Why Businesses Need a Language Strategy, Article Writing Example

Introduction

The title of the article in focus is “Global business speaks English: Why you need a language strategy now”. Just from the title alone, I figured that the article would be talking about how organizations, especially multinationals shape themselves to combat the issue of communication. After reading through the article, I found that the article is talking about the need for organizations to embrace the idea of intergrating a communication strategy in their overall strategic plan. The article itself is geared to help especially human resource proffesionals  and top managers in infusing language into its core talent practices. And as a business student the article has broaden wide my thinking on how to approach communication especially from a multinational platform.

Language strategy for business

In the past, translation has been the primary source communicating with customers who are foreigners. This strategy did not yield the expected results. Only because more often than not it was not well incorporated into the total business course. Companies are discovering that the old-fashioned human translation practice cannot deliver the scale and adeptness of internet driven clients. To resolve these matter companies have opted to integrate language strategies into their system so as to avert lost market share, lost opportunities for revenue collection and client complaints. According to Neeley, English has come to dominate the business language as the official lingua franca. In order to penetrate foreign markets that speak English, global companies that don’t have an English background have decided to integrate a language strategy that will help them achieve this feat. In the words of Neeley for multinationals to avert communication challenges, they ought to put in place a clear language strategy. She further states that, even though it is a daunting task to those companies that eventually endorse this approach, they gain competitive advantage in the long run. In a rejoinder, she said that even the most senior in terms of rank in an organization need to consent to the idea that learning another language not only improves their communication skills but performance as well.

I strongly agree that the society is becoming more and more multi-lingual even though business communication is primarily dominated by the English language. This is despite having more than 20 international languages. With this fact in mind it has become imperative for global corporations, especially the ones that are not in English background to formulate a language strategy that will assist them penetrate the foreign markets. In context of a recent research done by common sense advisory it points that English has well dominated the internet with over 80% of on-line content being done in English. Despite this unwavering phenomena the research also points out that more than 75% of online customers are more likely to purchase products from websites that proliferate their native language. Having this kind of revelation I believe global corporations should see to it to initiate a language strategy in their organizations. This is to cater for those foreign sophisticated customers lest risking and alienating a significant portion of the target audience. I think Language strategy needs to be a basic part of global corporations as they offer turnkey solutions to attain a global competitive edge that not only attracts customers but also retain them for further repeat businesses.

If I had the opportunity to ask the author some questions, I would want to know why companies should choose to send their old seasoned expatriates to their global companies. Is it possible for companies to train the local natives the business language in the familiarity of structural philosophy along with the familiarity of the business’s products, processes, and systems? After all, Neeley clearly states that one does not need to be a native speaker or have a mastery of a language to transact business. What people need is relatively a limited number of words of a language according to their knowledge base. And finally is this process applicable to every language known to mankind?

Conclusion

In a recap of my earlier statements, the linguistic dilemma is a recurring matter that never simmers or go under simply because it is all about people. It is what commands and impacts the identity, profession capability, and communication on a daily basis. Language is a dilemma that should be tackled head on by global companies, and organizations ought to embrace language strategy. According to the article, a business communication strategy must fit with the company’s value structure to clients if it hopes to penetrate various markets. The organization must learn how to infuse language into its core talent practices in order to attain success.

Reference

Neeley, T. (2012). Global business speaks English: Why you need a language strategy now. Harvard business review, 90(5), 116-124.