borders鈥� Christmas campaign. Have you seen the goodies my Nordic workmates have baked for that project!? Please distribute some holiday cheer to everyone who has helped by donating on our .

Santa, your elves always seem so chirpy and happy, what鈥檚 your secret? My colleagues sometimes get disheartened and I鈥檇 like to be better at supporting them. I try to impart direction, inspiration and training through Teams, webinars and video, but it鈥檚 not always easy to gauge how it鈥檚 received and whether it鈥檚 enough. I appreciate every opportunity to hear from the teams beyond what I get to see in numbers and reports.

You know what I鈥檇 like for Christmas 2020? To have your powers. I鈥檇 like to be able to see my colleagues where they are. Not to see who鈥檚 naughty or nice, but to know their mood and how they are. Throughout the year I know they will have skipped lunch to make sure a translation project kicks off promptly or stayed up late to sort out our virtual infrastructure. I鈥檇 love to hear what they think at those times, and what their longsuffering spouses think too!

At our online catchup meeting last week, my management team opened the virtual doors to their private lives and shared photos of how they鈥檝e decorated their homes this Christmas. We had pictures of inventive 3D advent calendars, fully decked trees, stockings, Christmas cakes, home-made paper stars鈥� and I was even introduced to the concept of Christmas-themed Japanese bento lunchboxes (pictured right, as fashioned by Tomomi, the sister-in-law of Sandberg鈥檚 Operations Manager).

Wow, it felt great to peep past our professional lives and share private interests and aspirations!

Santa, I know that you rely on your teams, and I do too.听 Many of my colleagues and fellow localisation industry members live a long way from home and are not able to visit their native lands this Christmas. It鈥檚 always a hard time of year to be away from family, but they will likely feel it more this year than ever before. It would be lovely if you could remember them specifically and drop extra goodies down their chimneys as you do your rounds this year.

Thanks and see you around,

Anu

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 27: Home for Christmas appeared first on sa国际传媒.

These words come out of my mouth quite frequently to certain people.听I鈥檝e found that humility can be my greatest friend when I鈥檓 faced with difficult decisions.听Let鈥檚 be frank about it 鈥� most times the decisions are difficult because we don鈥檛 know which way to go.

If you鈥檝e lost direction or need help with progressing in the right direction, you could do worse than turn to coaching or mentoring. There鈥檚 a range of support opportunities available, which my friend , a qualified relationship coach and strategy consultant, pictures as a continuum:

鈥淎t one end there is Counselling 鈥� empathetically listening and gently helping the individual to find their own voice. This is often non-directional and non-outcome focussed.

At the other end of the spectrum we have Consultancy 鈥� telling the individual what they should do.

In between these extremes, there is Coaching 鈥� helping the individual through open questioning to find their own solutions to achieve their own goals.鈥�

What Neil describes as coaching, I鈥檝e also heard being referred to as mentoring. To me, the difference between coaching and mentoring is so academic that I鈥檒l use the two terms interchangeably, although it鈥檚 probably just as vexing as people assuming that translation and interpreting are two words for the same thing.

Mentoring can be formal or informal, often to do with career growth and skills development. Sometimes it can be so informal that you鈥檙e not even sure whether you have a mentor or not. What鈥檚 most energising about the process is its purpose: to help you explore what may be holding you back from fulfilling your true potential. After all, the world doesn鈥檛 need a dulled shadow of you; it needs the most fully alive version of yourself you are able to give.

Being mentored

I have benefitted from coaching/mentoring twice in my professional life: most recently five years ago when I took on the role of CEO. My key question at the time was 鈥榓m I cut out for this?鈥�. Mentoring helped me examine the ideas that were limiting me or blocking me from achieving what I wanted to achieve. My biggest takeaway was that 鈥業 can do it鈥�, and that in the areas where I鈥檓 not able to attain the highest level of mastery, I should build a team around me who are. That鈥檚 what I鈥檝e been working towards ever since and I鈥檓 very grateful to have such an adroit management team running Sandberg with me.

Being a mentor

Can any leader who wants to 鈥榞ive back鈥� become a mentor? You need good listening skills and the ability to delve into problems, options and solutions with your mentee, for sure. And a structured plan wouldn鈥檛 go amiss either.

