Language strategies are moving targets, evolving with enterprise strategies as well as business and operational changes. To develop and maintain an effective one, you need to start by asking the right questions. Once you know what you'd like to achieve, see how technology can help you, how much it will cost, and what organizational changes are needed. Over the years, I've developed some "reality checkpoints" that may prove helpful to you when analyzing language needs.

Reality 1: International enterprises have three types of languages: corporate languages, which are the official ones, like those used for press releases, and truly international companies can have several; a working language used horizontally (by managers, R&D experts, and collaboration teams), and local languages used among colleagues in the same physical location.

Reality 2: One country does not equal one local language. Some countries have multiple languages, and others use the same language, even if there are significant differences. It's useful to draw a language map of your enterprise, basing it on "comfortable languages" and "generic languages." For example, Dutch people usually are very comfortable speaking English, as are many Scandinavians and eastern Europeans. People in France, Canada, Morocco, and other countries mutually use and understand a sort of hybrid, generic French.

Reality 3: Different languages are used for different purposes. Look at the different types of content you have in your intranet: news, strategic messages, HR policies, product and sales information, etc.. Then look at the different users of this information: client-facing employees, internal communities, employees in manufacturing facilities, and so on. Build a matrix matching type of content and usage with type of language (corporate, working, or local), then add the dimension of "as is today," and "target" for what you would like to achieve.

Reality 4: Not all content merits the same quality of translation. Take the following criteria into account: Is the content critical? Time-sensitive? Needed by many? The more critical it is and/or the longer it is valid and/or the more people who need it, the more you can justify doing a high-quality translation. If it is of interest to a small group and/or it may change soon and/or it is not business-critical, it is acceptable to use approximate translations or automated translation tools.

Reality 5: Localization and translation are different. Distinguish between adapting content and changing the language. A message from the CEO will not be localized; it will flow from corporate communications to employees through carefully controlled translations. However, a new travel policy may be defined and published by HQ, then sent to the business groups, who may contextualize it to make it relevant to their organizations, job titles, then to country teams who translate into local languages, and so on.

Reality 6: Hot news defies the most well thought-out strategies! Is it better to get it out in English first, then publish the corporate language translations as they are done? Or is it better to wait until the item is translated into the relevant languages, then publish worldwide, simultaneously? The jury still is out on this one, and companies make different decisions, usually depending on the nature and urgency of the announcement.

There are no ready-made answers when you tackle the question of language strategy. Some (rare!) companies have a single global working language. These exceptions usually operate in a single sector worldwide and have standardized processes and many knowledge workers. Most international companies have significant numbers of employees in production or non-office-based jobs where local languages become de facto working languages, which poses challenges for collaboration and cross-company and top-down communication.

One way out is to look for simplification and flexibility by studying the impact of these realities on your case. Set up a cross-company working group to develop and analyze working hypotheses from technology, financial, and organizational viewpoints. However, be aware that you will probably need to adjust your strategy as your business and operational contexts evolve.