Global Business Speaks English

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English is now the global business language, regardless of whether it's being used or not. To facilitate communication and performance across different business functions and endeavors, more multinational companies insist on English being the common corporate language.

Common speech patterns are not just good ideas. They are essential, even for companies with overseas operations or for French-based businesses that focus on domestic customers. Imagine a group from Paris that meets up to have a meeting. It doesn't matter if they can all speak English. Think about it: the same group of people calls a Paris company and asks for a sale.

However, the potential customer may be looking to hire employees from France. This was something I witnessed at a company I worked for. As employees from the two French companies sat in Paris, they couldn't make a deal. It was because the other people couldn't communicate. It was a wakeup call for the company, which adopted an English corporate strategy.

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Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO and founder of Rakuten, Japan’s largest online marketplace, had similar concerns. Mikitani decided that English would become the company's official language. Mikitani felt that the new policy, which would have an impact on approximately 7,100 Japanese employees in Japan, was vital to the company's goal to become the leading internet services company worldwide. He felt responsible for promoting a broad worldview in his country, a conservative nation.

Multibillion-dollar business, which is a hybrid of Amazon.com.com.com, eBay.com. The company was on a growth spurt: It had bought PriceMinister.com France and Buy.com and FreeCause USA, Play.com UK and Tradoria Germany, Kobo eBooks Canada, Kobo eBooks Canada, as well as joint ventures established with major companies from China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand. Mikitani made a serious announcement about the change in language to employees, not in Japanese but English. Overnight, elevator directories and cafeteria menus in Japanese were changed. He said that employees would be required to prove their proficiency on the international English scoring systems within two years, or face demotion and even dismissal.

The story was quickly picked up by the media, and corporate Japan immediately reacted with dismay and fascination. Takanobu Ito, Honda's CEO, said publicly, "It is stupid for a Japanese firm to only use English when the workforce in Japan is mainly Japanese." However Mikitani was confident that this was the right decision, and it is paying off. Mikitani's English mandate allowed him to create a powerful and diverse organization. Three out six of his senior executives are not Japanese and don't speak Japanese. The company continues to seek out top talent from around the world. Rakuten has half its Japanese employees who can effectively engage in internal communication in English. Another 25% can communicate in English regularly with foreign partners and coworkers.

It isn't easy to adopting a global linguist policy. Businesses often fail along the way. It is radical, and employees will likely resist it. People may feel disadvantaged if they don't speak English well enough. Team dynamics and performance can be affected, and pride can become a hindrance. To survive and thrive in a global market, companies must overcome language obstacles. English will almost always become the common ground.

English is the fastest-spreading language in human civilization. 1.75 Billion people speak English at a usable level around the globe. That's almost one in four of us. Nearly 385million native speakers are found in the U.S. and Australia. About a quarter of a million fluent speakers can be found in former colonized countries like India or Nigeria. Millions more people have also studied English as a second language. It is used by an estimated 565,000,000 people online.

Mikitani identifies the benefits of Englishnization as significant. However, only a few companies have managed to implement a systematic English-language policy that has produced sustained results. I developed an adoption framework through my research and ten years of experience working with companies. There are still many lessons to learn but there are numerous success stories. Adopters will be able to reap significant benefits.

Why English Only?

Unrestricted bilingualism can hinder communication and interfere with achieving key goals. English has been adopted as the official language for business in all countries due to the need to closely coordinate tasks with customers and partners from around the globe.

Three main reasons drive the trend toward English as a standard corporate language.

Competitor pressure.

It is essential that you can communicate with different customers, suppliers, or other business partners in order to buy and sell. You may be lucky and they will share your native tongue, but it's not a guarantee. Companies that fail create a language strategy will limit their growth opportunities in markets where they are spoken. They are clearly at disadvantage to companies who have adopted English-only policies.

Globalization in the management of resources and tasks

Language differences can cause bottlenecks, or the Tower of Babel. When geographically dispersed employees need to work together to achieve corporate goals, it is possible for them to have different languages. An employee from Belgium might need input from a company in Beirut. Communication will be affected if there is no common ground. Improved language comprehension allows employees to get more firsthand information which is essential for decision making. Nestle, a Swiss food company, saw huge efficiency improvements in buying and hiring due to its enforcement of English as a company policy.

M&A integration across national boundaries.

Negotiations for a merger and/or acquisition are difficult enough when everyone speaks the exact same language. When they don’t, the nuances can be easily lost even in simple email exchanges. Cross-cultural integration has a reputation for being difficult. Aventis, the fifth-largest worldwide pharmaceutical company, was formed in 1998 by the merger of France’s Rhone-Poulenc and Germany’s Hoechst. The new firm used English instead of French or German to avoid settling for favorites. Another factor that can be considered is branding. Merloni (a mid-sized Italian appliance producer) adopted English in order to boost its international image. This helped it acquire British and Russian companies.

English is the most widely spoken language in human history. Around 1.75 Billion people speak English at a reasonable level around the world. This is one in four.