A few years back, I joined Women in Localization鈥檚 , which pairs established localisation industry professionals with those seeking guidance for their careers in the field.

One of my mentees was Marta (not her real name), a thirty-something translator who was questioning whether she wanted to translate any more. Having travelled extensively 鈥� which freelance translating suited excellently 鈥� she鈥檇 settled down and now lived permanently abroad. With no intention of returning to her native country, she felt her language and cultural skills would eventually fade, and she wanted a job that didn鈥檛 rely on her native language.

Marta had tried her hand at content creation, but felt it was not for her. She鈥檇 worked for a while as a data analyst and concluded the same. She had enrolled on a master鈥檚 degree programme in localisation hoping that it would lead to an in-house position at a language services company. But studying just wasn鈥檛 as inspiring as it had been on her bachelor鈥檚 course.

Over the months, we explored Marta鈥檚 interest in taking up a managerial role. I was able to assure her it wasn鈥檛 unrealistic to consider a career change in her thirties 鈥� I鈥檇 done the same. We spent time figuring out who she was as a person, and she finally concluded that although she was capable of performing as a part of a team or company, what she really wanted was to do her own thing.

When I last spoke with Marta, she was thinking of becoming an author in a field that really interested her, perhaps getting a book published one day. She said the mentorship had definitely been worth it, and even though I鈥檇 often lamented our lack of structure and milestones, for her just being able to talk to someone from the same industry but at a different stage in their career had been valuable.

Reversing the roles

Reverse mentoring is the opposite of traditional mentoring. Instead of a senior staff member imparting their wisdom to a junior recruit, the senior colleague listens and learns from the junior one. The primary objective is to enable senior managers to stay in touch with their organisation and the outside world, which often means educating them about something like technology or diversity. But the advantages go both ways, as more junior co-workers have an opportunity to understand and be heard by their senior colleagues.

I remember bringing the idea up at our management meeting a few years ago, and the first response from my peers was: 鈥楽o Anu, are you admitting you can鈥檛 keep up?鈥�. There lies the rub: reverse mentoring cannot be implemented in an organisation without humility.

A while back, I chatted to Texan coach and team-builder . Having seen her in action, I know what an awesome mentor she can be. We were comparing notes and discovered that our respective experiences with structured coaching programmes had sometimes left us flat. Shelly surmised that perhaps the best mentoring right now happens organically.

With that in mind, I encourage you to go and seek out a mentorship for yourself. Right now.

Seven months ago, we were all facing the global pandemic together, bracing ourselves for the challenge of saving lives. Now our experiences have diverged: different countries and regions are at different stages of the fight, battling with varying degrees of restrictions and sacrifice. We encounter discord and seemingly impossible asks, and we need to get through them without ending up exhausted and burnt out. A powerful mentorship won鈥檛 erase the trouble and chaos, but can help us find our own path amidst that chaos.

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It was only a tender, the size of a large rowing boat, and we were coming down the Hamble in Hampshire having moored our yacht further up in the river. But we were still hundreds of metres away from our home harbour and it was dark. The leak started small and first we continued at full throttle, pumping the water out manually. But then the pump stopped working. The boat was filling up fast and we knew we wouldn鈥檛 make it to the jetty. The options were to aim for one of the moored yachts we were passing, clamber onto it, call for help, sit and wait and watch the tender sink. Or turn to the shore which was further away and try to reach the muddy riverbank before hitting the bottom. The Hamble is a tidal river and it was low tide. The sun had set and there were no other people in sight.

We decided to try for the bank. I gathered the possessions I most wanted to save in my arms, ready to swim if need be, trying to think of a way to keep my phone dry. I was wearing too many layers of clothing to be comfortable with the prospect of getting in the dark water. We couldn鈥檛 move in the boat as the smallest movement threatened to tip one of the sides under the water. I didn鈥檛 fear for my life but was stressed about losing what we had with us, including the outboard engine and the tender itself. And I worried about causing trouble and possible danger to other river users in the morning.

Maybe your business feels like a sinking ship right now. The cold water may have been seeping in for a while but suddenly you find yourself in a situation where it鈥檚 rising fast. Your life is not in danger but if the business were to go down, there would certainly be serious collateral damage.

