Michael Launer: “Re: Doing Business in Russia”

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999
From: “Michael Launer” <mklauner@russtechinc.com>
Subject: Re doing business in Russia

My wife, Marilyn Young, is a subscriber to The Johnson List. Some time ago she printed out a number of messages regarding the perils of doing business in Russia. The attached message is a response to one of those messages that dealt with interpreters. I hope that the information in my comments will be of use to the people who subscribe to your list.

Sincerely,
Michael Launer

Back in July T. S. White offered this list a series of memoranda on the
difficulties and hidden traps that must be overcome when setting up a
business in Russia and then actually conducting business there. One of the
difficulties identified was interpreting. Mr. White highlighted the
following issues: price; linguistic competence – both specialized and
conversational; kickbacks; cultural problems including loyalty to Russia
vs. the US in all its guises (the classic problem known as “Kak obdirat’
inostrancev” [How to rip off the foreigners]).

Mr. White expressed the opinion that the only solution to this problem was
to play one Russian interpreter off against another, relying on their greed
to engender a financial, if not personal, loyalty to the client. I would
like to comment on this situation, both generally and specifically. I do so
from the perspective of an American who has taught Russian in the US for
nearly 30 years, has provided professional translations of technical and
business texts for even longer, has been a State Department interpreter
since 1987, and has run a successful translation and interpreting company
(RussTech Language Services, Inc.) for over five years. So this doesn’t
sound too much like an advertisement, let me assure you that any reputable
translation company specializing in the Slavic languages could provide the
expertise and services that our company can provide. RussTech is one of
the largest companies in this category, but there are others.

First, regarding language services in general. Anyone with international
business experience will tell you that effective communication on all
levels and in all media is crucial to success. If you can provide
poten-tial clients and partners information in their native language, you
will be much more successful than if you rely on their knowledge of
English. No matter how expensive it is to do business overseas and no
matter what the constraints on startup budgets may be, language services is
not the area in which to skimp. Does it really make sense to jeopardize a
multi-million dollar deal just to save a few thousand dollars on the
trans-la-tion of a complicated contract proposal? What about the needless
expense involved in repairing or replac-ing equipment that has been misused
or serviced incorrectly because the operator or mechanic had to make do
with English language manuals? The replacement cost of some valves or
printing presses is over $250,000, so your warranty expenses due to a
single avoidable incident could exceed any reasonable profit expectations.

RussTech has participated in major international construction projects
during all phases of a business venture – initial contact, negotiating a
deal, bidding on projects, creating design drawings and operating manuals,
and the actual conduct of the business activity. We tell our clients going
in that they should budget 4% of total project revenues for language
services, then work with their provider in the attempt to keep those costs
nearer to 3%. Getting close to 3% means organizing the document production
process in the client’s offices so that there are as few revisions and as
little ‘rush’ work as possible. We had one client who never seemed to have
enough time to do things right the first time, but always had enough time
to do things over. More commonly, however, the client’s staff would work to
‘monolingual’ deadlines: if the plane left JFK on Friday evening, then
finishing a set of blueprints on Wednesday was considered plenty of time.
But they were traveling to Kiev and beyond, not to Cleveland-and Wednesday
just won’t be enough time for the translation company to do its work properly.

Still, think about those numbers. On a two-year, $30 million project, that
comes to between $900,000 and $1,200,000 for all language services,
including travel and living expenses for the interpreters. I know that this
seems like an inordinately high price. But how much of a real-world $30
million budget is spent on legal services, how much on marketing, and how
much on flying business class, staying in the best interna-tional hotels,
or schmoozing the client in Paris? All the best lawyering in the world
won’t be worth a penny if the interpreters or the translators don’t do a
good job. The services of a skilled translation/interpreting team
con-sisting of people who know their linguistic job, who know the culture
of the country in which you plan to operate, and who know how you operate
in the US can be the best bargain in your whole budget. It is, ulti-mately,
the quality of the product or service you are selling plus the quality of
the translation / inter-preting team representing your interests that will
determine the profitability or the futility of all your efforts.

On more specific matters ….

Like costs. Remember that all services obtained overseas will be cheaper.
But sometimes, as they say in the Fram commercials, it’s a situation of
“Pay me now or pay me later.”

Translating. Whenever possible, have translations done by people who are
native speakers of the target language. And have them edited by a native
speaker of the target language. That is the only way to ensure that the
document will sound right. Of course, if the text is fairly trivial, and
all you really need to know is “Did he say yes or no?”, then it doesn’t
matter who translates it. Also, keep in mind that a translation you obtain
directly from a free lancer, especially one in Russia, has been seen by one
set of eyes only – the translator’s. [One caveat: in my experience, working
with many translators both here and overseas, it is much more likely that a
Russian will not understand the meaning of an English sentence than that an
Ameri-can will not understand the meaning of a Russian sentence. This is
true more or less irrespective of their translation skills. The rea-son for
this situation is very simple: Russian engineers write literate Russian,
whereas many US engineers write such cryptic, slangy text that only a
native speaker of American English has a chance of figuring out what they
really meant to say.]

