Does Your Public Relations Translate?

	

Does Your Public Relations Translate?



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The core value that public relations provides is honest, efficient, timely 
representation of the client to all the client's various audiences. Such a 
service is invaluable. In good times public relations reinforces the 
relationships of the client; in bad times it provides damage control and begins 
rebuilding trust. And, as we have seen recently in the dramatic collapse of once 
prominent companies, professional services providers did not serve their clients 
well by becoming complicit in their self-destruction.

Dr. Ram Baliga, Professor of Management in the Babcock Graduate School of Management 
at Wake Forest University says, “For global interaction, know the cultures, histories 
and politics of your foreign partners as thine own." 
http://www.mba.wfu.edu/apps/facdetail_print.cfm?id=1009There is a fine line, however. The closer a public relations firm is to its client, 
the better able it is to understand and represent the client, but maintaining ethical 
and professional standards is much easier in the abstract than in the meeting.

This is, of course, true of any business or personal relationship. We either bring 
out the best in each other or the worst. We readily forgive each other but hesitate 
to sound the alarm before the crisis begins. The translation services business 
is no different. The client is the final arbiter of what will be said. This is 
as it should be - it is the client's company and they sign the checks. But a 
client can unwittingly destroy its reputation, lose the trust of its customers, 
and even become a laughing-stock by the simple decision not to listen to its 
translation services experts and their public relations allies. 

All companies have a blind spot - for some it is not knowing the language, for 
others it is not understanding the culture, and for a very few it is not understanding 
that ethical behavior is not optional but is the basis for doing business both 
with customers and with professional service providers. 

Much too often foreign language customers and markets are an afterthought. 
In a public relations crisis they are often overlooked altogether in the urgency 
of responding to issues seemingly closer to home. But, every market is close to 
home no matter the language or geography. 
Public Relations firms whose responsibilities encompass all the relationships 
between their clients' customers, stakeholders, employees, government agencies 
and the like, need to have close working relationships with translation service 
providers whose standards of ethics and professionalism match their own. 

For some international fun… Go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjRjD5Lo38c&mode=related&search=%20.


May the Holidays bring happiness to your heart.

Martha. 

 

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About the Author, if using, please include:

Martha E. Galindo, President and CEO of Galindo Publicidad, Inc.
A multilingual translations agency, selected twice as a Florida 100
company by the University of Florida. Author of “How Do You Say…?” an 
eNewsletter designed to help you improve your business communications 
in other languages,
Subscribe  http://www.translationsandmore.com/subscription.html
 
GPI, Inc. Request a free project quote- 
http://www.translationsandmore.com/contact.html
 
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