In this blog, Argos’ CEO; Kevin Fountoukidis, regularly posts on various topics related to everyday activities, tasks and work that goes on at Argos Translations. If you want to get a closer look, an inside view, of life at Argos and how a translation company is run, be sure to check this section regularly for new entries.
I am definitely proud of the fact that we try to be a “smart” company. Obviously that can mean a lot of things, but for me its basically trying to work as efficiently as possible. Whether that means using technology or just simply organizing things in a way to maximize efficiency then that is “smart” and I really think we do... read more »
As you all know, apart from Argos, I also own shares in PMR (www.pmrcorporate.com). As a result, once a month I attend PMR management meetings. Its interesting because I hear about the successes and problems of another business that I don’t run on a daily basis. I recently did a presentation for them about how our intranet works. Its funny because... read more »
Final part of my article. Hope it wasn’t too boring…. Communication is King I have covered respect and empowering employees by trusting them. Another key tool in empowering employees is providing them with access to as much information as possible. I have read about total participation management and am fascinated by it. In such companies,... read more »
And here is the next part for your reading enjoyment…. Learn to Trust Ok, so it’s one thing to get members of your team to respect one another, but how do you make sure they do their jobs properly. For me, less is more here. Often companies come up with all sorts of performance measures in order to make sure that employees are working... read more »
Hi guys I have written an article that will be publish in Multilingual magazine in a month or so. Its quite long, so I have decided to break it up into three parts for your reading enjoyment. So here’s part 1. Very often in sports you see the interview with the quarterback who just won the Super Bowl or coach who just won the World Cup and they... read more »
Short post here, but something that struck me recently. I have to say that one of the things that gives me pleasure is watching people develop. Its just a natural thing but its amazing to see. I have seen so many people come for job interviews who are completely inexperienced. Its amazing to watch as the years go by how such a person can change. You... read more »
At Localization World in Berlin last week and we spent some time learning about the latest trends in the industry. I have a couple topics I’d like to blog about after this event and I’ll start with the latest news from the world of machine translation (MT). Many of you might be surprised to hear it, but MT has really improved over the last... read more »
This is not a very famous acronym, in fact, I am not sure its an acronym at all, I may have just made it up. Anyway MBWA (according to my definition of acronyms) stands for Managing By Walking Around. I stopped by the sales department today and started to chat with some people and it was really very nice. It got me thinking back to the old days at... read more »
Every month or two I spend a couple days doing the post appraisal meetings with you guys. I honestly sometimes wonder how employees perceive these meetings. Some people are stressed and some are very relaxed. I sometimes wonder if people perceive it as a waste of time. I actually am never really sure what you guys think of these meetings, but I hope... read more »
I very often get asked how I can work from various places and still run a successful company. The answer is simple, its thanks to the Core and the way decisions are taken at Argos. Of course I am never away from email too long, that is true, even if I am not in the office or on vacation I am very often working and available online, but still, it was... read more »
As a manager, one of the biggest challenges is creating and maintaining the right culture in your department. In my case as the CEO I am concerned about the culture/atmosphere throughout the entire company. It might sound simple, but it’s quite a complicated thing, culture and atmosphere. What really goes into a company culture or atmosphere?... read more »
I believe I mentioned this some time ago in another post called Meetings about Meetings . Anyway, it’s time for an update. A while back one Core manager volunteered to read a book I had bought about meeting excellence and how we can improve meetings at Argos. She presented her results at the Core meeting and we decided that we would like to implement... read more »
It’s going to be a quick post today (or this evening as I am writing this). I was having my post-evaluation meeting with one employee from DTP and he mentioned something that I found to quite humorous and true. How many of you, when talking to family and friends, have a hard time explaining what Argos does or what you do in your job? How many... read more »
I have been wondering, is there an open door policy at Argos? I sure hope there is. I talk about it in my induction presentation to new employees. I tell my friends and family about it (because I am proud of what I consider to be quite an open culture). But I guess one can never really tell. Thus my post. Ok, so obviously in my case it wouldn’t... read more »
Its hard work being a manager. This is true especially at Argos because our philosophy is very pro-employee and we don’t want managers telling employees that they have to do something using the argument “because I said so.” Ideally managers and employees make decisions together on key issues affecting an employees work. As a result... read more »
As many of you may or may not know I have always been a big fan of the way Google motivates its employees and I would like to copy that as much as possible. In addition, I think one of the fundamental differences between me and some managers in other companies is that I tend to trust people and I believe that this trusting attitude towards employees... read more »
I have always tried to hire people who were ready to just get the job done and who were capable of looking at the big picture without worrying about minor details. There are a lot of people out there who are very specific about their needs. I need to have this kind of computer, this kind of monitor, this kind of desk, pen, calculator, etc… I... read more »
I was thinking about it and I’ve decided that it might be best to leave my blog only in English from now on. Anyway, it got me thinking about our company culture and the language we use. For me Argos is a Polish company, but I guess in a lot of ways it’s not. The ownership is clearly not Polish. I am American and the other shareholder is... read more »
It might sound funny but the core managers and I have just had a couple meetings about how to improve meetings. I ordered a book on Amazon and one Core manager read it and did a presentation of the most important aspects. It’s amazing how many things we can improve. There has been criticism in the past that at Argos we waste a lot of time at meetings... read more »
I had an idea that people might be interested in what goes on in my life in terms of running the company and the kinds of things that I am thinking about on a daily basis. What I’ll try to do is summarize from time to time things that are going on in my daily working life and what they mean to the company. Hopefully it won’t be too boring... read more »
What our clients have to say...
We have used Argos for all required translations (hundreds of pages with technical content) and they were always very professional.
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On May 4th 2011, Argos Translations was nominated by a panel of European Business Awards judges for the annual EBA award sponsored by HSBC. Argos is the only Translation Agency nominated for the award. Argos, a language translation company and a three time recipient of Forbes Diamonds award (2009, 2010, 2011), a two time winner of the “Best Company for Working Mothers” award, was recognized by EBA’s for its steady business growth, translation quality focus and exceptional customer service, proving to be a European [...] read more »
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