McElroy at 40 Years–A Historical Perspective
“Translation is the second oldest profession.” That quip is oft cited by those in the business of translation. In any event, the need to communicate across cultural and national barriers has indeed long existed. Even in this context, McElroy’s celebration of 40 years in business is remarkable. Why?
As an “old timer” with 20 years at McElroy Translation Company I can tell you firsthand that the industry as it exists today looks nothing like the world I entered two decades ago. In fact, there is not a single competitor that exists in its original form from my early days with the company. That “staying power” makes McElroy unique as the only company that I am aware of that has been able to sustain and thrive based on a strategy of organic growth.
McElroy has remained focused on core competencies while developing healthy client diversification. Founded by Ralph McElroy in 1968, the company started translating for the chemical industry with flagship clients that included Celanese and Monsanto. In the 1980s a medical focus was added and the 1990s was an era of patent and litigation client acquisition. Software localization followed as the next emerging market when international product launches became status quo for the high tech world. Many translation and localization companies were founded in the mid to late 1990s to address this vertical niche and to help high-flying dot com tech companies spend their money. When the tech bubble burst, colossal translation industry fallout followed. But with its diversified base, McElroy continued to thrive.
Market diversification is one ingredient of McElroy’s success. Management structure is another contributing factor. There is a distinct difference in the outlook between Language Service Providers who are owned and controlled by a founding individual or small group of partners versus one that has transitioned to outside professional management. While McElroy remains tightly held by family, professional outside management has been in place since 1980. McElroy successfully matured from the “Owner Operator/Translation Agency” stage as a professionally–run language services company. We were on the leading edge of technology when we first invested in ELJOTS™, our proprietary workflow system. McElroy’s focus on process and project management principles was ahead of the rest of the industry. Currently we are ahead of the curve as thought leaders in viewing Machine Translation not as a threat or just a way to do translation at a cheaper word–rate, but as a potential to extend our service offerings through innovative use in workflow.
At a keynote presentation in 2004 for the conference honoring Saint Jerome at Universidad de Vera Cruz, Xalapa, Mexico, Alex Gross reviewed the history of translation, pointing out what comparatively minute progress had been made over the centuries in understanding the nature of translation while there has been manifestly so much progress in fields such as medicine, mathematics, and engineering. He presented this slide which shows Translation Knowledge as a flat line since 2000 B.C. relative to other fields.
(http://languag2.home.sprynet.com/f/xalapa.htm for more info and the complete presentation.)
While my industry experience of 20 years supports this rather extreme graphical glimpse of technical development in translation, I truly believe that an era of unprecedented change is upon us. McElroy will continue to serve clients with traditional workflows and focus on quality. But a Statistical Machine Translation revolution led by Google, Microsoft and private companies like Language Weaver will make “fitness for use” a standard which leads to completely new market opportunities. McElroy has already identified new clients whose translation needs have emerged as feasible for the first time because of advancements in technology.