Obstacles to English-Language Success

There are many ways that one-language policies can impact efficiency. Rakuten research and a study with Pamela Hinds, Stanford University, and Catherine Cramton, George Mason University, at a company that I'll refer to as GlobalTech and at FrenchCo reveal the hidden costs global English-language rules can bring. Even though proper rollout minimizes the risks of the project, even well-thought-out plans can face pitfalls. Here are the most popular.

Change is always unexpected.

The psychological trauma that employees will feel when proposed changes become a reality can't be prevented by any amount of preparation or warning. Marie (all names here are concealed, except Mikitani and Ito), was excited when she first learned about FrenchCo's Englishonly policy. For some time she had been using English to communicate with non-French friends. She saw the proposed policy in English as a positive indicator that the company was expanding internationally. This is until she attended an ordinary meeting which was held in French. "I didn’t realize that the very first meeting after I got the rule was going to be in English." Marie admits that it was a shock. Marie recalls coming into the meeting full of energy, but then she noticed that the translator headsets were there.

She says that they are "humiliating." "I felt more like an observer, than a participant at the company I work for."

Will Mandarin Be Next?

The growth and size Chinese economy makes it a compelling reason to adopt an English-only approach. Is it possible for Mandarin to become the global language of business, overtaking English? It's possible but unlikely. There are two reasons why this is possible.

First, English has an enormous head start. China won't be able replicate Britain’s colonial history. The British Empire had begun to embed the English language in many places around the world as early 16th-century. American and British philanthropic organizations helped spread English well before corporations started to adopt it.

Second, Mandarin can be very difficult for many people around the globe. It is easier for people to understand "broken English," than "broken Mandarin." Mandarin or any other language spoken by large numbers of people is an advantage. Mandarin is not an option for a one-language strategy at this time.

There is little to no compliance.

GlobalTech faced an entirely new problem with a representative for services due to the English mandate. The technology company, which was based in Germany, had branches around the world. Hans, a representative of service, was immediately contacted by his boss to inform him that a critical customer's multimillion dollar financial services business had been halted due to a software error. GlobalTech and the customer had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollar. Hans quickly reached out to India's technical department. But the team couldn't help him because all communication about the problem was in German. This was despite the English-only policy, which was established two years before. The crisis grew while Hans waited for translated documents. Two years into implementation, the adoption process was still slow.

Self-confidence erodes.

Nonnative speakers may feel like their value to the company is diminished if they have to communicate in English. FrenchCo employees state that the hardest thing is to realize one's English-speaking value overshadows your real value. "For the last 30 years, the company didn't ask for us to improve our foreign-language abilities or offer us the chance to do it," he said. "Now, it's difficult to accept that we have been disqualified." Employees who are subject to one-language policies often fear that jobs with the highest pay will be available to only those with excellent English skills, regardless if they are content experts.

After GlobalTech's English only policy was implemented two years ago, our interview with 164 GlobalTech employees revealed that almost 70% of those interviewed still felt frustration with the policy. FrenchCo's English-only policy was criticized by 56% of English-fluent speakers and 42% of low fluency speakers. This led to them worrying about their chances of being promoted. These feelings are common when companies simply announce a policy and offer classes in English, but do not actually implement the changes. It is worth noting, however, that employees frequently underestimate their own capabilities or underestimate the challenges of fluency. (See the sidebar, "Gauging Fluency.")

Fluency measurement

Progressing from beginner level to advanced--which greatly improves an employee's ability to communicate--involves mastering around 3,500 words. This is far easier than the task of adding 10,000 words to become a native speaker.

There is no job security.

While it's possible to achieve sufficient fluency for most, the reality of the matter is that when employees adopt an English only policy, their job requirements change often overnight. Even for top performers, this can be a difficult pill to swallow. Mikitani from Rakuten wasn't shy in speaking out against his employees. He stated that he would degrade people who don't learn English.

Employees resist.

It is not unusual for non-native English speakers to prefer their native language to English. This happens often because it is quicker and easier to conduct business in their mother tongue. Others may be more determined to not speak English and might hold meetings at inappropriate times. For instance, an employee in Asia might plan a global meeting to take place in the middle night in England. By doing this, non-native speakers transfer their anxiety and loss to native speakers.

FrenchCo employees claimed that when they felt their low language proficiency could make them look unprofessional and could lead to career-related problems, they just stopped participating in common discourse. According to an HR manager at FrenchCo, employees fear making mistakes and will stop speaking at all.

Sometimes documents that are meant to be written and signed in English can be written in the mother language (as Hans at GlobalTech has experienced) or not at all. GlobalTech employee explains that writing in English is difficult. "And then there's not any documentation."

Performance suffers

If employees quit participating in group settings, it can cause a drop in bottom line. If employees stop participating, the process can fall apart. Companies miss out on ideas that could have been generated in meetings. It is common for people to not report costly errors, make comments or give feedback on poor decisions. GlobalTech's Indian offices explained that he was unable to contribute when meetings switched to German. He lost important information--particularly in side exchanges--despite receiving meeting notes afterward. These brief asides could contain important contextual information, background analyzes, or hypotheses regarding the root cause of a particular issue. He didn't participate in the meetings, nor did he learn from the problem resolution discussions.

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