What's new? - Innovation, of course: An update from Milan by Robert Dennis...

A thermal head being used to create new 

CPUs and chipsets. (Photo: Wikimedia)

OK, time for another update. I have been doing a lot more communications-related work of late (recently) as well as teaching. And as I discussed in my last update, it’s always a challenge keeping up with clients and students who work in highly-specialised fields.

I have been teaching at a company that specialises in designing trains – more specifically, the electrical and pneumatic plant on the underside of the carriage. They work to incredibly tight specifications using 3D graphics programs. As with most other industries there are hundreds of acronyms to get used to (e.g. TCMS (Train Control and Monitoring System and HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning), as well as a raft (a lot) of engineering and technical terms, such as “bogie”, the wheeled wagon or trolley the carriage sits on. (Confusingly this is known as a “truck” in the US.) But, of course, they also need the day-to-day stuff: meetings, presentations and phone calls, etc.

Lessons are continuing at the biopharma company I teach at. I am always amazed by the deluge (flood, inondazione) of new research that is constantly being undertaken worldwide and the therapies that are being developed. And even for the experts working in the medical and pharmaceutical fields, staying up to date is a constant but fascinating battle.

On the communications side, I was in Cambridge in April, where I visited Bletchley Park, Britain’s wartime top-secret codebreaking facility, where the world’s first programmable computer (Colossus) was built to crack the codes of the German High Command. I watched a video being specially filmed for the social media project I am involved in with OpenKnowledge srl. Again, it was fascinating chatting with scientists working at the cutting edge of technological research (in this case, advanced encryption techniques that exploit the spin effects of electrons).

I have also been spending time with a design firm that specialises in finding solutions relating to structural packaging (e.g. plastic containers for household detergents). This kind of industrial design marries engineering with aesthetics and it’s great to see how an idea goes from a pencil sketch to a rendered 2D image to a 3D prototype literally printed out using stereolithography. I'm really looking forward to developing some great communications projects with these guys!

If I had to pick one theme that unites the various industries I have been teaching people from and working with recently, it would be: innovation. Finding answers to challenging questions in the fields of pharmaceuticals, computer technology or industrial design requires an astonishing amount of insight, trial and error and perseverance. One aspect of what might be termed the “innovation industries” is the amount of research and effort that just gets discarded. The number of drafts that are scrapped or versions that are superseded can at times seem soul-destroying – but, of course, it’s all absolutely necessary as the goal is to find 100% workable solutions. (Interestingly, in the case of the biopharma industry, advances in genetics and computing are allowing compounds that have been thrown on the scrap-heap to be reinvestigated and possibly salvaged as new treatments. This is especially important where huge sums of money have been invested in compounds whose patents have expired: they can be given a new – commercial – lease of life.)

While older manufacturing industries decline in the West – and as Asian economies increasingly take over the “heavy lifting” – the need for ever-greater innovation can only increase. Of course this requires massive amounts of investment, not only from the industries themselves, but also from society as a whole in order to create highly-educated and creative workers able to come up with (think of / imagine) the next wave of solutions and technologies that will add value and drive the economy. Since I live here in Italy I can appreciate the importance placed on education (particularly higher education) in this country. Although at times it can seem that Italians tend to have a much more theoretical approach when compared with their more pragmatic Anglo-Saxon counterparts, you can really appreciate the value of the rounded (and often simply longer) education they receive – especially when it comes to applying creative brain-power to a problem.

I am really looking forward to extending and deepening my contacts with the individuals and businesses I am working with here in Milan. The next few months will also be an exciting time for everyone involved with the Milan Business English Network – we are planning a series of events and initiatives for the autumn. 

(Don't forget to read the latest news in NetworkMilan.com, our online magazine.)

Regards,

Robert

Teaching, copywriting and exploring social media in Milan: an update

It’s been a while since I posted anything here on the Milan English blog, so I thought I’d write an update on what I’ve been doing and what’s been happening here in Milan.

Well, the first thing is – I’ve been incredibly busy this year. As well as teaching I’ve been working on a social media project for a communications company here in Milan (more on that later). In terms of teaching, I’ve been focused mainly on the pharmaceutical sector. My main client is a NASDAQ-quoted American biopharmaceutical company with national offices here in Italy; but I’ve also been teaching at a much older manufacturer of pharmaceutical products with a production facility in the north of the city.

It’s been quite interesting to compare the two firms and their company cultures. While the American firm is a relatively new startup specialising in the research and development of hi-tech drugs for the treatment of rare forms of cancer, the Italian company (established in 1938) provides pre-filled syringes used to treat a range of conditions and also manufactures generic drugs and active ingredients for other pharma firms.

It’s always a challenge to design and deliver an English language course for people who work in a highly-specialised industry, especially where there is a lot of technical jargon to master and complex processes that have to be understood and explained. Personally, I find this is one of the most interesting and satisfying aspects of being a Business English teacher: going into a company where people perform a wide variety of technical and executive functions, talking to them about what they do and enabling them to do their job more effectively by helping them to master the English language.

