| Tom Adams, president and CEO of Rosetta Stone, Inc. was recently named the Ernst & Young 23rd annual Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2009 overall national winner. He was also named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2009 national winner in the Retail and Consumer Products category. The awards recognize leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.The entrepreneur was recognized for growing Rosetta Stone into one of the world's leading providers of technology-based language learning solutions. According to James S. Turley, chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young LLP, Adams' efforts at Rosetta Stone have helped change the way the world learns languages, a critical skill in today's global economy. Born in Sweden and educated in the UK, Adams began his career as a commodity merchant. Travelling the world opened his eyes to the problems people had adjusting to the new global community. A lack of language skills hindered all aspects of international interaction, whether it be business or pleasure, as well as standing in the way of building lasting relationships over time, especially across cultural boundaries. Adams recognized that due to technology effectively shrinking the world we are more than ever before in need of learning how to communicate with people in other languages. After a chance meeting led to his accepting the position as CEO of a small family-owned business, Fairfield Language Technologies in 2003, he transformed it into a powerhouse. Adams burst into action reorganizing the sales force, developing a scalable business model and rebuilding the research and development team. Moving the company to Washington D.C., it was renamed Rosetta Stone after the 19th century archaeological find that enabled scholars to finally decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. Rosetta Stone's answer to the problem that many are faced with is to throw out traditional language learning methods. Their business is based on software that allows clients to learn and practice their new language through direct, interactive immersion like a child learns a first language at home.Vocabulary and sentence structure lessons are replaced by real life visual and audio scenarios. A student is able to practice their language skills in a controlled safe environment while markedly improving their foreign language skills. The company's radically new approach to learning through technology is quickly gaining ground and the business continues to expand, even in a tough economy. Doubling in size since 2007, Rosetta Stone's offerings include 31 languages, with headquarters in four countries. Some 10,000 schools in the U.S. have adopted the program, and global expansion plans include clients in government, the military, education and business. An entrepreneur success story beyond his wildest dreams, yet his success is built on a pure vision.Adams believes he is achieving success through a tough economy because of Rosetta Stone’s core business values and philosophy. They want to change the world and they are very serious about it. And it seems they are doing precisely that through language learning that breaks the mould and shatters not only preconceptions about learning but marketing too. Once again, new and innovative thinking is par for the course. The company has a unique marketing strategy, which includes infomercials and kiosks at airports and train stations to introduce consumers to the product, in addition to sales in traditional retail outlets. Rosetta Stone isn’t only for customers either. The embodiment of the new breed of the global entrepreneur, Adams himself is fluent in Swedish, English and French with a basic knowledge of Chinese. He's currently learning Russian. |
