“As a company grows, large and small interests and conflicts between the upper and lower levels, as well as between each organization, become rampant and the growth rate slows down. Why did Coupang not become like this and was it possible to minimize this?”
Although I suddenly realized it later, I dare to believe that Coupang’s interpreters made this possible.
Coupang works with many foreigners, from executives at the Korean headquarters to executives at the global office. The official language at work is English rather than Korean. All major documents are written in English, and a dedicated interpreter is present at all major meetings to provide real-time interpretation.
However, their real-time interpretation is not just about converting English into Korean or Korean into English. Coupang's interpreters go into countless meetings, review documents, and have the most information and context across the company and each organization, which is what makes the magic happen. for example,
- Even if someone uses an expression that may cause misunderstanding -> the interpretation changes to clear terms to avoid misunderstanding.
- Even if someone uses incorrect information -> ask lightly again during interpretation so that the information can be corrected.
- Even if someone says narrow-minded things such as organizational selfishness -> the interpreter adjusts the tone and manner to speak constructively. Turn this into an opportunity for discussion.
- Even if the meeting goes around in circles repeating the same words -> the interpreter sees through and provides a nudge to draw a conclusion from the original topic.
- Even if someone is too emotional or angry -> the interpreter becomes a small buffer to contain those emotions for a while.
And so on and so forth. The capabilities of the interpreters are demonstrated in so many areas. The amazing thing is that these things are never noticeable in a meeting. The interpreter is never the main character. However, the meeting successfully overcomes many pitfalls and makes good decisions. Things that someone is really good at just sink in and become natural, and you can't tell that they are good at it.
I've been thinking the same thing these days. Now that AI is better at coding than human developers, won't the space for developers become smaller and smaller? However, I reflected on the interpreters I saw at Coupang. Just as the interpreter's job is to make it work, not just interpretation, the developer's job must be to make it work, not just development. Is it just developers? All professionals will be like this.
In May 2024, Coupang signed an industry-academia cooperation business agreement with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation. If you look at interpretation and translation in a narrow scope, AI is already better at it. However, Coupang knows who the people who make things happen are. From this perspective, there are really few people like this. Having seen it from someone else, I know a little about how much passion, effort, and time it takes to create a good interpreter. When some people shout about the futility of interpreters and translators in the new era, others take away the main point.