It’s December and time for the obligatory reflections on the past year that (if you’re like me) you can’t help but mention. With this in mind, it gives me great pleasure to announce that Applied Language Solutions has, for the second year running, made it into the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100.

The Fast Track 100 ranks the top 100 fastest growing UK companies by sustained year on year sales growth. Being one of these top 100 companies is a very prestigious honour indeed, and I would like to say ‘thank you’ in acknowledgement of the hard work put in by all ALS staff throughout 2009 that has delivered this success and others.

This past year has of course been a particularly difficult time for businesses and to make the top 100 again is a great achievement in itself, regardless of the harsh market conditions we have all faced. Being the only language service provider ever to feature in the Fast Track is, of course, also very pleasing indeed.

That said, it’s the easiest thing for companies in any industry to boast about any successes they’ve achieved when others are still struggling, especially in difficult times – but 2009 has been anything but easy for ALS.

In January we noticed many of our customers had tighter budgets and needed more from us to make their budgets work that much harder. So, we set about putting in place a series of measures that would deliver more for less and some key initiatives to help our customers still deliver on their language priorities while times were hard.

What I believe helped to determine our success in 2009 are things you will hopefully recognise (if you’ve ever used our services or spoken to any of our staff) as inherent in our culture – our positivity and ‘can do’ attitude.

I’ve always tried to emphasise positivity as a major factor in what sets us apart from other language service providers – no more so than in the past twelve months. Addressing the recession in this way, when other companies have banned the ‘R’ word – as if the challenge would go away if ignored for long enough – is proving to be the healthiest way of working.

I believe that in having the right approach, with our ‘can do’ attitude, we are now beginning to seeing the rewards of our hard work – but we’re not out of the woods just yet.

2010 promises to be just as testing, if not more so, than 2009. With recovery likely to continue slowly, companies and Governments need to continue to make every penny count and ALS, as a service provider, will continue to come up with new ways to make that happen.

Opportunity arises out of adversity and in the case of this recession I believe that opportunity is in export. I have been preaching the virtues of this for some time and through Export Box we have helped many companies achieve that opportunity. In a bid to practice what we preach we will also be opening in several new markets in 2010 to better support our global customers in local markets, as well as attracting new customers.

On a personal note, 2009 was a very special year for my wife Marie Claire and I, as we proudly welcomed Ava, our lovely baby daughter into the world (pictured), who’s just about the best thing ever (I know, I’m biased!). Being a parent obviously changes your outlook on life and your priorities, not to mention your sleeping pattern, but I just thought I’d quickly indulge and share our good news with you also!

Anyway, what I’d really like to do is wish you all a very happy festive period and the very, very best for 2010.