For our printed publication, The PIE Review, we interviewed some of the industry’s most interesting entrepreneurs. Jean-Marc Alberola is the founder of USA-based Bridge, which runs six divisions focused on various sectors of international education.
The PIE: How did you get involved in the industry?
JMA: I had an early introduction to the language industry, and an excellent mentor. My father was an executive for Berlitz International Inc., eventually working his way up the corporate ladder to become President and CEO.
“This provided an introduction to distance learning before the advent of the internet”
After university I began my career in the Washington, DC offices of Telelangue Systems, a French company that pioneered the concept of teaching language by phone. This was a great learning experience and provided an introduction to all aspects of the language industry; translation and interpretation, government contracts, distance learning before the advent of the internet as well as the challenges of a start-up business in a new market.
The PIE: How has Bridge evolved – how/where did you start, how large is your organisation now?
JMA: After three years in Washington, DC I moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil to start my own language venture, which I named Linguatec. We concentrated on the corporate English language training market. I built the business in the decade of the 90s, eventually opening offices in Rio de Janeiro and expanding across the Andes to Santiago, Chile and eventually Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 2000, Linguatec acquired Bridge International School an ESL center in Denver, Colorado. The merged companies became Bridge-Linguatec and Denver became our world headquarters. The next decade, our strategy was characterised by diversification and the creation of new divisions of Bridge: BridgeTEFL – teacher certification, BridgeAbroad – language and university study abroad, BridgeEnglish – English language training, BridgeLanguages – Translation and interpretation, BridgeVirtual – language e-learning and most recently BridgePathways – University international recruitment and placement.
The PIE: That does seem like a big operation.
JMA: Last year we reached US$ 10 million in annual revenue and we now have just over 80 employees and more than 350 teachers and trainers worldwide. We’re very optimistic about the growth opportunities for all our divisions – most of which are growing over 20% annually – and are doing a great job of leveraging the incredible synergies between them. Today we’ve shortened our name to Bridge.
“We’re very optimistic about the growth opportunities for all our divisions”
The PIE: So where next for Bridge?
JMA: This year we plan to open four new university campus-based intensive English Programs in the US. In foreign markets, our expansion will focus on new BridgePathways centers in China and Korea and continued growth of our newest Pathways center in Doha, Qatar a joint venture with Faisal Holdings.
On the e-learning front we’re excited to expand BridgeVirtual from a B2B solution to consumer markets in Latin America.
BridgeTEFL, our teacher training division certifies over 4,000 teachers a year with growth being driven by the NNEST market (Non-native English Speaking Teachers) in China and Brazil.
The PIE: What is the biggest mistake you have made along the way?
JMA: I suppose the biggest mistake I ever made was not entering the retail-consumer market for English training in the Brazilian market in the 90s. Bridge would probably be 10 times our current size in revenue if I had seen that opportunity. Instead we focused on the harder to scale corporate segment.
BridgeTEFL certifies over 4,000 teachers a year with growth being driven by Non-native English Speaking Teachers”
During the last decade, Bridge has invested a lot of time and resources in building a diverse portfolio of language services. Most business gurus will talk about the need to “focus”. I have often anguished over the decision to create so many different divisions and to a degree the dilution of resources has stunted our growth in some areas.
Having said that I’m now more confident than ever that the diversification strategy was a good one. While there are undisputable advantages to sticking to a more simple business model, I think Bridge is now better positioned for growth. We’re also well hedged against the historic volatility of the language travel industry.
The PIE: And what has been your biggest challenge at Bridge?
JMA: I’d say the biggest challenge I’ve faced is scaling the business. Growing from US$5 million to US$10 million has been a huge endeavour made even more complex by having multi divisions and multi-cultural offices in more than four countries. I liken it to being a teenager.
We invested a tremendous amount of energy into laying a solid foundation in core values, mission and culture, as well as in communicating and working as a team across countries. We still have work toward completing the development of a custom built cloud-based IT solution but its implementation has been instrumental in our growth.
“A custom built cloud-based IT solution has been instrumental in our growth”
While there continue to be challenges we’re beginning to see the advantages inherent in a larger organisation and I’m happy to report we’ve passed the ugly “teenager” stage. =)
The PIE: How has the industry changed since you started out?
JMA: I think the industry had grown tremendously. There has been increased consolidation and growth of chain schools. The internet has been the biggest game changer from a marketing perspective. Overall I think the level of service and professionalism in the industry is improving. It is becoming more sophisticated. It is becoming less fragmented and it now has a better defined identity than before.
The PIE: How did being bilingual yourself influence your choice of career?
JMA: Actually I’m “trilingual and a half”! It certainly has influenced how Bridge evolved as a multinational company. It has affected our corporate culture and expansion. We truly are a multi-cultural and multi-lingual organisation which is what all of us at Bridge love about our job.
The PIE: Are you concerned about many Americans not considering a language important?
JMA: It does concern me although I don’t fault Americans for not being polyglots. The odds aren’t exactly stacked in our favor. We are a big insular country with only one foreign language speaking neighbour – well two, if one considers Quebec. To make matters worse, the world has adopted English as the lingua franca of commerce, business and technology.
“Those of us in the language travel industry know there is no substitute for an in-country cultural immersion”
The fact is Americans for the most part don’t have a realistic understanding of how difficult it is to learn a new language as an adult. Many still think they can become fluent with a computer based self-study program. Those of us in the language travel industry know there is no substitute for an in-country cultural immersion. I hope and expect to see continued growth in US students studying abroad – we’ll be better world citizens as a result.
The PIE: What do you love most about your job?
JMA: I love creating new business and products and seeing them grow. I also really enjoy working with an incredible group of people at Bridge. We share the same values and goals and it’s been extremely rewarding to share our success with our team at Bridge.
Our mission is to transform lives and organizations and I think the industry we’re in makes it easy to accomplish that on a daily basis.
