Why Cultural Intelligence Is the Missing Link in Global Growth
At Acclaro, we help global brands thrive in international markets through a powerful mix of human expertise, technology, and cultural insight. As a trusted language service provider for enterprise organizations, we’re not just translating content, we’re enabling businesses to connect meaningfully with customers around the world.
That’s why we host thought leadership conversations like Cultural Intelligence to Maximize Global Reach—to help teams go beyond the basics of translation and localization and tap into the real driver of global success: cultural intelligence.
This expert panel featured:
- Kate Edwards, culturalization strategist and former Microsoft geopolitical advisor
- Carol Velandia, language access and inclusion consultant, and founder of Equal Access Language Services
- Sarah Doyle, Business Development Director at Acclaro
The session explored what cultural intelligence is, why it matters now more than ever, and how global teams can begin integrating it into their localization services, content creation, and international growth strategies.
Want to dive deeper? Watch the full webinar on demand.
What Is Cultural Intelligence?
“Cultural intelligence is essentially this ability to understand and adapt and effectively respect cultural differences, when we’re creating our products or services or the experiences,” said Kate Edwards. “It’s really not just an awareness of other cultures, but it’s really this capability to act effectively across those differences and account for them.”
Carol Velandia added, “Cultural intelligence also means building a business with some kind of purpose. What is your why? How do you provide to people something that’s meaningful to them?”
From her work in healthcare and public services, Carol has seen how language access and culturally relevant communication make a tangible difference in people’s lives—and how often that part of the customer experience is overlooked.
The Risk of Ignoring Culture
“Reactive culturalization is when you’ve already made the mistake and you’re fixing it. Proactive culturalization is looking ahead and making sure that mistake never happens,” said Kate Edwards.
She recalled a moment from her time at Microsoft when the general manager of Microsoft Turkey was jailed because a map in the product showed Kurdistan—a highly sensitive issue. “We had to remove it from the map or he wasn’t coming out,” she said.
Carol shared an example from healthcare: “The word he described for his illness was, I think, ‘creo que estoy intoxicado’… He was misdiagnosed, and as a result… ended up quadriplegic… The family sued the hospital… awarded $72 million.”
Cultural Intelligence as a Business Advantage
“I had to basically think of a way to characterize what I do in a way that [executives] might understand… and eventually, I came up with this phrase: I maximize your global reach,” said Kate. “That kind of piqued their interest.”
Carol said, “The way I prove that language access is key to businesses is approaching it from the perspective of risk management… I connect the dots for them in terms of how a misunderstanding can cost you $70 million.”
Sarah Doyle added, “The more we can help our clients understand the stakes and the nuance of what we’re doing, the more we can be seen as a strategic partner.”
What Cultural Intelligence Looks Like in Practice
Kate shared that even indie game developers can make culturally intelligent choices. “Even indie studios will contact people in their communities, historians, or religious leaders, and say, ‘Hey, can you take a look at this?'”
Carol said, “Some solutions really don’t require any money. Just including people in something that matters to them or where they are stakeholders can be free.”
Sarah noted, “A lot of times, you can start with your own users. That would be the natural place to start—opening up a dialogue with your users to get that feedback.”
Where to Begin
Here are a few practical first steps to begin building cultural intelligence into your localization and global growth efforts:
- Look beyond translation. If your translation services are focused only on language, you’re missing half the story. Add cultural review and context analysis into your workflows.
- Bring in local experts. Whether it’s for marketing translation, e-learning localization, or product feedback, lean on people who live in and understand your target markets.
- Budget for accessibility. Carol noted, “A lot of the budget issues [around translation] is just that they did not budget for language accessibility.”
- Prioritize inclusive content. This applies to everything from video subtitling and voice-over translation to UX copy and campaign visuals. Representation matters.
- Measure impact. Tie cultural intelligence into your KPIs—customer satisfaction, conversion rates, error reduction, and market penetration.
“The biggest ambassador of any company is your products and services, not the employees,” Kate said. “You have to make sure the content in those products represents who you are.”
Final Thoughts
Cultural intelligence is not an add-on. It’s a core driver of global business success.
It supports faster expansion, deeper customer connection, and better risk management. And as this conversation revealed, it’s something every enterprise team—from product to legal to marketing—can act on.
Watch the full conversation with Kate Edwards, Carol Velandia, and Sarah Doyle to learn how to integrate cultural intelligence into your global strategy.
Why Cultural Intelligence Is the Missing Link in Global Growth