In fact, it’s been as much of a learning experience for me as it has been for my students. The pharmaceutical industry has developed its own “sub-language” and procedures over many years. Obviously, people who research, manufacture and sell drugs have to use a lot of medical and scientific terms, as well as specialist marketing terminology. There’s an alphabet soup of acronyms to become familiar with (e.g. CRA – Clinical Research Associate, KOL – Key Opinion Leader and FDA – the American Food and Drug Administration, which is the de facto global authority for approving medicines in the world’s largest market for drugs).

I always find it fascinating to discover what other people do at work. In twenty years of teaching English to people in both Britain and (for the last three years) here in Italy, I have basically sat in classrooms or offices and been initiated into the mysteries of various professions, such as financial trading in the share and bond markets. I have also discovered how insurers (and re-insurers) operate; what problems engineers and architects face when executing a project; and what computer programmers and software developers need to know in order to carry out their work. Journalists, TV executives and media planners have discussed the finer points of their craft with me. And I’ve been introduced to the worlds of fashion, design, hotel management, diplomacy and the military. In fact, there aren’t many sectors or professions from which I haven’t taught people. I’ve also met countless researchers and academics, university students (at all levels) and teachers like myself who simply want to improve their English.

One of the most important things about teaching Business English is that whatever sector, industry or profession someone works in, they usually have a common core of needs in terms of the skills and general communication requirements their job entails. So, for example, everyone needs to be able to use the telephone, write emails and hold a meeting in English. Some people might need to do presentations (e.g. sales and marketing professionals or those who have to present data as part of their work); they might also need to be able to negotiate in English. Others (such as lawyers) may have to read huge amounts of material and be able to summarise the main points, or take detailed notes in meetings. And for a lot of students, their main priority might just be speaking – becoming more confident and fluent in a range of business as well as general situations, such as travelling, meeting new clients or socializing in English.

So, I’ve been very happy this year – and continue to enjoy living and working in Milan as a teacher and communications consultant. Northern Italy is indisputably one of the commercial power-houses of Europe, with firms operating in a wide diversity of sectors (including pharmaceuticals, banking and finance, fashion and design, media and advertising – and, of course, food, leisure and tourism.) I always look forward to meeting new people and finding out about their job and the linguistic challenges they face.

Well, that’s on the teaching side. I also mentioned earlier that I have been working on a social media project. This is basically a research and copywriting job in which I have to produce material for the web relating to technology. I am working as a consultant for OpenKnowledge srl, a company which helps clients by leveraging their social capital and specialises in developing social networks. The client for this particular project is a well-known consumer electronics company that wants to engage more closely with its customers via social media. This is definitely something I feel comfortable with – and, as with the pharmaceutical companies I have been teaching in – the project involves intellectual challenges as well as making potentially dull technical information more appealing to the target audience of the project. Although I have focused more on teaching than copywriting since I came to Milan, it’s nice having the two activities running side by side. I am also able to fit my online research and copywriting round my teaching – so, as you can imagine, I’m usually quite busy.

Social media has been in the news a lot this year. Not only have Facebook and Twitter featured heavily in the revolutions sweeping across the Arab world, but the speculation that a new dot.com boom is on the way has been fuelled by media interest surrounding the imminent stock market flotations of social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook itself. Obviously, social media is an arena in which the written word plays a crucial role. It’s also having a major impact on the way people get their daily diet of information and news. So as a language teacher and a writer, I am personally affected by the massive changes that are taking place not only in the media environment but in the way individuals learn about the world and communicate with each other. I seem to spend increasing amounts of time “catching up” with the latest developments and experimenting (or sometimes just playing) with new platforms and social media tools (such as FriendFeed and Tumblr, which both pull together social media from across different sites; Popplet, an innovative and intuitive mind-mapping tool; as well as a plethora of social media sites and blogs, such as Mashable and 43things.com).

I’ve also been developing my own social and professional networks. The Milan Business English Network (MBEN) recently reached 100 members on LinkedIn. (There’s a parallel group with the same name on Facebook.) I took the opportunity to turn MBEN on LinkedIn into an open group. Although this disabled a lot of interesting discussions between members, I am looking forward to extending this group and connecting with even more people who are interested in learning, teaching or using English in a professional context. Although we weren’t quite able to find the time for live discussion groups, I am hoping that these will take place over the coming months. (If you haven’t already joined, sign up now and start taking part in the ongoing conversations around English at work, writing CVs, doing job interviews and using your English language skills more effectively.)

So, overall, it's been a hectic few months – but very enjoyable nonetheless. I'll be posting more updates shortly, so visit the Milan English blog soon for more enlightening and useful articles on learning English, British and Italian culture - and other subjects that grab my attention which I think you might also be interested in.

Regards,

Robert