What do you do? You may have the option of turning to a larger vessel and piggyback on them for a while; you can borrow or you may be able to get an investor to inject cash into the business. There鈥檚 also the option of abandoning the ship and leaving it to sink. But if you decide to keep fighting for the best possible outcome, you have to get the boat to the shore where it can potentially be fixed or at least disposed of properly. And you want to achieve it whilst minimising damage to the crew and assets you carry onboard with you.

Which, weirdly, brings me to the topic of corporate governance. You might be a company director who accepted that position without knowing exactly what you signed up for. Or you may have set up a company recently and are wondering how to organise its governance. If you don鈥檛 have a commercial background, you might not even realise that corporate governance is not the same as company management.

The role of the board of directors in a company is to provide vision and direction, to decide the strategy and structure, to delegate authority to the CEO who heads the operational management of the business, and to be accountable to shareholders and other relevant stakeholders.

In the UK, a private limited company must have at least one director. When initially registering the company, the incorporation documents must name the first director(s). The way in which subsequent appointments are made is governed by the company鈥檚 articles of association.

In family companies, what usually happens is that one or two of the shareholders also become the directors of the company. In the SME private sector, they may even be employed by the company. One person can thus simultaneously be a shareholder, director and manager 鈥� three roles that have separate responsibilities and interests regarding the company. When a company allows for such combined roles, it is very tempting to take pragmatic shortcuts in board procedures and decision making. This really obfuscates things for the onlookers 鈥� everyone recognises the company has a power cluster, but no one quite understands how the roles in that cluster relate to each other. Hence even the staff end up referring to the governing group imprecisely as 鈥榖osses鈥�, 鈥榦wners鈥� or 鈥榣eadership鈥�.

Many start-ups have an all-executive board where every director also has a managerial or employee position in the company. A potential problem of this structure is that the executive directors can be perceived to be monitoring and supervising their own performance. They may also find it difficult to separate operational perspectives from strategic ones.

If your organisation is small and it doesn鈥檛 seem prudent to appoint several directors, an advisory board is an excellent option. Its structure is more flexible and its advice non-binding. Consequently, its members don鈥檛 have legal fiduciary responsibilities either. The company, CEO and shareholders benefit from the wise counsel of these non-executive experts and can compensate for their contribution by mutual agreement. When setting up an advisory board, I recommend you approach people who have been successful in areas where you feel less confident. Aim high. You will be surprised by how many of them say yes.

Back in the boat, we made it to the shore, but with no time to spare. I gashed my leg scrambling out and we spent ages trying to bail out the water and haul the vessel higher on the mud so that we could tie it to something until the morning. I openly admit that the hardest physical endeavour that night was not mine. I was lucky to share the boat with someone stronger and more experienced than myself.

Running into difficulties in business is not always your fault. Our boat had been fine when we last used it, and there was no sign of water when we started the journey home from the yacht. A business can be hit hard by external factors that are out of your control 鈥� we鈥檝e all learnt that in the past six months. It鈥檚 important to know that as soon as a company becomes insolvent, the director鈥檚 responsibilities are extended to others beyond the company; in addition to the regulators and the shareholders, the director becomes accountable to the creditors as well.

One thing holds true for both business and sailing: the smaller the boat, the more it matters who鈥檚 with you in it. If you are in the position to choose, choose wisely who you have on (your) board. When you get into a tight spot, they can make the difference between life and death.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 25: Who鈥檚 on board? appeared first on sa国际传媒.

There are many parallels to our COVID-19 world: in the Wonderland, walking away from something brought you towards it. In our world, we keep those we love at a distance as a sign of caring. For Alice, running helped her remain stationary. For businesses, even the most vigorous running may this year result in merely staying stationary (and many would in fact be grateful for that). And the government decision-making on coronavirus containment, e.g. the rules of the current UK , has at times been reminiscent of the incomprehensible mind puzzles of the Red and White Queens of the Wonderland.

If we have indeed stepped through the looking glass into a new story, what鈥檚 the plot going to be like from here on? No one seems interested in dwelling on what has been. As businesses, we are encouraged to author the story of what happens next. But the challenge in real-life storytelling is that, in order to be useful, our stories need to be true. And, by definition, true stories will always be about what has been.

