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Hub You - Spatial Requirements for an Effective Translation Agency
Over the past 25 years I have had the unique opportunity to talk directly with many of the professionals and instructors who use Overhead Projectors as an integral part of their profession. Through these interactions I have accumulated notes and information that has inspired me to write these articles that pertain to some of the most common problems experienced by owners of today's and yesterday's Overhead Projectors. This is the ninth article in a series of articles that will be written from a professional Electronics Technicians point of view in regards to some of todays most common Overhead Projector problems and questions.This is part
The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look and sound rather like a call centre. On t
Here are five ways prove your worth and get ahead at work from "The Office Coach:"Be Proactive This is the number one problem of new workers in the workplace. They spent their entire career up to this point in schools where they were spoon fed assignments and activities. They were always told where to go and what to do and now, suddenly, theyre at a job and they dont know that they are required to think for themselves. Believe it or not, Ive noticed it in some older workers too. We live in a different world now than, say, 20 years ago. This is a world of mergers, downsizing, technology that runs at the speed of thought. If
Any independent translation agency that employs more than one or two persons should have an office plan that allows for the segregation of the three basic operations: translation, marketing and sales. Anyone who plans to combine these three functions in a single space or indeed within a single person will soon discover his mistake. The concentration required for high-quality translation work is such that it needs to be performed in a space that is free from ambient interference. At the same time, the marketing and sales functions or departments if you like by their nature involve a great deal of verbal communication, telephone calls, consultation and discussion. Clearly, the three operations do not go together, and the basic spatial layout of a translation agency should reflect this simple fact. Below we will describe each of these three spheres in some more detail.
More than anything else, the people in the translation department will require silence. They cannot work, or at least not properly, if they are unable to concentrate. So positioning your translation area at the front of a building with windows opening on to a major thoroughfare is obviously not a good idea. Despite fashionable trends in office design, moreover, it is our strong conviction that the translation department should have a spatial structure that effectively discourages people from physically communicating with one another. Ideally speaking, each translator should have his or her own room where they can work in peace and quiet. If that is not feasible, at least make sure to provide an environment where people can work quietly and independently, rather like a library reading room. We are not suggesting that there should not be any communication at all; obviously, professionals need to consult with each other to improve their knowledge and skills. The important point, however, is that the translators should be able to communicate on their own initiative, rather than being disturbed at random and distracted, unpredictably, from the constant attention that the translation process requires.
Something rather like the opposite applies to the marketing & sales department or at least to its marketing section. This is a far more dynamic part of the translation agency. The basic function of the marketing department is to fuel a constant flow of ideas to attract business, and of techniques to put those ideas into practice. This calls for a great deal of consultation and planning, either internally or externally over the phone. The people working there should obviously not be bothered with calls for silence and reproachful glances, but should be able to chat and telephone as they please. The marketing department should be positioned and equipped to reflect its dynamic nature.
The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look and sound rather like a call centre. On th
The law of demand states that the quantity of a product demanded decreases when the price of that product increases. So when the BMW manufacturer raised the price of their cars over a two-year period, sales should have dropped off. Right?Not exactly. This strategy helped incredibly for BMW sales in South Africa. To keep sales from slipping BMW actually raised the prices in an effort to take on a more upmarket image.A growing number of middle-price brands are under attack from competing products in both the luxury and the discount markets. Customers are moving away from middle-of-the road products in favour of premium products or thos
More than anything else, the people in the translation department will require silence. They cannot work, or at least not properly, if they are unable to concentrate. So positioning your translation area at the front of a building with windows opening on to a major thoroughfare is obviously not a good idea. Despite fashionable trends in office design, moreover, it is our strong conviction that the translation department should have a spatial structure that effectively discourages people from physically communicating with one another. Ideally speaking, each translator should have his or her own room where they can work in peace and quiet. If that is not feasible, at least make sure to provide an environment where people can work quietly and independently, rather like a library reading room. We are not suggesting that there should not be any communication at all; obviously, professionals need to consult with each other to improve their knowledge and skills. The important point, however, is that the translators should be able to communicate on their own initiative, rather than being disturbed at random and distracted, unpredictably, from the constant attention that the translation process requires.
