You’ve come a long way, baby!

As with humans, it is in the early days of an industry’s life that change is the most noticeable. In the ten years since the first industry round table, localization has changed beyond all recognition. Driven by and driving the spread of information technology, it has developed into a multi-billion dollar industry, complete with all the traditional trappings of maturity such as classically trained management, external funding and IPOs.

Alison Rowles’s keynote article in this issue documents many of these developments. In addition, a new brochure celebrating LISA’s Tenth Anniversary will be distributed for the first time at the LISA Forum Amsterdam, with additional copies obtainable from LISA Administration.

Casualties of change

These developments are something of which we should jointly and severally be proud. Nevertheless, change has its casualties, too. It is ironically, if sadly, appropriate that this issue—dedicated as it is to the progress and change in the language industry—also carries reports of troubles at two former localization high flyers. The suspension of Lernout & Hauspie’s stock on Nasdaq and Easdaq following the uncovering of what the company calls “errors and irregularities” in its accounting is a saddening blow for those other companies in the sector who have achieved international professional maturity. However, in the long term these events are unlikely to stop progress, and we can take comfort from the fact that another senior localization figure, Kati Forsteringova, has just been named Entrepreneur of the Year in the Czech Republic.

The departure, less than four weeks before LISA’s tenth anniversary celebrations in Amsterdam, of Jaap van der Meer as CEO of Alpnet is at first glance more poignant. The midwife and early visionary of the industry was well ahead of the pack when he led his company to become an early global player and technology leader. As President, however, he now has the chance to sell to major accounts and evangelize their concepts, while the recruitment of several new senior managers and Alpnet’s new technology announcements suggest the possibility of a comeback. And, of course, the new breed of globalization companies will not necessarily have it any better, as is eloquently argued by Mark Homack, CEO of Simultrans, in the opening article of this issue.

All change

Nor is it just individual companies that have had to master the often painful process of change: the localization industry as a whole is having to reinvent itself in response to globalization. The ubiquitous nature and speed of the Web, and its ability to enable the distribution—free of charge or against payment—of any digitizable product was bound to fundamentally change information, sales and distribution policies in the IT industry and elsewhere. Linked to this has been the repositioning of both IT and the language industry as backbone services, providing chips with everything and “localization out of the wall”. In other words, both industries are now in a sense enablers and service providers, often in concert with each other. This fact—along with the vast pool of potential non-IT clients and growing service provider sophistication—has fundamentally changed the balance of power within the industry.

Reinventing LISA

While many of the details remain to be worked out, the basic structure of this brave new pluralistic post-localization era is now becoming increasingly clear. Two variants of this vision, reflecting the different business interests of their respective authors, are given by Mark Homack and Roger Jeanty elsewhere in this issue.

Nevertheless, the fact that change is occurring does not necessarily mean it is universally accepted. This applies both to the industry as a whole and to the Association that represents it, LISA. At the forthcoming Amsterdam General Assembly meeting, members will have the chance to debate the Association’s future following the recent mandate to LISA Administration to reorganize the association and the sometimes acrimonious discussions of the past weeks and months.

As a self-confessed LISA groupie, my position is clear: LISA has to change with the times and the industry, so as to accurately reflect and address its growing clientele and their requirements. At the same time, it must take care to continue to integrate existing categories of members and to do justice to the interesting times in which we are all operating. With the requirements being placed on individual members and officers of the Association growing daily, LISA must be empowered to function as efficiently and professionally as possible, to support them in their work and to ensure their feedback while minimizing the pain threshold associated with active membership and/or the assumption of responsibility.

This in turn requires a vote of trust in the association and in LISA Administration. While all normal reasonable care must be taken to ensure that LISA conforms to legal requirements and best practice, the main onus of responsibility for the Association and its activities must be placed firmly on those people who are actually able and willing to do the job of running and growing LISA on a full-time basis as a professional, service-driven organization. LISA cannot be the core business of any of its members, but it has to be somebody’s. And if it were not there, we would definitely have to reinvent it.

In making this claim, I am drawing on many years’ chequered experience of European translation and terminology associations. With the greatest of respect to the valiant people who dedicate so much of their lives to running them, and the progress now being made in some areas, they are almost always underfunded and often fragmented. They also tend to focus inwards, backwards, and on the lowest common denominator. In the best case scenario they are ineffective, while in the worst case they can actually harm the growth of the industry and their members’ best interests.

LISA, however, is different. LISA understood there was a strategic language industry at the time when first my bosses (when I was a departmental manager for a software company) and later (in my own business) a number of clients used to think the term was an oxymoron. It was unique in providing a big-picture, business-driven view, and for uniting all fractions and factions of the industry. What is more, it did this not nationally or regionally, but on a global level. And today it is taking the next necessary step to make sure it can continue providing its unique blend of services. Not supporting LISA in its metamorphosis would in my view be a retrograde step, even though one can and should discuss the nature of the butterfly that will eventually emerge.

Personal consequences

That having been said, however, different levels of support are possible. In the five years since F&B started working with LISA, our company has grown from two people around a kitchen table to a highly profitable 20 man, woman and dog enterprise. To do justice to this growth, and to focus on our core competency as a provider of value-added language services in our chosen specialist domains, I must cut back on other activities. As a result, with effect from January 2001 F&B will be reverting to “normal” (if proactive) membership of LISA, and I shall be giving up the editorship of the Newsletter and the writing of Forum summaries.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking the LISA team for the trust they showed in our then extremely young company, and for their support and friendship over the years since then. The knowledge gained from working with the world’s leading language association has been of inestimable benefit in understanding the industry, and in building and running our own business. My particular thanks go to LISA Business Controller Alison Rowles, from whom I have learned so much, to LISA Director Michael Anobile, to the Newsletter’s layout specialist Arle Lommel and to LISA administrator Corinne Anthamatten. I would also like to thank the many, many LISA members and other language industry representatives who have helped me in my work, generally at impossibly short notice, and wish them and the companies they represent all the best for the future.

The LISA Newsletter, will of course go on under new management, and I am confident that it will soon outstrip its current format. I wish LISA and all who contribute to it every possible success in future.

Deborah Fry
Robin Bonthrone
Fry & Bonthrone Partnerschaft
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