The Business Wisdom of Saying It Right 
                  

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One of the cleverest sayings that succinctly represent what a company does is one 
used by the giant chemical company BASF. I noticed it in one their television 
commercials recently. I can just imagine them sitting around with their 
advertising copywriters and trying to come up with something memorable and 
relevant to the business of providing industrial chemicals for all kinds of 
products. 

Someone probably said something like, "We don't really make any distinctive product, 
we just provide something that makes someone else's product better." A pregnant pause
would have come over the room as the "Eureka!" moment dawned. "That's the line! "We 
don't make widgets, we make widgets better." Now their television commercials feature 
all sorts of products made by their customers and each product name is inserted in the 
tag line. Whether the product is roller skates or clothing or automobile tires the line 
adapts beautifully: "We don't make roller skates. We make roller skates better." 

The reason that line is so effective for me is that translation services fall into the 
same category of services that make many things better for many kinds of companies. 
Marketing, Advertising and Sales functions use our services to tell their foreign
language customers and markets about the products and services of the company. The 
Human Resources department needs translation services for all the recruitment, 
orientation, policies and procedures of the company employees. Employee communications 
people need us to communicate with their increasingly diverse employee base in all their 
globally diverse locations. The Training department needs all its skill development, 
safety and quality programs produced in the various languages of the employees. At 
Galindo Publicidad we don't make employee policy or marketing strategy for our 
customers, we just make the communication of those strategies and policies and training 
and all the other communications of a diverse company understandable and clear to all 
those whose primary language is other than English. Often, we do make suggestions for 
additional content, different approach, or change of strategy in a marketing piece.

Even more invisible than the benefit of translation of words is the translation of 
meaning. The benefit of this difference often escapes the buyer who decides on a 
translations services company based solely on price. Nothing marks a communication 
more clearly as the work of a clumsy translator than awkward phrasing or syntax. 
A language is a living process and only those intimately familiar with its changing 
usage and idiosyncrasies can effectively convey the sense and the nuance along with the 
words. It is work that is not noticed when it is done well but only when it is not. 
The service may be intangible but the benefits are not.

So, prompted by such musing on things not noticed, this column is a thank you to all 
those critical but unsung services that make a company function at a level at which 
its employees can be proud to work for it and its clients or customers can feel 
absolutely confident to do business with it. I salute you accountants who keep the 
books straight, you Six Sigma folks who worry about every detail of quality, you 
sales people whose successes get noticed but whose diligent determination rarely 
does; you with the brooms who keep the place cleaner that it needs to be, you out 
there polishing the windows that let the sunshine reach every cubicle, and especially 
those of you in the lonely corner offices who earn your keep with late night worrying 
and early morning meetings and can still convey the sense of growth and energy that 
makes your company special.

And finally thanks again to BASF for the inspiration. You are not alone; many of us work 
to make the things that others make better. And here we make things better by making sure 
not only that everyone gets the word but that everyone gets the right meaning as well. 
The meaning that may be the driving force of a new business, the catalyst of change in a 
growing economy, the key to open new doors and welcome everybody. Enjoy this: Business
inspiration for entrepreneurial minds, http://www.springwise.com 


See you soon ! 

 
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. 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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