Localization can quietly own the global customer experience while still feeling powerless when priorities shift. We’re expected to deliver a high-quality multilingual experience across acquisition, conversion, onboarding, retention, and expansion, yet the real levers often sit with different leaders across marketing, sales, product, and customer success.

Kevin O’Donnell, strategic advisor at Global 10X, gets concrete about what “influence” actually looks like inside a cross-functional, matrixed organization. Kevin explains why relying on the teams we naturally get along with can become a hidden constraint, and he offers a sharper lens. If product and sales are discussing a new region, or marketing is planning a launch, localization needs a pathway into those decisions before plans harden.

Kevin shares a simple, practical stakeholder mapping and influence map exercise you can do in an afternoon on a whiteboard. We talk through how to map real partnerships across functions, label what’s strong, what’s weak, and what’s “high potential but underinvested,” then use that visibility to change behavior and collaboration rhythms. We also preview the webinar series Kevin is hosting with Antoine Ray, The Bold Localization Leader, starting September 9, with a first session focused on stakeholder mapping and influence. [You can register here: https://info.argosmultilingual.com/the-bold-localization-leader]

If you want better localization strategy, stronger stakeholder alignment, and more impact without waiting for a reorg, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a localization leader, and leave a review so more teams can build influence where it counts.