Localization tail wags dog

Most of the time, when you're a U.S.-based company, you run the localization show. It's a matter of simple history: You created the product in the U.S. and pushed it out to other regions, so your domestic needs get met first. You may factor in their requirements so that they have a respectably localized product to sell, but by and large, you call the shots.

Not only that, but assume that your domestic sales (i.e., the sales for which you don't need to perform any localization) contribute 75% of your profit, and sales to regions requiring localization contribute the remaining 25%. This means you have both history and profitability in favor of your running the show.

Suppose, however that the tail wags the dog. Suppose that your product is developed in Egypt or Liechtenstein or Hungary, where it has 95% of the market without really trying, and that the developers are insensitive to the need for a properly run localization effort. The product is receiving strong uptake in the U.S., where sales will soon overtake those in the home market, but it desperately needs some localization (into proper English), on which Engineering refuses to place much priority. You have profitability on your side, but the mothership has history, not to mention ownership of development.

How do you build a localization strategy around that?

Like any global business problem, the usual bromides of communication, onsite visits in both directions and strongly backed business cases go a long way towards solving this. If they were selling a U.S.-created product into their regions, they'd defer to U.S. preferences, but it's not that simple when the scheme is suddenly inverted like this.

You feel as though you're the dog, and the other guys are the tail wagging you, and the other guys think they're the dog, and you're the tail trying to wag them.

The real winners? Your competitors.