Remember what's important this New Year

I’m back – it’s been a while since I’ve done my blog.  Apologies for that but over the past 12 weeks I’ve done a total of 36,000 miles, worked and visited 9 countries and I’ve only slept at home a total of 10 nights.  I’m not showing off (maybe I am a little) but it’s been a very exhausting and exhilarating time at thebigword and I have to admit that the last 3 weeks I’ve spent on holiday in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Malaysia - the most exciting and fascinating countries to visit.  Now I’m back, or should I say, working mainly between New York and Leeds, I want to be in touch with you on a weekly basis, as before.

Over the next few weeks I want to share with you some of the major issues and plans at thebigword.  2016 sees the bidding for some very large contracts which will have a significant effect on thebigword. 

It’s interesting how the language business has changed.  Whilst we still receive on average a request for a quote or a new piece of work every 3 minutes of the working day, a great percentage of our work comes through some very large contracts.  Those contracts are hard won.  It is no longer just a matter of high quality translation delivered speedily at a fair price, but due to the size of these multi million pound contracts the buyers need to understand that the language company has the infrastructure and technology to be able to deliver. 

Over the last 5 years we, at thebigword, have understood this and have therefore invested the majority of our profits into this area.  We expect to continue this high investment as nothing technology wise stays the same but we’re also looking to enjoy some of the fruit of this investment of this hard work. 

In the weeks ahead I want to talk about our view and the affects that machine translation will have on the market.  Under our technology Director, Mark Clayton, has written a white paper on this subject which I will share shortly.

I want to talk to you about the issues of ‘connections’.  That is how the client workflow works with our workflow, from the client sending us the work to us returning it.  The great challenge for companies like ours is that there is no one process that fits all so we have to have a flexible approach.  This means that both we and the client need to work in partnership to make this work. 

Enough of business, I almost didn’t make it to work as whilst I was in Malaysia we visited this beautiful lake called Pregnant Maiden on the Lake, that’s because the rain forest that surrounds the lake looks like the silhouette of a woman who is pregnant lying down.  The legend goes that when she gave birth into the lake, sadly the baby died.  She buried the baby in the lake and then decided to fall asleep and join her child.  They say that if a woman wants to have a baby if she swims in the lake she’ll get pregnant.  At my state of life, with 3 married children and nearly 6 grandchildren that wasn’t my plan when I plunged in to the water!  The lake was so beautiful I attempted to swim the 1.5 miles across the lake.  I am a fairly strong swimmer but as I realise half way through I couldn’t touch the bottom and the side of the lake was a mile away.  I did feel a bit panicky but I managed to calm down and make it across to the other side.  Then I realise it wasn’t the other side rather, just some trees sticking out of the water.  To cut a long a story short, my wife Michele was panicking as she hadn’t seen me for an hour and it was getting dark.  A very slim Malaysian got into a kayak to come and rescue me.  I knew someone would come for me eventually and it was interesting while waiting for nearly an hour alone, clinging to a tree, that I did reflect on, yes our technology is important and yes, the customer is important but I just hope I was bloody well going to make it back to land.  He eventually found me and brought a life jacket that I was able to get into.  The kayak was too small and he was too weedy to pull me along but with him by my side and the life jacket I got back to the shore safely.  The one big mistake I made was that as Michele came into sight and I wanted to cheer her up I started singing row row row your boat.  To say she was unimpressed was an understatement but after 2 days she forgave me.

While business and work is so important, so is enjoying life and staying safe.

I’d like to take this opportunity of wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and I look forward to talking to you next week.  Have a good one.