"History should be our guide. The United States led the world’s economies in the 20th century because we led the world in innovation. Today, the competition is keener; the challenge is tougher; and that is why innovation is more important than ever. It is the key to good, new jobs for the 21st century. That’s how we will ensure a high quality of life for this generation and future generations. With these investments, we’re planting the seeds of progress for our country, and good-paying, private-sector jobs for the American people."
-President Barack Obama, August 5, 2009, Remarks by the President on the Economy
In 2009, one year into his term, President Obama crafted the befittingly named Obama Innovation Strategy, a carefully outlined plan to guide and maintain the United States’ position 
as a global leader of research and development and economic growth in the 21st century. He proposed a pyramid strategy for “sustainable growth and quality jobs”, challenging America to “Catalyze Breakthroughs for National Priorities.”At the pinnacle of his pyramidal approach, President Obama invites the American people to “harness science and technology to address the grand challenges of the 21st century.” And among the extensive list of “grand challenges” President Obama includes “Automatic, highly accurate and real-time translation between the major languages of the world – greatly lowering the barriers to international commerce and collaboration.”
Communication plays an undisputable role in research and development and economic growth, both on the domestic and international level. As we drive forward into the next decade, improving international communication will be pivotal in accomplishing breakthroughs in the fields of medicine, information technology, sustainable energy, and engineering. It is clear that the Translation industry will remain at the forefront of development with regard to new and more effective ways of communicating.
Web and digital media form the roots of the globalization age. They facilitate real-time contact and information sharing, access and transmission among multiple users trespassing time and geographic boundaries. Does this really mean that communication has become easier, quicker and more effective? Which roles do language and translation play in this virtual and globalized world?
Translation and languages should obviously be playing a key role in this scenario, where cutting-edge media and channels offer endless possibilities to communicate around the world in our daily lives as well as for business purposes. Moreover, the weight of communication in the corporate environment is rapidly increasing in all business sectors and spheres. Why then do translation and language continue to be the invisible unattended little children in the big corporate world?
In a world steered by global communication where relations with collaborators, customers, providers and end users are crucial, the trend is still to refrain from investing in translation. If legally possible many companies will bypass translation. English is undoubtedly the king language of the virtual realm, paired with a kind of universal web language that uses icons, smileys, etc. So, if the message is ‘understandable’ world-wide, why incur in additional costs? The problem is that human language itself is not a simple mental tool with fixed uni-vocal meanings.
We envision global society as a unified and generalized whole populated by huge information networks that keep us connected, but something is wrong with this picture. Communication is a complex process, and translation multiplies this complexity. Translation reveals and highlights cultural and linguistic differences. Idiomatic turns or words that characterize the life, culture or history of a certain community do not always have exact equivalents in other languages.
Companies need to understand that translation is not a mere transparent interface to convey a message in different languages. It is a complex process that requires deep awareness and knowledge of the specific cultural and linguistic values in both the source and target language. If they want their internal communications to be effective and forward a strategically consistent message to consumers in different target markets all around the globe, they need to realize that it will not be possible to leave language and translation unacknowledged. At least not until there is one single universal language and world view, but this would mean that there is not anything to communicate anymore.
as a global leader of research and development and economic growth in the 21st century. He proposed a pyramid strategy for “sustainable growth and quality jobs”, challenging America to “Catalyze Breakthroughs for National Priorities.”
