Abstract
This paper analyzes how a translator company can cope with the problems that arise in its activities. The competitive advantages of the firm are also being investigated. It was discovered that the company’s strength is the part-time system of hiring employees, which allows the manager to minimize the cost of wages. In addition, translations are carried out in several languages​​, which distinguishes the Pedra team from similar organizations. The SWOT analysis used in the paper allows identifying weaknesses and formulating recommendations for overcoming the company’s current difficulties. Among the discovered shortcomings are unsystematic processes, limited experience, and failure to conclude contracts with clients. The company is encouraged to create an effective feedback system, analyze its experience and competitors’ practice, and reduce the number of areas of activity since the company fails to maintain a high quality of services. The discovered ways of solving the firm’s problems can be used to carry out similar SWOT analyses of the activities of other firms.
SWOT Analysis
Effective business management project development begins with a basic algorithm for studying the situation, called SWOT analysis. This is a complex of marketing and other studies of the strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise. Before implementing this algorithm, only the strengths and weaknesses of the company were considered to determine the business prospects. For example, the advantages and disadvantages were compared, and a conclusion was made about the company’s further development. Kenneth Andrews (1971) expanded the formula with two components: factors of influence from outside and inside. This innovation turned the analysis of strengths and weaknesses into one of the popular business valuation models.
This paper plans to conduct a SWOT analysis of the translation company owned by Pedra, a woman who immigrated from Russia many years ago. Comments will be given on the identified strengths and weaknesses of the firm, as well as recommendations on how the firm can improve. The discovered advantages and disadvantages are classified as internal; that is, their essence is associated with the peculiarities of the company itself and not any external circumstances.
Competitive Advantages of the Company
One of the company’s advantages is that Pedra’s firm provides translation services from 20 languages. The entrepreneur’s team is not limited to a narrow focus of services but hires professionals who can help even in specific areas of knowledge – rare languages. Pedra also has a wealth of experience in managing the company – she has been in business for more than nine years. This, in turn, means that she already has an established customer base and has the knowledge that allows her to cope with emerging problems skillfully. Translators work for Pedra as part-time employees, which is an advantage. Those employees who prove that they can cope with the work on a half-time basis can make up the primary staff of employees in the future (Carr, 2018). The main advantage of a part-time system for an employer is the ability to cut costs. On days when there are not enough orders or when the company does not need the services of a specific entrepreneur, Pedra will be able to save money.
The services provided by Pedra are in high demand, as evidenced by the significant profit made by the owner. Because Pedra receives a lot of revenue, it can be concluded that many clients turn to her team for help. Accordingly, either Pedra delivers unique services, or her translations are inexpensive, or she already has an established base of customers who trust her company. In any case, Pedra has certain advantages over other firms that need to be further used in activities. However, to function successfully in the market, it is necessary to ensure that customers are delighted with the process of purchasing a service (Irfan et al., 2016). Unfortunately, it has not yet been achieved; therefore, early changes are required to arrange the business efficiently. Considerable revenue, however, does not consistently demonstrate the absolute success of the company because, in the long term, stable growth is of much greater importance (Cremades, 2018). Still, clients often have nowhere to turn, and therefore such firms thrive.
Disadvantages of the Company
However, even though many problems have already arisen along with the hiring of several employees, one can judge that the company has more disadvantages than benefits at this stage. The case description does not indicate whether any testing was carried out among the firm’s employees to determine if they could complete translation assignments. If Pedra continues to hire entrepreneurs without additional checks, this could affect the quality of the services provided. The first complaints have already been received, so it is apparent that the clients are not satisfied with how the ordered work was done.
New employees appeared in the firm haphazardly, and the area of ​​the firm’s activity was also randomly created. This kind of confusion hinders the formulation of a price list for services. Moreover, the company can not decide what kind of services it provides. The work of experienced translators should be paid higher than those of newcomers to the profession. Feedback from real customers must also be considered – Pedra should not allow translators who received complaints about the orders many times to complicated projects.
Pedra undoubtedly has extensive business practice, but it was only recently that she acquired such a large team and began to focus on translation. Other entrepreneurs may be much more experienced, and therefore, because of this, potential clients may turn to them more often. Learning faster can only be achieved by seeking help from other entrepreneurs in the same field (Guiso et al., 2021), which is what Pedra should do. The path based on one’s mistakes is long and painful; accordingly, it is necessary to adapt to the changed business conditions as quickly as possible.
The company lacks a system for obtaining feedback, which is a disadvantage of the company’s activities. Customer complaints are handled by the founder herself, who has other responsibilities – this is unacceptable. Therefore, a feedback system should be established for both employees and customers. However, it will be important to decide in advance why this initiative will be introduced – what the manager wants to achieve from the employee, what actions or changes to inspire, what business goals to achieve (Chepul, 2020). The correct organization of the feedback process helps the company to be more productive and significantly save on hiring. Pedra should not take all incoming phone calls from disgruntled customers on her own. Instead, she can hire a quality control specialist with call center experience. Such an employee will be able to identify the customers’ complaints and propose solutions to the problems that have arisen.
