Thank you for asking! 🙂 Because this is me. The name Babo (Youth Word of the Year 2013, for: Boss, or leader) was given to me by my team many years ago.
The matter of calling me Babo or not also is a bit of an emotional barometer here at blc. Because when someone suggests ‘Let’s ask Babo…’, then it usually concerns lighter topics whereas when someone says: ‘We should discuss this with Kerstin …’ it could be getting more serious. But back to the beginning… how did I become a “Babo” and how did blc come into being in the first place?
Since when and why does berns language consulting exist?
I founded berns language consulting as ‘sole proprietor’ in October 2005, pretty much exactly 18 years ago!
This step toward self-employment was a result of several personal developments. My oldest son was born in 2004 and I could not get back into my job as vigorously as I wanted. In addition, we as a family wanted to move from Bavaria back to ‘our’ Rhineland. At that time, the older ones among us still remember 😉 home office or, as it was called at the time, telework was not yet a thing.
In addition, during my time as language software expert and process consultant, I noticed – first at Daimler and then at BMW – that there were no independent, external consultants in my area of expertise. In my last job as head of the aftersales language team at BMW, I had been looking for external support and had not found a proper one.
An idea was born…
So after some consideration and many conversations I quit my job at BMW and founded ‘me’. That sounds easy – but it wasn’t. At that time, self-employed founders were supported, but as a young mother, the Bavarian administration did not take my proposal seriously, despite excellent preparation.
In the end, they reasoned, where was I planning to ‘park’ my son for all the time that I worked? That supposedly there existed self-employed, working men and fathers who were never asked such questions was a winning argument, that they finally accepted, accompanied by a lot of teeth-grinding. In addition to an official proof of my plan for future childcare, of course! As they say…
If you don't do it yourself ..
Said, and done, I was founded and I started, full of energy and with the topics that I liked to do then as now, concepts and processes :-). That worked out excellently, so good in fact that it quickly became too much work for a person.
Why search far and wide, if you have a brother who studies German and IT and likes these strange language processes and language software topics… We were now two people – and had not less but actually more work. In addition to concepts and processes, we were now also able to offer interface consulting. And quickly we were – alas – again too few people for all the great work.
So in 2014, berns language consulting became a GmbH, which continues to grow organically and in a controlled manner, with the right people and topics. All members of the blc family always brought new topics and ideas and enriched us, up to this day! We are currently a great team of 12 experts who are dedicated to independent consulting in the field of language technology and cover many specialist areas, from A for algorithm to Z for zentralized translation processes ;-)!
But the most important thing: I personally still enjoy working with my fun and clever team! Thank you, my dear team!
And what does a Babo actually (still) do herself?
I decide! No, this is not (completely) true ;-). I regularly coordinate topics with my team, because my experts are at the forefront of all customer projects and have expert knowledge, which I very much rely on. I also very much appreciate our brainstorming sessions, where so many of our great ideas are born.
But of course, as Managing Partner of berns language consulting GmbH, I am responsible for the success and satisfaction of our customers, the well-being of my employees and our strategy : how do we want to grow as a company, what is our strategic goal and how do we plan to achieve it? Is there any potential in daily collaboration (spoiler alert: Yes, always;-)), what do our internal processes, especially quality processes, look like? What is our marketing strategy and what does our sales do? I am the mother of the company and I like that.
My professional orientation in client projects is strategic consulting: Where does our clients’ language process journey lead them, what goals are pursued in a company, what does this mean for the use of language technology, in-/outsourcing decisions, training of employees, use of AI-based language technology, etc.
And I love to travel and participate in conferences...
In my role as a strategy consultant, you will find me at the Systran Community Day 2023 in beautiful Paris on the fifth of October, where I will be giving a partner presentation with one of our very dear clients from the pharma industry.
And from November 14.-16. come find me at the tcworld annual conference 2023 in Stuttgart. We have our own tcworld booth at the fair: make an appointment or just pass by to chat, we look forward to your visit!
And in case you need urgent advice, just contact me directly, always happy to help!
