In the run-up to Networking Days 2025 in Budapest, we are sharing a series of discussion articles that capture early reflections from the ELIA Board of Directors and the Content Committee on this year’s programme. These meetings are about opening space for reflection, raising the difficult questions, and sparking dialogue that will continue with even greater depth at the event itself.
Our fourth discussion turned to ND25 Session 4: Opportunity Knocks: Time to Cash Out?. The session takes a fresh look at exit strategies in the localisation business — not just from the perspective of owners selling their companies, but also employees, linguists, and other professionals whose paths may be shifting in today’s evolving industry.
Redefining Exit
Exit can take many forms. Too often, we make “exit” synonymous with selling shares. But in today’s language services industry, exit is a much broader reality. Translators may be leaving because they can no longer make a living. Professionals in traditional roles are finding themselves pushed out as companies restructure and seek different kinds of talent. Owners may step back without selling, or hand leadership to a new generation.
Anu Carnegie-Brown (ACB): “I’ve been involved in four M&A actions in my career, and yet none of those for me have been exit opportunities because I was not a shareholder in any of them. Even our current situation with the Employee Ownership Trust—though theoretically an exit—in practice hasn’t yet been. Jesper and I are still running the company whilst it’s paying us for the shares.”
Ursula Steigerwald (US): “I also tried the model of having someone run the business for me; unfortunately that didn’t work out. I really find it difficult to find a match that works well for the company’s structure, the people, the team.”
ACB: “If your definition of exit is to actually leave, I don’t think that’s necessarily the only way. It can be about finding a different way of running the business so that you can take a step back without disappearing entirely.”
In this light, exit is not a single decision but a spectrum of choices: from stepping back, to sharing leadership, to passing the baton, or redefining one’s role altogether.
💡 Discussion prompt: Would you consider stepping back without stepping out?
Balancing Pressure and Purpose
The burden of ownership is never just financial. Leaders spoke about the personal weight of responsibility, and how decisions about exit are as much about purpose and people as they are about profit.
Nenad Andricsek (NA): “There’s this pressure, especially with smaller companies when you don’t have five managers under your leadership, who themselves manage another 35 people; you can feel isolated, and you feel everything that’s going on: the good and the bad are on your shoulders. If you can create a partnership or acquisition, it feels like OK, finally you can talk to somebody, and share the decision-making and responsibility, which is what I did. Sometimes I’m joking about it: “Now I have a boss so I don’t have to think”. But in a certain way that’s true because I don’t have to think about everything now.”
US: “There was a time when I really didn’t want to continue because I felt everything was too much. I was looking into options, but most of the times I have been approached, I had various negotiations, and I declined all of them in the end.”
NA: “Even if you get life-changing money… what do you do then? Some people like what they do for work. Me too, I like doing it. I don’t see myself just leaving.”
Alina Birsan (AB): “I do believe there is a future for this industry. But it’s not just about growth. It’s a standard of living, the quality of life of the people you interact with every day. That’s something you don’t get in other industries where maybe there is more money. It’s a compromise: do you want money, or the quality of life and community this industry gives you?”
ACB: “That is a very interesting angle. If you leave this behind you, it’s not just about money. You also leave behind the feel and the community and the working culture that we have in many of our companies.”
AB: “We have a much more human side and a much more collaborative side. There are so many beautiful things that sometimes we just forget about them—and you cannot quantify that in money.”
Exit, in this sense, is less about chasing a price tag and more about sustaining purpose, protecting culture, and finding a balance between financial security, professional demands, and personal wellbeing.
💡 Discussion prompt: How do you weigh financial security against purpose and quality of life?
What About the Team?
Exit strategies affect whole organisations. The discussion turned to how much to share with staff, how to prepare them for changes, and how to encourage them without overwhelming them.
US: “If we’re talking about exits, you can already see people exiting the industry. Not the company owners, but linguists and others. That’s really worrying me, because if you don’t have good people, if you don’t get motivated young people from universities anymore, it’s getting more difficult. The traditional translator who says, ‘I just want to translate,’ that won’t be the model of the future.”
AB: “There are a lot of advantages in our industry that can’t be quantified in money but in quality of life. People can work from anywhere, be close to their families, and still do their work well. Compared with other jobs that may be higher paid but come with many more restrictions, that makes our roles more attractive.”
ACB: “At our company, I see information sharing and decision making at two different levels. With my management team, I share our monthly P&L or definitely quarterly P&L, right down to operating profit. But with the rest of the staff, I think very carefully about what’s motivating and meaningful for them. I give them numbers that they can influence, like gross profit, but I don’t share operating profit because those costs are not in their control.”
US: “I would agree, I also find that you need to differentiate. We have town hall meetings where we present everything like the challenges we have faced, and share our successes in a positive way. Then, we have the management meetings where we really look into things that do not work and what we could do to improve it.”
The reflections showed that engaging staff in times of change is a delicate balance: enough transparency to build trust, but not so much burden that it creates fear. Exit planning works best when people at every level feel secure and see a path forward—whether within the company or beyond it.
💡 Discussion prompt: If your company were to merge or restructure, what would you need most (as an owner guiding the change, or as an employee experiencing it)?
