Her Majesty the Queen has honoured my company, Today Translations with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in the International Trade category. As I write those words, I can barely believe them, and yet, all emotion at the sheer honour aside, I cannot honestly say I am completely surprised. I had a suspicion (and a fervent hope) that this day would come. Those who have read my previous blog posts may recall my thoughts following an Executive Education Programme at Harvard Business School, as well as my address at the Verslo Žinios conference at the end of 2018; ethical business practices and respect for team and clients are finally back in fashion! After years of celebrating those who will go to any lengths to make money, at the expense of society as a whole, we are coming back around to valuing those businesses that do the right thing, put best practice measures in place, and go above and beyond to ensure all parties are well served and protected by the choices management makes.

The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade is awarded to companies who have achieved outstanding growth in overseas earning, and shown year-on-year growth over three years at least. We have been recognised with the award as we meet these criteria, and over 40% of our revenue comes from overseas trade. Those are the tangible facts, and we are very proud of them. But what about the more intangible facets of who we are and what we do; the differentiators that attract global clients in the first place, and convince them to work with us?

For many years now, we have been advocating for ethical working practices. We have put time and resources into ensuring we earned and retain our ISO 27001 certification for information security as well as ISO 9001 for quality. We have incorporated the requirements of GDPR into our already robust systems and processes, and we have been independently audited. But even more importantly, we have always had a focus on ensuring our people are the best in the sector; qualified experts all, and passionate about their work. Our freelance linguists are valued partners and are treated as such, which may be the reason many have been collaborating with us since the very beginning. The relationships of trust this builds within our internal and external teams feeds into how we interact with our clients. These assets, coupled with our dynamic attitude to project work, mean our clients can and do have absolute faith that they can come to us with anything event tangentially language related, and we will get it done, securely, and to the highest possible quality. Our history of honesty, integrity, and slow, steady hard work has resonated with overseas markets in these uncertain times, and it is this that has seen Today Translations go from strength to strength and has brought us to this day and this award.

These are the facts of which we are most proud, and which set us apart from the pack; even the Queen agrees!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the clients who have consistently trusted us with their most precious work, as well as, of course, the team at Today Translations, who put their heart and soul into what they do every day. This award belongs to us all, and I am honoured to share the experience with you.