Something rather like the opposite applies to the marketing & sales department or at least to its marketing section. This is a far more dynamic part of the translation agency. The basic function of the marketing department is to fuel a constant flow of ideas to attract business, and of techniques to put those ideas into practice. This calls for a great deal of consultation and planning, either internally or externally over the phone. The people working there should obviously not be bothered with calls for silence and reproachful glances, but should be able to chat and telephone as they please. The marketing department should be positioned and equipped to reflect its dynamic nature.
The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look and sound rather like a call centre. On t
Who will your potential customers call when they want what you sell? Are you the only one they can call, or do you have competition? Do they go to your website, or someone else's? What can you do to encourage these potential customers to choose you instead of your competition?All of those are important questions. And, unless yours is the only business in the world doing what you do, you've got competition. I'd be willing to bet that at least some of your competitors are reaching out, trying to convince your customers to do business with them. Whether your customers do or not will be the result of many factors, but there's a lot you can
Something rather like the opposite applies to the marketing & sales department or at least to its marketing section. This is a far more dynamic part of the translation agency. The basic function of the marketing department is to fuel a constant flow of ideas to attract business, and of techniques to put those ideas into practice. This calls for a great deal of consultation and planning, either internally or externally over the phone. The people working there should obviously not be bothered with calls for silence and reproachful glances, but should be able to chat and telephone as they please. The marketing department should be positioned and equipped to reflect its dynamic nature.
The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look and sound rather like a call centre. On t
Business people seem to love complexity. No sooner is a simple business successful than its managers pour vast amounts of energy into making it very much more complicated. Take a company with sales of $100 Million and total profits of $5 million. The 80/20 Principle suggests that $20 million of the sales have produced $4 million of the profits, a return of 20%. And $80 million of the sales have produced just $1 million of the profits, a return of only 1.25%.Routinely, when executives are presented with the facts, they at first refuse to believe the data. Next they refuse to get rid of the 80 percent of the business that is unprofitablewledge and skills. The important point, however, is that the translators should be able to communicate on their own initiative, rather than being disturbed at random and distracted, unpredictably, from the constant attention that the translation process requires.
Something rather like the opposite applies to the marketing & sales department or at least to its marketing section. This is a far more dynamic part of the translation agency. The basic function of the marketing department is to fuel a constant flow of ideas to attract business, and of techniques to put those ideas into practice. This calls for a great deal of consultation and planning, either internally or externally over the phone. The people working there should obviously not be bothered with calls for silence and reproachful glances, but should be able to chat and telephone as they please. The marketing department should be positioned and equipped to reflect its dynamic nature.
The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look and sound rather like a call centre. On t
In the business broker community there is a review process that helps a buyer determine if a business purchase makes sense or not. This check can be done by a Fortune 500 company where everything is figured down to the penny and takes 1000 hours of research or it can be done by a small main street shop buyer who figures it out in 1 hour. Each item in this review process requires a decision. This decision can be based on extensive research or just on a reasonable guess.The beauty of this process is; how long you want to spend on doing this activity is totally up to you. As we review this process, I will explain the variables of this system s
The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look and sound rather like a call centre. On the other hand, sales employees need to be able to study client requests (especially the more complicated ones), calculate offers and draw up quotations, operations that are at least as error-sensitive as the translation process itself and require the same type of concentration.
To sum up, the design of your office will have to recognise the three basic functions which any professional translation agency, however small, should be able to accommodate: translation, marketing and sales. Ideally speaking, each of these functions should be granted a space of its own that does justice to the nature of its operations and provides an optimal environment for the associated work processes. In other words, the translation department should have as many rooms as there are translators, or otherwise consist of a communal working space with facilities, rules and customs similar to those in a library reading room. The marketing department should be equipped and designed to promote optimum internal and external communication, whereas the sales department also requires a separate space, if only to accommodate the non-verbal aspects of its processes.
Segregation is of the essence, and if you cherish any wish to use an open plan office design for your translation business you are well advised either to abandon that wish or move to a different profession.
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