Lingo24: a translation services micro-multinational, active around the Globe

In 2001, at the age of 22, young Scotsman Christian Arno launched translation agency Lingo24 from his bedroom in his parents’ house. Two years later, the agency had employees in New Zealand and China, and by 2005, more than 20 people on its payroll.  Soon, the company had a website in three languages and four offices abroad.

Today, Lingo24 directly employs more than a hundred members of staff and has a network of over 4,000 translators around the world.  Its clients are based in more than 60 countries. It provides round-the-clock services and has branches in Panama, China, the US and France.

In 2009, the company, whose head office is still in Scotland, achieved a turnover of 4.67 million euros.

A global SME, a micro-multinational

Lingo24 is a global SME that now operates in practically every timezone, managing several teams. It occupies a clear place in the ever-growing category of micro-multinationals. Christian Arno, its founder, has been recognised as an entrepreneurial figure in the eyes of several British daily newspapers.

Of course, these days the Internet is the company’s strategic field of operations, with its customers arriving in ever-increasing numbers via the web.

What steps did the Scottish SME take to establish itself at this level?

Dan Aldulescu, Lingo24 Marketing Manager, provides some answers.

“Addressing the global market? A natural progression”

“Any company offering a good product or a quality service will sooner or later find a need to globalise. If the company in question is large enough to have the financial resources to launch into markets outside of its home country, the expansion process will be straight-forward: once its marketing resources are strategically in place, it won’t take long for the public to hear about it”.

“The real challenge facing SMEs wishing to open up internationally is using the appropriate strategies, all the more so when, in addition to localising marketing and communications material, they also anticipate setting up physical offices“.

Accordingly, in 2008, Lingo24 opened an office in Panama and an additional office in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Seizing niche opportunities on which to base international expansion

Initially, the international expansion was aimed at diversifying markets in order to reduce the risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations. Gradually, however, the Scottish company developed a highly realistic deployment strategy, from analysing the following:

• “Identifying countries where employees master the linguistic and technical aspects and where salaries are competitive (such as Romania) in order to be able to cater to Europe and North America
• Targeting poorly exploited markets such as Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
• Adapting linguistically and culturally to each new market or office as well as adapting staff proportionally to requirements”.

Global Internet marketing, but with an approach tailored to each country

For Lingo24, the Internet is key to reaching out to international prospects.

“Localising (adapting to local customs and cultures) regional search engine optimisation of websites was one of the main strengths of the globalisation strategy”.

The company’s online presence is achieved primarily through a search engine positioning strategy, as well as targeted keyword pay per click campaigns.

“Today, over 50% of searches entered on Google are in languages other than English. More than a third of these are entered in another European language”.

“Adapting the online marketing strategy into foreign market languages offers competitive advantages”.

“As searches demonstrate, the majority of consumers (approximately 85%) look for information in their own language before making a decision to buy online. Speaking these prospects’ language determines their confidence in the company and the services or products it offers”.

A paid-for geographically targeted digital strategy

“With a quality US online marketing strategy, sales in target markets soared”.

“For the US, this increase reached 1,000%. For Scandinavia and the Netherlands, growth exceeded 500%. Overall sales in Europe also recorded a sharp increase of 300%, and now represent 37% of total sales”.

Managing remote teams in all four corners of the world

To support its development, Lingo24 had to adapt its organisational structure. Managing a world-wide network of service providers is no easy task.

The following teams have been set-up or expanded:

The Sales team, which also includes native speakers for Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany in order to be able to respond ever better to the requirements of potential clients.

The Project Management team, which takes care of production, the translation service itself. Project Managers have access to a network of 4,000 freelance translators who can provide almost any language combination.

The Linguist Management team, which is responsible for recruiting translators and ensuring that the work of all its translators meets with the quality standards set by the company.

• The Marketing team, which is in charge of ensuring the online visibility of Lingo24 in addition to other activities associated with brand image.
• The Human Resources team, which is responsible for the recruitment needs exhibited by each team.
• The Finance Management team, which oversees the effective management of the company’s accounts.
• The IT team, which provides technical support and develops new technological solutions for the increasingly efficient running of the business.
• Management is provided by the head of each team, who report to the Senior Management in the form of Managing Director, Christian Arno, and Operations Director, Jack Waley-Cohen.

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Mass customization, business model of the future ?

I recently bought a laptop on Dell Computer’s website. No problem. Ten days later, the device was delivered.

Among the many options within Dell’s order process, I could choose de design on the back of the laptop. My choice, though, was limited to a range of propositions, going from a full purple colour version to an arty futuristic composition. And what about a drawing of mine ? Or a picture of my childrens ? The view from my appartment, during the last vacation ? No clue…

Would Dell be in a mindset of Mass Customization, this feature would have been available on the website, may we think.

What about design mass customization ?

All right. Perhaps plastic printing technologies is not that developped yet. So far, any electonic device manufacturer isn’t abble to deliver a washing machine in the exact olive green colour I wish to fit with my walls. Though, several online companies live now on the model “the customer is the designer”. Not the least are textile producers like Threadless, Lafraise or Spreadshirt. He/she can bring his/her own symbol, drawing, tattoo, message (as far as not copyrighted) and make it printed on the clothes. Cafe Press users, another example, sold goods for 100 millions $ of self customized T-shirt.

Mass customization is taking ground. Examples flourish, where one can custom its own wine, its music instrument or a piece of furniture.

Frank Piller, a researcher from the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, is confident that mass customization is heading to a bright future. Even if we are still in early days :

“The market for mass customization still is a tiny niche, but growing rapidly. Confirming the research we recently finalized for our SERVIVE project (an EU funded project on mass customization or apparel), the Spreadshirters confirmed our assumption that customized products are still addressing a very small fraction of the market only. The core task today is to educate the market, not so much surprising it with ever new offerings. Most consumers just have never heard about the opportunity that there is something else then ready-made stuff on the shelves. Sounds strange to you when you are reading this blog and this lengthy posting until here, but these people exist. And they are the majority!”

Personaly, I look forward to see car manufacturers letting their customer order and choose online the colour and the flavour of their new vehicle’s outfit….

Crowdsourcing and supply chain

The toy producer Lego is not doing something else, by the way, with his succesful Lego Mindstorm platform, where fans can design their own robot, machine, truck, etc.

But the Danish company adds something on top of that. The best designed products will be put into production and broadly marketed, with a royalty fee given back to the original designer. There, mass customization meets crowdsourcing and the boundaries between client and vendor are shrinking.

Should mass customization  take off, the impact for the supply chain management, transportation, logistics, will be substantial. Or maybe not. After all, we already live in a time-to-market economy, as Dell, Nike or Levi-Straus show. With mass customization, the challenge will be to open the array of choice, not restrict it to a preselected list of features,  in order to allow a real personnalisation of the items. That is a new way to innovate.

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