Serious documents need to sound right in the target language. The best
chance of obtaining such a document is to have both the translator and the
editor working into their native tongue. Furthermore, if a high volume of
documents is envisioned, only an agency can provide the staffing and the
configuration manage-ment you will need. A company like RussTech that
builds and maintains its own electronic glossaries will produce more
consistent documents over the duration of a major project. Moreover, it
takes really close cooperation with the client to get top notch (i.e.,
publishable quality) documents. Either the client’s tech-ni-cal expert or a
representative of the client’s client must be available to answer questions
from the translator or editor. No matter what anybody may think, there is
no way a translator – even if (s)he has a degree in the appropriate field-can
know what the technical expert has learned over the course of a career. At
our university, the plant biologists can’t talk to the marine biologists or
the human physiologists. And in the case of new or emerging technologies,
dictionaries won’t provide even the marginal assistance one nor-mal-ly
derives from them.

Finally, if you ever have to choose among minimally competent translators,
choose an individual whose native language is the same as yours.

Regarding “local” interpreters. Any substantial language company can
provide local interpreters whom they have screened for reliability and
linguistic competence. And they will cost less than sending inter-pre-ters
from the US, but more than it will cost if you use your connections to find
someone locally yourself. But keep in mind the fact that rates in the CIS
are less stable than in the US; there is a fair amount of upward pressure.
Some experienced interpreters are even asking for ‘international rates’ but
not having much success. Currently, the going rate for well qualified
interpreters in Moscow is $200-250/day. In Ukraine, the price is about
$50/day less. Using an agency in the US, you should always be able to
obtain the services of a good local interpreter in Russia or Ukraine for
$350-400 per day (the agency will clear about $100-150 out of this sum).
Don’t even think about the students, teenagers, moonlighters, girlfriends
of your travel agent, or anybody who works for Chernobyl Union. What it may
cost you in the long run (and the short run, too) is much more than you
could possibly save.

VERY IMPORTANT. Whatever your budget, for your first meeting with a
potential client or partner, and for any serious negotiations, you need to
have an interpreter ‘on your side of the table’-someone you can trust,
someone who will represent your interests alone, someone who will tell you
what is happening when the other side caucuses or starts ignoring you,
someone who understands and respects the importance of confidentiality.
Remember, your interpreter is going to hear and interpret all sorts of
proprietary information, trade secrets, pricing proposals, and other
information about your company or your capabilities that you certainly
don’t want divulged to outsiders. For your peace of mind, that person
almost certainly needs to be American born or an immigrant who been in the
US long enough to have become fully assimilated into American society. It
is simply a fact that many recent immigrants haven’t let go of the Soviet
way of doing things, and this is one time when it is better to be safe than
perhaps sorry.

Using US-based interpreters. Even here, all things being equal you are
better off with someone you got from an agency than from someone you found
yourself, despite the possible additional cost. By the time you can assess
the quality of the interpreting, it may already be too late to salvage your
deal. The agency, however, has a vested interest in your continued
business, so it won’t ever use anybody it can’t vouch for [at least, not
more than once!]. I know that we screen all interpreter candidates and use
only those that pass our review. Then, we rely on client feedback: was the
individual friendly, helpful, hard working, willing to go sight-seeing or
participate in souvenir hunting? Some interpreters-both US and foreign
based-think that interpreting is a 9-to-5 job: either they can’t be
bothered helping you order dinner overseas or they think you should pay
them extra for the inconvenience!! We have even had interpreters insist on
extra pay if they are asked to drive foreign visitors around town.

In addition, a full-service agency can provide a wide range of other
services, not the least of which is taking advantage of time zone
differences to provide overnight translations of draft documents or meeting
minutes you will need the next day. You do yourself a disservice if you ask
your interpreter to translate documents ‘in her spare time.’ First of all,
very few interpreters are also competent translators; secondly, the
document may have to be translated from the interpreter’s native language;
thirdly, a perhaps most important, you will have a very sleepy interpreter
working for you the next day.

US agencies charge $550-650/day, plus expenses, generally keeping no more
than $100 out of this fee. With the pass through of so much expense money,
the margin on interpreting just isn’t very high. You won’t necessarily
save a lot of money by going directly to a free-lancer yourself. There are
two reasons the agency makes so little from an interpreting assignment. The
first deals with market factors: inexplicably, officials in an American
high-tech company who think nothing of paying an ‘architect & engineering’
firm upwards of $1250/day for a consulting engineer some-how believe that
anybody who can speak a language can interpret, so why should they pay a
lot of money. Secondly, almost nobody can afford to keep W-2 interpreters
on the payroll [remember, interpreters seldom translate], so they engage
contractors. Thirdly, most companies provide interpreters as a service in
order to get the translating work, where the margins are better because you
can afford to keep translators on your payroll.

In the ideal situation, once you find an interpreter you like, you should
strive to work with that one individual only. This is directly contrary to
the advice given by T. S. White, but he had in mind the random Rus-sian
interpreters foisted upon him by those more intent on taking advantage of a
situation than providing real services. Still, there are many reasons for
sticking with one person. First of all, the interpreter will get better
over time as (s)he learns the jargon of your industry or discipline.
Secondly, once you find someone you like as an individual and care to
travel with – you can be on the road with your interpreter for weeks at a
time – those qualities may become more important to you than always getting
exactly the perfect translation from someone whose presence you can barely
tolerate.

Conclusion. Think long and hard about the language services you will need
to function in an international business environment. The interpreters and
translators you engage are the people who will present your company and you
personally to all potential customers, suppliers, and partners. As T. S.
White implied, they can make or break any international venture-and not
just in Russia or the FSU.

Please address any comments, criticisms, or inquiries to:
mklauner@russtechinc.com

Sincerely,
Michael K. Launer, Ph.D.