This blog post is the second of our Get to Know G3 series. It provides insight into who our executive team is and why they’re so passionate about our company’s purpose. In our first Get to Know G3 blog post, we explored the background and passion of Stacey Watanabe, our Global Compliance, Privacy, and QA Officer. This post highlights G3 Chief Operating Officer John Labati and his passion for language and international market nuances.
Early Days in Bologna
From a young age, John Labati had a passion for language and culture. He leapt at the chance to study Spanish in high school. In his early twenties, he seized an opportunity to leave the United States for Italy. He didn’t return for 13 years.
“It kind of worked both ways—I learned about Italian culture and language, and I was able to share my American culture with people. I lived in Bologna, which was off the beaten track. It’s not typically a tourist city, which was really good because I was living an Italian lifestyle. In Bologna, people are very friendly, the city’s progressive, the food is fantastic. It was just a great experience.
“It was there that I started working in the industry. I started teaching company courses in English. With all of the small industries around Bologna, I had non-stop referrals to all these different companies to teach English. I started working as a technical translator. For a lot of these companies, they make small packaging machinery, and they needed their manuals translated into English.
“It was a great learning experience because every day you’re learning something new. Packaging machinery was a big industry around Bologna, but I did other things like pasta production, safety and security equipment, all kinds of things. It makes you well-rounded—you become an expert in all different kinds of areas.”
The Start of a Great Idea
When John returned to New York, he began working in another translation company. He started in sales and worked his way up to Vice President of Client Services. In that role, while handling a variety of large accounts, he met Nancy Hernon, G3’s CEO. They soon became business partners, creating a totally new enterprise.
“Nancy and I worked together for a few years at this previous company, where we happened to be at the same conference for several days. It was a horrible conference, nothing was going on. While we were there, we started talking about how we could do something better—something a little more focused. So, we started drawing up plans, and in 2006, we launched G3. In the beginning it was just the two of us. We’ve grown it organically over the years.
“We had some clients in the market research space who were always complaining that they couldn’t get decent translation work. They said translation companies just didn’t understand what their needs were and what the specific issues are with market research translations. We had read research that said it’s much better to be a niche boutique firm as opposed to being someone who does everything. So that’s what we did. We came up with the idea of focusing on market research and became active in that industry. This meant joining different associations, engaging there, and developing our expertise within the area.
“I also decided that I would handle the language side of things—to keep a pulse on where the language industry was going. I was very active in the American Translators Association (ATA) and the Association of Language Companies (ALC). In fact, I served on the board of the ALC for a couple of years. That way, we were well-connected within the language and market research industry. That really helped us move the company forward. People saw us at their conferences and association meetings, so they knew we were serious about learning what they did and how they did it. That’s how we became experts—we really married the industry.”
Looking Back to Move Forward
Being so embedded in the translation and market research industries, John takes note of upcoming trends. He draws on his own experiences all over the world to tackle them.
“My background is actually in marine transportation. I have my degree in that, and I’m a licensed ships officer. While I was sailing all over South America and Asia, I got to visit all of these fantastic countries. That’s when I truly realized my passion is language and culture. Then it became even more focused when I moved into translation. Oil tankers, container ships, and now, I sail a desk.
“Surveys that we are asked to translate are often American-centric. The writers don’t think about what goes on outside the US, so they need a lot of feedback and consulting. We show them how this won’t work in their target country for these reasons and help them adjust it. Or they’re launching a product in Brazil, but they don’t know what the competing products are in that market. In that case, we find translators who are willing and able to provide that information. So, we built our teams very carefully to service them the way they need to be, and it has made us very well-entrenched in the industry.
“On the personal side, I love history and historical fiction, and I do genealogical research as well. This is for my family, of course, but I’ve helped friends who have come from Italy, too. It’s just a passion that I have. I like things that are historical and to think about where you came from and what was there before.”
To work with the diverse team at G3 for language services in the market research or life sciences industries, contact G3 Translate or G3 Life Sciences.