The description of the activities carried out by Pedra does not contain any information that contracts are concluded between the company and the clients. As a result, it can be supposed that the company does not provide guarantees about the quality of the translation. This lack of a contract partly deprives customers of both warranties that they will be reimbursed if they are unhappy with the service and will affect how the case will be solved in court if customers want to go there. Companies that provide their clients with protection will be more trusted than those not ready to defend their clients’ rights. Therefore, the lack of written agreements regarding the services given can be considered a firm’s disadvantage.
Recommendations for Improvement
First, a knowledge test should be performed on employees to ensure they can hold the position. It should be borne in mind that excellent knowledge of foreign languages ​​and the native language are of great importance in a translation company. Also important is the ability to clearly and accurately convey a thought meant in the original language to a person who does not speak such a language. In addition, it is essential for professionals to be able to express the emotional coloring of the source text. Solving the problem of product quality will enhance the image of the enterprise among buyers, will become the key to entering the foreign market, and be the basis for obtaining maximum profit.
To conduct such an assessment of the skills of personnel, testing of the knowledge and skills of employees should be carried out in three stages. First, it is necessary to conduct preliminary testing to determine the current skills of employees. This is followed by a period of training employees in the competencies required for their work. Post-training testing allows the supervisor to identify the quality of coaching by determining the difference in knowledge and skills compared to preliminary examination results. However, this is only a rough outline of how testing might take place.
In addition, Pedra should focus on fewer lines of business. As the research results show, the fewer directions there are in a translation agency, the more professional and high-quality its main activity is. This step will be required if it turns out that the overwhelming majority of employed employees are, in fact, unable to cope with the needs of clients. Increasing the number of options for tasks can distract attention. In the course of multitasking, so popular in recent years, a situation arises when the necessary amount of time and effort is given to none of the tasks.
Moving to fewer directions will force the company leader to complete a prioritization process, which may seem difficult initially; the scoring system helps prioritize. Evaluating each idea creates a coherent implementation plan for the product. Many different methods are based on prioritizing ideas by points. Nevertheless, not every approach helps to objectively evaluate several options and draw up a consistent development plan. A possible suitable model for prioritization would be a RICE approach that considers metrics such as “reach,” “impact,” “confidence,” and “effort” (Merryweather, 2020). A good prioritization structure will help a company evaluate each idea and put them together in a strict sequence for execution.
Another effective tool for increasing the competitiveness of an enterprise is benchmarking. It is a systematic, continuous search and study of the best practices of competitors and players in related industries, constant comparison of the desired results and business changes with the developed reference model. Based on the information received, it is necessary to support the system of continuous improvement of performance. Regarding Pedra’s company, this means that she should analyze how the business of her competitors is arranged. To do this, it is sufficient to analyze the information posted about the services of other companies on how they systematize the provision of services. It may be necessary to meet with representatives of other translation agency founders, but be prepared that few entrepreneurs will want to share data on how to run a business successfully.
The history of the Ford company is an excellent example of the use of such analysis. Its specialists carried out benchmarking in the 90s when its position in the market was seriously shaken. In the course of this analysis, more than 50 car models were studied. These studies were conducted to find out the advantages and, accordingly, the disadvantages of each. Based on the data of such an analysis, the parameters of the best car were identified. The result of this company was the Taurus model car, which became the car of the year.
Conclusion
In the course of the analysis, it was possible to find the disadvantages and advantages of the firm. In addition, recommendations were formulated regarding the necessary changes that can positively affect the success of this business company. Pedra will need to adapt her business to avoid further degradation of service and loss of customers. This analysis can serve as a basis for carrying out similar ones since its structure meets the general requirements for such projects. Sources used are included, information is presented in a well-grounded and structured manner. It was possible to prove the effectiveness of the SWOT analysis, which is achieved by comparing the internal strengths and weaknesses of the company with the opportunities that the market gives to it.
References
Andrews, K. R. (1971). The concept of corporate strategy. McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Carr, C. (2018). 3 reasons you need to hire part-time employees–and 3 big mistakes you’re making when you do it. INC. Web.
Chepul, T. (2020). Implementation process: Implementing new processes and procedures. Rhythm Systems. Web.
Cremades, A. (2018). Profit vs growth: How to select the right strategy for your business. Forbes. Web.
Guiso, L., Pistaferri, L., & Schivardi, F. (2021). Learning entrepreneurship from other entrepreneurs? Journal of Labor Economics, 39(1), 135-191. Web.
Irfan, M., Shamsudin, M., & Hadi, N. (2016). How important is customer satisfaction? Quantitative evidence from mobile telecommunication market. International Journal of Business and Management, 11(6), 57-69. Web.
Merryweather, E. (2020). 3 prioritization techniques all product managers should know. Product School. Web.