The world at large is well aware of the fact that English is the official global language of businesses. Organisations, from the hulking fortune 500 to humble SMEs have adopted English as their common corporate language. But why?

Having a common language across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors is proven to facilitate better communication and converts into better performance and reaching mutual conclusions.

Why move towards English?

There is no doubt that multilingualism in the corporate world is largely inefficient and can dent an organisation’s growth potential in many ways. In this age when every business is hopping on to the global bandwagon, the need to coordinate functions strictly, and working with clientele across the world has accelerated the move towards English being crowned as the official language of business. No matter where the companies are headquartered.

Listed below are some primary reasons that are steering the world towards English:

Competitive Pressure

Being in business, interacting with your target audience is inevitable. In order to buy or sell, you need to be able to communicate with a diverse range of customers. If you are fortunate enough, your customers might share your native language however the prospects are really low. If you restrict your growth opportunities to only those markets which speak your language, you are clearly putting yourself at disadvantage as compared to your direct competitors that have incorporated English-only policies.

Globalisation of tasks

We will try to make it more relatable with the help of an example:

An employee of a company who is working at California based office seeks some information from the company’s Korean branch. Without any common language and ground, communication will certainly suffer. That is why, language comprehension allows employees to get hold of the information being shared with them, imparting a confident stance, required for better decision making.

English is not only the official language of business, however, is the second most spoken language in the world as well. This implies that a person needs to polish, foster, and develop their English speaking skills not only to enhance their prospect of getting a career break in a big organisation, however also to enhance their survival in day to day life.