The Russian MICE services industry: Expert's view
Preparation of literature tailored for business events, such as conferences, presentations or localization of products and services requires special technical translation skills. How important, in your opinion, is the level of professional technical translation of such materials to ensuring the overall success of such business events?
In the first place, I should say that technical translation is the area for professionals well acquainted with the culture and mindset of target groups, with the subjects piquing the interest of their readers. Ambiguity, logical or verbal errors are totally unacceptable. Poor translation may give rise to awkward situations at business events that could irreparably damage a company's reputation. No one would wish to see a perplexed look on the face of a foreign partner on receiving poorly or outrightly mistranslated important documents. For instance, even the famous GM once fell a victim of translation fiasco during the launch of its new Chevrolet Nova car brand in Latin America because the words ‘ No va’ means ‘cannot move’ in Spanish.
How, as one of the leading players on the Russian professional translation services market, would you characterize today’s industry prospects, given the current economic, which has significantly reduced the overall level of business activity in the country?
I must start by noting that this is not the first major economic crisis being faced by our company, with over 20 years of experience on the Russian professional translation services market. For instance, all our money saved in a foreign currency account with Vneshtorgbank was lost during the 1998 crisis. Then, some customers went broke, while those that kept working with us were offered much lower prices and huge discounts for translation. However, when life later returned to normalcy, it became rather difficult to raise prices to the precrisis level. And, talking about the current situation, I would say that crisis favors the overall development of our company as it clears the market of nonprofessionals and ‘fly-by-night’ companies. On the other hand, it enables long-standing businesses with track records of industrial expertise and know-how to strengthen their market positions. Besides, freelancers currently have much fewer orders, so they get employed much more easily today, and this has improved the general quality level of translations. In economists’ lexicon, the translation business is called ‘anticyclical,’ meaning the worse the state of the global economy, the higher the demand for foreign investment, and so does the demand for translations, though this is not true of all industries. However, I must note that our regular customers have remained very loyal, as they keep working with us. We really appreciate their trust, which helps us feel needed and important on the market.
How would you describe the competition on the market and your company's competitive advantages in the industry?
Competition between translation companies started growing considerably in 2004, fueled by the increasing army of freelancers, who mostly work illegally. Indeed, this is one of the reasons why it is rather difficult to accurately estimate the real size of the market today. However, our company’s strengths include flexible offers based on expediency, attention to customer requirements and timely delivery of orders. Besides, our translators boast proven linguistic and technical expertise. Many of them have engineering education and industrial experience. Translations are performed using state-of-the-art text processing tools, including Translation Memory (TM) technology pioneered by our company in Russia. While working with customers, we build up terminology databases, which enable us to cut translation costs without compromising its quality. Technically, we are capable of executing any ‘turnkey’ project. Our translated materials are delivered upon customer request as electronic files in formats required by the clients as well as CDs and as full-color print editions.
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