Interview Rebecca Petras

The future of the language services industry

Olga Pechnenko-Kopp became Chief Executive Officer for McElroy Translation (of Austin, Texas USA) last October. As an under-40 leader with deep entrepreneurial experience, she brought a fresh perspective to the venerable language service provider. In this interview with her, we learn about changes in the industry and how it recovers from the economic downturn.

2009 was a tough year for the industry. What does it take to pull out of it in 2010? Will the language industry be able pull out of it in 2010?

Pechnenko-Kopp: I am an optimist by nature. I think that comes from growing up in Russia where you learn to see the best in everything. The silver lining of hard times is that you find out who can make it. McElroy Translation has been through many recessions in the past forty years, and we always came out strong – even stronger. As for our industry, I believe that 2009 showed U.S. companies that they need to continue to stay focused on global expansion so they don't depend completely on one country's economy. In general, the condition of the industry might not improve significantly, but each company's major focus will determine its own success in 2010.

Who inspires you in your work in the language services industry?

Pechnenko-Kopp: Gary Hoover, an Austin-based lifelong leader and entrepreneur, inspires me in this industry and beyond. He said that in order to understand and learn about your industry, you've got to learn what other industries are doing out there. Renato Beninatto, one of our industry’s leaders, said something similar in a recent presentation where he cited innovation that comes from the outside world as a key to growth. That helps me recognize an important fact: Our customers are transforming our industry now. We are serving clients for different industries and they bring their own unique industry perspective to our business. In addition, I see forces like Google innovation, the continuing growth of online users, and the continuing expansion of the global economy playing important roles in molding our industry.

What do you believe are the biggest changes occurring in the language services business right now?

Pechnenko-Kopp: As a CEO I am always looking for efficient ways to run the business and what I see right now are more and more innovative solutions for language service providers. We are working with a couple technology providers, such as Plunet, to streamline our operations. These solutions improve and change the way we do business. For example, workflow systems integrate separate business functions. For too long, it has been acceptable to take too many steps in the process, from quoting to invoicing. But I see a big move to streamlining the entire process.

Where will the industry be in five years?

Pechnenko-Kopp: I would like to educate the world more about the language services industry. We offer an important service to companies interested in capturing more international market share. I also see younger generations moving into a more active role among translators. With that, more online collaboration will take place. The content keeps growing at an enormous rate and since the industry won't be able to produce translators at the same rate, it will have to make some adjustments in terms of process and productivity. Machine translation, human translation and translation memory will merge together more and more to provide the clients with the most cost-effective way to translate all this new information without sacrificing quality.

It has been four months since you assumed the role of CEO at McElroy Translation. What changes have you made? What have you kept the same?

Pechnenko-Kopp: We have been very busy the past four months. We made many changes, but the challenge was to make it seamless for our customers. I was pleased to hear from one of our clients that they did not notice any bumps in our service. That was a testament to the hard work of our internal team. The biggest change I made was in the structure of the company. Now we are set up to run our operations as efficient as possible. Meanwhile, I did not want to change our culture—it was critical to maintain our very established culture. We have some employees who have been with McElroy for 30 years.

What changes are you planning for 2010?

Pechnenko-Kopp: Focus, focus, focus. That is our strategy. There is so much going on in the business and I believe that you only get the results you want when you have a clear focus. We have many wonderful opportunities in front of us. One of our main goals is to become ISO-9001 certified.