This means that before sketching the next chapter, each of us might benefit from a little reflection. You may think that humans automatically learn from experience, but that鈥檚 not true. We only learn if we reflect on our experiences. Ergo, instead of peering through the looking glass, I decided to have a little peek into it. I am not in a position to see what the mirror might reflect back to you, but here are a few things it reflects back to me.

There鈥檚 now

I believe that pride in who we are defines our present and our future. Consequently, I set it as my goal to be able to look back with pride on how we at Sandberg responded to the COVID-19 challenge. Three months down the line, I am viewing the European lockdown months as a period when we continued to trade professionally and treat our colleagues, clients and suppliers with exactly the same dignity as before. I am pleased with that.

There were also days when I got too emotionally attached to the performance of the company. I felt I was only a good leader when everything was going well. Those days taught me that my mood as a leader casts a longer shadow than I think. I must learn not to disconnect from the team when I feel low and not to change things erratically for them when I feel impelled to action.

In March 2020, I told my colleagues that I know I ask them every day to trust my ability to steer the company. Furthermore, I ask them to trust that I鈥檓 doing it with integrity and benevolence. In order to nurture that trust, I started a corona vlog for the (by then 100% remote-working) Sandberg staff where I talked to them weekly about what was happening in the world, how the company was doing and what I was basing my decisions on. Here are a few clips from those videos.

Then there鈥檚 next

With the easing of lockdown measures, we are entering a听period of unpredictable and possibly muted economic recovery that gives rise to new threats and opportunities. But I have every bit of faith in Sandberg鈥檚 future. That is why you see us going ahead with our in-house recruitment plans and why we鈥檝e had five interns join us for the summer. The next group of new colleagues starts in July.

Then we face the question of how to bring people out of isolation and back into our offices. We鈥檝e started by asking whether we even want to bring people back to the office and what the purpose of the office is for a company that can clearly operate without one. We have always maintained we need offices for training and supporting new staff. But having to maintain a metre-plus human distance on the premises would negate many of the reasons why we prefer onsite support to virtual support.

Cabin fever is of course a terrible thing and for many of us having even one colleague in the same room is better for our mental health than working totally alone from home. Some colleagues are restricted in what kind of a home office setup they can have, and going to the office 鈥� even if it was them alone in there 鈥� would be a better option than working from their bedroom or kitchen table.

There鈥檚 no normal

The image at the beginning of this article referring to life in lockdown as being in prison may seem in poor taste. The only allusion I want to make is to the feeling of not being in control and to having limited decision-making power concerning the future.

The notion of 鈥榥ormality鈥� is built on the assumption of steadiness. Without steadiness, there is no normal and the only thing we can rely on is our agility to adapt. With that in mind, we鈥檇 be wise to invest in planning for what we should do differently if there was a second wave of COVID-19 with further lockdowns in the next 12 months. We should only learn the hard lessons once.

Earlier this summer, I was discussing furloughing staff with a colleague. He noted that although I seemed to be concerned about the circumstances of individuals, I would obviously invariably put the company鈥檚 interests first. That is true, I would. It is my duty, as a director (for corporate governance) and as the head of the management team (for operations). Whilst my job has taught me to treat the company as a legal entity that has a life separate from the lives of its stakeholders, I鈥檝e also learnt that in serving the former I serve the latter. The stakeholders 鈥� clients, employees, collaboration partners, shareholders and the community 鈥� are always at liberty to engage with Sandberg or to walk away from it, but if they engage, it鈥檚 in their best interests that I keep the company healthy, purposeful and attractively transparent.

The world we see through the looking glass is characterised by fast-changing shifts in cultural norms, societal values and behaviours. There鈥檚 an increasing demand for responsible business practices, and many companies, including us, are working on a renewed brand purpose. This should benefit employees as well as clients. At the risk of sounding insensitive at a time when so many jobs are being lost, I surmise that work could now become the place where we feel more like ourselves than anywhere else. In an unpredictable world, having a job that aligns with our values can have a key role in helping us live out who we are.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 24: Through the looking glass appeared first on sa国际传媒.