I had made some comments in the LISA LinkedIn group (Global Strategies: Watch Your Language) about Don DePalma’s article that was published in the “American Executive” magazine ( http://www.americanexecutive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7124&Itemid=103&goback=%2Envr_60478_1243593038761_1 ).

We from the localization business know that it is important to localize. However, in many cases this message has not arrived yet at executive management level. Even if the hierarchy is flat, as a localization project manager or localization manager one cannot walk up to executive management and tell them that localization is important. And if you go through the normal channel then the message might never be delivered. Companies would like to penetrate foreign markets – be it from East to West or vice versa – but I think there is the notion that one can do it without localizing – taking a shortcut, which might work in the short term, but not in the long run.

Therefore, I think that localization and localization strategy should be part of curricula of e.g. an MBA degree and programming classes as well so that the future executives and programmers are sensitive to this aspect.

Don DePalma speakes of the “localization maturity model” ( http://www.gala-global.org/GALAxy-article-localization_maturity_model-5955.html ) where he describes how companies approach localization, and he hits the nail on the head.

The good thing is, you have already started thinking strategically. Putting a skeleton together of short, mid and long-term goals for the localization strategy that align with what the corporation is trying to do goes to go a long way towards the success of your localization efforts.

I would like to dive right in to addressing your concerns about regional and corporate support. Regions are often centers of power because they hold the money (because they are responsible for their P&L). Whether or not a coordinated, centralized approach to localization is appropriate may well be moot if your organization entrusts regions with those decisions. That said, there are three things you can do.

First, understand what benefit your organization brings to the regions. If your message is centralist in nature you won’t be bringing anything to the table of a regional manager. Use internal case studies that demonstrate cost savings, quality improvements, better time to market or removal of internal administrative headaches – whatever makes a compelling case for your company. Put that information, along with a short description of your strategy into an easy to deliver PowerPoint and make sure you know how to deliver it in a way that doesn’t put people to sleep… if there is one thing I have learned in this business it’s that most people don’t care as much as we do!

Next, make sure you have a thorough understanding of your company’s decision making structure when it comes to localization – however formal or informal that structure is for each market. Identify the people you need to convince by name and role bearing in mind that the structures may vary greatly between regions. While you are at it, work out how services are internally billed and managed and how much of a headache this is for the regions.

Last, once you know the people and their roles, put it all together and start talking to them. Oh, and don’t forget your day job!

Organizational change with regards to localization doesn’t happen fast, unless you have an executive that gets it and most don’t. So you have to speak their language and not the localization language.

Execs language is money. So you need a story that addresses money in some way to get anyone to listen.

Depending on the maturity of your organization with regard to globalization, you have a wide range of approaches.

1. Start in the area where you have some control over the factors. External spend goes right to operating costs or costs of goods sold depending on the work being done and the accounting practices being followed. If you look at your external spend numbers and they are really large, say $3 million and you identify ways that can reduce that amount by say 30% … with little investment, then you should be able to at least get the attention of an exec.

That analysis could entail … reviewing all the costs you’re paying translation agencies, translation, project management, tm management. What of any of those costs can you eliminate or reduce through better process or better tools. Tools investment, if you’re putting forth suggestions on this, be wary of how long the return is on the investment, if you can show a quick return, then a common sense exec should see that as a no brainer move.

These types of things are things you can influence and get the small wins. Then you’re getting the attention of the execs hopefully.

Then you need to be ready with the next things that impact costs.

Localization is a downstream team in most processes, the rate of change above is too high, and it’s causing us to translate and retranslate and put extra resources. We’d like to look at that process and try to optimize it.

This optimization is where you get your in to other departments and educate them on the impacts they are having.

There is no silver bullet. It took my teams 7 years to get the well oiled machine we had. Lots of education, lots of trial and errors. Lots of successes and some failures. As long as you aren’t looking for a silver bullet.

And be wary of service providors who call saying they can save you 20% on your costs. I used to ask, and how exactly are you going to do that … it will give you ideas, but what you’ll find, if you’ve already started doing optimizations … then the 20% isn’t there. But use the opportunities to get ideas.

Verbose and I probably could go on and on … but this is where we started and now we simship in 17 langauges.

My mid-range objective is to gain executive support, in order to achieve our long term goal of successful localization of our web presence. One of our short term goals is to build a series of quick wins to establish successful localization stories, in order to make gaining support of an executive easier.

However, this seems like a case of “the chicken or the egg.” We struggle with regional support, and corporate support, both from a funding and resource perspective.

Can you offer insight on some of the ways other companies are dealing with this part of the journey to localization success?