A New Year’s message from Lan-bridge’s founder and President, Michael Zhu

When you pour your heart into something, that thing will bloom!

2018: A New Year’s message from Michael Zhu, the President of Lan-bridge Communications

Just as people online in China have recently been sharing photos of themselves at eighteen years old, Lan-bridge has also celebrated reaching this very same age! Eighteen years ago, our company started out with just three workers. Today, we are one of the world’s leading language service providers, with over 500 full-time employees and 1000 contacted interpreters providing our clients across the globe with translation, interpretation, training, marketing, and consulting services. Fortunately, our growth has taken place during a stable and prosperous era.

Eighteen years old is often seen as a coming-of-age point in life, a time when a new level of maturity is reached, a milestone which in many cultures is marked with a ceremony. The lifespan of companies is often very short, and at the moment of their founding it is impossible to predict what they will be like 18 years later. The flow of personnel is inevitable, and times change, along with markets, industries, and technology, etc. These factors can all influence a company’s development.

Like most companies, Lan-bridge’s path hasn’t always been smooth, but we are fortunate, and are still here 18 years later. Whether we have reached an appropriate level of maturity and stability as a company at this age is a difficult question. The world is still changing – in fact, it is doing so at a quicker rate than ever. Change can be the biggest risk to companies, whilst also simultaneously being their biggest opportunity. The key is to embrace living with change, not to be swept away by it, but to harness it. “Time doesn’t have mercy on people, so I don’t have mercy on it.” I like this phrase by the Chinese painter and writer, Mu Xin, because it not only expresses an understanding of the principles of change, but also how we can overcome our struggle against it and create hope for the future.

2017 was a year of great achievements for many of our departments. From Asia to Africa, to Europe and Latin America, Lan-bridge’s interpreters provided professional services for many points along the One-Belt-One-Road policy’s path. From Shenyang to Tianjin, to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, Lan-bridge Group has worked on many national-level projects.

From our conference and exhibition department’s point of view, this has been a year of working hard continuously, but a fruitful and fulfilling one, too. From the One Belt, One Road Forum in Beijing, to the 9^th BRICS summit in Xiamen and the Henan International Trade and Investment Conference, Chengdu Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, Guiyang’s Eco Forum Annual Conference, and Shenzhen’s International Botanical Congress, 2017 saw many highlights for Lan-bridge’s team of professional and efficient interpreters and support crew.

2017 has been a year of regional expansion, with new branches opening in four locations: Tianjin, Suzhou, Jinan, and Changsha. This means that at present Lan-bridge has 13 customer service centres, which makes our network the strongest it has ever been. Customers can now conveniently access our services in even more locations, a fact which we are very proud of. Knowing how urgent many of our customer’s needs can be, our goal has always been to be able to deliver high-quality services as quickly and efficiently as possible.

2017 has been a year of managerial improvement. Our Group’s management committee has systematically and concisely studied each branch and department of Lan-bridge. The importance of good management is well known – they set a good example for other staff, and help ensure that others reach their potential and work together well. This year our committee shared unforgettable times at the Future Star Training Camp, and the Mid-year celebration in the Zhangbei Grasslands, where the aroma of Leshan barbeque was never far away.

2017 has also been the first year for us to fully implement our company’s core values: “Customer first, quality priority, execution paramount.” Thanks to the Core Values Practice Plan created by our personnel department and implemented in training sessions across our offices, these principles are deeply rooted in our employees. Our staff have a collaborative and helpful attitude towards one another and also maintain a positive and vigilant path towards their own person career demands and development.

Here a special mention to our technology department is also needed – they have worked day and night to produce our new online translation platform, which looks set to transform our customer’s experience of the translation workflow process. Our colleagues in the translation centres also carried out a number of initiatives, such as ‘quality month,’ translation competitions, ‘beyond project management’, etc., aimed at focusing on maintain our high standards of translation.

For Lan-bridge, 2018 is a crucial year. It marks the beginning of a series of plans based on full service innovation, product focus, resource integration and brand recognition, which we intend to implement over the next three years.  It is also the first year where we have seen the market has doubled in the preceding three years , and one in which we aim to rapidly development our online business.

Finally, we look forward to continuing on with a vigorous and innovative spirit, towards new challenges and achievements!

Get things done, and get them done well, and you are a star!

When you pour your heart into something, that thing will bloom!

祝大家新年快乐！
Wishing everyone a happy New Year!