Career Development & Transferable Skills
Exit doesn’t always mean leaving. For employees, it can mean transitioning into new roles within a restructured company or moving into other sectors where their skills are in high demand. The group reflected on how the industry nurtures talent and why people often need encouragement to step forward.
ACB: “We try to offer diverse career paths in our company, maybe more than a smaller company would have. But often people don’t dare without prompting. We might have a vacancy and advertise it internally, and we get very few applicants unless we go directly to someone and say, ‘Have you seen that vacancy? You’d be a really good fit.’ People are loyal, they want to stay, but they don’t always have the courage to take the opportunity without a nudge.”
NA: “You train people to do a tonne of different things with a tonne of different clients. That’s powerful if you learn how to do it. But people like where they are. If they have a normal job with a good salary, they don’t always want more responsibilities. It’s hard to motivate them to take on a team, but eventually some will step up, with encouragement and mentorship.”
US: “I really find it difficult to motivate and to show that even if this is a different type of project, we haven’t done it before, it can still be fun. For example, we are looking into data collection—it’s still language related. But it’s hard to convince and motivate people. Not everyone wants to come on board, and taking the team with you is not easy.”
AB: “I encouraged some colleagues who were more inclined towards technology to pursue careers in that field. In our industry, we are like a training ground for very good professionals in other industries. I always hired fresh graduates or students and trained them, and many later moved into other verticals and roles. Any employee in the language industry can fit easily into other industries.”
For many employees, exit is less about leaving than about progression. With the right encouragement, careers built in localisation can evolve into leadership roles, cross-functional expertise, or entirely new industries.
💡 Discussion prompt: From your perspective, does exit mean stepping away, or transitioning into something new, inside or outside the industry?
Industry Transformation & AI Pressure
Industry change is reshaping how owners and employees think about the future. AI, price pressure, and shifting client expectations are pushing companies to decide whether to exit, restructure, or adapt for growth.
NA: “In today’s climate of prices going down, from our perspective the market is shrinking. If we stay this small, we might just disappear.”
AB: “I fully trust that it’s going to be very rewarding for those who get to survive these tremendous times. It’s a couple of years that matter more, but the signs confirm it’s tough right now for everybody (big companies, small companies, end clients).”
ACB: “But what about all the rest of the people? In the business and our partners outside (the freelance translators, the DTP companies). These businesses are also very much impacted by what AI can do or claims to be able to do. And many of them might not be able to stay, mainly for financial reasons, because they just can’t make a living out of it anymore.”
US: “I think it’s the whole communication in the industry which I really don’t like at the moment. There’s a lot of talk that’s not encouraging to stay in the business. If you open LinkedIn, it’s all AI, AI, AI.”
AB: “We are forced to learn whether we like it or not. We are at the forefront of everything new. In this way, people in the language industry are different from people in other industries.”
NA: “We are working with a window into the future. Back in the IBM days, it was obvious, you were working on things that would be published in three to six months. Today it’s continuous localisation, but you still feel it. You’re in the front row of innovation. That’s why we talk so much about AI when billions of people don’t even care or don’t trust it. But we are in it every day, either through tools or through translating content that will soon be published.”
For some, these shifts signal it may be time to exit. For others, they are an invitation to adapt, innovate, and build resilience. Change is not only a challenge but also an opportunity to rethink how we create value in the future.
💡 Discussion prompt: How do you see today’s changes: as a push to move on, or a chance to transform your role and business for the future?
Timing the Exit
Perhaps the hardest question of all is knowing when the time is right. The group reflected on how timing, planning, and external opportunities interact with personal readiness.
NA: “Basically. It has to be a part of your plan, because if it’s rushed, that means you’re in trouble already, and that’s not a good sign from either side.”
ACB: “So when you decided to go that way, was it already a long-term plan? Because some people clearly build in order to sell. Or did you start to read the times and think in the current climate, this company won’t do well or survive, so I’m starting on the path of finding a partner?”
NA: “It wasn’t built to be sold. That’s a very different approach. One company wanted to buy us in 2021, just after COVID, they approached us and asked, ‘Would you like to sell?’. Before that, I wasn’t even thinking about it. But then you start asking yourself: do I want to do this for the rest of my life? When do I want to pass it on? My daughter is very young, so that would still take ten to fifteen years, provided she is interested at all.”
AB: “I don’t feel like selling even though my company is quite small and not ramping up to the value I would love to. It crossed my mind a couple of times to see if a merger would be a good idea, but I have the unfortunate experience of past partnerships that didn’t work out. I’m reluctant to sell or merge at the moment.”
NA: “In my case, I just felt that we were too small to make an impact. Together with somebody else who has similar values and goes in a similar direction makes much more sense—more coverage, more clients, and of course, more brainpower.”
The reflections showed that exits are rarely quick or opportunistic. They require foresight, patience, and alignment between external opportunities, company readiness, and personal goals.
💡 Discussion prompt: What signals would tell you the timing is right; for your company to restructure, or for you personally to consider a new path?
Looking Ahead
Exit or evolution—the choice is not only about mergers and acquisitions. For owners, it may mean restructuring or succession. For employees, it can mean transitioning into new roles, or even new industries, where their skills are highly valued. For all of us, it is about finding purpose, balance, and opportunity in times of change.
What’s your perspective? Share your thoughts now on LinkedIn, and let’s continue the conversation in Budapest, 22–23 September 2025.
