Who’s ready for spring? It might be a little early to break out the picnic baskets and sunhats, but we at Simply CSOFT are getting excited about this week’s rising temperatures. Just like this week’s weather, CSOFT is only getting warmed up. And no one better to tell us than CSOFT’s Vice President of Global Operations, Jason Xue. So strap in for this week’s installment of CSOFT Stories – Jason Xue, as we gain further insights from CSOFT’s leadership.
Hi Jason Xue, this year marks CSOFT’s 10th year anniversary. What does that mean to you?
It’s been 10 years since we started in 2003. For me, after 10 years of growth we’re clearly not a small company anymore. We are one of the top 30 language service providers in the world – this is a tremendous accomplishment, but for us, we believe there’s still a lot of room to grow. Our people, innovation, the spirit of CSOFT… we are full of energy, full of ideas, and we’re excited; we’re more than ready to keep building.
Right now is a pretty important moment for us. Many companies, when they’ve grown to this size, get stuck. When a company is small, the first generation of leaders can easily cover everything, but as a company expands, those leaders also need to upgrade the way they handle daily work by moving into true leadership roles to motivate others. In order to maintain company growth, you cannot do everything yourself. This is a challenge that many first generation leaders face.
Do you have a favorite CSOFT memory?
There are so many, I don’t know which one to choose! Laughs. Setting up and starting our operations in Shanghai was quite memorable because it felt very different from the Beijing office. In Beijing, we had and still have an established team with remarkable leaders who work together so effectively, it’s as if they are responsible for different limbs of the same body. However, down in the Shanghai office we started from scratch, and I was responsible for most of what was going on in the beginning.
Two or three years later, I returned to the Shanghai office. The number of people in the office had grown and everything seemed to be running smoothly. I remember how proud I felt in that moment. It’s a good memory of understanding the evolution of growth. Smiles
What three adjectives would you use to describe CSOFT?
I think one thing that has never changed is how hardworking we are. In this company, everyone is dedicated and hardworking. It’s critical to our business organization. This industry is not like an assembly line where we do the same thing every day. This is a people business. We deal with language and culture, things that aren’t always best understood in black and white terms.
Every project has its own nature, so our team members need to pay attention to each and every detail. That’s the key to our success – hard work and dedication. I think we have always been aggressive for higher quality, better services, and further innovation. It’s about doing everything a little bit better – better and faster than our competitors – it makes all the difference.
You’ve spoken of growth several times. What do you see as CSOFT’s next steps?
In Chinese, there is an idiom, xiao fu ji an, which explains that when people gain success they relax and become complacent. This causes a company to stop growing. For this 10 year celebration, we’re not sitting here focusing on what we’ve already accomplished. We see this moment as a new chapter, the next chapter in CSOFT’s story. Everyone at CSOFT wants this company to be number one in the industry. We’re on our way, building on previous successes and making a great company even greater.
Part of that growth will come with restructuring our framework and character – a new generation of leaders, expanding our management team, and our movement into new kinds of business besides the traditional localization industry. Our expansion into global consulting, opening new offices – like the one in Shenzhen – in strategic locations, and technological innovations like ÜbrTà (CSOFT’s proprietary translation ecosystem) are all going to pay off. We’re not simply renewing the company or our efforts. We’re redefining the way localization is done.
One last question: if you had to pick a song that represented CSOFT’s tenth anniversary, what would it be?
The first song that comes into my head is the one from Top Gun…you know, the 80’s film with Tom Cruise? What’s that song called?
I was thinking more of “Take My Breath Away”! Laughs. I don’t know why but it just popped into my head. I guess it’s the association with Top Gun. It’s a love song, right? Laughs. Well, regardless… I think it gives people a feeling of taking off. It’s young and… you huoli (energetic).
If you’re interested in learning more about CSOFT’s 10th Annual World Summit, please contact csoft10@csoftintl.com.
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