Mapping Best Multilingual Business Practices in the EU

2.IMPACTOFMULTILINGUALISMONEUROPEANBUSINESSTheimpactofmultilingualismontheEuropeaneconomyThe ELAN study conducted in 2006 highlighted the effects on the European economy ofshortagesofforeignlanguageskillsinenterprises:- Asampleofnearly2000exportingSMEsfrom29Europeancountriesshowedthat11% of respondents (195 SMEs) had lost a contract because of a lack of languageskills.- 46%ofrespondentsintendedtoenternewexportmarketsinthefollowing3years,(withveryhighpercentagesofbusinessinGreece,TurkeyandBulgaria),andplannedtobegintradingwithnewcountries.- In one out of two countries surveyed at least 50% of respondents believed theywouldneedadditionallanguageskillsinthefollowing3years.- Inoneoutoftwocountriessurveyedatleast50%ofrespondentsclaimedtohavealanguage strategy (defined as ‘the planned adoption of a range of techniques tofacilitateeffectivecommunicationwithclientsandsuppliersabroad’).- Intheservicesectorthecontributionofmultilingualismtoaddedvaluewascloseto35%. Average losses in terms of turnover per company have been estimated at100000eurosperyear.- The commonly targeted languages were English, German, French, Russian, Italian,SpanishandChinese.LanguageindustryThe language industry proposes human services and technological solutions for businessneeds (translation, language learning, interpretation, subtitling and dubbing, localisation,multilingualconferenceorganisationandlanguagetechnologytoolsdevelopment):- human solutions and services: translation, interpretation, editing, localisation,languagelearning;- ICTsolutionswithhumanlanguagetechnologies:machinetranslation,spellcheckers,multilingualsearchenginesorcollaborativetools.ManagingmultilingualisminEuropeanprivatecompaniesInEurope,privatecompanieswiththefollowingthreeprofileshavemultilingualneeds:- SMEs specialising in exports (export of business services, trade, ecommerce,distribution,technologydevelopment);- panEuropeancompanies(production,R&D,innovation);- multinational companies with multichannel and subsidiaries distributed in Europeandintherestoftheworld.Managingmultilingualisminprivatecompaniesinvolvesthefollowinginternalandexternalneedsandsolutions:- Needs:- internal needs: corporate needs, production, raw materials, purchase andsales,marketing;7