Pictured is Shawn Khorassani, Business Development and Strategy Director of family business language services company Prestige Network.
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Earlier this year, Prestige Network celebrated financial success with the announcement that our turnover had soared 65% in the previous 12 months to a phenomenal £3 million. As Business Development Director, I've always got an eye on new opportunities though. In part 1 of 'my vision for success during a recession', I looked at what has made Prestige Network a success. Here, in part 2, I look to the future.
Newbury MP Richard Benyon said: "Many businesses have been suffering because of the recession and are continuing to suffer. I recently sponsored a recession-busting networking event at Newbury College, with the intention of providing really practical support for businesses at a difficult time for all businesses. At this event, what I tried to do was provide some free support to small and medium-sized businesses' managers to understand how to constructively cost-cut and how to manage the difficult time during a recession.
"It's equally important to remember that a positive mental attitude and a passion and vision for what you do are important - that's why I support something like these articles. Anything which provides help for businesses who are trying to look to the future is to be welcomed."
I believe in not only taking opportunities as they arise, but also making our opportunities. In fact, I'm always on the lookout for new ways to expand our business and win new contracts.
Our recent win of a major new contract to provide language services to NHS Gloucestershire demonstrates this continued focus. The one-year contract (with an optional one-year extension) is to provide interpreters and translators 24/7 from 1 July 2009. It was won following a three-way pitch and is an exclusive contract, meaning that most interpreting and translating for NHS Gloucestershire now goes through Prestige Network.
Our continued drive for new business is evidenced by our submission of tenders for interpreting and translation work on a variety of public sector fronts, including NHS and local authorities.
The company - specialists in translation services - also launched a new service in autumn 2009 - a software localisation service designed to help companies who want their applications to be made available in different languages.
This service is intended for any business within the commercial sector - from dentistry, to tide timetables or broadcasting - through to the public sector, including central and local government departments, NHS, JobCentres, charities and the police.
And with an eye on future service development, Prestige Network announced in November 2009 that it had launched a service aimed at delivering all aspects of cultural diversity training - including conflict resolution, change management and business leadership - in order to turn cultural difference to competitive advantage.
Social cohesion is what the UK is striving for and I like to think that we are doing our bit to make that happen. Our new cultural training service will be aimed at any organisation which employs people from overseas - such as manufacturing companies, call-centre operations and BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing companies).
Understanding and appreciating intercultural differences ultimately promotes clearer communication, builds trust, breaks barriers, strengthens relationships, opens horizons and gives businesses a competitive advantage. We want our new service to help that process along. A large number of languages (and their cultures) will be addressed including Hindi (India), Polish (Poland) and Arabic (Middle East).
Prestige Network can be contacted on 01635 866888.