Liz Elting, Co-CEO, TransPerfect: Staying Fast and Future-Focused

CHIEF TALK BUSINESS LEADERS share KEY LESSONS THEY’VE LEARNED

INTERVIEWS BY LEE LUSARDI CONNOR

LIZ ELTING, TRANSPERFECT STAYING FAST AND FUTURE-FOCUSED

Liz Elting started TransPerfect with her co-CEO Phil Shawe in 1992 after the two met as MBA students at New York University Stern School of Business. A veteran of several years in the translation industry, Elting felt there was a business opportunity for a service-focused enterprise that was capable of taking on complex projects. The company launched with $5,000, provided by Elting and Shawe. By 2013, TransPerfect had offices on six continents and revenue of $401 million—all without any outside funding. As the world has grown smaller, TransPerfect’s range of services has expanded. It now includes not only translation and interpretation, but marketing, staffing, legal services, and more—and they’re not done yet. “We are always in growth mode,” Elting says. The secret of TransPerfect’s success, says Elting, is no more mysterious than this: great customer service. Here, she explains what that means.

Know What Clients Need First Our goal is always to WOW our clients, and there are two main ways we try to do that. First, we maintain a consultative approach to working with the client to determine what’s best for them, which becomes a partnership as the years go on. We ask questions, make sure we understand the needs of the situation, and offer clients the best solution for them. With our proprietary technology—for example, terminology management tools—we can ensure consistency, increase quality, and save time. If we have technology that can cut costs in half, we use it. That builds trust and wows the client.

Our commitment to clients has at times helped direct our corporate strategy by motivating the establishment of new offices or service offerings. For example, one of our clients, a major multinational corporation, needed to do an

SAP implementation in Brazil. We decided to relocate a senior-level client service representative—a native Brazilian and a Portuguese speaker—to a completely new office in São Paulo. We’ve done this on several occasions, where a major strategic opportunity was best served with local service that we did not yet have.

The other thing we do, which has been a core value since the beginning, is to cultivate a sense of urgency. We handle each client as if that project is the most important thing we have going on. If somebody requests a quote, we respond right away, often within 30 minutes. Starting out, we felt that this was one of the ways we could differentiate, and it still is. And now that we’re in 85 cities on six continents, we have shifts around the clock, so it has become much easier for us to maintain 24/7 service.

Promote from Within Almost everyone we bring in is just out, or recently out, of college. They are Millennials, enthusiastic and tech-savvy, they know what their peers want, and they are our future. Phil and I interact with new employees constantly, because we know this will help us get to the next level.

As the company has grown, virtually all our promotion has been from within. People who are motivated, hungry, and We cultivate a sense of urgency